The Healthy Prodigal

09/23/2026

Dinner always hits a little harder when I’m eating it with Nanny’s silverware. She was such a source of light in my life and a great example of how to love. I sure was blessed!

Tonight’s meal was a great marriage of fresh summer flavor (some picked out back right before it went in) and a little autumn flair with the spaghetti squash I picked up at my favorite little farmstand. A great way to welcome in the new season. Recipe below 👇🏻

Ingredients:
1 roasted and shredded spaghetti squash
4 cups of fresh spinach
3 chopped tomatoes
Handful of pear tomatoes (or cherry, or grape, or whatever you have)
1 container of crumbled feta (4 oz)
3 sprigs of fresh basil, chopped (reserve a few T for garnish)
Mix together and drizzle with a good quality EVOO
Season to taste (I used Kinder’s The Blend)
Toss to coat

Bake for 40 minutes at 400° then squeeze some lemon juice over it all and pepper liberally. (I would have added lemon zest if I had a fresh lemon 🍋) Add fresh basil garnish and enjoy!!

09/04/2026

A pretty one for some pretty friends. ☺️
Getting ready to embark on a girls’ weekend with a crew that has a few decades between the last gathering of us all…40 to be exact! Super excited for getting reconnected with these ladies so of course I needed to bake us some sourdough. 💞

08/16/2026

Both these are necessary - rainy days dried out by the sunny skies. Balance and harmony, how life ebbs and flows. That’s not metaphorically, that’s by design from the Creator of all living things.

Happy Sunday, and wherever your feet are planted I hope you receive what’s meant to be yours. Make sure to say thanks for being alive today and everyday that you wake up and get more time on this incredible Earth.

08/13/2026

When I gained my menopause weight, movement definitely slid to the side which just made everything so much harder.

I’ve had my eating under control for a while now, I 100% consider myself a full blown intermittent faster; but, was still struggling to move as much as I need to for my aging body.

I’ve got a couple people in my life that have been encouraging me and supporting me in my mission to move more and I am sooooo grateful for that. I started out with a 30 day yoga flexibility calendar and have added more and more on as the weeks progressed. Was pretty psyched this morning when I accomplished a half-wheel in my yoga flow with Sarah Beth | Free Yoga Challenges !! I normally skip that move and stick with a bridge pose instead but decided to go for it today and definitely glad I did. Full wheel down the road?? I sure hope so and feel a little more confident that I will at least attempt one someday in the future.

If you struggle to get started with lifestyle changes, I really encourage you to find one or two people that can be your support system and accountability partners. When we are in it together (no matter what that “it” is) we will always be more successful!!

08/04/2026

Keeping this one simple…this is a list of foods I gave to my husband Brian White to review and mark things he would eat because we both definitely need to eat out less and knowing what I can pick from will help with food prep.

When I first looked at his answers I was confused because I know those marked are all fruits he does not eat. So I asked, and he said “it was so much easier to mark the things I won’t eat than those I will”. To which I said, “imagine if you did this 30 years ago when we first got together?” His answers then would have been soooo different. His only vegetable I can’t get him to enjoy yet is peas. When we started dating his only vegetable option was corn!

I said to him, “I’d like to think I have a little something to do with that” and he said I 100% can make that statement!! 🙌🏻

My moral in this story is…don’t be afraid to try new things. You just never know what you might actually enjoy!!!

07/01/2026

Woot woot!! 50 pounds of fat gone!!!!! Obviously there’s still some fluff there but I am celebrating this milestone for sure!!! Grit, determination and a will to live a long happy life led me here. This girls got a lot of life to live!!!

07/01/2026

06/18/2026

I didn’t think I was going to get a garden this year. Life’s been busy and I didn’t want to plant things and then neglect them. Things should slow down for a little while now, and I got super lucky find a local plant mama in the next town over who had a lot of seedlings left over. I planted a couple spinach plants from seed and brought some spinach, basil and leaf lettuce home from NC that my friend planted from seed. Every other herb and vegetable in these photos came from the Marketplace find for a whopping total of $10!!! She thanked me for rescuing them from the compost pile.

Add another $100 in new grow bags, soil and compost and my garden is IN!! Saying my prayers that they take root and flourish to feed us this summer (and hopefully through the winter in the freezer too).

Getting outside in that sunshine and digging in the dirt is absolutely one of my most happy places!! Here’s to a good harvest with a little help from the Creator above. ☀️ 🌶️ 🫑 🍅 🥒 🍴

06/04/2026

I forgot how much I love the shores of NC!! Just had some great time out past where the waves break and was still only up to my waist!! Wave jumping was always one activity our “White 5” loved to do together. My friends are not wave jumpers but at least they get in the ocean with me, and they are great companions. 🫶🏻

Are you a wave jumper too?

05/15/2026

It is crazy to think of how many different forms of life are currently living in these 2 pictures. Definitely too many to count. I can hear some people and birds in the neighborhood but the plants and insects etc. in the ground are much harder to hear.

I try to get outdoors to sit and think about my smallness in comparison to the great big world around me every once in a while. It’s quite humbling. I try to pause and thank the creator whenever I do.

This life we are each individually living is such a small glimpse of LIFE! Of ALL created life!!

The daily grind so often has a way of punching us down, and making us want to avoid moving forward or really doing much at all; we can’t stay still for long to avoid being stale, stiff and stagnant but when we do I firmly believe it is SO important that we set ourselves down in nature and reconnect to the one that set us free on Earth in the first place!

I for sure know just how short a life can be. I’m here to LIVE it, but I also know it’s 100% ok to pause - take it all in and go forth.

I hope your heart and mind heal from whatever your wounds and worries may be. Sometimes the only thing between the hurt and the healing is the ask.