Live Joy

  I love having a good show on while I'm working out or when I finally get a little "me time" to relax. I don't have cable, so everything I watch is on streaming services. Over the last few months I've found several series that were absolutely worth the watch! I won't give away too much, just enough to help you decide what to add to your list.  If You Love a Good Chick Flick... Off Campus (Amazon Prime) A fun college romance full of chemistry, friendships, and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. It's light, entertaining, and easy to binge. Every Year After (Amazon Prime) A heartfelt friends-to-lovers story that follows two people over the years as life, timing, and fate keep bringing them back together. The Summer I Turned Pretty (Amazon Prime) A coming-of-age romance centered around first love, family, friendships, and unforgettable summers at the beach. If you haven't watched it yet, it's definitely worth catching up on. Ransom Canyon ...

  One of my core beliefs is that life is made up of the lessons we learn along the way. As much as I wish it weren't true, some of the biggest lessons come through loss. Over the years, I've lost several people, all much sooner than anyone expected. Just a few weeks ago, a colleague and friend passed away unexpectedly at only 33 years old from a heart condition. Like so many sudden losses, there wasn't an explanation that made it feel fair. People often say, "Everything happens for a reason." I've never found comfort in that phrase because, in my experience, not everything has a reason that we can understand. Some things are simply heartbreaking. But I do believe we can choose to find meaning in what happens. We can allow loss to teach us something about how we want to live. One lesson always rises to the surface for me: life is incredibly unpredictable. We spend so much of our lives waiting. Waiting for the promotion. Waiting for the relationship. ...

If you're in your 40s or beyond, you've probably realized something frustrating: what worked in your 20s doesn't work anymore. Your hormones are changing, sleep isn't as restorative, your body feels different, and your brain feels different. Hello, brain fog (or what I lovingly call menopause brain). Yet somehow, we expect our bodies to respond the same way they did twenty years ago. We slash calories, spend an hour on the treadmill, take another fitness class, and wonder why the scale refuses to budge. The truth is, midlife requires a different strategy. And honestly? That realization can be hard. Not only do you have to change how you eat and how you exercise, but you also have to accept that healthy, sustainable progress simply takes longer than it did before. We live in a world of instant gratification where everyone promises quick results, but building a healthy body for the long term doesn't happen overnight. I want you to ask yourself one simple question:...

  The picture on the left is from 1987 in kindergarten, the top right is 2000 our senior year of high school, and the bottom left is last weekend 2026 If you've followed me for a while, you probably know I'm an introvert. Add being a Capricorn to the mix, and my friendship circle is intentionally small. I know this might sound a little harsh, but I'm not someone who is always looking to make new friends. I've also realized that "friend groups" just aren't for me. Even in our 40s, there can still be drama, and I've reached a place in life where I simply don't have room for it. Instead, the friendships that fill my heart are the quiet ones. The one-on-one conversations over coffee. Long walks. Lunches that somehow last for hours. Phone calls that start with, "Do you have a minute?" and end an hour later. I grew up in Massachusetts but went to college in Kentucky so I have lived in Kentucky/Indiana for the past 26 years. Most of my clo...

  One of the biggest shifts I've made over the last few years is becoming much more proactive with my health instead of reactive. I don't want to wait until something feels wrong before I start asking questions. I want to understand what's happening inside my body while I still feel healthy so I can make small adjustments today that benefit me years from now. That's why I started using Function Health in 2023. More Than Just a Routine Physical When most of us go to our annual physical, our primary care provider orders a standard set of labs. Those tests are important, but they're designed to look for obvious problems. I wanted a much more complete picture. Function Health tests more than 130 biomarkers , giving me insights into everything from cholesterol and cardiovascular health to inflammation, hormones, thyroid function, vitamins, minerals, metabolic health, liver function, kidney function, and much more. This isn't about finding something wrong....

  How much time do you spend worrying about things you can't control? Maybe it's whether someone likes you. Whether your children make the "right" decisions. Whether you get the promotion. Whether your relationship/friendship works out. Whether people understand your intentions. Whether life unfolds according to your plan. I've been there too.   For so much of my life, I believed that if I worked hard enough and planned carefully enough, I could influence almost every outcome. But life has a way of teaching us otherwise. One of the greatest lessons I've learned is this: You can't always control what happens to you, but you can control how you respond. And that changes everything.   The Circle You Control (SEE TOP OF BLOG) The larger circle contains everything you wish you could control: The smaller circle inside it is where your energy belongs. Inside this circle are the things you actually control. Every minute spent trying to control the outer circle is...