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…
thanksgiving in the kitchen (and a coupon for you!)
It’s Thanksgiving month! And I think because Thanksgiving falls in November, it’s a time when you can see a lot of posting about “gratitude month” on social media. I like…
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…
food energetics | the powerful side of nutrition
Food energetics: it’s a topic I write and speak a lot about. Let’s call it the spiritual side of food and nutrition. If that sounds crazy, consider this: Food is…
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 | emotion + self-compassion
We began this series on emotional eating two weeks ago by taking a look at whether our hunger is physical or emotional. Last week, we took a look at what…
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 pandemic, one long, painful, productive year in
I may be suffering from pandemic fallout. If you’ve followed me for awhile, you’ve gotten a new blog post a week for four years with only a few exceptions. Apparently,…
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…
control issues: what’s 1 thing completely in my power?
Irrespective of our political leanings, many (most? all?) of us seem to be feeling our world has spun out of control. As I’ve written about recently, it is stunning to…
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…
how (terrifyingly) long is your food chain?
I suspect that there will be a lot of lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, and as a health coach, I’m hoping that one of them will be that we…
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,…
12 tips for grocery shopping safely during the pandemic
What has the pandemic made possible? was the question I raised in last week’s blog post, and this week I’ve been paying attention to just that—from the halls of government…
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…
the lockdown life | volunteer, coach, record, repeat…
who else is on lockdown? Wow has it ever been a week, and they say it will all get worse before it gets better. (“They” always have a lot to…
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…
fl!p your k!tchen® | group coaching now available!
does your kitchen feel overwhelming? Looking to improve your health this year? Feel like you need to shift your eating style? Not sure what and how you “should” be eating?…
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 | Absence makes the self care fonder
How is it possible that it’s been more than four years since I wrote this week’s flashback post, Absence makes the self care fonder?!? I’m now measuring time in BDL…
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…
Meet Heather Glidden of Joy | Freedom in Motion
I visited Heather and Darlene’s studio, Joy | Freedom in Motion, for a presentation on Gyrotonic one evening a few years ago and was inspired. Heather is a wealth of…
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…
Meet Tania Elfersy of The Wiser Woman
From the moment I read one of her blog posts, I just knew that Tania had to be the first person to do a Q+A in the (Sorta) Secret Sisterhood…
I believe…
Have you ever thought, “I need to do [something],” and the moment you go into the other room to do it, you don’t remember what it was you meant to…
Oooh! Aaah! Fabulous prizes!
In scrolling through my calendar recently, I came across a few dates of note: May 2 is the 4th anniversary of when I officially established my practice although it’s been…
#eatmorekale
Spring is here—which in Michigan means the temperature still dips below 40ºF and yet the upper limits (in the 60s) are starting to show up more often than the dips….
What’s in a name?
Have you ever changed your name? My friend Audrey, a business coach for women entrepreneurs, has a podcast called Women Are the Journey, on which she talks to women about…
Vitamin P(ee)
One of the principles of Integrative Nutrition® is the idea of bioindividuality: what is healthy for one person may be toxic to another, whether we’re talking about secondary foods (what…
Healthcare policy, healthcare agency
In the months leading up to and following the 2016 election, I stopped reading and listening to the news and I purged my social media channels. That doesn’t mean I…
Health coaching learnings … from Netflix?
Helllp! I seem to have fallen into a Netflix trap, one that features crime dramas from the UK: first there was Shetland, then there was Hinterland, then Broadchurch, and now…
Advance? Retreat?
If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ve probably come across my Kale + Kryptonite exercise, which is a tool I use with my clients to help them assess the…
#healthcoachvacation 2019
Once again, our family’s Spring Breaks didn’t align this year—and we did manage to have some fun anyway! After last year’s epic fishing adventure, my son and I decided to…
Spring into health
Spring has sprung, the grass is riz…. My father used to recite the poem every year around this time. In Michigan, it’s still blustery, and the the grass is not…
Sorry, not sorry
The American Socialist Party organized the first Women’s Day in 1909, but it was in Soviet Russia that March 8 became a national holiday after women gained suffrage there in…
Life without roads
I recently had a conversation with some much younger friends who were talking about what they see as one of the problems their generation faces: too many choices. Yes, this…
What’s for dinner, Mom?
what’s for dinner, mom? For a working woman, that one innocent question at the end of the day can cause a lot of stress. (Yes, yes, I know men cook,…
What was I thinking?
Every month in the (Sorta) Secret Sisterhood online community, I get to record a Q+A with an expert in her field—most often a health practitioner who works with women in…
