There’s a very human tendency to want the quick fix.

It’s often more exciting to focus on the next “thing” than to do the deeper work of optimizing how your body actually functions — supporting digestion so nutrients can be absorbed more effectively, regulating the nervous system so you can sleep better and feel less anxious, or rebalancing cortisol and other hormones that affect energy, mood, and metabolism.

But here’s the truth about those short-term approaches.

The end of a year and the start of a new one naturally invites reflection. It always makes me think about the passage of time - where I am relative to where I’d like to be, and how I want my life and health to feel moving forward.

As we head into 2026, there are a few things I’m ready to say goodbye to, especially in the world of women’s health.

Here are three of them…

I know this is an incredibly busy time of year. It can feel like a whirlwind, but I hope it also holds some peaceful moments when you’re able to pause, take in the lights, and remember what truly matters.

I am so grateful for this community. Thank you for taking the time to read these messages and for allowing me to share my thoughts and a bit of my life with you.

As we head into the holidays, I want to offer a gentle reminder that doing what brings us joy is an important part of our health. Most weeks I write about nutrition, movement, hormones, and the habits that help us feel our best. But something I’ve learned over the past few years is how powerful it is to pay attention to what genuinely brings us joy, and then make sure we spend some time doing it.

This might be a little controversial…

but walking does not count as exercise in the way most women over 40 need it to.

And neither does yoga.

They’re both fantastic forms of movement — they support stress, mobility, mental health, and overall wellbeing. But when it comes to hormonal balance, metabolism, and aging well, they simply can’t do the job on their own.

This simple truth could change the way you approach your health.

What I actually do, how FASTer Way fits in, and why both matter for your midlife health.

This might surprise you, but there’s one trend I see over and over again with the women I work with:

Almost all of them are low in fiber.

Fiber may not be the sexiest nutrient, but it is so, so important—especially in perimenopause and menopause.

This week, I celebrated my 49th birthday! I know next year is the “big one,” but this last year of my 40s feels significant. Birthdays always make me reflective—kind of like the start of a new school year or the New Year.

When I look back, it’s amazing how much has shifted since I entered this decade. My life has changed a lot —and I’m so grateful for it.

Here are a few things I’m celebrating from my 40’s as I head into this next year…

I have a confession…I am a naturopathic doctor and a fitness and nutrition coach who loves to sometimes drink Old Fashioneds and eat Salt & Vinegar chips. I’m definitely not perfect. I generally find it’s easier to be more consistent with my nutrition than my workouts. But over the past six weeks, I’ve dialled in on both (not every day… I still had some of the above, but most days)—and not surprisingly, I feel really good!

Not eating enough food can really affect your metabolism. It’s what I see with almost all of my FASTer Way clients when they start out. It takes intentional effort to eat enough, but it’s so worth it! It’s hard to know what eating enough looks like without tracking. Initially it’s a bit of a learning curve, but I can do it now in under 5 minutes/day (and so can you!). The FASTer Way app now has photo and voice tracking (that’s right - it can calculate the macros of your meal from a picture or by saying what you are eating!), which makes it so much faster and easier!

Something big is happening tomorrow that I’ve been thinking about for pretty much my whole adult life. You may have seen me share in my social media stories that I’m having a breast reduction. To say that I am nervous is an understatement. Having surgery involves trusting the people who will be taking care of me and that my body is going to know what to do to heal after. As a bit of a type A personality, that’s tough for me.

Have you seen any “A haunted house, but…” posts on social media? I didn’t get them at first, but I think I’ve figured them out now that I’ve seen them pretty much all over Instagram. They play on the idea of a haunted house and replace the usual creepy parts with everyday challenges or annoyances, bringing some humour to them. Here are some I found funny….

I spent last weekend in Kingston celebrating my 25th Queen's University Homecoming Reunion.  I had the best time with my former housemates remembering how fun my four years there were.   Something happened while I was there that sparked a little revelation for me and I wanted to share it with you…

When I started cooking for myself as an adult, I would just go to the grocery store and randomly buy food that looked good. Each day I would try to make something out of the random bits and pieces I had. I ate a lot more packaged food, food went to waste, and I definitely didn’t eat very healthy. Once I had kids, I realized that we needed some sort of plan. As time went on, I learned to cook better and became more creative with what we made. To my surprise, I also found that I really enjoy cooking! It’s now my love language and it makes me feel good physically and mentally to know that I am fuelling me and my family with healthy food.

I often hear from my patients and FASTer Way clients that they feel overwhelmed and confused about what to do to improve their health and where to start. There is no shortage of information out there about what may be helpful for you and a lot of it is contradictory. Eat this. Don’t eat that. Skip breakfast. Don’t eat breakfast. Take this supplement. This supplement is harmful. How the heck do you make sense of it?

I remember when every day was a struggle for me. I did the things I needed to do and thought that was just the way it felt to be a working mom. I didn’t even realize how tired I was until I wasn’t, but I’m glad that I found my way through to where I am now. If you are struggling with your energy, I want you to know that you aren’t alone. I hear this all the time from the women I work with. It’s easy to chalk it up to “regular” life or age and think that’s just the way you have to feel. It doesn’t have to be that way though.

“We absolutely have within each of us the power to prevent or significantly decrease our risk for the majority of the top killers and contributors to disability in the world.” Oof, isn’t that a powerful statement? It’s from a podcast I listened to this week with Dr. Austin Perlmutter, MD that got so many wheels spinning in my brain. Read on to see two main points from it that stood out to me.

I love when my own health journey leads to me learning something that also helps me better help my patients. Here's one accidental discovery that has made a big difference in my energy and quality of life, and that I now also often consider for patients.

Healthy eating is so confusing, isn’t it? You can find conflicting information for just about everything. There is no one size fits all approach that works for absolutely everyone, but there are some general guidelines I teach that are an effective framework to determine what works best for you. Let’s take a look at them…

Now why the heck would you want to do intermittent fasting? There are so many health benefits! A major one is that it helps to make you more metabolically flexible. Many people spend most of their time burning mainly sugar (or carbohydrates) for energy and then the extra gets stored as fat. When you go for longer periods of time without eating (ie when you fast), your body will switch to burning fat as a fuel source.