Living Inspired - A Functional Approach to Women’s Health, Energy, and Resilience

Rachel Carta, RN
  • 5.0 (10)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Weekly

Living Inspired is a podcast for women who feel overwhelmed by their health, frustrated by normal lab results, and are looking for a calmer, more grounded way to feel better. Hosted by Rachel Carta, RN, Functional Nutrition Counselor, and Life Coach, this podcast explores women’s health through a functional, root-cause approach. We talk about fatigue, stress, hormonal changes, sleep issues, metabolism, and chronic symptoms, and how small, sustainable changes can restore energy and build resilience—without quick fixes or rigid protocols. Learn More: RachelCartaRN.com IG: @peaceinperimenopause

  1. 6h ago

    109. The Brain You’re Building in Midlife

    Brain health is not only something to think about later in life. What we do in midlife may influence the brain we have in our seventies and eighties, and many of the same habits that support long-term brain health can also help us feel better now. In this episode, I’m breaking down what women in perimenopause need to know about blood sugar, ultra-processed food, movement, strength training, sleep, relationships, mental health, and the modifiable factors connected with dementia risk. This conversation is personal for me because my dad developed dementia, and watching how much it changed him made brain health something I care deeply about. Most importantly, this is not about fear or trying to fix everything at once. It is about understanding where you have influence and choosing one small place to begin. In this episode: Why brain health matters in midlife How blood sugar and metabolic health connect to brain health Why movement, strength, sleep, and relationships matter What ultra-processed food actually means How to focus on one realistic change instead of doing everything at once Find Rachel on Instagram: @peaceinperimenopause Dr. Mark Hyman's episode that was referenced in today's podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dr-hyman-show/id1382804627?i=1000784321249 Mood Swings? Get the 5 minute audio to calm them now. https://rachelcartarn.com/sos Do you want to understand more of what's changing in your body in midlife and get a few simple tools to feel better now? Get the free guide: The Real Reason You Still Feel Off. Ready to Talk: Book a Clarity & Relief Session here. Eat Well Made Easy Course

  2. Aug 7

    108. What a 93-Year-Old Taught Me About Aging Well

    If you have caught yourself holding onto a version of you that no longer fits, this conversation is for you. Barb Wojahn, who is 93 years old, has volunteered as a bird bander for 52 years, held leadership roles in her church for decades, and is only now handing off a seniors program she has run for almost 30 years. This is not a conversation about how to live to 93. It is a conversation about how to keep asking who you want to be, no matter what stage of life you are in. In This Episode The interest inventory that told Barb she was suited to be a housewife, and what it took to build a life beyond that Letting go of activities and identities that no longer fit, and why that is harder than it sounds Learning to say no at 93, and what her husband used to tell her about being in two places at once The advice Barb's mother gave her about friendship that shaped her entire life Why connection is one of the six vital inputs your nervous system reads every day Find Rachel on Instagram: @peaceinperimenopause Rachel's Free Resources: Mood Swings? Get the 5 minute audio to calm them now. https://rachelcartarn.com/sos Do you want to understand more of what's changing in your body in midlife and get a few simple tools to feel better now? Get the free guide: The Real Reason You Still Feel Off. Ready to Talk: Book a Clarity & Relief Session here. Get the Eat Well Made Easy Course, on sale now

  3. Jul 31

    107. How to Stay Calm Under Pressure: Lessons From a Pilot

    You already know the feeling. The plan falls apart, the day turns sideways, and you are left standing in the wreckage of your own expectations, wondering why you could not just stay calm this time. In this episode, I sit down with a woman who spent decades in the cockpit of major airliners, flying everything from a small four passenger plane to a 787 across oceans, and who is now retired and figuring out what comes next. This conversation is not just about flying. It is about what happens in your body before the crisis ever shows up, and whether you have trained for it. In This Episode An unconventional path into a forty-six-year flying career, and the one conversation that started it.What it took to build a career in a field where only a small percentage of pilots were women.The exact moment an engine failed midair, and why the response was calm instead of panic.Simulators, checklists, and the real difference between talent and training.Calculated risk versus recklessness, and how to tell which one you are actually taking.The fine line between fear and excitement, and how to use it to make better decisions.What retirement actually looks like eighteen months in, and who would not let the dream sit unfinished.Why a hobby that hits more than one of your values will carry you further than one that only hits one. Rachel's Resources: - Mood Swings? Get the 5 minute audio to calm them now. https://rachelcartarn.com/sos - Do you want to understand more of what's changing in your body in midlife and get a few simple tools to feel better now? Get the free guide: The Real Reason You Still Feel Off. - Ready to Talk: Book a Clarity & Relief Session here. - Eat Well Made Easy Course

  4. Jul 24

    106. Root Cause Nutrition for Women: Reading the Signals

    You already know the feeling. It's the moment your calendar says you should be able to keep going, but your body has quietly decided otherwise: the fog rolling in mid-afternoon, the irritability you can't explain, the sense that you used to handle more than this without falling apart. In this episode, I'm sharing a conversation I had as a guest on Tracy Hoth's podcast, The Organized Coach, where we got into why so many high-achieving women blame their mindset or their discipline for something that is actually coming straight from the body. In This Episode Root causes: the three places nearly every chronic symptom actually traces back toGenes and epigenetics: why family history is not the same thing as fateThe soil and the roots: a garden metaphor for how autoimmune conditions really developFight or flight and your to-do list: why your nervous system can't tell a real threat from a busy dayBlood sugar and business: the physical reason behind midday irritability and brain fogThe three-minute nervous system reset that changes how the rest of your day goesFat, fiber, and protein: the simplest way to stabilize blood sugar without tracking anythingSleep as the first domino: why it matters more than any other single habitPattern awareness: the practice that comes before any protocol Resources Tracy's podcast, The Organized Coach Free Guide: The Real You Still Feel Off: What Your Symptoms Are Telling You Website: rachelcartarn.com IG: @peaceinperimenopause

  5. Jul 17

    105. The Magic Meal Formula: Fewer Cravings, More Energy, No More Diets

    If you've spent another Sunday night staring at a grocery list wondering whether you should be low carb, cutting dairy, fasting, or counting macros, this one is for you. In this episode, Rachel steps away from all the noise and hands you the one place she starts with almost every client, no matter what brought her through the door. This isn't another diet. It's a simple formula you can carry into any kitchen, for the rest of your life. In This Episode The Magic Meal Formula and why it starts with three simple pieces, not another diet.Blood sugar spikes and crashes, and what's actually behind your cravings.Healthy fat sources and what they're doing for your hormones, your brain, and your energy.Fiber, the piece almost every woman is under-eating, and how much you actually need.Protein's role in steady mood, muscle, and blood sugar, and how to tell if you're getting enough.Real client patterns, mood swings and hot flashes that shifted once meals were rebuilt around this formula.Simple examples for smoothies, salads, and eggs so you can build a plate without overthinking it.Eat Well Made Easy, the mini course this teaching is pulled from. Resources Eat Well Made EasyRachelCartaRN.comFind Rachel on IG: https://www.instagram.com/peaceinperimenopause/ Rachel's Free Resources: Mood Swings? Get the 5 minute audio to calm them now. https://rachelcartarn.com/sos Do you want to understand more of what's changing in your body in midlife and get a few simple tools to feel better now? Get the free guide: The Real Reason You Still Feel Off. Ready to Talk: Book a Clarity & Relief Session here.

  6. Jul 11

    104. What Nobody Explained to You About Perimenopause and Hormones

    You wake up in a body that doesn't quite feel like yours. Sleep is worse, moods are sharper, weight settles somewhere it never used to, and when you finally ask your doctor, you’re told your labs are normal. In this episode, I'm opening the doors to something I teach inside the Living Inspired Life Lab. This is the hormone conversation I have with nearly every woman who finds her way to me. It's not the version you've seen online where estrogen is the enemy and the right supplement fixes everything. It's the real one, where your hormones are one part of a much bigger story your body is telling you, and if you're in your late 30s, 40s, or beyond and you've started to feel like a stranger to yourself, this one is for you. In This Episode The hormone hierarchy, and why your sex hormones sit at the very top of the pyramid Blood sugar as the foundation everything else is built on The monthly cycle, and the difference between feeling unstable and being cyclical Perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause, and why menopause is only one single day The estrogen roller coaster, and why this stretch is often harder than menopause itself Progesterone, ovulation, and the reason your sleep changed FSH, lab tests, and why a normal result doesn't mean nothing is happening Hormone therapy as a start-at-the-base conversation, not a first move Resources Mentioned Find Rachel on Instagram: @peaceinperimenopause Podcast episode with a hormone nurse practitioner, Dana Culp, on the hormone therapy process. Podcast episode with Jane Butler on the mindset of the menopause journey.

  7. Jun 27

    103. The Pelvic Health Conversation No One Ever Had With You

    You laugh, you sneeze, you pick up the laundry basket, and there it is again, that little leak you've quietly learned to work around. Or intimacy has started to hurt, and the only advice you've ever gotten was to have a glass of wine and relax. Maybe days pass without a real bathroom trip and you've decided that's just how your body is now. I sat down again with Dr. Judy Rossi, a pelvic floor therapist with a doctorate in physical therapy and advanced training in pelvic health and orthopedics, for the honest conversation most of us were never offered about what these symptoms are actually trying to tell us. If you've been handed the word "normal" every time you've worked up the courage to ask, this episode is for you. In This Episode The pelvic floor as twenty-five percent of your core, and why the six-pack you were taught to chase isn't even part of itStress incontinence versus urge incontinence, and why the leaking you brushed off gets treated two completely different waysPainful intimacy, medical gaslighting, and the "just relax" advice that sends women home without help when ninety percent of the time it's fixableChronic constipation and dyssynergic defecation, the pattern where your pelvic floor clenches at the exact moment it's supposed to let goThe two-way highway between your brain and your pelvic floor, and what stays stuck when you're living in fight or flightWhy you can't out-supplement, out-exercise, or out-biohack a dysregulated nervous system, and where the work actually has to beginJudy's own decade with IBS and interstitial cystitis, and the tight, angry muscles that turned out to be the real driverThe places the body stores stress, from the jaw to the neck to the pelvic floor, and one patient story you won't forgetPerimenopause, thinning tissue, and the topical estrogen conversation worth having with your providerSimple vagus nerve practices like gargling, humming, and cold water that you can start at the bathroom sink today Resources Dr. Judy Rossi, Woodstock Pelvic Health Judy on Instagram @woodstockpelvichealth Living Inspired Podcast, Episode 54 (pelvic health basics and myths with Dr. Judy Rossi) Learn More About Rachel Rachel on Instagram @peaceinperimenopause Get the Free Guide The Real Reason You Still Feel Off in Perimenopause

  8. Jun 19

    102. What a Gas Line Trench Taught Me About Gratitude and the Nervous System

    This is one of those solo episodes where I interrupt the regular schedule because an ordinary moment had something to say. If you've been moving so fast that you're missing your own life, and carrying a stress load you've never actually named, this one is for you. In This Episode A hole in the road, a hard hat, and the morning that changed how I see comfortPhysical stress versus emotional stress, and why your body counts bothThe hidden labor behind the heat, the roads, the gas lines, and the clean sidewalks most of us never seeWhy a nervous system living at its limit can't heal, no matter how hard you pushThe irritation of construction delays, and the one question that calms your body in the momentComfort as the baseline, and what it costs us to treat every interruption as a problemA missions trip at fifteen, trash trenches, and what infrastructure really isReading the name tag: a ten-second practice for actually seeing the people around you Rachel's Free Resources: Mood Swings? Get the 5 minute audio to calm them now. https://rachelcartarn.com/sos Do you want to understand more of what's changing in your body in midlife and get a few simple tools to feel better now? Get the free guide: The Real Reason You Still Feel Off. Ready to Talk: Book a Clarity & Relief Session here.

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About

Living Inspired is a podcast for women who feel overwhelmed by their health, frustrated by normal lab results, and are looking for a calmer, more grounded way to feel better. Hosted by Rachel Carta, RN, Functional Nutrition Counselor, and Life Coach, this podcast explores women’s health through a functional, root-cause approach. We talk about fatigue, stress, hormonal changes, sleep issues, metabolism, and chronic symptoms, and how small, sustainable changes can restore energy and build resilience—without quick fixes or rigid protocols. Learn More: RachelCartaRN.com IG: @peaceinperimenopause

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