Nourish Wise Co.

10/29/2026

If you follow me at all, you know I write about cancer a lot. There's a reason.

My dad was diagnosed with cancer and passed away thirteen days later. We never got to sit down and look at his treatment options, because by then there weren't any.

I think about that more than I say out loud. How many people never get the time to ask questions. How much that time is worth.

So this post is for anyone who does have that time, or who's sitting beside someone who does.

A cancer diagnosis can make it almost impossible to think straight. You walk out of an appointment and realize you didn't ask half of what you meant to ask. That's normal, and it's why I wrote down a few questions that can help open the conversation with an oncologist. Things like: What is the goal of this treatment for my cancer? How much benefit is expected for someone in my situation, and how sure are we? What could treatment mean for my day-to-day life?

You don't need to know the medical language. You're allowed to ask for an explanation again, and to ask your care team to write things down.

And if you can, bring someone. The dragonfly mug in the photos is for the people we carry with us. The rose quartz is for love. The second cup is for whoever sits beside you. 🤍

I also wrote about where food fits during treatment, which honestly is sometimes three spoonfuls and a nap. That counts.

https://www.nourishwiseco.com/blog/questions-to-ask-your-oncologist-about-chemotherapy.html

If you've been through this, for yourself or someone you love, what's one question you wish you'd asked sooner?

My dad passed thirteen days after his cancer diagnosis. We never got to ask questions. If you have that time, here's how to use it.

10/15/2026

I read a number this week that I haven't been able to put down, and I want to be honest about why it got under my skin.

One in three women in this country says a healthcare provider has minimized or dismissed her symptoms.

I didn't read that as a statistic. I read it as me.

Twice in my life I have known — really known — that something was seriously wrong with my body. Twice I went from doctor to doctor. Twice I heard some version of everything looks fine. And twice, after I kept pushing, somebody finally said "let's look into this" and found that there really was something wrong. Both ended in major surgery.

What frightens me isn't that it happened to me. It's the version of the story where I stopped pushing.

Because that's the part nobody warns you about. When you tell someone over and over that something feels wrong, and hear over and over that everything looks fine, you start to wonder whether you're the problem. Am I overreacting? Is this just what getting older feels like? Maybe everybody is this tired.

I want to be fair: this isn't a post about doctors not caring. Nearly everyone I have met in medicine went into it because they do. Appointments are short. Caseloads are enormous. Insurance decides a great deal. Sometimes the pieces genuinely don't fit the expected box.

But if you're a woman who has walked out of an appointment holding normal results and a body that still doesn't feel like yours — you're not imagining it, and there are a lot more of us than I realized.

I wrote the whole thing down. What the survey found, what happened to me, what a normal lab result actually does and doesn't mean, and why having the time to listen is the reason I do this work at all.

https://www.nourishwiseco.com/blog/when-everything-looks-fine-doesnt-feel-fine.html

Have you been there? I'd really like to hear about it, if you're willing to share.

One in three women has had a provider minimize her symptoms. I've been dismissed twice, and both times something was actually wrong. Why that shaped how I practice.

10/08/2026

Something I learned that I haven't been able to stop thinking about:

A tumor can't grow bigger than about the size of a pinhead on its own. It needs oxygen and nutrients delivered, and waste carried away, and that only happens through blood vessels. Without one of its own, it starves in the middle.

So it signals the nearest blood vessels to grow toward it. And they do.

That's called angiogenesis — and the surprising part is that it's a completely normal process. It's how a cut on your hand heals. It's how an embryo develops. Cancer doesn't invent a new trick; it hijacks one your body already knows and jams the switch on.

I wrote about what that means, which foods actually show up in the research (thyme and celery, of all unglamorous things — plus green tea), and where the evidence honestly runs out. Because it does run out, and I'd rather tell you that than not.

There's also a soup at the end of it. My Italian penicillin soup, rebuilt around the herbs.

https://www.nourishwiseco.com/blog/how-tumors-build-their-own-blood-supply.html

Be honest — do you throw the celery leaves away? I did for

No tumor grows past a pinhead without a blood supply. What angiogenesis is, which foods show up in the research, and where the honest limits are.

10/01/2026

Confession: I'm not anti-supplement. I'm anti-making a supplement do a meal's job.

A supplement can deliver magnesium. A meal can deliver magnesium alongside protein, fiber, healthy fats, plant compounds, energy, and the small but important experience of actually feeling full. A handful of pills may have impressive numbers on the label, but it is not lunch. Your stomach remains unconvinced.

That doesn't make supplements bad. They're incredibly useful when they're filling a real gap: a confirmed deficiency, B12 for someone who eats fully plant-based, higher needs during pregnancy, an absorption issue, or a plan directed by a practitioner who knows your history.

In my newest post, I break down what the "food matrix" has to do with nutrient absorption, the beta-carotene story that shows why more isn't automatically better, and how to tell when a supplement actually makes sense.

I also share the bowl I made to show what I mean: sweet potato, chickpeas, yellow pepper and eggplant from my garden, and a lemon-sriracha hummus dressing I may put on everything from now on. Recipe's linked in the post.

The short version: build the foundation, identify the gap, then choose the tool.

https://www.nourishwiseco.com/blog/whole-foods-vs-supplements.html

So tell me: how many bottles are in your supplement cabinet right now? No

I'm not anti-supplement. I'm anti-making a supplement do a meal's job. What the food matrix does, when supplements make sense, and the bowl that proves the point.

09/19/2026

It's college football Saturday, and if you walked into my kitchen right now you'd have zero idea this pile of diced potatoes, carrots, red onion, and garlic is about to become nacho cheese. Vegan nacho cheese, at that.

No cashews to soak overnight, no ingredient list you need a decoder ring for — just vegetables, simmered soft and blended smooth, doing all the heavy lifting that a block of orange cheese food product usually does. It's the kind of recipe that looks unassuming right up until it disappears off the chip plate.

I'll be sharing the full recipe soon, but for now — tell me, what's on your game day snack table this season? Still team queso, or have you branched out?

09/08/2026

We hiked the Big Arsenic Trail in Taos Wild Rivers Recreation Area on Sunday. Tough, but so fun. About 1.5 miles down with a 747-foot descent — which means a 747-foot ascent for that same 1.5 miles back up. Both are humbling 🥾

The views were absolutely worth it. The experience was 100% worth it. I won't lie, coming back up we stopped every quarter mile or so to catch our breath. Finished the whole thing in about an hour and a half, and the exhilaration you feel after doing something genuinely hard is worth every aching step.

One of the reasons I became an NTP in the first place was to figure out how to heal myself. I've had brain surgery, I have titanium in my neck, I'm missing a vertebra, and I live with chronic pain every day. Being able to do a hike like this isn't nothing to me — it's the whole point of the work I've put into my own healing. That's also why, when a client walks in overwhelmed and in pain, I'm not just sympathizing from the outside. I've been exactly there.

Life is full of pain, physically and mentally. My advice — get outside, have adventures, enjoy the challenge of being alive, watch the sunset, get a little teary-eyed after sharing something amazing with people you love. Above all, don't forget what a gift it is to be here and to experience life. Don't take it for granted.

What's an adventure you talked yourself into lately, even when part of you said not to?

09/03/2026

I have been the last one eating at every family dinner, potluck, and restaurant table for as long as I can remember.

Everyone else pushes their plate away and moves on to conversation while I'm still quietly working through my vegetables. For years I thought this was just a personality quirk — a little embarrassing, honestly.

Then I got to the chapter on digestion in Elizabeth Lipski's Digestive Wellness and found out my slowest-eater-in-the-room habit isn't a quirk at all. Poor chewing and rushed eating are listed as the very first thing that tends to go wrong with digestion. Before stomach acid. Before enzymes. Before anything else.

Of all the things I expected to feel a little smug about at the dinner table, my inability to keep pace with everyone else was not one of them.

I wrote about what chewing actually does, the study that made me feel better about finishing last, and why none of this needs to turn dinner into homework.

https://www.nourishwiseco.com/blog/slowest-eater-at-the-table-chewing-and-digestion.html

Are you the fast one or the slow one at your table? I already know which one I am 🫣🤣

The habit I used to apologize for might be the most useful one I have. What chewing actually does, and why rushing costs you more than you'd think.

08/27/2026

So excited for my friend at Lavender & Sage Homestead If you haven't checked out her amazing produce and hand made products at Oak Hollow Market you definitely need to. And such great news, she's expanding into more spaces locally 🧡🧡 Love, love, LOVE to see fellow businesses grow and have success!

I’m so excited to partner with Bentonville Mercantile! I’m preparing all of my goodies for their shop and some new exclusive items you’ll only find there. Coming soon!

08/23/2026

Some hikes teach you about switchbacks and elevation gain. This one taught me something else entirely.

We spent our last day in Montana (well — technically Idaho, Schweitzer Mountain sits right on that line) climbing 3.1 miles and 1,600 feet up toward the Great Divide. It was slow going. My legs were already tired from a week of adventuring, and every switchback felt like it was daring me to turn around.

And then, about two-thirds of the way up, we rounded a bend and there he was — a black bear, maybe 30 yards off the trail, just... staring. Not startled. Not running. Just watching us like he'd been expecting company.

We didn't linger for a chat. Let's just say our "leisurely mountain pace" turned into something a lot closer to a power hike, and we covered the rest of that trail faster than either of us expected our tired legs to move.

By the time we reached the top — lungs burning, heart pounding, standing next to a sign literally marking the Great Divide — I had this moment of clarity I wasn't expecting. We talk so much in this work about nourishing the body: what we eat, how we move, how we rest. But standing up there, wind whipping, valley spread out below us like a patchwork quilt, I was reminded that nourishment is so much bigger than food.

It's the burn in your legs that tells you you're capable of more than you thought. It's the adrenaline that sharpens your senses and reminds you you're alive. It's the quiet at the top of a mountain that settles your mind in a way nothing else can. Mind, body, and spirit — all of it needs tending, and sometimes the best nourishment doesn't come from a kitchen at all.

We came down that mountain sore, a teeny bit sunburned, and grinning like idiots. Worth every step. Worth the bear-induced cardio spike too, if I'm being honest.

Where do you find your nourishment outside the kitchen? I'd love to hear about it in the comments. 👇

08/21/2026

Thursday night dinner, no recipe required.

Salmon, farro, roasted veggies, and a salad with more colors in it than my Google calendar 😂 Nothing here took a special trip to a boutique grocery store or a Pinterest board - this was just what was in the fridge, thrown on a sheet pan.

I think we put too much pressure on "eating healthy" - like it has to be complicated. Most nights it's really just: protein, a whole grain, and enough vegetables that the nutrition kind of takes care of itself - fiber, omega-3s, antioxidants, no tracking app required.

What's your go-to easy dinner when you don't feel like cooking but still want to feel good afterwards? Let me know because I'm always collecting ideas 😀

p.s. h**p seeds are a great source of complete protein and so easy to throw on top of a salad or in a smoothie... 🌈