Made For Living Well

I was the child who, as my family said, "had a weak stomach." For most of my childhood and part of my adult life, I struggled through numerous gut-health issues. Nothing was severe, but it was always persistent. It ranged from vomiting to excessive bloating and GI-induced headaches. I also seemed to react to a random array of foods consistently. These issues are, at least partially, responsible for why I got into the health space. I've worked in the health space for the last fifteen years, and gut health problems and remedies have skyrocketed. I've seen clients who are sensitive to nearly every food, even foods considered to be the healthiest. Age no longer seems to be a factor. Within this time, I've also witnessed the birth and high promotion of probiotics, which recently flipped gears to the warning against them. Similar to most situations in health, there doesn't seem to be a good answer as to why we're here and how we get ourselves out. We can certainly put some blame on the massive influx of "toxins" or highly-processed foods (many of which are also considered to contain toxins). This, of course, stresses the GI system and strains your gut bacteria, creating an imbalance. But you could also blame our eating patterns and our movement away from our circadian rhythm, eating the majority of our calories at night and failing to practice any sort of light hygiene. You could also blame our farming practices, the depleted nutrients in our soil, or our overly sanitized environments void of healthy bacteria. There are a lot of fingers we can point and arguably should point, as these all can cause an excess burden on the body. But to simplify it all, I think that burden points directly at our "problem." We don't have the resources to deal with the burdens. Most gut issues happen because you're under-resourced and overburdened. You may struggle with gut-health issues simply because you don't meet your basic and foundational needs on a daily and consistent basis. In this podcast, I share more about the needs you need to meet, how your lack of food consumption or low energy available states are destroying your gut, and why supplementation is not the best answer. Listen to the podcast to learn more.   Listen to today's episode to learn more: https://thelivingwell.com/354.   Be sure to take my Free Energy quiz.  Take things to the next level: Get health advice that works delivered straight to your inbox. The only place guaranteed to make you healthier and happier. Join The Weekly Fill here. Ready to go deeper and take back your health? Learn how to nourish yourself in a way that is personal to you while also helping you to fully embrace all of you. Take back your hormones, get more energy, and learn how to thrive inside Health Made Simple. Follow my day-to-day life plus mini tidbits of health encouragement on Instagram.  

One thing most overlook in working towards sustainable weight loss is the process of building healthier structure. Weight loss isn’t always about loss, but rather expansion. Let me teach you how. Growing up, I saw many people attempt weight loss. Some succeeded, at least temporarily, but few paid attention to where the weight came from. Health was reduced to the number glaring back at them from the scale. In those days, health was about weight loss, and weight loss was about all forms of “less.” While both statements have some truth, they’re not the whole truth. This is why health can feel so confusing. It’s both partially true and incomplete—both this and the opposite of this. Health is best lived at an optimal weight, but weight loss doesn’t always lead to health. Likewise, weight loss often involves “less”—but not in the sense of restriction. Instead, it’s less in the way of expansion: less energy-draining foods, less resistance, less working against your body. It might sound contradictory, as if I’m speaking out of both sides of my mouth. But when you begin to understand that it’s not one or the other—but a combination of what we do and what we’re working against—you start to make meaningful progress toward your goals. At the end of the day, all goals align with the most critical element of health: the expansion and protection of energy. When you expand your energy, you create healthier structures, and healthier structures produce healthier functions. This aligns with the biological principle that energy builds structure, and structure determines function. In the context of weight loss, this means we should focus on building and maintaining healthy structures—like bone density, organ health, and muscle mass—rather than fixating on the number on the scale. Your optimal weight is not just about reaching a specific number; it’s about achieving, retaining, and supporting a body made of healthy, resilient tissues. Don’t get so consumed by weight loss that you overlook the most critical aspect of achieving a healthy weight: the kind of tissue you’re losing in the process. Listen to today’s podcast to learn why the structure of your body matters more than your weight—and how you can build a healthier structure for lasting health.   Listen to today's episode to learn more: https://thelivingwell.com/353.   Be sure to take my Free Energy quiz.  Take things to the next level: Get health advice that works delivered straight to your inbox. The only place guaranteed to make you healthier and happier. Join The Weekly Fill here. Ready to go deeper and take back your health? Learn how to nourish yourself in a way that is personal to you while also helping you to fully embrace all of you. Take back your hormones, get more energy, and learn how to thrive inside Health Made Simple. Follow my day-to-day life plus mini tidbits of health encouragement on Instagram.  

The topic of metabolism tends to focus on only one small piece of a very broad system, your weight or how metabolism can change your structure. And while metabolism can influence how you look—positively or negatively—it’s much more than that. A true understanding of metabolism starts by looking at the bigger picture. Metabolism is the sum of all life-sustaining biochemical processes in your body. It governs how you create and conserve energy, which directly affects how you heal, rejuvenate, remove waste, build, and preserve. It’s not energy itself but determines how your body generates and utilizes it. Think of metabolism as a thermostat, constantly working to maintain balance. It’s influenced by external factors and, in turn, influences internal systems, making it one of the most critical aspects of your health. And here’s the kicker: metabolism isn’t static. It’s not something you inherit and can’t change. Instead, it’s dynamic, always adapting to your actions and environment. Listen to today's episode to learn more: https://thelivingwell.com/352.   Be sure to take my Free Energy quiz.  Take things to the next level: Get health advice that works delivered straight to your inbox. The only place guaranteed to make you healthier and happier. Join The Weekly Fill here. Ready to go deeper and take back your health? Learn how to nourish yourself in a way that is personal to you while also helping you to fully embrace all of you. Take back your hormones, get more energy, and learn how to thrive inside Health Made Simple. Follow my day-to-day life plus mini tidbits of health encouragement on Instagram.  

Have you ever felt like health is an endless puzzle—where every piece you find adds more confusion instead of clarity? Each step forward feels like two steps back, leaving you stuck in a cycle of frustration. I've been there, too, in the endless negative loop created by a faulty health story. When you're in this place, it's easy to feel like a victim—like your body has failed you and no system marketed to "fix" you ever works. This mindset traps us in a cycle of confusion and defeat, where problems seem bigger than solutions, and health feels out of reach. I don't want to dramatize this. In fact, this is about stepping away from the drama of health and looking at it through a clearer lens. I understand what it's like to feel stuck and want health but never quite achieve it. What I didn't realize then—and wouldn't have chosen to see—was how much my beliefs and the stories I told myself shaped the outcomes I experienced. Here's the hard truth: many of the struggles we face in health aren't just real problems—they're amplified by the stories we believe. Listen to today's episode to learn more: https://thelivingwell.com/351.   Be sure to take my Free Energy quiz.  Take things to the next level: Get health advice that works delivered straight to your inbox. The only place guaranteed to make you healthier and happier. Join The Weekly Fill here. Ready to go deeper and take back your health? Learn how to nourish yourself in a way that is personal to you while also helping you to fully embrace all of you. Take back your hormones, get more energy, and learn how to thrive inside Health Made Simple. Follow my day-to-day life plus mini tidbits of health encouragement on Instagram.

The health space often boxes everyone into a single narrative: if you’re overweight, you must be overeating. But that’s not always true. In fact, undereating can lead to many of the same problems as overeating. Surprisingly, most people today are underfed—not just in quantity but in quality—leading me to ask: are you eating enough? One of the most comprehensive studies on the effects of undereating is the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. This yearlong study documented what happened to participants during prolonged semi-starvation and explored the process of refeeding. I believe it offers a great understanding of the impacts of under-eating and how to better understand the effects of food on one's physiology. Inside this podcast, I dive deeper into the Minnesota Starvation Experiment and discuss why undereating is a hidden problem in the health space. I also explain how chronic undereating leads to metabolic adaptation, triggering a cascade of health issues.   Listen to today's episode to learn more: https://thelivingwell.com/350.   Be sure to take my Free Energy quiz.  Take things to the next level: Get health advice that works delivered straight to your inbox. The only place guaranteed to make you healthier and happier. Join The Weekly Fill here. Ready to go deeper and take back your health? Learn how to nourish yourself in a way that is personal to you while also helping you to fully embrace all of you. Take back your hormones, get more energy, and learn how to thrive inside Health Made Simple. Follow my day-to-day life plus mini tidbits of health encouragement on Instagram.

You can't change if you don't have the capacity. No matter how much you will it, plan for it, or research it, the only way to create change that lasts is through resourcing your cells with the capacity to change. As the first month of the new year comes to a close, it's a perfect time to evaluate how is your 'attempt' at change working? For many, the initial drive and motivation to stick to New Year’s resolutions are starting to wane. But even if it’s not the new year as you read this, understanding the process of change—and how to make it stick—is vital. The truth is that most people struggle to change not because they lack willpower but because they lack capacity. Listen to today's episode to learn more: https://thelivingwell.com/349.   Be sure to take my Free Energy quiz.  Take things to the next level: Get health advice that works delivered straight to your inbox. The only place guaranteed to make you healthier and happier. Join The Weekly Fill here. Ready to go deeper and take back your health? Learn how to nourish yourself in a way that is personal to you while also helping you to fully embrace all of you. Take back your hormones, get more energy, and learn how to thrive inside Health Made Simple. Follow my day-to-day life plus mini tidbits of health encouragement on Instagram.

I’ve spent more than a minute in the health space. I’ve tried my fair share of extremes. At one point, I even quit health altogether. While I don’t discount any part of that journey, I can’t help but wish I’d known ten years ago what I know now: the three non-negotiables required for health. A few years ago, after “quitting health,” I realized something important: I still wanted to be healthy. It wasn’t my desire for health I was over. I was over the approach we’re told to take to get there. Through years of research, experimentation, and frustration, I uncovered a truth that’s radically changed my perspective: The problem isn’t you—or your body. The problem is the system you’re trying to use to get healthy. You might be thinking, I’ve changed my approach, tried different things, and still, nothing changes. I get it. But here’s the thing: nearly every approach to health—even when wrapped in positivity—stems from the same flawed foundation, restriction, deprivation, and scarcity. Sure, some approaches focus on addition, like crowding out the bad with the good. While that’s better, our skewed understanding of what it takes to get healthy often twists even the best intentions into forms of restriction. And this, my friend, is what needs to change. Because health doesn’t thrive in restriction, health grows through expansion. In this episode, I’m breaking down the three non-negotiables for health—the principles that will shift you from surviving in restriction to thriving in expansion. I’ll also share one simple way to get started living this approach today. Listen to today's episode to learn more: https://thelivingwell.com/348.   Be sure to take my Free Energy quiz.  Take things to the next level: Get health advice that works delivered straight to your inbox. The only place guaranteed to make you healthier and happier. Join The Weekly Fill here. Ready to go deeper and take back your health? Learn how to nourish yourself in a way that is personal to you while also helping you to fully embrace all of you. Take back your hormones, get more energy, and learn how to thrive inside Health Made Simple. Follow my day-to-day life plus mini tidbits of health encouragement on Instagram.

It might be overdone, but I must say I love the newness of a new year. I know, it really doesn't change anything. January 1st is no different than any other day of the year, but I think it causes reflection, and that (hopefully) changes things. I've been reflecting a lot over the past few weeks—what's working well, what isn't, and what I want to take into the new year. And, I must say, I've found some interesting points, including a newfound love for being right where I am. It might sound unexciting, but I'm actually loving my current reality. I need to celebrate this because I've spent nearly every other year of my adult life wishing for the next season. Not out of hate for my present but from a belief that something better was always ahead. I lived life like a chase, which ultimately meant I wasn't living it well. Last year, I committed to breaking up with this mindset, to fully live in the present. While difficult at first, it's been one of the greatest experiences of my life—one I didn’t even realize I needed. The beauty is that contentment and change can coexist. Contentment is not the same as complacency. So, as I reflect back on what is working well, what isn’t, and where I want to grow, I thought I’d share some updates. My life these days involves less five-year planning and more pattern-shifting and system-building. In fact, moving from goal-setting to pattern-shifting has led to more health changes this year than in the past five years combined. Listen to learn the five things that are working well and that I’m taking into 2025.   Learn more about today's episode: https://thelivingwell.com/347.   Don't forget to track where your energy level using: This FREE energy quiz to determine your metabolic output. Follow my day-to-day life plus mini tidbits of health encouragement on Instagram.  

Every Sunday brings a moment of alarm. The moment my phone sends a notification of screen time averages for the week. I can't say I'm surprised. I know I spend more time than I would like on my phone. But the amount is still disturbing. Have you ever considered what you could accomplish or genuinely enjoy if you reclaimed that time? Looking back, I can’t say my screen time ever feels worth it. Most of the time, I can’t even remember what I was doing on my phone fifteen minutes ago, let alone justify the hours I spend scrolling through the week. It’s embarrassing, but I know I’m not alone. Recent statistics show the average person spends about 4 hours and 37 minutes on their phone daily. And that doesn’t include time spent on computers or watching TV. Rather than justify it, I’ve decided to take control, inspired by my friend and author Hannah Brencher’s book, The Unplugged Hours: Cultivating a Life of Presence in a Digitally Connected World. On her 33rd birthday, Hannah realized something had to change. She challenged herself to spend 1,000 unplugged hours over the course of a year. In a recent podcast episode, I interviewed her about this journey—what she learned, what surprised her, and whether she plans to continue. If you’re ready to rethink your screen habits, give it a listen. It might inspire you to live differently in the year ahead.   Learn more about today's episode: https://thelivingwell.com/346.   Don't forget to track where your energy level using: This FREE energy quiz to determine your metabolic output. Follow my day-to-day life plus mini tidbits of health encouragement on Instagram.  

This is a recording of my latest live class as a part of The Weekly Fill for paid subscribers. Do you want to be a part of participating in these live classes and submitting your questions to have Alexa answer them? Subscribe to The Weekly Fill here to get the information on the next live class is ready to be scheduled. Take things to the next level: Get health advice that works delivered straight to your inbox. It is the only place guaranteed to make you healthier and happier. Join The Weekly Fill here. Learn more about today's episode and get the free download for my Health Sugar Guide: https://thelivingwell.com/345.   Don't forget to track where your energy level using: This FREE energy quiz to determine your metabolic output. Follow my day-to-day life plus mini tidbits of health encouragement on Instagram.