happy bissextile day—and happy 5th week!

Happy Bissextile Day—AKA Leap Day! And Happy 5th Week! (Yeah, that bissextile word caught my eye, too—and yeah, I totally went a different direction with it.) It’s got me thinking…

tools for your team

Health coaching is, at its most basic, the process of providing clients with tools and supporting them in using these tools on their health journey. I’ve been a health coach…

appallingly average

The results are in, and I’m appallingly average. I’ve been applying for long-term care insurance, and the process involves a physical, including the usual blood and urine samples in addition…

grocery shopping: use all your senses!

Let’s talk about grocery shopping. Do you shop in person or online? Trawl the aisles or opt for curbside pickup? The world is experiencing a flare-up of Covid, and as…

an ounce of prevention

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. As Covid flares across the country again, I’ve been thinking a lot about what the pandemic made possible…. And all…

becoming a better cook

Ask someone today to name a famous cook, and most young people will name one of the celebrity chefs who show up on cooking shows and own numerous restaurants. Once…

last call!

I don’t remember the last time I heard “last call” in a bar. I may have closed down a bar 2–3 times in my entire life as a patron. I…

remedy up: a few suggestions for flu season

Whenever someone at the office complained about a tickle in their throat or a runny nose, my best friend would say, “Remedy up!” I am 100% certain that I’m going…

meal planning—made simple!

I’ve been wondering whether any animals other than humans do any meal planning. Birds certainly seem not to need it with suckers like myself to provide for them. With Thanksgiving…

s.a.d. x 2

S.A.D. is an acronym with at least 104 meanings, according to AcronymFinder.com. And two of those meanings often pop up in my work: Seasonal Affective Disorder Standard American Diet Yesterday,…

your prompt attention is requested

“Your prompt attention to this matter is requested.” (Required?) Have you ever noticed that submitting your tax returns and your payments involve strict deadlines? And when you need something from…

what’s (not) working?

How often do you reflect on what’s working and what’s not working for you? First: a story. I recently flew to Nashville for my niece’s wedding. Before that, I hadn’t…

question authority—gently

Where do you fall on the authority of doctors? There’s a whole spectrum of opinions on this, from MD = “just below God on the authority spectrum” to MD =…

like flipping a switch

And like flipping a switch, it’s autumn. “I can see my breath today. Delightful.” That’s what I texted my daughter this morning. I love fall—especially in Vermont. And as I get…

throw a tantrum

When’s the last time you threw a temper tantrum? I mean really, really threw one? One of my favorite podcasters, Christine Hassler, teaches something she calls the temper tantrum technique….

(don’t) label it

Ever think about the impact of slapping a label on something? I read with interest a piece entitled, “Don’t call it ‘vegan’ and other tips from hospitals to get people…

(planned) obsolescense

I don’t remember much about the one economics class I took way back in high school. I do remember that’s where I learned the term, “planned obsolescence.” Planned obsolescence seemed…

time off for good behavior

Let’s talk about the next installment in the “watch your language” project: time off for good behavior. That phrase usually conjures up visions of getting out of prison early as…

watch your language

Have you ever been told to watch your language? Having worked in the food service industry for a long time, I can swear pretty proficiently in English and Spanish. Oddly…

what’s wrong with resilience?

You hear a lot these days about resilience. It’s a big buzzword, and if you’re in the HR world, it’s usually in the context of resilience training. When I work…

spring cleaning | dopamine + desire

What I love about brain science: it makes us change our minds. This week, I came across a piece about dopamine on NPR that hit some familiar notes. Every night,…

spring cleaning | productivity

What do you mean, clean up productivity? Isn’t cleaning everything else up going to improve my productivity? As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’ve been diving headlong into Pooja…

spring cleaning | keep it social

Social, according to Merriam-Webster: 1: involving allies or confederates 2: marked by or passed in pleasant companionship with friends or associates 3: of or relating to human society, the interaction…

spring cleaning | potty mouth

Potty mouth. How many of us have ever had our mouths washed out with soap—or at least been threatened with that? Want to know how old I am? I’m so…

spring cleaning | self-care / self care

The next few posts in our Spring Cleaning series are going to be about cleaning up your self care—because I have a new obsession. I’m a huge fan of audiobooks,…

spring cleaning | the needs pile

Do you have a pile of needs that needs to be decluttered? When we think about detoxing, we often think about our diets. If you participated in April’s Spring Cleaning…

spring cleaning | content + intent

How many times a day do we ascribe a particular intent to someone else’s words or actions? Or have someone else make assumptions about the intent behind our words or…

spring cleaning | about elimination

No, don’t worry, we’re not talking about that kind of elimination again. (Although, you know, as the book says, everybody poops.) Today, though, we’re taking this quarter’s spring cleaning series back…

spring cleaning | what’s getting in?

This week’s Spring Cleaning episode is all about filtering what gets in through our five senses. Especially through our eyes. Some of my favorite emojis are the little see /…

spring cleaning | a dose of nature

It’s official: Mother Nature is waking up and flexing. The flowers are blooming (yay!) and the mosquitoes are out (boo!) So far in the Spring Cleaning series, we’ve talked about…

spring cleaning | environment + health

Current state of my environment: I have a toilet in my living room. It’s quite the statement piece. (Although I’m not sure it adheres to all 7 rules for statement…

spring cleaning | don’t lick the lawnmower

During the first quarter of 2023, the theme was Back to Basics. This quarter, it’s all about Spring Cleaning. And we’re going to start by talking about how to cleanse…

back to basics | restricted diets

Help! I’ve been put on a restricted diet! What do I eat? As I’ve mentioned before, my work in nutrition services at the local medical center provides plenty of food…

back to basics | nutrient density

What is nutrient density? It’s a measurement of how nourishing a food is (or isn’t). March is National Nutrition Month, and so our Back to Basics theme continues with a…

back to basics | macronutrients cocktail

What do I mean by “macronutrients cocktail?” I’m not talking about the ratio of gin to vermouth or cream and sugar to coffee. March is National Nutrition Month, and so…

back to basics | nutrition 101

It’s National Nutrition Month! What do you mean you don’t celebrate it? Our first quarter Back to Basics theme continues with a deeper dive into secondary foods nutrition—the value of…

back to basics | small, simple, sustainable

Small, simple steps. There’s a reason my health coaching practice prominently features the word “Simply.” Many of us feel that re/claiming our best health is complicated. That it takes LOTS…

back to basics | a positive mindset

There are numerous studies about the effects of a positive mindset on our physical health. Start with the positive mindset’s effect on heart health or just Google “positive mindset effect…

back to basics | primary foods

I’ve written a lot about primary foods (just search the blog for that key word!), so this week, I’m going to take the conversation in a slightly different direction. As…

back to basics | bio-individuality

Quarter 1’s Back to Basics theme continues with an exploration of the principles of Integrative Nutrition®, starting with the concept of bio-individuality. To be clear, I don’t think anyone at…

back to basics | in summary…

Earlier this month, we kicked off the “Back to Basics” series, digging into my principles of healthy eating. If you recall, my five principles are as follows—we’re leaving the first…

back to basics | mindfulness + gratitude + food

Earlier this month, we kicked off the “Back to Basics” series. This week, we’re taking on my fourth food rule: practicing mindfulness and gratitude around our food and, perhaps more…

back to basics | portion moderation

Earlier this month, we kicked off the “Back to Basics” series. This week, we’re taking on my third food rule: portion moderation. If you recall, my “food rules” are as…

back to basics | cook from scratch

Cook from scratch?!? But that’s so much work…. Last week, we kicked off the “Back to Basics” series by talking about whole foods and how as a health coach, I…

back to basics | whole foods

Welcome to 2023—and to a blog series I’m calling “Back to Basics.” So this month, January 2023, we’ll be going back to two questions: What are the basics of healthful…

i’ll start january 1st….

It’s almost January 1st, 2023! Have you ever set a goal and thought, “I’ll start [tomorrow/next week/next month/next year]?” Well, here’s a true test of this approach. This coming Sunday…

turn, turn, turn

To everything there is a season (Turn, turn, turn.) And depending on your inclinations, you can thank Ecclesiastes or Pete Seeger—or both—for the earworm. And this season, I find myself…

baby steps to health | celebrate

Celebrate. THAT’S IT! If you’ve been following along with our Baby Steps to Health in 2022, we’ve reached the last step: you now have 12 simple activities you can make…

presence as a privilege

Presence: the fact or condition of being present. Privilege: a right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor Merriam-Webster I’ve been thinking a lot differently about what it means…

baby steps | inner voice(s)

Your inner voices. Call them what you will: The voices in your head The crazy aunt in the attic (thanks to Geneen Roth for that) Your itty-bitty sh!tty committee We…

baby steps | crowding out

Here’s a great way to think about making the better choice most of the time: don’t make the choice! The Integrative Nutrition® principle of “crowding out” is sort of like…

sandbox battles

Choose your battles. If you’re a parent, you’ve probably heard—and given—this advice hundreds (thousands?) of times. I recently read an excellent piece on applying this practice in the workplace—down to…

seeking solutions … or not

Clients often come to me for solutions. And as a health coach, I always have more questions than answers for them! If you’ve followed me for a while, you know…

baby steps | aim low

WHAT? Aim low? Isn’t it more important to aim high? There’s a quote about shooting for the moon—and if you miss, you’ll still land among the stars. There are all…

cooking: where to begin?

Cooking from scratch at home is a huge part of most people’s health journey—and it can feel incredibly stressful to even think about. Where to begin? “We all have to…

find the middle path

Who knew you could connect the Buddhist practice of seeking the middle path to an HR webinar? I recently attended a webinar run by MediKeeper, and one of the resources…

baby steps | portion awareness

As with “meal plan,” the words “portion control” can strike panic in anyone on a health journey. It brings up visions of weighing and measuring every BLT (bite-lick-taste) that goes…

hopes + expectations

Hopes and expectations are topics I love digging into with clients, especially those looking to make mindset shifts part of their health journey. And they’ve been on my mind a…

baby steps | meal plan

Quick! What comes to mind when you hear me say, “meal plan?” If your mind immediately goes to a carefully laid-out grid showing a week’s worth of breakfasts, lunches, dinners,…

intermittent fasting: yes or no?

Intermittent fasting is a hot topic these days. There was an article in the NYT recently about how scientists have concluded the first long-term study of time-restricted eating, AKA intermittent…

and then along came covid

In a weird way, I have the Covid-19 pandemic to thank for getting me back to Vermont. My husband has worked at five different universities over the course of his…

baby steps | eat your veggies

Happy Springgg! Let’s talk about veggies. How are you doing with our Baby Steps to Health challenge? If you’re just tuning in, you can find the first three challenges here:…

baby steps | DGLs + PFCs

Hey hey—it’s already March?!? Before we dig into DGLS and PFCs, how are you doing with our Baby Steps to Health challenge? If you’re just tuning in, you can find…

baby steps | just. breath.

Since the murder of George Floyd, I’ve been especially aware of telling people to “just breathe.” Breathing is NOT a privilege—it’s a right, and yet so many in our country…

winter menus

It seems that winter has finally arrived in Michigan, and on my 57th birthday, we had a gorgeous, cold, snowy day with a few moments where the sun peeked through…

baby steps | hydrate or die

Yes, hydrate: this is step one in our Baby Steps to Health series for 2022. It may sound overly simple—bear with me. My daughter and I have a saying, “Hydrate…

a healthy lifestyle in 2022

[W]e’ve lost ground in other [health] areas, and a lot of them are a function of the fact that we don’t have a very healthy lifestyle in our nation. Particularly…

a year of prevention

What does “healthcare” mean to you: symptom management or disease prevention? I’ve been listening in on the Lifestyle Medicine Summit 2021 this week—I know, there are just so many online…

foundations of wellness for women 2022

Foundations of Wellness for Women was born in August of 2020, when I was invited by Dr. Suman Tewari to join her and Jen Sprague in forming a new collaborative…

soul care, self-care, social media

I’ve struggled with the term “self-care” for a long time—it’s why I started to use the phrase “soul care” a few years ago, and so I greatly  appreciated Angelica Puzio’s…

holidays: “strategery” + tactics

What is up with the holidays? I kid you not: Halloween decorations have started popping up in stores in August. I wondered, in 2020, whether this was because so many…

empty nest = hatching plans

My nest is an empty nest. It’s been that way for almost a month now. I’m a confirmed completist and definitely believe in a Chinese expression that was commandeered by…

measuring sustainability

In the social change sector, “sustainability” is a word equivalently “buzzy” to the word “resonate” in the coaching world. Funders love to measure the impact of programs. Common questions on…

an ounce of prevention

I was pleasantly surprised to receive this answer to part of a survey I’m running: “I’ve always been more interested in prevention than cures!” Let’s back up: if you’re on…

the opposite of presenteeism

If the problem of presenteeism existed before the pandemic, I can’t imagine things have gotten better. Before the pandemic even hit the western hemisphere, Forbes reported: Employers who have struggled…

5 annoying answers + 1 useful one

Hey—it’s me, and I’m back from vacation! And of course, the first question I have to answer is, “What did you do on your summer vacation?” Well, I spent it…

i’m on break

a true story about being on break Back when we lived in Chicago (feels like approximately a century ago), there was a co-op grocery store in our neighborhood. A colleague…

colonoscopy | it’s that icky prep

Like the upholder that I am, when I turned 50, I obediently had my first colonoscopy. YUCK. Are we really going to talk about this? Yes. Because I often invite…

pandemic update: plans for the second autumn

Most Covid-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted in Michigan on July 1, and it seems like a lot of people have taken this as a sign that the pandemic—or perhaps the…

quick! name your top 3 values.

Why am I writing about values on a health coaching blog? There’s a lot of crossover in the coaching world: the same concepts and exercises are used in slightly different…

eat your dark green leafies

When the cat’s away, the mice … eat dark green leafies? This past week, I experienced a sort of preview of coming attractions: being an empty nester. With my daughter…

writing fan fiction

Fan fiction or fanfiction (also abbreviated to fan fic, fanfic, fic or ff) is fictional writing written in an amateur capacity as fans, unauthorized by, but based on an existing…

building boundaries around food

Many of us seem to have boundary issues—with boundaries. “Good fences make good neighbors,” writes Robert Frost about the stone boundaries between the poet’s land and his neighbor’s in his…

hormone health: it’s all connected

I’ve recently completed an additional certification in health coaching for hormone health, and the content of the course brought back some memories…. When I was in graduate school, I was…

stewarding emotional eating

Stewarding seems like an odd word to use around emotional eating: emotional eating is “bad,” and most of us try to beat, control, conquer, manage, and/or tackle it—certainly not take…

2 types of summer menus

What’s on your menu for the summer? Lest you cry “click bait,” here is a link to some menus I put together for my first blog—on Chinese home cooking: here…

1 deceptively shiny silver bullet

Silver bullet: something that provides an immediate and extremely effective solution to a given problem or difficulty, especially one that is normally very complex or hard to resolve. TheFreeDictionary.com  …

decision fatigue

The Cycle out of S-T-R-E-S-S eating challenge started May 1, and already, I’ve gotten some interesting emails from participants about their experience of the first week’s activity—one of which touched…

bathing suit season: to diet or not to diet?

It really is spring in Michigan (maybe? finally?) How do I know? Well, when I look out the window, I can’t actually tell what season it is—not just because it…

got motivation? you may not need it.

“Ugghhh. I have zero motivation to [fill in the blank: eat healthy, exercise, get more sleep….]” This is the answer most of my clients give to the second question I…

side effects may vary—a lot!

I’ve always had a slightly strained relationship with television, and I’ve often wondered about the side effects of watching/not watching TV. I grew up in the 60s/70s/80s, by the middle…

you’re doing it all wrong!

One of the best aspects of being in the coaching space is collaborating with like-minded, like-hearted women. Being a contributor to a community called Kuel Life is an opportunity that…

emotional eating | trust yourself completely

This week we finish off the emotional eating series with a look at another topic that is closely linked to emotional/stress eating: self-trust. How do you feel when you have…

emotional eating | self-empowerment

This week in the emotional eating series, we’ll take a look at another topic that is closely linked to emotional/stress eating: self-empowerment. We began this series on emotional eating three…

emotional eating | what’s your trigger?

One year in, the pandemic has a lot of us groaning about “the Quarantine 15” or even “the Covid 19″—those pounds, where did they come from?!? For many of us,…

emotional eating | how are you hungry?

In the style of health coaching I practice, Integrative Nutrition®, we talk a lot about primary and secondary foods. The majority of my clients come to me because they believe…

the amazing power of language

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I’m a language geek. Okay, I’m the one judging your grammar and correcting your spelling and punctuation—yes, even in your texts….

a workshop for me? aww, thanks.

Well, it’s February, and 80% of our New Year’s resolutions have fallen by the wayside. And that’s okay—let’s figure out a better way to health than setting those same goals every…

throw it in reverse

Once upon a time, I published a cookbook titled Fl!p Your K!tchen. (Okay, it was 2016, and after 2020, it feels like it’s been a lot longer! It’s now only…

5 -day challenge to better health

It’s baaaaack! In August of 2020, I offered a free 5-day Goodbye, Burnout! challenge. (Yeah, that was back sometime in what a friend refers to as “Marchember”—that long stretch between…

time to detox?

Hello? Is anybody there? Or is everyone still doomscrolling, sucked into the vortex of news and social media after the past two weeks? Perhaps it’s time to detox. For the…

happy new year 2021—i think?

Has 2021 started off with a bang, or is it a continuation of 2020? Two clever Facebook posts I saw on January 8: “Get back on your side of the…

3 important little questions

what questions are you asking? Over the course of 2020, I attended a few of NEW Center’s Centering Justice webinars and watched the replays of all the ones I missed,…

we’re on vacation!

The Simply: Health Coaching Team is on vacation December 23, 2020–January 3, 2021! May your holidays be merry + bright, safe + healthy.

3 simple tips for better gut health

You may have noticed a huge uptick in the mentions of gut health in recent years, and unless you are a nutrition/health/well-being geek like me, you may have just breezed…

the (highly unusual) holidays of 2020

As Hannukah begins and we hurtle toward Christmas and the new year, the holidays feel different in 2020. Online shopping is booming—although judging by the line at the post office…

the right thing to do

As on many websites, there is a contact form on mine. It’s meant to give the health-coaching-curious a way to reach out for more information, and there are also some…

Puzzle it out

When I was growing up, my family often did jigsaw puzzles—usually the same ones over and over: a variety of birds, a variety of flowers, a variety of butterflies. We…

massive decluttering + mindful downsizing

Early in our marriage, my husband and I moved 5 times in 10 years: from Colorado to Vermont (just for a summer), from Vermont to Illinois (Chicago, for 10 years),…

limiting beliefs and limitations

Check out my blog post (and some of the links in it) on the topic of limiting beliefs and limitations—I’d love to know your thoughts on the subject! make the…

optical illusions, vastly different perspectives

optical illusion: tiger or monkey? Earlier this week, a health coaching colleague posted a black and white optical illusion image and asked, “What animal do you see first?” I haven’t…

crowding out

“I’m not going to give up my [diet Coke/chips/ice cream/etc.], so don’t even ask me to!” When a client’s goal is weight loss, this sentence comes up more often than…

know a woman struggling with burnout?

[Edited to add: this post was written in October 2020—the EAT™ | Your way to health program continues to be offered a few time a year. Visit the course information…

affordable health coaching for every body

The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg feels like 2020 adding one more insult to a whole lot of injuries. Injuries that have been inflicted on every body but significantly more…

i’m drowning in green tomatoes…

Having returned to gardening this year after several years on hiatus, I had mixed results: plenty of herbs, a decent amount of sturdy greens, no spring greens at all, and…

a season of incredible plenty

It’s bound to happen in the fall, the season of plenty: an adult version of elementary school lunch plays out in the land of the CSA pickup. The boxes are…

a gunner for grace

To be successful this year, we need to be generous with grace; we need to be able to show kindness to ourselves and to others, to forgive ourselves and others…

(not) a fixer of little fires everywhere

This might well be the Summer of Kerry Washington at my house. I watched American Son on my own, then Django Unchained with my own American son (it’s also been…

stress + the severe inner critic

I was going to start this post by saying that every one of us has an inner critic who incessantly doubts us and shames us, whose voice is constantly in…

coming soon!

“Coming soon to a theater near you!” Wonder when we’ll hear that again? One thing the pandemic has made me realize is how much I miss going to the movie…

Adventures in health | 5 little nudges out the door

If we’ve learned anything in the first half of 2020, it’s that our infrastructure is not up to handling crises, whether they are public health-related, political, or racial. It’s definitely…

total silence

After years of blogging weekly, I woke up this morning with my mind completely blank. Total silence. Not even a recipe to share. So this week’s post is simply an…

being in control

The pandemic. The killing of George Floyd and the protests that have followed. Increasing political polarization. Something I’m hearing over and over in 2020 is that the world is spinning…

got pets?

Every time I do the Kale + Kryptonite exercise in a workshop, someone points out that I’ve missed a primary food. What’s the most commonly mentioned omission? Time with pets….

i’m privileged, thanks

Full disclosure: this week’s post is a detour … sort of. It’s about the health of communities—and it’s mostly about privilege. It’s been a week (and a few months) of…

spring has finally sprung—maybe?

Spring has sprung—maybe? This week saw some temps in the 40s at night in Michigan—and it’s the end of May/beginning of June! The season can bring increased energy, a desire…

the flying trapeze

How is change like letting go of a trapeze swing? What changes are you facing in your life right now? How are you feeling about them? I really loved this…

treating menopause symptoms—holistically!

In this blog post, I’m glad to welcome a guest co-blogger—my friend Dr. Jeff O’Boyle! This post is a collaboration in which we want to educate our clients/patients and the…

slow down, you move too fast…

During the pandemic, some of us have slowed down while others—especially front-liners and moms of younger children—have ramped up. The truth? We could all benefit by slowing down more often!…

w(h)ither the food system?

The pandemic has certainly made very clear just how many of and how deeply our policies and systems are flawed and how tightly they are intertwined: just for starters, in…

what’s in your backpack?

Here’s a great podcast from one of our original Big Sisters, Donna Doyon: “Unpack Your Fears” on her Finding My Way podcast. I love this hiking metaphor, which made me…

stuff energetics | home energy purification

I’ve blogged about our relationship with food, our relationship with tech, and our relationship with time, and this week, I’ve been thinking a lot about another relationship—with our stuff. Yes,…

what does the pandemic make possible?

In scrolling through my most recent blog posts for a little inspiration for this week, my post about catalysts, catastrophes, and cataclysms from February 27 feels eerily prescient given that…

physical activity

Physical activity is a major primary food—it feeds our bodies, minds, and spirits! four bases to cover in your physical activity Just as with secondary foods, physical activity requirements vary…

identifying + relieving stressors

If you want to understand the science behind our hormones and our response to stress, be sure to check out Chapter 4 of Dr. Sara Gottfried’s The Hormone Cure. I…

meal planning for the pandemic

feel like you’re chained to the stove just now? Struggling to make mealtimes feel more manageable, especially now that you’re cooking at home more often? Get help this week with…

Help! I need somebody….

One of my friends (who shall remain nameless) is a businesswoman who somehow manages to keep her small service business successful in two very distant locations—as in two states that…

5 days of simple mental hygiene practices

CDC hygiene recommendations Turns out Mom was right all along. The top CDC recommendations for preventing the spread of the coronavirus that is causing Covid-19 are: Wash your hands. A…

love in the time of corona

in the (good) news There’s been a lot written in recent days about what we can do to keep our small businesses and community services up (if not running at…

lockdown survival(ist)

As cases of COVID-19 begin to multiply, there’s a lot of panic around putting in supplies for self-isolation and/or being quarantined. (I learned a new German word for this behavior:…

it’s here….

Since it’s just about the only news out there other than the presidential primary, let’s talk about the coronavirus taking the world by storm. I found this article by Dr….

resources | podcasts

Don’t have time to read but love to learn? Welcome to the world of podcasts—great for long commutes, workouts, while you’re cleaning the house…. Some of these podcasters are in…

catalysts, catastrophes, and cataclysms

It’s been a few years since my family saw Hamilton in Chicago. Before we went, we obsessed over the soundtrack for at least a year, listening to it incessantly to…

what’s your worth?

As you well know if you’ve been with me for a while, I’m a big language buff. And so I was tickled to see this article on the term “value…

mental + emotional health

Something I hear a lot from women in their 40s and 50s is that they are questioning their sanity—many confess that they feel like they’re going crazy. And judging by…

your ideal vacation

Both the quantity and the quality of our down time are vital primary foods—and like all SOUL food, our needs are different. make the connection Tell us in the comments…

life after dairy | chocolate

What else to write about around Valentine’s Day but chocolate?!? (Fun fact: one of my most popular posts, also appropriate for this time of year is Because taxes. (And because…

Eva Neuhaus on making changes that stick

You might have noticed that the Universe seems to work in threes? Take this as a recent example from my life: just before the holidays, NPR’s Hidden Brain program produced…

kale + kryptonite

In the Integrative Nutrition® health coaching world, we often talk about primary and secondary foods. The simplest explanation of this concept is: Secondary foods are what we put in our…

the gift of menopause

I loved this article, The Gift of Menopause by Margaret Renki, forwarded to me by one of our members: it really flips how we tend to look at peri/menopause from…

food, glorious food!

Tell us about your eating style—not your diet, because as Garfield says, the word “diet” is just “die” with a “t” at the end. Do you stick to a particular…

A taste of my own medicine

This website’s blog page holds more than 300 posts: that’s a lot of writing about nutrition and health. And most of the posts boil down to a few basic Integrative…

New things I love

I’ve been having a lot of conversations with friends about how our devices are definitely listening in on our conversations: it sounds like a Big Brother-esque conspiracy theory—and there are…

It’s about navigating the gray areas

Issues of race and ethnicity have been swirling around in my head this week because they’ve popped up in a few places over the past week: In my reading, I’m…

tip the scale

“How often should I weigh myself?” is a common question in my line of business. It’s a great question because it opens the door to even more questions. Dang it—you…

what’s your free square?

Victoria Moran, author of Creating a Charmed Life, talks about the fact that every one of us has “a FREE square,” something like in Bingo, where each of us automatically gets…

curve balls

As we enter our 40s and 50s, it’s not uncommon to feel some shifts—some subtle, some more like a fast ball to the head—in how our bodies function. I’ve compiled…

where do you turn first?

Where do you turn first for advice on health and wellness? conventional medical doctor alternative health practitioner (let us know what type) Dr. Google/the internet family friends inner wisdom other…

podcast love | nonprofit lowdown

We’ve survived our first bi-continental holiday season, thanks in large part to technology. The logistics involved in my parents making phone contact when my father would travel to the USSR…

Happy 2020!

I’m on vacation this week, trying to practice what I preach and keep boundaries around my family time, so no musings for you this week! Instead, just a quick reminder…

Coffee? Wine? Liver?

What do wine and coffee have in common? Yes, yes, I know: they both come from a fruit, both involve fermentation—no, sorry, I don’t think you can count them as…

introduction to the coaching exercises

In the “inspiration” section of the clubhouse, you’ll find some concepts and activities that I use in my coaching practice—if you have ever wondered what a health coach does, you’ll…

ages + stages

What’s your age and/or stage of life, and what do you like best about being in it? And what is most challenging about it?

Hey, Baby, what’s your sign?

Have you been fortunate to catch a glimpse of the moon these last two nights? She was so full and bright, I didn’t need a flashlight for the early morning…

say hello!

Tell us who you are, where you live, when’s your birthday (so we can give you a shout-out!) and anything else you’d like us to know about you! If you…

membership coaching

As a coaching-level member of the (Sorta) Secret Sisterhood, you are entitled to 1 x 50-minute coaching call per month: use it to check in privately and completely confidentially on…

how did you find us?

[ufbl form_id=”9″]   Please use the comment section to get more specific—I love to thank my referrers, so if you found us through word of mouth, give your source a…

“Long sleeps the summer in the seed.”

I’ve known since my junior year abroad that I’m a four seasons girl. I spent that year in Taiwan, where there are two seasons: “hot and humid” and “cool and…

Someday is not a day of the week

I spent part of this holiday weekend watching “old” movies: A Fish Called Wanda with my son, who appreciates 1) anything with the word “fish” in it, 2) Monty Python,…

Gratitude … and recognition and appreciation

Every month in The (Sorta) Secret Sisterhood, we feature a Q+A with an expert—usually a woman who serves women 40+ through some type of healing modality, from conventional medicine to…

To Impossible … and Beyond!

As a health coach, I’m often asked to weigh in (hahaha) on what is the best way to eat: Keto? Paleo? Vegetarian? Vegan? High carb? Low carb? Zero carb? High…

Word games

I like to say that if you were to look at my CV, you’d think one of two thoughts: This woman is completely unemployable: what has she been doing with…

Breaking up is hard to do

“I’ll bet you never rebelled as a teenager,” my son said last night. Well, no. I think I never really did. I’m an inveterate rule follower, and one of my…

The F word

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ve heard me mention that I’m a finalist in the Michigan Women Forward’s Woman Up & Pitch competition that takes place next…

There’s a quiz for that

There’s an online “what’s your [fill in the blank] type” quiz for everything these days, and while I’m generally able to steer away from them—knowing that they can be a…

WHO said it

going grammanda I’m an admitted grammarphile. I still correct my children (and others): come—not go; bring—not take; lie—not lay; if I were —not if I was; I wish I had—not…

Am I in climate change denial?

To everything there is a season…. Some of you might know where in the Bible that line comes from. And I know at least half of you went there: turn,…

I couldn’t care less…

Week 1 of my “international commuter marriage” is over, and I’m pleased to report that everyone is alive and well: my husband apparently snuck through Chek Lap Kok airport just…

Greatest hits | Happy Labor Day, Happy Birth-day

How is it possible that it’s the last weekend of summer?!? This week’s greatest hit, Happy Labor Day, Happy Birth-day, comes from two years ago, when my daughter first went…

Greatest hits | Where are you hiding?

As of May 2019, burnout is finally recognized as a syndrome according the the World Health Organization’s 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), a handbook that provides…

So much new + good!

how do you eat an elephant? As we plunge into the second half of 2019 (whattt? how is that possible?), I find myself reflecting on the first two quarters of…

Back to the kitchen

When my husband took his job at University of Michigan, we had just bought a house in Southern California—and I mean that literally: the morning of the day he found…

That’s a wrap!

As we head into the 4th of July holidays, we’re wrapping up our first anniversary festivities in the (Sorta) Secret Sisterhood clubhouse, and I wanted to say, “Thank you for…

Meet Diane Babalas

Diane Babalas practices something called Biogeometric integration—like acupuncture, another “dark magic” that will make you wonder how it really works … and it does! Check it out, then leave me…

Meet Melea Alexander

I’ve been intrigued by Traditional Chinese Medicine ever since college, when I was a Chinese major (yup, that really was my first field of study!), and I’ve always wanted to…

Let’s get this party started!

How is it already May 31?!? That means tomorrow is the start of our month-long anniversary celebration of community! (Catch up on the details of that if you missed them…