Wellness in a Chaotic World

Have you ever made a plan to improve your health, felt genuinely motivated to follow through, and then watched that plan fall apart as everyday life took over?

I certainly have. And I've done it with things I'm genuinely excited about, too.

In this episode of Wellness in a Chaotic World, I'm exploring why knowing what we want and feeling motivated to pursue it aren't always enough to make change happen.

We'll look at what behavioral science tells us about the intention-behavior gap, the planning fallacy, and a strategy called implementation intentions. We'll also explore how competing priorities and unrealistic expectations can interfere with our plans, and why trying harder isn't always the answer.

Because sometimes the more useful question isn't why we can't make ourselves follow through, but what's actually making it difficult.

Ready to make a change with support?

If you're tired of making plans to take better care of your health and finding yourself back in the same place, you don't have to keep figuring it all out on your own.

Intentionally Well: Foundations is my three-month, one-on-one health and wellness coaching program where we work together to explore what's been making change difficult, discover new possibilities, and make meaningful changes that support your health and the life you want to be living.

Explore Intentionally Well: Foundations

Research mentioned in this episode...

The intention-behavior gap

Thomas Webb and Paschal Sheeran (2006), Does Changing Behavioral Intentions Engender Behavior Change? A Meta-Analysis of the Experimental Evidence.

The planning fallacy

Roger Buehler, Dale Griffin, and Michael Ross (1994), Exploring the Planning Fallacy: Why People Underestimate Their Task Completion Times.

Implementation intentions

Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran (2006), Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta-Analysis of Effects and Processes.

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Defy the Chaos. Reclaim Your Well-Being. Thrive on Your Terms.

Ready to move beyond knowing what you want to change and start creating the life you want to live? Intentionally Well: Foundations is my 3-month, 1:1 health and wellness coaching program designed to help you move out of the patterns that keep you stuck and make meaningful, lasting changes in your health and well-being.

Explore Intentionally Well: Foundations

Ever wish you could turn down the volume on your own thoughts for a little while?

After a particularly chaotic weekend, I found myself craving something simple: stillness. Not necessarily a break from doing things, but a little quiet in my mind.

In this episode of Wellness in a Chaotic World, we're doing something a little different. Instead of talking about ways to support your well-being, I'm guiding you through a gentle meditation to help you slow down, notice your thoughts without getting caught up in them, and find a little steadiness amid everything life throws your way.

You don't need any meditation experience, and you certainly don't need to clear your mind. Find a comfortable, quiet place where you won't be distracted, and give yourself permission to simply be.

Please save this episode for a time when you're not driving or doing anything that requires your attention.

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Defy the Chaos. Reclaim Your Well-Being. Thrive on Your Terms.

Ready to move beyond knowing what you want to change and start creating the life you want to live? Intentionally Well: Foundations is my 3-month, 1:1 health and wellness coaching program designed to help you move out of the patterns that keep you stuck and make meaningful, lasting changes in your health and well-being.

Explore Intentionally Well: Foundations

Have you ever stopped to wonder why you do things the way you do?

We develop routines, take on responsibilities, and fall into patterns that eventually become just the way life works. And when things start feeling overwhelming, we look for ways to get more organized, manage our time better, or find a new plan to follow.

But what if the way you've been doing things is part of what's making life so difficult?

In this episode, I'm exploring how the systems we create, the expectations we inherit, and the stories we tell ourselves can shape our lives without us even realizing it. I'll also share a very ordinary example from my own life that's made me reconsider some of my assumptions.

We'll talk about what all of this has to do with your health, why following someone else's plan isn't always the answer, and how questioning the way things have always been can open up possibilities for something different.

Join the conversation: I'm hosting Something's Got to Give, a free, 30-minute live online group conversation about what you want for your health and your life. Our first session is Wednesday, October 21, at 1 p.m. Eastern, with additional sessions in November. Click here to register.

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Defy the Chaos. Reclaim Your Well-Being. Thrive on Your Terms.

Ready to move beyond knowing what you want to change and start creating the life you want to live? Intentionally Well: Foundations is my 3-month, 1:1 health and wellness coaching program designed to help you move out of the patterns that keep you stuck and make meaningful, lasting changes in your health and well-being.

Explore Intentionally Well: Foundations

What gives you energy? Not just the food you eat or the sleep you get, but the things that make you feel alive, engaged, connected, and excited about life.

In this episode of Wellness in a Chaotic World, I'm exploring a question I recently asked in our private Facebook group. What started as a simple conversation got me thinking about the difference between the things we're good at, the things we do every day, and the things that genuinely energize us.

I'll share some of my own answers, from curiosity and creativity to meaningful connections and finding beauty in ordinary moments. And I'll leave you with one question that might help you discover something important about yourself.

Because taking care of your health isn't only about preventing illness or living longer. It's also about having a life you want to be present for.

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone who might appreciate it, too, and follow or subscribe for more conversations about taking care of yourself and living well in a chaotic world.

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Defy the Chaos. Reclaim Your Well-Being. Thrive on Your Terms.

Ready to move beyond knowing what you want to change and start creating the life you want to live? Intentionally Well: Foundations is my 3-month, 1:1 health and wellness coaching program designed to help you move out of the patterns that keep you stuck and make meaningful, lasting changes in your health and well-being.

Explore Intentionally Well: Foundations

What if what you call a lack of self-discipline is actually fear of failure?

Sometimes the reason we keep putting off a change isn’t that we don’t care enough or need a better plan. Sometimes trying feels vulnerable because it means facing the possibility that things might not work out the way we hope.

In this episode, I explore how fear of failure can show up as avoidance, why the things that matter most can sometimes feel the hardest to move toward, and how quickly setbacks can become judgments about who we are.

We’ll also talk about getting curious about what feels risky, making room for fear instead of waiting for it to disappear, and approaching change as something you can learn from rather than something you have to get right.

If you’ve been wondering why you lack self-discipline, this episode is an invitation to ask a different question.

And if you’ve been feeling stuck around a change that matters to you, and you’d like some space to sort through what may be getting in the way, an Intentionally Well: Clarity Session is a place where we can explore that together.

Want to connect with Wellness in a Chaotic World?
Join the free, private Facebook Group

Website: https://wellnessinachaoticworld.com
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Defy the Chaos. Reclaim Your Well-Being. Thrive on Your Terms.

Ready to move beyond knowing what you want to change and start creating the life you want to live? Intentionally Well: Foundations is my 3-month, 1:1 health and wellness coaching program designed to help you move out of the patterns that keep you stuck and make meaningful, lasting changes in your health and well-being.

Explore Intentionally Well: Foundations

What if changing a habit didn’t have to be a test of whether you’re disciplined enough to stick with it?

Sometimes, without realizing it, we turn a new habit into a test of ourselves: Can I actually do this? Can I make it stick this time? And when things don’t go according to plan, it can feel like we’ve learned something about who we are.

But there’s another way to approach change.

In this episode of Wellness in a Chaotic World, I explore what happens when we treat change more like an experiment: something we can get curious about and learn from.

I talk about the stories we carry about who we are and what we do, how those stories can begin to shift, and why curiosity can sometimes come before courage when we’re trying something new.

Because experimenting isn’t about avoiding discomfort or never committing to anything. It’s about creating enough room to learn what actually works for you.

Mentioned in this episode:
Carol Dweck’s work on fixed and growth mindsets:
https://psychology.stanford.edu/people/carol-dweck

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Defy the Chaos. Reclaim Your Well-Being. Thrive on Your Terms.

Ready to move beyond knowing what you want to change and start creating the life you want to live? Intentionally Well: Foundations is my 3-month, 1:1 health and wellness coaching program designed to help you move out of the patterns that keep you stuck and make meaningful, lasting changes in your health and well-being.

Explore Intentionally Well: Foundations

What does it actually mean to have agency when it comes to your health? 

It doesn’t mean you can control everything that happens. And it doesn’t mean ignoring the very real circumstances that can make taking care of yourself harder.

But it does mean learning to recognize where you have influence, where you have choices, and what you want to do with them.

In this episode, I’m exploring the connection between learned helplessness and agency, and how repeated attempts to follow plans that don’t work for us can leave us feeling like nothing we do really makes a difference.

We’ll also look at how we might start moving the downward spiral in the other direction. Not by trying harder or giving yourself another set of rules to follow, but by paying attention to your own experience, getting honest about what’s actually happening, and treating small changes as opportunities to learn.

Because taking ownership of your health isn’t about ignoring reality or doing everything perfectly. It’s about participating in your life, listening to your own needs, and making choices that are supportive.

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Did you miss my workshop My Doctor Says I Have Prediabetes. Now What? that was previously held live on August 15, 2026.

🔗 You can access the free recording by clicking here. 

Note: I'm a health coach and behavior change specialist, not a doctor or dietitian. This podcast is educational and isn't intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition. 

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Want to connect with Wellness in a Chaotic World?
Join the free, private Facebook Group

Website: https://wellnessinachaoticworld.com
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Click here to sign up for episode alerts, reflections, and more.

Defy the Chaos. Reclaim Your Well-Being. Thrive on Your Terms.

Ready to move beyond knowing what you want to change and start creating the life you want to live? Intentionally Well: Foundations is my 3-month, 1:1 health and wellness coaching program designed to help you move out of the patterns that keep you stuck and make meaningful, lasting changes in your health and well-being.

Explore Intentionally Well: Foundations

If you have prediabetes, chances are someone has told you to lose weight. Maybe your doctor said it. Maybe you found it online. But "lose weight" isn't actually something you do. It's not a behavior. It's an outcome.

In this episode, I break down the nuance behind the advice to lose weight. We look at what the Diabetes Prevention Program study really showed, and why the people in that study weren't just told to lose 7% of their body weight and sent on their way. We also dig into the problems with reducing weight to "calories in, calories out," and why that framework can leave people feeling ashamed instead of informed. 

Instead of asking "how do I lose weight," I want us to start asking a different question: what's actually going on here? Because once you get curious about your food, your movement, your sleep, and your stress, you start finding things you can actually work with. And a lot of those same things that support blood sugar regulation also happen to support weight, whether or not the scale moves right away. 

This episode is about looking underneath the number and finding the real, actionable starting point for your health. 

Did you miss my workshop My Doctor Says I Have Prediabetes. Now What? that was previously held live on August 15, 2026.

🔗 You can access the free recording by clicking here. 

Note: I'm a health coach and behavior change specialist, not a doctor or dietitian. This podcast is educational and isn't intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition. 

Want to connect with Wellness in a Chaotic World?
Join the free, private Facebook Group

Website: https://wellnessinachaoticworld.com
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Facebook: @wellnessinachaoticworldpodcast

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Click here to sign up for episode alerts, reflections, and more.

Defy the Chaos. Reclaim Your Well-Being. Thrive on Your Terms.

Ready to move beyond knowing what you want to change and start creating the life you want to live? Intentionally Well: Foundations is my 3-month, 1:1 health and wellness coaching program designed to help you move out of the patterns that keep you stuck and make meaningful, lasting changes in your health and well-being.

Explore Intentionally Well: Foundations

If you’ve been told you have prediabetes, chances are you’ve heard that you should exercise more.

But what does that actually mean? Does movement have to be a full workout to make a difference? And can something as simple as a 10-minute walk after a meal really affect your blood sugar?

In this episode of Wellness in a Chaotic World, we’re looking at what the research says about walking, post-meal blood sugar, and shorter bouts of movement.

We’ll talk about why working muscles can take up more glucose, including the fascinating role of GLUT4 glucose transporters, what studies have found about walking after meals and breaking up prolonged sitting, and why you don’t necessarily need to think of movement as a 30-minute workout for it to count.

Most importantly, we’ll bring the research back to real life. Instead of looking for the perfect walking routine, you’ll be invited to consider where a little more movement might realistically fit into your own day and what you might want to experiment with.

In this episode:

• Why physical activity matters for blood sugar
• How muscle contraction helps your muscles take up glucose
• What research tells us about 10- and 15-minute walks after meals
• Why even shorter movement breaks may matter
• How to experiment with walking without turning it into another all-or-nothing health goal

Remember, better health doesn’t happen in a perfect world. It happens in this one.

Did you miss my workshop My Doctor Says I Have Prediabetes. Now What? that was previously held live on August 15, 2026.

🔗 You can access the free recording by clicking here. 

Research & Resources

CDC: Prediabetes – Your Chance to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes
Information about prediabetes and reducing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/prevention-type-2/prediabetes-prevent-type-2.html

CDC: Get Active
Physical activity guidance, including the example of starting with a 10-minute walk after dinner.
https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/living-with/physical-activity.html

Sports Medicine, 2022: The Acute Effects of Interrupting Prolonged Sitting Time in Adults with Standing and Light-Intensity Walking on Biomarkers of Cardiometabolic Health
A systematic review and meta-analysis examining the effects of breaking up prolonged sitting with standing or light-intensity walking.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-022-01649-4

Diabetologia, 2016: Advice to walk after meals is more effective for lowering postprandial glycaemia in type 2 diabetes mellitus than advice that does not specify timing
A randomized crossover study comparing three 10-minute walks after meals with one 30-minute daily walk in adults with type 2 diabetes.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27747394/

Diabetes Care, 2013: Three 15-min bouts of moderate postmeal walking significantly improves 24-h glycemic control in older people at risk for impaired glucose tolerance
A small study comparing three 15-minute post-meal walks with one 45-minute walk in older adults at risk for impaired glucose tolerance.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23761134/

Physiological Reviews, 2025: A Comprehensive View of Muscle Glucose Uptake: Regulation by Insulin, Contractile Activity, and Exercise
A comprehensive review of how skeletal muscle takes up glucose, including the insulin- and contraction-responsive role of GLUT4.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40173020/

Diabetes, 1999: Acute Exercise Induces GLUT4 Translocation in Skeletal Muscle of Normal Human Subjects and Subjects with Type 2 Diabetes
A human study examining how acute exercise stimulates GLUT4 movement to the muscle cell membrane, including in people with type 2 diabetes.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10331428/

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Defy the Chaos. Reclaim Your Well-Being. Thrive on Your Terms.

Ready to move beyond knowing what you want to change and start creating the life you want to live? Intentionally Well: Foundations is my 3-month, 1:1 health and wellness coaching program designed to help you move out of the patterns that keep you stuck and make meaningful, lasting changes in your health and well-being.

Explore Intentionally Well: Foundations

It's been a few months since the last episode, and I'm glad to be back.

In this episode, I'm sharing where I've been, what I've been reflecting on, and why I'm shifting my focus right now toward metabolic health and Type 2 diabetes prevention.

Here's the reality: according to the CDC, about 12% of U.S. adults have Type 2 diabetes, and 44% have prediabetes. Most of them don't know it. Type 2 diabetes is closely linked to heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, kidney disease, nerve damage, fatty liver disease, eye problems, a weakened immune system, and mental health struggles.

But this topic isn't just statistics to me. I grew up watching my mom navigate Type 2 diabetes in the 80s, along with all the bad diet advice of that era. I watched her frustration with weight management up close, long before I understood how much it would shape my own perspective on health. My own challenges in my early 40s, dealing with chronic inflammation, joint pain, digestive issues, and weight changes, is part of what led me to become a health coach in the first place.

What I've learned along the way is that lasting change isn't about finding the perfect plan or having more willpower. It's about reconnecting with yourself and making choices that fit your life, your values, and where you want to go.

If you've heard the words "you have prediabetes" from your doctor, you know how confusing and scary that moment can be. You're told to lose weight, eat better, move more, and then you're left standing there wondering where to actually start. In this episode, I talk about why that moment doesn't have to mean overhauling your entire life overnight, and why prediabetes, while a real warning sign, is also a real opportunity.

That's the heart of why I'm hosting a free workshop: My Doctor Said I Have Prediabetes. Now What?

This workshop is for anyone who's recently been diagnosed with prediabetes and isn't sure what to do next, and for anyone who wants to make lifestyle changes to prevent or reverse prediabetes but feels stuck on where to begin. We'll cover what prediabetes actually means and practical first steps you can take. My goal isn't to hand you another overwhelming list of things you should be doing. It's to help you leave feeling more informed, more confident, and clear on where to start.

📅 This workshop was previously held live on August 15, 2026.

🔗 You can access the free recording by clicking here. 

Whether or not you download the workshop, I hope you'll keep listening here. I'll be sharing more about metabolic health, sustainable behavior change, and what it actually takes to build habits that hold up in real life. Because wellness doesn't happen in a perfect world. It happens in this one.

Want to connect with Wellness in a Chaotic World?
Join the free, private Facebook Group

Website: https://wellnessinachaoticworld.com
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Sign Up for Wellness Insights and Podcast Updates
Click here to sign up for episode alerts, reflections, and more.

Defy the Chaos. Reclaim Your Well-Being. Thrive on Your Terms.

Ready to move beyond knowing what you want to change and start creating the life you want to live? Intentionally Well: Foundations is my 3-month, 1:1 health and wellness coaching program designed to help you move out of the patterns that keep you stuck and make meaningful, lasting changes in your health and well-being.

Explore Intentionally Well: Foundations