Are you ready to discover which Salad With a Side of Fries episodes truly changed lives in 2025? Join Jenn for an inspiring countdown of transformative wellness conversations that tackle everything from heart rate variability to hormone health and pre-diabetic prevention. These game-changing discussions offer practical insights you can implement immediately.
Jenn Trepeck, host of Salad With a Side of Fries, reveals the top 10 episodes of 2025. She shares powerful conversations about blood sugar management, diet culture, and flexible habits that serve your health goals. From understanding how to improve heart rate variability naturally to demystifying hormones and breaking free from rigid wellness rules, this episode delivers a curated playlist of wellness habits that honor real life.
What You Will Learn in This Episode:
✅ How heart rate variability acts as a speedometer for your physiology and practical ways to improve it using wearable technology for better health monitoring.
✅ Why hormone health isn't mysterious or taboo—discover how hormones communicate what your body needs and why birth control effects differ from what you've been told.
✅ The truth about pre-diabetic prevention through daily food choices and why small, consistent changes matter more than once-yearly doctor visits for blood sugar management.
✅ How to break free from diet culture and rigid habits by embracing the "Yes, And" approach to wellness habits that honor both your body and soul.
The Salad With a Side of Fries podcast, hosted by Jenn Trepeck, explores real-life wellness and weight-loss topics, debunking myths, misinformation, and flawed science surrounding nutrition and the food industry. Let’s dive into wellness and weight loss for real life, including drinking, eating out, and skipping the grocery store.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 The annual countdown tradition of reviewing the Top 10 Episodes of 2025
05:03 Episode 324: Have Your Cake and Feel Great—breaking free from food shame and diet culture while enjoying treats
06:55 Episode 302: The “Yes And” in Healthcare (feat. Andrea Nakayama)—combining Western medicine with lifestyle medicine and holistic health
09:09 Episode 313: Rigid vs.Flexible Habits (feat. Monica Packer)—escaping perfectionism and the all-or-nothing mindset
12:37 Episode 312: Daily Habits That Serve or Sabotage Your Health and Hormones —understanding context and nuance
14:13 Episode 324: Hormones Are Your Check Engine Light (feat. Jillian Greaves)—demystifying hormone health and birth control effects on women's bodies
20:03 Episode 288: Use Your Heart Monitor to Improve Your Health (feat. Torkil Færø)—tracking Heart Rate Variability
23:11 Episode 303: Everyone Is Pre-Diabetic Unless…—why prevention happens daily through food choices, not annual checkups
30:04 Episode 292: Your Fat Cells Have Memory, a New Study Finds (feat. Ferdinand Von Meyenn)—understanding cellular encoding and why sustainable weight loss matters
33:36 Episode 326: The Kids are Not Alright. Are We? #skinnytok #tiktoxic (feat. Dr. Jillian Lampert)—addressing skinny talk, body image, and self-care practices across all ages
41:00 Episode 327: Eyes Are the Window to Your Health (feat. Dr. Joseph Allen)—the first eye health-focused episode exploring disease detection through vision
43:00 Honorable mention: Emotional Vitality (feat.Jared St. Claire)—exploring vagus nerve connection, gut health impact on mental health awareness, and transformative self-talk practices
44:07 Bonus episode: Kegels are for more than Better Sex (feat. Liz Miracle of kGoal)—quality of life information for all humans, not just postpartum women.Get 10% off kgoal with this link: https://www.kgoal.com/discount/TREPECK or use coupon code TREPECK
45:47 Nutrition Nugget: 10-3-2-1-0 quality sleep formula—practical bedtime routine for better rest and recovery metrics
46:30 Nutrition Nugget: Minnesota Starvation Experiment—understanding severe undereating effects
47:15 Episode 293: More on GLP-1 Meds & How to Increase your GLP-1 Naturally for sustainable weight management
48:06 Nutrition Nugget: The Easy Way Out—making wellness habits as simple as possible for sustainable weight management in 2026
48:37 Episode 325: Book Talk: Uncomplicating Wellness—Jenn’s new book
49:11 Episode 296: Dry Beyond January Part Two (Jill Tietz)—award-winning stellar interview on alcohol impact and lifestyle medicine approaches
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
💎 Heart rate variability is your body's capacity to handle stress—the higher your HRV, the more physiological headroom you have, making it one of the most valuable metrics from wearable devices for tracking wellness habits.
💎 Hormone health isn't about regulation but communication—symptoms aren't your body rebelling, but instead sending signals about what support it needs, especially regarding birth control effects that create medicated menopause rather than proper hormone balance.
💎 Pre-diabetic prevention starts with daily food choices, not annual doctor visits—what seems like small, meaningless changes in eating ultra-processed versus whole foods creates powerful prevention that moves you toward or away from disease.
💎 Diet culture and skinny talk affect everyone regardless of age—from self-care practices to curating social media feeds, being intentional about the messages we consume helps combat body image struggles and supports mental health awareness.
RESOURCES:
Become a Happy Healthy Hub Member
Jenn’s Free Menu Plan
A Salad With a Side of Fries
A Salad With A Side Of Fries Merch
A Salad With a Side of Fries Instagram
About Uncomplicating Wellness
Text ‘Book’ to 833-801-0500
Ep 324 Have your Cake and Feel Great
Ep 302 The "Yes And" in Healthcare (Feat. Andrea Nakayama)
Ep 313 Rigid versus Flexible Habits (feat. Monica Packer)
