Words of Wellness with Shelly
Do you get confused by all of the information that is available regarding ways to improve your health and wellness? Do you often become frustrated or overwhelmed with decisions on how to be your healthiest? We all know and understand how important our health and wellness is to the vitality of our lives, however navigating the wealth of health and wellness information available can often feel overwhelming. Understanding the significance of our well-being in leading fulfilling lives is crucial, yet determining what steps to take that are essential for our health can often be confusing.
Welcome everyone to "Words of Wellness"! In this podcast, hosted by Shelly Jefferis, M.A., a seasoned health and wellness professional with over 35 years in the industry, all of your questions will be answered and clarity will be provided through personal stories, education, tips and inspiration. Throughout her profession, Shelly has always had the heart and desire to help others feel their best and live their best lives through her supportive and compassionate approach. Through engaging solo and guest episodes, several topics will be addressed, questions will be answered and clarity will be provided in an effort to lead you to a healthier, more energetic life. With a master’s degree in kinesiology, extensive experience as an educator, speaker, coach, and entrepreneur, Shelly brings a wealth of knowledge and a genuine passion for empowering others to feel their best. By featuring industry experts and relatable individuals, the podcast promises personal stories, practical advice, and inspiration. She is excited to come to you weekly sharing all she has experienced, learned and discovered through the years. Whether you're seeking to elevate your well-being, gain practical insights for personal health, or simply be inspired to live a high quality vibrant life, this is the podcast is for YOU! Be sure to tune in weekly and join us along our "Words of Wellness" journey and embark on a path toward a healthier and more fulfilling quality of life full of happiness, energy and joy!
Words of Wellness with Shelly
Midlife Hormones, Real Answers: What If "Normal" Syndromes Deserve More Attention
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“It’s normal” can be comforting, but it can also be a conversation stopper. If you’ve been told your midlife symptoms are just part of getting older and then sent on your way, we want to offer something better: context, clarity, and real next steps.
We sit down with nurse practitioner Rachel Smith, owner of Aspect Wellness, who focuses on optimizing health for midlife women. Together we unpack what hormonal shifts in perimenopause and menopause can look like in real life: sleep disruption, brain fog, libido changes, shifting body composition, and lab markers like cholesterol and insulin sensitivity that can start to change even when your habits haven’t. Rachel shares why women are not just little men, why research and messaging often miss the nuance of female physiology, and why that gap leaves too many women feeling confused or even scared.
Then we get practical. Rachel names her top priorities for women ages 40 to 60, starting with muscle as a powerful lever for metabolism, glucose regulation, long-term mobility, and healthy aging. We also talk nervous system regulation, stress management, and sleep optimization, because nothing holds together during the day if you’re not truly rested at night. Finally, we cover self-advocacy in healthcare and how to avoid the late-night influencer rabbit hole that sells fear instead of evidence-based wellness.
If this conversation helps you, subscribe to Words of Wellness, share it with a friend, and leave a rating and review so more women can find support that actually moves the story forward.
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Thank you and God Bless! And remember to do something for yourself, for your wellness on this day!
In Health,
Shelly
Cold Open On Midlife Symptoms
But then that's where the conversation ends. And that's what needs to change. The conversation doesn't end there. Yes, it's normal for your hormones to get chaotic in your 40s and for that to impact your sleep and for it to cause brain fog where you're losing a word mid-sentence, even though you're an expert on this topic. And it's normal for libido to crash and for skin texture to change and hair to change and for muscle mass to decline and for visceral fat to increase, insulin sensitivity to decline, and cholesterol to go wonky. All of those things are normal when we see them happening in this phase of life, but that doesn't mean we have to sit back and just watch it happen. Do you get confused by all of the information that barbards us every day on ways to improve our overall health and our overall wellness? Do you often feel stuck, unmotivated, or struggle to reach your wellness goals? Do you have questions as to what exercises you should be doing? What foods you should or should not be eating? How to improve your overall emotional and mental well-being? Hello
Welcome And Podcast Mission
everyone, I am so excited to welcome you to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries, and I will be your host. My goal is to answer these questions and so much more. To share tips, education, and inspiration around all of the components of wellness through solo and guest episodes. With 35 plus years as a health and wellness professional, a retired college professor, a speaker, and a multi-passionate entrepreneur, I certainly have lots to share. However, my biggest goal and inspiration in doing this podcast is to share the wellness stories of others with you. To bring in guests who can share their journeys so that we can all learn together while making an impact on the health, the wellness, and lives of all of you, our listeners. The ultimate hope is that you leave today with even just one nugget that can enhance the quality of your life and that you will, we all will, now and into the future, live our best quality of lives full of energy, happiness, and joy. Now let's dive into our message for today.
Meet Rachel Smith And Her Work
Hello everyone, welcome back to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly, and I will be your host. And my guest today is a nurse practitioner, and she is the owner of Aspect Wellness, and she primarily focuses on midlife women and helping to optimize them in their overall health. So, right up my alley for sure. So welcome, Rachel. I'm so happy to have you. Shelly, thank you for inviting me. It's truly an honor to be here and share with your listeners. Thank you. Yes, I appreciate you taking the time. And I know we have a lot that we can cover today, and I know that we have a lot in common. So I noticed that you used to be a certified midwife. So I'm I'm guessing that's kind of how your work that you do now has evolved from that work prior. Do you still do a little bit of that? So everything about the work I did as a nurse midwife informs my work today because I have a very intimate understanding of what it means to walk with women through the hormonal journeys of their life, whether it's the early years, the childbearing years, the transition years, the later years, postmenopause. I've done that work for two decades now. And so, yes, everything about the work that I do comes from the heart of a midwife. Absolutely. But I'm not delivering babies and I'm not doing clinical work. I'm not doing pelvic exams treating yeast infection. So those days I am grateful to say are part of my clinical past, but not something I'm doing currently. Okay, so I love that because you've been there, done that, and so now you can say you've you've experienced that, you've moved on. And I think it's so ideal when you say you've you've gotten to experience all of those journeys with women to be able to really truly help them today in what they're going through. And I think that's so key for someone like yourself to actually have lived it and experienced it and worked in it and be able to really truly guide women in the best direction that you can to help them with their optimal health, like you're doing. So that's really wonderful. It is, I'll tell you what, um who is it? Uh, I believe that it's Dr. Stacy Sims, if you follow her, who says that women are not
Why Female Biology Needs Its Own Data
just little men. And I don't necessarily uh agree with everything that Dr. Stacy Sims says, but that is a very accurate statement. And although I am both a certified nurse midwife and a family nurse practitioner, so that's two separate master's degrees that I've accumulated over the years, which means I can take care of men and women across the lifespan. The work that I do with women is very much different because of how hormones interact with our physiology. And it truly is a changing landscape if you're talking to a woman at 27 versus 42 versus 56. It's so true. And it's interesting because I am, even though I've been in this industry for decades as well, I feel like this is a topic that I'm just learning about within the last five to 10 years. And didn't even realize it myself, how different it can be. Just like you're saying, from age 30, 40 to 50, there's a big gap there of adjustments and change that happen. And I have also seen and heard, I've had guests talk about this topic as well, is that for so long the research has been done on men, and the the same kind of information is being shared kind of across the board. And it's true, we're we are completely, of course, different physiologically. So our needs are going to be completely different when it comes to our hormones. And I think that's such an important message to get out. And I I think now, I would hope now that most women understand that, but it's I feel like it's still new. Do you feel like that? It's still you're still getting the message out, and a lot of people are still learning. I think you're right. If you're in this space, it feels like old news. But in terms of how that message is being delivered to the women who are impacted by this information, who are living through it or have lived through it, and how legislation impacts them. The whole idea of studies having not been done on women. I mean, we can't blame the scientists for that. There are legitimate reasons why women are not the ideal population to study because we're constantly changing, and studies need a stable subject. You know, by default, that has been men. Can we design smarter studies? We need to. More nuanced studies that will, you know, explore how medications work inside female physiology. Yes. But I think you're right. When I approach this conversation with any new person I'm talking to, I come into it in many ways, sort of assuming that their algorithm is the same as my algorithm, and it's not always the case. So I don't think everyone has heard this to the same extent that you and I have. And that's such an interesting point because I have expressed that myself being in this industry for so many years. Sometimes I take for granted that people know what to do or they understand, you know, what foods they should be consuming, how much protein should they be doing? What should they be doing for their workout? I mean, just some of the basic, even then fitness components. There's so many different areas that we are familiar with because of our background. And I've done that for many years, and I I come back to the basics I find myself when I'm teaching my college students specifically, is I remind myself, go back to the basics, share the basics with them because they don't all know. They just don't, and it's not any fault of their own, it's just they haven't been taught. And you know, that's like any subject matter, right? I mean, there's so many areas that I'm not familiar with because I have not learned or have not been taught, and and and it's okay, but I think it's so interesting to hear you say that you sometimes do the same where you just figure that they know and they it's not always the case. So what are some top, I guess, a couple of top areas that you're focusing on with women right now that you find maybe are the biggest challenges, or you're helping through them through a certain phase of whether it's parry or just through their menopause journey, what are you what are you discovering right now currently? My top two.
Muscle As The Midlife Priority
If I were to say that I have four or five pillars of of health, the top two for women navigating midlife, so 40 to 60, would be muscle because of how influential muscle is on our metabolism, our potential for living independently for many, many years, and how muscle interacts with our glucose regulation, which influences our cardiovascular disease risk and our cognitive risk. Do you remember the song from grade school, the knee bones connected to the thigh bone? Yes, I don't need to sing, but I I think of that every time I start to imagine the cascade of how one system or hormone touches everything else in our body. And it's easy to see when you understand the complexity of that, how one thing being off can have this downstream effect. So, muscle number one. And again, I feel like that message is out there, and also some people haven't heard it. You and I may agree, yes, we need to have strong muscles, we need to be doing strength training, we need to be doing weightlifting, but how we define that is an important nuance to the conversation because I still have patients tell me, oh yes, I'm doing strength training, and then they go on to describe their workout that they're doing, and it might be on YouTube or Beach Body or yeah, I don't need to say a brand, and they're using their little hand weights, which is a great starting point if that is where you are. But what women need to hear is we need to build muscle while we can, because it is an investment in our long-term health down so many different pathways. So that's number
What Strength Training Really Means
one. Number two is the super trendy nervous system regulation. And I almost hesitate to describe it that way because if you had asked me even one year ago, I would have just said stress management. And what goes hand in hand with stress management is sleep, they're in the same bucket. But today we talk about nervous system regulation because that's trendy and on topic. But what that means is how is our body interpreting what the world is throwing at us and how is it impacting our physiology? And what can we do about it? So those are the the two things that I spend a lot of time talking to the midlife woman about because what is that midlife woman doing? She is encountering hormonal chaos, she is often raising teenagers or sending kids off to college, she's navigating her aging parents, she is the CEO of her own company, or she has achieved a great deal of career success working for someone else. And she is beginning to have something called brain fog. And she's beginning to see that weight is distributing differently on her body, even though she's still working out the same way, she's still very careful with, you know, she knows words like macros. She knows she needs 30 grams of protein at each meal. She's still doing those things, but suddenly she's getting different results. And that's a very scary phase of life for women to be living through. I remember living through it, and even as a women's health expert at the time, I didn't know what was happening. I thought that I was coming down with some autoimmune condition. I've got a lot of that in my family. That's a story for another day, but that's where my brain went. And I was a supposed expert in this field after many years of working with women. It took a colleague or two or three to say, oh, that that you're experiencing, that could be that could be fluctuating estrogen. Oh, that that you're experiencing, that could be declining progesterone. Putting the pieces together was important for me in my own health journey. It's so first of all, it's very refreshing to hear you share all of this that you're sharing because I feel like um, forgive my dog's air barking in the background. I feel like this is such a missing piece. And I could, I just feel like we get to these phases of life and think maybe that it's going to be more calm or less stressful or not as busy when it's quite the opposite. And what you're sharing is so spot on. And and I I'm living through it too, like having our youngest is in college, our two older children are out on their own and going through, like you said, the phases of of just raising our kids and teen years and going off to college and and getting, you know, adulting and being on their own. And it's just a different phase for us as women and moms, and it's not any less stressful or less busy as we might think. You know, I mean, we're getting thrown so many different things, and then going through what we are going through physiologically and with our hormones just can put us in this state, like you said, chaos. And we don't always understand why. And like you said, I'm sure so many women like yourself put it on something and think, oh my gosh, I'm getting something or what's going on with me. Why do I not feel myself? And gosh, I think this is such a great conversation, just at the very minimum, to give moms and women the just the I don't know if it's confidence, but the reassurance that they are okay, they're not losing their mind, and that this is actually
Nervous System Regulation And Sleep
normal, and there are actually things that we can do to help them feel better and feel better in their skin, right? Yes, yes. I'm cautious around saying that it's normal because it is a normal phase of life, but that language has been used. I don't mean again to disparage all of the hardworking primary care providers, women's health specialists out there who are doing hard work in a fragmented, wrecked healthcare system. However, how many women do you know, and that I hear from every day, who go to their doctor or their gynecologist and are told it's normal. And that may be reassuring, but then that's where the conversation ends. And that's what needs to change. The conversation doesn't end there. Yes, it's normal for your hormones to get chaotic in your 40s and for that to impact your sleep and for it to cause brain fog where you're losing a word mid-sentence, even though you're an expert on this topic. And it's normal for libido to crash and for skin texture to change and hair to change and for muscle mass to decline and for visceral fat to increase, insulin sensitivity to decline, and cholesterol to go wonky. All of those things are normal when we see them happening in this phase of life, but that doesn't mean we have to sit back and just watch it happen. We are not helpless. There are many things that we can do, many things we should be proactive about. There are options. Not everyone will want those options, but many women are candidates for, especially if we're talking menopausal hormone therapy. And I hesitate to call it menopausal hormone therapy because it can start before menopause. It's so true. And that's another key point, too, is that again, I didn't know that. I mean, I've learned that now that we start to have those symptoms at such young ages. And, you know, I have to give my daughter credit. She's 27 and she she went on this deep dive on hormones. And and I went, gosh, you know, I never learned, so I never was able to teach her. And it's just this whole gap, like we're saying, not just the science and the research on women, but also that education around it. And so I really admire people like yourself doing what you're doing and sharing that information. And it's so true. I, that's something that else that's really been on my mind and my heart is to not just for myself, but for others, to share that message that we want, we don't want to just settle for the normal labs. And I, you know, I was reading this book not too long ago where I went, wow, it was like an aha moment for me where I always feel like, okay, yeah, I'm in the right range, I'm in the right range. And I went, no, no, no, no. I don't want to just be normal. I want to be, like you say, optimal. We want to be in those optimal ranges because I have also learned, and I know you know this, that even in those normal ranges can already be pre-diabetes. Um, these different areas that we can be leading ourselves up to having these different illnesses and diseases and not even realize it. And that is concerning to me, but yet at the same time, it's also motivating to get the message out and make sure that women are getting the information that they need and they deserve to have to live optimally and have that longevity. And I just had my blood work done not too long ago, and I had come across a couple different additional tests that I wanted
Normal Symptoms But Not Helpless
to have on done personally, and she did them. But I thought for the average person who maybe isn't in this line of work, or maybe they're not seeing these different suggestions of different labs to have done, they don't know. And so again, I mean, I I thank you for what you're doing and getting the message out and getting the word out because it's very it's crucial. It is crucial, and it there are a couple of unfortunate trends that I see. One that primary care providers and the way that primary care is delivered to most Americans, at least, is a somewhat of a disservice because we have to indeed be self-advocates. We we almost have to go in and advocate for ourselves because you know, your primary care doctor, I don't care how good they are, and you may have, they may have been taking care of you for 30 years, which is awesome if you have that. However, they may not be off, they may not have the time to be up to date with the fact that the the new cholesterol guidelines have been published. And now, like we even, you know, at your primary care, you should be offered these tests. You shouldn't have to ask for them. And yet most people will have to ask for the testing on their own, and they may even get pushback because so so often at your primary care office, you know, they have some kind of uh an insurance system where the They are rewarded for keeping costs low within the practice. So they're they may not even order you those labs because it's going to go against their annual bonus, which is very unsettling. We have to advocate for ourselves. And yet, you know, what that leads to is, you know, 2 a.m. Instagram scrolling, and then you've got an influencer giving you your health advice. And that's a dangerous situation. Right. Because you and I may know how to, you know, listen to that with a critical ear and understand, okay, like most of us know they're trying to sell us something, but it's really easy to cite a few studies and make yourself sound like an authority and make it sound like you're delivering science. And I don't know if the average person on Instagram or TikTok at two in the morning doom scrolling, you know, has that same kind of training on how to evaluate research and understand like is this meaningful? Does this apply to me? Should I be worried about this? Because that's how sales are created. You know, we I if I'm an Instagrammer, I create fear in my listener, in my viewer, and then I sell you the solution. And that's a really easy sale in the middle of the night when you're alone and freaking out about your symptoms. It's so true. So that stage that's really what I what I see as so concerning. And
Self Advocacy And Better Lab Testing
I try not, I try to meet people where they are. So if somebody comes into my office, whether they're an established patient or a new patient, and they ask me about some online personality, they're never going to, you know, hear me shaming them for following that person or trusting their advice because we have all been there. We've all we've all been in that situation. But I I just try to be that voice of reason where I'm going to be looking at the science. I'm going to be making sure that I'm as up to date as possible so that if you have a question, I can answer it from an evidence-based perspective, not what's trending on TikTok right now. Amen to that. So important. And that's something I have shared with clients and my students for years is that the same exact thing. My goal is always to give clarity and answer their questions to the best that I can so that they have the, like you say, the evidence-based, accurate information. Because, as you and I both know, like you're saying, there's so many people out there that sharing information. And just because they have a million followers or whatever it might be, doesn't mean they're giving us the accurate information. And we have to be so cautious of that. I have a friend who we actually went to school together and taught college together, and that's another big area that she focuses on. And her main focus is exercise physiology. And she says, This is why I do what I do. Same exact thing like we're sharing right now, is to get that message out, the actual factual information so that people know what's real and what is legitimate science. And I mean, it's it's going to be just an ongoing, I don't want to say uphill battle, but it's going to be an ongoing, I think just a something for us to continue to kind of tackle and pursue and just continue to help get the right information out for the public. Amen. Right? I they're just so many, so many people, like you said, just don't have the message yet, whatever it is, but giving them a sense of empowerment, putting information in their hands, and then um giving them the tools to act on it in a way that will produce the results that we're all looking for. And, you know, what does that mean for you? It's probably different than what it means for me, but we all have things that we imagine doing with our golden years, our retirement, whether that's RVing around the country or or babysitting your grandkids, or you know, writing a memoir. I I don't care what it is for you. I just want you to be able to do it, not spend your weekdays going from one doctor's appointment to the next, which is what I see so often. I live um down here in the Tampa area, Sarasota. And this is retirement paradise, right? Right. So many, so many people. Like that's that's their Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. It's one specialist after another. It doesn't sound fun. That doesn't sound like what I want my retirement years to look like. So, you know, working hard to build a different future for myself and for the women that I take care of. That's so key. And that's what I I talk about all the time. And part of the reason I started this podcast was to get to the and is to get the message out. And it is, like
Influencers, Fear, And Evidence Based Care
you're saying, it's for it's for us, it's for our health, but our family's health and all the future generations. Because this is this is a critical time to make that difference and to be that example and to carry it into future generations. And it's just a huge mission. And I I know just from talking with you, that's that's yours as well. And I just I enjoy this so much. I I'm really, really happy that we connected and I feel like we could uh definitely have some more conversations and more episodes down the road for sure. Yes, for sure. I think you know, we barely scratched the surface, but um, there's a lot of alignment there. So I appreciate this opportunity to come on and at least get started. For sure. And I just I love Rachel speaking with you. I can just tell already, you just have such a nice, calming air about you, and just you you just educated, calm. And so, you know, women that you're working with are very, very lucky and blessed to have you. How can our listeners find you? That if anyone wants to reach out, what's the best place? Sure. Probably the best place to find me is either on LinkedIn or Instagram, Rachel SmithDNP. Okay, and I will add that into the show notes. And yeah, I'm already thinking, when can when can we jump on and do this again? Yeah, I think we could we could just tip pick one topic and and go for an hour easily. But uh, this would have been great. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you so very much. And any last words of of wellness or inspiration or any tips even you want to leave with the listeners, like one or two maybe things they can do now just to help them feel better and and feel feel more confident in what they're going through. Sure. I will share the same thing. I I was asked at the conference this weekend, and uh the gentleman I was speaking to learned that I work you know in the field of longevity, and he said, Oh, what's what's your one number one hot tip? And I was in a room full of entrepreneurs, and so my my number one hot tip for everyone in that room, and probably a lot of your listeners, is um stress management and sleep. That's a big one because our culture taught us I'll sleep when I die. And the unfortunate repercussion of that is that you will die sooner. So figure out how to manage your stress
How To Find Rachel And Final Tips
in a way that gives you some very real downtime so that you can breathe and bring your body into a rested state before you expect it to fall asleep and stay asleep. But let's let's work on that sleep optimization. Nothing will come together for you during the day if you're not well rested. Speaking my language right there, I love it. So, so true. And I I talk about that too. The sleep is huge and the stress management, like you said, it just goes hand in hand. And I would I would absolutely a hundred percent agree with you, though. Those are the two top key areas to really focus on for sure. For sure. So thank you for that. Yes, you bet. You bet. And thank you so much, Rachel. I really appreciate you being here. And to all of our listeners, be sure and reach out to her. You can just listen how calming and kind and educated that she is, and how much she is helping women in this whole area of optimal health and and learning about our hormones and what's the best way to feel our best, really, ultimately, and and go through these eight these years with energy and vitality. That's the whole ultimate goal. And so I encourage our listeners to reach out to Rachel and as always, do something for yourself and your wellness on this day. And until next time, have a beautiful, blessed, rested rest of your week, everyone. We'll see you next time on Words of Wellness. Thank
Closing Thanks And Listener Requests
you so much for tuning in to today's episode. I hope you gained value and enjoyed our time together as much as I did. And if you know someone who could benefit from today's episode, I would love and appreciate it if you could share with a friend or rate and review Words of Wellness so that more can hear this message. I love and appreciate you all. Thank you for listening. And if you have any questions or topics you would like me to share in future episodes, please don't hesitate to reach out to me through my contact information that is shared in the show notes below. Again, thank you for tuning in to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelley Jeffries, and I encourage you to do something for you, for your wellness on this day. Until next time, I hope you all have a healthy, happy, and blessed week.