The Day My Hair Started Telling on Me — My CCCA Story

The Day My Hair Started Telling on Me — My CCCA Story

You can lie to your mirror. You can lie to your doctor. But your hair will tell on you every single time. One morning in September 2025, Tawana touched her crown and something was different. Not dramatic. Just thinner. Softer where it used to be dense. Like somebody had been erasing something while she wasn't looking. Her first thought wasn't "I need to see a doctor." It was "What did I do wrong?" In Episode 3 of The Body Honest, Tawana shares her CCCA diagnosis — Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia — a scarring, autoimmune condition that destroys the hair follicle permanently. It overwhelmingly affects Black women, and most who have it don't know it. They think it's stress. They think it's aging. They think it's the products. They think they did something wrong. She takes you into the first dermatologist visit — the one that didn't feel right, where the provider checked the boxes but didn't see her hair, her texture, or her story. And the search that followed — for a trichologist, a dermatologist of color, someone who could actually look at her scalp with context. Then she tells you about the moment her mama — a woman fighting her own vascular dementia diagnosis — looked up at her and asked three words that cracked everything open: "Are you going bald?" The woman who won't face her own diagnosis saw right through her daughter's armor. And the parallel hit like a freight train: same woman, different diagnosis, same denial. This episode holds both the clinical truth and the emotional weight — what CCCA is, who it hits, why it's connected to the same chronic stress and inflammation from Episodes 1 and 2, and why your crown might be telling the truth your body has been whispering for years. ⬇️ Download the FREE CCCA Awareness Guide — what it is, symptoms, questions for your dermatologist, and treatment overview: CCCA Awareness Guide - S2E3 – Ever Well Journey [https://everwelljourney.com/products/making-her-choices-ccca-awareness-guide-s2e3] 🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts And if this episode moves something in you — send it to her. You know who. Three words: Listen to this. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice

Two Days a Week and Still Losing — When the Gym Isn't the Whole Answer

She's been in the gym since October 2024. Twice a week. Every week. Cardio. Strength. Different machines, different routines. She showed up when she was tired, when her body said no, when nobody was watching and nobody was clapping. And the scale didn't move. The pants didn't fit. And the belly? The belly waved at her in the mirror like an uninvited relative who decided to stay. In Episode 2 of The Body Honest, Tawana breaks down what happens when consistency isn't enough — and why the "eat less, move more" formula was never built for a woman over 40 with shifting hormones, chronic stress, disrupted sleep, and years of emotional labor that never made it onto a fitness tracker. She gets into the metabolic slowdown nobody warned you about, why her FSH of 78.6 means the gym playbook she was following was written for a body she doesn't have anymore, and the cortisol trap — the loop where pushing harder actually makes things worse. Then she names the four hidden factors the fitness industry doesn't put on the poster: sleep, chronic inflammation, gut health, and the stress you've been wearing like a badge of honor. Because your cortisol doesn't call it stress. Your cortisol calls it Tuesday. If you've been doing all the things and the results still won't come — you're not broken. The formula is broken. And it's not your fault nobody updated it. ⬇️ Download the FREE Movement Reality Check — match your current routine to what your body actually needs right now: Making Her Choices - Movement Reality Check - S2E2 – Ever Well Journey [https://everwelljourney.com/products/making-her-choices-movement-reality-check-s2e2]🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts 📍 everwelljourney.com | @making.her.choices This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice.

The Number That Changed Everything: When Your A1c Starts Talking

She’s a registered nurse with 20+ years in nephrology. She’s read thousands of lab reports for thousands of patients. And then one Tuesday afternoon, she opened her own patient portal — and everything changed.In the premiere episode of Series 2: The Body Honest, Tawana reads her actual lab results out loud — all of them. The comprehensive metabolic panel that came back clean. The kidney function she’s spent her career monitoring in others (perfectly fine, ironically). The thyroid that’s not the villain. The fasting glucose of 81 that said “normal.”And the hemoglobin A1c of 6.2 that told a completely different story.This episode unpacks what happens when the snapshot says “fine” but the full picture says “we need to talk.” Tawana breaks down why a normal fasting glucose can hide prediabetes, what an FSH of 78.6 and an LH of 47.8 actually mean for a woman’s metabolism, and why the “eat less, move more” model was never built for her body.If you’ve been going to the gym, eating the salads, doing all the things — and the scale still won’t move and the numbers still won’t budge — this episode is for you. You’re not broken. The model is broken. And nobody told you that until now. ⬇️ Download the FREE Lab Request Checklist — the exact labs Tawana ordered, what each one measures, reference ranges, and space for your own results: https://everwelljourney.com/products/free-lab-request-checklist-series-2-body-honest-episode-1 [https://everwelljourney.com/products/free-lab-request-checklist-series-2-body-honest-episode-1] Mentioned in this episode:• You First: The Radical Art of Self-Preservation — available at everwelljourney.com and purposedlypenned.com• Lab Results Decoder Guide — available at everwelljourney.com• Provider Conversation Script Bundle — available at everwelljourney.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. #MakingHerChoices #TheBodyHonest #A1cWakeUpCall #KnowYourNumbers #PrediabetesAwareness #WellnessOverPerfection #HealthJourneyPodcast #BlackWomenHealth #NurseWhoKnows #LetsGo

The Long Game: Your Body Has Been Listening Even When You Weren’t

Sometimes the wake-up call doesn't come gently. In this Series 1 finale of Making Her Choices, I get honest about an area of my life that's still a work in progress — my body, my health, and the patterns I ignored while rebuilding everything else. From the subtle warning signs to the moments I couldn't laugh off anymore, I realized something important: your body keeps track, even when you're not paying attention. This episode isn't about perfection. It's about awareness. I share the reality behind the numbers, the attempts that didn't work, the decisions I made, and the moment I knew I couldn't keep putting it off. It's also about what comes next. This finale introduces the next chapter — a deeper, more intentional approach to health, accountability, and long-term change. Not quick fixes. Not shortcuts. Just real decisions, real data, and real commitment. If you've been ignoring your own signals, putting your health on hold, or telling yourself "later," this conversation is your reminder: Your body is always communicating with you. The question is — are you listening? Let's go. _________________________________________________________ 📖 Grab your copy of You First: The Radical Art of Self-Preservation — available now:🔗 purposedlypenned.com🔗 everwelljourney.com 🛒 Explore companion resources, wellness tools, and more at the Ever Well Journey shop:🔗 everwelljourney.com 🎙️ Follow Making Her Choices:Spotify | Apple Podcasts #MakingHerChoices #MidlifeWellness #WomenOver40 #HealthAwakening #SelfPreservation #BodyAwareness #WellnessJourney #WomenAndHealth #MidlifeReinvention #YouFirstBook

The Serrated Axe Speaks

The Serrated Axe Speaks She’s been watching from the front row this whole time. In this episode of Making Her Choices, the conversation shifts — and for the first time, the axe gets the mic. I once shared something I heard in a sermon: there are two kinds of people — the scalpel and the serrated axe. The scalpel is precise, careful, always thinking about what it leaves behind. The serrated axe cuts through whatever stands in its way and keeps moving. I’ve always been the scalpel. My daughter? She claimed the axe without hesitation. This episode is our conversation — real, unfiltered, and deeply personal. We talk about what it looks like to watch your mother start over, the parenting choices that don’t follow the traditional handbook, and what happens when you raise a daughter who doesn’t wait for permission to move forward. This is about generational change. It’s about motherhood, identity, and raising strong, independent daughters. It’s about choosing growth over tradition — even when it’s uncomfortable. If you’ve ever had to choose between doing what’s expected and doing what’s right, this episode will stay with you. Because sometimes breaking the pattern isn’t rebellion. It’s evolution. And sometimes, the very thing you tried to control… becomes the proof that you did it right. ---#MakingHerChoices #TheSerratedAxeSpeaks #MotherDaughterPodcast #BlackMotherhood #RaisingStrongDaughters #GenerationalHealing #BreakTheCycle #WomenOver40 #WellnessPodcast #MidlifeRebuild #BoldChoices #SelfPreservation #ChooseYourself #WomenWhoRebuild #PodcastForWomen #BlackWomenPodcast #StartingOver #RealParenting #WomenEmpowerment #HolisticWellness #MotherDaughterGoals #WomenSupportingWomen #HealingOutLoud #OnlyChildLife #ParentingDifferently #JeanWoodhill #ParentingBook