My Journey

I grew up in Maine and have spent most of my life in New England. I love the seasons and the outdoors.

I was usually running, biking, skiing and anything physical and rarely moderately. I never concerned myself with the food that went in my body. I liked pizza, ice cream, fried foods and beer. Not necessarily in that order.

In my 20’s I was an exercise fanatic. I ran a lot of 5k and 10k races and was often on my road bike for hours on end.

I was eating to sustain energy and be able to work out. This was the Low-Fat era. Eating fat makes you fat. Carbs are good for you. For runners, carbo-loading was the thing. So I ate a lot of pasta. I’m healthy. Right?

I had several survival jobs befitting a literature major with no marketable skills before a friend got me a job at a communications start-up. I threw myself into the work. And the work hard/play hard lifestyle.

Seven years later I took a management job with a large tech company. Everything was bigger there: The responsibility, the stress, the happy hours. I developed GERD, had frequent headaches and increasing joint pain. I took a lot of Advil and ate a lot bagels. At least bagels have no fat, right?

By my late 30’s I was thriving at work. But the stress and pressure were enormous. I ate lunch at my desk and spent 10+ hours a day seated. I skipped vacations, afraid to leave for even a week. I drank tons of coffee to battle exhaustion and brain fog.

I experienced severe anxiety and slept poorly so I tried therapy. I was put on medication and I took those pills regularly for the next few years as I tried to climb the ladder to success. Or what I thought was success.

A few years later I moved to a software start-up in a leadership role with a great compensation package and stock options. Success! There was one problem: I lacked any life balance and was getting sicker. The culture was incredibly toxic with negativity despite huge growth and I was exhausted and irritable. All I did was work and try to relax by eating greasy pub food and wash it down with many beers while talking about work.

I was given stronger drugs and averaging 5 hours of sleep. I gained weight, developed adult acne, had mysterious bouts of vertigo and trouble concentrating. Eventually I ended up in the Emergency Room with what I learned was panic attacks. I felt awful all the time.

I was the last of 5 kids in our family and we had our first real tragedy when my eldest sister passed away of a hemorrhagic stroke when I was 30. She was only 42. She was overweight, hypertensive, and very stressed so there had been red flags but nobody noticed.

42 seemed far away at the time. Now, suddenly, I was that age. In terrible health. That’s an AH-HA moment. I left the company and two years later I left the industry, completely burned out and very unwell. I knew I had to make changes.

People thought I was crazy to leave a successful and lucrative career. I lost relationships, contacts and friends which confused me. It was like a death.

I had no roadmap for reinventing myself so I took interesting work with high risk thinking new challenges would fix me. I tried helping several failing businesses that still failed. I also trusted some untrustworthy people and learned some hard lessons. I made a lot of mistakes and lost my mojo. Was I fixing my life or ruining it?

My health had improved after stepping away from the grind but the stress and poor food and lifestyle behaviors quickly returned. I realized that the actual work was only part of the solution and began studying mind/body topics. I learned how work, diet, lifestyle and life purpose all intersected into “health” which was far more than looking good at the beach or a good 10k time.

I found someone who tolerates me and got married. We had twin boys a couple years later and fatherhood gave me a big key to transformation: A WHY. I wanted to be a role mode for them and to live a long, high quality of life to enjoy our journey together.

Years of back problems then caught up to me with a debilitating back injury on a beautiful fall day. The pain was brutal. I lost all feeling in my leg due to the nerve damage and dragged it around with me. Standing, sitting or laying down was never tolerable for long. Restful sleep was impossible. The pain was 24/7.

I decided against surgery. I never knew anyone who had a “good” back surgery. My Doctor told me that, eventually, my body would heal itself but the questions were 1) How long will that take and 2) Could I take the pain.

The answers were: I was disabled for a year and the lack of sleep was as bad as the pain. Between my career and the injury, this sure looked like rock bottom. At least I prayed it was. My spirit was now nearly as broken as my body.

The doctor was right, after a year much of the pain subsided and I was able to resume most activities. I decided to get “healthy” the only way I knew: Lots of exercise. I decided to run a half marathon to prove to myself that I was ok that also provided a specific date on the calendar I would be healthy again.

Training was slow. Everything hurt. I had plantar fasciitis in my foot and chronic pain from the over-training in my younger days. The race itself was miserable, I wanted to quit with every step. I spent weeks recovering afterwards and knew that compulsive exercise wasn’t going to work anymore. If I wanted to live a longer life free of pain, chronic illness and eventual infirmity, there had to be a better way.

I tried several business ventures seeking life balance that weren’t long term career solutions but the freedom from 80 hour weeks allowed me to become a hands-on Dad. Nothing made me happier.

I discovered Functional Medicine which was a game changer in how I understood food and illness. I exercised moderately and took days off. I read philosophy and spirituality books to start fresh in considering a meaningful life beyond material gain. I changed many long term behaviors that needed changing.

I learned about Integrative Nutrition and discovered the emerging field of Health Coaching. I had figured out that the cookie cutter approaches and one size fits all approaches that dominated the health and wellness space were part of the problem and a preventative, individualized approach could literally save many lives.

Getting involved in the health crisis and making a difference became a mission so I took formal training and started my business.

A great description I heard about a health coach is: Wounded Healer. It sums it up well. I’ve been through a lot and it took me many YEARS to come up with effective health and lifestyle strategies that work for me.

It was lonely and frustrating. It took a lot of trial and error. But I didn’t have a coach helping me, encouraging me, holding me accountable and sharing modern theories and evidence based information. Now I can be that resource for others.

I’m far from perfect. I’ll never be perfect. I’m a constant work in progress enjoying the journey for a change. There’s no end date on the calendar anymore.

If you want to change and you are willing to put in the work, the world can open up to you. Maybe you just need help.

Please reach out to me if you would like to discuss your health goals and how to attain them.

Thanks!