Why I Started This Substack

For most of my career, I’ve sat at the intersection of science and lived experience - first as an OB/GYN, then as an obesity medicine physician, and now as a keynote speaker and advisor to organizations trying to make health care make sense again.

I’ve spent 25 years watching what happens when women’s health stories are written by someone else - by culture, by pharma, by the wellness industry, by the healthcare system itself.

And what I’ve seen is this: we’re getting the biology right but the framework wrong.

We’ve medicalized women’s lives while ignoring the systems that make staying healthy nearly impossible.

We talk about “behavior change” when what we really need is system redesign.

That’s why I started Health, Rewritten.

I’m a physician, double-boarded in obesity medicine and women’s health and a Menopause Society Certified Practitioner (MSCP).

I founded Heartland Weight Loss, a medical clinic in Kansas. I earned my fellowship in Obesity Medicine and currently serve on the Board of Trustees for the Obesity Medicine Association.

And I’m smack dab in the middle of midlife myself - navigating the same changes I’ve spent my life helping women face.

I know what it’s like to feel strong, accomplished, and capable… while your own physiology seems to be betraying you.

That combination - science and lived experience - is what I bring here: clarity, honesty, and evidence through the lens of a woman who’s in the trenches.

This space is separate from my clinical work. I’ve built it to dismantle outdated health narratives for women in midlife with the hope that, along with a community, we can rebuild them around truth, strength, and agency.

Every post will fall into one of three pillars:

1. Myths: Cultural stories that keep women small - from “skinny equals success” to “menopause means decline.” We’ll unpack where they came from and what they cost us - because you can’t fix something until you understand it.

2. Biology: The physiology of what thriving in midlife should look like - addressing topics such as metabolism, muscle, hormones, GLP-1s, menopause, and beyond. Clear science. No jargon. No sponsored nonsense. I don’t speak for pharma - ever. I speak for real people.

3. Systems: How workplaces, benefit structures, and medical policies shape our health - often without us realizing it. We’ll explore how to redesign those systems so health and performance finally align.

Because midlife doesn’t have to mean shrinking.

It can mean rising.

Those of us navigating midlife right now are an amazing group of women.

We’ve completely rewritten what the first half of a woman’s life can look like - juggling autonomy and independence with caretaking.

It’s going to fall to us to rewrite what the second half looks like too.

If the first half of our lives didn’t look anything like the lives of the women who came before us, how can we expect to emulate them in the second half of our lives?

Most of us don’t want to anyway.

We don’t want the second half of our lives to be one of fading into the background - of becoming frail and fragile.

We want to thrive. To live vibrantly.

If you’re a woman who wants to think differently about your body, your health, and your power - subscribe. Join a movement of women redefining what it means to thrive in midlife - stronger, louder, and fully alive.

Midlife, rewritten.