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My search for healthier-than-usual après ski fare in Teton Village turned out to be more challenging than I expected.
When I asked friends for their ideas, most just laughed and said something like, “Who wants healthy food after skiing? We want beer!” They have a point.
If après is part of vacation or an occasional treat, then healthier options may not matter much in the bigger picture of your life. For me it comes down to how I feel afterward – including that evening and the next day. A big gut bomb of fried or other heavy food may taste great at the time, then it makes me feel lethargic and unmotivated for anything afterward. I have found that a bit of balanced après ski goes a long way to feeling better, not only that evening but the next day, especially helpful when the next day includes more skiing.
The good news is there are some options to accomplish the goal of slightly a healthier après ski experience without feeling deprived. Regardless of what you decide to eat, probably the most important part of a healthier après ski strategy is water. High altitude, dry climate, extremes of cold (and sometimes hot), and of course exercise are four factors that each increase your daily fluid requirements. The dehydrating properties of an après ski adult beverage and the fact that whatever you eat is likely to be loaded with sodium (from salt) add a couple more reasons to focus on hydration. Healthier eats are a bit more challenging in the après ski scene. Aside from a few carrot and celery sticks tucked between wings and blue cheese dressing or the salsa alongside nachos, veggies are scarce on après menus (unless, like our school systems, you count French fries and ketchup). Of course after a day of skiing, often with minimal or no lunch, a salad or other lighter fare during après just doesn’t cut it anyway. Hunger, peer pressure and beer are likely to nudge us toward something more fun and less healthy.
Some ways to make the après experience a bit healthier include:
- Share the fun but less healthy options such as wings, fries or nachos. This obviously doesn’t decrease the calories or increase the nutrition of the food, but the après environment is not an easy place to listen to your internal cues of satiety and large portions make us more likely to eat more (basic food psychology at work here).
- Look for some kind of veggies to balance fried or other heavier options. If a bar menu doesn’t include soups or salads, sometimes they let you order those items from their restaurant lunch menu (we did this at Hayden’s Post when we decided après was actually early dinner and added a delicious salad alongside other apps). If you’re really hungry and know you have dinner plans for the evening, a cup of soup along with some shared fun foods can be a great way to take the edge off your hunger, provide fluid and salt lost during your hours of exercise and may even provide some veggies (I did this with some curried carrot apple soup at the Alpenhof Bistro recently).
So far the most interesting après ski menu in Teton Village is the Spur Restaurant and Bar in the Teton Mountain Lodge & Spa. The Bar Bites and starters include some healthier options. We tried the lentil hummus with rosemary flatbread and beet-cured gravlox with smashed avocados, pickled red onion, thinly sliced radish on multi-grain toast that were delicious!
Of course the Devils on Horseback — dates with goat cheese wrapped in crispy bacon — made sampling the healthier options more interesting to my husband! When our friends arrived we shared the Marley Nachos – a mound of tortilla chips topped with a generous amount of jerked chicken, jack cheese, black beans, jalapenos, green onions, and sides of guacamole, sour cream and pico de gallo. While salty chips smothered in cheese is hardly health food, you can go easy on the sour cream and choose chips with less cheese and more veggies, beans and chicken to get some valuable nutrients.
The key here is to be aware of the large portion size, and if you have dinner plans you may want to stick to the smaller portions of Bar Bites or starters. There are some delicious and interesting salads, sandwiches and homemade soups available, so if après is also dinner you can find a nice balance of fun and healthier fare.
