Words of Wellness with Shelly

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Want better health results fast? That urge makes sense, but it can trap us in short-term thinking that never turns into lasting change. This conversation is a reset for anyone who’s tired of chasing “overnight” wellness and ready to build a body that holds up for decades.

We talk about preparing for the next 30 years, not just the next 30 days, and how to make daily choices that support longevity. Shelly breaks down why strength training and muscle mass matter so much for healthy aging, including how strength supports metabolism, blood sugar...

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Peptides are having a moment, but the real story is bigger than a trend. We sit down with nurse anesthesiologist and peptide educator Mei Mattinson to explain what peptides are in plain language: signaling molecules built from amino acids that act like messengers, telling your cells what to do. When those signals change with age, inflammation, and poor sleep, it can show up as fatigue, slower recovery, mental fog, and visible skin changes, and that’s where the peptide conversation often begins. 

We dig into the peptides people ask about most, inc...

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A $109 fee should not be a big deal, but when it shows up with the word “delinquent” and you never even got the original notice, it hits a nerve. That is exactly what happened to Shelly after a trip to Omaha, and what followed was a week of callbacks, confusing online steps, and three different DMV answers that did not match. She is sharing the whole story because these small stressors are where our wellness mindset gets tested in real time.

As a health and wellness professional, Shelly believes that emotional well...

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“It’s normal” can be comforting, but it can also be a conversation stopper. If you’ve been told your midlife symptoms are just part of getting older and then sent on your way, we want to offer something better: context, clarity, and real next steps.

We sit down with nurse practitioner Rachel Smith, owner of Aspect Wellness, who focuses on optimizing health for midlife women. Together we unpack what hormonal shifts in perimenopause and menopause can look like in real life: sleep disruption, brain fog, libido changes, shifting body composition, and lab...

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Your kids are learning “normal” from you, even on the days you think nothing is happening. As Shelly gets close to 200 episodes of Words of Wellness, she wanted to share a message that sits right at the heart of why she started this show: wellness, health, and longevity aren’t just personal goals, they’re a legacy.

We dig into what it really means to model healthy habits for your children and why the payoff often shows up later, not immediately. Shelly shares personal stories from her active family life, including what hap...

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Hurry has a sneaky way of feeling normal, until you realize your days are packed and your mind never truly lands. After a full season of travel, family time, and big milestones, we wanted to pause and share a message that’s both simple and challenging: the little things you do every day add up, including the pace you keep. If you’ve been craving more calm, more clarity, and a steadier mood, this conversation is for you. 

We pull practical ideas inspired by The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry and translate them...

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A special, personal share; a faith story related to a baseball tournament, two sons on two different college baseball paths, and the hope that everyone would be together. This is what happens when you pray for something specific and then have faith that whatever is meant to be, will be. 

Shelly shares a personal moment from a Big Ten baseball conference tournament. She talks briefly about sports, travel and work schedules, and that familiar tug-of-war between planning ahead and overthinking and the hope of her family all being together. Then the s...

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A heart transplant is a medical event, but it’s also a crash course in how you live. Guest  Jimmy Owens brings a perspective you don’t hear every day: a veteran swim coach and wellness-minded leader who suddenly had to stop coaching everyone else and fight for his own life. Jimmy shares how injuries and testing revealed serious heart function issues, how he lived with congestive heart failure for years, and how getting COVID twice became the turning point that landed him in the hospital and on the path to a heart trans...

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Groceries are heavy for a reason, and they tell the truth. While walking home from the store with two full bags, Shelly had a simple realization: staying active is not just a “fitness goal,” it is how we protect our ability to live independently. If carrying groceries, walking a mile, lifting your kids, or taking the stairs leaves you out of breath, that is a signal your body is asking for more strength and stamina, not more guilt.

Shelly talks through why functional fitness and activities of daily living matter so much...

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Most workouts labeled “HIIT” are really just hard interval circuits and that one mix-up can be the reason you feel exhausted but don’t see the fat loss, power, or muscle definition you were promised. We get specific about what high intensity interval training actually is: near maximal cardiovascular effort with recovery that’s long enough to repeat that same max effort again. If you can’t reproduce your output, it’s a sign your rest is too short or your intensity isn’t truly high. 

We are joined by Heather Flebbe, an exer...

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Motherhood can be the biggest blessing and the heaviest load, sometimes in the same hour. Shelly takes a quiet moment after Mother’s Day to honor you, whether you became a mom through birth, adoption, being a mother figure, or even loving and caring for your “fur babies.” What you do matters, and the parts no one sees count, too. 

Shelly talks about why her family-first choices shape the memories we keep, and why presence beats perfection every time. Yes, life is full and you cannot be everywhere, but when you put in...

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A school shooting. A childhood shaped by addiction and neglect. A brother’s sudden death witnessed up close. Melissa’s story is hard to hear at times, but it also explains something many of us feel and cannot name: trauma does not stay in the past just because we stop talking about it. 

We continue our conversation with Melissa, an RN turned holistic trauma and anxiety coach, as she shares how complex PTSD, anxiety, and grief showed up in her life through nightmares, hypervigilance, risky coping, and a deep sense of self...

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Heart disease doesn’t always announce itself with a dramatic chest-clutching moment, especially for women. Some of the most important warning signs can look like “normal life” fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea, or nagging jaw and shoulder pain. That quiet reality is exactly why Shelly is sharing this conversation; to put women’s heart health front and center and to replace fear with clear, usable knowledge.

She talks through why heart disease remains the leading cause of death in women and why the symptoms can present differently than they often do in men...

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If you’ve ever left a doctor’s office with a prescription and a sinking feeling that nobody really asked the right questions, you’re going to feel seen here. We talk with Melissa Armstrong, an RN who spent years in pediatric critical care before stepping away from protocol-driven medicine and into her work as a holistic trauma and anxiety coach, helping women regulate their nervous systems and rebuild health from the ground up.

We get honest about the limits of standardized medicine and why personalized medicine matters, especially when your sympto...

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Some wellness topics are easy to post about. Infertility is not one of them, and that’s exactly why we’re talking about it.

We’re coming off National Infertility Awareness Week, and I wanted to slow down and make space for anyone who has struggled to conceive, to carry a pregnancy, or to become a parent in the way you hoped. I share a few fertility statistics that put the struggle in perspective, including how common infertility can be and why it is not always “one person’s issue”. We also talk th...

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The moment I saw my two sons walk toward each other after the game and hug, I felt time stop and speed up at the same time. One of them was on the field as a Division I player. The other was there as a coach. Same conference, same weekend, same family, and a reminder: presence is not a luxury, it’s a wellness practice.

I share the story of how our baseball journey led us here, from college recruiting to unexpected career turns, and what it’s like as a pare...

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The afternoon slump, constant cravings, and “why is my metabolism so slow now?” feeling can seem like a mystery in midlife, but the answer is often surprisingly basic: you’re not getting enough protein. We share a simple, realistic way to spot protein gaps and make small shifts that can change your energy, appetite, and results, especially for moms and women over 40 who are juggling a lot and need steady fuel. 

We talk through the most common signs of low protein intake, including fatigue, cravings that spike later in the day, slower...

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You can be doing “all the right things” and still feel exhausted, puffy, moody, and stuck. That’s why we wanted to have a real conversation about stress and not the vague kind. We get into what chronic stress actually does inside the body, why your physiology can’t tell the difference between emotional stress and lifestyle stress, and how that constant load can quietly derail your energy, metabolism, digestion, sleep, and even your cycle.

Alongside guest Emma Aguirre, a nutritionist and personal trainer who’s expanding her work into functional diagnostic...

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Your time is not just a productivity tool. It is a wellness tool, and if your calendar is packed with misaligned commitments, it can quietly drain your energy, patience, and joy.

Today Shelly is building on a recent conversation about time management and time strategy with a deeper focus on energy management and real-life health habits. She shares a personal moment where travel planning pulled her into the future for days, leaving her feeling off routine and not fully present. That small wake-up call turns into a bigger question: where are...

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If your days feel packed yet your health still ends up last, the problem may not be discipline. It may be that nobody ever taught you how to manage time in a way that supports wellness. We sit down with CW Hawley, founder of Let’s Talk Time, to explore what happens when you stop chasing “productivity” and start practicing time strategy that actually fits your life. Her mantra says it all: own your hours, rule your life. 

We talk about seasons of life and why a perfect routine can be the wro...

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Travel can be fun and meaningful, but it can also quietly wreck your energy. When Shelly shares about bouncing between airports, late flights, and busy weekends (especially during baseball season in her family), she's noticed one choice makes the biggest difference: protecting the day after travel. That “buffer day” helps her reset physically, mentally, and emotionally, and she truly believes it supports her immune system too.

Shelly walk us through what this looks like in real life, including how she handles arriving home late, sleeping in without guilt, and keeping her sche...

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“Your labs are normal” can sound reassuring, but what if it’s also the reason you stay stuck for years? We sit down with Lisa Marie, a nurse practitioner, family practitioner, and PhD in holistic nutrition, to talk about how functional medicine looks for what’s coming next, not just what’s diagnosable today. Her story starts early, with a metastatic thyroid cancer diagnosis at 23 and a life-changing decision to keep her pregnancy despite intense medical pressure. That experience pushed her to ask better questions, dig into research, and eventually build a practice rooted in...

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HIIT can feel like a shortcut, but what if the thing you’re doing to get “fitter faster” is actually keeping you tired, sore, and stuck? We dig into high-intensity interval training in a practical, no-hype way, starting with what HIIT actually is: short bursts of powerful effort paired with lower-intensity movement or rest. Shelly shares how she uses intervals in her own routine, including sprint-style workouts you can do without fancy equipment, plus options to mix in explosive strength moves if your body tolerates them. 

We also walk through the real be...

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Brain fog in the middle of a meeting. Sleep that suddenly stops working. Joint pain on hikes you used to love. Weight gain that makes no sense. If any of that sounds familiar, this conversation will help you connect the dots and stop second-guessing yourself.

Shelly is joined by Suzanne Greiner, a nurse of nearly three decades who became a board-certified nurse coach specializing in perimenopause and menopause. Suzanne shares the moment she realized her own symptoms weren’t “just stress” and how a rushed appointment left her feeling dismissed. From there...

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GLP-1s are everywhere right now, and the speed of the trend is exactly what is causing Shelly some concern. When medicated weight loss becomes something “anyone can order,” it’s easy to skip the most important step: making sure it’s truly appropriate for your body, your health history, and your long-term goals.

Shelly talks through the real-life concerns that she is seeing around GLP-1 weight loss medications, peptides, and the pressure to get results fast. We get into why medical supervision matters, what can happen when appetite drops and nutritio...

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Health can feel simple until life gets busy, then even the basics start to slip. Tess Cheng, a wellness coach helps busy professionals build focus, energy, and high performance without turning wellness into an all-day project. The discussion starts with the real obstacle most people face: the belief that there isn’t time. Tess walks us through a mindset reset that begins with a powerful question, why does your health matter to you, and how that clarity makes habits easier to keep. 

We also unpack the fear that family history means you...

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A “greens” habit that takes less than a minute can still spark big questions: What am I actually getting from my food? How do I cut through all the wellness noise? And what’s a simple step I can repeat every day? Listen in as Shelly shares one addition she's made to her personal wellness routine after spending the last year or two learning about it: moringa.

Moringa often shows up in searches for the most nutritious plant, and Shelly breaks down why it’s earned that reputation. We talk through the stan...

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Feeling stuck with “normal” labs and lingering symptoms? We sat down with functional nurse practitioner Laurie Love to unpack how a root-cause, systems approach can turn the tide on chronic illness—and why small, consistent changes beat quick fixes every time. Laurie  shares her journey from ICU nursing and conventional primary care to functional medicine, where the focus shifts from diagnosing and matching a pill to building health so disease has less room to thrive.

Together, we explore the stark rise in preventable chronic disease and what that means for families, especia...

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If your pantry could talk, would it ask for a makeover? We’re taking the confusion out of cooking fats with a clear plan to reduce inflammation, boost steady energy, and support brain and heart health—without giving up flavor or joy at the table. Shelly unpacks why refined seed oils like soybean, corn, canola, sunflower, and cottonseed often work against your goals, especially when they’re heated or hiding in ultra-processed snacks and dressings. Then we dig into the good stuff: extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, and whole-food sources like olives, avocad...

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Feeling stuck in brain fog, low energy, or nagging pain that seems to come and go? We dig into why so many of us feel unwell despite “normal” labs and how simple, strategic changes can unlock real momentum. With Dr. Chapa—an alternative medicine practitioner with two decades of clinical experience—we trace most health breakdowns to three culprits: injury (including a leaky, irritated gut lining), malnutrition in a land of plenty, and relentless toxicity from air, water, plastics, fragrances, and industrial residues. 
 
We shine a bright light on the everyday chemicals...

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Ever notice how travel can drain your energy before the fun even starts? We’re flipping that script with a simple, portable routine that keeps you steady through airports, time zones, and packed schedules—so you feel good enough to actually enjoy the reason you left home.

Shelly draws on 35+ years in health and wellness to share three non‑negotiables that hold up anywhere: quiet time to protect your nervous system, smart nutrition you can pack and trust, and daily movement that fits into real life. You’ll hear how she navigate...

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The path to clearer, calmer skin may start with your plate, your stress levels, and your daily routine—not another “miracle” bottle. We sit down with Samantha, a certified esthetician and functional medicine practitioner, to connect the dots between gut health, hormones, nervous system balance, and what you put on your face. If you’ve tried everything from drugstore serums to luxury creams and still feel stuck, this conversation offers a grounded, step-by-step way to create change you can actually see.

We unpack why so many women in perimenopause and menopause experien...

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What if the real cost of your busy life isn’t stress, but lost moments of wisdom, joy, and connection? We dive into the quiet epidemic of hurry sickness—those subtle patterns of rushing, overcommitting, and numbing that leave us irritable, anxious, and strangely disconnected from what matters most. Drawing on insights from The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry and our own lived stories, we map the 10 core symptoms—from restlessness and workaholism to emotional numbness and isolation—and explain how they erode mental health, physical wellness, and spiritual grounding.

Together, we challeng...

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Menopause isn’t a malfunction—it’s a redesign. We sit down with Ayurvedic practitioner and yoga teacher Hannah Levin to explore how midlife can become a powerful reset for your body, your routines, and your sense of purpose. Instead of chasing fixes, we focus on balance through food, sleep, herbs, and small daily rituals that help you feel steady and clear.

Hannah explains the elemental shift from the fire-and-water years of creation to the air-and-space years after menopause, and why that transition can feel like a roller coaster. You’ll learn ho...

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Heart disease isn’t destiny, and it isn’t just about cholesterol. We unpack the real drivers that push risk higher—chronic stress, poor sleep, blood sugar swings, inflammation, and everyday toxin exposure—and show how small, doable habits build a stronger, more resilient heart. From decoding women’s often-missed symptoms to the Monday morning spike in heart attacks, we cut through the noise with practical guidance you can use today.

We share how to help alleviate some stress moments with quick breath work techniques, daily walking, and nervous system-friendly routines that lower...

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Ever notice how a single hour with a friend can do more for your mood than an entire day of scrolling? We dig into the real engine of wellness—human connection—and why face-to-face time still beats any feed, app, or clever bot. As trust frays and AI speeds ahead, we share grounded ways to protect what matters most: eye contact, shared laughs, and the steady rhythm of showing up for each other.

We start by sharing grim statistics about the lack of trust among individuals. The need for human interaction and...

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Stress doesn’t disappear; it just shifts and evolves. We explore how your body reads both bad news and good milestones as stress, why the alarm feels the same, and how to guide yourself back to balance before burnout steals your focus, sleep, and joy. Drawing on decades in wellness and teaching, Shelly breaks down the physiology in plain language—sympathetic activation, adrenaline, cortisol—and maps the three stages of stress: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. With that foundation, we move straight into simple, proven practices you can use today.

You’ll learn ho...

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Feeling overwhelmed by wellness advice that screams for more restriction and less joy? We sat down with registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator Lauren Dorman to reframe health as a whole-person journey grounded in vision, beliefs, and small, sustainable habits. Instead of chasing the scale or counting every bite, we dig into why small shifts can unlock better sleep, steadier energy, and real momentum.

Lauren introduces her Nine to Nourished framework: a practical guide that weaves vision, beliefs, thoughts, self-love, movement, nourishment, expectations, coping, and regulating into a simple roadmap. We...

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Feeling stuck between strict diet rules and real life? We walk through a calm, practical path to eating for longevity that leaves room for joy. The focus is simple: build plates around plants and quality protein, lean on Mediterranean and heart-healthy patterns. No calorie tallying or macro micromanaging required unless a medical goal calls for it.

Shelly shares a personal moment navigating vertigo and sodium limits to show when numbers truly matter—and when they just add stress. From there, we map out a plate you can build by sight: half ve...

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If health felt lighter, would you show up more often? We sit down with fitness pioneer Cathy Savage to reframe longevity as a joyful, no-extremes path you can live with today and still love a decade from now. Cathy helped redefine what success looks like in the gym; now she’s bringing that health-first mindset to food, movement, sleep, stress, and brain health so you can add life to your years.

We talk about building a sustainable rhythm with Mediterranean-style eating, rhythmic protein, and fiber without turning meals into math problems. Wa...