I got tired of being tired

Most "meet your coach" posts are a highlight reel. This one is not, because I do not think the highlight reel would help you.

So here is the real version.

I found this work by losing something else

Before any of this, I was a massage therapist, and I loved it. There is something about putting your hands on a person who walked in hurting and watching them leave lighter. That was the whole job, and I was good at it.

Then my own health ended it. Medical restrictions meant I could not go back to the table, and I sat with that for a while before I knew what to do next.

Around the same time my oldest started school, and suddenly I had hours in my day that I had not had in years. I went looking for a way back into one on one work, and I found health coaching. I enrolled at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in 2012 and fell in love with it.

What surprised me was that it worked on me first. I was dealing with autoimmune issues of my own, and the more I learned, the better I felt. That year I was convinced I had found the fountain of youth in my Vitamix.

Then life did what life does

Pregnancy shifted my hormones and the tired came back. A busy season came along and I fell off the wagon. I would get back to prioritizing my health and feel good again, then slip, then feel tired again. That loop ran for years.

The passion never went anywhere. The time did. I was always doing something connected to it, reading, taking things in, following other coaches, selling products I believed in. What I never had was a solid block of time to sit down and build the business side of it.

In 2023 I got tired of being tired, so I went back for a refresher course through IIN and got my motivation back. Then life happened again, the way it does when you have one kid planning a graduation and touring colleges while the younger one still needs you.

I will be straight with you. My own health has been at some of its lowest points in a long time. I am not writing to you from the finish line. I am in the middle of building myself back up right now, and I would rather say that out loud than pretend otherwise.

Why I am doing this now

My oldest has moved out. My youngest is self sufficient. I need a purpose, and I have bills like everybody else, and working outside the home has gotten harder for me, not easier.

For the first time in twenty years I have the time for all three pieces at once. The coaching. The business behind the coaching. The continuing education that keeps me good at it. That is why this time is different, and why I am not letting it slide again.

The one thing I want you to stop believing

Everybody feels like this. It is just getting older. It is just perimenopause.

No.

You do not have to be miserable as you age. There are women in their seventies and beyond living full, active, delighted lives right now. If you are fifty and feeling old because you are a grandma, you are still young. You can still feel young.

Feeling awful is common. Common is not the same as normal, and neither one means permanent.

A little about me outside of all this

I lived in the Detroit area for almost twenty years, the longest I have ever stayed in one place. We sold the house and moved back to Iowa, where we grew up. It has been a hard transition, and we are making it work.

Fall is my favorite time of year, and yes, that includes football season. Fall in Michigan is beautiful. All the color, the cider mills, that first cool, crisp morning. I miss it.

A normal Tuesday for me right now is errands or a full day at my computer, with most of my energy going into my own healing and getting this business back on its feet.

Come with me

This is a journey of self discovery, self care, and nutritional healing, and I am taking you with me. Not ahead of you. With you.

If you want an easy place to start, start where I start every month, with the food. Each month I put together a themed recipe bundle and meal plan, real meals for real weeks, and it is the least overwhelming first step I know.

Take a look at this month's theme, and if it helps even one Tuesday go smoother, that is a win worth having.