Coping Suggestions For Business Travel?

[waitingdorothea]

I travel quite a lot for work, and since being gluten-free for the past 7 months, these trips have become a real issue for me. I need to figure something out to make the trips work better for me, because they aren't going to stop happening, and I'm really tired of being a starved mess by the time I get home.

Dinner is usually hotel room service...too late to go out. Lunches are at in an on-site cafeteria, where the only thing I can find to eat is plain salad with oil / vinegar, and the cafetera does not provide any ingredient information on any food items (I've asked). My body, unfortunately, understands that potato chips and lettuce are not meals.

Can anyone give me suggestions for food I can carry with me that will be ok under TSA security screenings, are at least somewhat shelf stable (no refrigerator in the hotel rooms), and don't take up very much space? (I don't have the option of checking luggage.) Any thoughts on how to actually get a gluten free meal via room service? (I've had some bad glutenings from room service)

[Traveller]

I'm in the same boat -- gluten-free for 7 months, frequent travel. Here's what I tried the last two weeks. I called hotels and spoke the chef before making reservations. I stayed at a hotel that seemed comfortable and knowledgable with gluten free. I also looked for restaraunt recommendations from local GIGs. Unfortunately, on this last trip there was no place to eat lunch nearby, so I was reduced to eating snack bars for lunch and taking an early dinner. But I stayed healthy, and that's what mattered.