Tales From the River: Changed Plans, Power Naps and Asian Recipes In My RV Kitchen

Welcome to my series, Tales From the River where I share behind-the-scenes of being a Women’s Transformation Coach living a simple, nervous system-regulating life in a vintage RV near a national forest.

This lifestyle wasn’t planned and , to be honest, I would never have chosen it if I had more than one day to find a place to live while escaping my abusing marriage. I chose an RV because they are affordable, self-contained and come with furniture, everything I lost when I fled my home 2023.

My stay here in the woods turned into a comfortable, mega-simple lifestyle on a limited income while I restructured my life and pivoted my career from HR professional to wellness consultant. Everything you read on this blog, every course taken, every certification earned, every meal cooked? Accomplished on a tiny desk (that I assembled by hand) in the slide-out of my RV. All the recipes posts? Cooked on the tiny propane stove in my tiny RV kitchen with 6-inches of counter space.

When I say I rebuilt my life, I mean from scratch.

Funny how a 6- month plan can turn into 3-years in the blink of an eye.

The “old me”, the 4-inch designer heel wearing, Porsche driving, condo-in-Houston owning version of me, would never have believed I would end up here in the woods; barefoot in the summer, growing a container garden, drinking gas-station wine by a fire surrounded by a menagerie of wildlings like coyotes, bats, bobcats, mountain lions, black bear, deer, raccoons, otters and crows (and Bigfoots because I believe and I have reason to 😱).

And she definitely would never have believed she might experience situations that require wearing 4 layers of thermal clothes under 2 blankets while cuddled up with a fluffy, 11-yr old Siberian cat named Dexter during an ice storm that knocked out power for two days. We managed to stay warm even though the interior of the camper was 36℉ and we could see our breath. Luckily the stove is propane so I was able to eat and warm my hands on hot mugs of tea.

We took a lot of naps to pass the time. Which leads me to…

The Power of Rebellious Napping

There’s something to be said for the life-changing power of a good nap. Naps are harder to come by as we age, especially those of us over 40 carrying a mental load the size of a silver back gorilla and raging hormones rivaling any roller coaster.

Naps become a luxury rather than an entitlement, something we must “earn” before we can allow ourselves to rest without guilt or fear of being judged “lazy”. It seems there is always so much to do and so little time to care for ourselves. We women are famous for putting everyone else’s needs above our own, and I’ve made it my mission in life to coach women to rebel against those patterns.

When was the last time you shut everything down, stretched out on the bed or sofa next to a beam of sunlight, windows open, breeze blowing, trees making tree sounds and just let yourself power nap? Or, when it was cold out, you snuggled up in a hoodie under a fluffy blanket with fluffy socks (with your own fluffy cat or pup)?

Both scenarios signal to your nervous system it’s safe to wind down, which is why they feel so comforting.

What’s stopping you from including intentional naps in your life? What if you looked at your day and picked one thing that could wait, be rescheduled, delegated or dropped completely so you could sleep for just 30 minutes?

I challenge you to work in a nap this week. No justification, no apologies, no guilt. Leave me a comment below if you do, I want to hear about it.

Naps are one of the ways I rebel against The Invisible Contracts; by telling the world it can wait.

If you don’t believe that naps are necessary, ask Dexter.

Simple Asian Recipes From My RV Kitchen

My love for cooking comes from a love of eating. During my 15-yr tenure as a global Talent Acquisition Specialist for the oil and gas industry, I had the good fortune of visiting, or living in, 22 countries. With each meal I experienced in places like India, Malaysia, China, Hungary, Italy, Mexico and South America l (and the Caribbean on holiday) a love-affair with food was born. So much so, I went to culinary school so I could learn to create a world of flavors in my own kitchen.

These days, I put my culinary training to little use while building my coaching business in my small space, but I still manage to create beautiful meals with the tools I have and the ingredients that are available in such a rural area. Often, the meals take me back to a festival, a sunrise over a canal or to the kitchen of an ancient granny in an open hut with the view of a rainforest in Mexico.

What I learned is food isn’t just nourishment, it’s love. It’s connection. It’s a common language between people from different corners of the world who don’t understand each other with words, but with generosity.

The food I share on this series is not fancy, but it does stretch your imagination into flavors that are possible with little effort and simple ingredients. I hope you try these recipes and love them. Let me know if you do!

Spicy Peanut Sesame Noodles Recipe

This is one of my go-to weeknight recipes because it’s simple and has deep flavors. It can be thrown together quickly because who doesn’t have spaghetti and peanut butter in their pantry? The crisp bell peppers bring sweetness and a sprinkle of peanuts add the crunch and some protein.

Most high-functioning, overwhelmed women view cooking as drudgery and understandably so. Cooking is just another form of living under The Invisible Contracts filed under “things women have to do to please others”. I totally get that, but hear me out.

Fierce women cook and fierce women eat carbs.

What fierce women don’t do is eat take-out or frozen meals every day because THE MENOPAUSE sends all of your shitty food choices directly to your waist where they remain despite any fervent attempts to reduce it. I won’t even go into the glucose and cardiovascular health issues they contribute to, that’s a heavy topic for another time.

Cooking for yourself is self care. So change your mindset from “I don’t cook” to “I only cook for myself”. I dig the self-righteous tone, don’t you?

As my Dad would say, “this is so good I might hurt myself”. It truly is hard to stop eating.

Kimchi Tofu Stir Fry Recipe

This recipe calls for chicken or pork and I’ll be honest, because of the sad state of American food recalls of late, meat has been giving me the ick, so I replaced it with tofu and it works. If you want to use chicken or pork, go for it. A can of drained white beans works, too.

I made good use of the cooked spaghetti from the previous recipe by making a similar recipe but with a different flavor profile. This is a good practice if you live alone because it prevents food boredom, something I suffered greatly from when I was going through my “cottage cheese phase” to hit protein macros when I started lifting weights.

I’m now in cottage cheese rehab.

I think tofu deserves a place in your cooking repertoire. It’s not only high protein and gut healthy, it’s a chameleon ingredient that takes on the flavors of the ingredients you cook it with. In this case, kimchi, and the spicier the better. I lean heavy toward “food that makes you cry”. You can use a milder version, obvs.

Before You Go

I'm building a space for women who are done performing, both at home and  in the boardroom. If you enjoyed this article, I invite you to stick around and join my community of fierce women.

I encourage you to subscribe to The Fierce Weekly Edit.  Every Sunday, I write rebel wellness topics that call out the systems that keep us small and exhausted and offer small acts of non-compliance to break free (so you can find your fierce!). It will include the behind-the scenes series Tales From the River and include whatever settled my nervous system that week; a recipe, a book, a walk by the river. t's where you get to know the woman behind the brand, in the vintage RV parked next to a river.

And if you feel like leaving a comment down below, I welcome it. You might encourage or inspire another reader who is struggling and needs to know she is not alone.

Stay fierce, 

Melissa