I spent the second half of last week in Austin, Texas for the Weight Inclusive Nutrition & Dietetics (WIND) Spring Symposium!
As most of you know, I’m a Registered Dietitian and in order to keep the credentials (and to avoid having to retake the national exam, which I never want to do again…) we need to have continuing education units (CEUs) every 5 years.
My credential is up for renewal in May and WIND’s event got me the last few CEUs I needed to make it to 75 – yay! And a bonus was that I got to spend a few days in a very fun city (and where there were a few other people outside of the conference that I wanted to see – win/win).
I arrived in Austin late Wednesday night and basically went straight to bed; On Thursday morning I treated myself to a delicious breakfast at Cafe No So attached to my hotel (South Congress Hotel – pricey but nice).
I had their scrambled eggs with roasted mushrooms and spinach, served with delicious sourdough toast, avocado and a side arugula salad. It was all so good!
As a mom of two young children, a leisurely breakfast in a restaurant doesn’t come often, so I thoroughly enjoyed the experience!
After fueling up, I headed to the symposium venue to get ready to learn and socialize. The event took place at Vuka Bouldin Creek, which is a cool place – apparently it’s both a co-working space and a venue.
The symposium, held on Thursdays and Fridays from about 9am to 6pm, was excellent! Great speakers and a varied and interesting range of topics.
Founded in 2018 by my friend Heather, WIND brings together community, education and connection nutritionists, and their events and resources focus on supporting inclusive care models and treatment practices and improving access to respectful care for all.
Many of the sessions revolved around supporting a paradigm shift in nutrition and healthcare, touching on weight-based discrimination, fat phobia and social justice issues.
Here I am with Heather, the founder of WIND and a longtime friend of mine. Heather was understandably very busy with the conference so we didn’t have much opportunity to catch up, but it was still nice to see her!
If you’re a nutritionist and/or healthcare worker, check out WIND’s website – there are lots of great resources (and virtual CEU opportunities) if you’re interested in learning more.
Lunch on both days of the conference included delicious cereal bowls from a local eatery called The Well. The first day I had a chicken cobb grain bowl, the second a normal chicken grain bowl.
Both were good and very filling thanks to all the grains (below – a mix of quinoa, brown rice and forbidden rice) and chopped kale.
The space hosting the event had a beautiful backyard area that was available to us during breaks, lunch etc and I really appreciated the chance to reset with some fresh air!
It was beautiful back there too – they even had swings which were a fun touch.
On Thursday evening, after the first day of the conference, I had a special treat – a dinner with my behind-the-scenes blog contractor, Taylor, who lives in Austin!
Taylor has been working for me since February 2020 (lucky timing as I was about to lose my childcare for the rest of the year and didn’t know it) and is amazing – I’m so lucky to have found her.
We did a lot of FaceTiming to discuss work stuff but had never met in person until last week! It was fun to be together – I had a great time chatting with her and our dinner was delicious too.
For dinner I chose a well-reviewed place called June’s All Day near my hotel and it didn’t disappoint. The atmosphere was lively and fun and the food was great.
We ordered a few small plates and shared everything – I always like to do this so I can try more things and thankfully Taylor was interested in that approach too. 🙂
First: poached artichoke with a delicious Dijon dip.
This was fun because once you were done with the leaves, they took the heart back, cooked it, added a topping (which I can’t remember – I think maybe egg salad?!) and brought it back to you!
We also tried the snapper carpaccio which was delicious but also VERY spicy!
This salad doesn’t look that exciting but was actually delicious because it had a truffle vinaigrette that was super good. I love truffles – anyone else?
To top off our meal we shared the mussels + fries.
Apologies for the dim lighting – it was pretty dark when we left (and apparently there was an insane thunderstorm during part of dinner which we didn’t even hear because the restaurant was so noisy)!
It’s so fun to finally meet, Taylor! Thank you for everything you do for fANNEtastic food – my readers and I are lucky to have you. 🙂
On Friday morning I decided to go for a run before going to the conference and I was really glad I did! I ran from my hotel about 0.8 miles to the Congress Avenue Bridge where I connected to a beautiful trail that follows the Colorado River.
Apparently a billion bats live under the Congress Avenue Bridge at this time of year and just before sunset you can see them all flying out in a big hurry – supposedly very cool!
It was a pretty gloomy morning but I was so glad I made the effort as walking around different cities is one of my all time favorite ways to explore them.
The walk along the water was awesome and there were a lot of other runners out there so I felt safe even out there by myself!
Unfortunately, I didn’t have as much time to work as I would have liked (but a bit of a late sleep was worth it), so I probably only walked about a half mile along the waterfront path before having to retrace my steps to my hotel for a total about 3 miles.
The good news is I knew that if I had more time the next day I would get back on track with a friend – more on that in a moment!
I had a quick post run breakfast with some leftovers I had in the hotel room from breakfast the day before plus a smoothie bar they had at the conference that morning.
This blueberry mango smoothie was good and I also liked their green smoothie (not pictured) which reminded me of my old favorite super easy green smoothie!
We had another great day of learning and around 6am after the conference ended I grabbed a drink with a group of attendees at a nearby restaurant called Lenoir – I forgot to take a picture but they had a great outdoor area which was perfect The weather was becoming super nice at this point in the day.
We shared some snacks (a delicious pimento cheese toast) at happy hour, but when we finished I was still hungry and craving tacos (must eat tacos in Austin!).
I ended up getting tacos at a place called Chapulin Cantina near my hotel with a new friend, Abby, who I met at the conference and who also came for happy hour.
She was fun to chat with and the food was really delicious – I had the pork tacos and we also shared some chilled black beans.
On Saturday I was thrilled to wake up to clear blue skies after a few stormy/grey days! It was so beautiful outside.
The fantastic weather was perfectly timed as I was planning to meet up with a good friend of mine, Ravyn, for a walk and brunch before heading to the airport for my 2pm flight.
Ravyn lives in Austin and we had never met in person before – she’s part of the virtual moms group I’ve led for the past 1.5 years and she wasn’t able to attend the Santa Fe reunion that some one of our group attended last month so was really happy to have the chance to hang out in person!
We had the most amazing walk along/around the river and she showed me some cool lesser known tourist areas like this bathing area! I really wish I had brought my bathing suit with me next time.
Being outside in the sun with a good friend on a beautiful day = is there anything better? 🙂
After our walk we grabbed a quick brunch at Bouldin Creek Cafe, a really cute and funky vegetarian restaurant.
I had their mushroom fajitas with whole beans – it hit the spot!
Unfortunately we didn’t have time to linger as we were out a little longer than planned so I ate half in the restaurant and the second half later at the airport but it was delicious! Austin’s food scene is on point.
I was very sad to say goodbye to Austin. Such a lovely trip with a great mix of professional development and networking + personal fun.
Until next time, Austin! Hopefully it won’t be that long before I make it again… 2010 was the last time I was in Austin!
Here are the recaps from 2010 if you want to take a trip down memory lane and enjoy my much less professional style of writing from the VERY early days of the blog: