Alongside her grief was a restlessness she couldn’t shake. For years, she’d been accustomed to moving her body in a certain way. And without that outlet, she had found herself turning to food.

Discomfort can do this. We find ways to change the feeling. It can be as simple as pulling out our phone when we’re bored in the carpool line. Or crunching our way through anger after our boss has criticized our work.

There are so many ways we try to move ourselves out of whatever we’re feeling.

And these coping mechanisms can work! At least for a little while. We feel some relief. We arrive somewhere more comfortable.

Sometimes, though, we might notice that what brought relief in the moment didn’t feel so helpful afterward. And then more thoughts might follow…

Why did I eat that?

Why did I just spend 30 minutes scrolling through Instagram?

Ugh, I wish I hadn’t had that second glass of wine! (The 3 a.m. thought…)

And now there’s another layer of discomfort—the thoughts about how we tried to feel better.

I was wondering how feeling ‘comfortable’ or ‘content’ became the desired way to feel. Could restlessness, sadness, or discomfort also be ways we feel life moving through us?

Read more

Is running actually hard on our bodies? Or have we just come to believe that it is?

In this episode of Here & Human, I sit down with Jae Gruenke, running form expert, Feldenkrais practitioner, and founder of The Balanced Runner, to explore how we can move with greater ease, efficiency, and confidence.

Jae has worked with everyone from beginner runners to Olympians, and she challenges the common belief that running is inherently hard on the body. We talk about how understanding our movement patterns can help reduce pain, improve performance, and allow us to keep doing the activities we love for years to come.

We also get into the Feldenkrais Method (which was new to me!), how our footwear affects the way we run, and some surprisingly common habits that may be making running harder than it needs to be. From allowing our pelvis to move more freely to paying attention to what our arms are doing, Jae offers a different way of thinking about movement.

What I especially appreciated about this conversation was the idea that we don’t always need to push harder or work against our bodies to improve. Sometimes it’s about becoming more aware of how we’re moving and learning to work with our bodies instead.

Whether you’re a longtime runner, hoping to return to running, or simply interested in staying active and mobile as you age, I think you’ll find something useful in this conversation.

A little more about Jae

Jae Gruenke is a running form expert, Feldenkrais practitioner, and founder of The Balanced Runner. For more than 20 years, she has helped runners of all levels, from beginners to Olympians, discover more comfortable and natural ways to run. Through The Balanced Runner System, she combines movement education with practical running guidance to help people build body awareness and enjoy running for years to come.

A few things Jae said that stayed with me:

“The more you can feel, the better you regulate your movement.”

“When problems crop up, you need to know how to address them by working with your body instead of fighting it.”

“Arms are actually super important. They should not be an afterthought.”

Resources mentioned

• The Balanced Runner

• The Balanced Runner Online Camp

• The Feldenkrais Method

• Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

You can find more conversations on the Here & Human podcast, and connect with me on Instagram.

November 3, 2026
Here and Human Wellness
Ep 89: The Balanced Runner with Jae Gruenke

Episode summary:

In this episode, Jen sits down with Jae Grunke, running form expert, Feldenkrais practitioner, and founder of The Balanced Runner, to explore how we can move with greater ease, efficiency, and confidence. Drawing on her experience helping runners from beginners to Olympians, Jae challenges the common belief that running is inherently hard on the body and shares how understanding our movement patterns can help us reduce pain, improve performance, and keep doing what we love for years to come.

Together, Jen and Jae explore the role of Feldenkrais in developing greater body awareness, the impact of footwear on running mechanics, and some common habits that may be getting in the way of more natural movement. From letting the pelvis move freely to rethinking how we use our arms when running, Jae offers practical insights that encourage us to work with our bodies rather than against them. Whether you're a seasoned runner, returning to running after an injury, or simply hoping to stay active and mobile throughout your life, this conversation offers a refreshing perspective on finding more freedom and joy in movement.

More About Jae Gruenke:

Jae Grunke is a running form expert, Feldenkrais practitioner, and founder of The Balanced Runner. For more than 20 years, she has helped runners of all levels, from beginners to Olympians, improve their movement and discover a more comfortable, natural way to run. Through her unique approach, The Balanced Runner System, Jae combines movement education and practical running guidance to help people build body awareness, move with greater ease, and enjoy running for years to come.

Favorite Quotes:

“Running is a fundamental human gait. And would you say to a bird, it's really going to be hard on your body to have this goal of flying for the rest of your life? No, you would not say that.” -Jae Gruenke

“When problems crop up, you need to know how to address them by working with your body instead of fighting it.” -Jae Gruenke

“This is a learning method and not like a massage or body work.” - Jae Gruenke

“When we do it this way with no struggle, no force, just a really good explanation for how it's easier and more comfortable to coordinate your body, then it's very safe.” - Jae Gruenke

“Your core is supposed to make specific movements that you can optimize, but you should not try and eliminate.” - Jae Gruenke

“Arms are actually super important. They should not be an afterthought.” - Jae Gruenke

“The more you can feel, the better you regulate your movement.” - Jae Gruenke

Resources:

Jen's Instagram
Jen's Substack
McDaniel Nutrition Therapy Instagram
McDaniel Nutrition Therapy Website
Past Podcast Episodes 

Balanced Runner Website
Balanced Runner Online Camp
Feldenkrais Method
Born To Run by Christopher McDougall

Support the show

Let me begin by reassuring you that you can still have your coffee!

I can’t exactly remember when I started drinking coffee, but I’m pretty sure it was in college with some kind of latte situation.

A funny sidenote: My college roommate, who was in nursing school, had been adding Bailey’s Irish Cream to her morning coffee for nearly an entire year before I alerted her that her morning java contained alcohol. As you might imagine, she was quite shocked by the news!

But back to my coffee…

A few years later in my coffee career, I decided that finding the right cream and honey concoction was becoming a bit too high-maintenance and challenged myself to the simplicity of just…coffee.

It took a good six months to fully embrace this unadulterated version, but now I wouldn’t have it any other way. Well, other than adding two scoops of collagen powder.

This morning ritual is 100% the highlight of my day.

So when a client told me about a year ago that she’d stopped drinking coffee because she’d heard it raised LDL cholesterol, I thought, Oh, right. Just like seed oils cause inflammation.

I’d been a dietitian for years, counseling people on heart health, and somehow this had never come up in my education or conversations with clients.

And frankly, I didn’t particularly want to investigate something that might threaten my favorite morning ritual.

But I was too intrigued not to look into it.

And it turns out, she was right.

But there was an important caveat.

How Can Coffee Raise Cholesterol?

When we talk about foods that raise LDL cholesterol, we usually focus on saturated fat: Butter, cheese, fatty meats, coconut oil. These are the foods that tend to dominate the conversation.

But coffee has an entirely different mechanism that has nothing to do with saturated fat.

Coffee beans naturally contain compounds called cafestol and kahweol, which belong to a group of plant compounds known as diterpenes.

These compounds are found in the oily portion of coffee and can affect how the liver regulates cholesterol.

Cafestol appears to be the primary cholesterol-raising compound, although kahweol may contribute.

Here’s the important distinction: The amount of these compounds that ends up in your cup depends largely on how your coffee is prepared.

Paper filters trap most of these oily compounds. Brewing methods that don’t use paper filters allow more of them into the finished coffee.

Not All Coffee Is Created Equal

If you’re drinking traditional drip coffee brewed through a paper filter, you’re already in pretty good shape from an LDL cholesterol perspective.

But other brewing methods allow more cafestol and kahweol to remain in the coffee.

Brewing Methods & Impact on LDL

French press coffee is particularly interesting because it uses a metal mesh rather than a paper filter. While the mesh keeps most of the grounds out of your cup, it doesn’t remove the cholesterol-raising oils nearly as effectively.

And espresso? It contains these compounds, too, but because espresso is typically consumed in much smaller quantities, the total exposure may be considerably less than with several large mugs of French press coffee.

In other words, a single morning espresso isn’t necessarily something to worry about.

The bigger consideration is how much unfiltered coffee and how often you drink it.

Is the Research Actually Strong?

Yes! We have randomized controlled trials showing that unfiltered coffee can directly increase LDL cholesterol.

In fact, a meta-analysis of randomized trials found that drinking unfiltered coffee (a median of six cups daily) increased LDL cholesterol by approximately 15 mg/dL compared with filtered coffee.

That’s not insignificant, particularly for someone who already has elevated LDL cholesterol or other cardiovascular risk factors.

And here’s the good news: The research suggests that much of this effect can be avoided simply by using a paper filter. Also…6 cups is no small amount of coffee!

Since this effect isn’t caused by caffeine, decaffeinated coffee contain cafestol and kahweol, too. So switching to decaf doesn’t necessarily solve the problem.

And Then There’s What We Put In Our Coffee

There’s another way our daily coffee habit can affect LDL cholesterol, and this one is probably more familiar.

Creamers. Unlike cafestol and kahweol, which affect cholesterol through the coffee itself, many coffee additions contain saturated fat. And we have decades of research showing that replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat can help lower LDL cholesterol.

Here’s how the saturated fat can add up, depending on what you’re pouring into your cup.

Approximate amounts; check individual product labels, especially for plant-based creamers.

For perspective, the American Heart Association recommends limiting saturated fat to less than 6% of total daily calories for people who need to lower LDL cholesterol.

For someone eating 2,000 calories a day, that’s about 13 grams of saturated fat.

Two tablespoons of heavy cream in your coffee could account for more than half of that amount before you’ve eaten breakfast.

And if you’re drinking multiple cups a day, those additions can really accumulate.

What’s also worth pointing out is that plant-based doesn’t automatically mean heart-healthier.

Some dairy-free creamers rely on coconut oil for their creamy texture, and coconut oil is particularly high in saturated fat.

So while the packaging may suggest a healthier alternative, the saturated fat content can sometimes rival dairy-based options.

And these are two completely separate issues.

You could drink black French press coffee and still be getting cholesterol-raising diterpenes.

Or you could drink perfectly paper-filtered coffee but add enough heavy cream that saturated fat becomes a consideration.

Or, of course, you could drink coffee in a way that raises neither concern very much!

Why Don’t We Hear More About This?

Coffee research is complicated. Coffee contains hundreds of biologically active compounds, and studies examining coffee consumption and overall health frequently find associations with favorable outcomes.

In fact, moderate coffee consumption has been associated with lower risks of several chronic diseases.

So the message that coffee can raise cholesterol seems almost contradictory.

But both things can be true.

Coffee can contain potentially beneficial compounds while certain preparation methods also deliver compounds that raise LDL cholesterol.

That’s why I think it’s important to distinguish between the effects of coffee on overall health and the specific effects of unfiltered coffee on LDL.

What Do I Recommend?

First, I wouldn’t tell someone to give up a coffee ritual they genuinely enjoy simply because they’re concerned about cholesterol.

I’d start by asking a few questions.

How are you brewing your coffee? How many cups are you drinking? And what, if anything, are you adding to it?

For someone with elevated LDL cholesterol, especially someone working toward a more aggressive LDL goal, switching from French press to paper-filtered coffee may be a simple change worth making.

If you’re an espresso lover, I’d consider the amount you’re drinking before making any sweeping recommendations.

And if you enjoy a creamy coffee, I’d look at the saturated fat content of your additions.

These are relatively small adjustments that don’t necessarily require giving up the experience you enjoy.

Always Learning

One of the things I continue to appreciate about nutrition science is that there’s always something more to learn.

Even after years of practicing as a dietitian, I still come across research that surprises me.

And sometimes it challenges something I personally enjoy. Dang.

But I don’t think the purpose of learning more about nutrition is to become increasingly fearful of what we’re eating or drinking.

It’s to become better informed.

I still love my morning coffee. And I have no intention of giving it up.

Fortunately, the way I prepare it already fits well with what we know about coffee and LDL cholesterol.

And if you’re someone who loves French press or a rich, creamy latte, I’m not suggesting that you abandon those pleasures either.

I’m simply sharing something I wish I’d known sooner.

Because sometimes protecting our health doesn’t require doing less of something we love.

Sometimes it just means making a few tweaks that become the new and beloved way.

Menu for the Week of November 2-6th

All the squashes for squash season!

Monday

Crispy Tofu & Delicata Squash Sheet Pan Dinner

Tuesday

Butternut Squash & Chicken Stir Fry

Wednesday

One Pot Coconut Curry Kabocha Squash Soup

Thursday

Greek Inspired Spaghetti Squash

Friday

Pumpkin Oat Muffins with Greek Yogurt

Happy Halloween, Friends!

Although, I can remember times when I’ve noticed that I’m eating more than my husband and had a thought or two about that.

But there’s something about eating alongside other women that seems to invite a different kind of comparison. Perhaps it’s because, on some level, we assume their needs should be similar to ours. And when their plates look different from ours, the mind starts asking questions.

I remember what it was like to have roommates in college and grad school. To live with my sister in our teens. To sit down for a meal with other women and notice what was on their plates compared to mine.

And I’m certainly not immune to it now.

I can be out to dinner with girlfriends and notice that someone ordered a salad while I ordered something considerably more substantial.

And just like that, the mind has something to say.

She’s not eating very much.

Am I eating too much?

Maybe I didn’t need all of this.

I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit lately because of conversations I’ve had with several college athletes I work with.

These young women often live with roommates who play the same sport, train similar hours, and have relatively similar schedules.

Naturally, they eat together. And naturally, they notice what one another is eating.

One athlete recently described looking over at her roommate’s small bowl of cereal and then assessing her own.

Her roommate had maybe half a cup of cereal.

She had closer to two cups, along with granola, fruit, and soy milk. A meal we had created together to support her recovery from a period of inadequate fueling. Eating enough was an important part of getting her healthy and back to running.

Her breakfast was what her body needed.

But sitting across from her roommate, she told me she questioned:

How can she be performing so well while eating so little?

If I keep eating this much, am I going to gain more weight?

Maybe I don’t actually need all of this food.

And suddenly, breakfast wasn’t just breakfast anymore.

Read more

• Night sweats that wake us from a perfectly good sleep.

• Those What did I come into this room for? moments.

• Changes in our bodies that seem to happen overnight.

But the one thing I suspect many of us have in common? Being so dang tired!

And fatigue is tricky. How are we supposed to know whether we’re tired because of changing hormones, disrupted sleep, stress, or simply because we’re women in midlife trying to do about 47 things in a single day?

Even when we’ve gotten wiser about rest, setting boundaries, and taking care of ourselves, life doesn’t necessarily become less demanding.

For me, fatigue tends to show up around two or three in the afternoon. Even after a decent night’s sleep, I can reach a point where I genuinely feel like I could lie down on the floor and fall asleep. And sometimes, if life allows, I do.

I’ve wondered whether this degree of fatigue is something I should simply accept as part of midlife.

The truth is, there is no one simple explanation for perimenopausal fatigue. But there is one potential contributor, and that is what I’m focusing on today… iron levels.

Of course, not all perimenopausal fatigue is related to low iron. But for women who are still menstruating, particularly those experiencing heavier periods or who exercise regularly, iron deficiency is one possibility worth investigating.

Over the past few years, I’ve been paying closer attention to my own iron levels, and they tend to run on the lower side, despite my efforts to improve them through food and supplements.

In addition to this, recent clinical guidance has raised some interesting questions about what we consider low iron in the first place.

Changes in guidelines

In 2026, the American Society of Hematology (ASH) released new guidelines for diagnosing iron deficiency, recommending a ferritin threshold of 30 ng/mL rather than the historically used 15. For menstruating women with symptoms or additional risk factors, a threshold of 50 ng/mL may be appropriate.

A little context…

Iron is essential for making hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout the body. It’s also involved in energy production, brain function, and muscle health.

Ferritin is a protein that stores iron, giving us an estimate of the body’s iron reserves. Think of it as your iron savings account.

Here’s why the updated guidelines matter: Iron deficiency can occur long before anemia develops.

You can have normal hemoglobin and still experience symptoms such as fatigue, difficulty concentrating, or reduced exercise tolerance.

The tricky part is that ferritin isn’t routinely included in many standard annual laboratory panels. Unless there’s a reason to investigate iron status, your physician may not order it.

And even when iron testing is ordered, ferritin is only one piece of the picture. Other markers, including hemoglobin and transferrin saturation, can help provide a more complete assessment. Ferritin can also increase with inflammation, potentially masking low iron stores.

So, What About My Ferritin of 37?

My ferritin has hovered in the 20s and 30s for years, most recently measuring 37 ng/mL.

While that’s above the new general cutoff, research suggests that some women with fatigue and ferritin below 50 may benefit from iron treatment, even without anemia.

Could improving my iron stores make a difference in how I feel?

Food, supplements, and the challenge of rebuilding iron stores

As a dietitian, my first instinct was naturally to increase my intake of iron-rich foods. Iron rich foods include: meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, beans, lentils, tofu, pumpkin seeds, and fortified cereals.

For those who eat a plant-based diet, absorption matters, too. Iron from plant foods is generally less readily absorbed than the heme iron found in animal foods, but pairing plant-based iron sources with vitamin C-rich foods can help.

I’ve worked with many clients over the years to improve iron intake through food, and I absolutely think it’s worthwhile.

But I also think we need realistic expectations.

When iron stores are depleted, food alone may not be enough to restore them efficiently, especially when someone continues to lose iron through menstruation or has difficulty absorbing it.

Dietary changes and iron supplementation can work together. One helps support ongoing iron intake, while the other can provide a more concentrated dose to help replenish stores when treatment is needed.

Iron supplements come with their own challenges, too. For starters, remembering to actually take them! ;)

Ferrous sulfate is one of the most widely studied and commonly recommended forms of iron. It’s inexpensive and effective, but it can also cause constipation, nausea, and abdominal discomfort.

And I know first hand that those side effects can make consistency difficult!

Other formulations, including iron bisglycinate, sometimes marketed as gentle iron, may be better tolerated by some people.

How and when we iron must also be considered.

Iron supplements and strenuous exercise can both temporarily increase hepcidin, a hormone that reduces iron absorption. Taking iron every other day may improve absorption efficiency and reduce digestive side effects for some people.

For active women, taking iron before exercise or away from the hours following a strenuous workout may also help. Coffee, tea, and calcium can interfere with absorption, so separating them from iron supplements is worth considering.

I experimented with different supplements, timing, and strategies to improve absorption, but my iron stores barely budged. And I know I’m not alone in finding this process frustrating!

When the usual approaches aren’t working.

At that point, I brought the conversation back to my physicians.

My primary care physician didn’t feel my ferritin was low enough to warrant further intervention, while my gynecologist was open to exploring an iron infusion.

Both perspectives were understandable, given my normal hemoglobin, ferritin of 37, and the many possible explanations for fatigue.

Ultimately, my gynecologist recommended an iron infusion, and I was grateful to feel heard and have my concerns taken seriously.

Not knowing much about iron infusions, I reached out to Kristen Sanfilippo, MD, MPHS, a hematologist and WashU Medicine physician, to get her perspective on IV iron, including when it should be considered, its potential risks, and how long the benefits might last.

Dr. Sanfilippo emphasized that oral iron remains an effective, less expensive first-line treatment for most people. However, when supplements aren’t well tolerated or iron stores fail to improve despite treatment, an infusion may be worth considering.

Intravenous iron delivers iron directly into the bloodstream, bypassing the digestive tract. It can replenish iron stores more quickly, but it also comes with additional costs, time commitments, and potential adverse effects.

An iron infusion isn’t necessarily better because it’s more intensive, but it can be a reasonable option depending on the individual. After more than a year of trying oral iron without much improvement, my gynecologist and I decided it was worth trying.

Would restoring my iron stores improve my fatigue?

I didn’t know…but I was curious to find out!

What was the infusion like?

The infusion itself was surprisingly uneventful.

I arrived around eight in the morning, was hooked up to the IV by nine, and spent the next two hours sitting in a chair getting some work done. Afterward, they kept me for another half hour to monitor for any reactions.

IV iron can cause side effects, including headache, nausea, itching, and infusion-related reactions. Serious allergic reactions are uncommon, but they’re one reason treatment is administered in a monitored setting.

Dr. Sanfilippo emphasized that risks vary by formulation, making it important to discuss the specific product being used. Cost and time are also worth considering.

Fortunately, I tolerated mine very well. No itching. No hives. No strange taste. The only unexpected development was rust-colored urine later that day.

My treatment plan includes a second infusion, scheduled for next week.

And then? We wait.

One question I had for Dr. Sanfilippo was how long the benefits of an infusion typically last?

Her answer was that it depends largely on why someone became iron deficient in the first place.

Someone with ongoing heavy menstrual bleeding, for example, may need additional treatment sooner than someone whose iron deficiency resulted from a one-time event.

In her practice, she typically reassesses iron levels four to six weeks after an infusion and then periodically monitors them to see whether stores are declining again.

An infusion can replenish iron, but it doesn’t necessarily address whatever caused those stores to become depleted.

I’ll have my levels reassessed, and I’ll pay attention to whether anything changes in how I feel.

What I’m taking away from all of this.

Something this experience reminded me of is that symptoms don’t have to be debilitating to deserve our attention.

I see this all the time in my nutrition practice. Clients live with persistent bloating, diarrhea, or other digestive discomfort for years because they’ve learned to tolerate it. The same can be true of fatigue, night sweats, and so many other symptoms we quietly accept as part of getting older.

We may still be working, exercising, raising families, and doing everything we need to do. But that doesn’t mean these symptoms aren’t quietly taking something away from our quality of life.

Just because we can live with something doesn’t mean we have to.

Menu for the Week of October 26-30th

This week I focused on recipes that are RICH in iron!

Monday

Lentil Bowls with Lemon Tahini Dressing

Tuesday

Smoky Beef & Black Bean Chili

Wednesday

Pan Fried Sesame Tofu with Broccoli

Thursday

Clam Chowder, Lightened Up

Friday

Dark Chocolate Bark with Apricots

Happy Fueling, Friends!

There was quite a bit of interest in the conversations we were having around sober curiosity, and while alcohol is no longer something I write about regularly, I thought I’d share an occasional update on what that relationship looks like these days.

For anyone who might be new here, a little background.

About three and a half years ago, I stopped drinking alcohol.

At the time, I wasn’t concerned about dependence or addiction. There had certainly been periods earlier in my life when my relationship with alcohol was less healthy, but in the years leading up to my decision to stop, I was mostly just tired of how drinking made me feel: physically, emotionally, and mentally.

Perimenopause can take enough out of you as it is, and I wasn’t particularly interested in adding anything that made life harder.

Even relatively small amounts of alcohol seemed to come with consequences - a crappy night’s sleep, brain fog the next day, or just feeling a little off. And increasingly, those consequences didn’t seem worth whatever enjoyment I was getting from drinking.

And at that point in my life, the decision that felt right was to stop altogether.

So I did, and for more than three and a half years, I didn’t have a drink.

I loved so much about that decision. I loved the clarity, the consistency, and the mental freedom of not having to think about whether or how much to have on any given weekend.

Alcohol gradually became something I just didn’t think much about.

But toward the end of those three and a half years, I started to wonder: Am I still choosing not to drink because that’s what feels right for me, or am I now just trying to keep a streak going?

And if at some point I genuinely wanted to have a drink, would that be a problem?

This curiosity wasn’t coming from a place of deprivation. I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything, and I certainly wasn’t interested in returning to drinking regularly.

I was simply curious whether something that had started as a choice was quietly becoming a rule.

I wondered whether there might be occasions when I would enjoy an alcoholic beverage, like a date night with my husband, a vacation day on the beach, or a special evening with a friend. And at the same time, I wanted to leave it open, without needing to define what those occasions would be.

Before I go any further, I want to acknowledge something important.

For many people, not drinking at all is absolutely the right decision. Whether because of a history of alcohol dependence, physical or mental health concerns, or simply because life is better without it.

Nothing about my experience suggests that someone who has stopped drinking should experiment with drinking again.

And there is no particular virtue in being able to drink occasionally. Abstinence doesn’t need to be reconsidered, tested, or outgrown.

This is simply a story about my own relationship with alcohol and how it continues to evolve.

If you enjoy these conversations and would like to support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Read more

Together, Jen and Jim discuss the importance of unplugging from technology, building resilience, and creating spaces where boys can develop meaningful friendships, embrace vulnerability, and learn from strong, compassionate mentors. Jim shares why the camp experience continues to shape young men long after summer ends and how its lessons in teamwork, perseverance, and giving back carry into adulthood. At the heart of the conversation is a powerful reminder that growth often happens when we step outside our comfort zones, show up for one another, and become part of something bigger than ourselves.

More About Jim MacAllister:

James “Jim” McAllister is the Director of Camp Koochiching, a lifelong outdoorsman, fly-fishing guide, and licensed U.S. Coast Guard captain. A graduate of the University of Arizona, Jim spent 20 years at Northwest River Supplies (NRS), rising from customer service to Director of Sales while helping lead the company through a period of significant growth and its transition to employee ownership. His career also includes running a fly-fishing guide service in Montana and helping grow his family’s sales and marketing agency. Having attended Camp Koochiching as a boy, Jim returned to the place that helped shape him with a renewed sense of purpose: helping the next generation of boys build resilience, confidence, lifelong friendships, and a commitment to serving others.

Favorite Quotes:

“This is the position that’s really forced me to just be present and be aware of what’s going on around me right now. And it’s been amazing.” -Jim MacAllister

“You have to go and actually do the hard thing. You have to actually go and be challenged and persevere and find a way through it.” -Jim MacAllister

“At the time, I don’t think that the boys are necessarily super aware of the fact that what they’re doing is teaching themselves determination and proving to themselves that they’ve got grit.” -Jim MacAllister

“It’s a brotherhood. It’s something that we all get to carry with us forever.” -Jim MacAllister

“Having the opportunity to expose 12, 13, 14 year old boys to, in my mind, real men, strong, confident men who are also kind and empathetic and want to leave the place better than they found it is pretty rare.” -Jim MacAllister

“The break from the technology, the break from my computer is literally one of the best gifts I’ve ever given myself.” -Jim MacAllister

Resources:

Jen’s Instagram
Jen’s Substack
McDaniel Nutrition Therapy Instagram
McDaniel Nutrition Therapy Website
Past Podcast Episodes

Camp Kooch-i-ching
Urban Wilderness
Owakonze
Ogichi Daa Kwe (Wilderness Camp for Girls)
Camping and Education Foundation

Support the show

Leave a comment

October 20, 2026
Here and Human Wellness
Ep 88: More than Just a Summer Camp with Jim MacAllister

Episode summary:

In this episode of the Here and Human Wellness Podcast, Jen sits down with James (Jim) McAllister, Director of Camp Koochiching, to explore the power of presence, purpose, and human connection. After two decades in business leadership, Jim shares how returning to the camp where he grew up has helped him slow down, reconnect with what matters, and embrace a new chapter rooted in service. He reflects on the lessons camp taught him as a young boy, from carrying his first heavy canoe-trip pack to discovering the confidence that comes from doing hard things with the support of others.

Together, Jen and Jim discuss the importance of unplugging from technology, building resilience, and creating spaces where boys can develop meaningful friendships, embrace vulnerability, and learn from strong, compassionate mentors. Jim shares why the camp experience continues to shape young men long after summer ends and how its lessons in teamwork, perseverance, and giving back carry into adulthood. At the heart of the conversation is a powerful reminder that growth often happens when we step outside our comfort zones, show up for one another, and become part of something bigger than ourselves.

More About Jim MacAllister:

James “Jim” McAllister is the Director of Camp Koochiching, a lifelong outdoorsman, fly-fishing guide, and licensed U.S. Coast Guard captain. A graduate of the University of Arizona, Jim spent 20 years at Northwest River Supplies (NRS), rising from customer service to Director of Sales while helping lead the company through a period of significant growth and its transition to employee ownership. His career also includes running a fly-fishing guide service in Montana and helping grow his family’s sales and marketing agency. Having attended Camp Koochiching as a boy, Jim returned to the place that helped shape him with a renewed sense of purpose: helping the next generation of boys build resilience, confidence, lifelong friendships, and a commitment to serving others.

Favorite Quotes:

“This is the position that's really forced me to just be present and be aware of what's going on around me right now. And it's been amazing.” -Jim MacAllister

“You have to go and actually do the hard thing. You have to actually go and be challenged and persevere and find a way through it.” -Jim MacAllister

“At the time, I don't think that the boys are necessarily super aware of the fact that what they're doing is teaching themselves determination and proving to themselves that they've got grit.” -Jim MacAllister

“It's a brotherhood. It's something that we all get to carry with us forever.” -Jim MacAllister

“Having the opportunity to expose 12, 13, 14 year old boys to, in my mind, real men, strong, confident men who are also kind and empathetic and want to leave the place better than they found it is pretty rare.” -Jim MacAllister

“The break from the technology, the break from my computer is literally one of the best gifts I've ever given myself.” -Jim MacAllister

Resources:

Jen's Instagram
Jen's Substack
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Maybe they’ve gained a few pounds over the past several years, during perimenopause, or simply as life has changed.

But I’ve noticed that often, it’s not the weight gain itself that worries them most.

It’s where the mind goes next.

If I’ve gained this much already, what if it keeps going? What if I gain another 10 or 20 pounds? My mom has diabetes. My dad had heart disease. I know that carrying more weight can increase certain health risks. What if this is the beginning of something I won’t be able to stop?

There can be very real information woven into these fears. Family history matters. Metabolic health matters. Our behaviors can influence our risk of developing chronic disease. As a dietitian, I certainly don’t want to wave any of that away with Don’t worry about it.

And while I’m using weight as an example here, this same pattern can show up in almost any area of our health. A new symptom, a changing lab value, a family history of disease. The details may be different, but the mind’s tendency to move from what we know today to what we fear might happen tomorrow can look remarkably similar.

But I’m more interested in what happens when concern for our health quietly turns into an attempt to secure our health.

Because while those things can look almost identical from the outside, I don’t think they’re necessarily the same.

When fear leads

Imagine someone who has gained weight and is afraid the weight gain will continue. That fear might lead her to start weighing herself every morning. If the number is higher, maybe she eats a little less that day. She might skip the snack she normally has in the afternoon or decide she really should get a workout in.

And one might think:

What’s wrong with that? If stepping on the scale encourages someone to exercise or eat in a way that supports her health, couldn’t we argue that it’s working?

Maybe.

There is research suggesting that regular self-weighing can be useful for some people trying to lose or maintain weight. And I don’t think there is anything inherently wrong with weighing yourself, changing what you eat, or deciding you’d like to exercise.

But I think we can be curious about something beyond whether a behavior produces an outcome we have labeled “healthy.”

Imagine that I wake up feeling fine. I’m hungry and thinking about breakfast. I step on the scale and see that I’m two pounds heavier than yesterday.

Suddenly the breakfast I was hungry for feels like too much. I decide I should have something smaller. I make sure I exercise later.

From one perspective, you could call that successful self-monitoring. The scale gave me feedback and I adjusted my behavior accordingly.

But what else happened?

A number changed my relationship with hunger. It changed what I believed I was allowed to eat. Perhaps it changed my mood or how I saw my body. And it may have reinforced the belief that I need to keep checking that number because without it, I can’t trust myself to know what to do.

That’s the part I think is worth looking at.

A behavior can produce something we perceive as healthy and still have a cost.

Exercise is an easy example. Moving our bodies is good for us. But most of us would recognize a difference between someone going for a run because she enjoys running and someone feeling unable to take a rest day because she is terrified she’ll gain weight.

The run may be identical.

What’s driving it isn’t.

We can respond to risk without living inside it

One of the things health anxiety seems particularly good at doing is taking real information and extending it into a future that begins to feel increasingly certain.

Diabetes runs in my family is information.

I’ve gained weight is information.

But from there, the mind can quickly build a future:

I’m going to keep gaining weight, and if I don’t get control of this now, I’m going to develop diabetes.

Maybe that will happen. Maybe it won’t. We don’t know.

And perhaps that is part of what makes health anxiety so difficult. An uncertain future gives us very little to work with. But once we’ve imagined a particular future, suddenly there’s something to organize ourselves around.

We can start watching every food choice more carefully, checking another lab, eliminating another food, tightening another behavior.

The imagined problem gives us something to solve.

And some preparation is useful. We know quite a bit about what influences our health. We can monitor blood pressure, glucose, and cholesterol. We can eat nourishing foods, move our bodies, sleep, manage stress, go to our appointments, and take medications when they’re indicated.

We can respond to the information that’s actually available to us.

But preparation for an uncertain future doesn’t really have a natural stopping point.

There’s always another possibility. Another symptom we could Google. Another food we could optimize. Another number we could monitor.

The future hasn’t happened yet, so it can’t give us the information that would finally settle the question.

And meanwhile, our bodies can begin responding to a future that exists, for now, only in our imagination.

The fear is happening now.

The restriction is happening now.

The morning weigh-in is affecting breakfast now.

The workout we didn’t really want to do is happening now.

All in response to something that might happen later.

But what if I stop paying attention?

I’ve heard some version of this many times:

The last time I stopped weighing myself, I gained a bunch of weight.

It’s easy to understand why the conclusion becomes, See? I need the scale.

And maybe weighing regularly genuinely is useful for that person. But I don’t think the only choices are vigilant monitoring or abandoning our health altogether.

There is something between those two.

We can respond.

If our body changes, we can notice. If our clothes fit differently, that’s information. If we’re feeling different physically, that’s information. If our labs change, that’s information. If our eating or movement patterns have shifted in ways that don’t feel supportive, we can respond to that too.

We don’t have to predict every future change in order to respond when change actually happens.

I think we sometimes underestimate this because the mind likes to believe that its constant monitoring is what is holding everything together.

• If I stop thinking about this, maybe I’ll miss something.

• If I stop checking, maybe things will get away from me.

• If I loosen my grip, maybe I won’t get it back.

But our lives don’t actually happen six months from now.

Our decisions happen here.

We eat this meal. We decide whether we want to move today. We notice we’re hungry. We make a doctor’s appointment. We get a lab result and decide what to do with it.

New information appears, and we respond.

I wouldn’t necessarily say that the body will always “course correct” on its own. Bodies are far more complicated than that.

But we have the capacity to course correct.

And we don’t lose that capacity simply because we’re not monitoring ourselves every moment.

Care and control can look remarkably similar

Eating vegetables can be an act of care, and eating vegetables can be driven by fear.

Exercise can feel like something we get to do, or something we can’t allow ourselves not to do.

A scale can be one piece of information, or it can become the authority that determines what we eat and how we feel about ourselves that day.

The behaviors themselves don’t always tell us much.

And I’m not sure the answer is to constantly analyze our motivations either. That could become its own form of monitoring.

Maybe it’s simply worth noticing when caring for our health begins to feel like a job of continually preventing something from going wrong.

Or perhaps another question is:

Am I responding to information that is actually here, or am I repeatedly responding to an imagined future because uncertainty feels too uncomfortable to leave alone?

Because ultimately, we can influence our health, but we cannot secure it.

That’s a hard sentence.

So much of modern wellness subtly promises otherwise. Track enough. Optimize enough. Eat correctly enough. Catch the problem early enough. Stay vigilant enough, and perhaps you can keep the frightening things from happening.

But taking excellent care of ourselves still doesn’t tell us exactly what will happen.

I don’t know exactly what my body will weigh five years from now. I don’t know what my next lab results will show. I don’t know which illnesses I will or won’t develop as I age.

None of us do.

And maybe caring for ourselves asks us to become a little more willing to live there, not in neglect, but in uncertainty.

There may be something that needs our attention today. If there is, we can respond to it.

And if there isn’t, perhaps we don’t have to invent tomorrow’s problem in order to take care of ourselves today.

We can let tomorrow bring information we don’t have yet.

And when it does, we can meet that too.

Menu for the Week of October 19-23rd

Monday: The Best Black Bean Burger

Tuesday: Cottage Cheese Egg Bites

Wednesday: Baked Salmon Sushi Bowls

Thursday: Easy Greek Style Eggplant

Friday: Baked Oatmeal Cups

XO, Jen

It took me a while to find the right person. I had a couple of fairly horrific experiences early on. Eyebrows that seemed to be crawling in opposite directions. One sitting noticeably higher than the other. Attempts to fix things that somehow made them worse.

And each time, I noticed something interesting: I would look at myself in the mirror about twenty times more a day than usual.

Did I look weird? Frozen? Why was one eyelid covering my eye? And what were those two tiny wrinkles at the very top of my forehead, where there hadn’t been wrinkles before?

I’d find myself studying my face, looking for evidence that the treatment had worked, or hadn’t worked, or had somehow made things worse.

And inevitably, everytime…I’d think, What the hell am I spending this money for?

I was spending so much money to feel better about how I looked, only to spend even more time thinking about how I looked.

And after all that scrutinizing - and not loving the results - once things finally settled, the effect seemed to last about a month, at best.

Apparently, I have a very fast forehead metabolism.

If that’s a thing.

Eventually, I found a physician associated with a large medical system here in St. Louis. She was good. For the first time, the results looked natural. My forehead was a little softer, my eyebrows were where they belonged, and I didn’t spend the next several weeks wondering what had gone wrong.

I trusted her.

But over time, I noticed something else happening. Little suggestions would appear during our appointments.

Have you considered this mask? Or SkinPen? Or CoolSculpting?

There was always something new that could “help.”

And even though I liked her and trusted her more than the other people I’d seen, I could still sense the upsell. The suggestion that there was something else about my appearance worth improving.

And, well, it worked.

Which brings me to last week.

Read more

It’s where I went to school, and where I was taught, then and there, how to bleed orange. And even though my boys were born and raised in St. Louis, they’ve adopted some of my love for the school and its sports, especially my oldest son.

So when there was SO much hype around the Tennessee–Texas rivalry: UT vs. UT (who is the real UT?!)…we were in.

The pregame show started at 8 a.m., and pretty much as soon as we came downstairs, we were glued to the TV.

But before the game even started, there was a story that caught my attention.

It was a segment about Tennessee’s strength and conditioning program and the remarkable changes players had made in speed, strength and body composition. The before-and-after numbers were impressive. More players were hitting certain speed benchmarks. Body-fat percentages had dropped. These were extraordinarily strong, lean, powerful-looking young men.

One piece of their transformation was mentioned several times:

The sports and conditioning coach had cut out all their sugar.

That’s where my sports-dietitian ear perked up.

Really? Was eliminating sugar the key to achieving these numbers?

As a sports dietitian, I suspected there was a much bigger story behind those results.

And while I understood the focus on performance, I couldn't help thinking about how that message might land with the young athletes watching at home.

But sitting there next to my son, I couldn’t help thinking about the message underneath the message.

Sugar is bad. Cutting it out is good. And if you want to be leaner, stronger, faster, more disciplined…this is what it takes.

Those weren’t the messages I wanted my son absorbing. And they certainly weren’t the messages I wanted young athletes carrying with them as they learned how to fuel and care for their bodies.

What does the science say about sugar and body composition?

There are plenty of good reasons to keep a diet relatively low in added sugar. Athletes, like the rest of us, need foods that bring along fiber, vitamins, minerals, protein and healthy fats. If sugary drinks, desserts and snack foods are taking up a large portion of someone’s diet, shifting toward more nutrient-dense foods makes sense.

But sugar doesn’t appear to have some unique ability to create body fat regardless of everything else someone is eating.

When researchers look at controlled studies, body weight tends to increase when sugar adds additional calories to what people are already eating. When researchers exchange sugar-containing foods for the same amount of calories from other foods, that effect largely disappears.

In other words, the story is considerably more complicated than:

Eat sugar → gain body fat.

And it becomes even more interesting when we’re talking about athletes.

Athletes need fuel

Carbohydrate is an important fuel source for training, particularly as exercise intensity increases.

That means the harder and longer athletes train, the more having enough carbohydrate available can matter.

Most of that carbohydrate should absolutely come from nourishing foods: fruit, grains, potatoes, beans, dairy and other foods that offer much more than carbohydrate alone.

But sometimes sports nutrition looks different from everyday nutrition.

During a long practice or game, a sports drink may be useful precisely because its sugar is quickly available and easy to digest. The same can be true of gels, chews and other sports foods.

The body isn’t assigning moral value to where that carbohydrate came from.

It’s using fuel.

The research on strength training adds an important bit of nuance. Someone who has eaten adequately and heads into a typical lifting session probably isn’t going to lift more simply because they drank something sugary beforehand.

But during longer or more demanding training—or when an athlete hasn’t eaten enough beforehand—having carbohydrate available can help support the amount and quality of work they’re able to do.

And over time, that matters. Because improvements in strength, muscle and body composition don’t come from eliminating a single nutrient. They come from consistently being able to train, recover and adapt.

But there's more to the story.

I would be surprised if the entire transformation we saw on television came from removing sugar. More likely, there were changes across the board: strength and conditioning, meal quality, protein, carbohydrate, recovery, sleep, overall energy intake and probably a whole lot of other things happening behind the scenes.

But television needs a headline.

“Cut out sugar” makes a pretty good one.

And there’s another number worth discussing: Body-fat percentages

I don’t know how Tennessee approaches body-composition testing with its athletes, but seeing those numbers featured so prominently in the segment brought up another question I’ve wrestled with throughout my career.

Body composition can matter in sport. Muscle mass can support performance, and in some sports, carrying additional body mass can affect speed and efficiency.

But there isn’t one particular body-fat percentage that defines athletic success.

Body composition can matter in sport. Muscle mass can support performance, and in some sports, carrying additional body mass can affect speed and efficiency.

But there isn’t one particular body-fat percentage that defines athletic success.

And there is another side to repeatedly measuring an athlete’s body.

Once we start giving athletes body-fat percentages, it’s remarkably easy for those numbers to become grades:

• Lower is better.

• Leaner means fitter.

• Leaner means more disciplined.

• Leaner means you’re doing it right.

That’s one reason sports-medicine guidance has become increasingly cautious about how body-composition testing is used, particularly with younger athletes. The question isn’t simply whether we can measure it, but why we’re measuring it, how that information will be used and what effect knowing the number might have on the athlete.

I remember this coming up for me years ago when I was interviewing with a professional sports organization and learned that players were having their body composition measured every month.

I remember wondering: What does knowing that number every month actually give the athlete?

And: What might it take away?

Because the question isn’t simply: Can we measure it?

It’s: What are we hoping this number will do for this athlete?

And maybe just as importantly: What might this number do to this athlete?

The message matters, too

We sometimes talk about sports nutrition as though the only outcome we’re trying to optimize is the body.

More muscle. Less fat. Faster. Stronger.

But an athlete also has a relationship with food and a relationship with their body.

And that matters.

When athletes begin believing that lighter is always better, or that certain foods need to disappear in order for them to be serious athletes, we can start moving toward underfueling, body dissatisfaction and disordered eating.

Ironically, eating too little can eventually undermine many of the things athletes were trying to improve in the first place: strength, endurance, recovery, concentration and the ability to consistently train.

And this isn’t a reason to never talk about nutrition or body composition.

It’s a reason to remember that how we talk about these things matters.

What are we teaching our young athletes?

My son wasn’t watching that segment with the eyes of a sports dietitian. He was watching college athletes he admired, young men who had made impressive gains in strength, speed, and body composition.

And I think about the influence these athletes have on boys like mine. They represent so much of what young athletes aspire to become: strong, disciplined, competitive, successful. When they talk about how they train, what they eat, and what they avoid, kids are listening.

And amid all those impressive gains, one message was particularly easy to remember:

They cut out sugar.

I don’t know everything that happened inside Tennessee’s football program. Nutrition professionals are part of the larger performance team, and I would imagine the actual nutrition strategy is far more nuanced than the few minutes we saw on television.

But that nuance doesn’t always make it into the headline. And when the message comes from athletes our kids admire, it’s worth considering not just what was said, but what they might have heard.

But that’s precisely the problem with simple nutrition messages.

The nuance stays behind the scenes.

The teenager watching at home gets the rule.

And perhaps what I want my son, and every young athlete sitting on a couch watching those bodies, to know is this:

Sometimes fear and rigidity around food can masquerade as discipline. But they aren’t requirements for athletic success.

Strong athletes need enough fuel.

They need protein and plants and carbohydrates and fats. They need sleep and recovery and good coaching. They can eat mostly nourishing foods and still have foods simply because they enjoy them.

And their body-fat percentage isn’t a grade.

Maybe that’s the part of the before-and-after story we need to start showing, too.

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Research & Further Reading

For those of you who like to dig into the sports-nutrition science, here are some of the research and consensus papers behind this piece:

Mountjoy M, Ackerman KE, Bailey DM, et al. 2023 International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) consensus statement on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs). British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2023;57:1073–1097.
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/57/17/1073

This is the IOC’s updated REDs consensus statement, including guidance around low energy availability, athlete health, psychological factors and body-composition assessment.

Mathisen TF, Ackland T, Burke LM, et al. Best practice recommendations for body composition considerations in sport to reduce health and performance risks: a critical review, original survey and expert opinion by a subgroup of the IOC consensus on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs). British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2023;57:1148–1160.
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/57/17/1148

This is the particularly relevant paper on body-composition assessment. It discusses the limited evidence for sport-specific “ideal” body-composition targets, recommends against routine body-composition assessment in athletes under 18, and suggests that more than four to six assessments per year is likely unnecessary even when assessment is appropriate.

Chiavaroli L, Lee D, Ahmed A, et al. Effect of fructose-containing sugars on adiposity: a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled feeding trials. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2023.

A large review of 169 controlled feeding trials examining sugars and measures of body fat. The findings help separate the effects of sugar itself from the effects of consuming additional energy.

Henselmans M, Bjørnsen T, Hedderman R, Vårvik FT. The effect of carbohydrate intake on strength and resistance training performance: a systematic review. Nutrients. 2022;14(4):856.

A useful review for understanding when additional carbohydrate does—and doesn’t—appear to improve strength-training performance. Carbohydrate becomes particularly relevant with longer, higher-volume training and when athletes begin training without adequate fuel.

Kerksick CM, Wilborn CD, Roberts MD, et al. ISSN exercise & sports nutrition review update: research & recommendations. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 2018;15:38.

A broader sports-nutrition reference covering energy needs, carbohydrate, protein, nutrient timing and recovery.

Menu for the Week of October 12-16th

Monday: Veggie Packed White Bean Minestrone

Tuesday: Ground Turkey Tacos

Wednesday: Plum Salad with Arugula & Blue Cheese

Thursday: Yummy Salmon Burgers with Slaw

Friday: Greek Yogurt Lemon Bars

Enjoy the joy of eating,

XO Jen

I think I am simply bored. So I eat, and eating feels good. And clearly, it’s also become a habit.

But then she described what comes next.

The guilt. Feeling overly full. Uncomfortable. Frustrated with herself.

This pattern has been going on for years, which creates another layer of frustration: I know this doesn’t help me. So why do I keep doing it?

Of course, we could insert all kinds of behaviors into this equation.

We’re bored, so we pick up our phone.

We’re anxious, so we open social media.

We’re annoyed, so we start mentally solving the thing that doesn’t actually need to be solved right now.

And sometimes we even catch ourselves doing it, followed quickly by the thought: Why did I just do that? I know better!

But knowing better and behaving differently are not the same thing.

Sometimes we already know enough.

We know what we’re “supposed” to do.

We know the behavior isn’t giving us what we ultimately want.

And yet, there we are again.

So with this particular client, we talked about trying something different.

Instead of approaching the behavior from the knowledge level: the strategy level, the 10 Ways to Stop a Craving or Binge level - what if she simply became curious about what was actually happening?

Almost as if she’d never experienced it before.

My coach used to tell me:

Play dumb.

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In this Behind the Scenes conversation, I sit down with Janet Irizarry, a longtime food professional and creator of the Mindful Kitchen Method, to talk about the kitchen as a place of connection, belonging, and everyday meaning.

Janet spent years in the restaurant world feeding other people, only to realize that some of the rituals around food and connection were getting lost in her own home. That realization changed the way she thought about food, not as another thing to get right, but as an opportunity to slow down, pay attention, and connect with the people around us.

We talk about food waste, grocery shopping with our kids, family meals, getting off autopilot, and why none of this needs to become another wellness challenge. Sometimes it’s simply doing one small thing differently or noticing what’s already happening around the table.

And maybe the moments that stay with our kids aren’t the meals we made perfectly, but the ordinary experiences we shared along the way.

Come behind the scenes with us for the full conversation.

Connect with Janet

Learn more about Janet Irizarry and the Mindful Kitchen Method at My Mindful Kitchen.

My Mindful Kitchen: https://www.mymindfulkitchen.com/about-my-mindful-kitchen

My Mindful Kitchen Substack: https://substack.com/@mymindfulkitchen

October 6, 2026
Here and Human Wellness
Ep 87: My Mindful Kitchen with Janet Irizarry

What if the kitchen could be more than a place where we prepare meals? In this episode of the Here and Human Wellness Podcast, Jen sits down with Janet Irizarry, a longtime food professional and creator of the Mindful Kitchen Method, to explore how our kitchens can become places of mindfulness, belonging, and purpose. After years of owning restaurants, Janet realized she had been feeding everyone else while neglecting the rituals of food and connection in her own family. That realization became the beginning of a very different relationship with food, family, and the kitchen.

Jen and Janet talk about the power of doing one small thing, whether that's wasting a little less food, slowing down to appreciate a meal, involving our kids in grocery shopping or cooking, or simply pausing to notice where our food came from. Rather than adding another challenge or another source of guilt to already busy lives, Janet encourages us to find small ways to reconnect with our values and create meaningful moments of connection. Because sometimes the things our children remember most aren't the perfect meals or carefully planned moments, but the ordinary experiences we shared along the way.

Favorite Quotes:

“No one needs another challenge in their life.” -Janet Irizarry

“We just need to break that cycle, get off our autopilot and pause.” -Janet Irizarry

“You can align with your values and teach your kids values without lecture.” -Janet Irizarry

“It’s about a new respect for food. We all love food. Let’s respect it.” -Janet Irizarry

“The beautiful thing...is that those little changes that you’re making are actually giving you agency to make a difference in the world.” -Janet Irizarry

 “Once a mindful foodie, always a mindful foodie.” -Janet Irizarry

Resources:

Jen's Instagram
Jen's Substack
McDaniel Nutrition Therapy Instagram
McDaniel Nutrition Therapy Website
Past Podcast Episodes
My Mindful Kitchen

Support the show

Paid subscribers: Your free Athlete’s Nutrition Guide is available to download after the recipes at the end of this post!

I’ve been working with a lot more athletes lately, mostly female athletes, but plenty of male athletes as well.

It has been such a joy to watch this part of the practice grow. I love that more parents and athletes seem to understand the important role nutrition plays not only in athletic performance, but in the development of a young athlete.

Because there is so much more being developed than speed, strength or endurance.

Young athletes are also learning how to care for themselves.

They’re learning whether hunger is something to listen to or override. Whether rest is part of training or evidence that they aren’t working hard enough. Whether food is fuel and pleasure and connection, or another thing they need to “optimize!”

And sometimes it takes only a seemingly minor comment to send that learning in a completely different direction.

• A coach comments that the Cheez-Its an athlete is eating before practice are “junk snacks.”

• Someone talks about power-to-weight ratio without ever directly saying that an athlete might perform better if they lost a few pounds.

• A physician mentions that a young athlete’s weight has increased more quickly than expected and recommends an hour of exercise a day; without knowing that the kid sitting in front of them is already training far more than that…

These comments are offered with little idea of how long they might rattle around in an athlete’s head. I’ve worked with adults who can remember at the age of 7 that something like this was said…

So let’s just say, I feel it is important to be thoughtful about this stuff.

Which is why, when I came across a sports organization’s nutrition philosophy and found quite a bit of black-and-white thinking about food: foods being put into all-or-nothing categories, I had concerns.

I also had an idea.

I could help!

I had a relationship with the organization, so I sent an email.

And of course, I used the sandwich style, I started by telling them how great I thought it was that they had a nutrition philosophy at all.

Then came the middle: I explained that some of the thinking around sports nutrition had evolved and that there were places where I thought the philosophy could be updated. I offered to review it as a sports dietitian.

And then, naturally, I finished with another compliment.

It took a while, but eventually I heard back.

They were gracious.

Yes, they said. They’d be open to that. That would be awesome.

I was off and running.

I was genuinely excited about the opportunity to create something that aligned with current sports nutrition evidence while also encouraging athletes to check in with themselves.

To respect hunger.

To respect sleep and recovery.

To understand the importance of fueling and hydration.

To see food as something that supports what their bodies are being asked to do, rather than another system of rules they have to follow.

And, obviously, I needed to make it enjoyable to the eye.

I picked out my favorite fonts. I chose colors. I moved things around in Canva approximately 4,001 times.

What had previously lived in something resembling a spreadsheet somehow became a 13-page document.

Eek! I didn’t really mean for it to turn into a comprehensive guide, but it did. And I was proud of it.

I sent it over with a few caveats that roughly amounted to: I realize this is probably significantly more than you were expecting, and I am completely happy to pare it down.

And then I waited.

Nothing.

A week went by.

Nothing.

Eventually I reached back out. Gentle poke…I wanted to make sure they knew I welcomed feedback. If there were things they wanted changed, I would be happy to make adjustments.

Still nothing.

And here’s where this stops being a story about sports nutrition

Because every once in a while, those 13 pages still pop into my head.

And when they do, there’s a little ping. A sting.

• Did they not think it was good?

• Did they even read it?

• Did they not understand how much work I put into it?

• Did they not see the value in what I was trying to offer?

And perhaps most revealing:

• Did they not see the value in what I had to offer?

Ah. There it is…

I created those 13 pages because I cared about the athletes who might receive that information.

That’s true.

I care that young athletes could be receiving messages about food that might do more harm than good. I want parents and athletes to have information that supported performance without creating unnecessary fear or rigidity around eating.

I want to help.

And apparently, right alongside that, there was something else.

What was I actually looking for?

I wanted the coaches to see me as someone whose expertise mattered.

I wanted the work to be valuable, but if I’m really looking, I also wanted their response to tell me something about my value.

Not because I need to judge it or fix it. But because there’s something revealing about seeing how quickly something we create can get tangled up with what we think it says about us.

Did they like it?

Did they respect it?

Did they see what I could contribute?

The 13 pages were no longer just 13 pages. Somewhere along the way, they had become a little referendum on me. And maybe that’s why the silence had a sting to it.

I can see versions of this in other places, too.

We make dinner because we want to care for our family, and then feel something when nobody seems to notice.

We offer advice because we genuinely want to help, and then feel frustrated when the person doesn’t take it.

We put time into something at work because we believe in it, and then find ourselves watching to see whether anyone recognizes what we contributed.

None of this is particularly unusual. We like to be appreciated. We like for our efforts to be seen.

Maybe the interesting part isn’t deciding whether we should or shouldn’t want that recognition.

It’s simply seeing what happens.

I created something I believed in, sent it into the world, and then started looking to someone else’s response to tell me something about myself.

When I see that clearly, I’m not sure I need to do much with it.

The work can still be good.

Their response can be whatever it is.

And maybe I don’t have to make either one mean quite so much about me.

Thirteen pages

I still think that nutrition philosophy was good.

Actually, I think it was really good.

I don’t know what happened to it.

Maybe someone read every page.

Maybe someone skimmed the first two.

Maybe it influenced something I never knew about.

Maybe it disappeared into the depths of an inbox.

I may never know.

But I do know that every time those 13 pages come back into my mind and I feel that little sting, there’s an opportunity to see what’s happening.

The document is still the document.

Thirteen pages of work I cared about and believed in.

Everything it seemed to say about me came afterward.

A little more on fueling young athletes: I recently joined KSDK to talk about what kids need to eat enough to learn, feel good, and perform well. If this topic is relevant in your house, you can watch the segment here.

Menu for the Week of October 5-9th

Monday: Broccoli Fried Rice with Edamame

Tuesday: Quick Asian Beef & Noodles

Wednesday: Sheet Pan Kickin’ Curry Honey Mustard Chicken & Veggies

Thursday: Easy Lentil Soup with Sausage

Friday: Cinnamon Roll Energy Balls

About those 13 pages…

I still have them.

And while they may not have found their original home, I would actually love for them to be useful.

So I’m sharing the full 13-page sports nutrition guide with paid Here & Human Wellness subscribers below.

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No, I haven’t been through there, I replied. I had walked past it countless times, but I had never actually turned into it. A couple of mornings later, when I had a bit more time to explore, I checked it out.

He was right. Big, wide streets. Huge, gorgeous trees. Quiet. Perfect for walking or running…and owl sightings. (P.S. Have I told you my ponytail has been attacked by an owl twice now?)

It struck me that something could be right there, just a slight turn from a route I walk all the time, and I had never thought to go that way.

I am, apparently, a creature of habit!

Of course, there is a reason we become creatures of habit.

Imagine having to reconsider every single thing we do all day long. What should I eat for breakfast? Which way should I drive to work? When should I exercise? Where should I put my keys? How should I load the dishwasher?

We would be exhausted before 9 am.

Habits save us from having to make thousands of tiny decisions. There is real value in well-worn paths.

I talk about this with nutrition clients all the time. You don’t necessarily need seven completely different dinners every week. Maybe you have a grain-and-green bowl you like, and you change up the sauce, vegetables, grain or protein. The framework stays the same while the ingredients move around.

Familiarity can be incredibly supportive.

But lately I’ve been thinking about the other side of it.

What happens when we occasionally interrupt the familiar?

On a walk, instead of looking mostly at the sidewalk or the street ahead of me, what happens if I spend a few minutes looking up at the sky?

Instead of throwing the ball to my dog with my right arm, what does it feel like to throw it with my left?

Instead of walking past the same street I’ve passed a hundred times, what happens if I turn down it?

This is one of the things I love about Feldenkrais, which I wrote more about here. The practice invites us to explore movement differently, not necessarily because the way we’ve been moving is wrong, but because there may be other possibilities we haven’t discovered yet.

Rather than forcing the body into some supposedly correct pattern, we get curious. We try something slightly different. We notice what happens. The nervous system gets new information.

And I’ve been wondering if the same thing applies far beyond movement.

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I’ve taught meal planning in some form for years, and I keep coming back to it, not because I think everyone needs a perfectly organized menu hanging on the refrigerator, but because meal planning saves me an enormous amount of precious energy during the week.

I was talking with a client recently who wants to start exercising after work. But she noticed that on days when she doesn’t know what she’s making for dinner, going to work out feels much harder. There’s already this unfinished task waiting for her: What are we eating? Do I have the ingredients? When am I going to make it?

Skipping the workout and going home feels like the responsible choice.

That’s what I think we sometimes miss when we talk about meal planning. Yes, it can save money. It can reduce food waste. It can make it easier to eat in ways that support how we want to feel.

But for me, one of its biggest benefits is that it frees up capacity.

When I already know what we’re having for dinner, I don’t have to start solving that problem at 4:30 p.m. I’ve made one less decision. There’s a little more space for a walk, a workout, helping a kid, getting something done, or simply not having to think so hard.

And importantly, creating that kind of ease doesn’t require becoming an expert meal planner.

In fact, that was one of my favorite reminders from these seminars.

I came prepared with plenty to teach: ways to make meal planning simpler, how to build a short list of dependable meals, strategies for grocery shopping and prep, and ideas for getting dinner on the table when no one has much energy left.

But one of my favorite parts of teaching in a group is that I’m never the only person in the room with something useful to share.

Put a group of people together and suddenly you have dozens of kitchens, schedules, families, preferences, frustrations, and solutions represented. Someone has figured out the grocery app that actually works. Someone else has a shortcut food everyone in their house eats. Another person asks a question that half the room was probably wondering themselves.

And that happened over and over during these sessions.

One woman introduced us to AnyList, an app she loves for keeping track of meals and groceries. Someone mentioned Wyman’s frozen smoothie fruit packs. We talked about easy protein options, including egg-white bites and RXBAR’s newer protein bites.

None of those ideas came from my Canva presentation.

Then there were the questions…and those may have been even more useful.

What if I’m cooking for one?

Meal planning advice tends to assume you’re feeding a family, but cooking for one comes with its own challenges. Making a different recipe every night can mean buying too many ingredients, creating too many leftovers, and doing an unreasonable amount of cooking for one person.

Instead, it can help to think about ingredients that can become several different meals. Roasted vegetables might go into a grain bowl one night and alongside eggs the next. A rotisserie chicken could become tacos, a salad, and a sandwich. You’re still getting variety without starting from scratch every night.

What if one person loves leftovers and the other absolutely does not?

This is such real-life meal-planning problem…

The solution probably isn’t convincing the leftover-hater that leftovers are wonderful. Instead, we talked about making components that can be repurposed. Tonight’s taco ingredients might become tomorrow’s burrito bowl. Grilled chicken might show up in pasta the next night. The ingredients repeat, but the meal doesn’t feel exactly the same.

What about picky eating?

This opened up a bigger conversation. There is a difference between ordinary food preferences or selective eating and a child whose eating has become restrictive enough that additional support may be warranted.

We talked about resources for understanding when picky eating deserves more attention, but also about taking some pressure off at home. Feeding a family doesn’t require finding a meal that every person enthusiastically loves. Sometimes success is simply putting together a meal where everyone has something they can eat.

One of the strategies I shared was something I often encourage families to create: a list of 5–10 minimum-effort meals.

These aren’t aspirational dinners.

They’re the meals almost everyone will eat, that you know how to make without looking at a recipe, and that you can pull together fairly quickly if you keep a few basic ingredients around.

Maybe yours are tacos, breakfast for dinner, pasta and meatballs, quesadillas with fruit, a rice bowl, frozen dumplings with vegetables, or rotisserie chicken with a bagged salad and bread.

Get your family involved and ask: What are five or ten dinners we would all be reasonably happy to see on the table?

Write them down.

In fact, write down any dinner that works.

One participant mentioned how helpful it is simply to keep an ongoing list of meals you’ve made and liked. We tend to think we’ll remember them. Then Tuesday afternoon arrives and somehow we can’t think of a single thing we have ever cooked.

Your own meal history can become one of your best meal-planning resources.

And perhaps my favorite tip was about not doing everything on Sunday.

Meal planning advice often makes Sunday sound like a part-time job: plan the meals, make the grocery list, shop, wash the produce, chop the vegetables, prep the proteins and prepare food for the week.

If that genuinely works for you, wonderful.

But we don’t get extra credit for doing it all in one day.

I usually spread it out. I might plan meals on Friday, get groceries on Saturday, and do a little prep on Sunday while everyone else is watching NFL football.

The work still gets done. It just doesn’t become one giant weekend project.

Maybe that was my biggest takeaway from these conversations.

There isn’t one system for meal planning that we all need to get better at following.

There are people cooking for five and people cooking for one. People who happily eat the same lunch four days in a row and people who cannot stand leftovers. Kids who eat almost anything and kids who eat twelve foods. People who love to cook and people who would prefer to spend as little time in the kitchen as humanly possible.

Good meal planning has to work inside the life you actually have.

And maybe its purpose isn’t to make us better meal planners at all.

Maybe it’s simply to take one recurring task, the relentless question of what are we going to eat? and make it require a little less of us.

A little less decision-making. A little less scrambling. A little less energy.

So there’s more capacity left for everything else we want to do with our lives.

And one more thing: don’t forget delegation. Just because you’ve always been the one to do it all doesn’t mean it has to stay that way.

Menu for the Week of September 28th - October 2nd

Monday

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Skillet

Tuesday

Salmon with Thai Vegetables and Black Rice

Wednesday

The Ultimate Sloppy Joe Bowls

Thursday

Shrimp Pesto Pasta

Friday

Blender Zucchini Oatmeal Muffins

XO - jen

I would ask myself three questions:

What did I do well today?
What am I grateful for?
What could I have done better?

Or maybe that last question was even harsher: What didn’t I do well today?

I remember telling a friend about this ritual. She’s a therapist and does a lot of work in the area of self-compassion.

“Ouch,” she said.

What a hard thing to do right before bed, she pointed out, to end the day reviewing where I could have done better, where I hadn’t gotten it right.

At the time, I don’t think I fully understood her reaction. The practice seemed responsible to me. Reflective, even. How else do we grow if we don’t look back at what we did wrong and figure out how to do it better next time?

I see some version of this all the time in my nutrition practice.

Recently, I was talking with a client who had spent most of his summer on the road. He helped two of his kids move to college. He helped another child move across the country. He had basically spent the summer living out of a car, eating differently, moving differently, with very little resemblance to his usual routine.

When he returned home, he had gained some weight.

I asked him how he was feeling about it.

“Frustrated,” he said. “I wish I would have done things differently.”

His frustration wasn’t only about the weight he had gained. It was also about his belief that he should have handled the summer differently.

How much value is there in putting ourselves on trial for past decisions?

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Welcome to Here & Human Wellness and to the first Behind the Scenes episode.

Behind the Scenes is the video side of the podcast: a chance to bring you along for some of the experiences and conversations that make their way into the show. A little less polished, a little more in-the-moment, and a way to actually see some of what I’m talking about.

For this first one, I’m taking you with me on my recent silent retreat.

I share what the retreat was actually like, what surprised me, and why coming home turned out to be harder than I expected. I’m also reflecting on the shift from Love You More to Here & Human Wellness and why I’m becoming much more interested in being present for my life than trying to perfect it.

And somewhere in all of that, I started thinking about what I’ve been calling “tiny abandonments” those small moments when we override what we actually want, feel, or need. Not necessarily in big, dramatic ways, but in the ordinary choices we make all day long.

This episode is less about having an answer and more about noticing: Where am I being honest with myself? Where am I not? And what happens when I pay attention to what’s actually there?

Thanks for being here & and welcome to Here & Human Wellness, Behind the Scenes!

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