This is Day #2 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I am instructed to talk about what brought me to this place…my back story. Who doesn’t love a good story?? So here I go…

The Shoe Drops

Christmas Eve 2009, I received a phone call while I was walking through WalMart. It was the office of the surgeon who had performed the breast biopsy a few days prior. We know how this is going to go, don’t we?

Of course the results were positive for malignancy. Unfortunately, I would not have access to the surgeon until the 28th of December…four agonizing days waiting to hear what’s next.

After a scary Christmas, I met with the surgeon who’s first words were, “you probably saved your life”. Because I chose an immediate biopsy over the alternative of taking the ‘wait and see’ approach for six months, I changed what would have been a much different result. I’m not a ‘wait and see’ type of person. That has come in handy many times in my life.

Fast forward to surgery in January, chemo February through June, radiation all of July and August, and Herceptin infusions until February 2011. It was a tough year but one that would change my life. While I was unable to do much else, I did some research to try to figure out how I could prevent a recurrence of my cancer. I found that cancer cells are fed by sugar and a lot of the food I was eating easily converted to sugar.

Transformation Time

Me in February 2014

I decided to change my eating habits to eliminate processed sugar and to eat only whole, clean foods.  Since I started chemo, I had not consumed any alcohol. My liver was being abused enough with all the poisons being pumped into my veins and I have not had a drink since. I attended Weight Watchers meetings for the accountability only (because I didn’t want to follow their program) and, after a while became that meeting’s poster child. I lost 135 pounds and trained for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day 60-Mile Walk for the Cure.

The Happy Ending

After successfully losing a lot of weight and completely changing my life, I realized I really loved this stuff…living a healthy lifestyle, having a lot of energy and fitting into much smaller clothes. I also realized I could help others do the same so I looked for a way to do that. I found a nutrition program that also taught me how to coach and became a Certified Holistic Health Coach (CHHC). Later I became a Certified Nutritional Consultant (CNC). Then earned a certificate in Whole Food Plant Based Nutrition. This is what I was meant to do.

I have been coaching for about five years and it is the most fulfilling work I have ever done. In April, I retired from the career I had for over thirty years that paid the mortgage, put food on the table and gave our family a very nice lifestyle. But now it’s time to do something I LOVE and I have found it.

I  know many people my age who still don’t know what they want to do when they grow up. I’m one of the lucky ones because I figured it out.

As a Board Certified Health Coach, I work with women who face serious health challenges like heart disease, metabolic syndrome and diabetes, or who have been diagnosed as having a precursor to a serious health issue such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or high blood sugar. I help them make food and lifestyle changes so they can get healthy, live longer and enjoy a fuller, happier, more energetic life. If you would like to have a free strategy call about the health challenges you have and the improvements you would like to see in your health, click here to schedule a no strings attached call.