9 to 5 Wellness

Ever wondered why you can nail a presentation with friends but completely freeze when it's time to deliver it to your team or at a big pitch? In this episode of 9 to 5 Wellness, Aesha is joined by Dr. David Lee Fish — a communication expert who's spent decades helping professionals, performers, and athletes close the gap between their expertise and their delivery under pressure.

Dr. Fish's approach has an unusual origin story: it traces back to his early career as a saxophone player and later professor, and to studying under Zen master Seung Sahn. That training led him to...

Forget January — fall is the smartest, most natural time to reset your goals. In this episode, we break down the science of why autumn motivation actually works better than New Year's resolutions, walk through a practical 90-day goal review framework, and dig into specific healthspan and fitness goals worth building into your fall.

What You'll Learn

I hear it all the time from my male patients and clients: "I don't have time to work out." So in this episode, I wanted to dig into that excuse with someone who lives it himself. I sat down with Coach Brian Parana, a men's health coach with over 23 years of experience helping busy professionals and elite athletes — including an Olympic silver medalist and a CrossFit world champion — improve their body, energy, and day-to-day habits without sacrificing their careers or families.

Brian is also a dad of four, self-employed since 2010, and just as busy as the guys who...

This episode of the 9 to 5 Wellness Podcast features a conversation with Kristina, a nutritionist specializing in anti-inflammatory nutrition. The discussion covers women's nutritional needs across menstrual phases and life stages, including pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, and menopause.

Topics covered include:

Cycle Syncing
An overview of the four menstrual phases—menstruation, follicular, ovulation, and luteal—framed through an "inner seasons" model, along with corresponding food strategies:

On this episode of the podcast, I sat down with Lisa Dougherty, founder and CEO of the nonprofit MedFit Education Foundation, to talk about advancing education at the intersection of healthcare, fitness, and wellness.

Lisa shared that she launched the foundation in 2017 to address the fitness industry's lack of training for working safely with chronic disease, medical conditions, and disabilities. She started with free weekly webinars, then moved to multidisciplinary university-based conferences, before pivoting in 2020 to online education. 

She walked me through creating 23 online medical fitness specialist certificate programs and launching a global virtual conference f...

In this episode of 9 to 5 Wellness, I dig into why organizations really win or lose the talent war — and it's not about pay or flashy perks. It comes down to the day-to-day reality of culture.

I talk about the "values versus reality" gap: employees don't judge culture by what's written in the handbook, they judge it by how time off requests, deadlines, and tough quarters actually get handled. I walk through a few composite examples that show how this plays out — unlimited PTO policies that end up reducing the vacation people actually take, wellness apps rolled out whil...

In this 9 to 5 Wellness Podcast episode, I interview Dr. Melissa Durham, Associate Dean of Organizational Success and Wellbeing at USC Mann School of Pharmacy, about reframing DEI as measurable belonging and organizational health rather than performative effort. We discuss why demographic metrics and self-reported data are limited, why retention and performance depend on systems that support diverse employees, and how to measure belonging by standardizing survey tools, disaggregating results, and running follow-up listening sessions that lead to structural changes (e.g., hybrid work and a staff council). 

Dr. Durham explains her path from pharmacist and chronic pain s...

In this episode of 9 to 5 Wellness, I sit down with Bosee Akheduri — motivational speaker, corporate trainer, author, and CEO of Goal and Grind LLC — to talk about workplace burnout, disengagement, and the unsustainable cultures so many of us are working in. Bosee makes the case that joy isn't just a nice-to-have — it's a strategic tool that drives better leadership, performance, and retention.

We dig into how joy is deeply personal and rooted in self-understanding. Bosee walks me through two of her favorite tools: the "Joy Bubble," where you list out everything that brings you joy, and the Accomp...

On this episode of 9 to 5 Wellness, I sat down with Coach Brian to dig into a question I get asked constantly: should you train fasted or fed? We broke down what fasted training actually means — working out on an empty stomach after going roughly 10 to 12 hours without eating — and talked through the real benefits, like the modest fat-loss edge over fed training, better metabolic flexibility, and potential boosts to insulin sensitivity and how your body uses fat for fuel.

I shared that I generally recommend fasted sessions for low-to-moderate intensity work — that includes moderate strength training in the 60...

This 9 to 5 Wellness podcast episode we're reframing skeletal muscle as a highly active organ with major roles beyond movement. You'll learn muscles role as the body’s primary “glucose sink,” taking up an estimated 70–80% of post-meal glucose via insulin-driven GLUT4 and storing large glycogen reserves, with inactivity, aging, and metabolic disease contributing to insulin resistance. 

Muscle is also  an “energy furnace” that raises basal metabolic rate, supports thermogenesis (including shivering), and declines with sarcopenia, contributing to metabolic slowdown. Moreover you can learn about muscles role as an amino acid reserve used during fasting, illness, trauma, surgery, and cachexia, infl...

On this episode of 9 to 5 Wellness, we're joined by Terry Chang and neurologist Dr. Ulrike Kaunzner, the co-founders of Two Moons Health, to dig into seed cycling and what it can mean for women's hormonal health. You can get started on your hormonal health journey today by ordering two moons health here - https://twomoonshealth.co/products/seed-cycle-capsules-bundle

Get $25.00 OFF with the code “AESHASUMMER25 ” at the checkout

Terry is walking us through how the company got started — she'd been dealing with really difficult cycles herself, and it was Ulrike who first introduced her to the...

In episode I'm celebrating the show’s milestone of over 9,000 downloads and reflecting on the podcast’s mission to help busy professionals prioritize health and well-being as the foundation for everything else. 

A conversation with a friend helped me see the show’s broader ripple effect by also giving speakers, coaches, and brands a stage to amplify their impact. I'm addressing the most common question I get in my DMs and corporate workshops—whether people must choose between career success and health—arguing grind culture often normalizes sacrificing sleep, energy, and preventive care until chronic conditions and stress appe...

In this episode I'm discussing tight shoulders and chronic headaches that hurt focus and productivity with Dr. Jono Taves, a Mayo Clinic-trained doctor of physical therapy and headache specialist who runs Novera Headache Center. 

Dr. Taves explains many migraine and headache diagnoses are symptom-based “primary headaches” without objective drivers, so care often becomes medication-focused after scans rule out dangerous conditions. He emphasizes evaluating movement and sensitivity in the neck (plus jaw and shoulders) because upper-neck issues can refer pain to the head via the brain stem. 

He outlines a three-part framework: 

the pain source...

In this episode I'm interviewing, Rick Howard, an associate professor of applied sports science at West Chester University, about translating adult fitness guidelines into actionable steps for busy professionals. 

We are seperetaing general physical activity from exercise prescriptions, review the guideline targets of 150 minutes/week of moderate activity or 75 minutes/week vigorous activity, and discuss why focusing only on numeric cardio goals can discourage people who would benefit from simply moving more. 

Professor Howard emphasizes choosing enjoyable activities (e.g., gardening, walking, golf) as the base of a personalized “physical activity pyramid,” then layering strength, mobili...

If you want a deep dive into intermittent fasting (IF) this episode is it!

It is an eating pattern focused on meal timing—not a diet—and outlines three common methods (16/8, 5:2, and eat-stop-eat), including what’s allowed during fasting windows. They describe key physiology (lower insulin, fat burning, and autophagy) and potential benefits like weight loss, reduced insulin resistance, and improved focus, while emphasizing food quality and noting common side effects. 

I'm answering questions on fasted workouts, the host advises timing workouts near the end of a fast if muscle gain is a priority, discusses post-wo...

In this episode I’m talking with chiropractic physician and author, Dr. Michael Guadagnino,  about building strength and reducing pain at every age without unnecessary drugs or surgery. We’re discussing common misconceptions about aging and fitness—especially feeling it’s too late to start— comparing yourself only to yourself, setting written goals, and reverse-engineering small daily steps. 

Dr. Guadagnino explains sarcopenia (age-related muscle loss), the role of resistance training in maintaining muscle and bone health (including Wolff’s law), and how free weights and proprioception work can improve balance and reduce fall risk. We’re also covering nutriti...

The People Equation: Cultivating Relational Wellness in the Workplace with Dr. Paul White

In this episode of the 9 to 5 Wellness Podcast, Aesha Tahir sits down with workplace culture expert and bestselling author Dr. Paul White to explore the power of relational wellness at work. Together, they discuss why employees often feel disconnected in today's workplace, how authenticity builds trust, and why appreciation—not just recognition—is the key to stronger teams, higher retention, and healthier workplace cultures. 

Dr. White, co-author of The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace, shares practical strategies leade...

In this episode of 9 to 5 Wellness, I'm interviewing exercise physiologist and movement professional Lucas Denham about how performance training metrics can extend health span and support longevity. We're defining longevity versus health span as quantity versus quality of life, then discuss key markers including VO2 max, grip strength, body composition and bone density via DEXA, strength/power, and movement quality (mobility, stability, and compensation). 

Lucas explains grip strength as a proxy for neuromuscular “hardware and software,” and details VO2 max testing, substrate utilization, and metabolic flexibility—shifting between fat and carbohydrate use across intensities. You'll learn about practic...

I'm diving into the strength-training concept of time under tension (TUT)—the time muscles stay under resistance—and why it drives muscle growth, strength, and endurance by increasing metabolic stress and mechanical fatigue. 

Using a bicep curl example, they compare slower, controlled reps (longer TUT) to faster reps (shorter TUT) and research from The Journal of Physiology and Harvard Health suggesting slower tempo increases muscle protein synthesis and keeps muscles engaged longer. They then translate TUT into workplace strategies: work in short, focused 25-minute bursts without distractions, take 5–10 minute active pauses to prevent burnout, use a tactical STOP me...

Maintaining strong and healthy bones is a crucial aspect of overall wellness, particularly as we age. In this episode of the 9 to 5 Wellness Podcast, host Aesha Tahir sat down with Dr. Renee Fogelberg, an expert in women’s health, to discuss the importance of bone health throughout life, especially for women entering midlife and beyond. Here, we distill their conversation into actionable advice, so you can take steps toward better bone health today.

Some of the things you will learn in this epsiode are: