In this episode of the Tea Time Podcast, Sharissa Bradley continues the Journey Back to Health series with Chapter Eight: Knowing Is Not Enough

Drawing from her graduate research in psychology, Sharissa reflects on a central question: why do we know what's good for us — yet still struggle to take action? From studying children sorting "good for me" foods to testing adults on health knowledge, she observed the same pattern across ages: awareness does not automatically lead to behavior change.

Despite unlimited access to health information today, rates of chronic illness continue rising. The issue isn't knowledge — it's implementation. This episode connects back to earlier chapters on brain resistance and energy conservation, explaining why large, sweeping goals often fail.

Sharissa shares practical examples, including breaking down exercise habits into small, manageable steps (like 20-minute YouTube workouts between clients), wearing flexible clothing, and using visible reminders to reduce friction.

The core takeaway: massive Monday overhauls don't work. Tiny, achievable action steps do.

The action step for this chapter is simple — share what you're learning with someone. Accountability and community help bridge the gap between knowing and doing.

This episode reflects lived experience, not medical advice.

⏱ Timestamps

00:00 – Welcome & Chapter 8 introduction
01:00 – Graduate research on health knowledge
02:00 – Rising chronic illness despite access to information
03:00 – Brain resistance & energy conservation
04:00 – Lofty goals vs. achievable habits
05:00 – The "Monday overhaul" trap
06:00 – Breaking exercise into tiny steps
07:00 – Reducing friction & setting reminders
08:00 – Baby steps toward habits
09:00 – The accountability action step
10:00 – Closing encouragement

🔗 Links & Resources

Download the free Journey Back to Health Workbook:
https://sharissabradley.com/extras

Join the Tea Time Podcast Facebook Community:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2034745363989749/

In this episode of the Tea Time Podcast, Sharissa Bradley continues the Journey Back to Health series with Chapter Seven: Superhero Complex.

This short but powerful chapter explores the tendency to "wear the superhero cape" — trying to do everything, be everything, and meet everyone's needs while personal health quietly suffers. Sharissa reflects on how overextending herself often leads to neglecting sleep, hydration, nourishment, exercise, and rest.

Using the familiar oxygen mask analogy, she emphasizes the importance of meeting your own basic needs first. While certain life seasons (like caring for a newborn) may temporarily require self-sacrifice, consistently ignoring your own well-being creates long-term consequences.

This episode introduces the concept of a "Joy List" — a simple, physical list of small and big activities that bring personal joy. From freezer meal prep and reading to gardening, watching Netflix, or enjoying a favorite meal, Sharissa encourages listeners to identify what fills their cup.

The action step is simple: remove the cape and do one small thing this week that brings you joy.

This episode reflects lived experience, not medical advice.

⏱ Timestamps

00:00 – Welcome & Chapter 7 introduction
01:00 – What is the Superhero Complex?
02:00 – When health suffers
02:30 – Oxygen mask analogy
03:30 – People pleasing vs. true necessity
04:00 – Identifying neglected basic needs
04:30 – Introducing the Joy List
05:00 – Examples of joyful activities
06:00 – Small moments of joy
07:00 – Making joy visible & habitual
07:45 – Personal joy commitment
08:00 – Action steps & encouragement

🔗 Links & Resources

Download the free Journey Back to Health Workbook:
https://sharissabradley.com/extras

Join the Tea Time Podcast Facebook Community:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2034745363989749/

Instagram: @sharissabradley.author

In this episode of the Tea Time Podcast, Sharissa Bradley continues the Journey Back to Health series with Chapter Six: Emotional Connections.

This chapter explores the powerful emotional ties we build around food — especially comfort foods connected to memory, safety, and love. Sharissa shares a personal story about cookies and tea with her grandmother, and how that ritual created a deep emotional pathway tied to warmth, belonging, and connection.

After being diagnosed with celiac disease and eliminating gluten, she lost the ability to access that comfort in spontaneous ways. This episode unpacks the emotional deficit that can occur when healing protocols, elimination diets, or food restrictions remove not just ingredients — but emotional anchors.

Sharissa encourages listeners to examine their own comfort foods and find ways to make nourishing swaps that preserve emotional connection without creating deprivation. From gluten-free baking to creative substitutions like sweet potato chips or vegetable-packed nachos, this episode focuses on reclaiming comfort safely.

This episode reflects lived experience, not medical advice.

⏱ Timestamps

00:00 – Welcome & Chapter 6 introduction
01:00 – Cookies, tea & grandmother memories
02:00 – Celiac diagnosis & losing comfort
03:00 – Emotional deprivation during healing
04:00 – Recipe swaps & nourishment
05:00 – High nutrient dense substitutions
06:00 – Nostalgia & grandmother's birthday
07:00 – Recreating comfort through scent & taste
08:00 – Encouragement & closing

🔗 Links & Resources

Download the free Journey Back to Health Workbook:
https://sharissabradley.com/extras

Join the Tea Time Podcast Facebook Community:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2034745363989749/

Watch this on youtube: https://youtu.be/VjoSDx8t03g

In this episode of the Tea Time Podcast, Sharissa Bradley continues the Journey Back to Health series with Chapter Five: Find Your Why.

Sharissa shares why this chapter may be the most foundational part of the entire healing journey. While habit formation, elimination diets, detox, and lifestyle shifts all matter, none of them sustain without a deeply rooted reason for change.

Drawing from her personal experience growing up with a chronically ill mother and later becoming a sick mom herself, Sharissa explains how her "why" became anchored in not wanting her children to experience the same absence she felt. She reflects on navigating autoimmune disease, adrenal fatigue, brain fog, inflammation, and years of extreme dietary changes — including two years without coffee, caffeine, sugar, dairy, or chocolate.

This episode moves into practical action steps from the book, including writing out what your healthiest self would be able to do, rebuilding physical goals, reclaiming activities that were lost to illness, and building a support team that can help you stay anchored when things feel hard.

Sharissa also vulnerably shares that her own healing journey feels like it has backslid recently, with increased nausea and fear-based thoughts resurfacing — reminding listeners that healing is rarely linear.

***This episode is lived experience, not medical advice.

⏱ Timestamps

00:00 – Welcome & Chapter 5 introduction
01:00 – Why this chapter is foundational
02:00 – Growing up with a chronically ill mother
03:00 – Becoming a sick mom & finding her why
04:00 – Elimination diets & extreme change
05:00 – Why willpower isn't enough
06:00 – Writing your healthiest-self list
07:00 – What illness stole
08:00 – Inflammation, joint pain & flare-ups
09:00 – Two-year healing timeline
10:00 – Reclaiming reading & daily activities
11:00 – Building your support team
12:00 – Paid support & outside help
13:00 – Reaching out & asking for support
14:00 – Current nausea setbacks
15:00 – Fear spirals & mental chatter
16:00 – Multiple habits & rewiring stories
17:00 – Grace, gentleness & encouragement

🔗 Links & Resources

Download the free Journey Back to Health Workbook:
https://sharissabradley.com/extras

Join the Tea Time Podcast Facebook Community:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2034745363989749/

In this episode of the Tea Time Podcast, Sharissa Bradley continues the Journey Back to Health series with Chapter Four: A Brain Resistant to Change. This episode builds on previous conversations about habits and brain energy, expanding into why habit change requires more than willpower or motivation.

Sharissa explains how habit change involves breaking down what we are actually trying to change and why attempting multiple new habits at once often leads to frustration. Drawing from The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, she discusses how long it takes to form a habit and why deeply ingrained patterns require extended timelines and intentional prioritization.

Using her own experience with rebuilding eating habits, exercise routines, and stress responses, Sharissa shares vulnerably about setbacks, nausea, emotional responses, and the humility required to heal in real time. She emphasizes the importance of grace, realistic timelines, reminders, and rewards when working against long-established brain pathways.

This episode closes with actionable guidance from Chapter Four, encouraging listeners to choose one habit at a time, set reminders, create incentives, and give themselves compassion while doing hard work.

Timestamps

• 00:00 – Welcome & Chapter 4 introduction
• 01:00 – Habits require more than willpower
• 02:00 – The Power of Habit & research
• 03:00 – Adrenaline-based systems & haste
• 04:00 – Action steps: identifying habits
• 05:00 – Breakfast habit struggles
• 06:00 – Setbacks, nausea & grace
• 07:00 – Unlearning stress patterns
• 08:00 – Realistic habit timelines
• 09:00 – One habit at a time
• 10:00 – Setting reminders
• 11:00 – Rewards & positive reinforcement
• 12:30 – Encouragement & vulnerability
• 13:45 – Closing

Links & Resources

• Download the Journey Back to Health Workbook (free):
  https://sharissabradley.com/extras
• Join the Tea Time Podcast Facebook Group:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2034745363989749/

In this episode of the Tea Time Podcast, Sharissa Bradley continues the Journey Back to Health series by working through Chapter Three, Wired This Way. This chapter explores how the brain is designed to follow familiar pathways and why changing habits requires so much mental energy, patience, and grace.

Sharissa explains how repeated behaviors become automatic, using everyday examples like driving home without remembering the trip. She reflects on how long-standing patterns around food — formed in early childhood — are not easily changed because the brain naturally seeks the fastest, least energy-intensive route.

The episode includes a powerful illustration using rat maze research to show how new habits light up the brain and require significant effort, while repeated behaviors become more efficient over time. Sharissa connects this science to her own current healing work, including rebuilding consistent eating habits and navigating the mental exhaustion that comes with change.

She encourages listeners to recognize that exhaustion, headaches, and the need for more rest can be normal when building new habits. The episode closes with Chapter Three action steps, inviting listeners to track daily routines, identify where space exists for change, and practice grace while laying the foundation for healthier patterns.

Timestamps

• 00:00 – Welcome & Chapter 3 introduction
• 01:00 – Habitual brain pathways explained
• 02:00 – Grace with long-standing patterns
• 02:40 – Brain hemispheres & internal conflict
• 03:00 – Rat maze research & habit formation
• 04:30 – Mental energy required for new habits
• 05:40 – Personal healing goals & exhaustion
• 07:00 – Going against old pathways
• 08:00 – Current healing update
• 09:00 – Chapter 3 action steps
• 11:00 – Tracking routines & finding space
• 13:00 – Boundaries, priorities & grace
• 14:30 – Closing & next chapter preview

Links & Resources

• Download the Journey Back to Health Workbook (free):
  https://sharissabradley.com/extras
• Join the Tea Time Podcast Facebook Group:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2034745363989749/
• Follow along on instagram: @sharissabradley_author

In this episode of the Tea Time Podcast, Sharissa Bradley continues the Journey Back to Health series by working through Chapter Two: Beliefs. This chapter focuses on the thoughts, attitudes, and belief systems that shape our ability to heal — and how early experiences can quietly influence our relationship with food, care, and worthiness.

Sharissa shares vulnerably about her ongoing struggle with nausea, eating consistently, and the emotional weight tied to food. She recounts a recent experience trying to eat peanut butter toast and how that moment revealed deeper beliefs about shame, pressure, and self-worth.

Revisiting the time when she was healing from autoimmune disease, Sharissa reflects on how mindset work — particularly with coach Tonya Rineer — helped her recognize the damaging beliefs she carried about her body. She explains how language like "my body is trying to kill me" reinforced fear and despair, and how shifting those beliefs became essential to healing.

The episode also explores childhood poverty, food insecurity, and the impact of unmet basic needs through the lens of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Sharissa connects these early experiences to present-day challenges around nourishment, care, and self-compassion.

This episode invites listeners to gently examine their own beliefs, worthiness, and the stories they may still be carrying — and to begin releasing what no longer serves them.

Timestamps

• 00:00 – Welcome & continuing the series
• 01:00 – Struggles with food and self-judgment
• 02:30 – Peanut butter toast & vulnerability
• 03:30 – Grace and meeting yourself where you are
• 04:00 – Healing autoimmune disease & mindset work
• 05:00 – "My body is trying to kill me"
• 06:00 – Reframing worthiness and beliefs
• 07:00 – Childhood poverty & unmet needs
• 09:00 – Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
• 10:30 – Relearning worthiness as an adult
• 12:00 – Examining beliefs and releasing old stories
• 13:30 – Encouragement & closing

Links & Resources

• Download the Journey Back to Health Workbook (free):
  https://sharissabradley.com/extras
• Join the Tea Time Podcast Facebook Group:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2034745363989749/

In this episode of the Tea Time Podcast, Sharissa Bradley officially begins the Journey Back to Health series by working through Chapter One of her book. This episode marks the start of a weekly practice where Sharissa uses her own book as a tool to support her current healing journey — particularly around disordered eating, rebuilding hunger cues, and caring for her body as she enters perimenopause.

Sharissa reflects on rereading her book for the first time in years and noticing how far she has come since healing from autoimmune disease. She shares how revisiting her earlier symptoms gives her perspective, gratitude, and hope — not just for herself, but for anyone currently struggling with health challenges.

Chapter One focuses on changing perspective. Sharissa discusses how beliefs formed early in life, family health narratives, and learned responses to illness shape how we treat our bodies. She reads a quote by Viktor Frankl and explains how the space between stimulus and response offers an opportunity to choose differently and begin healing.

The episode closes with the Chapter One action steps and an invitation to work through the book together using the free workbook and community space.

Timestamps

• 00:00 – Welcome & beginning the series
• 01:00 – Why this journey matters now
• 02:30 – Rereading the book with fresh perspective
• 04:00 – Reflecting on healing from autoimmune disease
• 05:30 – Hope for those currently struggling
• 07:00 – Personal history and the beginning of the book
• 08:00 – Chapter One: Changing perspective
• 08:30 – Viktor Frankl quote and choice
• 10:00 – Listening to the body and rebuilding intuition
• 11:30 – Action steps for Chapter One
• 14:00 – Invitation to community & closing

Links & Resources

• Download the Journey Back to Health Workbook (free):
  https://sharissabradley.com/extras
• Join the Tea Time Podcast Facebook Group:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2034745363989749/
• Watch on youtube: https://youtu.be/eLb1EOrdMQc