When foodie Alex Snodgrass and her fitness-loving sister combined their passions and started a mostly-inconsistent blog called The Defined Dish four years ago, she didn’t expect for it to turn into what it is today.
Now, almost a year and a half after her sister left and Alex started pouring her heart, soul, and time into the blog, The Defined Dish has grown 600 percent in its page views and has become a source of Whole30 knowledge for people looking for delicious and healthy recipes.
Alex first got into the Whole30 program because of her sister, who tried it out before her wedding.
“She told me how great she felt and she lost all this weight,” Alex said. “I also read that the Whole30 really helped with mental clarity, and since I had kids, I had started to experience really bad anxiety. So, I was like, ‘Oh, maybe this will kind of kill two birds with one stone, maybe just help my mental clarity and take off the baby weight that I’d like to lose.’”
And Alex’s research proved to be true.
“My anxiety went down tremendously and pretty much vanished at this point. I just felt so good.”
Alex also realized that the Whole30 program was empowering her to spend some much-needed time just making sure she was at her best, not just for herself, but also for her family and friends.
“As a new mom, I was just taking care of everybody else,” she said. “I really feel like it gave me the tools to be like, ‘OK, I really need to put myself and my health first if I want to be a really good mom and a really good wife and just a good person all around. I really need to put myself first to be able to take care of everyone else.’”
The tools and benefits that Alex got from the Whole30 convinced her that she needed to stick with the program for more than just 30 days, which is not uncommon as we also saw from Teri Turner of No Crumbs Left.
Alex now lives her life “Whole30-ish,” a plan that follows a lot from the original program and also fits her lifestyle.
“For me now, my balance is mostly, whenever I’m at home, I’m cooking Whole30 or Paleo or just really clean,” she said. “I like to eat very clean and be very aware of what goes into my body. But that being said, I’m also a big foodie. I love to travel; I love to eat at new restaurants and try new things, so I kind of make room for that, too. I just try to do it when it’s worth it and I think that looks different for everybody.”
Alex is also a stay-at-home mom to her young daughters Sutton and Winnie, so she has built-in sous chefs. The girls love to help Alex in the kitchen (Sutton was recently seen making meatballs on The Defined Dish’s Instagram story), and Alex thinks this will help them learn to live healthy lives as well.
“I think that being in the kitchen with me will help them feed their families someday,” Alex said. “I didn’t learn this until I was in my 20s, but I think they’re also gonna learn so young that it’s so important to be cognizant of what you put in your body and that it really does matter, but also, at the same time, that balance matters, and just to take care of themselves and those they love around them. I think it’ll teach them the tools to do that.”
While Alex may be empowering her daughters at home, she’s also motivating people virtually through The Defined Dish. Whether it’s inspiring them to live healthier lives or pursue their passions, Alex’s life and work resonate in so many ways with New York Minute Mag’s goal of empowering women.
“I think what I do is a good example of a mom at home with her kids just sharing her passion with the world and changing people’s lives, even if it’s not in a big number,” Alex said. “I think that every woman, no matter what they do, should be just confident. I think every woman should just be empowered to share what they’re passionate about, and that’s what I’m doing.”
Head over to Alex’s blog and Instagram to check out her most popular recipes!
Featured Image by The Defined Dish
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Wendy Matson Wells
April 26, 2018 at 8:25 am
Awesome