Welcome to the newest feature of the Waist Management blog, affectionately to be known henceforth as Mission Mondays! This is designed to give you a little more insight into the meaningful side of a being a health and wellness entrepreneur/ health coach, not just the fringe benefits of looking up facts about Snickers, Cinnabons, and Oreos. Why do I do what I do? Why do I care about the obesity crisis in America? Whose lives have I seen get better? What makes me think you have any business reading about my business of helping other people with their business? You will find answers to these and other compelling questions that none of you have lost any sleep over in this feature!
So, with all my confessionals about being in love with chocolate and growing up as an awkwardly nonathletic child, you may be wondering how in the world I became so fascinated by the world of health & wellness. There's probably not a short answer to that question. Or any question I've ever been asked. Which is exactly why I write blogs and why I haven't joined Twitter, with its oppressive 140 character limit.
While a love for wellness may be in my genes, I didn't really become aware of how powerful and life-changing wellness could be until I started working for a local chiropractor in 2004. (And, yes, I will unabashedly give a plug right here for
Dr. Dale Goode ...the man is amazing!) Through his work, I saw that people who had resigned themselves to a life of pain became whole again without surgery and without medication that had harmful side effects. I saw the power of the human body to heal and correct itself, given the proper guidance of experienced hands. And, most importantly, I saw people regain hope. Hope that they could walk upright again, hope that they could sit through their grandson's high school graduation without excruciating pain, hope that they could swing a golf club or hold a grandbaby or simply just tackle their daily to-do list painlessly.
And that's exactly what my business is all about. Hope. Every day, I have the opportunity to offer hope to women who feel stuck in their bodies; by teaching them to feed their body right, they discover that losing weight is more than just wishful thinking. I offer hope to people whose stiff joints keep them from bringing their best on the court; by finding nutrients that reduce inflammation and improve mobility, they rediscover the joy of motion. I offer hope to the Mom who doesn't want to miss out on all baby's firsts; by inviting her to join my team, she discovers how to earn a living without sacrificing a life. I offer hope to those stressed out by the economy, deceived by "job security," and disgruntled with the status quo. I offer hope to those who have just "learned to live with the pain" and those who believe that their best days are behind them, only to discover that there's more life in their body now than there has been in years.
I guess the key to that hope is discovering that their problem has a solution. That nothing is permanent, and, given the right tools, nearly any situation can improve. Through this industry, I've heard mind-blowing stories of MS patients walking again, fibromyalgia patients getting back in the saddle (literally!), and Moms carrying babies to full-term after suffering a series of miscarriages. And I've watched hope emerge on a smaller scale, too, as women drop dress sizes, go off their blood pressure medication, or realize that diabetes doesn't have to be "in the cards" for them. I've personally watched the Hubs morph from musician to triathlete, and I went from meandering to marathoning, because I have seen that hope fuels change, and change fuels solutions, and solutions fuel results. At any rate, it's a game-changer!
So maybe the next time I go to write my job title down, I'll just scratch the Certified Trinity Health Coach and write "Purveyor of Hope" or something snazzy like that. That sounds pretty cool, don't you think?
Bonus Feature: Mission Mondays will also come with an inspiring or motivational quote at the end of each article, written or spoken by folks way more famous or eloquent than I am. You know, people who don't have food fantasies or people who have like, 3, blog followers. Check out this thought for the day:
"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."--H. Thurman
(Thanks, Dr. Libby Weaver, for posting this on Facebook! Check out her amazing work, Accidentally Overweight,
and remember to read it with an awesome Aussie accent in your head. Because she has one. And I want one.)
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