I started a new journey this week.  To become a Certified Health Coach through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition.  I had no idea what was coming I just knew it was the right thing to do.  Let me back track for a moment.  This journey actually started almost three years ago.  I was suffering from FLC, now known as Feel Like Crap.  I had been that way for some time.  I was at least 50 pounds overweight, suffering from high blood pressure and my sugar levels and cholesterol were not good at all.  My doctor referred to me as a Type II Diabetic.  She told me that the government regulations were that she had to tell me about the medicine that was available to me and that she would recommend to me but that I didn’t have to take it.  I only had to listen to her tell me about it.  I freaked.  I was only 62 years old and I didn’t want to be on medicine for the rest of my life.  I had seen what that had done to another loved one and it is not for me, said I.

Lucky for me there was Facebook and I found a former classmate who was “into” health and kept recommending things on her Facebook page.  One of them was Dr. Mark Hyman’s “The Blood Sugar Solution”.  Well, I ordered it and I was hooked.  It sounded just like me.  I set a date to start on my wellness journey, I talked to my husband, begging for his support (he does most, if not all of the cooking in the family), and I threw out everything in my kitchen that I could.

I knew it wouldn’t be easy but I had a goal in mind.  I wanted to go to the doctor in a few months and have her say that I didn’t need my blood pressure medicine anymore and that she would no longer recommend the other medications.  Pretty serious stuff.  I had been on every diet out there at some point or another in my life and I was determined this was not a diet but a new and healthier way of life.  That attitude really helped.  I was NOT focused on losing weight, I WAS focused on getting healthy.

It took me a few months to really make a difference.  My doctor was jumping all around her office when I came in.  She had a calculator in her hand and she was converting numbers and saying how amazing it all was and yes of course, off the blood pressure medicine and no, she would not recommend any other medications.  She was so encouraging that I just knew I was on the right path.

Now, almost three years later, I want to help others have the same results from their doctor.  My mother casually mentioned that since I seemed to know so much about different foods and that I certainly loved sharing that knowledge with her and others that why didn’t I just get licensed to do this work.  I let that pass but also let it simmer.  I started noticing the information about the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, again through Facebook and my good friends there, and I began to flirt with the idea of going.  In November, I picked up the phone and called and there you go, I just finished Week 1.

My friends and family are being incredibly supportive.  My husband is even going along for the ride and reading some of the things that I am as well as trying to alter his eating and health by cleaning up his act.

For now, that is where things are.  I am so excited for this journey I can hardly wait for each week to begin.

You may wonder about the 611 in the title.  Well, simply it is my house number but it also means some other things.  It is the number you call on your cell phone for repair or assistance, in the Torah it is part of a quote from “Moses” and the commandments that ends with “that thou mayest teach them”, it is a number that encourages you to engage in creative pursuits and projects, and in Angel Numbers it means “The words that you think, speak and write are determining how things go for you, so focus on your desires and positive outcomes.

IT JUST MAKES SENSE!