I entered Barnard college as a pre-med chemistry major but fell under the spell of philosophy my freshman year. I switched courses and earned my Ph.D. at Columbia University at twenty-seven, then entered professional academia. A few years in, I wasn’t feeling satisfied with my career, so I quit and moved home to Detroit, married, and started my family.
My interest in health resurfaced as I confronted infertility and, desperate to get pregnant, plunged myself into the literature, looking for answers. One day I chanced upon Dr. Andrew Weil’s Spontaneous Healing, and it became for me one of those books that forever changes your life.
Weil’s premise is that the body can heal itself. At every level, from our DNA up, he writes, the “mechanics of self-diagnosis, self-repair and regeneration exist in us.” We can hamper the body by making poor food and lifestyle choices, or we can support it by reducing stress, avoiding environmental toxins, and consuming the proper foods, herbs, and supplements.
This idea was my Copernican moment, and in the dozen years since, I have devoted myself to the study of nutrition, wellness, and integrative healthcare. Four years ago, I started my blog, KALEandKANT, to share my learning in both health and philosophy, and deciding to pursue more formal nutrition training, enrolled at the online Institute for Integrative Nutrition.
Part of the program involved training as a professional health coach, an idea that I, at first, dismissed. Yet, as I started learning more about health coaching, that old desire to help people heal that had led me to enroll as a pre-med at eighteen suddenly came back.
Unsure whether this new course was right, I met with a friend who is a successful executive coach, and she encouraged me greatly and asked if I’d consider taking her on as my first client! From that point, with her support, I embraced my inner coach, recognizing that although I strive to help people lead healthier lives through my writing, I can help individuals address their specific health challenges by engaging them one to one as their personal coach.
I truly love what I do and feel lucky that my path has led me to this point, where I’ve been granted the impossible wish of both having my (whole grain, low sugar) cake and eating it, too.
