“Sometimes it’s cheese quesadillas and frozen macarons for dinner.”

One of the benefits of living a life of food freedom and away from diet culture is that self-care besides food is on the forefront more often than not.

Last month and this month so far has been real busy and it appears that I may be burning out, I know part of it is not taking a long extended time off like I usually do in the summer despite trying to maintain some sort of morning/night/ after work routine. But even taking time off is only temporary. It is important to have a toolbox of ways to relieve stress and take time off for yourself as part of your daily routine.

But self-care is not just bubble baths and massages. I even developed a sel-care calendar that has 30 ideas on how to practice self-care that goes beyond candles and bubble baths. It also may mean shortcutting your meals so that you can have more time to yourself and your family.

And that is exactly what we did the other day.

Soon as I finished up work, I took myself and my daughter down by the beach which is about a 10 minute walk from our house. It was an unusual warm October day so we went and took advantage of it with my daughter. It was exactly what we needed. I refused to dread the whole “what’s for dinner” and spend hours at the stove this day. I do love to cook but sometimes cooking elaborate meals that take long just don’t cut it.

So for dinner we had cheese quesadillas and frozen macarons that we picked up from Aldi.

Was this a fully nutritious meal? Hardly. Was it good enough and satisfying? Yes it was. Do we eat like this all the time? Nope. but there are seasons in life where you may have to wing it and just have quesadillas and frozen macarons for dinner sometimes.

We wanted to spend more time outdoors because soon the weather in Chicago will change to the point where it gets dark at 5 pm and cool down significantly. Summers and summer like weather in Chicago is short and we take advantage of it as much as we can.

And that is the beauty of food freedom. Without the guilt that you only had quesadillas and frozen macarons for dinner. Or whatever short-cut meals you can think of to maximize quality time with family and friends. And that is part of well-being too.

P.S- I am hosting my very first book club event discussion for those in the Chicago area this month! Details are in the link here if you would like to join us! You can RSVP at my Meetup Group by clicking the following here: Food Freedom Women’s Chicago Book Club Event. See you there!