69: The Truth About My "Healthiest Year Ever"

Want to know the truth about my "healthiest year ever"? It didn't look anything like I had planned.

Maybe your health and wellness goals went off the rails this year, too? 

You are definitely not alone. I started this year with a physique coach, ready to get into the best shape of my life for my 50th year. But life decided to hand me a cancer diagnosis, multiple surgeries, and the loss of my dad instead.

In this episode of The Family Fork, I’m giving you a raw, unfiltered look at what my year really looked like. I’m not going to tell you I nailed my nutrition every day (spoiler: I definitely didn't). Instead, we’re digging into the reality of survival mode. I’m sharing the three areas where I actually surprised myself with success, and the three shortcomings that taught me the hardest lessons.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

📌 Slow Down vs Stop: Why taking a "pit stop" isn't quitting, and how cancer diagnosis forced me to understand what rest actually means.

📌 Movement for Mental Health: How walking to the mailbox became my biggest physical win of the year.

📌 Clean Eating with a Side of Sabatoge: A candid look at this year's struggle with sugar (hello, Hershey's Kisses 🙄) and how it impacts gut health and inflammation.

📌 Aaaahh, Stress Management: Why I bought myself a watercolor set and how 45-minutes of creating can lower your cortisol.

Whether you’re navigating a health issues, perimenopause, or just the overwhelming invisible load of midlife, this episode is your permission slip to stop trying to be perfect, and to start finding grace.


Links Mentioned and Ways to Connect:

🙋‍♀️ Work with Me
⭐️ Connect on Social
🥑 How I Cook Just 3 Nights/Week
🧠 Mindset Framework to Stop Relying On Willpower or Motivation

Transcript

Hello there, my friend, and welcome back to the Family Fork podcast. I am so glad, as always, that you're here and joining me today. Now, if you are listening to this in real time, we are closing in on those final days of 2025. And it's really during this season when, just naturally, we look back at the last 12 months and we start to look forward to a really fresh start of a new year.

And if I'm being honest with you, which you know I always try to be, this year has been a lot. I think even just saying 2025 has been a lot is kind of an understatement. It hasn't just been busy, it has truly been life-altering.

If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you will know that back in May of this year, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. And that diagnosis led to surgeries in July and again in October and ongoing treatment that has really taken up the better part of this year.

And then just this week, like the week that I'm recording this podcast, I lost my dad. So when I look back at 2025, I definitely don't see the year that I had planned for on January 1st of this year. I actually see a year of survival and navigating my health and my mindset when life was literally throwing me everything it had.

And that's exactly why I wanted to sit down and record this episode today, because I am not gonna tell you that I did everything perfectly. I can't say that I nailed my nutrition every single day or that I hit every workout goal that I set back in January. No, I definitely did not do that. But I did learn some really incredible lessons that I know will be valuable to you as well.

So today we're going to dig into what this past year has really looked like. And I want to share three really specific areas where I had success, like these big wins that some of them even surprised me. But I also want to share three different shortcomings, the places where I struggled and I fell short and where those gave me lessons to learn that I'm actually taking with me into next year.

So my goal for this episode is really simple. I just want to help you find grace in your own journey. Because whether you are dealing with perimenopause, a major health crisis, maybe a loss in your family too, or just that overwhelming invisible load of being a midlife mom, the reality is that things rarely go to plan. And that's okay. So I want you to sit back.

relax, maybe take a deep breath and let's get into it.

I want to start with the areas first where I found success. And I want to be really clear with something.

When I say success, I don't mean that I hit every single goal I wrote down in my planner on January 1st. In fact, if you look at my planner from the beginning of the year, it looks vastly different than how my life actually played out. But looking back, there were three areas where I think I really showed up for myself in positive and potentially new ways.

The first success I had was learning how to truly, like actually, let myself rest.

Now, if you know anything about me, you know that I am a high achiever. I like to be productive. Some people might call me a workaholic. I just, really like to keep things moving. But being diagnosed with breast cancer in May of this year and then navigating surgery and treatment throughout the rest of the year, it

1000 % forced me to slow down. I didn't have a choice at all. My diagnosis literally slammed on the brakes. But here's the win in all of that. Learning how to rest in this season was actually a really wonderful addition to my year. And I think it taught me and my nervous system that things, the world, it's not gonna fall apart if I take a break.

When things felt really, really heavy, I rested by not doing any cooking, for example. I actually, during one season, I ordered in all of my dinners for full two weeks. Now, you know me, normally I encourage cooking at home for all of the benefits that it provides, but in this particular season, I just gave myself permission to outsource all of that. And I made sure that the meals that I was eating were anti-inflammatory so that they fit with my needs.

but I just took the labor of cooking off my plate. I also decided to schedule some no work days so I could have time to physically rest and nap. I took a lot of naps this year and I loved it.

And when it came to eating, I really forced myself to shift my mindset because I started the year working with a physique coach. And so I was already tracking my macros. But over the year, I kind of loosened up a bit and I just ate things that helped me to feel good. And I included a few things that just aren't typical for me, like gluten free bread. Now, I usually stick to whole foods, but

over the course of this year, sometimes it was just comforting and easy and nourishing to pick some alternatives.

And I learned to just let myself rest and not stress about every single ingredient or having a perfect diet while I was trying to heal.

When I think of how I learned to rest this year, I kind of like to use this analogy. So imagine that your body is a really high performance Formula One race car. And if you know me in real life, you will know that I am obsessed with F1 racing. So for such a long time, it's like I've been driving around the track with the check engine light on, but just kind of tapping the brakes from time to time and never really stopping. So

that diagnosis of breast cancer this year, that was actually my pit crew calling me in. And what I learned is that that pit stop, it's not quitting altogether. It's not putting my car in the garage forever, but it's necessary maintenance that you have to do if you want to finish your race. So resting, that was my pit stop. And honestly, it's probably the reason I'm still up and running today.

The second big win that I had was to keep moving my body. I have learned over the years that moving my body helps me to keep my mental health in check. And with all of the stress and challenges from this year, keeping my mental health as a top priority was incredibly important. Now, here's the irony. I started in 2025, the beginning of the year, by lifting really heavy weights.

So if you were listening to this podcast at the beginning of the year, you'll know that I hired a physique coach to help me get in the best shape of my life. I really wanted to be strong and fit and healthy for my 50th year. But the world had other plans for me. I had to deprioritize that goal so I could focus on recovering from breast cancer, the surgeries and the treatments that I was under.

But here's the win. I never stopped moving.

Even the day after each of my surgeries, I was up and doing laps around the house. Now, I wasn't setting any records and I wasn't lifting heavy weights, but it didn't matter because I was still moving. Slowly, went from walking laps around the house to moving to the mailbox, and I would get myself a little bit further each day. That consistent movement was incredibly helpful for my mental health. It helped me to stay physically on top of things

even though it felt like life was kind of crumbling around me. And, you know, we've talked about this before. There are medical studies that can back this up, that consistent movement, even something low impact like walking, significantly reduces the risk of depression and other mental health issues. So it's not just about burning calories or building muscle. It's actually about moving and metabolizing those stress homes.

hormones like cortisol that kind of accumulate in our bodies during these times of high stress and trauma.

So by walking to the mailbox, I wasn't just rehabbing my body. I was actually processing everything that was happening around me. And I'm actually really proud of myself for keeping that promise to me.

The third area that was a big success for me was getting serious about my gut health. Now, I did this in a very significant way years ago, back when I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's and hypothyroidism. So healing my gut health is ultimately what helped me to put those conditions into remission. But to be totally honest, life has been super stressful since like 2019. So in 2019, I had a baby.

and then we had COVID, I sold my house and we moved to a new part of town and then I was laid off for my corporate job. Then I had a hysterectomy and then this year, breast cancer and losing my dad. Like it's a lot of stress and my gut health has actually suffered because of it. So this year, I made sure to double down on my anti-inflammatory nutrients and

What I did is I really paid attention to the diversity of food that I was eating. I think I had gotten kind of stagnant and I was eating a lot of the same things every day. But I also started recognizing the things that trigger my stress response because we know that stress, it directly impacts your gut health. So I knew that it was important for me to start getting a handle on my stress.

The other really big thing that I did was I started a four month detox. So I'm using a detox kit from the company called Cellcore. And right now, as of this recording, I'm a little more than halfway through. And so far, I am starting to feel a lot better. But I can also see where I need to continue to clean up a bit more of my nutrition. And we'll talk about that in just a minute. But I'm really...

glad that I started getting serious about my gut health now in this year because it feels like I have a good head start for next year so that I'm not coming into January starting at zero. I'm already on a good path.

So those were really my areas of success or my wins to rest, consistent movement and improving my gut health. But like I said, this year was not all perfect by any means. There were definitely some areas where I fell short. So let's talk about those next.

the shortcomings or as I like to think of them, the lessons that I'm taking with me into next year. Because while I did have some really good wins, I also had some very real struggles and I wonder if you can relate to some of these. So the first shortcoming is what I'm calling my rest reality check. Now, I know I just told you that learning to rest was one of the areas of success for me, but I rest

I rested more this year than I have in a very long time and I loved it. But what became very clear to me is that letting myself rest showed me exactly how much more rest I really need if I get really honest and clear with myself. I know for a number of years I've been operating in a deficit and even though this year I slowed down significantly, my body

was constantly whispering and sometimes really like screaming at me that it just wasn't enough. This is going to be a massive area of focus for me in the coming year because we know how this works, right?

When you have less sleep and you combine that with high stress, it increases the amount of cortisol that you have running through your system. And as we've talked about many times on this podcast, higher cortisol results in increased inflammation. And you know where that leads. More inflammation is gonna give you headaches and bloating, making it harder for you to lose weight, which is so frustrating.

and it can even escalate into things like high blood pressure or autoimmune issues. So while I'm really proud of myself for resting more this year, the lesson that I need to build for next year is structured rest periods for myself. Not just resting because surgery or something forces me to, but resting so that I don't have to be forced to rest.

Another area that I need to work on, and I know this is true for the women that I work with, so you might totally relate to this, is learning how to better manage my stress. Now, I mentioned earlier that life in general has been really stressful since 2019.

Remember that timeline? I had a baby in 2019 and then COVID shut everything down. I moved houses. I got laid off. I had a hysterectomy. I worked really diligently at building this company and then all the way to this year, breast cancer, surgery, treatment, and losing my dad. So although I feel like I've done a pretty good job of handling it all, I think my nervous system is keeping score.

And I, you, we owe it to ourselves to continue to understand how that cumulative stress is impacting our body.

We all can do a much better job of this, honestly.

We need to get real about identifying those areas of our life that just feel incredibly stressful. And then here's the trick. Once we identify them, we have to ask those honest questions. How can we be involved in fewer projects? How can we take on fewer commitments? How can we decrease the number of things that we are responsible for?

For me, part of managing the stress involves sticking to my gut health protocol that I've already started because a healthy gut produces those neurotransmitters and gives us a hormone balance that makes it easier to handle the stress that does come our way. But personally, and you might relate to this, I need to work on the other side of the equation, which is reducing the stress that comes in to begin with.

So I actually found a really fun creative solution for this. For Christmas this year, I bought myself this entire set of watercolor painting supplies. I got brushes, journals, postcards, masking tape, the watercolor paints, all of it. And I even wrapped it for myself and put it under the tree. So I've been following this account on Instagram, Andrea Nelson Art. And honestly, if you don't follow her, you should.

Her stuff is so great. So my plan is to just pick some of her videos a few times a week and just allow myself to paint and play. I need to do something creative that doesn't require me to think. It's okay not to be productive. I don't need to schedule it. I just need to paint.

Recently, I read this study that they found that 45 minutes of making art significantly lowered cortisol levels in over 75 % of the people in this study. And the cool part is that it didn't matter if they were like really talented artists or if they had never held a paintbrush before, that's me. This act of creating...

just physically lowered the stress markers in their bodies.

So get ready to see some watercolor masterpieces or maybe some really colorful messes on my Instagram stories next year.

Finally, the third shortcoming, and this one, I don't know, it's a little hard to admit, I definitely ate too much sugar this year.

We have talked about this so many times and you already know that too much sugar will disrupt your gut health, which in turn results in increased inflammation. But knowing about it and doing it are really two different things. So for me this year, and I don't know, probably just in the last like month and a half or two, it's been Hershey's Kisses. Seriously, I swear, I seem to be mainlining them like I need a prescription.

you know, take two every hour. And I can tell myself, I'm just being comforted. This just tastes good. I deserve a treat. But my body, it's telling me a different story.

I know that it's impacting my gut health. And it's gotten to this point where I feel like I'm cleaning my house while I'm wearing muddy boots. So I'm doing all of this hard work with that cell core detox. I'm scrubbing the floors of my gut trying to get everything clean and functioning optimally, but.

Then by eating bags of Hershey's Kisses, I'm walking right back over those clean floors with muddy boots. So I'm doing all this work to detox, but I'm tracking the dirt, the inflammation, the sugar, I'm tracking it right back in. So it's making the work twice as hard for half of the result.

And it's not just the kisses. If I'm really honest with myself, I know that I am sneaking in other sugary treats and this is where it gets sneaky. I'm justifying them because they're made with honey or maple syrup, which are some of our anti-inflammatory sweeteners. But in reality, sugar, it's still sugar, especially when you are struggling with inflammation. So this is really an area I need to work on. need to...

take off those muddy boots so that my body can actually truly heal.

So there you have it, the rest.

So there you have it, needing more rest, cumulative stress, and too much sugar. Those are my lessons to learn and what I'm already planning to improve on for next year. Now, as we wrap up this episode and look back at the entire year, I wanna leave you with a couple of final thoughts. If I had to summarize this year in one sentence, I would say it was a year of survival, grace, and learning the

firm hard limits of my own body. It definitely wasn't the year that I had planned. Because remember, I started January with a physique coach, getting ready to get in the best shape of my life. And I ended the year mainlining Hershey's Kisses, breathing deep and just trying to stay afloat. But you know what? I'm okay with it. I'm actually more than okay with how my

year ended. I'm actually really proud because life, it rarely goes according to plan. And when our roadmap changes, whether it's perimenopause, a loss in your family, or that invisible load of raising kids and managing your career, you have to be willing to tear up the old map and draw a new one. So this is my challenge for you this week.

I want you to take a few minutes, maybe while you're driving or like me, maybe while you're hiding in your laundry room for a few minutes a piece. And I want you to look back at your year.

But here's what I don't want you to do. I don't want you to look for the failures. Instead, I want you to look for things that were forced wins. Where did life force you to slow down and what did you learn from it?

And I also want you to look for your own muddy boots. Where are you actually doing the hard work, but maybe self-sabotaging with sugar or alcohol because you're trying to cope. Now, please hear me when I say this. You do not have to be perfect. That is never the goal here at The Family Fork. If I, you know, the one who's teaching anti-inflammatory nutrition,

and the one with the podcast and the meal plans, if I struggle with Hershey's Kisses while grieving and recovering from cancer, yes, of course, you have permission to be human too. If you can look at your forced wins from this year, you'll go into the new year, not with this whole list of impossible resolutions that make you feel like a failure by February 1st.

Instead, you will go into next year with a toolkit and a roadmap, knowing what your body actually needs to feel its best. Rest, not just sleeping, but true restorative rest. Low stress, protecting your nervous system like it's your job. And better gut health, nourishing your body so it can carry you through whatever 2026 holds.

Thank you for spending time with me, for listening, for sending messages, and for being part of this incredible community. I am sending you so much love as we close out this year.

Be gentle with yourself the rest of this season, and I can't wait to see you back here on the next episode.