my story

I’ve been into health and wellness my whole adult life, but it wasn’t until my fifties that I realized just how important diet, nutrition, and lifestyle was, and how it can impact the quality of one’s life. Although I’d always considered myself healthy, each decade brought on a new health problem. While most of my conditions weren’t life-threatening, they negatively impacted the quality of my life, making me feel tired and stressed, and causing me to miss out on many of the things that life had to offer.

In my teens, I developed a weight problem which I have battled with on and off my entire adult life. In my twenties I developed sinus problems, leading to one sinus infection after another and repeated doses of antibiotics. I also developed hormonal imbalances that would plague me for the rest of my child-bearing years. By my thirties, I already had the first symptoms of osteoarthritis, a debilitating disease that had caused suffering for every woman on the maternal side of my family. When I hit my early forties, I discovered my increased exhaustion and lethargy were due to Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and my hormonal problems only continued to worsen.

All of my health conditions were “managed” with prescription medications and over-the-counter pain relievers. Doctors told me I was in great health and there was nothing to worry about; these were all just a part of life. I was eating what I thought was a good diet: incorporating a lot of organic foods, consuming mostly low-fat dairy products and lean cuts of meat, taking lots of supplements, drinking only moderate amounts of alcohol, limiting fattening desserts to special occasions only, and trying to get in regular exercise, but things continued to go downhill.

By the time I hit fifty, I was forced to go through a surgical menopause after a pre-cancer diagnosis, was 30 pounds overweight, tired, and achy. And though I loved the work I’d been doing for the past 25 years, the high-stress environment of the advertising, financial services, and technology industries my career journey had taken me through had taken a toll on me both emotionally and physically. After my father died of Alzheimer’s disease and my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, I knew I had to take another look at how I was living my life and what I was putting into my body.

By my mid-fifties, I had switched to a whole foods plant-based diet, lost 30 pounds, exercised on a fairly regular basis, started incorporating meditation and other forms of stress management into my life, and actually started feeling better than I had when I was in my twenties and thirties. Since then, I’ve continued to experiment with a variety of diet and lifestyle changes to find what works best for me. Eating whole foods, mostly plants, managing stress, practicing mindfulness, exercising, and prioritizing my needs has helped me get to a place in my life where I feel really good about myself, both who I am and how I feel. Does this mean my health journey is over? Not at all. I’m always looking for ways to improve my health and wellbeing, always trying new things, and sometimes changing things up a bit. As we age, our needs change, so it’s always good to reassess those needs. 

But physical health and happiness aren’t just based on what we put into our mouths or having a daily meditation and exercise routine. Our relationships with family and friends, our career, and countless other aspects of our lives all impact how we feel and how we age. By the time I hit my 60s, I decided, no more toxic work environments for me. So, rather than take early retirement, I went back to school so that I could help other women transform their lives and become their best selves.