To Live & Diet in L.A. S.F.
Staying on track with your diet and fitness goals can be hard when you travel. Not only do you feel like splurging because you’re on vacation, but most of the time, you don’t even know where to go to find diet-friendly fair.
For today’s What I Ate Wednesday, I’m showing you how I stayed healthy in San Francisco this past weekend.
I visited the City by the Bay for a quick getaway and found it oh so accommodating to my increasingly difficult dietary needs.
You may remember, I had been trying out a gluten-free diet recently. Well, in not-so-surprising-news, that’s over.
Prior to nose-diving off the wagon though, I found tons of amazing options for gluten-free food in S.F. by way of the blog, GF in SF. I also did one the most fun sight-seeing/fitness activities ever, biking across the Golden Gate Bridge.
So…
♫ If you are going to San Fancisco, be sure to… ♫ check out these awesome restaurant and fitness recommendations:
On Friday night, I headed over to Grub, thanks to a rec from GFinSF and tried out their delicious gluten-free Mac & Cheese. They let you choose your mix-ins and I picked lobster and broccoli.
Although it probably wasn’t the healthiest meal on the menu, it was super tasty. I tried to just pick out the lobster and broccoli and only eat a little bit of the pasta (in my head that seemed like it would make a big difference calorie-wise, in reality it probably didn’t).
They do give you seasoned popcorn right when you sit down though, which is much better than munching on a big bread basket.
The next morning, before heading out for our big biking expedition, we decided to grab a quick breakfast.
“Starbucks?” the BF asked. “Heck, yes,” I responded, excited for a Turkey Bacon Egg White Sandy.
Then it hit me…you’re gluten free Whitney and you can’t have the whole wheat English muffin. Drats!
Back to the computer. GFinSF led me to The Plant Cafe.
If ever a restaurant embodied everything I love about breakfast, this is it. The Plant has gluten-free and whole-wheat options for everything: bagels, bread, tortillas, pastries, you name it.
They will make anything with egg whites and actually don’t use any oil when you ask them to not use any oil. Despite what you may think, this request is rarely granted.
I got an egg white scramble with kale, turkey bacon, and squash and a gluten-free bagel with almond butter (and tossed those taters onto the bf’s plate).
I ‘d never tried kale in my eggs before and let me tell you, it was fantastic. Kale adds a nice crunch to the scramble unlike the wet, wilted effect of steamed spinach. I’m definitely going to try this at home.
I was most impressed by the coffee though. Lately, I’ve become a bit of a coffee snob and have had a hard time finding roasts I like. When I tasted The Plant’s cappuccino, made with Blue Bottle Coffee Co. espresso, my eyes bulged out of my head.
It was the smoothest, most delicious brew I’ve had in a while.We loved the coffee so much that we went to the source of my mouthgasm the next day, and got some to take home.
And one more for the road, of course.
After breakfast we headed over to The Sports Basement to pick up bikes for our afternoon activity.
If you plan to bike the bridge, I highly recommend renting from here. The bikes are $15 for 3 hours or $25 for the whole day, much cheaper than other locations in SF. The Mason St. location is your best bet for a quick shot to the bridge.
From the Basement, across the bridge, and into the town of Sausalito is about 6.5 miles. The guy at the store informed us that we may want to take the ferry back, as the return trip is much steeper. As a person naturally inclined to doubt everything I’m told, I thought, “We’re totally biking back.”
The route to the bridge was a bit more difficult than anticipated, but we hung in there.
“This is the easy part?! I thought. I guess the guy was right.
The bridge itself was pretty flat though and featured amazing views of the bay.
Speeding down the bike path with the ocean about 750 feet below us was exhilarating. And, aside from a few unwarranted lash-outs from “serious bikers”, we made our way swiftly across the 1.7 mile bridge.
After you exit the bridge, it’s another 2 miles to Sausalito, which is a combination of up and downhill. When we arrived in the town, we decided we would indeed take the ferry back.
If you go, make sure to pick up tokens for the ferry, prior to enjoying the area, as bike space fills up quick.
You pay for your ferry after boarding.
It drops you off at the San Francisco Ferry Building, which is about 4.5 miles from Sports Basement, so the entire biking trip is about 11 miles. If you are cycling vigorously (and why wouldn’t you be), you’ll burn about 450-650 calories.
Anyway, back to the food…
Sausalito is a lovely, little town with tons of art galleries and ice cream shops. I managed to skirt the ice cream (unlike at Catalina Island) but did indulge in a little wine tasting.
The Fotsch winery has an incredible 2008 Meritage Cabernet if you’re interested.
After we explored a bit, we grabbed lunch.
Two weeks and countless amounts of brown rice flour later, it was a simple whole-wheat sandwich in Sausalito that did my gluten-free streak in.
I was dying of hunger and a salad just wasn’t going to cut it. I had also recently been questioning whether or not the diet was even helping, and determining it was not, I dug in.
Welcome home, my starchy friend.
Saturday night we planned to enjoy a swanky dinner at one of Eater SF’s top 38 restaurants of 2013, Absinthe, but were turned off by the insane wait time.
Who eats dinner at 10:15?!
Instead we wandered into a cozy sushi “lounge” across the street and were delighted by their menu.
Despite lacking brown rice (womp, womp), The One Sushi has melt in your mouth fish, creative rolls and a delicious Miso Black Cod.
We were well past happy hour, but something to note: they have $3 rolls from 5 to 7 pm.
After dinner, we cruised the street a bit and came upon the coolest thing since sliced bread (bread has really moved up on my list of cool things since returning to gluten).
A bread pudding bar! Schulzies offers like 10 different types of bread pudding with toppings galore, in hot and cold flavors.
We weren’t big fans of the cold options — and I’ll admit it’s totally unhealthy — but I liked the idea.
Maybe I’ll open my own healthy bread pudding bar, I do have this fabulous recipe to build upon: Healthy Banana Bread Pudding. Not to toot my own horn but mine’s way better.
All in all it was a tasty, successful trip. I have a little more to share with you from the adventure, including a yummy recipe, but you’ll just have to wait. For now…
Aurora@Fitness is Sweet says:
I was in SF last weekend (I live nearby) and I totally drove by that bread pudding place! It’s such a cool idea though, I think I need to try it.
Whitney English says:
Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like it before! If you go make sure to get a hot one though!
GiGi Eats Celebrities says:
I won’t tell Echi that you cheated on them ;)
And OMG, you totally should have packed me in your weekend suitcase, I would have love to have been the 3rd wheel on this getaway!
Whitney English says:
Please don’t…you know how possessive they can be :) You can come in my suitcase anytime, I’m down to go back soon!
Victoria says:
Awww man how I miss the bay!!! And Sausalito is sooo nice! The view of SF is amazing!! Youre makin me so nostalgic now haha!
SF= best city in the World!!
JasmineElla says:
wow this is an amazing food