StaywellMA

Nutrition advice is everywhere and much of it contradicts itself. For a long time, that noise made eating feel complicated — as if every meal needed to be optimized, measured, or justified.  Over time, I learned to simplify. One principle I return to often is this: I try to stay as close to the natural state of food as possible.  Not perfectly. Not rigidly. Just in orientation. What that means, in practice, is choosing foods that resemble what they were before heavy processing,  vegetables that still look like plants, grains that haven’t been stripped of everything recognizable, meals that feel assembled rather than engineered.  This isn’t always possible, and that’s okay. Life includes travel , long days, limited options, and seasons where convenience matters.  The goal isn’t purity. It’s direction . Balanced meals, for me, are built around a few steady anchors: variety, satisfaction, and attentiveness. I aim to include different food groups , to eat ...

There’s a quiet reality that doesn’t get talked about enough.  Living as a single person is expensive.   One income carries everything. Rent. Groceries. Bills. Emergencies. There’s no one to split the cost, no second paycheck to create margin. What others share, as singles, we carry alone. Some call it the “ single tax .”  Recently, I watched a video by The Financial Diet titled “ What Nobody Tells You About Being the Single Friend .” It put words to something many of us feel but don’t always say out loud. The video highlights the hidden costs of being single. The way expenses stack up differently. The social expectations. The financial, emotional and mental weight that often goes unseen. And watching it, I realized how true it is. There are moments when the numbers don’t seem to stretch far enough. When the budget feels tight before the month even begins. When you find yourself quietly wondering how everything will come together.  This is where faith b...

 As an African living in the West, I’ve found myself in the slow, intentional process of unlearning diet culture . This unlearning hasn’t been simple, because diet culture here in North America doesn’t just tell us how to eat — it tells us whose food is worthy, healthy, and legitimate. In Western wellness spaces , “healthy eating” is often framed through a narrow cultural lens. Certain foods are celebrated, researched, marketed, and elevated as superior, while others — especially foods from non-Western cultures — are dismissed as unhealthy, heavy, or indulgent. This framing is not neutral. It reflects power, history, and whose knowledge is considered credible. Growing up, the foods of my culture were never designed to fit Western food pyramids or wellness trends — yet they sustained generations. They were built on balance, seasonality, community, and survival. These foods nourished bodies long before they were filtered through calorie counts, macro ratios, or Instagram aesthet...