Finding my heart center.

For over 20 years I have worked on the medical device and health system side of healthcare. I started out as a department tech and then a phlebotomist in my college years at a local medical center in Massachusetts. After a brief stint in high end electronic devices, I made my way back into healthcare. I spent 10 years working on marketing medical devices to seniors and their families. But this role wasn’t just about selling a product. A key part of my role was to help educate people on how to stay healthy, build strength and prevent falls while at home. I was lucky to be a part of product releases that focused on the aging population in America, and how we could best support them and their families. In my current role I work with health care systems globally, promoting software solutions that can increase patient engagement, getting people to take an active part in their health care journey, whether it’s a young person with a short-term need, or an older adult with a chronic condition. Playing a leading role in your own health care is so important, and I’ll share more on this in future blogs.

Despite working in this healthcare field, myself, I was not always a healthy person. By BMI standards I was obese. I had high blood pressure and was pre-diabetic. I wasn’t physically active. Compounding that issue is the fact that I never really learned about proper nutrition growing up. I watched my mom count calories each day, writing down anything that passed between her lips, but I never knew that the body didn’t process all calories the same way, or that the overly processed “lite” foods were doing more harm to my mother than good. But I did know that counting calories didn’t work, at least not for me and not for long.

Once the scale hit 225 pounds, I knew things had to change. I couldn’t keep on the way I was, not if I wanted any type of quality of life. I tried diet after diet; calorie counting, Atkins, South Beach…you name it, I tried it. Nothing worked except to maybe take off a few pounds here or there. About this time, I started to do research on my own. I knew I had to make changes but wasn’t sure where to start. One day I decided to start with soda. I drank a diet coke a day, usually with lunch or around that 3pm crash that any corporate employee will tell you they are familiar with. Now I know what you’re thinking – why did you get rid of the diet coke, there aren’t any calories in that. But it’s not about calories, not always at least. For me, the diet coke often led to a piece of chocolate, or a bag of pretzels or some other unhealthy and unsatisfying afternoon binge. I switched to water with lemon, and low and behold, my whole afternoons changed. My scale changed, and my skin changed.

Shortly after I started to make the connections about food and started to lose significant weight, I knew I had to increase my physical activity. My body was in tough shape, exercise just wasn’t something it was used to! But one morning I found my way into a heated studio and onto a yoga mat, and a whole new journey started for me. I have been practicing yoga for 10 years now and teaching for four. I honor and teach the 8 limbs of yoga.

The practice of yoga was and still is, life altering for me. The power of the mind body connection is something like magic; hard to put into words but pure ecstasy to experience.

The more I taught yoga and built a community there I realized my life had to change to honor my beliefs and my capabilities. Working in corporate for years I’ve seen big hospital systems, government and physicians make money from treating people, but no one talks about prevention. The American society is in a crisis. But it’s not just about what we are putting into our bodies, it is how we are living our lives. It’s all related. As an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, I can use the foundation I have from yoga to support people find a way to thrive! I believe in one-on-one coaching and looking at what is considered both primary and secondary foods. I’ve been through the challenges, let me guide you through yours.