Episodes

Jen is celebrating two years of sobriety today and is chatting with her most special guest yet – her husband PJ. From navigating a relationship where alcohol was once central to their social life to finding new rhythms, they reflect on the ups and downs of this change. PJ opens up about how her journey has impacted his own relationship with alcohol, leading to subtle shifts in his habits (like discovering a love for NA beer!).

The couple shares how they’ve hit their groove—socializing in ways that feel right for each of them, with PJ continuing to drink occasionally and Jen fully embracing her sober life. Honest and thoughtful, this episode gives us a real look at how sobriety can ripple through a relationship, bringing challenges but also deeper connection and understanding.

In this episode, Jen is joined by Mark Spewak, a competitive runner, coach, and cornerstone of the St. Louis running community. Mark shares his journey from selling More Miles, More Smiles T-shirts to organizing charitable races that have become local institutions. Drawing inspiration from his mother’s charitable work, Mark’s latest project, the Market Mile, aims to support organizations actively revitalizing downtown St. Louis—combining fitness, fun, and meaningful impact.

Mark also opens up about the challenges he faced in 2021 when a CSF leak forced him to take an unexpected break from running. He reflects on the mental and physical toll of stepping away from his passion and how it deepened his gratitude for life’s unpredictability. Whether you’re a runner, entrepreneur, or someone seeking inspiration, this conversation is packed with insights on resilience, community, and purpose.

In this emotional episode, Jen opens up about navigating raising a teenager and watching her 13-year-old son grow up and start to pull away. Jen shares her raw feelings about the sudden changes in their once easy, close bond, reflecting on how quickly her son seems to be coming into his own. While she knows this independence is a healthy part of growing up, it’s left her grappling with this mix of pride and sadness. 

Through this candid conversation, Jen seeks to foster connection and remind herself—and others—that these feelings are part of the process of parenting.  

In this episode, Jen explores her experience with aging and the challenges that come with navigating the flood of health advice online. She talks about how many women in her circle, like herself, are facing perimenopause and feeling overwhelmed by conflicting health information. Jen opens up about the struggle to find reliable guidance and shares her own journey toward aging gracefully.
 
From choosing positive “gracefully aging” role models to building a healthier relationship with social media. She encourages experimentation with different approaches to self-care by asking a few simple questions. 

In this episode, Jen is joined by Dr. Melanie McKean, a reproductive psychiatrist specializing in women’s health, to talk about perimenopause—a topic that’s often shrouded in silence. As Jen opens up about her own experience with perimenopausal symptoms, like brain fog and forgetfulness, Dr. McKean dives into the neurological and hormonal shifts women undergo during this transition and shares actionable steps to help, from better sleep and exercise to mental health care.

They discuss the challenges women face in finding safe spaces and supportive medical guidance for conditions like PMDD, pre- and postpartum mood changes, and menopause-related mental health. Dr. McKean offers expert insights on navigating perimenopause and debunks common myths while highlighting the evolving standards of care, recent advancements in hormone therapy, and when women should consider speaking to a professional.

In this episode, Jen welcomes back one of her favorite people, her Feldenkrais teacher Sandy, to dive into the transformative power of self-care and sleep. They explore Sandy’s recent sleep camp and how it uses Feldenkrais methods to help participants achieve better sleep and greater body awareness. Jen shares her own experiences from sleep camp and offers tips on how to improve sleep quality at home, even if you can’t attend the camp.

Together, Jen and Sandy discuss the importance of recognizing the value of self-care choices and how, sometimes, it takes time to be ready for new ideas. They reflect on their personal journeys of embracing what they now value and share techniques to help listeners become more mindful of their physical presence.

After a recent talk centering on burnout and self care for a group of registered dietitians, Jen has found herself coming back to the idea of finding the self care practices that serve the individual. 

In this episode, Jen shares her most effective self care practices and the ways that she has adapted them to work for her. Not all of these will work for everyone, but they are tools to add to your self care toolbox. 

From techniques for evaluating your current self care routine to determine if it is actually causing stress to ideas for slowing down and removing yourself from the busyness cycle, this episode will help anyone trying to incorporate more meaningful self care practices into their life.

In this emotional and candid episode, Jennifer and special guest, Alex Highsmith, open up about their sober journeys. From drinking daily and living moment to moment to owning multiple businesses, Alex shares her highs, lows, and tips for staying sober. If you’re sober or sober-curious, this episode is a must listen.

In this episode, Jen talks with Dr. Maureen “Moe” Schulte about self-care strategies for people experiencing infertility. From taking blame out of the conversation to maintaining a healthy exercise program, Dr. Moe draws on her own experience to connect with her patients and guide them through the physical and emotional challenges of infertility.

This is an authentic and vulnerable look into the complexities and emotional effects of infertility that you want to listen to. 

In this episode, Jen shares her go-to strategies for keeping both her mental and physical energy levels up. She dives into the importance of nutrition, offering tips on building a day’s worth of meals that keep your energy steady—from managing blood sugar to finding the right rhythm with meal timing. Jen also opens up about her alcohol-free lifestyle, explaining how it helps her maintain consistent habits and avoid the energy-draining effects of alcohol. Plus, she touches on the vital role of quality sleep and how even power naps can be game-changers when you’re running low on rest.

But that’s not all—Jen also explores how movement can boost your energy, emphasizing the importance of finding exercises that feel good without wearing you out. Whether you’re looking to fine-tune your daily habits or just curious about how to feel more energized, this episode has you covered!

It seems like everyone is talking about Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy. On today’s episode, Jennifer talks to IFS certified therapist, Karissa Mueller.  Karissa walks us through the ins and outs of IFS and even walks Jen through a live therapy session in the episode. You don’t want to miss this one – it could actually change your life.

IFS is good for everyday life, not only when something is wrong. It can be a paradigm shift for living and how you think about your internal experience relating to the world. You can get a lot of long term benefits from learning how to relate to the world.

If you’re feeling stuck in your current therapy or feel like there is more that you want to explore, sit back and take a listen.

Jen’s back for a third season and in this first episode she’s reflecting on the past 1 year and 7 months that she’s spent sober. From more even social energy to feeling more authentic to sleeping better to being more present with her family, Jen has noticed both expected and unexpected benefits from not drinking. But, it hasn’t been without struggle and Jen opens up about how she navigates the bumps in the road. 

As always, Jen would love to connect with other sober and sober-curious listeners via social media (or in real life!). 

Dr. Jamie Kocher, a leading expert in women’s health and fitness,  joins us today to get personal about everything from incontinence to how tight jeans can affect your health. With years of experience helping women work through pelvic floor dysfunction to return to sports and active lifestyles. 

Pelvic floor concerns can be extremely embarrassing and frustrating. So many people feel really alone with it and pelvic floor physical therapy can be a very conservative way to help with pelvic floor dysfunction. Jen opens up about the her struggles that began in high school and that still plague her today. 

In this episode, Jen’s family therapist, Dr. Bryan Pearlman, joins the show as we delve into the topic of self-care for boys and men. From exploring the barriers that get in the way of emotional awareness to the stigma surrounding vulnerability and expressing feelings, this conversation goes deep. 

In his practice, Dr. Bryan focuses on the power of mindfulness and being present and living in the now. He works with men and boys of all ages and helps them to embrace their emotions as part of their masculinity. From years in the educational system and his recent work as a therapist for men and boys, Dr. Bryan’s insights are invaluable. You’ll want to tune in for this one! 

Want to hear two emotionally in-tune professionals talk about all things anxiety? Tune into this conversation between Jen and Rhett. Rhett Smith is a marriage and family therapist, executive coach, speaker, and author with an expertise in the treatment of anxiety. And we already know that Jen is a dietitian with a passion for self care and personal growth.

From delving into the root cause of anxiety (a violation of trust) to their own personal struggles to how we can define our anxiety in our own lives, this episode goes everywhere. If you struggle or ever have struggled with anxiety, you won’t regret listening. 

Restless is a word that represents a lot of complicated feelings, but we all know what it feels like in our bodies. In this episode, Jen explores how she deals with restlessness; that feeling that you should clean the house or be productive or make time for volunteering at your kids’ school. She reminds us that rest and stillness are also important. Take the challenge to slow down and take some time to just sit and be.

In this candid, vulnerable episode, Jen opens up about her past struggles with disordered eating and control around food and exercise. This year has re-ignited some of these old thinking patterns and Jen shares openly about how she’s still healing this part of her.

The Kamat family is the embodiment of the entrepreneurial spirit. In this episode, Jen talks to Drs. Vinay and Sona Kamat and their son Ehan. They stopped drinking alcohol 10 years ago, but maintained an appreciation for exploring the complexities of flavors. 

Jennifer and the Kamats talk about the benefits of not drinking, how you can still enjoy beer and wine through mocktails and NA options, and how their new non-alcoholic Napa Cab, Domaine Kamat, was created.  Plus, you get to learn how alcohol is removed from wine – cool, huh?

Everyone gets triggered. It’s normal and a part of life. When you get triggered, do you find yourself asking, “Why can’t I get past this?” “Why does this still bother me?” ?

In this solo episode, Jennifer processes where she is in her current place of growth when it comes to managing triggers. She explores changing her approach from thinking about the root cause of triggers to experiencing the feelings and emotions that come up and moving through them.

The decision to stop drinking was one of the top best choices Jen’s made in her life. A Little over a year after her last drink in December of 2022, Jen talks about how her life has changed, the feedback she’s received, and what’s next for her.

In this episode Jen gets personal about why she shares her journey so publicly and how she responds to people’s reactions to her decision to stop drinking. She also shares the changes that she’s seen in her sober life. Things like presence, calm, and space.

If these episodes have sparked an interest in sober living or just drinking a bit less, message Jen. She is here to share stories and tips and to be a sounding board for the sober curious.

In this episode Jennifer reflects on a couple of interactions with her sons over the past few weeks that got her thinking about staying grateful. They also got her thinking about how gratitude can go wrong and more intentional ways to approach gratitude in her own life.  

There are times when gratitude goes wrong. These can show up as showing one sided gratitude on social media, feeling like you should be grateful during hard times, and keeping yourself stuck in situations under the guise of gratitude.

This one’s deep, so if you’re looking for an exploration of gratitude and gratitude practices as you move into the new year, this is for you. 

In this episode Jennifer gets to interview one of her dream guests! She sits down with renown writer, teacher, speaker, and leading voice in the recovery and sobriety community, Becky Vollmer. When Jen first started Love You More, she had a vision of the content she would produce and the people she would dream of having on the show. Becky was one of those dream guests.

Becky’s expertise is in helping people to get unstuck. Jennifer and Becky talk about how you can know if you’re stuck and how you can start down a path of freeing yourself from your stuck-ness. 

Stick around until the end to get an update on Jennifer’s alcohol-free journey and hear about the gifts sobriety has given Becky. 

Today Jennifer sits down with her life coach, Helen McLaughlin, to talk about how you can reframe situations by recognizing your thoughts and feelings for what they are. They unwind the between peace and happiness, discuss the merits of assigning greater meaning to your positive thoughts, and delve into how the brain creates the thought patterns that can have so much control over us.

Helen and Jennifer tackle hard questions like: How can we use our thoughts and not focus on them too much? How do you get out of negative cycles of thinking? What advice do you have for people who are using food or alcohol to deal with uncomfortable feelings? 

In this episode Jennifer talks with fellow dietitian Sarah Krieger about how she discovered hypnosis and how she integrates it into her nutrition practice. In her current practice, the majority of her clients are seeing her for hypnosis, but are being treated for some type of nutrition issue in the background. Most clients come to her looking for help with weight loss, but she has also used hypnosis to change people’s behaviors around smoking, phobias, sleep, and sports performance. 

If there is something that you want to change about yourself or your life, hypnosis can help you do that. From weight loss to worrying about politics to dealing with difficult family members around the holidays, hypnosis can help you to change your thoughts, habits, and reactions. 

A couple of weeks ago, Jennifer spent a weekend in Nashville at a 3 day music fest – with the goal of letting loose and just having fun.  This past alcohol-free year, has been an exercising in re-discovering what fun means and she is here for it! 

Research shows that play is good for physical and mental health and helps adults to develop better coping mechanisms and manage stress better. 

In this episode, Jennifer talks about her own journey of building playful habits and gives you tons of resources that you can use to delve deeper into this topic and start adding more play into your day.

Nine months into her sober living journey, Jennifer reflects on alcohol-free firsts and some awkward moments. Surviving summer, concerts, and canoeing with 3 rowdy boys, she feels like she’s hit her stride and is feeling more and more confident in her ability to navigate without the help of alcohol.

Jennifer also share her favorite non-alcoholic beers and some tips for handling social situations that typically revolve around drinking. 

When Jennifer’s mastermind group asked her to choose her favorite productivity book to share on their most recent retreat, choosing Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman was a no-brainer.

With ideas like doing nothing, finding novelty in the mundane, and choosing your failures in advance, this isn’t your average productivity resource. Burkeman reminds us that we only have, give or take, 4000 weeks to spend so we better find the time to enjoy it. 

In this series wrap-up, Jennifer provides a raw and emotional life update. As she continues to work through her foot injury, Jennifer talks through her thoughts on the Boston Marathon, her recovery, and what’s up next.  

Accepting this change in her relationship to running while focusing more on wholistic self care has brought up thoughts and feelings that have been hard to move on from. In the second part of this episode, Jennifer talks about rumination and how to get unstuck from thoughts that may be getting in the way of enjoying the experience of your life. 

Jennifer and her good friends and fellow sports dietitians get together to talk about how athletes (and other active people) can practice self care to optimize performance and to promote overall health.

Jennifer, Sarah, and Kelly talk about how athletes can maintain healthy bodies and minds when it comes to their training and fueling. They talk about the biggest problems they see in their own practices, their best advice for optimizing training (pssst…all of them said rest), and this group of active moms commiserate about meal planning for their families. 

In this episode, Jennifer calls in the Omega-3 experts to answer your questions, clear up confusion, and give you their favorite sources of this essential fatty acid. This one digs deep into nutrition, but taking care of your health and meeting your body’s needs is one of the deepest, truest forms of self care.

Omega-3 experts from GOED Omega-3 join Jennifer in this conversation and force her to put her dietitian hat on as they delve into the best Omega-3 sources (think SMASH! Salmon, Mackerel, Anchovies, Sardines, Herring) and walk you through how much and what you should eat for optimal health.

If you have ever wondered what Omega-3s are, how much to eat if you’re pregnant, if the mercury in fish is bad for you, if you should take supplements, or what DHA and EPA even mean, download this episode right now. You’re about to get some knowledge.

Wellness culture can make us question if we’re using the right cosmetics, eating the right foods, exercising the right amount…the list goes on and on.  In this episode, Jen and guest, JC Lippold, unpack the root causes of shame in the wellness industry.

JC is a teacher of movement and mindset, a community engager and social movement trailblazer, a theatre director, and a full-time leadership and change coach and consultant. He believes that everyone is enough, is doing enough, and is trying enough and is passionate about spreading that message. 

From walking through the shame cycle to exploring what being enough really means, this conversation will shift your perspective on the messaging coming from wellness professionals, the media, and even your friends and family. 

Over the past couple of months, Jennifer has been exploring her relationship with alcohol and drinking. Now, after 2 months without a drink, she fills us in on her history with alcohol from high school to college to having her kids, and talks about the challenges of not drinking in a culture built around alcohol.

So many of the books and podcasts out there talk about really extreme situations, but there are a lot of people that want to change their relationship with alcohol but don’t have what society would define as a “drinking problem.”

Jennifer and Dr. Kreikemeier having been collaborating on the Got Good Gut Health? program and on this episode they talk about everything from Dr. K’s hot yoga to the pros and cons of at-home microbiome testing.

Dr. Kreikemeier shares his own self care journey navigating his medical career through the pandemic, how he found a better and healthier work life balance, and how he became a disruptor in the medical community. 

And on top of that, we got him to give away his top tips for maintaining good integrity of the gut, so you should probably listen just for that!

Research has shown that journaling has positive effects on sleep, stress, and overall happiness. You don’t need to journal every day to see the benefits – you only have to journal when you feel like it. Isn’t that an easy form of self care?

Jennifer talks about different forms of journaling and how even writing out a task list can be a form of journaling. As long as what you’re writing is helping you to organize or work through the thoughts in your head, it’s journaling. 

Do you write things down? Do you keep a journal? I’d love to hear about your journaling practices. 

This episode was inspired by Mr. Rogers and his uncanny ability to give his undivided attention and listening ear to everyone he met. It makes you want to be a better person – a better listener. 

When you get down to it self care is about meeting your needs and when we serve others well, we also help meet our own needs. In this episode Jennifer explores what it means to be a good listener by an examination of bad listeners and shares some tips for parents trying to be good listeners for their kiddos. 

After a running injury sidelined her from her favorite sport and method of self care, Jennifer found myself in a comparison trap. At the same time, one of her clients was struggling not to compare himself to other runners while he was struggling to find time for training with a 5 week old baby at home. 

Jennifer decided to approach her comparison with curiosity and learned about herself in the process. In this episode she talks about the injury that led her down the comparison trap and how she used curiosity and acceptance to find her way out. 

Whether you are comparing your athletic achievements, work, parenting, relationships, or anything else, staying curious and giving yourself grace will help you to accept and move past these feelings. 

When you’re a baby you know how to take care of yourself and your body, and the Feldenkrais Method teaches self-referencing as a way of bringing you back to your internal guide.

In this episode, Jennifer talks to Sandy Weiss, a physical therapist and Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner, about how the Feldenkrais method can be used as self care. Whether you are looking for a deeper connection with yourself or trying to heal a stubborn injury, the Feldenkrais Method has something to offer. 

Sandy walks through a Feldenkrais lesson that you would learn in a class and can be done sitting. The only rule is that you have to keep it slow and easy.

Sometimes you have to change up your self-care routine. It could be because you got a new job, moved to a new house, or got an injury or illness that stops you from doing an activity that you once enjoyed and included as part of your self-care routine. Jennifer has always identified as a runner, but after getting an injury and having to take a long break from running, she is struggling to find a new self-care rhythm. 

Jennifer and therapist, Pattie Cashman, talk about how to identify the triggers that are creating obstacles to accepting feedback, looking at your family history to understand where your triggers come from, and what to do if you realize that you’re shutting down in the middle of getting feedback.

Welcome to the new season of the Love You More Podcast! I’m so happy to be back. 

Since we’re kicking this off during Thanksgiving week, we’re going to talk about Mindful Eating and how you can make eating a time for self-care. At a time of year when things can be stressful and there is delicious food all around you, there is no better time to talk about enjoying food while also honoring your body. 

In this episode, we talk about how to know if you’re hungry, how to enjoy your meals mindfully, and look at how mindful eating can be the ultimate form of loving yourself more.  

All season long, we’ve talked about self care practices that can help you to feel healthier, happier, and more fulfilled. We’ve talked about eating well, exercise, getting enough sleep, feeling our feelings, but we haven’t talked about how to stick with these practices in a meaningful way. 

In this episode Jennifer talks through questions, practices, and resources that will help you to turn your self care actions into long-term healthy habits. 

Planning meals, grocery shopping, and cooking nourishing meals for you and your family are deep level self care behaviors that can be especially challenging to fit into a busy schedule. The key is to figure out what works for you and allowing the process to change and grow over time. It may actually become something that you look forward to and cherish as self care time! 

Jennifer and Sara share tips and tricks for meal planning, including your family in the planning and cooking process, and how to overcome the most common barriers to getting to the store and getting healthy food on the table. 

For most parents, summertime is a big transition. The schedule is looser, kids are headed off in all directions, and there is an added pressure to enjoy everything and have fun. Plus, there’s worrying about the kids at sleepaway camp and the guilt that comes with not parenting perfectly. 

This episode is a quick one that explores ways that we can care for ourselves when life feels a little out of control. Jennifer gives some good ideas for continuing your deep self-care practice even when your schedule goes out the window. 

Shannon is an intuitive eating expert and somatic experiencing practitioner who works with her clients to help optimize the self-discovery and healing in the process of creating a new relationship with food and body. She’s also one of my best friends! 

In this episode we talk about how to deal with the guilt around self care, Shannon’s professional journey, and somatic experiencing techniques you can do today.

With her whole household down with the flu, Jennifer and her son are both struggling with hard feelings. In this episode, Jennifer uses Mark Nepo’s writings to explore how you can experience your feelings without labeling them as good or bad.

Accepting and experiencing your feelings is the highest form of self care and one that is so often overlooked. Whether your going through hard things right now, if you’re sick and quarantined, or if you’re feeling pretty good, this episode is definitely worth a listen.  

At a time when 2/3 of Americans want to change the relationship they have with their smartphone, there has never been a better time to evaluate the control your phone has over you. This episode outlines how you can start to change the way you use your phone with the goal of paying more attention and spending your time more intentionally. 

Jennifer is trying 10 techniques to change the way she uses her phone – join her to revamp the relationship you have with your smartphone. 

Were you taught self-compassion as a kid? I know I wasn’t. I was definitely taught to treat other people nicely, but no one ever talked to me about treating myself kindly. Self-compassion can make you healthier both mentally and physically, and generally makes people happier overall. 

In this episode we look at how we talk to ourselves and I’ll give you some well-researched ways to start cultivating a self-compassion practice.

Kelly is a sleep expert that walks us through how we can improve sleep from infancy into adulthood. She explains why we have trouble falling and staying asleep and gives us real world solutions to improving our sleep. 

At a time when 1/3 of Americans are getting less than 7 hours of sleep per night, people are scrolling social media in bed, and we seem to just be getting busier and busier, good sleep is needed now more than ever.  Are you getting your 8 hours??

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been taking a critical look at the role alcohol plays in my life, the role that it plays in my clients lives, and the role that it plays in society. 

Does drinking add to my enjoyment of life? Does it make me healthier? Does it make me a better mom? These are the questions that I’ve been asking myself. Join us to talk through answers to these questions and for ideas to start cutting down on your own alcohol consumption.

After reading Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, I found myself evaluating how I deal with stress and if I was doing everything I could to avoid burnout. Are you suffering from the 3 warning signs of burnout? Do you know how to deal with stress in a healthy and productive way?

We’ll talk through the signs of burnout and 5 easy changes you can make to help deal with stress, feel better, and avoid the negative long-term effects of stress and burnout.

An important component of self care is nourishing your body in ways that feel good, reduce disease, and provide your body with the nutrients it needs to function optimally. Incorporating more plants into your diet is the key to all of those. Whether you want to learn about the benefits of a plant-based diet, want to learn easy swaps you can use to get more fruit and vegetables in your meals, or are struggling to manage a diagnosis this episode is for you! 

Between the Great Pause, working from home, kids doing at home learning, sick family members, and constant up and down news cycles, COVID knocked a lot of us off of our normal schedules. This has left lingering affects on our nervous system that makes it harder for us to deal with stress.

This episode focuses on developing self care routines that help you to meet your needs daily without having to make constant decisions. We will talk through the importance of self care routines, why they work, how to set them up, practice them, and how to sit with the good once you have a routine in place.