Informed Choice with The Naija Goddess

The Naija Goddess
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Nutrition

Welcome to Informed Choice, the podcast where holistic nutritionist, chef, and Functional Medicine doctoral candidate Ini Isangedighi, BCHN, The Naija Goddess helps you cut through confusion and discover how to heal naturally and live vibrantly. Each episode blends research-driven insights, plant-based strategies, and practical conversations with health experts and thought leaders. Topics include plant-based nutrition, herbal medicine, midlife vitality, stress recovery, and natural approaches to chronic conditions. You will gain science-backed tools, simple frameworks, and actionable guidance to make confident decisions for your health and your life. Whether you want to increase energy, support longevity, or find clarity in the overwhelming wellness space, this podcast offers reliable direction for lasting transformation, one informed choice at a time.

  1. 2d ago

    Successful on Paper, Exhausted in Real Life Ep33

    Burnout is not a mood, it is a measurable physiological state, and most women never learn to recognize it until the body forces the issue. In this episode, self-preservation coach La Brown joins The Naija Goddess to break down what chronic stress actually does to the nervous system, and why so many high-achieving women cannot say no even when they know they should. La built her coaching practice after burning herself out trying to be available to everyone, all the time. She explains why apology habits start as early as childhood, how the body's stress response stops distinguishing between a real emergency and a decade of low-grade pressure, and why cortisol that never tapers off at night leads to non-restorative sleep, clenched jaws, and a gut that never fully calms down. The conversation goes further than boundaries as a buzzword. La and Ini talk through what she calls the bridge metaphor, how every woman has a weight limit on what she can carry before something breaks, and why burnout in caregivers can quietly spill over into how they treat the people depending on them most, including aging parents. They also cover a simple calendar audit that exposes the gap between what a woman thinks she is capable of and what her actual day allows, and the difference between a boundary set out of fear and one that is genuinely sustainable. Topics covered: - Why chronic stress keeps cortisol elevated long after the actual stressor is gone - Where people-pleasing and the habit of apologizing for existing actually start - The bridge metaphor: how to tell when your capacity is maxed out - How burnout in caregivers affects the people they are trying to protect - A realistic framework for auditing your calendar against your real capacity - The difference between a reactive boundary and a sustainable one - Reframing guilt as a signal of progress instead of wrongdoing This episode also features a herbal spotlight on skullcap, a nervine herb studied for calming an overactive nervous system without sedation, and a cooking segment for Naijatarian Efo Riro with Millet, built to replenish the magnesium, B vitamins, and Vitamin E chronic stress depletes fastest. Guest: La Brown, self-preservation coach Website: www.allisalabrown.com Instagram: @allisalabrown Host: The Naija Goddess www.TheNaijaGoddess.com InformedChoicePodcast@gmail.com Disclaimer: Some of these links go to one of my websites and some are affiliate links which means I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to take the place of medical advice or treatment from a personal physician. All viewers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding specific health questions. Naija Goddess does not take responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All viewers of this content, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement, exercise or other lifestyle program. #CulinaryMedicine #HolisticNutrition #NaturalWellness

  2. Sep 30

    Your Closet Is Keeping You Stuck. Here's Why. Ep32

    She had the title, the wardrobe, and the reputation. She also had a drinking problem nobody could see, a closet full of clothes from a woman she no longer was, and a growing disconnection from the person she was supposed to be. Donna Hundley is the Chief Presence Strategist and founder of The Designed Presence, a framework built to help highly achieved women over 40 align how they feel on the inside with how they show up in every room they walk into. In this episode of Informed Choice with The Naija Goddess, Donna takes the mask of confidence completely off, sharing her journey through caregiving, functional alcoholism, sobriety, and the moment she realized her closet was not a storage problem. It was an identity problem. Dr. Naija, The Naija Goddess, Doctor of Functional Medicine and board-certified holistic nutritionist, brings the clinical layer: the stress identity loop, the neuroscience behind chronic high performance, why loneliness activates the same inflammatory pathways as physical injury, and how ashwagandha directly supports the HPA axis after years of sustained stress. This episode is for the woman who looks like she has it all together and is exhausted from keeping up the performance. It is for the woman who has not recognized herself in the mirror in years. And it is for anyone who has ever wondered whether the version of themselves they are presenting to the world is actually who they are. What you will take away from this episode: why your closet is a mirror of your current identity, what functional alcoholism actually looks like from the inside, the one free thing you can do this week to start closing the gap between how you feel and how you show up, the clinical reason why community is a biological necessity and not a luxury, and why presence is not something you either have or do not have. It can be built. Connect with Donna Hundley: The Designed Presence: www.thedesignedpresence.com Instagram: @thedesignedpresence The Presence Room: private curated dinners for women over 40 in the Charlotte metro area, thedesignedpresence.com Connect with Dr. Naija: Book Nourish by Naija: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FP9SW1M7 8-Week Nourish by Naija Program: www.NourishByNaija.com Subscribe to the Newsletter: www.TheNaijaGoddess.com Everything shared is for educational purposes. Please work with your own healthcare provider before making changes to your health routine.

  3. Sep 21

    The Russian Martial Art That Resets Chronic Stress Ep31

    Your body has been trying to tell you something for years. The tension you stopped noticing. The sleep that never fully restores. The reactions that feel too big for the moment that triggered them. You are not broken. You are depleted.   In this episode of Informed Choice, Dr. Ini, The Naija Goddess, DFM, PhD, board-certified holistic nutritionist, sits down with Roy Hatcher: Systema master, licensed massage and bodywork therapist, and one of the world's top body language experts. Roy has spent over 20 years teaching men, women, and children to regulate their nervous systems using the four pillars of Systema: breath, posture, movement, and calmness.   In this episode you will learn:   • Why the nervous system gets stuck in fight-or-flight and what it actually takes to reset it • The difference between having skill and having real control over your own body and nervous system • Why most people walk around as little bags of tension with pain receptors so adapted to the chronic load they cannot even feel it anymore • How Roy's wife breathed through cutting her late father's hair at the funeral home and what was happening in her body that made it possible • The cortisol-magnesium depletion loop that explains why chronically stressed people feel like they simply cannot recover • Why posture is not an aesthetic concern. It is a health intervention. • The mirror test that tells you exactly where your nervous system is right now • Why self-love is not a feeling. It is a measurable state in the body. • How to breathe through grief without suppressing what actually needs to be felt   The herbal spotlight covers black seed (Nigella sativa) and its direct effect on the GABA-A receptor pathway, the same mechanism the nervous system uses to return to calm. Then we cook live in the studio: gochujang glazed super firm tofu with sesame bok choy over wild rice, a dish built specifically to replenish the nutrients chronic stress depletes.   FIND ROY HATCHER • HatcherSystema.com • NuBeings.com • YouTube: @hatchershouseofsystema   CONNECT WITH THE NAIJA GODDESS • Nourish by Naija (Book): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FP9SW1M7 • 8-Week Nourish by Naija Program: https://www.NourishByNaija.com • Wellness Essentials: https://www.thenaijagoddess.com/shop • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheNaijaGoddess • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheNaijaGoddess • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNaijaGoddess • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thenaijagoddess • Email: TheNaijaGoddess@gmail.com

  4. Sep 3

    When Anger Is Actually Depression: A Nurse's Truth Ep 30

    Male depression is one of the most underdiagnosed conditions in modern healthcare, and the reason is simpler than most people think. It does not look like sadness. It looks like anger, irritability, and emotional withdrawal. And the partners who love these men often see it clearly and feel completely powerless to help.   Dr. Andrea Angel Atkinson-Taylor is a Board Certified Registered Nurse with nine years of hospice experience. She joins The Naija Goddess this week to talk about the gap between knowing something is wrong and knowing what to do about it.   In this conversation we cover:   - Why male-type depression goes undiagnosed for years - The neuroscience of co-regulation and what a partner can actually do - Behavioral activation as an entry point for men who resist therapy - The clinical concept of alexithymia and what it means for the people who love someone who cannot name what they feel - What end-of-life care reveals about the conversations we keep postponing   We also walk through passionflower, clinically studied for agitated anxiety and nervous system dysregulation, and cook a Coconut Lemongrass Wild Rice Bowl designed to replenish the nutrients chronic stress depletes.   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CONNECT WITH DR. ANDREA "ANGEL" ATKINSON-TAYLOR ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Website: www.ntfcollective.org Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ntfcollectiveorg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NtFCollective LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ntfcollective   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CONNECT WITH THE NAIJA GODDESS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Nourish by Naija (book): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FP9SW1M7 8-Week Nourish by Naija Program: www.NourishByNaija.com Wellness Essentials: https://www.thenaijagoddess.com/wellness-essentials Newsletter: www.TheNaijaGoddess.com (click Subscribe at the top of the homepage) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheNaijaGoddess Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheNaijaGoddess Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNaijaGoddess TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thenaijagoddess Email: TheNaijaGoddess@gmail.com | Ini@TheNaijaGoddess.com   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ DISCLAIMER ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The content shared on this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your health routine.

  5. Aug 25

    You're Doing Everything Right and Still Not Healing. Ep29

    Nervous system healing is the missing layer in every protocol that is not working. In this episode of Informed Choice with The Naija Goddess, I sit down with Candice Van Dertholen, founder of The Warrior Within Healing and an International Speaker and Advisor to Visionaries Navigating Growth, Visibility, and Identity Evolution, to make the case that until the body feels safe at the nervous system level, nothing else fully lands. Candice works with high achievers in the middle of major life transitions, and what she finds every single time is not a strategy problem. It is a nervous system that has never been given permission to stand down. In this conversation we go beneath the surface of what healing actually requires. We cover: What an unsafe nervous system looks and feels like from the insideWhy energy medicine moves what years of supplements and therapy cannot reachWhat visibility wounding is and how it lives silently in the bodyWhat nervous system regulation looks like as a real daily practiceHow to find the right energy practitioner and what to expect in a first sessionWe also spotlight Ashwagandha, one of the most clinically documented adaptogens for HPA axis regulation and cortisol reduction, and I prepare Golden Lentil Soup with Crispy Chickpeas and Cilantro, built specifically around the nutrients a stress-depleted nervous system needs most. Connect with Candice Van Dertholen: Booking: https://heal.me/candice LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candicevandertholen Instagram: https://instagram.com/candice_elizabeth.co YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Thewarriorwithin Private Coaching: Opening August 2026 Connect with The Naija Goddess: Book: Nourish by Naija: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FP9SW1M7 8-Week Program: https://www.NourishByNaija.com Wellness Essentials: https://www.thenaijagoddess.com/wellness-essentials YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheNaijaGoddess Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheNaijaGoddess Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNaijaGoddess TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thenaijagoddess Email: TheNaijaGoddess@gmail.com and Ini@TheNaijaGoddess.com Everything shared is for educational purposes. Please work with your own healthcare provider before making changes to your health routine.

  6. Aug 17

    She Looks Fine. Her Body Is Still Paying For It. Ep 28

    Chronic stress doesn't always look like a breakdown, and this week's guest is proof of it. Dr. Andrena Phillips, CEO and Founder of KeepMovinWithAndrena and TransformU Coaching Institute, joins Ini to talk about what it actually costs a woman's body to stay composed through years of holding everything together in silence. Key topics covered: What chronic stress does to the nervous system long before it shows up as a diagnosisWhy imposter syndrome shows up physically before it ever shows up in confidenceWhat it costs the body to shrink yourself for other people's comfortThe featured herb, motherwort, and what its name actually meansThe featured recipe, Soulful Alfredo Fusilli, built on Ini's own PF³ methodCONNECT WITH DR. ANDRENA PHILLIPS 🌐 Website: https://keepmovinwithandrena.com 🎤 The Whole Woman Experience: https://keepmovinwithandrena.com/theexperience/ 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/keep_movinwithandrena 📘 Facebook: https://facebook.com/keepmovinwithandrena 💼 LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/andrenaphillips Ready to stop guessing and start eating in a way that actually works for your body? My book, Nourish by Naija is where to start: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FP9SW1M7 If you want a structured plan with real accountability behind it, the 8-Week Nourish by Naija Program is open: https://www.NourishByNaija.com CONNECT WITH THE NAIJA GODDESS 🌐 Website: https://www.TheNaijaGoddess.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheNaijaGoddess 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNaijaGoddess 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thenaijagoddess ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheNaijaGoddess Heal naturally. Live vibrantly.

  7. Aug 10

    The Protein Myth & Belly Fat Lies After 40 | Ep27

    Belly fat after 40 and the protein myth are connected in ways most people never hear, and in this episode of Informed Choice with The Naija Goddess, holistic health coach Mandi Murrow joins Ini to set the record straight. Together they unpack why the mainstream protein conversation is misleading, how ultra-processed food is engineered to keep you hooked, and why stubborn fat after 40 is a metabolic and hormonal response, not a discipline failure. Key topics covered: The truth about protein and why your body cannot store the excessHow food chemists design products to override your body's natural cuesThe real, evidence-based reasons behind belly fat accumulation after 40Why organic soy foods are supported by research, not mythThe connection between breath work, nervous system regulation, and hormonal health Connect with Mandi Claudeen Murrow, Rooted Holistic Wellness: Website: https://www.rootedholisticwellness.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rootedholisticcoach/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rootedholisticwellness/ CONNECT WITH THE NAIJA GODDESS Nourish by Naija (book): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FP9SW1M7 8-Week Nourish by Naija Program: https://www.NourishByNaija.com Wellness Essentials: https://www.thenaijagoddess.com/wellness-essentials Newsletter: https://www.TheNaijaGoddess.com (click the Subscribe button at the top of the homepage) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheNaijaGoddess Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheNaijaGoddess Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNaijaGoddess TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thenaijagoddess Email: TheNaijaGoddess@gmail.com | Ini@TheNaijaGoddess.com This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to take the place of medical advice or treatment from a personal physician.

  8. Aug 3

    What You Won't Let Go Of Is Making You Sick | Ep26

    What you won't let go of is making you sick. In this episode of Informed Choice with The Naija Goddess, holistic nutritionist and functional medicine doctoral candidate Ini sits down with Dr. Paulette Evans, Six Sigma black belt, CEO of Evans Efficiency Experts, and author of Your X-Factors: Turning Hidden Struggles into Undeniable Strengths. Dr. Evans built a framework called Purposeful Purging around a calculus equation she first encountered as an electrical engineering student at Clemson. Her core argument: you cannot just say you are over something and expect your body to believe you. The work of release is intentional, methodical, and measurable. In this conversation we cover: The 15-question purge methodology and how to use itWhy chronic stress keeps the body's stress response system activated long after the source is goneIni's own blood sugar and blood pressure data showing the physical cost of unprocessed emotional stressThe ROI framework Dr. Evans uses to evaluate every commitment in her lifeHow to know when something did not work out versus when it was never yours to keep Herbal spotlight: Dandelion root, a traditional liver and kidney support herb that supports the body's natural detoxification and elimination pathways. Featured recipe: Sweet Potato Boats with Chickpea-Date Relish and Tahini Hemp Drizzle, 16 grams of fiber, 20 grams of protein, built to support elimination and gut health. Connect with Dr. Paulette Evans at evansefficiencyexperts.com and find her book Your X-Factors on Amazon. Learn more at www.TheNaijaGoddess.com. Subscribe to the newsletter at the top of the homepage. The content shared on Informed Choice with The Naija Goddess is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or medical condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, supplement routine, or health practices. The Naija Goddess is a board-certified holistic nutritionist and doctoral candidate in functional medicine, not a licensed medical doctor.

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Welcome to Informed Choice, the podcast where holistic nutritionist, chef, and Functional Medicine doctoral candidate Ini Isangedighi, BCHN, The Naija Goddess helps you cut through confusion and discover how to heal naturally and live vibrantly. Each episode blends research-driven insights, plant-based strategies, and practical conversations with health experts and thought leaders. Topics include plant-based nutrition, herbal medicine, midlife vitality, stress recovery, and natural approaches to chronic conditions. You will gain science-backed tools, simple frameworks, and actionable guidance to make confident decisions for your health and your life. Whether you want to increase energy, support longevity, or find clarity in the overwhelming wellness space, this podcast offers reliable direction for lasting transformation, one informed choice at a time.

Information

  • Creator
    The Naija Goddess
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    32
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Naija Goddess