This episode includes discussion of stroke, paralysis, depression, and recovery.Episode Summary:In this powerful conversation, Heather sits down with Maria Garcia—author, coach, and stroke survivor—whose life changed dramatically after a massive stroke at 25 left her paralyzed and struggling with depression and identity loss. Maria shares what recovery really looked like over 15 years, including the moment yoga helped lift her out of a “black hole,” and the surprising nutrition methodology that helped her recover another 20% more than a decade after traditional therapy plateaued. Together, they unpack food psychology, how culture and childhood shape our relationship with eating, why you can’t outwork a bad diet, and what it means to stop outsourcing your health and live beyond the BS of society’s expectations.Key Takeaways (What Maria Said):✅ A stroke at 25 shattered her identity—and her belief systems—because she could no longer “perform” perfectionism or control outcomes the way she used to.✅ Depression was real and deep, and yoga became a turning point that helped her feel “a ray of light” again—mentally and emotionally.✅ Recovery wasn’t linear: she tried “everything” for years (multiple therapies, experimental approaches, diet changes), then hit a wall around year 10 and chose to live beyond recovery-as-purpose.✅ Nutrition changed everything: 15 years after her stroke, a nutrition course led to another ~20% recovery—including hiking stamina, better balance, and major improvement in her voice.✅ Food is meant to be nourishment, not entertainment—and our culture trains us (by design) to associate every emotion/holiday/celebration with food.✅ Your childhood shapes your food patterns (comfort, rewards, soothing, “sit still and eat”), and real change requires awareness of the psychology—not just a list of foods.✅ Taste buds and cravings change when you stop living on ultra-processed/sugar-heavy foods—what once felt “normal” can start tasting artificial.✅ You can’t outwork your diet: Maria estimates ~85% of health change happens in the kitchen, with exercise as the “cherry on top.”✅ Stop outsourcing your health: your body isn’t failing you—you may be failing your body without realizing it.✅ Living beyond BS means dropping the mask and releasing other people’s expectations to live more authentically.Heather’s Reflection:This episode is such a living example of what I teach: awareness and choice are everything. Maria’s story reminds us that healing isn’t just “medical”—it’s emotional, mental, physical, and deeply connected. When we stop seeing food as reward, comfort, or entertainment—and start seeing it as self-respect—we begin rebuilding trust with our bodies. And that’s the real shift: not “new year, new me,” but one aligned choice at a time, in any moment, on any day.Guest Info (Maria Garcia):✅ Website: https://www.genuinelymaria.com/✅ Program: 3-month flagship program (private or group) focused on slowly resetting your relationship with food + food psychology + sustainable change (as described in the episode)Heather’s Info + CTA:✅ Website / Work with Heather: https://www.heathermcnally.com/✅ Program Happy, Healthy, Whole starts January 20, 2026: https://www.heathermcnally.com/happyhealthywhole✅ Newsletter Sign up for weekly tips, tools, and updates: https://www.heathermcnally.com/signupfornewsletterIf this episode spoke to you, please consider liking, commenting, and following/subscribing so this message can get out to more people!Thank you so much for sharing this space with me today. My hope is that you walk away knowing that you have the power to choose differently. Go live fully, freely, and unapologetically — your life beyond B.S. starts now.

Content Warning: This episode includes discussion of suicide, self-harm, and mental health struggles.If you or someone you know needs support, please contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.Call or text 988 (U.S.) or visit 988lifeline.org

Episode Summary

In this raw and deeply human conversation, Heather sits down with writer, mental health advocate, and marathon runner Jen Hoye, author of Thick Thighs, Tattoos & Breaking Taboos. Jen shares the story of losing her brother Teddy to suicide—and how grief, anger, self-harm, and isolation became the road she had to walk before she could begin healing.

What started as one small walk during the pandemic turned into an extraordinary mission: Healing Miles, where Jen honors lives lost to suicide through running and storytelling. This episode is filled with honesty, humor, and hope—plus practical conversation about asking the hard questions, breaking cultural silence, and letting joy and grief coexist.

Key Themes & Takeaways

• Jen identifies first as a mom, and as a lifelong writer who used words to be heard in a loud family culture.
• Losing her brother Teddy to suicide in 2017 changed her life completely—she says she stopped living for years.Teddy was mischievous, hilarious, deeply kind, and prepared for everything—“a helper” in every way.
• Grief wasn’t processed at first; Jen describes years of anger, secrecy, disconnection, and coping through binge eating, self-harm, shopping, and staying numb.
• COVID forced a turning point: her secret coping strategies couldn’t stay hidden with everyone home.Healing began with an almost impossibly small step: walking 0.1 miles, then doing it again.
• A fundraiser turned into a mission: 300 miles in a month, dedicating each day to someone lost to suicide—Jen realized how many families need to be seen.
• She reframes “be strong” as often being for other people so they don’t have to witness grief.
• She emphasizes the importance of asking directly: “Are you thinking of taking your life?”
• Jen shares a pivotal story where a young woman came to her because she had a plan—and today she is thriving.
• Advocacy is both service and connection: she feels it keeps her close to Teddy by living his best qualities.Grief is not linear and never “ends”—you just learn to carry it differently.
• Jen talks about identity: breaking out of boxes, people-pleasing, and reclaiming self-trust.
• Her ultimate hope: readers feel seen, heard, understood, and believe they can build a beautiful life after loss.

Heather’s Reflection

• Heather highlights the power of choice as a superpower—how one small choice (a walk) can change your life.
• She relates deeply to turning pain inward and discusses the importance of not glossing over emotions: feel your feelings, but don’t live there.
• Heather validates grief as more than death—grief can be losing a version of life, identity, relationships, or safety.
• She reinforces that honest conversations can change lives—silence makes things grow heavier, while speaking releases pressure.
• Heather ties identity + belief systems into the theme: we often live from inherited beliefs and expectations instead of who we truly are.

Guest Bio

Jen Hoye is a writer, mental health advocate, and the author of Thick Thighs, Tattoos & Breaking Taboos. She founded Healing Miles, honoring lives lost to suicide through running and storytelling. Jen has represented suicide prevention and mental health charities in major races including the Boston and Chicago Marathons, and she is a frequent speaker on suicide prevention, grief, and mental health.

Connect with Jen

IG: @jen.and.pen

FB: Jen Fusco Hoye

Website: jenniferhoye.com

Book available at local bookshops, select Barnes & Noble locations (Northeast), and online (Amazon/B&N).

If this episode spoke to you, please follow, rate, and review the show—it helps more people find support, hope, and tools to live Life Beyond B.S.

Want deeper mindset + identity work?

Heather’s 12-week program Happy, Healthy, Whole begins in January.

The space between the holidays and the new year has a way of amplifying everything — joy, grief, loneliness, reflection, and quiet questions about who we are and what we want. In this solo episode, Heather explores identity, emotional complexity, and why feeling lost doesn’t mean you’re failing — it often means you’ve outgrown an old version of yourself.

This episode gently dismantles “New Year, New Me” pressure and offers a more compassionate path forward rooted in awareness, alignment, and small intentional choices.

Key Themes & Takeaways

✅ Why the holiday season can feel joyful and heavy at the same time

✅ Loneliness doesn’t always mean being alone — it often means feeling unseen

✅ Feeling lost is a signal, not a failure

✅ Identity isn’t something you create — it’s something you remember

✅ Why resolutions fail (and why that’s not your fault)

✅ Real change comes from awareness, not pressure

✅ Small aligned choices matter more than dramatic overhauls

✅ How disconnection from self leads to burnout and illness

✅ Why HHW was created — not to fix people, but to help them understand themselves

Heather’s Reflection:

This episode is an invitation to soften — especially during a season that tells us to push, perform, and reinvent. Heather reminds listeners that they are not behind, broken, or failing. Identity work isn’t about becoming someone new — it’s about remembering who you are beneath expectations, roles, and noise. And that remembering can begin right now, in this moment.

If this episode resonated — share it with someone who needs permission to soften.

And if you’re ready to reconnect with who you are beneath the noise, Happy, Healthy, Whole begins January 13th.

*** Sign up for Happy, Healthy, Whole by December 31st and get a BONUS course called Rewriting Your Story that will take place once you have completed Happy, Healthy, Whole. ***

Connect with Heather:

Website: Click HERE

Happy, Healthy, Whole Program: Click HERE

Join my newsletter: Click HERE

Schedule a FREE 60-minute Consultation to learn about 1:1 coaching with Heather: Click HERE

Listen now and enter the Austin event ticket giveaway! (must be in by December 23, 2025).In this deeply empowering solo episode, Heather drops two major announcements: her role as a headline speaker at the 2026 Real & Raw Liberation Event in Austin, and the full relaunch of her signature personal growth program, Happy, Healthy, Whole. She breaks down the truth about liberation, alignment, identity, and the inner work required to live a life designed on purpose. With soul, courage, and clarity, Heather shares how she rebuilt HHW into the most powerful version yet — and invites listeners into a transformative season of choosing themselves, reconnecting to who they really are, and stepping into 2026 with intention and self-leadership. EPISODE OVERVIEW✅ This solo episode is packed with:✅ Heather’s huge event announcement✅The official relaunch of Happy, Healthy, Whole✅ A behind-the-scenes look at her growth + evolution as a coach✅ What liberation really means✅ How to live on purpose — not autopilot✅ The structure of her new 12-week transformational curriculum✅ A giveaway announcement for the Real & Raw Liberation Event✅ A call to action for 2026 aligned livingKEY THEMES & TAKEAWAYS1. Liberation begins with truth.Heather explains what it means to liberate yourself from mental patterns, expectations, emotional weight, and B.S. belief systems so you can choose your life on purpose.2. Alignment is a decision — not a destination.Heather outlines how identity, values, and embodied choices create a life that feels congruent and grounded.3. You are allowed to reinvent yourself.Her own evolution led to rebuilding Happy, Healthy, Whole from the ground up into a deeper, clearer, more powerful transformation model.4. Real transformation requires structure AND soul.She walks listeners through the 12-week HHW curriculum: awareness, belief systems, identity, values, emotional embodiment, nervous system work, somatics, boundaries, confidence, and integration.5. Connection accelerates growth.Heather shares why community events — like the Real & Raw Liberation Event — catalyze expansion in ways solo work can’t.6. 2026 is not about “New Year, New Me.”It’s about remembering who you already are and choosing her on purpose.CALL TO ACTION

🎉 ENTER TO WIN a *free* ticket to the Real & Raw Liberation in Austin, TX - Feb. 6-7, 2026 - CLICK HERE TO ENTER (must enter by Dec. 23, 2025).

✅ Join the Happy, Healthy, Whole Program - it starts Jan. 13, 2026 - CLICK HERE to learn more!

✅ Join Heather's email newsletter: CLICK HERE to join!

✅ Schedule a FREE 60 minute 1:1 Consultation with Heather to see how we can work together: CLICK HERE to schedule

In this episode of Life Beyond B.S., Heather sits down with life coach and cancer survivor Dr. Alissa Esposito, founder of The Make It Happen Project and The Modern Manifestation Academy. They dive into how your identity — not just your desires — drives what actually shows up in your life. Alissa shares the belief systems she had to dismantle to step beyond a traditional medical career, how her cancer journey became one of the best things that ever happened to her, and why manifestation is really about science, nervous system regulation, and everyday choices (not wishful thinking). You’ll hear how to start dreaming again, what to do when you’re “stuck but doing the work,” and how a vision board and determined “why not me?” energy helped Alissa dance at a duchess-level ball at Versailles.KEY THEMES & TAKEAWAYS✅ You can outgrow an identity — and that’s a good thing.You’re not meant to stay stuck in your college major, first career, or old version of you.✅ Manifestation = making ideas real, not magic spells.It’s the process of taking something from thought into the 3D world through belief, identity, and aligned action.✅ You don’t manifest what you want — you manifest who you’re being.Your dominant thoughts, energy, and self-concept are what create your repeated results.✅ Awareness is always step one.You can’t change what you don’t recognize. Becoming aware of your dominant thought loops and belief systems is the starting point.✅ Your primitive brain wants safety, not expansion.Fear and “I can’t” are often just your nervous system trying to conserve energy and keep you in the familiar, not evidence that you’re incapable.✅ Vision boards are identity tools, not just art projects.They help you clarify what you want, confront feelings of unworthiness, and measure your growth over time.✅ Cancer was a defining moment, not her identity.Alissa chose to let cancer awaken her to the value of time, intentional living, and true priorities.✅ Change doesn’t require a crisis — but most people wait for one.HEATHER’S REFLECTION❤️ Heather shares her own evolution from “I can’t” girl to “Why can’t I?” woman — and how noticing that pattern was her “brick in the face” moment.❤️ She reflects on how much of her self-hatred and self-sabotage came from internalized beliefs that weren’t even hers — they belonged to parents, culture, and old conditioning.❤️ The dynamic vision board process with Alissa became a critical turning point:❤️ It moved her dreams out of her head and onto a board she saw daily.❤️ It forced her to confront where she was still playing small.❤️ It gave her a visual standard she didn’t want to ignore for six months or a year.❤️ Today, she’s living so many of the things that once felt “for other people”: a podcast, a book chapter, speaking, her coaching work, and more.❤️ Her big invitation: don’t wait for the diagnosis, breakdown, or final straw to wake up. You can choose differently now.CALL TO ACTION:Reflection prompt🔍What is one belief about yourself or your life that might just be a thought you’ve repeated — not an actual fact?🔍What’s the next believable thought you could choose instead? (e.g., from “I can’t” → “Maybe it’s possible for me.”)Micro action:💡Tonight, before bed, name 3 things you’re grateful for and 1 thing you’re looking forward to.💡Notice how you feel after one week of this simple practice.Dr. Alissa EspositoCheck out The Make It Happen Project and The Modern Manifestation Academy: Work with Heather:🌟Book a free 60-minute call to explore life coaching and what “life beyond B.S.” could look like for you: 🌟 Join Heather’s email list at heathermcnally.com for updates on the Happy, Healthy, Whole program and new episodes: If this episode helped you breathe a little deeper or whisper “Why not me?”, please rate, review, follow, subscribe, and share it with a friend who needs it.

🪞 Episode OverviewIn this solo episode, Heather dives deep into the power of pause — and why slowing down isn’t lazy, it’s revolutionary. Through her own story as a busy mom who once filled every silence with “doing,” Heather unpacks how stillness creates the space for clarity, creativity, and connection.She blends real-life insight with brain science to show how even 60 seconds of intentional pause can shift your body from stress to safety — calming the amygdala, activating your intuition, and reconnecting you with your true self.This episode is a permission slip to stop glorifying busyness and start honoring space. Because as Heather reminds us, the pause isn’t empty — it’s full of answers.🧭 Key Themes & Takeaways✅ The difference between busyness and purpose — and how hustle culture keeps us disconnected.✅ Why awareness can’t exist without space.✅ The science behind stillness: how the parasympathetic nervous system, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex shape your peace and decisions.✅ The truth about burnout: it’s not from doing too much, but from disconnecting from yourself.✅ 3 simple, science-backed ways to integrate pause into daily life.✅ How a moment of stillness sparked Heather’s “Happy, Healthy, Whole” download — and how yours can spark your next breakthrough.🧘‍♀️ Heather’s Reflection“The pause isn’t empty — it’s full of answers, full of healing, and full of the wisdom that’s been trying to reach you.”Heather reminds us that you don’t need to meditate for hours or escape to the mountains to find peace. You just need permission — to breathe, to be, to listen. From her own burnout to breakthroughs on long drives, she teaches that awareness and freedom live inside those small, sacred moments when we stop long enough to hear ourselves again.3 Practical Tools from This Episode1️⃣ The One-Minute Pause👉🏼 Close your eyes, breathe deeply, and ask: “What’s here right now?”👉🏼 One minute of stillness can recalibrate your entire day.2️⃣ The Five Senses Reset👉🏼 Ground yourself by naming one thing you can see, hear, feel, taste, and touch.👉🏼 This brings oxygen back to your brain and activates calm through your vagus nerve.3️⃣ Ask Better Questions👉🏼 What am I avoiding by staying busy?👉🏼 What truth am I scared will surface if I slow down?👉🏼What do I need right now?These questions move you from reaction to reflection — from the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex, where clarity and choice live.Science Meets Soul:🔍 Parasympathetic nervous system: Your rest-and-digest mode that signals safety and calm.🔍 Amygdala: The emotional “smoke detector” that triggers fight, flight, or freeze.🔍 Prefrontal cortex: Your wise, logical “coach” that helps you make aligned decisions.🔍 Neurotransmitters: Deep breathing releases GABA and serotonin, your natural chill and balance chemicals.🔍 Default mode network: The brain’s reflection center — creativity and insight live here when you stop “doing.”🌿 Call to ActionTake one intentional pause today — no phone, no noise, no distraction. Just you, breathing and being. Then ask yourself: What do I need right now?If this episode helped you exhale, share it with someone who needs permission to slow down.✨ Rate and review Life Beyond B.S.✨ Join Heather’s email list at www.heathermcnally.com✨ Book a free 60-minute clarity call: Heather's schedule✨ Stay tuned for her Happy, Healthy, Whole program — coming soon.