Summertime is ALL about having fun, relaxing, going out and being in nature, eating divine food and wait...staying healthy!
This might be a surprise to you but I am not someone who goes out a lot...not for any particular reason except that we like to chill out at night and keep things simple. And I'd like to eat in 5 or 10 minutes when i'm hungry rather than drive out, wait, order, wait, and then eat. But when time and decency allow, I do find myself in restaurants and I have to make the decision that all of you have to make...what in the world do I eat?
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending the W Forum: Amazing presenter, beautiful food adorned the tables, but I was doing a mini cleanse at the time which meant just fruit, veggies, that's it. No oils, nothing cooked, just plain and simple. So what was a girl to do?
POINT: I ASKED the waiter for options. No hold on a minute here - this wasn't even the type of restaurant gathering where you had 20 or so choices. It was a group gathering, catered, and you had the about 5 choices of entrees. I asked them if I could get a salad, no dressing, and some fruit on the side. And what came out was amazing.
I wish I had taken a picture of it but I didn't want to make a scene...it was the most beautiful PLATTER of salad greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, beautiful no-oil carrot ginger dressing and the most delectable bowl of bluberries and strawberries. It was bigger than anything else on the table and it was absolutely delicous and filling. I honestly ate better than anyone there, and everyone was looking over saying, "oooh, what did YOU get?".
I felt spoiled. I did. And all I did was ask.
The other thing is that the waiter took pride in what he brought me. He was super chill, happy, accomodating, adn checked back in with me a few times to ask if everything was ok. He cared. Well, maybe he didn't as much as I think he did, but he made me FEEL like he cared, adn that made all the difference.
I'm not saying all of the restaurants you'll eat from will do this - some might get annoyed if we keep changing our skim-cool-extra-hot-gluten-free-raw-vegan-dehydrated-do-you-have-that-with-no-oil choices, but you never KNOW until you ASK! And if we stick to our guns and at the same time, be open to what we get, we can be pleasantly surprised. Even if we ask "no cheese on my salad please". That's one little request that will keep your heart ticking for a much longer time.
Hope you enjoy all that this summer has to offer. Experiment, explore, dive in to the local scene, and remember to your tummy healthy eats!