Vi BLOG

Stronger Together: Why Community is the Secret to Your Health in 2026

We need community. Period. As human beings, we are hard-wired to belong to a tribe, a group where we feel supported, seen, and protected.

The most evolved aspect of our nervous system is called the Social Engagement System. Our entire body relies on safe social interactions to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which allows our internal systems to work optimally. This parasympathetic aspect of the autonomic nervous system is often referred to as the "rest & digest" or "rest & repair" mode and is what enables us to sleep soundly, digest food, maintain a robust immune system, and repair our tissues. When we bond with others, our bodies release oxytocin, which effectively turns off "fight or flight" stress chemistry.

Breaking the "Grit" Myth

If the benefits of community and belonging are so massive, why do we feel like we should rely on sheer willpower and grit to make healthy changes or reach our goals? We live in a culture that rewards hyper-independence, but the truth is, isolation and loneliness are degrading our health. This "go-it-alone" mentality often leads to a cycle of failure and shame when habits don't stick.

Beyond the Resolution: Finding Your Rhythm Through Nourishing Rituals in 2026

Happy New Year! As we step into 2026, there is a fresh and familiar energy in the air—a collective desire to refresh our spirits and begin anew. While traditional resolutions work for some, many of us find they feel more like heavy obligations than true invitations for growth. The "new year, new you" mentality can unintentionally suggest that we aren't okay as we are, or that we are projects in need of fixing, optimizing, or tightening up.

But what if, this year, we invited a gentler, more expansive energy into our lives? What if, instead of trying to "optimize" our days using sheer willpower, we focused on tending to our well-being and growth through intentional daily rituals? Let’s move away from the pressure of "fixing" and move toward creating moments of presence and connection that nourish who you already are.

Why Big Goals Often Backfire

We’ve all been there: we set a large goal, like "I’m going to the gym five days a week," or we set several goals at once on January 1st, only to find ourselves back in old patterns by mid-February. We often call this a "lack of discipline" or "lack of willpower," but science tells a different story: it is your body trying to take care of you.

The Holiday Pep Talk: Maintain Your Center Through the Season

The days are shorter, the holiday lights are twinkling, and the scent of homemade goodies is in the air. The holiday season and the close of 2025 have officially arrived.

This time of year is undeniably complex. While the holiday season can bring profound warmth and connection for some, it can intensify feelings of grief, isolation, or stress for others. In either case, the sheer volume of holiday demands—from parties and spending to travel and socializing—can quickly sideline the healthy habits that help us maintain our center. This month, let's prioritize grounding and consistent habits over the hustle.

The Push-Pull: Navigating the Seasonal Contradiction

To stay grounded, we must first acknowledge the strong, opposing forces acting on us during December. Without this awareness, this dynamic can create a powerful push-pull energy, leaving us feeling drained and conflicted:

The Missing Link Between Workouts and Results: Use the SHMEC Principle to Optimize Strength Gains and Overall Health

When it comes to building muscle strength, we often focus intensely on the workout, but the truth is that keeping our hormones balanced and optimizing exercise recovery is the key to the results you seek. Dr. Jade Teta is a naturopathic doctor who specializes in metabolic health and optimizing hormones for building and maintaining strength gains while also supporting overall health. He is a proponent of working with your body and hormones by using a powerful framework called the SHMEC Principle that ensures you don't compromise your overall health while working towards your strength and fitness goals.

Strength training 2-4 times a week is scientifically proven to be one of the best activities you can do for your overall health. It works by improving muscle mass, boosting bone density, supporting cardiovascular health, and decreasing the risk of chronic disease, all while optimizing sleep and regulating mood and hormone function. Exercise is termed a hormetic stressor—a beneficial stress that leads to greater resilience and health benefits when exposure is brief or moderate. However, there can be too much of a good thing. Overtraining, or stacking too many stressors at once (intense demands of our fast-paced lifestyle, poor sleep, or hormone changes) can overwhelm the nervous system, create metabolic dysfunction, and undermine health. Females are also more sensitive to stress, cortisol and insulin changes and can be more sensitive to overtraining. This raises the key question: How do you know if you are overtraining?

Work Out Smarter, Not Harder: Pair Your Nutrition with Exercise to Reap Better Outcomes

We all know that good nutrition is important. Yet, when most of us plan to build strength, tone our bodies, or improve performance, where does our focus go? The workout. It's time to shift that focus. While your training is essential, the timing and quality of your fuel is the true non-negotiable factor that determines how your body performs, looks, and recovers.

The latest scientific research reveals that building and preserving lean mass (skeletal muscle) is the key to optimal health and longevity. The more muscle you carry, the greater your capacity for sustained health and physical independence. We are shifting away from the outdated diet mentality of "eating less and moving more" and "skinny is healthy" to a mindset that being strong and well-nourished is healthy. The research shows that it is absolutely imperative that we strength train a minimum of 2 times per week and consume the right nutrient-dense foods, timed around our exercise, to feel our best and to maximize our ability to maintain and build muscle mass.

Non-Gender Specific Guidelines to Build Muscle and Strength

Fall Into a New Routine: Using Seasonal Wellness to Re-Inspire Your Healthy Habits

fall routine As the long days of summer fade, we feel a natural pull back towards routines and structure. Last month, we learned how to reclaim time from our devices and spend it on things that truly matter. Now, with fall's arrival, it's the perfect opportunity to use that reclaimed time to re-inspire your healthy habits.

By aligning your personal wellness goals with the natural rhythms of the season, you can shift into a new routine with greater ease. Instead of trying to tackle every health goal at once, imagine harnessing the unique energy of each time of year to focus on specific aspects of your well-being. The seasonal shifts offer the perfect backdrop for this approach.

Why Seasonal Habit Stacking Works

Reclaim Your Life: The Surprising Time You're Losing to Your Phone

tpty lungs We've all felt it: that moment when you look up from your phone and realize a significant chunk of time has vanished. Whether it's a deep-dive into social media, endless shocking news alerts, online shopping, or just mindless scrolling, our phones have become a constant companion. This isn't a surprise, and I believe we can all feel how connected and addicted we are to our phones and tracking devices. But have you ever stopped to consider what that constant connectivity truly costs you?

I recently heard a statistic that made me put my phone down and take a hard look at my own habits. The average American spends 4 to 5 hours a day on their phone.

Let's take a closer look at those numbers:

Are You Over-Breathing?

I am currently rereading James Nestor's "Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art," and it's packed with incredible information that delivers a profound message: how we breathe is just as important, if not more important, than what we eat, how much we exercise, or how well we sleep. Breath efficiency and quality are a fundamental, often overlooked, pillar of both physical and mental health.

Nestor reports that over 90% of people exhibit dysfunctional breathing patterns. He attributes this modern decline to centuries of lifestyle changes, including softer diets altering facial and airway development, increased sedentary habits, poor posture, and a general lack of breathing awareness.

While we typically view breathing as an automatic process, neglecting its mechanics in modern life can deprive our bodies and minds of the oxygen necessary for all functions. The quality of each inhale and exhale profoundly impacts our well-being.

Is Stiffness Your New Normal? It Doesn't Have To Be.

Anxiety

Feeling Stiffer Than You Used To?

Achy joints in the morning? Hips or knees feel "glitchy" after sitting? Are you finding it harder to get up and down? Do gardening or home projects leave you more sore and fatigued than they used to? Does movement make you feel better? Are you dealing with injury recovery or old unresolved issues? Even consider yourself "bad" at yoga?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, you would greatly benefit from putting some focus into improving your mobility. We hear a lot about the importance of maintaining cardiovascular health and strength training as we age, yet often we assume feeling like the tin man is just a part of normal aging. I hear this all the time in my clinic. It seems people tend to expect more stiffness and pain as they age, and I want to encourage you not to accept this as your "new normal" but to understand why your body may be feeling stiff, restricted, or imbalanced.

Mindfulness: An Empowering Tool to Heal Your Anxiety

Anxiety

First of All, What is Anxiety?

Anxiety can be understood as the experience of your body and mind in a heightened state of alert, even when, in the moment, there is no immediate, real danger present. The sympathetic nervous system, our "fight or flight" system, can get activated, leading to physiological (body) changes like increased heart rate, rapid breathing, and muscle tension. Anxiety is the feeling of unease, worry, or fear that accompanies this body "danger alarm" trigger. The foundation for anxiety often starts at an early age, in childhood, where we experienced stressful or overwhelming events, and our nervous system adapted and began to overprotect or overreact, This vigilance can present as overthinking, chronic worry, controlling behaviors, staying busy, perfectionism or expecting the worst case scenario. Overtime, with practice and reinforcement, this overreaction to non-life threatening situations, can become habitual.

It is common that the nervous system can get STUCK in overdrive and hypervigilance. Anxiety is a symptom of being stuck in threat physiology.

Reset Your Sleep and Circadian Rhythm

spring vibes In our fast-paced modern world that is full of artificial lighting, limited daylight exposure and blue light from devices, maintaining healthy sleep can be challenging. It's easy to lose touch with the natural rhythms that govern our bodies. Consider how we've evolved as a species, it was not that long ago that as the sun went down, humans would cook by the light of fire and read in candlelight. This shift from daylight to low amber light signaled the brain to produce melatonin and to get ready for sleep. Today, it's common in our homes that we have bright overhead lights, blue lights from televisions and phone screens (often displaying stimulating or stress-inducing content) that disrupt our evening wind down routine and impact our readiness for sleep.

When we look at the speed of our lives and the stress levels most are dealing with, it is important to remember that although some factors are out of our control, we do have the power to support our bodies to realign with our circadian rhythm to achieve more restful, restorative sleep.

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