Happy Pumpkin Spice Day! The Starbucks Fall Menu Is Here For 2024

$5 Meal Deal

According to McDonald's, a majority of local markets will be extending the $5 Meal Deal into December 2024. The value meal includes your choice of a McDouble or McChicken sandwich, small fries, a 4-piece Chicken McNuggets, and a small soft drink.

“Together with our franchisees, we're committed to keeping our prices as affordable as possible, which is why we’re doubling down with even more ways to save," said Joe Erlinger, President of McDonald’s USA. "Whether you’re stopping by for breakfast, lunch, dinner or a late-night snack, we want everyone to find the food they love at a price that hits the spot. The extension of the $5 Meal Deal, and the other offerings we’re announcing for our fall line-up, are just a few of the ways we’re working hard to offer great meals at a fair price.”

$0.50 Double Cheeseburgers on National Cheeseburger Day

MyMcDonald’s Rewards members can enjoy cheeseburgers for cheap on September 18, AKA National Cheeseburger Day. Mark your calendar now to take advantage of some tasty $0.50 Double Cheeseburgers!

$2 McCrispy Sandwich in honor of National Fried Chicken Sandwich Day

National Fried Chicken Sandwich Day is coming up soon on November 9. To celebrate, McDonald's is offering $2 McCrispy Sandwiches for rewards members. Yum!

$1 10-Piece Chicken McNuggets between November 4-December 2

McDonald's rewards members can also snag a 10-piece McNuggets for just $1 on November 4-December 2. This offer is only valid once per week, perfect for a last-minute workday lunch or midnight snack!

Free Fries Fridays

Rejoice! Finally, Free Fries Fridays will continue at McDonald's through 2024! Customers can get a free medium fries with any $1 minimum purchase every single Friday, which I certainly think is worth celebrating!

Despite being a food and travel journalist, I’ve always struggled with my eating habits. I go to new restaurants to try out dishes, head to culinary festivals with some of the best chefs in the business, and travel to new countries where food is a significant part of the culture — like the Bahamas. I’ve practiced diets that never truly worked, resulting in a mindless cycle that I can only describe as mild binge-eating, restricting, and binge-eating again — left feeling ashamed of this habit I couldn’t seem to break.

While I've never been diagnosed with an eating disorder definitively, my relationship with food has struggled throughout the years, usually related to the high-stress emotions that I’m feeling at the time and, unfortunately, certain health problems in regards to my digestion system — but, as they say, ‘hot girls have stomach issues’.

Yet, these exciting trips with cuisines unknown to my own culture have allowed me to learn balance, and in this case, the mindset of intuitive eating.

“Intuitive eating is a practice to honor both mental and physical health,” says intuitive eating expert and registered dietitian, Sammi Haber Brondo. “It removes barriers from eating that stop you from enjoying, while also allowing you to prioritize your health. In a nutshell, intuitive eating is about getting rid of rules and rigid mindsets that make eating an obstacle and instead, make it easy and enjoyable.”

Thanks to Chef Tevin Kemp, I walked into the Baha Mar’s The Kitchen cooking class excited, and walked out more confident that I could be successful in eating mindfully.

The class started off with a pre-made coconut ceviche and spicy lemonade. I then began mixing the ingredients for our Johnny Cake, a popular Bahamian bread which resembles a pound cake, often enjoyed as a side dish. After I (kind of) perfected the dough’s consistency, the class popped them in the oven. In the United States — or at least, to me — a cake like this is associated with dessert and extra carbs, rather than a flavor addition to a solid meal. That’s when I first realized the problem with my mindset.

The main course was a seasoned, island grilled lionfish on top of vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, onions and cassava) coated in a liquid lemongrass mixture. I quickly learned that coconut cream and ghost pepper are beloved in the Bahamas (which is both good and bad for a girl who is ultra-sensitive to spice). There was such an emphasis on the simplicity of earthly flavors and utilizing the entirety of ingredients. Chef Kemp explained that he uses every piece of the lionfish he can — from creating mouth-watering fish stews to ceviches. Fun fact: lionfish is actually an abundant food source in the Bahamas, but I had never tried it before this cooking class.

As we fell deeper into the class I was taught to score fish and season thoughtfully, while not underestimating the flavor of natural ingredients or creativity that they lend you. Chef Kemp explained that he grew up not necessarily focusing on a balanced plate, but rather understanding the notion that, “If it makes sense and it tastes good, put it there.” As a person thrust into a society where counting calories is the norm, I was floored by this simple opinion.

To truly practice intuitive eating, Brondo says you have to “let go of food rules and really understand how dieting and restriction is holding you back.” It’s all about finding the flexibility in those gray areas, such as eating when you aren’t super hungry, or tasting something to see if it’s delicious, despite not carrying a physical hunger. This is the part where I’d usually become frustrated with myself for snacking mindlessly, even when the snack is objectively healthy, refusing to give myself grace for just enjoying good food.

When you do actually implement intuitive eating though, you may experience health benefits. According to Brondo, also a recent partner of Carnation Breakfast Essentials, this may include a “higher satisfaction” with your body and a “higher motivation to exercise, because exercise is focused on enjoyment.” Intuitive eaters also tend to opt for more fruits and veggies, leading to “lower total cholesterol, higher HDL (good) cholesterol, and lower triglycerides.” I envied Kemp's mindset, because I’ve always viewed breaking my personal diet rules as a significant, rigid obstacle.

As I consumed the delicious meal, Johnny Cake and all, I headed back to my hotel room. I was left thinking a lot about my choices — cue the tiny violin. About why in the past I’ve allowed the decisions I make in the kitchen to define me so deeply, to control my life to the point where meals are not as pleasurable as they once were. And while the answer may be layered and nuanced, food doesn’t necessarily have to be. Maybe it is okay to follow your cravings while still maintaining your healthy quota of veggies and fruits.

Just like the stunning blue waters and soft sandy beaches in the Bahamas, there are things in life that are just meant to be enjoyed. Now, when I catch myself becoming upset about consuming that extra cookie or enjoying a weekday margarita, I tell myself to let food be one of them.

Watch My Mindful Eating Experience Here!

Baha Mar Resort’s Wellness Weekend is taking place September 13 through 15, 2024. For more information on the experience or to book this wellness weekend for yourself, check out the resort’s website.

Is the original cast returning for The Devil Wears Prada sequel?

While both Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway have agreed in the past that it makes sense for Andy's story to end with the first movie, Emily recently teased her return during the American Institute for Stuttering Gala on September 16. “It’s cool,” she tells People.

“I just wanna get some good eye makeup going again,” she continues, before joking that maybe her character Emily will come down with another stomach flu. “I’m hoping for that.”

Anne, however, isn't sure what the story would look like in the modern digital age. “I don’t know if there can be [a sequel],” she said on a 2022 episode of The View (via Deadline). “I just think that movie was in a different era. Now everything’s gone so digital and that movie is centered around the concept of producing a physical thing and it’s just, it’s just very different.”

“Sometimes things should be cherished and preserved in this bubble and it’s okay,” Emily Blunt told Josh Horowitz in February 2024 (via People).

Is there The Devil Wears Prada 2?

Yes, it looks like we're finally getting a The Devil Wears Prada sequel! The original movie came out in 2006, and fans have hoped for another installment ever since Andy ditched Miranda in Paris.

The OG movie's screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna is reportedly back for round 2, as is director David Frankel and producer Wendy Finerman, according to Deadline.

What book is the sequel to Devil Wears Prada?

The second The Devil Wears Prada book is called Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns — and there's a good chance this will become the second The Devil Wears Prada movie! The book follows Andy, who's finally at the top of her game. She's a successful magazine editor, she's engaged, and her relationship with Emily is better than ever. But when Miranda Priestly makes a grand return, she flips Andy's life upside down...again.