Today we’re sharing the latest episode of Thank God It’s Monday — our podcast series that elevates the everyday, featuring special guests (catch up here) who share how health shows up in their lives. We highlight the Noos pillars — nutrition, movement, and healthy habits — as they play out in real life, not through heavily filtered Instagram reels or overproduced celebrity podcasts. Our guests are real people, just like us, who make health work every day.

We hope you find these conversations as valuable as we do, and maybe even find some inspiration to experiment within the framework of your own lives.

In this episode, we caught up with our Substack friend — mother, wife, lawyer, and founder of , her wellness Substack that has featured guests like Bobbi Brown, Kim Strother, Favorite Daughter, and Kristin McGee (and us!).

We had a lot of fun — kicking things off with a game of “Love it or Hate it” and learning how Rachel makes health work for her, crisp McDonald’s Diet Coke and tropical Skittles included. The takeaway: wellness is about feeling good, not following some perfect checklist.

Rachel was such a fun guest, and we know you’ll love this one. You can watch or listen on the Substack app or your favorite podcast streaming service — let us know what you think! We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming next week.

Until Next Time…

Get more from Anne, RD & Avery, NBC-HWC in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

Happy Monday, Noosers and Happy Noosiversary! Two years ago we sent our first Noosletter to a group of friends and family and hoped someone would read it. Most of you weren’t on that list, which means somewhere along the way, you found us, and stuck around, thank you, thank you! Many of you just renewed your subscriptions and it means so much. Two years in and you are still here, still opening, (still hearting!) and still reading. That is not something we take for granted. This week we are marking the occasion with a little reflection. But first, we hope you are soaking up some of these long, bright days. The longest, most vitamin D-rich stretch of the year is upon us, and if you are a fellow sun-starved Northeasterner, you know exactly what we mean! Get outside and soak up some sunshine!

If you like what you’re reading, click the heart at the top or bottom or leave us a comment — we love hearing what you think ❤️ !!

Leave a comment

As a new teacher, I was given many words of wisdom, some helpful, some not. One that has stuck with me, and applies well beyond the classroom, is this: it takes at least three years to find your footing. Year one you are learning on the job, taking everything in, just trying to keep your head above water. Year two you start to implement, what worked, what didn’t, what you’d do differently. Year three is when things finally start to feel like yours. The confidence settles in. The rhythm feels natural. Two years into Noos, that framework has never felt more relevant. Year one for us was the experiment, could we actually do this? Could we show up every week with something worth reading? The answer, it turned out, was yes! Year two became about implementation, finding our rhythm, understanding our audience, figuring out what Noos actually is versus what we thought it would be. Just approaching year three it’s starting to feel like ours! Take it away Avery…

Read more

Happy day-after-Mother’s Day, Noosers. Whether you are starting the 364 day countdown to the next one, or you are putting your house back together after taking the day “off,” we are here to give you a good read this morning. We are reminiscing about a food almost everyone’s parents had stashed in their fridge growing up — one we all probably turned our noses up as kids — and now it’s on year two of sustained algorithm dominance, proving that some things stand the test of time, whether they go viral on TikTok or not.

If you like what you’re reading, click the heart at the top or bottom or leave us a comment — we love hearing what you think ❤️ !!

Leave a comment

There is a place in the Adirondacks we used to go on vacation when I was young. I can still picture the dining room, the swinging kitchen door, heavy wood tables and chairs, the smell of bacon fat being cooked into the homemade bread! Every evening, without fail, there was a little dish waiting on the table. Cottage cheese, a curl of iceberg lettuce, and a maraschino cherry sitting right on top like it was a sundae.

I found myself thinking about that little dish recently on an early morning run with my dad. Somewhere in the run, cottage cheese came up, as it does, and I asked him if he liked it. “Yep.” And then he shared his own memory. Sunday mornings growing up meant cottage cheese spooned over an English muffin, warm and simple and filling, he noted. My mom has always loved it too. I remember a red tub of it living permanently in our fridge, and the little mini cups she’d try to sneak into my lunch.

I thought about all of those images after reading a piece recently about why we crave comfort food. The research says it’s rooted in childhood memory, that the foods we ate when we felt safe and cared for become the ones we reach for when we need comfort as adults. I should have asked my dad if cottage cheese is a comfort food for him. I’m going to guess probably not, but maybe if someone blended it with strawberries and maple syrup and froze it into a high-protein frozen treat, he’d come around. Or more likely, he’d just be puzzled/intrigued. Right? Your grandmother did not need a blender and a TikTok account to understand that cottage cheese was good protein that tasted fine and filled you up. So while the nutrition hasn’t changed, the new found attention on it certainly has.

Last summer my sister who owns a seasonal gourmet eatery in a beach town noted that her distributors were having a tough time keeping cottage cheese in stock. Wild! Cottage cheese continues to be a food wonder. People are rediscovering a food that our parents, and grandparents ate without giving it much attention. To be clear, we love cottage cheese! Per cup, cottage cheese delivers around 25 grams of protein, keeping you full for hours. It is high in calcium, relatively low in calories for the protein it provides, and versatile enough to work sweet or savory. It is one of the most complete, affordable, accessible protein sources available. If the nutrition of cottage cheese hasn’t changed in the last 60 years why is it currently in the spotlight?

A few things converged at once.

Read more

Happy “Maycember,” Noosers! And Happy Met Gala Monday to all those who celebrate (hey, Anne!). We hope the first few days of May have been treating you well. This time of year is a classic example of life “life-ing.” Just when you hit your stride — or finally decide to carve out time for yourself (It’s getting nice out, I’m going to start <insert new ha…

Read more

Happy Monday, Noosers! We’re coming off a busy weekend with friends and family and we imagine you’re starting to feel the end-of-school-year squeeze: the rapid-fire succession of events (hello Maycember!) that send you to your closet, scrambling for something to wear.

Anne and I both had a few events this week, between our Noos Night, First Communion and the school gala. It got me thinking about the similarities between staple pieces in your wardrobe and staple foods on your grocery list. Knowing you have something trusted and reliable — to wear and to eat — frees up so much mental bandwidth for everything else.

Today’s post is all about the anchor foods we always come back to when we’re hungry and craving something nourishing and satisfying. And just like with clothes, your style may differ from ours — so try these on, see how they feel, and build your own list of anchors you can return to again and again.

If you like what you’re reading, click the heart at the top or bottom or leave us a comment — we love hearing what you think ❤️ !!

Leave a comment

As Avery and I started thinking about this week’s Noosletter, we kept hearing the same question, she from friends, I from patients: what do you actually eat? What do you keep on hand? What do you make? We love the curiosity! And this week, we’re actually going to answer it. Not as a prescription, but as a window into a philosophy we both live by, because what we stock in our kitchens isn’t random. It reflects something we believe pretty deeply: that you don’t need more options. You need fewer, better ones that your body trusts and your brain doesn’t have to work for. What’s in our fridges is the practical output of that idea. Take what’s useful, leave what isn’t. Our health histories aren’t yours, and our goal is never to clone our plates, rather it’s to help you find your own short list!

Something funny often happens around the middle of my initial sessions with patients: they start apologizing for not being meal “preppers.” So many of us carry this quiet belief that if we don’t prep, we’ve already failed. For some people, meal prepping is genuinely important. It’s what keeps them on track and makes the week feel manageable. For others, like me, it’s more stressful than it’s worth at times and with specific meals. That doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about food, because are we ever not thinking about what’s for dinner?!! What I’ve found, and what Avery has found too, is that if I have enough of what we call “anchor ingredients” on hand, I can pull together something nourishing and satisfying without much effort at all.

Does this sound like your afternoon? Leave work, school pickup, quick change, snack for everyone, figure out dinner, sports, homework, bed routine, pack lunches and then, finally, a moment to exhale. Except it’s 9:30 and you’re already done. The kitchen has been used two, maybe three times already, and the last thing you want to do is think about food. That’s why mornings matter so much to me, before the chaos takes over! And I’ve learned that what’s already in my kitchen matters more than any meal plan I could write on a Sunday. I don’t prep my breakfast the night before. I don’t meal plan my mornings. What I do instead is keep the same short list of things on hand so that when it’s time to make something in the morning, the decision is already made.

Here is something I believe that does not get said enough in nutrition conversations: you do not need more options. You need fewer, better ones that your body trusts and your brain does not have to work for.

Decision fatigue is real and it peaks at the exact moments we need it least, the morning rush, the 5pm witching hour, the Thursday evening when everyone needs to be somewhere at once. The research on this is consistent and not particularly surprising: the more decisions we make, the worse we get at making them. By the time most of us are standing in front of the refrigerator at dinnertime, our decision-making capacity is genuinely depleted. The answer is not more willpower. It is fewer decisions. And the way to make fewer decisions is to already have the right things there. Below, you’ll find our anchor foods, the things we come back to time and time again that nourish us, make us feel good, and have a permanent spot on our grocery lists, and why we love them so much as a dietitian, health coach, and a couple of moms just trying to keep it all together!

Some of our anchor ingredients!

Read more

Happy Marathon Monday, Noosers! Today’s post is a little different. Hopefully a little something to put some pep in your step. We’ll keep the intro short and let you read. We revisit a topic we covered last spring, eustress! And it turns out, living it hits a little differently than writing about it. Two stories below, one from each of us about the good kind of stress — the kind that helps you grow, despite the momentary discomfort. Lace up, we hope you enjoy!

Last spring we introduced you to eustress, the productive beneficial kind of stress that pushes us to grow. We talked about keynote speeches, school plays, and the humble anchovy. We told you that growth rarely comes from comfort. What we did not mention then and what has quietly become one of our favorite parts of building Noos, is that this Noosletter carries its own version of eustress every single week. That blank page on a Monday morning! That deadline that does not move. The vulnerability of putting something out into the world and hitting publish before you are completely sure it is ready. We will be honest there are weeks where it feels like a lot! On the phone at 10pm on a Sunday night working through the draft, and then there are weeks where we surprise ourselves. But somewhere along the way we stopped dreading it and started craving it. That particular hum of productive pressure has become something we look forward to, proof that we have grown into it rather than away from it. Which is exactly how eustress works.

We are publishing this today, Marathon Monday, intentionally. Because today in Boston, thousands of runners are doing something that is extremely hard, very chosen, and every bit worth it. And tonight we will sit around a table with the women who have become our Noos community for our second Noos Night Out, a room full of people who keep showing up, keep choosing growth, keep doing the things that are uncomfortable because they know what is waiting on the other side. Between the race and the dinner, the sore quads and the full hearts, this week made the case for eustress better than we ever could. We are revisiting it today, not from a podium or a textbook, but from the finish line.

Read more

Happy Monday, Noosers! We are back from spring break — we stayed pretty close to home and had the northeast “special” of experiencing every season in one week, from snow to shorts. What a thrill! We are also still riding high (and limping around!) from the half marathon we both ran on Saturday. There is something about stepping back into competition every now and again that reminds you why you love to move in the first place. Highly recommend. If you’re a week into our April Morning Challenge, how do you feel? Protein/fat/fiber, movement and fresh air in the morning is a lovely combination to start the day and today’s Noosletter follows up that idea of combinations. Anne reveals a simple but game changing nutrition detail that some of us have been unknowingly getting wrong, and it starts with what you are putting on your salad. Avery offers a workout “recipe” that will get you stronger (hint, it’s not complicated and you can start in TJ Maxx). Read along and let us know the simple combinations that work for you!

Read more

Today we are kicking off our April Challenge and the timing is no accident. If you have been reading along, you may remember our piece on Katy Milkman’s fresh start effect, the research showing that temporal landmarks like a new week, a new month, a new season create a genuine psychological reset that makes us more motivated, more optimistic, and more l…

Read more

We have a fun event coming up we’d like to tell you about. For all of you who are local to Albany, NY, we are hosting our second Noos gathering at Coray Kitchen on Monday, April 20th @ 6pm! We love writing, but love the act of connection even more. Our Noosletters have developed a community we cherish so much. We’re excited about bringing eve…

Read more

Happy Monday, Noosers! It’s the final Noosletter of March, and in upstate NY, spring dangles a carrot of hope while winter hangs on for dear life — one day kids are in shorts, the next it feels like January again. We’ve been loving March Madness to keep us distracted from the indecisive weather (UConn last night, anyone?!). It’s so fun to see these players compete on the biggest stage, with the highest stakes — what a thrill! These guys (and gals) aren’t playing just for fun, they lay it all on the line. And for some, it’s the last game they may ever play as college athletes.

Given our shared history in competitive sports (albeit, decades ago), we can’t resist a sports metaphor when it comes to nutrition and movement. When we see these athletes playing for all the marbles, we know they don’t just show up and see what happens. Way back when, our coaches and teammates never said, “let’s just wing it and see what happens.” Same thing applies when it comes to our health. While it’s not always high stakes like March Madness, it does take a little thought around what we put in our bodies and what we do with them when it comes to nutrition and exercise.

Today, Anne highlights the functional food trap and makes the case that when it comes to fiber, you do not need more products, you need more plants and Avery emphasizes the value of bringing intention to workouts. Sure, we can just wing it sometimes, but if you are looking for specific results, a little thought goes a long way. Read along today and let us know what you think!

Read more

As a listener/scroller, it can be hard to relate — suspecting the creators probably have chefs, producers, personal trainers etc in their arsenal. So what does health look like in the everyday?

On this episode of #TGIM, we chatted with Elizabeth DeBole. Elizabeth ran at Georgetown University, professionally for New Balance, and competed in the olympic trials — she is a STUD! But beyond her athletic achievements, she is a mother to three young sons, a wife, and the Head Women’s and Men’s Cross Country and Track coach at Siena College. We enjoyed hearing how nutrition, movement and behavior show up in her busy life.

Yes, her accolades are impressive, and you might think: of course she’s fit and eats healthy! But as you listen, you will see that it’s the systems she’s built, not perfection or restriction, that help her feel good when life gets busy (hint: it’s always busy).

Mondays are often overshadowed by “Sunday Scaries” and seen as the “groan” of the week — but we can also see Monday as a fresh start, and an opportunity to start the week on our own terms. We hope this podcast can reframe more than just Mondays for you, and shed light on how the ordinary can be enough.

You can watch or listen to this episode on the Substack App, or through your fave podcast streaming service — let us know what you think. We’ll be back to our regular scheduled program next week!

Until Next Time…

Get more from Anne, RD & Avery, NBC-HWC in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

Subscribe now

Happy Monday, Noosers! This week’s post is part two of last week’s essay on GLP-1s. As a Registered Dietitian (Anne) and Health Coach (Avery), we sit at the intersection of nutrition and behavior — which makes us particularly tuned in to what happens when these medications stop. Last week we asked whether we’ve engineered food to be so pleasurable that we need pharmaceutical intervention to moderate our response to it. We heard from you — some with experiences, some with questions, some with feelings you hadn’t quite found words for yet. That’s exactly why we’re back.

This week we ask: what happens when that intervention stops? It turns out, this post can be helpful whether you’re on the medication or not, because the principles that support long-term success on these medications are the same ones that support lasting behavior change. Keep reading, this one's for everyone.

if you like what you read, click the ❤️ at the top or bottom and leave a comment — we love hearing from you!

Leave a comment

My patients have come off GLP-1s for many reasons: insurance won’t cover them anymore, they’ve hit their goal weight and feel ready to stop, the cost has become unsustainable, or the side effects were simply too much to handle. The people I work with already have a leg up, not just because of the education and guidance they’re receiving alongside the medication, but because we discuss a plan for if and when the day comes that the medication stops.

Recently, a patient shared a comment from her provider that stopped me in my tracks.

Read more

Happy Monday, Noosers! Or should we say, happy slightly-groggy Monday. If you’re running on one less hour of sleep this morning, you’re in good company. 🙋‍♀️ We’re happy for more daylight on the other side though! And if today’s forecast is any indication — high 60s in March feels like the spring thaw might actually be happening. Avery and I snuck away for a midweek skin up the mountain last week and we could not stop talking about how lucky we were. Empty trails, no crowds, just the kind of quiet you forget exists. We couldn't believe it was possible!

This week we're doing something a little different. We've been sitting on this one for a while and we think it's time. Below is the first installment of a two-part series we've been building on GLP-1 medications: what they are, what we've seen clinically, and what we think they mean for all of us whether you're on one or not. Grab your coffee. This one's worth settling in for.

Something extraordinary happened quietly in the last few years.

For the first time in decades, obesity rates in the United States have plateaued and in some demographics, actually declined. No government campaign did this. No new dietary guideline. No viral wellness trend. A medication did it. A class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists, you know them as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound, did what thirty years of public health messaging could not.

That’s worth pausing on. Really pausing on.

I’ve been waiting to write about GLP-1 medications for a while now. After years of reading, listening, learning, and most importantly working directly with patients on an array of these medications, we finally feel ready to share what we’ve seen and what we’ve learned.

Read more

Happy Monday, Noosers! We are marching into a new month (get it?!), and with daylight saving and the promise of spring weather looking quite literally like the light at the end of the tunnel, we thought it might be a good time for a reframe, a new way to think about what we are thinking about.

Today’s Noosletter will give some practical and motivational tips to reframe your thoughts. We’re coming with a spring reframe from two angles, because we’ve found it really does take both. Anne is in your corner on the food side: the small, quiet, upstream decisions that make the hard moments easier before they arrive. Avery is tackling the mindset piece, because your environment can only take you so far. What happens between your ears matters just as much.

One of our favorite quotes (that really kicked this whole Noos thing off a couple years ago) is Napoleon Hill’s: “Every person is who they are because of the dominating thoughts which they allow to occupy their mind.” While our environment makes a huge impact on our decisions, we need to give credit to the power of our thoughts. Read along for some tips to help you navigate the daily struggles our environment presents — you know, when the pantry beckons you at 9pm and the bed feels way too cozy to work out when that early alarm goes off!

If you like what you read, click the ❤️ at the top or bottom of this post, or leave us a comment. We love hearing from you!

Leave a comment

March!

Coming home from one of my morning runs last week, I heard it, quiet chirping, a single bird, the kind of sound you forget exists after a long winter. And tomorrow night we have the full Worm Moon, March’s full moon named for the earthworms that begin surfacing as the frozen ground starts to thaw, a sure sign the earth is waking back up. The dawn is approaching earlier, morning light creeping in a little more each day. And then of course, daylight saving comes along next week to snatch it right back. Oh well. More light on the back end, I’ll take it!

There’s something about a new month, a new season, even a Monday that carries a little momentum with it. A breath of fresh air. A sense of possibility. (Read more about fresh starts here!) Avery and I want to piggyback on that feeling this March and offer something we’ve been calling a spring reframe.

One of the biggest barriers I hear from patients is: “I start the day with the best intentions and somewhere between lunch and dinner it all falls apart.” Decision fatigue. It’s not just a daily thing. Zoom out and the same pattern shows up on a bigger scale: I started the week great, then the weekend hit. I was doing so well, then vacation, then stress, then sickness. You insert whatever life throws at you.

The hardest part for most people starts around 4pm and doesn’t let up until 9. You get home from work and your brain is done making good decisions, it wants a reward. You’re unpacking the kids’ lunches, so hungry you’ve inhaled the leftovers before you even realized it. And then later, instead of midnight striking and the fear of turning into a pumpkin, it’s 8pm, a quiet house, and a raccoon-like figure takes hold, not ravaging the trash can, but absolutely ravaging the pantry!

We tend to blame the real world for all of it. And it does feel like the problem. But the real world has always been there. It was there last spring. It was there three years ago. It will be there next fall. The chip aisle isn’t going anywhere. The work stress isn’t either. Neither are the exhausted weeknights spent schlepping your children to their sports and activities. So if the real world is a constant, and it is, it can’t actually be the variable that’s shaping your relationship with food.

Something else is. Drum roll please….

Your decisions. The small, quiet, invisible ones you made before the moment arrived. Whatever's tempting is on the counter because that's just where it lands when you unpack groceries. The eggs weren’t hard boiled Sunday because it didn’t feel urgent. You put off planning out the week’s meals because Netflix was calling…

None of those felt like choices. But they were. And made over and over, quietly, they built the food environment you’re now standing in at 8pm when the raccoon takes over.

Here’s what I’ve learned from sitting across from patients—most of them don’t need more information. They need fewer decisions in the hard moments. And the only way to have fewer decisions at 8pm is to make better ones at 10am on a Sunday when you’re not depleted, not starving, not stressed.

Most of my patients don’t walk in the door because they woke up one day feeling inspired to eat more vegetables. They come in after a scary lab result or because their jeans stopped fitting. Hey, whatever gets you to the moment of “I want something to change” is valid. The question is just what you do next. You don’t need a new plan. You just need one thing. One small intentional decision today that makes tomorrow easier (or maybe choosing to work with us!).

Hard boil the eggs on Sunday, it takes 12 minutes, or buy them already made! Have something waiting for yourself when you walk in the door at 4pm instead of your children’s stale, soggy goldfish. Close the pantry before the raccoon takes over.

Pick one thing today that sets tomorrow-you up for a better day.

The worm doesn't wait for perfect conditions. It just surfaces.

Leave a comment

Anne’s right. It’s so easy to give in to challenges that real world “adulting” present on a daily basis. We are all one long day at work or one bad night’s sleep away from saying “Jesus take the wheel, I can’t possibly workout today.” We have all been there: making deals with ourselves that we will workout tomorrow, or start monday, or find a new program that will finally be the right one, then kick the can down the road a bit longer. Exercising on a regular basis can be a struggle — whether it’s where you live, access to gym equipment, or managing the daily list of responsibilities between family and work. On top of that, the workout itself can be a STRUGGLE. But what if we changed our mindset around exercise? What if we embraced the struggle instead of resisting it?

If you think we are springing out of bed, foaming at the mouth for a killer workout, you are mistaken. I engage in the daily ritual of “hmm-ing and ha-ing” when that alarm goes off. But most days, I’m open to the idea of starting the day with a little struggle, a little…. resistance (see what I did there, ahem, resistance training). Because once I have one struggle under my belt, the others don’t usually feel so bad. There’s a quiet whisper, knowingness, from somewhere deep within: I’ve been here before and I can do it again, that nudges me out from under the covers. And then as I'm brushing my teeth and still thinking about hopping back in bed, the whisper returns: I'm gonna do this because I know I'll feel at least 1% better after. That’s usually enough to get me through the first mile or rep. When the environment is my comfy bed, especially after a less than perfect night’s sleep, my thoughts are what get me moving.

And in case you thought we were done with the Olympics, it ain’t over yet. The clip of Alysa Liu on 60 minutes, saying she “loves the struggle, actually” with a big grin, really stuck. She goes on to say, that the struggle makes her feel alive. Her words made me think of exercise, that it is a struggle, but it always makes me feel alive. It’s the kind that gives, rather than takes. That kind of struggle builds strength.

When the workout feels clunky, the weights feel heavy, the miles feel slow or literally all uphill, rather than feel defeated, remind yourself that you love this kind of struggle — even if you don’t always believe it in the moment.

You love the struggle, not just because it makes you physically stronger, but because it builds the mental toughness that stretches well beyond the workout itself. The strength that will find you when your baby wakes up for the 50th time from teething, your dishwasher breaks, or your flight gets delayed. Every workout you push through is digging the well you'll draw from when the real world gets hard. You’ve done it before and you’ll do it again, whether or not you’re excited about it in the moment, because you love this kind of struggle and you know what’s on the other side.

So when the dreaded early alarm goes off or the weather looks too shi*tty for a walk? Remind yourself that you love a struggle. Maybe even say it with a grin like Alysa Liu (or fake one, because sometimes you do have to fake it til you make it). And know that the more you embrace the struggle, the more you might just love it. Perhaps not the middle of it, but the end, and the accomplishment you feel from overcoming whatever tried to convince you that the workout was not worth doing in the first place.

With more wins under your belt, the more wisdom you gain, and that whisper might just get a little louder. I’ve been here before and I can do it again — and I’m gonna feel better after it. So next time you’re negotiating with yourself to get started or keep going, let Alysa Liu inspire you. Love the struggle, it will make you feel alive.

Until next time..

Share

Happy Monday Noosers! We hope you’re kicking off a fab last week of February and not experiencing the post olympic hangover like we are. There’s nothing quite like watching the winter olympics — whether it’s keeping us company during an early morning workout or bringing our families together at the end of the day, it’s a wonderful mix of awe, inspiration and nostalgia.

Hard to believe we have to wait another four years to watch, and as mothers, that naturally makes us wonder: what chapter will our kids be in when 2030 comes around? Like we said, we are experiencing a little bit of an olympic hangover, ha! But, in the spirit of both USA hockey teams snagging overtime gold medals, we’ve been reflecting on our own olympics — and if you’ve just completed February break and now experiencing a snow day, you may too, be experiencing your own version of high stakes overtime. Read along for our take on the ultimate olympic sport: the challenge to feel good while participating in the greatest endurance sport: motherhood.

Read more

Happy Presidents Day, Noosers! We hope you are having a lovely long weekend or perhaps enjoying vacation (somewhere warm?!). In case this email finds you cold, miserable, and in the thick of whatever winter germs may have found you — this is the post for you. Anne and I are big fans of time outdoors in the winter, but these frigid temps have shortened our fuses and made summer feel like a distant memory/hallucination. If you’re feeling the same way, the winter blues are no fun, but there are ways to support yourself this time of year with nutrition and movement. In today’s post, Anne provides insight on mood boosting nutrients and Avery writes about how exercise isn’t just physical in these winter months — it’s critical for your mental wellbeing, too! If you’re feeling the winter slump, this one’s for you.

If you’re thinking about upgrading to paid subscription, click the button below. $35 dollars gets you access to all of our archived and future posts. That’s a week’s worth of starbucks, but a lot more bang for your buck!

Subscribe now

nutrition for mood

As I write the subtitle for this piece, I find myself continuing to type out nutrition for skin health, nutrition for heart health (stay tuned), nutrition for cognitive function, nutrition for performance and so on. There is nutrition for every part of our body, from the aesthetics to the systems. Before you get your hopes up and think you’re about to find what’s at the end of the rainbow, I want to level with you: the Venn diagram of “foods that support your heart,” “foods that support your brain” and “foods that support your mood” is basically just a circle.

The same whole foods that reduce inflammation in your arteries also build your brain cell membranes and help produce neurotransmitters. We’re going to talk about specific nutrients in this piece—omega-3s, B vitamins, vitamin D—but don’t let that fool you into thinking mood nutrition is some special category. It’s just... good nutrition. The fundamentals remain the same whether you’re eating for your heart, your brain, or your mental health.

The doldrums of mid-February may be hitting hard right now. This is the stretch where winter stops being cozy and starts feeling oppressive. Yeah, there’s a little more daylight in the evenings now, but the relentless single digit temps out there are brutal, and overall morale is in the basement. For me, the single best mood booster this time of year is movement. There is NOTHING like a good sweat (or face freeze lol) to reset your mental state, read Avery’s piece for more on this! But when you’re battling both the cold and the winter blues? Food plays a crucial supporting role, especially when you understand what your brain actually needs to produce the neurotransmitters that regulate mood.

Research strongly supports four main areas for mood: the Gut-brain axis, Omega-3’s, Vitamin D, and B vitamins.

Gut-brain axis:

Read more

Happy Valentine’s Day, Noosers! Instead of mailing you all a box of candy hearts, we thought we’d unlock one of our favorites — with the Olympics in full swing, we find ourselves reflecting on our love of sports. This is our valentine gift to you, we hope you enjoy reading it as much as we loved writing it. Have a great day ❤️ go sports!

Read more

Happy Valentine’s Day, Noosers! Instead of mailing you all a box of candy hearts, we thought we’d unlock one of our favorites — with the Olympics in full swing, we find ourselves reflecting on our love of sports. This is our valentine gift to you, we hope you enjoy reading it as much as we loved writing it. Have a great day ❤️ go sports!

Read more

Subscribe now

Happy Monday Noosers! Hope everyone is enjoying this especially sporty week — from the Super Bowl to the Olympics, we are SO here for it. As a couple of former college athletes, we love seeing competition at the highest level, and admittedly fantasize about “going pro” or competing at the Olympics — sport TBD 🤣.

But beyond the sports, whether it’s Super Bowl sunday spreads or you’re packing your kids’ lunches (or hiding in the pantry from them), there’s always a lot of chatter around snacks. We get asked by both clients and friends: what’s a healthy snack? Our answer is a little complicated, but today, we break it down — our personal takes on snacks, the industry built around them, and some questions to consider when you’re reaching for something in between meals.

If you like what you’re reading, click the ❤️ at the top or bottom of this post — better yet, click that comment button and let us know what you think. It makes our day!

Leave a comment

Do we snack? Answering as moms, people who eat, and health coach & dietitian:

Avery: When I think about “snacks” my eye starts twitching, thinking about how my kids whine, “can I have a snack?” 900 times a day.

Read more

“Thank God It’s Monday” is our way of elevating the ordinary. Mondays are often overshadowed by “Sunday Scaries” and seen as the heavy lift of the week — but we can also see Monday as a fresh start, an opportunity to start the week on our own terms. We hope this podcast can reframe more than just Mondays for you, and shed light on how things seen as ordinary can be quite valuable.

So often we see healthy habits curated on social media by influencers, gurus, and wellness “experts,” but we don’t get the whole picture — the disruptions, the unglamorous, the middle parts that don’t make the final reel. Our series, “Thank God It’s Monday” (TGIM), provides unedited conversations with friends, family and acquaintances to show how real people make health work for them every day, in their own way. Maybe you will hear something that might work for you! We hope you enjoy.

Get more from Anne, RD & Avery, NBC-HWC in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app