How do I get healthy?

Well, it’s up to you. However, there are some resources I recommend to everyone.

This list isn’t all inclusive but my favorites include:

• Adam Leipzig’s talk and exercise, ‘How to know your life purpose in 5 minutes’

• Passionate Nutrition, by Jennifer Adler

• Nutrition Facts, for any questions regarding nutrition

• Record Me Now, for checking in with your priorities and leaving a legacy for family and friends

• Travis Bells talk and exercise, ‘Life's Way Too Short Not to Live Your Bucket List’

The process of getting healthy physically, mentally, and spiritually is an intimate and often difficult journey. You have to pay attention to your essential self. You have to make space, give grace, and practice love.

An Integrative Nutrition Health Coach helps you see where your Primary Nutrition overlaps your Secondary Nutrition - these overlaps may not be what you expect. I’m here to help ask questions, provide resources, and encourage you to keep looking for answers that attend to your closest needs.

Illuminated

How does my style of coaching work?

I aim to illuminate your essence. To set your purpose free. To bring light to the critical voice that keeps you trapped in the quagmire of discontent and disease.

There is no destination - there is learning, experimentation, and self-expression. Skills, space and grace, and determination to keep striving towards acceptance and healthfulness.

Sometimes, you will be surprised at what comes out - sometimes, I am surprised, too.

This is Alice. I didn’t know that’s who she was until my young son asked me what I was drawing and it fell out of my mouth, ‘The same face I’ve drawn for 30 years - my anxiety.’ It wasn’t proven true until a beloved friend named her aloud. My friend wrote, “She looks afraid (like she's shaking), and stock still at the same time. Eternally trapped between the two lands of ‘fight’ or ‘flight.’”

I can see her. I can talk with her. Together, Alice and I, can grow into a more healthful expression of life. A life, thriving. I can pull her out of the quagmire, with love.

This is how Integrative Nutrition Health Coaching works.

"Dying sucks; I recommend you only do it once."

Punchy with fatigue at the end of the day, my husband and I were talking about my recent medical emergencies. I dare say, I laughed so hard I cried — you see, truth hurts.

Spontaneous abdominal hemorrhages, brought me into spasmodic shock, stopped my world in an agony I’d hoped never to feel again, and demanded I tell my loved ones, “I love you.” The best treatment? Dilaudid, a transfusion of blood, fluids, and time. I received the gift of life; if you are able, please donate blood.

“I live under the umbrella of a terminal condition; my favorite day is a rainy one.” At least, that’s what I told the emergency doctor the next week. I’d returned after 2 days of heavy menstrual bleeding, in pain, with no color, and wondering if I were dying, again.

I actually love the rain. It’s a balm to my soul. It makes my hair curl, my mood softer, my attention more focused. I feel at home. Herein lies the gift of chronic illness, it highlights the most important things in a person’s life.

Now, one month from a helicopter flight to life-giving medical treatment, I’m healing faster than I could have imagined. The hematoma in my abdomen is smaller. My range of motion is greater. The neuropathy in my left leg - at least, it matches the neuropathy in my right leg.

How? Grounding. Quality food. Supplemental support. Deep sleep. Boundaries on my energy. Asking for help. Reciprocal love. Connection to the inspiring stories of others.

My clients ask, “how do I take this journey to health and well being?” I encourage, and suggest the techniques above. I teach the things that support my own journey. If I can walk up to Death’s door and be healthy enough to recover - it’s information worth sharing. More than that, I am revived on my clients’ stories of winning - their stories of courage - strength in the face of their human condition.

Perhaps, the third time will be the charm. Perhaps, I won’t survive the next catastrophic incident. In the meantime, thank you for sharing the journey. I hope we’ll grow healthier and stronger together.

Stuck at home with Alice....

Alice.

She’s… well, she is my critical voice. I’d like to call her every name in my sailor’s repertoire; but, I might as well hold up a mirror because she’ll say it right back. She is my closest friend and enemy.

You see, Alice has helped me survive. She pushes me to think critically, take action, and be a better human. She shows me where I can make improvements and pesters me until I make progress. She is my motivation for 10,000 steps, healthier meals, developing relationships, and improving my business.

But, she’s cruel. Alice is a name-calling, immature, falsely-autonomous, voice of insecurity, regret, and fear. She likes to feed that fearful insecurity with over-exertion, binge eating, isolation, and apathy. She doubts every step I take. Alice thinks I’m a fraud when I don’t live up to her expectations. She magnifies other’s judgments and holds her disgust in high regard.

We converse a lot. I practice listening and then letting go. Sometimes, I swallow her criticisms and take action. I have learned to appreciate Alice because she lead me to this place. I have also learned that “distance makes the heart grow fonder.” I love her, now, as a family member. A voice distinct from myself - separate from my identity.

Do you know your critical voice? What would you name him/her?

6 Months and a Pandemic

It’s hard to say how 6 months can slip by without so much as a blink of an eye. The trappings of family, traditions, health and rest have consumed us. We are being forced to reset, however. COVID-19 has put us all on guard and into self-isolation. We can hold each other, support each other and support our health in this time. Listening deeply to others and our innate needs, we will come out the other side better than ever.

How are you doing?

How are you helping yourself and others?

Take courage friends!

Guilt and Gratitude

I’m grateful that my business supports my life, livelihood, and wellbeing. However, when life gets in the way of the business, I’m often left with guilt.

Yet, I believe in balance.

Over these last 6 months, I have spent my energy getting healthy and reconnecting with my family after a harrowing medical crisis. There has been no room physically, mentally, and spiritually for promoting my business the way it needs. In turn, there is no room for lingering guilt.

Many of you have had such interruptions, the type that takes you out and away from where you really want to be. I’m here to tell you, it’s all good. You’ll find a new rhythm. It takes time to stretch into the new version of you. The version that can love and be loved. The version that supports self and others. The version that is productive and creative.

I’d love to share your journey.

Humble Helpings

When we think about the things that really serve us through the day it may be best to think about the humble and helpful things. Recently, we replaced the sprayer attached to our toilet. Some people use these sprayers for bidet style cleaning. We have used it for almost 7 years (!) of cloth diapers. It served us well for those years but has dripped and leaked; little puddles became a towel-soaking affair. In an effort to not waste our pricey and precious water, we spent $40 and a few days ordering, installing and then using a shiny new sprayer.

Well, a few days of waiting for our delivery.

And, a day without hot water… turns out our finger-tight installation needed a tool. Our new sprayer didn’t leak, however, the water backed down the pipe, to its too-loose connection and dripped through the floor directly below to the sensor for our hot water heater. This sensor ensures the pilot light works safely and would not fire while “obstructed.” I’m grateful for appliance manuals, tools, and smart measures that keep us safe. After allowing the sensor to dry completely — turning it off and on — we could take hot showers in the evening.

Mostly, I’m glad to have a sprayer that doesn’t leak, works better than the previous one, and the confidence to take on a simple DIY. (Thanks, Love!)

A bit of humility, a humble helper and every day is a little bit sweeter.

What is your humble helping?

Chronic?

Chronic.

Persistent through time.

Why do we talk about chronic illness and not chronic living?

I see health and wellbeing as determined by the chronic decisions we make in our daily lives.  

Do you prioritize sleep? Do you make the effort for a balanced diet? Do you work at your relationships - building trust and love?

Of course, people enduring chronic illness recognize that these decisions are important. Perhaps, it is that chronic illness so often stands in the way of chronic living. It is difficult to make sleep a priority if you are in pain.  It is hard to make proper food choices when chasing a sweet caffeine pick-me-up. It is harder still to make these decisions in front of friends and family and endure their judgment; even, or maybe especially, if it comes from a loving intention.

You are not alone.  You are worthy of health.  You are loved.

As a health coach...  I see you. I hear you.  I can help you to live chronically. 

Time

I once had a discussion with a three year old about how time moved. In an endeavor to deepen the exchange I asked, “What does time look like?” Without so much as a blink he answered, “Time is a truck on roller-skates.” In reference to time zipping and slipping along.

What do you think?

What is time?

What does it look like?

Is it important to look for a different perspective?