My Story

THERE WAS A MOMENT WHEN I KNEW I NEEDED A CHANGE For a long time, extremes worked for me.  When I was in my twenties, I did everything in my life to the extreme, and I fed off the energy that followed.  My day began with painful and hard workouts, followed by a full day at work and ended with imbibing during happy hour, staying out late and sleeping too little.  Each day I repeated the cycle. I looked fit and organized, but inside I felt thick, tired, sore and exhausted. I continued when I got married and had children, only now the bar was higher.  My hard workouts were even earlier, they then followed by the drive to be a perfect Mom, racing here and there, making dinner, bath hour, and falling asleep after a blur of events, never feeling closer to happiness.  

I started my own personal training and yoga business, which I loved, but it added to the pressure of scheduling clients, planning their workouts, and always looking the role model of fitness. By my early 40s, I had checked all the boxes:  a successful business, kids thriving in school, husband excelling at his job, spotless house, and two adorable dogs.   On the outside, it was all good! BUT….THE PACE WAS TOO FAST In reality, I wasn’t all good.  I had moved through each stage of my life with the same approach:  do everything perfectly, exercise hard every day, count every calorie, and stay focused.  My food intake was managed like my lifestyle, rigid and at times hard.  But the desire to keep it all going was taking a toll on my health; unusual spots appeared on my skin, I came down with shingles, and I started to have allergic reactions to everyday foods from my diet.  Things were definitely unsettled, and it was clear that something needed to change.

So we moved to Maryland for a fresh start.  I embraced the move in my usual way, but doing.  I packed and cleaned and managed the massive to-do list required to sell and relocated to a new community.   However, this transition was harder than expected.  Everything felt utterly unfamiliar to me, and my routine of get up, get going, stay focused, keep moving didn’t make the unsettled feelings go away.  I had always created to do lists to keep me on track, but I faced a dilemma:  How could I make a to-do list when I didn’t know what to do? I FOUND A NEW APPROACH THAT WORKS Unlike in the past where I drove through challenges by sticking to extreme habits, (food, exercise, work) to cope, this time I had to try something different.  I had to rewrite my to-do’s identifying my needs, rather than responding to external forces.  It’s not easy….but change needed to happen, and resisting the needed changes only made my health worse.   Instead of starting my day with extreme workouts at 5:15am, I started sleeping a little later and taking time for morning meditation.  I replaced spinning and weight training with yoga and long walks with my dogs.  Rather than deprivation and dieting, I focused on making delicious, healthy food.  While I worried about gaining weight or losing my drive, something strange happened:  I felt better inside and out, had more energy and connection to others around me, and finally felt like myself.  I found myself exercising as way to see others and develop relationships and not like a demand for my body.  I slowly started feeling alive again and calmer than ever before. My years of exercise and clean eating have given me the knowledge to help get others on the path of good health.  But my experiences have led me to become a coach who is passionate about helping others who are facing life changes such as moving, kids going to college, aging or loss to manage transition with grace and humor…and emerge on a new side with energy and insight.