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Category: Life

by Alexandra
Posted on January 20, 2020January 20, 2020

5 Thoughts

by Alexandra
Posted on December 30, 2019

2020 Vision

by Alexandra
Posted on December 13, 2019November 25, 2019

Healthy Holiday Gift Guide

by Alexandra
Posted on December 11, 2019December 1, 2019

A Fun Way to Decorate Your House for Christmas

by Alexandra
Posted on December 9, 2019December 9, 2019

Who I’m Writing For

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I help women cultivate more meaningful lives through a simplified approach to food, faith, and holistic health.

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@AlexandraCMacKillop

Self-care isn’t only about food and exercise. It also means monitoring our stress, emotions, relationships, and spiritual lives. We are so much more than just a body, but these abstract areas of health rarely get talked about in healthcare circles. I don’t really know how to change that except by sharing more about the things I’m doing in my own life that help me stay balanced...which is important because staying balanced allows me the margin I need to live for more than just myself. One of the most balancing habits I’ve developed is with my morning routine: a steaming cup of coffee, reading, and reflection. My bible and prayer time each morning has benefitted me individually in significant ways, but also changed my relationships, my work, and the way I see the world. Starting my morning with a focus on the big picture changes every little detail in the rest of my day. More thoughts like this in today’s blog post. [Link in bio.] Which habits in your life help you stay focused on the big picture?

In today's blog post (link in bio) I share about how I avoid both proactive and reactive overeating by incorporating intuitive eating and gentle nutrition into the way I structure my meals. Follow the link in my bio to read more!⁠⠀ ⁠⠀

This was everything I needed in a dinner. We were STARVING by the time we made it to GRIND in Louisville, and all I wanted was a smash burger. They upped their game with smoked ketchup and bourbon barrel aged mayo on the broccoli...and I have no regrets. ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ How do you like your burgers?⁠⠀

In conversations about intuitive eating, desserts, snacks and other fun foods tend to be talked about disproportionately ("Just eat a brownie!") but in the world of preventative medicine and natural health, the opposite is true, with too much emphasis on avoidance and restriction. ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ A health-promoting lifestyle doesn't need to exclude dessert, but it also needs to be built upon more than just dessert. In fact, the best way to describe a healthy lifestyle is in the avoidance of extremes. This means NOT cutting out food groups, NOT eating the same way every day, NOT pushing our bodies to their breaking points with extreme exercise. Variety, consistency and moderation are the hallmarks of a balanced, healthy life! #eatwithfreedom⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀

Intuitive eating doesn't mean we never question what, when, or how much we put in our mouths. Rather, it helps us ask the right questions so that we don't end up over-thinking food. Before I became an intuitive eater, I'd find myself constantly researching the perfect weight-loss diet, experimenting with new food rules, and worrying about whether the number on the scale was changing. All of this left me miserable.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Today's blog post [link in bio] is about 10 questions I started asking myself to help me learn how to honor my body, my cravings, and my lifestyle every time I ate. I still use them today! #eatwithfreedom⁠⠀ ⁠

Of course the details are more nuanced, and you can read more on today's blog post [LINK IN BIO]...but for the most part, our culture has it all wrong when it comes to the relationship between weight and well-being. In most cases, weight doesn't directly cause health problems. Rather, weight gain and health problems often stem from a common root cause -- often stress, emotional/psychological factors, illness, etc. Watering down health and well-being to the number on the scale prevents us from seeing the big picture, where the real answers are found.⁠⠀

The coldest day of 2020 means a warm bowl of oatmeal! The classic peanut butter and banana combo but with crunchy instead of creamy. I never used to like crunchy but it seems the times have changed! I cooked this in @fairlife milk, which is probably my new favorite thing. (No, this is not and ad...) I don’t usually do milk because lactose tends to upset my stomach, and I hate the sweet taste of lactose-free milk. But Fairlife filters the milk sugars out so it tastes like regular milk. The bonus is that it also has a higher concentration of protein which I LOVE. I went to college at Purdue but I’m from Chicago, and I drove past Fair Oaks Farms every time I visited home. I often stopped for ice cream (which is amazing by the way) and they also were one of the only gas stations amid the hundreds of miles of farm land. So, I feel like I have an extra special connection to them. Who’d have thought a bowl of oatmeal could get so nostalgic 🙈 Anyway, I’m obsessed with both the milk and this breakfast. I hope your day is off to as great of a start as mine!

There’s a lot of polarized language floating around in the holistic health space, whether it be related to intuitive eating or preventative nutrition. The problem in the media comes from taking good recommendations like “eat more vegetables” and running away with them to say things like: “only vegetables are good, everything else is bad.” Vegetables provide nutrients we need, and we all need to eat them. But grains, meat, fruit and oils all also provide nutrients we need. Everybody needs vegetables but everyone also needs balance. To me, that means cookies. #eatwithfreedom [Thanks @dr.leighwagner for the posting style inspiration!]

Love this post from @whenharrymetsalad Healthy & balanced eating necessitates planing ahead, cooking at home, and learning to prepare food in enjoyable ways. When I don’t do those things, I end up over hungry, feeling urgent, and caring very little whether what I eat will keep me feeling my best. So, I set the intention to feed myself well, and it usually works out well from there! For example, I love macaroni and cheese, namely because of the cheese. Healthy eating for me means eating macaroni and cheese sometimes, but it also means putting cheese on veggies like cauliflower and broccoli to make those foods taste just as yummy as anything else. It also means avoiding the “extras” I don’t particularly enjoy by trimming meat or skipping condiments I don’t like, but making sure to include the ones I LOVE like cookies! Most importantly, it means making sure I’m consistently eating ENOUGH food by not skipping meals, going to radical extremes with my food, or yo-yo- dieting. #eatwithfreedom

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