🌿 How I actually eat at restaurants

Published about 2 months ago • 1 min read

Hi Reader,

By the time this lands in your inbox I'll be in Vail for the Mountain Games: some yoga, a couple of child-free nights with my husband, and then the kids join for playgrounds, swimming, and lots of village strolls along the river.

One thing I'm looking forward to is the food. I love cooking, and I'm also very happy to let someone else take care of the prep and cleanup for a few days.

We have a favorite Thai restaurant in the next town over. It's a little more low-key than the places right in the village, which is one of the reasons we love it. The food is delicious and it isn't a whole production, which is exactly what you want when you're traveling with small kids.

Trips like these remind me of how eating out used to feel complicated in ways it just doesn't anymore. Menus felt like decisions that required justification. Now it mostly just feels like choosing whatever sounds good. Everyone at the table orders what they actually want, including the kids, which is its own kind of food freedom moment.

Something I've noticed over the years: when I'm really eating intuitively, restaurant meals tend to include a pretty good mix of things. Not because I'm trying to balance or optimize anything, but because that's actually what sounds good and feels good in my body. I'll naturally start craving something with vegetables or a grain bowl after a few days of traveling. My body just starts asking for something different. That's gentle nutrition in practice.

I packed a few things for hotel breakfasts to avoid the scramble of trying to find something before I've had my morning coffee. My current solution: individual Greek yogurt containers as the base with granola and berries. It's the same idea as this Greek Yogurt Bowl recipe. It all fits in the hotel mini fridge and is endlessly adaptable and truly satisfying, which matters when you're heading out for the day.

Warmly,

Stephanie

P.S. Something like this Peanut Noodle Bowl is a common first meal back after a trip. It's fast, satisfying, and always feels good to be back in my own kitchen.

Hi, I'm Stephanie

I'm a registered dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor. I help people stop fighting food and build a way of eating that feels steady and satisfying, with plant-forward recipes and one-on-one support.

LET'S TALK

Find me on Instagram for recipes and real talk about food freedom, and on Pinterest for more plant-forward inspiration.

Here just for recipes? No problem. Click here to receive recipe emails only.

Need to unsubscribe entirely? You can do that here. No hard feelings.

Manage Your Preferences

PO Box 115, Grant, CO 80448

Read more from Plant-Forward Recipes & Intuitive Eating

Casserole dish with strawberry baked oatmeal

🌿 Summer recipes with cooked fruits and veggies

Hi Reader, If you've heard the news about the cyclospora outbreak moving through the U.S., you might be searching for recipes built around cooked fruits and vegetables, even though we're right in the middle of peak summer produce season. (Terrible timing.) Health officials have since traced part of the outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce, but the investigation is ongoing and other sources may still turn up. I appreciated Kara Lydon's quick, no-fear-mongering breakdown of the food safety...

13 days ago • 2 min read

“Sustainable weight loss” and anti-diet don’t go together

Hey Reader, I keep noticing something in non-diet spaces. A coach will use all the right phrases. Food freedom. Ditch the diets. Listen to your body. And then, further down, the actual offer: lose weight, but slowly and "sustainably" this time. And look, I'm not trying to drag anyone. But you've probably worked hard to get skeptical of diet culture, and this is exactly the kind of messaging that could still get past you. It's using the non-diet language you trust to sell the thing you're...

20 days ago • 2 min read

Stephanie McKercher, dietitian and intuitive eating counselor.

🌿 How to meal plan with intuitive eating

Hi Reader, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the tension between wanting to eat intuitively and still needing to plan ahead. I was working with a client who’d bought ingredients for the meals she planned at the start of the week, and by mid-week, she wasn’t really feeling any of them. She wanted to eat what sounded good, but the produce was sitting in the fridge and she felt like she had to use it. She wasn’t sure if honoring that felt more like being practical, or like following a rule....

about 1 month ago • 1 min read