The Wellness Mama Podcast

Katie Wells

The Wellness Mama Podcast is a weekly series covering the topics of holistic health, real food, stress, sleep, fitness, toxins, natural living, DIY, parenting, motherhood, and other health tips to give you actionable solutions to improve your family’s life! Brought to you by Katie Wells of WellnessMama.com

  • 36 minutes 13 seconds
    Circadian Alignment Using Light, Food, Fasting and Sleep (Solo Episode)

    Episode Highlights

    • How I caused quite the stir by posting about stopping eating when the sun goes down
    • Apparently, the internet needs to come with terms and conditions, and I can understand the confusion
    • This episode goes deeper into why I personally adopted this change
    • The biggest signals are light, food, and sleep when it comes to circadian health
    • The benefits of eating in a more circadian-aligned way
    • Skipping breakfast vs early dinner
    • Sending safety cues all day

    Resources Mentioned

    12 February 2025, 10:00 am
  • 48 minutes 20 seconds
    Healing Hair Loss and Alopecia Naturally & for Life with Johanna Dahlman

    Episode Highlights With Johanna Dahlman

    • Her wide-ranging travels and life living in five other countries 
    • The experience with alopecia that led to the work she does today
    • How she lost over half of her hair and learned how to heal and reverse this naturally 
    • Alopecia: the medical term for hair loss 
    • An approach that works for hair loss must be personalized 
    • We all have  blind spots when it comes to hair loss
    • What it looks like when she starts working with someone on hair loss
    • It isn’t just androgens and DHT when it comes to hair loss
    • She didn’t have postpartum hair loss and why
    • Some of the blind spots she’s seen in her clients 
    • Botox, medications, and other factors directly linked to hair loss 
    • What female pattern baldness is and how it affects over 50% of women after age 40
    • Why she believes that all hair loss is reversible

    Resources We Mention

    10 February 2025, 10:00 am
  • 43 minutes 5 seconds
    How I Healed My Metabolism, Gained Muscle, and Finally Lost Fat (Solo Episode)

    Episode Highlights

    • What finally worked for me in healing my metabolism and thus losing weight, and it isn’t the conventional approach
    • I had trouble learning to trust my body, and it was a slow dance I learned
    • Yes, and when it comes to calories… there is more to the story
    • If you want to make a fire hotter, what do you do? You add fuel, not take it away
    • Our bodies are intelligent, so they adapt if we keep reducing fuel
    • Reverse diets are gaining popularity, kind of like that, but there's more to the story
    • How to really signal safety to your body with an abundance of protein and nutrients
    • My mindset shift from restriction to focusing on maximally nourishing my body with whatever I ate that day 
    • Learned to lean in and find joy and pleasure in nourishing my body and let go of fear and restriction

    Resources Mentioned

    5 February 2025, 10:00 am
  • 31 minutes 56 seconds
    What Every Parent Should Know Before Having Their Kid (Or Themselves) Take a Genetic Test with Dr. Erika Gray

    Episode Highlights with Dr. Erika Gray

    • Understanding privacy concerns with genetic testing, especially in light of the security breach with a major DNA company recently 
    • Samples sent to testing companies are de-identified and not connected to personal data
    • Security concerns and how to make sure yours is safe
    • How their specific testing has layers of encryption and is not even mined for data
    • You can use an alias on your genetic testing 
    • The limits of genetic testing and what it can and can’t tell us 
    • Genetics is a screening tool and not a diagnostic tool — related to cancer risk and expression
    • More related to choline and how this can be really beneficial for focus and attention 

    Resources We Mention

    4 February 2025, 10:00 am
  • 39 minutes 12 seconds
    How Knowing Your Child’s Genetics Can Make Parenting Easier with Dr. Erika Gray

    Episode Highlights With Dr. Erika Gray

    • Important perspective about genetics and how to use this information for the biggest advantage
    • The nuance when it comes to children and genes 
    • Genes do not exist in isolation and why focusing on one gene is not helpful
    • How understanding genetics helped her teens (and mine)
    • What COMT is and how this comes into play with influencing our worldview
    • Fast COMT break down dopamine and norepinephrine faster (linked to moving around, not sitting still, etc.)
    • How this understanding of genetics can relate directly to how we parent 
    • Yet another reason protein is so important, especially for kids and teens 
    • Genes related to serotonin and dopamine and neurotransmitters
    • We have 2-5 lbs of bacteria in our gut, and there is a gene called FUT2 that ties to lower levels of bifidobacteria, and this can be linked to anxiety, longevity, and more
    • Understanding choline genes and why this is a game changer for so many people, and this is critical for pregnancy and brain development 
    • Some caveat around MTHFR and why we might be overdoing our response to this
    • Serotonin-related genes to look at if you get your kids' genes tested
    • What BDNF genes can tell you
    • MC4R is a snacking gene, and how to understand this
    • Bitter taste receptor genes and how these can make kids more picky

    Resources We Mention

    3 February 2025, 10:00 am
  • 1 hour 3 minutes
    How to Fix Your Gut & Learn Your “Gut Type” with Dr. Michael Ruscio

    Episode Highlights With Michael Ruscio

    • His own journey into the work he does now and the tough lessons he learned about gut health
    • All disease begins in the gut but how to know what is going on 
    • What gut types are and how this helps explain why people can have such drastically different reactions to gut interventions
    • Fungal vs bacterial overgrowth in the gut
    • Things that are universally beneficial to the gut: exercise in the right amount, mindset, unprocessed foods, time in nature
    • The diet that helps heal you isn’t the forever plan 
    • His take on parasites and parasite cleanses 
    • Why parasites are relatively rare but people will see benefit from parasite cleanses for other reasons
    • The problem with an overly sterile environment and the fascinating theory around this
    • Some signs that you may have a fungal gut type or an underlying fungal overgrowth 
    • “The better I eat, the worse I feel” and what that might mean about your gut 
    • Why carnivore might work so well for some people: it's low FODMAP and low carb 
    • His take on carbs/fiber and the nuance on these as we heal
    • The things that are universally helpful and his take on probiotics 
    • What vector-born infections are and how they relate to gut health
    • Why we need more electrolytes and salt when we go lower carb

    Resources We Mention

    29 January 2025, 10:00 am
  • 48 minutes 50 seconds
    900th Episode Q&A: Healing, Trends, Regrets, Detox and Other FAQs

    Episode Highlights With Katie

    • Katie answers reader questions
    • What have been the best/favorite forms of healing I’ve tried
    • Habit stacks and best routines
    • Wellness trends I regret, if any
    • What I could change if I could go back to my early adult years
    • One thing that has made the most difference in life
    • Day in the life
    • Where would I go if I could live anywhere or if chaos hits
    • Do I believe we can detox and stay healthy by our state of mind rather than things outside
    • The highest ROI things if I was on a very limited budget
    • My feelings on spirituality

    Resources Mentioned

    27 January 2025, 10:00 am
  • 34 minutes 3 seconds
    How to Eat More Protein from Clean, Real Food Sources with Clean Eating Couple

    Episode Highlights with Liz

    • The importance of eating enough protein, especially as a mom and in families
    • Tips for incorporating protein at different times of day
    • Why protein at breakfast is so important 
    • Other breakfast options if you don’t like smoothies 
    • Her top easy protein sources to work into your diet
    • Tip: eat non-breakfast foods for breakfast 
    • Easy high-protein snacks that can be added in for a protein boost 
    • One easy tip to double the protein in a recipe: double the meat the recipe calls for

    Resources We Mention

    21 January 2025, 10:00 am
  • 29 minutes 51 seconds
    Time-Saving Tips for Eating Healthy (Affordably!) with Liz Marino

    Episode Highlights With Liz Marino

    • Her journey into real food and the strategies she’s learned to do it affordably and with time constraints
    • The three big things that help with time and money when eating healthier
    • Focusing on basics: shop the perimeter, protein +vegetables+ healthy carbs, make simple recipes
    • The benefit of two weeks of rotating meal plans to simplify things
    • Why frozen vegetables can be a lifesaver for time and budget
    • Shopping once a week can save so much time and money
    • How to use your freezer more to save time and money with chili, soups, stews, etc.

    Resources Mentioned

    20 January 2025, 10:00 am
  • 34 minutes 10 seconds
    Wellness Trends I’m Predicting in 2025: Solo Episode

    Episode Highlights

    • Trends I expect to become more popular in 2025 and my take on them, with one easy action step for each (that is free)
    • Minerals: Why I feel they're important and what I take (key takeaway, salt water in the morning for energy and hydration)
    • Functional movement like kinstretch, walking, climbing, getting back to simplicity
    • TIP: go for a walk or do air squats after each meal
    • Whole food single ingredient eating over complicated diets: my approach
    • LIGHT and circadian health — Courtney Hunt says: sunrise, sunlight, sunset, repeat
    • Key takeaway: prioritize watching the sunrise and set and see the difference in your sleep and energy
    • Dark environment at night
    • Directing our own health with the availability of data, we are each our own primary healthcare provider and companies like Function make it easier
    • Community — not really a trend but vital for human survival, but I think we will see more community focus on wellness in groups, group sauna, etc.
    • SLEEP hygiene: environment, timing, consistency, my routine
    • Natural fibers for clothing: wool, organic cotton, linen

    Resources Mentioned

    15 January 2025, 10:00 am
  • 48 minutes 7 seconds
    The Pitfalls of Modern Technology, Nature Deficit Disorder & A Better Computer with Anjan Katta

    Episode Highlights With Anjan Katta

    • His own experience with the pitfalls of modern technology 
    • The downside of so much blue light at all times of day and night
    • What the designer of LCD screens thought they would be used, and what he would have done differently if he had known we’d be using them this much
    • Light is a master signaling mechanism for hormone and circadian health
    • What are the most harmful negative impacts of modern technology
    • Evolutionary mismatch with modern technology 
    • The comparison of the evolutionary mismatch with sugar
    • What flicker rate is, and why it's important to understand 
    • The real deal with blue light and how this confuses our nervous system
    • Light is the master switch for so many aspects of hormones and health
    • The evidence that a lot of ADHD is a circadian dysfunction and how light comes into play
    • What screen apnea is, and why it's an emerging term
    • Nature deficit disorder 
    • How screens affect even our breath rate and thus our nervous system 
    • The circadian-aligned computer he created that is blue-light-free, flicker-free, and usable in the sunshine 

    Resources We Mention

    13 January 2025, 10:00 am
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