If you're having trouble managing your health, it's not your fault...

“It’s not your fault”.

These words changed my trajectory, allowed me to let go of shame, and empowered me to take steps towards a healthier me.

After many years – I mean decades – of not understanding how to manage my own health, I decided to seek the help of a professional. I scheduled a meeting with a registered dietician. Me and my cloak of shame showed up, on time ready to hear about all that I have been doing wrong. Heavy in my heart, body and soul.

We said hello, and she asked me, “why do you want to work with an RD”?

“I need to lose weight.”, I said “and I want to live a healthy life”.

“Great!” she said. “The first thing I want you to know is – it’s not your fault.”

In an instant, I was able to let go of the shame. Those words gave me the space to grow.

It was not about blame. Take that out of the equation.

How do you even untangle all of the layers that go into creating this shame?

The subsidized industries that create food that is highly addictive. The messages in society that tell women that they need to be smaller. The diet culture that tricks you into paying for their product to lose weight fast, only to set you up for an unhealthy cycle of weight loss and gain. The fitness industry that can feel exclusive and overwhelming and like there is no place to fit in, in an unfit body.

That’s a lot to stand up to on your own.

And you are left feeling guilt when you eat the processed, hyper sweetened, hydrogenated food. Ashamed when you look at magazines and social media. Hopeful and defeated by the latest diet trend. And embarrassed to try and move your body. Shame.

And this cycle plays out over and over and over again.

When the RD said those words to me, I let go of all of it. And I had the space to actually do the work that was needed to take care of me. I was no longer going to expend energy on feeling shame. And I would not allow the outside factors to take my power. If anything, the anger in thinking about all of it fueled me.

And so, I learned from this teacher how to eat. How to fuel my body. How to take care of myself. And that led me to another teacher. That taught me how to move in a healthy way. And how to rest. And more about how to nourish my body. And that led to more knowledge, power and growth.

I would not be here – living my dream, in a healthy strong body – if it had not been for those gentle words.

I believe a hand held out to pull you up is so much more powerful than a finger wag.

What if we believed that everyone deserves the chance to live their best healthy life? And that maybe they are not ready yet. Maybe they have had trauma, or shame, or any number of life and societal circumstances that have kept them down. Unable to reach out for help. What if we all did our very best to keep this world safe and loving and accepting so that when that person is ready, they can reach for that safe place, and take the steps that they need to take for themselves to live their best healthy life?

That is where the real change happens.

As a coach, I’m here to connect with you when you are ready. To help you see in yourself what you need for your healthy life. To walk beside you and help you understand that you can do this work for you

That it is not your fault.