Sho Richek

Do you want to see more patient coworkers?

How about coworkers with more energy, greater resilience, better focus, and healthier lifestyles? Those outcomes are not created by asking people to complete a wellness challenge once or twice a year. Challenges have value. They can create awareness, introduce new ideas, and motivate people to try something different. But health happens every day.

Employees, managers, executives, and CEOs are making choices about food, sleep, movement, stress, and their health throughout the year. That is why I believe in consistent nutrition and lifestyle support. It's time to help employees and the company's bottom line.

Healthy Habits High Returns® gives people a place to understand how their daily choices affect how they feel, explore root causes and patterns, ask questions, and make changes that fit their lives while continuing to use their existing healthcare and benefits.

I love helping create workplaces filled with happier, healthier, more resilient people, from coworkers and managers to leadership and the C-suite. When people feel better, have more energy, understand themselves better, and receive support making healthier choices, they have more opportunities to bring patience, focus, resilience, and engagement to their coworkers, families, and work.

That is the workplace I help organizations create. Wellness Isn’t a Perk, It’s a Performance Strategy®.

Let’s talk. Book a conversation. https://calendar.app.google/LnUi6QmuWWaMHeMh7

How is your gut your 2nd Brain?

Did you know your gut has roughly as many neurons as your spinal cord?

Your digestive tract contains an extensive neural network called the enteric nervous system. Estimates generally range from about 200 to 600 million neurons, and some research describes it as having at least as many neurons as the spinal cord. That is one reason the gut is sometimes called the “second brain.”

But what interests me most is not simply the number. It is the connection. Your gut and brain communicate back and forth, and that helps us understand why digestion, food, stress, sleep, mood, nervous-system activity, and other health patterns may be more connected than they initially appear.

This is what I love about functional nutrition. Rather than looking at one symptom in isolation, we can look for patterns, connections, and potential root causes. Sometimes one surprising connection helps us see our health very differently.

This week’s blog explores the brain and nervous system through a whole-person functional nutrition lens.
Read Your Nervous System Is Always Listening: How Functional Nutrition Supports the Brain and Nervous System at https://www.shorichek.com/functional-nutrition-brain-nervous-system-health

What if we helped employees improve their health before the next crisis?

This week I’m talking about cholesterol, but the bigger conversation is about what workplace wellness could look like when people receive more support before health concerns become more serious.

I’m excited about helping create workplaces filled with healthier, happier, more resilient people, from employees and managers to leadership and the C-suite. Imagine people having more energy, understanding more about their own health, and feeling better supported in making lifestyle choices that work in real life.

Nutrition, movement, sleep, stress, habits, and other daily choices can all influence health. When people receive practical support in these areas, they have a better opportunity to take an active role in their wellbeing while continuing to work with their healthcare providers.

Healthy Habits High Returns® can complement existing medical care, health plans, screenings, EAPs, and wellness resources by adding functional nutrition and lifestyle counseling that helps people turn health information into everyday action.

That is the kind of workplace wellness I’m excited about: healthier people, more resilience, more energy, and support that reaches everyone in the organization.

Lead with Holistic Preventive Health.

This week’s blog looks at healthy fats, cholesterol, sugar, and the bigger functional nutrition picture. https://www.shorichek.com/healthy-fats-cholesterol-functional-nutrition

Do you want to know what may be contributing to high cholesterol levels?

For years, many of us were told to avoid fat and watch the cholesterol in our food. Then came conversations about saturated fat, omega-3s, LDL, HDL, triglycerides, keto, added sugar, and refined carbohydrates.

No wonder people are confused.

Your body actually needs fat, and dietary cholesterol is only one part of the picture. For many people, the more useful questions are what kinds of fats they are eating, how much added sugar and refined food is showing up, how much fiber they are getting, and what the overall eating pattern looks like.

Functional nutrition helps us move away from blaming a single food and begin connecting the dots among nutrition, blood sugar, stress, sleep, movement, habits, and health information.

This week I’m breaking down healthy fats and cholesterol in a way that is practical, realistic, and hopefully much less confusing.

Read: Confused About Fat? How Functional Nutrition Looks at Healthy Fats and Cholesterol https://www.shorichek.com/healthy-fats-cholesterol-functional-nutrition

A Screening Is a Snapshot. What Happens Between Screenings?
An employee can leave a biometric screening knowing their LDL is elevated or their blood pressure needs attention. Then they go back to work, where the deadlines, meetings, family responsibilities, stress, food choices, sleep issues and everyday habits are still there.
That's where ongoing support can matter.
As a Functional Nutrition and Lifestyle Counselor, I help people understand how everyday choices may connect with the health information they're receiving and identify a realistic place to begin. If LDL is elevated, for example, one conversation may include adding more soluble fiber through foods such as oats, beans, lentils, apples or pears. For someone else, the priority may be meal patterns, movement, sleep, stress, or questions that need to go back to a physician.
The screening measures. Ongoing support helps turn awareness into action.
Healthy Habits High Returns® works alongside existing wellness programs, medical care, health insurance benefits and employee resources rather than replacing them.
The goal isn't to hand an employee another overwhelming health plan. It's to help them identify the next realistic choice they can actually practice.
Read this week's blog, How Functional Nutrition Supports Heart Health:
https://www.shorichek.com/functional-nutrition-heart-health

Your Employee Had a Health Screening. Now What?
A biometric screening can tell an employee that their cholesterol, blood pressure or blood sugar deserves attention. That's valuable information, but knowing the number doesn't automatically tell someone how to change Tuesday's lunch, Wednesday's sleep, or the habits that show up when they're stressed and exhausted.
That's where functional nutrition and lifestyle counseling can add another layer. I help people look at nutrition, sleep, stress, movement, digestion, medications, existing medical recommendations and the patterns that may be getting in the way.
The screening provides information. Ongoing support helps someone figure out what to do with it.
Healthy Habits High Returns® is designed to complement the medical, benefit and wellness resources an organization already provides while helping employees turn health information into realistic daily choices.
Knowing what needs attention and changing everyday behavior aren't always the same thing.
Wellness Isn’t a Perk, It’s a Performance Strategy®.
Read this week's blog, How Functional Nutrition Supports Heart Health:
https://www.shorichek.com/functional-nutrition-heart-health

BUILD Your IMMUNE-SUPPORT Plate!
Before you buy another supplement labeled “immune support,” try something much simpler at your next meal.

Build your plate around protein, color, fiber, and a healthy fat.
That could be salmon with sweet potato and broccoli, lentils with colorful vegetables and olive oil, or eggs with vegetables, avocado, and berries.

Your immune system relies on many nutrients, not just vitamin C. Vitamins, minerals, protein, and other nutrients all contribute to normal immune function.

Then look at your bigger pattern. Are you eating this way consistently, or only thinking about nutrition when you begin feeling sick?

I use supplements too. In fact, before, during, and after travel I personally use Activate as an additional layer of immune support. But I don't use it instead of food, sleep, hydration, movement, and the other basics.
Feed the system first. Then supplement thoughtfully.

That principle matters at work too. Practical strategies people can actually use are often more helpful than simply telling employees to "be healthier."

see shorichek . com for the latest blog.

Getting Sick AGAIN? Stop Looking for One Magic Fix.
Angela said something about our work together that captures why I approach health the way I do:
“Shoshanna is very thorough and personalized, and guided me through deep diving into specific topics I wanted to focus on... After working with her for 8 weeks, I saw noticeable improvements in my nutrition, physical health, and relationship with food.”

I wouldn't use Angela's story to claim that we "boosted" her immune system. What I love about her experience is that we didn't look for one answer.

The immune system works the same way. Nutrition matters. Sleep matters. Gut health matters. Movement matters. Stress and medical history matter.

Supplements may matter too, but one product doesn't replace the bigger picture.
This week's blog looks at what your immune system actually needs and why supporting it is very different from chasing the latest immune-health trend.
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