Blog post time!

It’s always something, right? If I’m not in Italy, I’m catching up from all the stuff I didn’t do while I was in Italy. And this is the last week of school, so summer not-vacation starts Friday. (School breaks not vacation for stay at home parent.)

But I am excited about the summer. I am looking forward to creating a lot of things. I will be doing more health coach writing, and may even experiment with making some explanatory videos! (This terrifies me)

I am also experiencing a renewal of other creative energy, which is very exciting. This may be that brain clarity energy boost everyone talks about!

I have a new sewing project on the go – recreating a cross-body bag for a friend who has used up her favorite bag over many years and hasn’t found a replacement. And getting back in the sewing room reminds me of projects I had planned and never gotten to – might be time to dust some of those off!

Fabric shopping fun!

And I’ve also done a (very) small amount of gardening. Just putting some flowers in a couple of pots by the front porch makes my house look happy to see me every day. It’s the little things 😊

I got the big white pot a year ago - finally got
something in it!

…..ok, confession: While I am still excited about the health coaching I have made almost zero progress, and I find myself wondering if people are even interested in such a service. I mean, the information is all out there. It’s not like I have invented a wheel of any kind? Plus my own journey is still so in progress – maybe I should wait for a couple of years until I’ve managed maintenance?

I am attempting to not overly engage this not-helpful talk.

More helpful wonderings may be coming your way in the form of an invitation to answer a few survey questions – about how you like to get information on the internet. Reading, videos, etc.

Until then – enjoy what sunshine you can find, and stay hydrated!

Lac Leman (aka Lake Geneva)

I'm back!

Gelato dilemma update!

I went to Italy. I ate food and drank wine.

I indulged in treats, but probably on average less than once a day.

I ate gelato twice, bread a few times. Pizza once, pasta once. Each of those indulgences was amazing!
But I didn't really find myself slipping into bad habits that much.

About a week in, I found myself getting cranky and hungry more than usual, so I went back to more strict food choices. Bread is a slippery slope for me and I could feel it drawing me in.

But it wasn't really hard to go back to what I normally eat. There were almost always easy options for me to chose delicious, low carb foods. Really delicious.

Health Coach update!

Obviously vacation took up a lot of pre-planning attention, and the vacation itself was not the time to be directly working on the coaching plan. But now I'm back and once again engaged in developing a plan that I can use to help people get their shit together.

I am reading a book that I think has some very important ideas to help me with that -- Bright Line Eating by Susan Pierce Thompson.  (brightlineeating.com)

Essentially it articulates part of what I have identified as a benefit of very low carb diets -- if you take the option away entirely, you don't have to make the decision (literally) a hundred times a day. I don't eat carb-rich foods at all.

(OK, clearly if you read the first section, you know that I do indulge from time to time. But every day, no. When not on holiday? No.)

The 'Bright Lines' are rules that you never ever break. Think of it like an addiction (because it is). For people addicted to heroin, there is no 'moderate, healthy dose' of the drug. And the goal is to make the choices around food automatic - so you don't rely on willpower and decisions every day to be healthy (hint: that doesn't work) Rules 1 & 2 are no sugar and no flour. They are highly addictive substances that have negative effects on body and brain. The other unbreakable rules: meals (3 a day, no snacks), and quantities (she prescribs portion sizes and what to eat at each meal - 1 protein, one grain and one fruit for breakfast, for example. With weights/measures for each)

The parts that I don't agree with are:
1) She includes fruit and some grains in the diet.
2) She advocates strict weighing of all food consumed.

The parts I agree with:
1) No sugar and flour. These are uniquely addictive, and trigger self-defeating cravings.
2) No snacks. (She says 3 meals a day every day, I say 1-2 meals works just fine)
3) 'Willpower' is not enough. If our brain and metabolism believes we need more food, our brains will convince us to eat.
4) Exercise is not a part of the plan. Exercise is great for lots of things, but not for weight loss. Her data shows that increasing exercise as part of the weight loss strategies in her program actually decrease its effectiveness.

Her ultimate goal is mine as well. I don't just want to help people lose weight and get healthy - I want free people from the obsession with food, weight and diet. I have personally spent way too much of my energy trying to solve the problem of weight and health in my life. I am tired of having conversations in my head about if I will or won't eat whatever (See last week's post about the gelato dilemma...)

I am developing my own 'bright line' rules, and how to build in flexibility. Earlier this year, I made the rule that I don't choose high carb foods if I am stressed or sad. It was a really easy pattern to see - if I decided to relax my eating 'policies' when I was in a very stressful state, it quickly devolved into weeks or months of out of control eating. So, in February of this year, I was at my sister's birthday party. A possible reason for indulging in a treat. But it had been a really stressful weekend with my daughter, so it was a hard no.

The other key to building in flexibility in an otherwise strict plan, is the return to normal plan. So, when I started feeling cranky and not myself I knew what to do. I deliberately ate more. More fat & healthy proteins STAT.
At an outlet mall in Switzerland I found this:

This is mall food.
Perhaps one of the reasons Americans are fatter than Europeans? 

Rare roast beef with a horseradish cream sauce. And some asparagus salad. Had I noticed it before I paid, I would have added extra olive oil to the salad to really keto it up. That night we ate with friends and I had salad and lamb chops. No bread, no pasta. Already the next day I was less puffy and feeling much better.

Since I've been home, I'm eating more at breakfast -- sausage, eggs, bacon -- to kick me back into the high fat habit.

Indulging is the key to recovering from indulgence.

There are many people who can follow this bright line eating program 100% and have great success. But I balk at measuring everything. I don't especially want that to become my never ending reality. But I understand why it would be helpful for some people. If you have an addictive relationship to food, especially if binge eating has been a problem for you, you should check it out.

OK, that's it for me today - here are a few fun food pics from Europe:

This may be the last pizza with a carb crust I ever eat.
It was amazing and perfect - no reason to eat more.

Anchovies in olive oil, with garlic and herbs.
I ate some of the bread, to get more of the oil.
Amazing.

What I ate from my hotel breakfast.

What I did not eat from my hotel breakfast.

So keto, so good. Veal cheek (tasty fatty cut)
with vegetables cooked in oil.

Gas station snacks. So easy to be low carb!

Best pasta ever. No need to try any more.
Meat filled ravioli (freshly made) with sage butter sauce.

Made from the spoils of an amazing farmers market in Asti.
Total cost of this was maybe a euro.

Fruit wasn't tempting because I am allergic to pit fruits,
but it sure is pretty!

affogato -- gelato plus espresso.
Delicious, but I didn't finish it.
Too sweet.

Burrata and smoked trout. Amaze.

Tiramisu - chose this one at the first place where the menu was all in Italian
(no English translation). It was the correct choice.

Squash blossom stuffed with seasoned ground meat and then fried.
Served on top of an explosively flavored tomato salad.

Beautiful plate. Asparagus, poached egg,
something crunchy and a creamy sauce.

First Italian coffee.
From a gas station.
It was amazing.

The Gelato Dilemma

T minus 2 days...

Until my grand adventure of the year. 10 days in Italy with an intrepid co-adventure-er. 

What does this have to do with my health coach journey?

Everything. 

I love coffee. Italy has coffee.

You see, I am a believer in whole-self health. I am also a believer of a "Food First" approach to health. In this case there may be a bit of a conflict. One I am terming "The Gelato Dilemma".

To me, whole-self health means that watching what you eat won't make you healthy if you aren't also making room for play. Good sleep won't help you if you don't feel good about your work or your relationships.
What good is good health if you don't have a good life?

However, I think if you've got a bunch of crap going wrong in your life, or just not going right enough, it's a good idea to start with food. Food first means that for me, I have found that giving my body the wrong fuel makes it so much harder to engage my energy towards fixing the other things in my life.

This is extra super duper true if you are on the blood sugar roller coaster -- swinging from hyper to hangry every few hours. Energy ups and downs, food cravings, needing to snack all the time -- it just takes up time! Plus my brain works so much better now that I've kicked the bread habit.

So, brings me to my dilemma.

Italy.

Gelato.

Pasta.

Bread.

Life gets crazy.
This is how my son puts the milk away

Who am I kidding? Is there a dilemma here? I will be in italy. I will taste food. If it makes me feel unwell (as it might, according to the low carb folks who have gone before me), I will not taste it again.

On the other hand, I will also listen to my body, to my appetite. I doubt that ice cream will really sound that good. AND one does not need to consume much of it to have tasted. 

And there is an even longer list of wonderful foods available in Italy that offer me no reason to pause -- I can enjoy wine, cheese, meats, vegetables and all the olive oil in the world. These are flavors to be feasted on. 

Life is about balance - feast and fast. And a healthy life is about mindful choices about each. 
Life is made to be tasted. But one can taste - nibble, sample, savor and also indulge.
In fact, I think one must indulge in order to find whole health. In food and in life. 

Summertime tree climbing = best.

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN???

This is my 8th post since committing to weekly blog entries around my health coach journey. Woo hoo! I am quite proud of that. Lesson: give myself a topic and a deadline, and I can actually write :)

So, update on the coaching process...

I am dealing with self made barriers on a couple of different fronts. They are barriers I have constructed before so I am getting rather good at it. The first is just a failure of momentum. Or a triumph of inertia. The second is all about self doubt and imposter syndrome. But is it a syndrome if you are actually an imposter?

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN???

First – the momentum/inertia battle.

As I mentioned previously, I have been in this place before.

First , the momentum: 

I get interested in a topic – very interested. I research – a lot. And I think, this is the thing that I want to do with my time. Not just right now, but in general. As a job.

And then, the inertia:

As the first energy wears off (and the self doubt begins, see below…) suddenly all of the work required to get to the next step just looks like work. Not like fun and interesting pastime. Just work.

And, it turns out, I already have quite a bit of work to do. And I have always found it challenging to structure and follow through on work that is entirely my own. I don’t owe anyone copy at a given time, so it isn’t getting written. Inertia sets in, and I do what I have always done from day to day and the project stalls.

Second – the self doubt.

These thoughts inevitably reinforce the case for inertia and keeping all things the same. Why go to the effort of all of the work of trying to build something new? It would all be for naught, as I am not actually qualified to do anything.

The field I am venturing into is squishy. I am not a fan of squishy professions. There is no licensure for being a health and diet coach, but there is for dieticians & nutritionists. But I’m not that. And I don’t want to be that. So there is the task of making a squishy thing more solid. What is it that I want to do *exactly*. But the being a not-nutritionist is definitely an issue with the self doubt.

Since last we met, I took a trip to Chicago with 2 of my favorite
people, pictured here. I made one of them myself! 

I also recognize that the way I eat and manage my health is a little weird. Most people do not consider butter and bacon health foods. Most people do not incorporate intermittent and extended fasting into their diet routines. So, there is a part of me that wonders if people will see that as crazy extreme and not want to take advice from me.

And, biggest self doubt of all. I do NOT have my own shit together. I have only been doing keto this time for a couple of months. I am waiting on blood results (in a few months) to confirm that all of this bacon and butter are doing for me what it has done for thousands of other people.

My solution for all of these problems?

Just don’t think about it that much. I don’t need to solve my insecurity this week, I just need to do a bit more writing for my website. I need to start writing those little essays that will become blog posts for my coaching site(s) that I think of when I see a particular news item, etc. I need to develop the voice I use for instructional materials vs chatty blog things.

And, I need to start using the materials I have gathered about how to set up a coaching business. I don’t need to do all of it today. Just the next chapter.

One thing at a time.

Chicago wins best library architecture

I do need to work on the inertia thing. I need to make this work a priority somehow. I do currently have a lot of tasks on my list that aren’t coaching related. They keep building up, because there really isn’t enough time in the day. But I need to recognize that that will always be true. 

There will always be too much. 

And while I do need to moderate my ambition, I cannot do everything that I want professionally while still being the parent I want to be, if I don’t make space for it. Forcibly make space for it. It will never happen.

Never.

So I guess I'm a coach now?

I do love coffee...

I think I am a coach.

People (more than one!) have approached me, and I have offered helpful information and advice.

Check.

I am coaching. Ergo, I am a coach.

And I like it. And I feel like I have something useful to offer. Now to write up "packages" and plans in a way that people will be excited to pay for the useful services I offer...

Overwhelm alert!

Ok.

Next most important step:

Committing to writing a blog post about this journey every Thursday has been very helpful to me in focusing on this project and also in getting into the habit of writing every week.

So I am going to commit here to launching my health coach websites by October 1.

Yes, that is a long way off in some ways, but I think it's a realistic goal given how disruptive summer "vacation" can be.

So, I will work on it over the next few months of mostly summer, and then have a month of back to school to finish it all up.

I think the first pro blog entry will be about imposter syndrome. Who am I to tell you how to get your shit together, when my own shit is often in disarray?

It's been a long and tiring week, my optimism will return shortly...

Stressful week... one night's dinner was
butter toasted pecans and whiskey soda...

Content creation begins...

... and it turns out there is a lot!

avocado is keto's friend

So, I began in earnest to write content for my health coaching website. Specifically, it is information about low carb, ketogenic diets. So, I think this probably belongs on the low carb spectrum site. Just as it will be interesting to see which types of clients come to me via figuring shit out vs low carb spectrum - I will also be noticing how easily the content comes for each site.

Bacon wrapped avocado fries.... OMG. Good.

I am also deliberately starting to sort out tasks into 'things that I personally must do' (web content) and things that I could potentially hire someone else to do (web design). I, of course, can do anything. But can I? And still be sane and take care of my other 'business'? No. Of course not. So, starting out practicing what I will preach. In order to figure shit out, you have to give some of the shit to other people to take care of.

In the words of one of the most quoted Disney Princesses - Let it go!

I have started to get requests for information via text. I am coaching already! I am finding it very helpful, actually. I am getting an idea of what questions people ask early on, or before starting. This has given me a good start at what information to include in my 'Keto 101' pieces for the internet.




So, are you a friend who wants to help me get started in this process? Then start bugging me with questions! Message me on facebook, and ask me ANYTHING you want about diet, exercise, health, and especially if you have questions about how and why to go low carb!

a little less pretty in a picture, but totally delicious -
cabbage cooked in butter and garlic, with eggs fried
in adorable cabbage nests

What the &*%bleep%$^ am I doing exactly?

I am starting the process of homing in on what exactly I want to offer people in my health coach practice. In preparation for that I have purchased not one, but two shiny URLs. They are getyourshittogether.com and lowcarbspectrum.com.

Here is a llama that I met on my walk today.

The first, because, awesome. And because health coaching should naturally lead to life coaching – to get ALL your shit together. The second is more for folks who want some specific coaching on how to do various levels of low carb for health reasons. A way less fun title, so maybe I will eventually find a third iteration.

Why would health coaching naturally lead to life coaching you ask? Well, let me tell you. My goal with each of my clients is to help them find a place of ease with their food and activity levels. No one wants to count grams of macronutrients or calories until they die. I seek for myself and clients the creation of a relationship with food that is pretty low maintenance. You can learn how to do it, and then just do it. And then what will you do with all that time you used to spend eating and worrying about eating?

Though, there is a chicken-egg thing here too. Because many people have some shit they need to get together before they can even approach the idea of healthy eating nirvana. Anyone trying to lose weight now has lost weight before with every method under the sun. That leaves a mark. I think there is a big need for some folks to spend time in rehab from the impacts of previous diets.

I don't think any 'diet' will succeed if it doesn't address the biological AND the psychological. And health improvement always happens in the context of life in all it's messy chaos. 

Here is an unverified Benjamin Franklin quote.

I am likely to circle around to questioning my 'authority' to provide diet advice, and my 'qualification' to do this kind of work. But I really think that having a knowledgeable cheerleader in your corner helps with almost any endeavor. 

Am I setting out to be a diet doula? Perhaps...

In the spirit of perfect being the enemy of the good, I am going to leave it at that for this week.

Give yourself credit, and cut yourself slack

This is Lyra in a grocery sack, obviously

April 27 – post 5! 

What a week!

A lot going on that isn’t health coach training related (when the co-parent travels, the other parent loses sleep…no exceptions). It is a reminder to myself that if I am not going to have the outside structure of an entire coach training program that I need to institute some structure myself – get a plan and make things go.

Is that what I said last week? I mean it this time.

My health coach musings of the week:

I have been working on what might become a small book – a manifesto of sorts, or perhaps it will be the guts of a website about my coaching services. The working title is ‘A Unified Theory of Fatness’. Because the thing is, I have read a LOT about weight loss and health around weight issues. And I have studied feminism and definitely subscribe to the notion that Fat is a feminist issue. So, to be embarking on a career that is potentially centered around helping people try to lose weight (likely many women) – it is potentially problematic. Right?

There is also evidence that calorie restriction as a way to lose weight is actually bad for your metabolism. And I definitely think it is potentially harmful to your psyche as well.

My solution for a metabolically sound way to lose weight and improve all the health markers is a low carb diet (high fat too, but we don’t have to get into that yet – I know it’s scary to eat fat!). And, I will also place the emotional context of diet (food one eats), history of dieting (controlling the food one eats for a variety of reasons), and body image and all the baggage that our culture gives us about all of those things.

Anyway… Honestly this post feels distracted and scattered and I am just proud that I am putting words together in more or less sentences after the (not) sleep I have had lately! There’s another good health coach lesson – learn how to give yourself credit and cut yourself slack.

Peace out, everyone, and be excellent to each other!

And this is what you get to have for lunch
if you skip bread and potatoes. Bacon wrapped avocado.
Delish.

Extrospective (tm)

4/20/17 blog # 4

I am feeling introspective this week, but also extrospective (should totally be a word).

What I mean by that is that I am reflecting on what I have to give from inside of me to the outsside world. Specifically, what do I have to bring to future health coaching clients.

This is a pep talk process that will probably continue for some time.

So, this is a picture to make the post look more
interesting. Feel free to consider the possibility
of me exploring the roots and branches of my
future health coach career or something.

But I am coming to the conclusion that probably the thing I need to launch health coach business is a coach of my own, and a deadline. Rather than following a 6 month online program with someone else’s health ideas, I am going to set myself a schedule of learning and preparation and then just jump in.

Ack!

Now, I need to focus on the timing of the thing. While it is a truism that there is never a perfect time to start a project like this (or, for example, have a baby), it is also true that there are some BAD times for such things (for example, moving country while pregnant – been there, done that). If summer break were not fast approaching, I would probably set my deadline in the 3 month range, but if I’ve learned one thing about summers over the past couple of years its that they have a habit of being wildly disruptive.

I think perhaps the answer is baby steps – I may be calling on those of you who volunteered to by my first clients and beginning sessions over the summer and then go for a full launch in the fall.

I’ll keep y’all posted.

...what was that about health coach training?

Post 3: 

4/13/17

Was it just last week that I started this once a week blog thing?

And it was to be for 6 months, because that was the length of my health coach training?

Well, I quit my health coach training this week. I did not leave the idea of being a health and/or life coach – that is still on, I just won’t be learning it from that program.

They lost me when, in a section about how important sleep is for health, they said you should go to bed before 10 because of Ayurveda. After a 5-minute explanation of Ayurveda while also saying, some people don’t think it’s true, but isn’t it *interesting*. No, not interesting to me, and stop wasting my time.

There is so much actual information about sleep and why it is important and even when might be good for you to try to go to bed. And this whole section of the course is supposed to be the ‘essential’ and best ‘20%’ of the nutrition curriculum they learned in health coach school. They point out that clients do not want ALL of the information you have, they want a curated set of information they can act on. If this is how they curate, it’s not for me.

from last winter's trip to the Oregon coast

Anyway, now I am a bit adrift as I choose the better path for building this health coaching career.

If anything, my experience with this program maybe makes me think I don’t so much need a certification as I need a couple of good books on coaching and some time to throw some handouts together.

Which causes me to circle back around to why I was seeking a certification in the first place. And that was confidence, and also structure. I have a ton of nutrition, exercise & health knowledge – more than any coaching client is likely to want. But I don’t, yet, have a thoughtful way of getting the information to clients, and helping them to make positive changes.

So, I am starting to work on the structure I would like to use, and gathering information about where to get more skills in coaching and behavior change and will keep moving on down the line towards the ultimate goal – which is to help other people achieve health and balance in their lives (and me too!)

 PS - It is my wedding anniversary! 4 years ago and 12 years after we got married, March and I had a lovely wedding. Sam and Lyra were so tiny!! Sam is as tall as I am, and Lyra can no longer be swung by her arms...time flies!

PPS - I am giving myself bonus points for a post during spring break (with no childcare help), finishing it one handed as Lyra has claimed my lap for snuggles...

Health Coach Training, first thoughts

This photo is totally unrelated to the content. But pretty!

April 6 2017

Post 2

I have just completed the second week of my health coach training.

And I just published a post promising to write about my journey towards being a health coach.

…what was I thinking?

Since today’s first post was all about how I plan to do this writing reflection exercise and not actually in itself a reflection on my process, I thought I would bang out a second post. Bonus Thursday!

So, I feel like I have come into this training program somewhat abruptly. I found the program; signed up the same week; and started the week after that. Lickety split!

But sometimes all you get from taking time to reflect is wasted time, and that’s what it felt like this time. I was ready to do something, have been thinking about something in this area for a long time and the program seemed about as right as I could expect to find.

For me, the big pros of the training are that I will leave with a structured 90 day program that I can offer clients. I have LOTS of information in my head about health, diet and how to take care of your whole self. But that isn’t the same as having a way to convey that – a plan of action!

And, the added piece that I think is key – their program is built on principles of habit change. No diet for 3 months will fix your health, but focused work on behavior change can. Especially as it delves deep into the ‘why’ of our food challenges. Juicy stuff!

It also covers business aspects – how to market, how to price services, etc. Another area that I am very happy to take direction on!

Now, I find myself in the first section of the training which I expected to be the least useful. This is where they share their ‘essential nutrition’ principles. The basis of their content surrounding food and health. Already I nearly sprained something rolling my eyes hard when among their arguments for less sugar was the fact that most sugar is GMO. Wow. That is about the least of my concerns around the proliferation of sweeteners throughout the food supply.

I expect it not to be useful because I have already read so much nutrition data, and have pretty set opinions (backed by science and experience) about what the best choices are for me at least, and much of that I think is pretty well applicable to anyone that I would be coaching. But I’ve decided that this attitude just means that I will be grateful for any aspect that I do find helpful.

For one thing, it is the context of coaching. While I do feel like I have a lot of ‘The Answers’, the point is not to show off my knowledge to clients (that’s what I have a blog for); the point is to help folks find their own best health. There is so much more to health than food and even exercise. Food is emotional, it is cultural and it all happens in the context of sometimes very chaotic lives. So information sharing is good, but better to learn how to help people figure out their own shit. Because there will always be shit to figure out.

Another key principle is the idea that most people do not want ALL of the information about health and nutrition. Most people’s kindles are not loaded with nonfiction books about insulin resistance and the history of food industrialization and its impact on health. What they want is distilled information that leads to actionable change. Curated content is how the program refers to it. I am a big proponent of the value of editing, or curating to use their word. In writing as in life. And, also it turns out in health.

I disagree with some of the elements the instructors have pulled out as essential nutrition information, and that’s ok. My assignment for myself is to hear their thoughts, and then go to my own research and develop a similarly actionable plan based on the best science I can find. There is no perfect diet for every person, and there is a lot that influences everyone’s choices. But I do think there is best evidence, and that everyone deserves to have the best information to help them make good choices.

That’s me for the day for reflection. We’ll see how these Thursdays shape up…

Make good choices, folks!

PS – re: value of editing in relationship to these posts. While I dearly value editing, I am forgoing a lot of editing and revising in favor of just getting something done, on the page and published. So please forgive my run-on thoughts and rambling sentiments… I am letting you into the meandering workings of my consciousness.

You’re welcome.

Once more into the breach...

I have solved for success!

You guys – I have totally figured out everything. I know how to be the best most successful version of myself and look good doing it!

OK, perhaps I am overstating, but I am feeling remarkably clear about what I want and how to get there. It is a new and wonderful feeling.

How did I get this amazing clarity you ask?

Well…actually…

I don’t know entirely. But I think it has something to do with bacon and hollandaise sauce.

Seriously, I think my food choices are part of it. My brain is very happy without carbs (though there is a small voice in that brain that is still wailing for bread with my butter). Where before I would face each school day with a list and a big dose of overwhelm, now I tend to be more directed with my time. And even when I don’t ‘get anything done’, I am feeling less anxious about the whole thing. And I 100% think that this is because I am feeding and exercising my body better.

I also recently started a program to become a health coach. For the first time in a long long time, I can see a path forward career wise that really draws from my life and professional experience to date. And, most importantly – a path that I want to follow and can see many inviting opportunities along the way.

One of those opportunities is writing. I know I have always had the option to write. I know words and I have a computer (and paper and pens). But this focus – of helping people figure out how to take care of their bodies and their lives – is very freeing. No more ‘but what do I write about?’

My step one down this newly recharged interest in writing is a commitment to write about my process over the next 6 months of health coach training. I am adding an appointment to my calendar to write a post for this blog once a week for the next 6 months. Come hell or high water, I will post once a week. (I do hope I am not inviting figurative high water by making that statement).

I don’t think I have ever made a commitment like this to myself around writing. I think I’ve said ‘I will try’ or ‘I really should’, but I think there is power in the declarative: I will write. One post. On Thursday. I am also publishing this very commitment! Wow, I’m getting ballsy in my old age (or is it ovary-ish?)

I hope you enjoy, and please feel free to share.