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Shelly in Real Life
  • Metabolic Health
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About Shelly

Hi, I’m Shelly. I got my ADHD diagnosis in my 30s, and it felt like one of life’s biggest mysteries was finally solved.

Like so many high-achieving women with undiagnosed ADHD, I spent decades living in this weird paradox: crushing it at work while my personal life felt like constant chaos. I could lead product launches at Google but struggled to maintain basic routines at home. I was completely burnt out and constantly wondering why “simple” things felt impossibly hard.

What I found, after years of quietly running experiments on myself, kept coming back to the same thing: metabolic health. How I ate, how stable my energy was, whether my brain had the right fuel. These things mattered more than any productivity system I’d ever tried.

I spent 15 years at Google, the last four deep in the creator economy, launching products like Partnership Ads and the Creator Partnerships Hub. It was the job I’d genuinely manifested out of my own obsession with content and creators. Showing up fully for that meant figuring out how to actually function at my best, not just push through.

I’ve been making content for over a decade, always on the side, always telling myself I’d focus on it when work slowed down. Now I hold a certificate in nutrition for metabolic health from Cornell, I’m training to become a national board certified health coach, and I’m teaching other women with ADHD what took me years of personal experimentation to figure out.

โœจ Not sure where to start? Here:

  • State, Story, Strategy: My Content Framework – My foundational philosophy for managing ADHD
  • The Bathtub Model of Stress – a 3-step framework for recovering from burnout
  • Follow along on Instagram @shellyinreallife – Follow along in real time, come say hi ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿป

 

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๐๐จ. ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ’ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ฆ๐ฒ ๐Ÿ’๐ŸŽ๐ฑ๐Ÿ’๐ŸŽ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ ๐“๐š๐ค๐ž ๐š ๐ญ๐ซ๐ข๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐๐š๐›๐ฒ ๐“ โœ… ๐๐จ. ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ’ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ฆ๐ฒ ๐Ÿ’๐ŸŽ๐ฑ๐Ÿ’๐ŸŽ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ
๐“๐š๐ค๐ž ๐š ๐ญ๐ซ๐ข๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐๐š๐›๐ฒ ๐“ โœ…

The best piece of advice that I got from someone I truly admire is to never let anyone (parents, in-laws, friends, etc.) pressure you into having kids when youโ€™re not ready.

โ€œ๐˜ฝ๐™ช๐™ฉ ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ชโ€™๐™ก๐™ก ๐™ฃ๐™š๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง ๐™ฉ๐™ง๐™ช๐™ก๐™ฎ ๐™—๐™š ๐™ง๐™š๐™–๐™™๐™ฎ!โ€ - ๐Ÿ™ƒ the other piece of advice that I heard the most.

Being ready looks different for everyone. For me, Iโ€™m glad I was able to spend my 30s learning ways to cope with ADHD.

Before I was diagnosed, I never really understood why some of the most basic adult tasks felt so daunting to me. I was scared to have a kid because the thought of having to get them ready for school in the morning and then managing my own start of the day was scary as hell.

How am I supposed to get them to school on time?

I know I seem Type-A as hell, so it is confusing when managing appointments and schedules feel like the hardest thing in the world.

Now I know that time blindness (inability to gauge passing time) and executive dysfunction (poor planning/prioritization) are issues ADHDers deal with.

Now I can actually build systems around my weak spots instead of just feeling like something is wrong with me. 

Donโ€™t get me wrong, I still hate packing with a passion (and having to pack for Baby T on top of it is ๐Ÿ˜ฌ), but knowing these are my weak spots helps so much with my mental health when Iโ€™m in the thick of it.

Huge thanks to Auntie Gemini for being my executive function on this trip. Nap schedules, feeding windows, jet lag logic, all of it - so I could actually just be present and have fun.โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹

#adhdmom #travellingwithbaby #adhdwomen
this one mindset shift about intermittent fasting this one mindset shift about intermittent fasting helped me lose 15 pounds in 3 months.

i stopped thinking about fasting as a way to eat less calories, and started thinking about it as a way to drop my insulin so my body could actually burn fat. 

thatโ€™s the key insight in lesson 3. 

before this mental shift, i was counting down to my next meal the whole time. the moment my 16 hours was up, i thought: โ€œgreat! i can finally eat again.โ€

now i sometimes hit 16 hours and donโ€™t even feel hungry. so i keep fasting. not because Iโ€™m forcing it, but because i know my body is burning fat for energy. 

follow so you donโ€™t miss lesson 4, where I introduce you to your hangry beast and show you how to train it.

#intermittentfastingresults #insulinresistance #metabolichealth #fatburning metabolicflexibility
Iโ€™ve been growing this fiddle leaf fig for almost Iโ€™ve been growing this fiddle leaf fig for almost 10 years. Itโ€™s hitting the ceiling, tipping over, and desperately needs to be turned into a tree.

Iโ€™ve wanted to do this for years. But cutting the entire top off a plant Iโ€™ve kept alive for a decade feels... irreversible. Like once you do it, thereโ€™s no going back.

Then I spent way too long watching plant people on Instagram do it and finally hyped myself up enough to try.

This is No. 23 on my 40x40 list: do something that scares me. Not because the stakes are high, but because Iโ€™ve been overthinking a decision that isnโ€™t actually that serious.

Some things feel like a one-way door when theyโ€™re really a two-way door. Worst case? I buy another plant.
Did it work? Still waiting to find out. ๐ŸŒฟ

#fiddleleaffig #40by40 #becomingforty #houseplantsmakemehappy #plantmom
๐Ÿ™‹๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ is it better to eat two small meals separate ๐Ÿ™‹๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ is it better to eat two small meals separately, or one large one?

if you want to prioritize fat burn, consolidate your calories into larger meals and cut back on snacking.

๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒโ€™๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ ๐—ณ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—บ ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ป ๐Ÿฎ:

โ€ข every time you eat, insulin spikes ๐Ÿ“ˆ
โ€ข more eating windows = more insulin events
โ€ข your body can only burn fat when insulin is low ๐Ÿ”ฅ
โ€ข same food, same calories โ€” but timing changes everything
โ€ข fewer eating windows = more recovery time for your body โœ…

note: the research on meal frequency vs. spike height is still evolving โ€” the clearest benefit of fewer eating windows is giving your body more time to clear and recover between insulin responses.

lesson 3 coming soon: why intermittent fasting works for a completely different reason than most people think ๐Ÿ‘€

๐Ÿ“ฒ send this to someone who thinks eating six small meals a day is boosting their metabolism.

#insulinresistance #metabolichealth #bloodsugarbalance #fatburningmode
the insulin series, lesson 1 ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ”’ most people think the insulin series, lesson 1 ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ”’

most people think fat loss is about eating less. but what they donโ€™t tell you is that you canโ€™t burn fat if your insulin is elevated.

hereโ€™s exactly how glucose and insulin work โ€” and why the timing of when you eat matters just as much as what you eat.

this is lesson 1 of 4. save this and come back to it.

lesson 2 coming soon โ€” same calories, completely different impact on your insulin. 

#insulinresistance #metabolichealth #bloodsugarbalance #glucoserevolution
POV: youโ€™re sick of โ€œmove more and eat lessโ€ becau POV: youโ€™re sick of โ€œmove more and eat lessโ€ because itโ€™s never actually worked for you.

Turns out scientists are still actively debating what causes obesity.

๐Ÿงฌ There are two models:

1. Energy balance model - aka calories in, calories out
2. The carb-insulin model - less talked about but has changed my life

I enrolled in Cornellโ€™s Nutrition and Metabolic Health program to get answers from the source. 

๐Ÿคฏ My biggest a-ha moment? Even the experts donโ€™t agree.

No wonder weโ€™re always getting whiplash from dieting advice.

If youโ€™ve never heard of the carb-insulin model, you might just be missing half the picture.

#carbinsulinmodel #metabolichealth #insulinresistance
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