Real Food Stories

Craving bold flavor without the burnout—or the meat? We sit down with award-winning plant-based chef and author Adina Mullen to explore how global traditions make vegan cooking abundant, joyful, and deeply satisfying. From childhood vegan roots to a self-taught path through restaurant kitchens and two bestselling cookbooks, Adina shows how food can carry memory, culture, and ethics on one plate.

We dig into the big questio...

When should you start hormone therapy in perimenopause or menopause? Can estrogen actually protect your heart, bones, and brain? And how do you know if you’re “too old” to begin?

In this episode of Real Food Stories, I sit down with certified menopause expert and founder of Thrive Midlife Medicine, Dana Culp, DNP, to cut through menopause misinformation and outdated hormone therapy fears.

We unpack:

• The best timing for starting ho...

What if eating stopped feeling like a performance review and started feeling like support again? We take a hard look at how diet culture got a glossy “wellness” rebrand, why social media and wearables amplify anxiety, and how the industry profits when smart, health-focused women second-guess every bite. Then we sketch a simpler, kinder framework for midlife: regular meals, enough food, real satisfaction, and the confidence to trust...

Have you ever felt like midlife is a chaotic whirlwind, throwing you off balance as you navigate the complexities of menopause? Join host Heather Carey in this enlightening episode of Real Food Stories, where she sits down with award-winning marketing strategist and author Angela Burk, who shares her personal journey through the emotional and physical upheavals that many women face during this transitional period. Together, they ex...

Are you struggling to navigate the complex world of weight management and GLP-1 medications? Join host Heather Carey as she dives deep into the realities of these groundbreaking drugs with Anna Reisdorf, a registered dietitian and founder of the GLP-1 Hub. Together, they cut through the noise, debunking diet myths and shedding light on the effectiveness and misconceptions surrounding GLP-1 medications. This episode is a must-listen...

We strip away the noise and focus on ten steady, science-informed ways to make menopause feel manageable and within reach. Food, movement, hormones, sleep, and community form a practical framework you can start using today without fear or extremes.

• Food as a foundation with regular meals and protein spaced through the day
• Fiber from whole grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes to stabilize energy
• Movement wit...

Happy New Year and welcome back! 

Today I am exploring why so many women feel overloaded by wellness noise and how to find steadiness through community, clarity, and the simple act of real food. I am sharing my candid update story about my surgery and hormone experience shows why nuance and self-advocacy matter more than one-size-fits-all rules.

I am also talking about:

• re-entry to 2026 with a focus on orientation rather t...

What if “always hungry” wasn’t about food at all? Heather sits down with author and registered clinical counselor Jane McGuinness to explore how she lost over 100 pounds and kept it off by healing emotional eating, listening to her body, and replacing rules with honest moderation. No magic diet, no all-or-nothing plan, no Ozempic—just time, self-compassion, and daily habits that fit a real life.

Jane takes us back to the e...

This week on Real Food Stories, Heather breaks down the wild world of midlife nutrition in 2025 — from microdosing GLP-1s, oral semaglutide, and high-protein everything to cottage-cheese coffee, weighted vests, and the fiber frenzy. If nutrition felt chaotic this year, you’re not imagining it.

We revisit my most downloaded episodes on HRT confusion and upgrading your midlife kitchen, and she shares her own experience navigating horm...

Reinvention doesn’t wait for permission. After a career-ending car accident and the loss of both parents before 40, Tina Coleman made a radical choice one week later: she boarded a plane for her first solo international trip. That single leap cracked open a new life—full-time travel, sobriety, a 90‑pound health transformation, and a mission to help Gen X women trade exhaustion for agency.

We dive into what makes midlife un...

Take a listen if Thanksgiving is starting to feel like too much!

I name the pressure of a food-centered holiday and offer a practical way to feel steady without aiming for perfection. Breakfast, breath, micro resets, and one meaningful choice become anchors that make Thanksgiving calmer and more nourishing, rooted and rested.

• why Thanksgiving feels emotionally heavy
• the role of blood sugar in calm and clarity
• ...

What if your body isn’t failing you — it’s just stuck in protection mode?
In this episode, board-certified hypnotherapist Ethan Reis breaks down how clinical hypnotherapy (the real kind, not the stage show version) helps a hyperactive nervous system calm down so healing, behavior change, and better sleep finally become possible.

Ethan shares his own story of post-concussion migraines, light sensitivity, and depression — and how ...

Feeling stressed, disconnected, or stuck in your head? In this episode, we explore how somatic healing, breathwork, and movement can help women in midlife calm the nervous system, release stored emotions, and come back home to their bodies.

I’m sitting down with Brittany Cessar, a guide and practitioner of Somatic Activated Healing (SAH) — a movement-based practice that combines breath, music, and gentle gestures to help you feel em...

The holidays can feel like a full-contact sport: less daylight, more demands, and an endless push to perform joy on cue. We’re flipping that script. Heather shares a clear, compassionate plan to move through the season rooted and rested—anchored in what matters, nourished by simple food, and protected by boundaries that keep your peace intact.

We start with energy: why the time change hits hard, how a full-spectrum “happy ...

Midlife isn’t just about hormones and hot flashes — it’s about everything that comes with this season of change: our bodies, our relationships, our work, our purpose, our confidence, and yes… our food.

In this week’s episode of Real Food Stories, I open up about why I created The Well Nourished Woman Community — a supportive online space where women 40+ can reconnect with their health, their kitchens, and themselves.

I'm sharing...

Midlife is not a mandate to shrink yourself—it’s an invitation to feed the strongest version of you. We dig into why the old rules stop working, how cultural pressure to look “ageless” seeps into our plates, and what a kinder, smarter approach to food can look like day to day. If you’ve been “good” all week yet still feel tired, hungry, and frustrated, this conversation will feel like a deep exhale.

We break down a simple,...

Your 30's kitchen did its job—fast, convenient, and forgiving. 

But when hormones shift, muscle declines, and sleep gets touchy, those old habits can leave you drained. Let's walk through a midlife kitchen upgrade that feels doable: smarter food choices built around protein, fiber, healthy fats, and color; a few high-impact tools that remove friction; and a mindset shift that turns cooking into a creative act of self-care....

What used to work for your body in your 30's doesn't seem to work anymore. The skipped meals, low-fat foods, and calorie cutting that once helped you bounce back now leave you tired, hungry, and struggling with your weight. There's a reason for this – your midlife body requires a different approach to nutrition.

The midlife plate isn't another restrictive diet or complicated eating plan. It's a fra...

Ever feel like your body betrayed you somewhere in your 40s or 50s? Like you're doing everything "right" but the weight keeps creeping on? You're not alone—and contrary to what you might have heard, it's not your hormones causing the problem.

The reality of midlife weight management is both simpler and more complex than most wellness influencers would have you believe. While menopause itself doesn&...