TRUE Wellness with Dr. Z

Day nine. She's standing in the kitchen at four in the afternoon, eating crackers out of the sleeve, and the sentence in her head isn't "I'm hungry." It's "what is wrong with me."

She'd been perfect for nine days. That's the fourth diet this year. She's fifty-one.

In this episode I want to explain what was actually happening in that kitchen — because it was not a failure of character, and it wasn't close to one.

A body that doesn't believe conditions are safe holds on. That's not a malfunction. That's the job. An...

Dr. Z sits down with leadership coach and former RAF pilot Will Steel to unpack a claim that stops most people in their tracks: that we're not authentic at all — we're pretending, and pretending that we're not pretending, without ever realizing it. The conversation moves from the "I'm fine" performance so many high-achieving women live inside, to why willpower is the wrong tool for lasting change, to the real fix — building external structures (calendars, accountability, promises to yourself) strong enough that you can't talk yourself out of who you say you are.
 
Will and Dr. Z dig into...

Ever been told to "just breathe and relax" when you're running on empty and it didn't work? In this episode of TRUE Wellness with Dr. Z, Dr. Danielle Zanzarov sits down with breathwork and meditation teacher Andrew Keaveney (Art of Living Foundation) to unpack why meditation feels so hard at first, how breathwork physically shifts your nervous system out of "go mode," and why rest not more hustle is the missing piece for burned-out, high-achieving women.

Andrew spent 4 years living in an ashram in India and has spent the last 17 years teaching breathwork and meditation even though...

Stress. Hormones. Perimenopause. Anxiety. Thyroid. For a lot of women, those five labels are really one missed diagnosis — sleep apnea — screened by a test built around how it shows up in men. In this episode, Dr. Z sits down with dental sleep medicine expert Dr. Layne Martin to talk about the eight hours nobody's been looking at: the airway you breathe through while you sleep, and what it's quietly doing to your energy, hormones, brain, and long-term health.

If you're doing all the "right" things — clean eating, workouts, cold plunges, meditation — but still wake up exhausted, this is the f...

She went in because her heart was racing at 3am and she was too exhausted to get out of the car after work. Fourteen minutes later she left with a prescription and a word.

The word was anxiety. She believed it for six years.

In this episode I walk through five labels women get handed — anxiety, depression, insomnia, health anxiety, and the last one that isn't a diagnosis at all: "this is just where you are right now." For each one: what believing it cost her, and the question nobody in that appointment asked.

...

She said it flat, like a weather report: "I did every diet you could possibly think of. And it would all come back."

Twelve diets. A hundred miles a week on a bike. Six years of specialists and a folder of results that all came back the same way: everything's fine.

This episode walks through the five things she tried, in order — diets, exercise, medical testing, supplements, and finally sitting up at 11pm doing her own research because nobody else would. And with each one, the thing nobody ever told her: what that attempt actually pr...

Your gut isn't just influencing your mood, your stress, and your sleep. According to today's guest, it's running the show.

On this episode of TRUE Wellness with Dr. Z, Dr. Z sits down with nutritional scientist Dr. Oscar Coetzee, who holds master's degrees in both psychology and nutrition plus a PhD and a doctorate in clinical nutrition, for a clear, genuinely eye-opening conversation about the gut-brain connection.

If you've eaten clean, taken the probiotic everyone swears by, and still felt bloated, wired, and exhausted, this episode explains why. Dr. Oscar walks through why most standard...

Everyone knows the five stages of grief. The man who has spent fifty years studying grief says they were never about grieving at all.

Dr. Z sits down with Thomas Attig, PhD — applied philosopher, co-founder of the world’s first PhD program in applied philosophy, and one of the most decorated voices in grief studies. His new Oxford University Press collection, Seeking Wisdom in Death’s Shadows, distills a lifetime of listening to mourners, caregivers, and counselors. Together they trace what loss actually does to a life — and why grieving is something we actively do, not some...

You can know exactly what to eat and still find yourself standing at the pantry at 9 PM. That is not a willpower problem, and treating it like one is why the cycle keeps repeating.

Emotional eating, food noise, and the diet-binge cycle are the focus of this conversation between Dr. Z and Tricia Nelson, an emotional eating expert who lost 50 pounds by identifying and healing the root causes of her own eating patterns. 

Tricia has spent 30 years researching the hidden drivers of the addictive personality, is the author of the bestselling Heal Your H...

What if the endless healing journey — the next protocol, the next program, the next thing to fix — was never the point?

In 2012, Rev. HoniB Borden's heart stopped. She says she crossed fully into the afterlife, met the presence of God and Yeshua, and was sent back three days later with one message: stop healing, and start remembering who you already are.

It's one of the most extraordinary conversations we've ever had on TRUE Wellness with Dr. Z — and whether or not you share her faith, what she reveals about your body, your nervou...

The fight that won't close isn't behind you — it's inside you.

Every unresolved argument stays in the body as a low-grade stressor. It shows up as 3 AM wake-ups, tight chest, and exhaustion with no clear source. In this conversation, Dr. Danielle Zanzarov, PhD, sits with conflict resolution coach Rod Jeter — creator of YBAngry — to talk about what unfinished conflict actually costs the nervous system, and how his structured game helps couples resolve decades of disagreements in under an hour.

What this episode covers:

1.    Why every unfinished argument registers as a stress...

Why do you wake up at 3 AM every night and struggle to fall back asleep? 

It's not insomnia the way you've been told — and it's not a character flaw. Your body is doing something specific in the early morning hours, on a clock.

If you fall asleep fine but snap awake at 3 or 4 AM with a racing mind — the to-do list, the worry, the thing you said years ago — this episode is for you. Dr. Z walks through what's actually happening: the early-morning cortisol rise, the overnight blood sugar dip, and a nervous system...

More than 80% of women in perimenopause and menopause never get adequate care — and the most common explanation for that number is almost entirely wrong.

The story we tell is that these women didn't advocate for themselves. That they stayed quiet, put everyone else first, didn't make the appointment. Dr. Z has sat across from thousands of these women over nearly 20 years in practice. Most of them did go. They made the appointment. They sat in the chair and said the hard thing out loud. They just got sent home with nothing.

In this episode, Dr. Z...

Most people have tried to change something about their health and watched it quietly fall apart by day nine — or day two. Not from a dramatic failure. Just a slow fade.

The common conclusion? You don't have enough discipline. You're not motivated enough. Something's wrong with you.

Dr. Z is here to correct the record.

In this episode, Dr. Z breaks down the actual mechanism behind follow-through — and it has nothing to do with willpower. Using the most boring example possible (brushing your teeth), she unpacks why the habits that stick are the ones...

Foundayo just got FDA approval. Which means a lot of women who never thought about a GLP-1 medication — because the needle was a hard no — are now thinking about one. The conversation in midlife wellness changed overnight.

In this solo episode, Dr. Z is not here to tell you whether to take a GLP-1. She's here to give you what she has not seen anyone else give you: a clinical, body-led framework for how to think about this decision before you make it. Not after.

What you'll discover in this episode:

Wh...

Energy healing, emotional blocks, and nervous system release — what if the reason nothing is working isn't a strategy problem? What if you are not stuck — you are just blocked?

In this conversation, Dr. Z sits down with Stu Weintraub — shamanic and Reiki energy healer, TEDx speaker, founder of Waves of Love Wellness, and the creator of the Center for Child-Safe Divorce. Stu's work lives at the exact intersection of everything True Wellness explores: the body, the nervous system, emotional patterns, relationships, and the deeper question of what it actually means to live from the heart. His message is sim...

Limiting beliefs, midlife reinvention, self-sabotage, and inherited fears — what if the voice telling you to stay small was never even yours to begin with?

In this episode of TRUE Wellness with Dr. Z, Dr. Z sits down with Susan Houston — TEDx speaker, podcast host of Done Pretending, and the woman who walked away from a 19-year career to finally stop living under someone else's ceiling. Susan's work focuses on one of the most invisible forms of self-sabotage women experience: the secondhand beliefs, inherited judgments, and borrowed fears absorbed from parents, partners, and authority figures — mistaken for pe...

Personalized nutrition, DNA testing, and nutrigenomics — the science that finally explains why the same diet, supplement, or caffeine habit works beautifully for one person and completely backfires for another. Dr. Z sits down with the researcher behind it all.

If you have ever followed all the right advice, eaten clean, taken the supplements, and still not gotten the results you were promised, this episode is the explanation you have been waiting for. Dr. Ahmed El-Sohemy, Professor of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto and Founder of Nutrigenomix Inc., breaks down the science of nutrigenomics in...

Burnout, executive coaching, and high-performance leadership — this conversation with former Google Director Stacey Kulongowski is for every woman who has built something impressive and still felt completely disconnected from herself.

Stacey Kulongowski spent 13 years at Google, built a team of nearly 200 people, oversaw a $2 billion revenue imprint — and ended up under her desk, crying, after a revenue call went sideways. She also went through breast cancer twice, the first time without telling a single soul at work, doing radiation every morning before going in to lead her team. What she built out of those two intensity points beca...

Celiac disease, dietary change, and the grief nobody tells you about — this conversation with Rebecca Stanevich is for anyone who has ever felt like a diagnosis or a dietary shift just blew up their entire life.

Because here's what the wellness world almost never addresses: when you have to change the way you eat — whether from a chronic diagnosis, a sensitivity, or a health decision — you don't just change your diet. You grieve. You go through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and eventually acceptance. And the order is never what you expect.

Dr. Z sits down with R...

GLP-1 weight loss pills, menopause weight gain, and midlife hormone chaos — the conversation just got louder. FDA-approved Fondeo is here. And Dr. Z is not here to tell you it's evil. She's here to make sure you think before you decide.

Because the real question is never just: will this make me lose weight? The real question is: what is your body actually asking for? In this solo episode, Dr. Z cuts through the social media noise around the newest oral weight loss medications and gives every woman in perimenopause and menopause a body-led framework for making on...

Fatigue, bloating, hormone chaos, and weight that won't budge — even when you're eating clean, taking supplements, and doing all the right things. Dr. Z is naming what nobody else will say out loud.

In this solo episode, Dr. Z dismantles one of the most damaging patterns she sees in high-performing women: the override pattern. The cycle where more discipline, more restriction, more pressure is the answer to a body that's already exhausted from being overridden. Because there is a massive difference between supporting your body and forcing it to comply. And if you've been doing the latter — even...

Health misinformation, toxic supplements, and social media wellness trends are costing women their health — and their trust in their own bodies. Dr. Z is done staying quiet about it.

In this solo episode, Dr. Z delivers one of her most important conversations yet — a frank, 20-years-in-the-making breakdown of what's really happening in the wellness industry. The algorithm rewards what stops your scroll, not what's true. And the most powerful health tool you have isn't a supplement, a protocol, or a trending morning routine. It's your body. It always has been.

WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER  

• Why the...

You've tried the diet. The supplements. The routine. But the exhaustion is still there — because none of it addressed what's actually running the show: the gap between who you are and how you're living.

In this conversation, Dr. Z sits down with Danielle Zilg — coach, motivator, and Marriage and Family Therapist in the making — to dismantle the idea that mental health is a mind problem. It's a whole-body problem. And the solution isn't more willpower. It's alignment.

  WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER  

•        Why your body started sending distress signals long before your burnout became impossi...

What if the exhaustion you’re feeling isn’t because your cortisol is crashing… but because your stress response is stuck?

Many high-performing women today are living in a constant state of “wired but tired.” You push through the day with determination, yet your energy crashes, your brain feels foggy, and when it’s finally time to sleep… your mind won’t shut off.

In this episode, Dr. Z breaks down what’s really happening inside the body when the nervous system stays in chronic stress mode—and why the problem often is...

Wired at night, exhausted by day? It's not your hormones — it's your nervous system stuck in emergency mode.

In this episode, Dr. Z breaks down why "adrenal fatigue" is actually HPA axis dysfunction — and why high-performing women are the most vulnerable. You'll learn exactly how chronic stress creates a cortisol cascade that wrecks your blood sugar, thyroid, progesterone, and digestion — plus a 3-phase burnout recovery blueprint to reverse it without collapse.

🎁 FREE: 21-Day Nervous System Calibration Program 👉 go.southbaywellness.com/calibrationregistration

IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN: 

✅ Wh...

Feeling burned out? You’re not alone — and it’s not a flaw.

In this episode of TRUE Wellness with Dr. Z, Dr. Dee talks to Amy Schamberg, a school psychologist, functional medicine health coach, and Denver’s Top Burnout Coach. Together, they dive deep into why burnout is a predictable outcome — not a personal weakness — and how high-achieving women can finally break free from the cycle.

Amy shares:

1. How both internal patterns and external pressures contribute to burnout
2. The role of self-worth and external validation in high achievers
3. Why self-car...

What if the reason you can’t get off the couch at night isn’t laziness… but survival?

In this episode of we explore the high-functioning freeze response — the nervous system shutdown that many driven, capable women find themselves in without even realizing it. Dr. Z breaks down:

• What the freeze response actually is (and why it’s not relaxation)
• The difference between high-functioning anxiety and high-functioning freeze
• Why your labs can be “normal” while your energy isn’t
• How chronic stress quietly shrinks your internal battery
• Why pushing harder only makes it worse

You’l...

Have you ever walked out of a doctor's office with "normal" blood work but zero answers for your exhaustion, weight gain, or brain fog? You aren't crazy, and you aren't just "getting older."

In this episode, Dr. Z reveals why standard medical labs often miss the root cause of your symptoms. We break down the difference between your organs being "present" versus "communicating," and why taking more supplements might be like piling paperwork on a desk where no one is working.

If your nervous system is stuck in "Survival Mode," your body will block healing...

What if healing isn’t about pushing harder — but listening deeper?

 In this episode, we explore why stress, trauma, and unprocessed emotion live in the body… and how true healing begins when force stops.

Stress doesn’t just live in your mind — it embeds itself into your body.

In this powerful episode of True Wellness with Dr. Z, Dr. Danielle sits down with holistic practitioner Vince Glasser, whose work bridges myofascial release, transcendental meditation, Ayurveda, and consciousness-based healing.

With over three decades of experience, Vince explains why pain, tension, and burnout...

What if burnout isn’t a failure — but a message your body refuses to ignore?

In this episode, Dr. Dee sits down with Bron Watson, entrepreneur and founder of The Serenity Project, to talk about what happens when hustle stops working — and why alignment matters more than productivity.

After building businesses for over a decade, Bron faced two cancer diagnoses that forced her to confront a truth many high-achievers avoid: you can’t market, grind, or optimize your way out of a life that isn’t aligned.

This conversation explores:<...

What if the reason you’re exhausted, inflamed, foggy, or stuck… isn’t because you’re doing something wrong?

What if your body is simply in survival mode?

In this solo episode, Dr. Dee breaks down what survival mode really is, why so many high-achieving women get trapped there, and how chronic stress quietly shuts down healing, metabolism, hormones, and energy.

This isn’t about pushing harder.

 It’s about understanding your nervous system — and learning how to bring your body back into safety, regulation, and alignment.

If you’ve ever...

What if brain fog isn’t a mental problem — but a biological signal?

In this solo episode of the TRUE Wellness Podcast, Dr. Dee breaks down the real reason brain fog shows up, especially in high-performing women navigating midlife, stress, and hormone shifts.

This episode explains why focus, memory, and clarity disappear even when labs look “normal” and you’re doing everything right. You’ll learn how nervous system overload, inflammation, hormonal miscommunication, and metabolic stress quietly shut down cognitive performance.

Brain fog isn’t random. It’s not aging. And it’s not in your...

What if your hormones aren’t broken—your nervous system is just overwhelmed?

In this episode of True Wellness, Dr. Dee sits down with Akary Busto, Emotional Biohacker and Nervous System Strategist, to unpack the real root of burnout, inflammation, hormone resistance, and emotional reactivity in women.

We explore how trauma, chronic stress, metabolism, and even Human Design intersect with biology—and why healing can’t happen until the nervous system feels safe. This conversation blends science, physiology, and soul in a way that’s practical, empowering, and deeply validating...

What if the reason January diets fail isn’t lack of discipline — but hormonal resistance?

In this solo New Year’s Day episode of the TRUE Wellness Podcast, Dr. Dee breaks down why restriction feels productive… but quietly trains your body to resist weight loss.

This conversation dives into:

why high-achieving women plateau despite “doing everything right”how cortisol, insulin, and nervous system stress override diet planswhy eating less often creates more inflammation, not fat losswhat your body is actually asking for in midlife

If you’ve ever started January motivated, res...

You’re eating clean. You’re hydrating. You skipped dessert.

 So why does your energy feel like it’s at 2%?

In this solo episode of the TRUE Wellness Podcast, Dr. Dee breaks down the real reason high-achieving women crash during the holidays — and it has nothing to do with food.

This episode exposes the invisible energy drain created by:

 • social masking

 • emotional labor

 • boundary collapse

 • nervous system overload

You’ll learn why chronic fatigue, brain fog, flares, and blood sugar crashes happen ev...