My 15-year journey
From constant fatigue, H. pylori and winter-long colds to a steadier daily baseline — how I got here, in order, with the dead ends left in.
Read my journey →
13 pillars • Meal plans • Lived research
13 pillars to better health — what worked for me.
Welcome to My Inside Out Wellness. I’m Shawn — a 52-year-old regular person, and I’m taking you on my 15-year journey toward better health, day by day and pillar by pillar. My objective was to win back the energy of my youth — and I’ve achieved it: no gimmicks, just the right balance of everyday foods. I consistently hit 7 or 8 out of 10 on energy, and I can show you what worked for me and the changes I made. Join me as I keep discovering new pillars and new ways to build energy and longevity — what worked for me might work for you. There’s nothing to buy and nothing to sell here, only information to help you on your journey to a better, healthier you. If anything here has helped you, I’d love to hear about it — please feel free to send me a message.
Free content is the give-back. No hype, no miracle claims — just what I’m learning, what I tried, and what I’m still getting wrong.
15 yearsOn this journey
13Pillars so far
3Areas in progress
The show
Play episodes
Inside Out Wellness — new episodes as the research unfolds
Where to start
Pick the thread that sounds most like you. Everything here is personal experience and shared research — educational only, never a prescription.
Food & meal plans
The food chart I eat by, eating with the seasons, and daily anchors — plus practical packable lunches and the full free 7-day plan.
See the food page →Oral biome & fresh breath
Tongue coating, hydration, sugar, arginine, BLIS K12/M18 — the live investigation. Wins, open questions, and how to check your own breath honestly.
Enter the investigation →Latest update
A new post every week or two — what I’m learning, as I learn it.
The site is live — and why I built it
I’m excited to launch myinsideoutwellness.com. My sincere hope: that you find the health and wellbeing I found — and find them faster than the 15 years it took me. The goal is to get back the energy of our youth, and the 13 pillars will help you get there.
Read the post →
“I won’t tell you any of this will do the same for you. I’m not qualified to. But if the tiredness, the stomach trouble, the feeling of just not being well sounds familiar — maybe something I tried is worth reading about.”
— Shawn, from My Journey
My Journey
My 15-year journey
By Shawn — this is my personal story. I’m not a doctor or clinician, and nothing here is medical advice. It’s just what I did, what I tried, and what I learned along the way.
Where I started
I’ll be honest: fifteen years ago, I was a much different person in terms of health.
I had been eating the same way for about 20 years. I was physically tired all the time — not the kind of tired a good night’s sleep fixes, just a constant, low-grade exhaustion. I had a general feeling of not being well, hard to describe but impossible to ignore. Every winter I’d get sick for at least three weeks. On top of that, I had stomach issues — H. pylori, burning, the works. And stress. Plenty of stress.
My own health concerns were always in the back of my mind — not as fear, exactly, more as a nudge. They made me think harder about what I could actually control.
Why it mattered to me
For me it came down to two things, and they’re pretty simple.
First, I want to be healthy for my family. That’s it. I want to be around, and I want to be around well — not dragging myself through the day.
Second, I want to perform at work. I put food on the table with my brain and my energy, and when your body isn’t cooperating, everything gets harder. Health, for me, is practical. It’s not abstract.
Some of the broader numbers had stuck in my head too — cancer accounts for about 30% of all deaths in Canada, heart disease about 29%, and someone in Canada dies from heart disease or stroke every 7 minutes. I’m not saying my routine changes any of that. I just mean those numbers made the whole thing feel less optional and more worth taking seriously.
What happened next
I didn’t flip a switch overnight. This was a journey — fifteen years of trying things, keeping what seemed to work for me, and dropping what didn’t.
It started with a detox. Then massage and chiropractic care. Then natural supplements. Exercise — which led me to realize I had to fix my diet first, because my body wasn’t absorbing nutrients properly. Then paying attention to the air I breathe and the water I drink. Shifting toward plants. Saunas and swapping out household products. Chlorophyll. Fermented foods for the gut. Cutting sugar. Eating alkaline. Eating with the seasons.
Thirteen steps in all, more or less in the order I took them — and the journey isn’t finished: hydration, sleep and exercise are the frontiers I’m exploring now, and I’ll add them here as they earn their place. That’s what the rest of this site is about — each step, in my own words: what I did, and what I learned.
I won’t tell you any of this will do the same for you. I’m not qualified to. But if any part of my story sounds familiar — the tiredness, the stomach trouble, the feeling of just not being well — then maybe something I tried is worth reading about. Talk to your own doctor or a qualified professional before you change anything. This is educational, from one regular person to another.
Thank you for listening.
Wellness Pillars
The 13 pillars
By Shawn. I’m not a clinician — these are things I personally tried over fifteen years, in my own words. Educational only, not medical advice. Talk to a qualified professional before making changes.
Areas still in progress
The 13 pillars are what fifteen years have taught me so far. These three are where I’m continuing to learn and experiment.
Water
Hydration, done properly: how much, when, and what it actually does for energy, skin and breath. My hydration experiment on the Oral Biome page is the start of this one.
Sleep
The pillar I undervalued the longest. I’m tracking what genuinely improves my sleep — timing, light, the wind-down — instead of just counting hours.
Exercise, deeper
Exercise is already pillar 4 — this frontier is the next layer: strength and recovery alongside the cardio, and how training should change as the years add up.
That’s the arc so far — thirteen steps, in roughly the order I took them, with more to come. None of this is medical advice. It’s one person’s journey, shared in case something in it resonates with yours.
Oral Biome & Fresh Breath — a secondary focus
The last frontier: bad breath
Educational purposes only — not medical advice. I am not a clinician and I hold no medical credentials — I’m just like you: a normal, everyday person trying to figure this out. Everything here is what I’m learning about my own mouth, shared as I go. Honest information on this topic has been hard to find — most of what’s published is selling something rather than documenting what actually works. If you have concerns about your own health, talk to your dentist or doctor. Nothing here diagnoses or treats any condition, and nothing here is a recommendation for you to take anything.
Why I’m calling this the last frontier
Over the years I’ve tackled a lot of health and wellness questions, and most of them eventually yielded to research, tracking, and consistency. Periodic bad breath is the exception. It is, honestly, the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to figure out — the last frontier to crack — and I’ve been working on it for a long time.
Here’s where it stands today: something has finally started working for me. I’m calling it a breakthrough because that’s honestly what it feels like — but it’s my experience only, I’m still testing it, and it is not a cure or a treatment for anyone else. As it holds up, I’ll write up exactly what changed. Until then, this page stays what it’s always been: a live investigation — here’s what I’m learning, with the wins, the dead ends, and the open questions all on the table.
The yellow tongue coating — my observation, not a diagnosis
For a long time I’ve noticed a yellow coating on my tongue. My own observation: it seems worse in the summer. I have a working suspicion that it might be related to a mild Candida overgrowth — but that is a suspicion, nothing more. A tongue coating can have many causes, no diagnosis has been made, and I’m not going to pretend mine is anything specific.
Why mention it at all? Because it’s the visible clue that started the deeper dive. If I’m going to figure this out, I have to start from what I can actually see.
Food & Meal Plans
Food & eating with the seasons
Food is one of the easiest levers I can actually pull. I won’t pretend a meal plan is a cure for anything — it’s just what I eat — built around the food chart below and eating with the seasons.
The 7-day meal plan
The full rotating plan — balanced seasonal meals, proteins, fermented dairy and vegetables, and lunches that pack well — lives in a free downloadable PDF.
Simple, repeatable meals: yogurt or kefir at breakfast, chicken or turkey bowls and wraps at lunch, salmon or chicken at dinner, plus nuts, fruit, and cheese for snacks. The lunches are designed to be packed the night before and still taste good at noon.
Direct file: assets/7-day-meal-plan.pdf — the same plan referenced from my morning food-plan thread (Days 1–3 originals, Days 4–7 on the same principles).
Daily anchors
Small things I do every day — honestly, they carry more weight than what’s on the plate:
- 💧Sip water through the day — I aim for roughly 2–2.5 litres.
- 🍵1–2 cups unsweetened green tea — my afternoon drink.
- 🧀Small piece of aged cheese after lunch & dinner — part of my fermented-dairy habit, and a satisfying finish.
Quick reference
Alkaline / acid food chart
Pillar 12 on my journey was alkaline eating, so here’s the chart I keep coming back to. It’s based on each food’s PRAL score (potential renal acid load, in mEq per 100g) — the standard measure researchers use for whether a food leaves an alkaline or acidic residue after digestion. Values are approximate; preparation and variety shift them a little.
How to read it: negative PRAL = alkaline-forming, near zero = neutral, positive PRAL = acid-forming. This is about metabolic residue, not taste — lemons taste acidic but are alkaline-forming once digested.
Highly alkaline-forming
PRAL −5 or lowerSpinach −14Raisins −21Kale −8Bananas −5.5Celery −5Beet greensSwiss chardArugula
Mildly alkaline-forming
PRAL −1 to −5Carrots −4.9Potatoes −4Cauliflower −4Tomatoes −3.1Oranges −2.7Lemons −2.5Apples −2.2Watermelon −1.9Almonds −2.8BroccoliBell peppersCucumberZucchini
Neutral
PRAL near 0Olive oilCoconut oilButterHoney −0.3Milk +0.7Coffee −1.4
Fats like olive oil, coconut oil and butter are roughly neutral.
Mildly acid-forming
PRAL +1 to +9Lentils +3.5White rice +4.6Whole-grain spaghetti +6.5Tuna +7.4Beef +7.8Eggs +8.2Peanuts +8Wheat bread +8.2Chicken +8.7Cottage cheese +8.7
Highly acid-forming
PRAL +9 or higherSalmon +9.4Turkey +9.9Oats +10.7Brown rice +12.5Walnuts +6.8 (moderate — grouped with the heavier nuts)Cheddar +26Parmesan +34
One honest catch
Alkaline-forming is not the whole story. Raisins are one of the most alkaline-forming foods on this chart — and they’re sticky sugar bombs. Eat the chart, but brush the reality.
A lens, not a prescription
This is a general-wellness lens I explored on my journey, not a prescription. No single food “alkalizes your blood” — your body regulates pH tightly on its own. I use this chart as a nudge toward more vegetables and fruit, not as medical advice.
Food combining — what I pair, what I avoid
One more lens from the journey: it’s not only what I eat, but what I eat together. Certain combinations leave me feeling light and settled; others sit heavy for hours. Personal experience, not medical advice.
Combinations I lean on
- Protein + non-starchy vegetables — chicken or salmon with greens or roast veg, my default plate
- Healthy fats + vegetables — olive oil over salad, a handful of nuts with fruit
- Fruit mostly on its own, earlier in the day rather than after a big meal
Combinations I avoid
- Dense carbs + meat in the same meal — steak with mashed potatoes, burger and fries, a heavy chicken-and-rice plate
- When I keep protein and starch apart and pair each with vegetables instead, digestion feels noticeably easier
No strict rules — just a pattern that’s worked for me for years.
Canada’s Food Guide — the official reference
My chart above is a personal lens; this is the official one. Canada’s Food Guide (2019, the current edition) keeps it simple:
- Half your plate vegetables and fruit
- A quarter whole grain foods
- A quarter protein foods — choosing plant-based protein more often
- Water as the drink of choice
Worth a look alongside my chart: food-guide.canada.ca. The plate visual lines up well with how I actually eat.
What I ease off
None of this is medical advice — it’s just what I’ve cut back on personally. The body loves fat, sugar and salt — which is exactly why these are the hardest to ease off, and the most worth easing off:
- Sugary foods — chocolate, candy, pastries
- Sodas and sugary drinks
- Potato chips and salty packaged snacks
- Junk food in general — the fat-sugar-salt combos
This is my experience, not a prescription. What’s here is meant to support the meal plan PDF, not replace it.
Podcast
Inside Out Wellness — the podcast
Conversations about everyday wellness, the oral biome, and the learning journey. Hosted by Shawn with a co-host. New episodes follow the research as it happens.
My 15-Year Health Journey
Shawn tells the full story behind the site: the fatigue, the H. pylori chapter, the prevention nudge, and the 13 steps that followed — detox through seasonal eating — told as personal experience, not advice. A co-host interviews.
File:
assets/my-15-year-health-journey.mp3 (10:13) • Shawn — male voice, co-host — female voice
The Last Frontier: Bad-Breath Breakthrough
The flagship investigation, out loud: the yellow tongue coating observation, the 0.6L hydration wake-up call, the Raisin Bran sugar problem, arginine and the protein shake, and where BLIS K12/M18 fits — promising, not proven. No cures claimed, just the log so far.
File:
assets/the-last-frontier-bad-breath-breakthrough.mp3 (8:28) • Shawn — male voice, co-host — female voiceHow this show is made
Episodes are built from the same research notes you can read on this site — same guardrails on air as on the page: teach general wellness, share experience and research, don’t diagnose anyone or prescribe for individuals. “Educational purposes only” up front, every time.
Journal & Updates
Follow the journal as it grows
New journal entries and podcast episodes will appear here as the research develops. If you’d like a short email when something new is published, send a follow request below.
The site is live — and why I built it
I’m excited to finally launch myinsideoutwellness.com — and my sincere hope is that many of you will find the health benefits and the wellbeing I found, and find them faster than the 15 years it took me.
Writing this, I’m reminded of all 13 pillars, and of how I used to feel compared to how I feel now. Low energy was simply my normal back then. It isn’t anymore.
If you’re struggling the way I used to feel, I want you to feel the way I feel now. The goal is to get back the energy of our youth — and I believe the 13 pillars can help you get there, one step at a time.
There’s nothing to buy here and nothing to sell. It’s what worked for me, written down as honestly as I can. Start with whichever pillar sounds most like you — and if something helps, I’d love to hear about it.
— Shawn
My 15-year health journey
The starting point: fatigue, stomach trouble, the health-history nudge, and the 13 steps that shaped this project.
Read the entry →The last frontier
An evolving record of what I’m learning about the oral biome, hydration, sugar, tongue coating and fresh breath.
Read the latest log →Listen to the conversations
Shawn and a co-host explore the same journey out loud, with new episodes added as there is something useful to share.
Browse episodes →Follow new posts
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Send a comment or question
Have a comment on an episode or journal entry? Send Shawn a private message here.
About
About Shawn & this site
Shawn, 52, is just a regular person — a normal, everyday guy — who has spent the past 15 years quietly working on his own health. Inside Out Wellness is where he shares what he’s learning — a 15-year journey toward better energy and longevity, documented pillar by pillar. He’s not a clinician; he’s a researcher of his own experience, sharing it so others can do their own digging.
Why this exists
This site exists because of energy and longevity. Fifteen years ago I was running on empty; today I consistently hit 7 or 8 out of 10 on energy — no gimmicks, just everyday foods and habits that added up, pillar by pillar. Honest, practical information about getting there has been hard to find, so I’m documenting what worked for me. The core content here stays free — the 13 pillars, the meal plan, the guides and the journal. That free content is the give-back.
Inside Out Wellness is a place for honest notes from lived experience: what I tried, what changed, what didn’t, and what I’m still learning. New journal entries and podcast episodes are added only when there is something useful to share.