12/17/2024
This is the story of how I became a health and holistic wellness coach.
I grew up in a large Irish Catholic family.
With 3 brothers and one sister I am the middle of 5 very competitive loving siblings.
My parents raised us to believe in hard work, never to judge others, and never ask for more than you need to survive.
My mother was a natural athlete and stay-at-home mom who would load us up on bikes and ride us all over our island, from the beaches to the woods.
My father can build and fix anything and worked construction most of our lives before he risked it all and built a river cruise business that now employs half of our immediate family.
I was always a loud and outspoken child and always wanted to please my older siblings and parents. I excelled at gymnastics and dance, and I loved the spotlight.
School was never my thing.
I couldn't stand wearing clothes or being indoors.
I was dyslexic which added to my struggle in school and made it very difficult for me to keep up with the curriculum.
As a teen I got into cheerleading and boys and at 15 found myself pregnant.
I loved babies and took the prospect of being a young mother very seriously.
It became important to me to prove that I could be a good mother no matter how difficult the obstacles.
My boyfriend, now husband, was 17.
His parents were going through a rocky divorce at the time but everyone involved was extremely supportive and I was able to finish high school and work at my family's restaurant on the weekends.
My health journey did not really have a defining moment.
I was never overweight or suffered a serious illness.
Most of my youth I had some GI issues caused by our standard American diet,
I tried vegetarianism around 16 or 17 because of the anxiety I would experience around my GI issues.
It wasn't until I became a long distance runner that I really started to experience how certain foods and especially alcohol affected my energy, stamina and gut.
My sister and I always trained together. For miles and miles over years and years we spent hours out on the roads.
She went to nursing school, then bachelors and finally got her masters in nursing.
I was essentially her study buddy, although I debated her constantly about treatments and protocols she was learning.
It infuriated me that she didn't learn anything about actual health. Just medications, diagnosis, treatments and surgical procedures.
Over the years I have tried countless fad diets, detoxes and cleanses to improve my health.
I listen to and read as much as I can about gut health and digestive disorders in an effort to heal and cure my own complicated relationship with my gut.
The more I learned, the more I realized how dysfunctional our current health practices are.
And how crazy people think you are for questioning the main steam systems.
Over the years I watch as family and friends struggle with illnesses and disease with complicated treatments and surgeries and I, like many, have felt that since of hopelessness with the health care system.
The real estate crash in 2008 was a pivotal time in my life.
My husband and I were forced to file bankruptcy on our construction business and moved in with my parents.
I felt like I had nothing to lose and borrowed money from my grandfather to go to yoga teacher training in upstate New York.
It was life changing.
I re-gained the confidence I needed in myself and was reminded of how much I love to lead.
I returned with a strong desire to share my experiences with anyone who would listen. And realized how important it was for me to be connected to my body, mind and soul.
After teaching yoga for a few years I went to school for massage therapy.
My desire to learn and connect to the human body continued to grow.
I learned about health coaching from a yoga student and found a one year program online from The Institute for Integrative Nutrition.
After finishing that program I extended my education further with their hormone health program.
These programs have been helpful and given me a small sense of authority although health coaches are far from being respected in the medical community.
There is still a very clear divide between those of us who believe our bodies are designed to heal themselves and those who believe our body is stupid and must be medicated or mutilated in order to thrive.
My clients come to me with a deep understanding that there must be a better way.
All they truly need is someone who supports this idea. I offer a different perspective, with support, experience and knowledge of a more holistic and natural approach to medicine.
The most fascinating thing about what I do is how much I learn from my clients and their intuitive incites.
I look at how I treated my own body over the years and wish I had made better choices.
We cannot change our past.
We can only look back and reflect on the challenges that shaped our lives and keep striving to learn and grow.
My intention in telling my story is not to shock and scare you into making giant shifts in your life.
My intention is to give you permission to trust yourself.
To open up conversations and make connections.
I believe that each of us is directly connected to creation and we need each other to truly thrive.
We need connection, to our environment, to our food, our bodies and most of all to each other.
My approach to health is simple.
Eat a little bit of everything, move in the sunlight everyday, take your shoes off and touch the ground. Breathe with intention, buy your food from your neighbors, prepare your own meals, get good sleep, love your family no matter what and share your passion with the world.
Your journey doesn’t have to be perfect, but it should feel like yours.