Nutrition Beyond the Plate

Health Coaching for Women Taking On The World

So there I was, living the dream. I was at the top of my professional career doing a job I loved, that defined who I was as a person. A job that came first and foremost above all else, not because it had to, but because I wanted it to. It was at this point I was in the midst of navigating a divorce after 11 years, and was about to board a plane to attend my father’s funeral. He had just passed of Alzheimer’s Disease when I received the news. My mother, who had been his primary caregiver for the last decade, had her own fatal diagnosis; a rare and aggressive form of dementia to call her own. On top of dealing with the loss of my marriage and my father, I was going to have to quit everything I knew and loved to stay home to take care of my mother. The word ‘devastated’ does not encompass the emotional atom bomb that was quickly becoming my fractured life.

Beyond the chaos of figuring out the logistics at the time, I was gravely concerned for my own long-term health. Everyone in my family had always eaten relatively healthy, exercised, and no one was overweight or diabetic, so what, if anything, could I do to protect myself? Leaving my future up to fate suddenly felt like a losing battle plan. I dove headfirst into the latest research behind one of America’s fastest growing epidemics, and what I learned changed my life... and my fate.

Although food and nutrition are major factors for longevity, there are other equally important factors that are

scientifically proven to make major impacts. Sleep, stress, human connection, fulfillment, and food all have a multidimensional affect on our bodies, both for today and the future.

My mother had been stressed out her entire life. I truly believe when my father passed her cortisol-infused house of cards had nothing left to hold itself up and came crashing down in a flurry of cognitive decline. All the veggies in the world couldn’t save her from her body never having the time to recover from a lifetime of constant strain to its exhausted nervous system.

I quickly realized that my high-powered, all-consuming, high stress/high pressure life I had created for myself was about to lead me down an eerily similar path if I didn’t change and as soon as possible. Alzheimer’s Disease begins to manifest in the brain 30-40 years before symptoms begin to show, and all the salads and exercise in the world weren’t going to protect me from these other aspects of my life that seemed so insignificant at the time.

I mean really, we hear ‘self-care’ and we think of spas, expensive retreats, an excuse to drink wine at lunch, and maybe throwing in some afternoon yoga. When I started to look at this foreign concept as ‘taking care of myself’ like my life depended on it, all my priorities started to shift. Coming into this new perspective is something I felt compelled to share when so many women are in the same position that I was. Killing themselves day in and day out because...well, because we can. Because in our society that is what it takes to be “successful”, and we feel like we can take it. I’m here to tell you we don’t have to kill ourselves. Balance involving our food, stress, jobs, fulfillment, and time are not only possible, but necessary.

I created Counter/Balance to help empower other women who are driven, successful and taking on the world to create sustainable health and happiness for a long and healthy life.