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Breast Cancer Coaching For Recovery

Posted by on Jan 27, 2013 in Cancer | 1 comment

You never see it coming.  I didn’t and that’s what my breast cancer clients tell me too.  Breast cancer is a diagnostic ambush that leaves you grasping for answers, while facing a series of hurdles ahead. My role as a survivor and coach is to bring compassion, understanding and a plan for a new normalcy.  I am a kindred soul on the breast cancer recovery team.   I know the medical story, and the personal story and I serve as a translator, and collaborator.

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Changing Your Physical Space

Posted by on Jan 3, 2013 in Health Coaching, Lifestyle Medicine | 6 comments

“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”
~ Henry Ford

I have spent most of my life surrounded by clutter.  Piles of unfiled receipts, financial statements, projects, articles, books, unused clothes, and kitchen appliances we barely use have occupied our living spaces.  For a long time, I had spent more time avoiding my clutter than considering there might be another way.   Avoidance is a self-directed brain skill.  If avoidance is your strategy, your brain does exactly what you tell it to do. It figures out how to avoid fixing the clutter. We have all kinds of messes we avoid because we tell ourselves there isn’t time, resources or energy to solve.

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A New Mindfulness Tool for Stress and Anxiety

Posted by on Dec 10, 2012 in Lifestyle Medicine, Stress Management | 2 comments

This is the season for getting it all done, and women everywhere are feeling stressed and anxious as the holiday clock ticks down.  I love the holiday traditions, but the truth is women have been doing most of the work for a long time.  We are the organizers, managers, and doers for the big family events.  We do the shopping, the cooking, the planning, the decorating, the gift wrapping, the card sending,  and then somehow make ourselves look fabulous for the family meals and holiday parties.  At the same time, many of us are raising a family and working for a living.  Often our holidays are complicated with visiting family members who’s mere presence raise conflicts rather than warm memories.

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Dancing With The Sugar Plum Fairy

Posted by on Nov 26, 2012 in Food Fight, Nutrition | 1 comment

No matter what, they call about food. People want to feel and look better and they suspect there is a connection to the food they eat. I have some clients who have been addicted to sugar most their lives.  Many of us grew up on sugar beginning with childhood.  Now we can’t get through a day without at least one meal or one snack that has sugar in it.

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Hitting Home: Breast Cancer, Part 2

Posted by on Oct 29, 2012 in Cancer, General Health, Health Coaching | 6 comments

Sometimes irony can be divine intervention in disguise.  That’s what happened to me on the road to finding a new gynecologist.  My health insurance changed and my current gynecologist fell out of network.  Time to find a new one.

After a search of “in network” options, I met with a well-respected female physician in my community.  During the first visit she quickly signaled she was listening and had done her homework by reviewing my past records before our appointment.  It was a pleasant visit.  I liked her and her staff.  Little did I know at the time that a “perfect storm” was just days away from upending my life.  A few days later, the women’s mammogram center called.  There was a problem with my annual mammogram, and I needed to come back immediately for more testing.  The cancer storm had arrived.

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