Chews Food Wisely with Nicole Fennell, RD

04/05/2026

The last 40 days. ☀️ Honestly, I really hope you didn’t notice my absence. Life lately has been full of lots of walks, lots of books, lots of kitties, lots of finishing, and lots of new beginnings. Yes, we have three kittens now 😬

Oh, and I accepted a full time teaching position at UT Tyler. Hooray! 🥳 Don’t you worry— and I are still rocking and rolling with clients new and old!

I’ve been sharing more through my newsletter lately bc IG just sort of gives me the ick right now 😂 Comment NEWSLETTER to join.

02/12/2026

Cheers to the last year in my 30s and THE most thoughtful gift I’ve ever received from a dear friend 😭 If you got my email, you know how I feel about getting gifts. But this… ooph… 😭

01/29/2026

My husband calls me Nicole “Get Sh*t Done” Fennell.
He’s not wrong.

Moving boxes fear me bc I WILL unpack the entire house in one attempt.
I will absolutely finish the thing.
Well.
On time.
Possibly too late at night.
Possibly too caffeinated. ☕️

I’m a doer.
There’s a constant to-do list running in my head, even though I’m hilariously bad at keeping an actual written one.

Bundled up inside that doer energy is also a very real all-or-nothing streak.

Which brings me to… crocheting.

I taught myself to crochet from YouTube. Just me, a hook, some yarn, and a lot of pausing and rewinding. And at first? I was trying so hard. White-knuckling the yarn. Pulling everything tight. Moving fast because obviously faster = better, right? 🫠

Too much tension made everything harder.
My hands hurt
I somehow switched directions.
Everything was lopsided
I kept unraveling things I’d just finished.

YouTube was a good starting place, but I needed a local “Nana” to help me the “feel” of it better and see where I was making mistakes.

Sound familiar? 👀

Because I see this exact pattern with health all the time.

Trying too hard.
Over-restricting.
Over-exercising.
Over-obsessing every bite.
Then wondering why you feel frustrated, exhausted, or just… done.

Here’s what crocheting has taught me (that applies way beyond yarn):

• Repetition leads to big change over time. One stitch doesn’t look like much. A hundred does.
• Trying harder isn’t always better. Less tension = better results.
• You can learn a lot on your own (thank you, YouTube University). But showing your work to someone who knows what they’re looking at helps you troubleshoot way faster.
• Small daily action beats never starting OR going so hard you burn out… or crash out, as my ten-year-old would say 😅

Health works the same way.

Not perfect.
Not extreme.
Not all at once.

Just consistent, supported, and realistic enough to actually stick.

If you’re a fellow doer who’s tired of white-knuckling your health, I shared more about this in today’s newsletter. Check your inbox 📧

And if you’re crocheting too… please tell me I’m not alone in unraveling half a project before it finally clicks 🧶

01/19/2026

What a ride it’s been these last ten years!

01/09/2026

Hey y'all! I decided to have a crazy sale on Thyroid Bootcamp e-course. Save $90 (making it only $7) now through this weekend. Use code SAVEBIG at checkout :-)

Thyroid Bootcamp Self-Paced

01/07/2026

I make my clients cry a lot…

…but probably not for the reason you think.

It’s not sadness.
It’s relief.

It’s the moment when lab results finally validate the crummy way they’ve been feeling for months or years. The kind of release that feels like floodwaters breaking through a dam that’s been holding way too long.

When you’ve been told over and over that:

it’s all in your head
you’re “just hormonal”
you’re getting older
you have young kids
you’re stressed
you’re insert lame excuse here
you eventually start to believe it.

And then come the stories you tell yourself:

I’m lazy
I have no drive
I’m broken
I’m a lost cause
This is just my destiny

Here’s the thing. Your brain is always trying to prove the story you’re telling it.

So sometimes what you really need isn’t more willpower or another supplement. You need a perspective shift. You need information that supports a new story. One rooted in data, not dismissal. One that creates hope instead of another dead end.

Enter functional lab testing.

This type of testing works alongside standard labs, but fills in the gaps. It adds clarity. Context. Depth.

I like to compare it to the first time I put on glasses in 4th grade. I always knew trees had leaves. But once I put on glasses, I could actually see each individual leaf. Same tree. Completely different experience, understanding, and appreciation.

That’s what functional labs do for your body.

Same body.
Different level of clarity.

So yes, this is what we do. We are basically the eyeglasses for your body, helping you zoom in on what’s actually going on with more precision and specificity.

And if you’re thinking, “OMG sign me up,” comment below or send me a DM.
We are currently taking on 1:1 clients and would LOVE to help you!

01/06/2026

You've probably had a couple nutrients tested on labs and sent on your way.

The truth is that you probably missed the real issue.

That’s because micronutrient status isn’t a one-lab situation. Looking at a single marker (or two) can easily miss the bigger picture. This is why we assess multiple micronutrient labs across different tissues to understand what’s actually going on, not just what looks “normal” on paper.

And even then, labs aren’t the whole story.

We also assess diet adequacy through supervised food journaling with our clients, because many blind spots don’t show up on labs alone. Protein gaps. Missing minerals. Foods that you THINK are supporting you but actually could be holding you back. Habits and routines that are slowing your metabolism and energy production. It happens ALL the time.

Another layer people don’t realize. Sometimes serum values look normal or even high, not because the body has plenty, but because those nutrients are struggling to get into the cells. That delivery issue is often driven by other micronutrient deficiencies, which is exactly why a comprehensive assessment matters.

Deficiencies happen for a few main reasons.
Supply versus demand when stress, inflammation, or activity is high.
Absorption issues tied to gut health.
And genetic variations like MTHFR that change how nutrients are processed.

This is why we zoom out. Because your body is an integrated system, not a single lab value.

01/01/2026

Oh 2025… you were… special. 🤣 😮‍💨 Fear, firsts, forgiveness, family, friends, faith, and facing inner demons- you truly had it all. From serving on a life-sentence trial jury, teaching college for the first time, opening our family’s gym, and about a gazillion other wonderful and terrible things happening simultaneously. I’ll take what I learned and leave what I don’t need and appreciate the people who were there by me in my highest-highs and literal lowest-lows… because this year was like a roller coaster of both 😆

If I could sum up 2025, it would be facing fears of worst case scenario and realizing that, in the end, it’ll be okay. And that being okay may (or probably always) look different than I imagined… in the best way. I have a suspicion that God just giggles at me and my wild imagination and gets a kick out of proving me wrong.

Thank YOU for still being here amidst my 3 month leave. I look forward to being less strategic and more “me” again in how I show up here- because we’re all tired of way too much marketing and AI word salad (and I would personally rather see bad grammar, run-on sentences, and incorrect word choice than another chatgpt caption 🤷‍♀️)

12/29/2025

High homocysteine is one of the most overlooked reasons TPO antibodies can rise and thyroid hormone production stalls.

TPO (thyroid peroxidase) is the enzyme that makes thyroid hormone production possible. Without it, iodine can't be used in the right way. And when thyroid antibodies are elevated, TPO is often the bottleneck.

TPO has two main jobs.

1️⃣ First, it activates iodine.
TPO converts iodide into iodine so it can bind to tyrosine on thyroglobulin. In those with elevated TPO antibodies, this step is especially vulnerable because the enzyme itself is under autoimmune attack. Iodine may be coming in just fine, but it can’t be properly used. Thyroid hormone production slows because the system is backed up. Adding more iodine here doesn’t fix the issue. It increases hydrogen peroxide, a normal byproduct of thyroid hormone production that becomes inflammatory when it can’t be neutralized.

That neutralization depends on selenium, glutathione, and effective methylation.

This is where homocysteine matters.
Elevated homocysteine signals impaired methylation and reduced antioxidant capacity. When methylation is sluggish, glutathione drops, hydrogen peroxide builds up, and oxidative stress inside the thyroid increases. Over time, that oxidative stress can increase immune activation and is associated with higher expression of TPO antibodies. Translation: high homocysteine can make autoimmune thyroid issues louder.

Elevated homocysteine can make the thyroid far more vulnerable to damage.

2️⃣ Second, TPO assembles thyroid hormones.
TPO couples iodotyrosines (MIT and DIT) to form T3 and T4. When TPO is under autoimmune attack, this step becomes inefficient. The building blocks may be there, but hormone output still falls short.

Bottom line: thyroid health isn’t about pushing iodine and hoping for the best. It’s about protecting TPO. That means supporting methylation, antioxidant defenses, and keeping homocysteine in check.

12/29/2025

Okay, quick thought I keep coming back to.

Homocysteine is one of those labs that does a lot behind the scenes. It helps with the creation of glutathione, which is your body’s master antioxidant. Detox support, anti inflammatory protection, cellular cleanup crew. We like glutathione. Big fan.

But here’s where it gets tricky. When homocysteine runs high, it can actually interfere with thyroid hormone conversion. Meaning T4 is not efficiently turning into T3. And if you feel hypothyroid but your labs are “normal,” this is often where I start getting curious.

This is also why I don’t stop at a full thyroid panel when we're supporting thyroid health. (And let’s be honest, sometimes getting a full thyroid panel feels like pulling teeth 😅)

Thyroid hormones don’t work alone. They depend on micronutrients, inflammation levels, methylation, and detox capacity to function properly. That’s why we look at things like full micronutrient panels, inflammation markers, and homocysteine. Because the body does not separate systems the way lab reports do.

Everything is connected. And when you support the periphery, the hormones often follow.

If your thyroid labs have ever felt incomplete or confusing, this might be one of the missing pieces.

12/27/2025

So here’s something I can’t unsee anymore.

After 15 years of looking at labs, you start to notice patterns. And no, not “maybe” patterns. Real ones. The kind that keep showing up that you just can't unsee.

Homocysteine and thyroid function are one of those.

I first noticed that when clients improved homocysteine with food and nutrient specific support, their thyroid labs started cleaning themselves up too. And when we supported thyroid function better (think conversion and absorption), homocysteine came back into range too.

Once is interesting. A dozen times later? That’s not a coincidence, that's a pattern.

So obviously I went down the research rabbit hole 🧠 and yep, there’s a real, very cool connection between homocysteine, methylation, and thyroid health happening at the cellular level.

I know this sounds a little nerdy, but stay with me. Because checking and optimizing homocysteine might be one of the missing clues for supporting your thyroid beyond just staring at TSH.

If this kind of stuff makes you go “wait… tell me more,” stick around and talk back in the comments 💬 and "like" this post.

12/25/2025

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from the Fennell family. Thank you to each of you for being here! 💕