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…

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…

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…

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….

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…

Greatest hits | Breakdown on the 110

This week finds me at home in the Green Mountains of Vermont—I know that I can’t claim to be a Vermonter because I wasn’t born here, and their rules about…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Sweeten it, naturally

I recently conducted a survey of my virtual community to learn more about you, and one of the requests that came up most frequently in response to my question about…

Own the Crone

the end of the human race Just before the mid-term voting took place, I listened to a podcast in which Carol Cox discusses a TEDx talk she gave just before…

Green lights, stop signs, and speed bumps

My son is learning how to drive (yay? yikes? jury’s still out but leaning towards yay), and something that we’ve been commenting on is that he seems to have a…

Reclaim your flame

The clubhouse doors are open at the (Sorta) Secret Sisterhood online membership site, and last week, I had the honor and pleasure of interviewing Tania Elfersy of The Wiser Woman…

Who are you comparing yourself to?

I recently walked the Dexter Ann Arbor 5K in 40:49 (beating last year’s 52:12 by a long shot despite the pouring rain)—I had meant to run this year, but some…

Are you in the (Sorta) Secret Sisterhood?

Let’s take a look at the business side of health coaching for a minute. As a business owner, I spend a fair amount of time networking, and in networking groups—as…

Al Perkins teaches portion control

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that in addition to being a health coach, I have a side hustle that used to be my full-time job and…

Whine + cheese | What’s the payoff?

Very often, when I encounter a deeply-entrenched, clearly unhealthy habit in a client, I get curious about the payoff: every habit, according to research in this area, brings with it…

The secret’s out….

Last night at the dinner table, my son asked how long it’s been since the new Administration has been in the White House. More than a year, I said, thinking…

White jeans … and apples and pears

I lurk on a lot of Facebook pages and sites that claim to support us women over 40. I say “lurk” because I stopped posting comments and questions when I…

Breakdown on the 110

If you follow me on social media, you’ll know that I was recently featured in an interview on my friend Audrey Groeschel’s Women are Journey podcast—you can check it out…

Do your own (!@#$%) dishes!

Why…was it always my responsibility to turn on the stove and begin to think about my family’s food needs, even when I wasn’t hungry? Why couldn’t my husband get the…

I can still get 3 hours….

I’m one of those lucky people, blessed with the ability to fall asleep just about anywhere, anytime, even during a bus or train commute (yeah, sleeping on the Red Line…

My own personal summer

Sooo much wisdom (and a fair bit of humor!) in last week’s conversation on the blog in response to my question about what (if any) curve ball/s your body suddenly…

“Can we tawk?”

I once introduced myself in a networking group by saying that I support women who believe the only way out of their overwhelm involves a plane ticket, a wad of…

Why should I clear my (virtual) plate?

I recently had the honor of interviewing the lovely Dr. Fiona Lovely of the Not Your Mother’s Menopause podcast and Facebook community. We talked a lot about bringing peace to…

SOLE food | SOUL food

At the end of 2016, I shifted my health coaching practice from focusing almost entirely on secondary foods—what we put in our mouths—to primary foods—everything else in our lives that…

If it ain’t broke, reframe it

Occasionally, I need to disappear from my health coaching practice due to the demands that my side hustle as a grants consultant places on my schedule. Late November and early…

Do you really need another blender?

My biz bestie, Holly Southerland of Waco Home Organizers, recently sent a note of encouragement to her email list about FOMO (fear of missing out) and doing a “digital detox”…

A few of my favorite things | Books

Last week’s post on the podcasts I recommend generated quite a few replies, one of the more common being, “But what if I don’t listen to podcasts?” I don’t find…

A few of my favorite things | Podcasts

Vacation ends soon—I’m slipping in another quickie post before I run out to enjoy the end of it! If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I’m…

To my sisters: I hear you.

[Edit: Since this post was written, the S.A.N.I.T.Y. program morphed partly into Declutter Your Daytimer and partly into my membership site for women 40+. I’ve left this post up because…