My trip to Florida
When I went to Florida in the beginning of June for my sister’s engagement it was literally 36 hours packed with fun, delicious food, and some of the best memories I’ll cherish. I flew in on Thursday night and I had to fly back Saturday to move into my new apartment. Sound frantic? Yeah I felt the same way. Although it was a whirlwind I had the best time and wouldn’t have changed any of it for the world.
I was supposed to fly in Thursday mid afternoon but after some flight delays and a few setbacks I finally got there just in time for dinner. I was so grateful my mom had spent most of her day in Florida and brought me a delicious meal from The Paleo Connection in Sarasota. Their menu is 100% gluten, grain, and dairy free and it changes weekly based on seasonal and local food sources, they’re also only open 11-5. My mom got us both Mexican stuffed sweet potatoes which was a whole sweet potato roasted and stuffed with seasoned ground sirloin, dairy free queso, salsa, chipotle crema, smashed avocado, and lettuce. Can you say yum??? This meal was as delicious as it sounded, I did need to pair it with a side salad to get more veggies in but they definitely know how to make delicious paleo food. Unfortunately, due to decreased foot traffic they will be selling their business in the next few months so head there and get an amazing meal while you have the chance!
We also stopped at Fresh Kitchen on our way back from the airport so I could buy a bowl to eat for breakfast. My sister had taken me here last time I visited her and I literally wish they would pop up all over the east coast! Fresh Kitchen is a bowl place that is dedicated to sustainable and transparent ingredients. Their whole menu has labels for gluten free, dairy free, and refined sugar free so navigating what I could eat was easy for me! I got a bowl with cauliflower potato mash, kale caesar salad, and grilled citrus chicken. This may sound like 3 things that shouldn’t go together but it was one amazing meal. I highly recommend adding any of those 3 into your bowl if you go to Fresh Kitchen! Plus I loved the decoration all over their establishment that said things like ‘gluten is wack’- it felt like home.
The next day my mom and I ate a quick breakfast in the hotel before heading to yoga class. We went to Sukha Life Yoga where we took the 9AM flow class. Let me tell you, I didn’t think I needed yoga so badly until after that class was over. The instructor was informative and gave plenty of modifications for beginners, I will definitely be going back next time I’m in the area!
After yoga we walked down the street to Bandit Coffee to get some steamed almond milks so we could make our king coffee! They had the best homemade almond milk, and we were even able to buy some Mountain Valley waters there!
We then ended up at the main event of the day- the infrared sauna studio. Whenever I travel I always like to infrared sauna for multiple reasons.
1. To sweat out all of the toxins accumulated from traveling
2. Sweating daily is part of my protocol to fully remediate my lyme & mold
3. I love supporting local businesses and comparing how they are to my local sauna studio.
We went to Solace Sauna Studio, a beautiful woman owned studio that fully embraced my love for all things woo woo. Not only was it beautiful and clean, they even had a book shelf that you could borrow from if you forgot yours, and a Berkey water filter. Does it get better than that?? I cannot rave more about this place, it was truly a wonderful experience going there.
We ended our food tour for the day at Kara Lynn’s Kitchen in Clearwater. Their kitchen is grain and gluten free with a focus on creating high nutrient non-toxic food that nourishes the body. Everything about their core values aligned with mine and I love supporting local businesses with my dollar. My mom got a special that was a chicken piccata bowl over sweet potato noodles. Meanwhile I got the turkey burger on a paleo bun with a side of broccoli. We both loved our meals and intend on going back when my sister gets married in Clearwater! Their dessert menu also looked amazing but we were too full to be able to enjoy it.
After a full night of engagement festivities and being fully sleep deprived my mom and I ended our 36 hour food tour at Craft Kafe, a gluten free cafe my sister has been going to pretty much since moving to Florida. Although I am not very into gluten free grains I still was able to order a huge salad there so I could have a nourishing lunch on the airplane.