You’ll learn how your body already contains every system it needs to fight disease, inflammation, and imbalance—and how environment, lifestyle, and daily choices either support or sabotage those systems.

This final episode in the habit series breaks down the brain science behind why habits stick—or don’t. If you’ve ever felt like your intentions are strong but your follow-through falls apart, this is the missing link.

Why do we know what to do to be healthy, but still struggle to do it? In this powerful follow-up to the habit series, Vanessa pulls back the curtain on what's really happening underneath the surface—introducing the Internal Family Systems (IFS) framework and the “Parts” of you that influence your choices, reactions, and resistance.

In this episode of The Connected Health Podcast, we’re digging into the psychology of behavior change and how to go from start-stop habits to sustainable routines. You’ll learn why willpower isn’t the answer, how your brain actually builds (and breaks) habits, and how to create a system that supports your health long-term—even when life gets busy.

Most women have been taught that painful periods, mood swings, and hormonal birth control are just part of being a woman—but they’re not. In this episode, Vanessa breaks down the real signs of hormone imbalance, how birth control impacts your natural cycle, and what you can do to improve period symptoms naturally.

Cortisol gets a bad rap, but the truth is, this misunderstood hormone is trying to protect you. In this episode, we break down what cortisol really does in the body, how it responds to stressors, and why your body treats them the same as real danger. You’ll learn how cortisol impacts energy crashes, stubborn belly fat, burnout, anxiety, and hormonal chaos — especially in women juggling a busy lifestyle. 

Our first episode will start a series talking about your key hormone players in your body, what drives metabolism, energy, mood, and what can happen when they're out of balance symptoms that you can pay attention to, and real world solutions that will help you get those hormones back into balance.