Blog

Yes, I really did just title this “Everybody poops.” I’m not scared. However, I was this past Saturday morning. I had the great honor and privilege to stand on the stage at Jazz at Lincoln Center and greet 1000+ of my Institute of Integrative Nutrition peers. On Sunday, I stepped up there again to receive a Health Leadership Award for my work with budding health coaches. Oh, did I say that it was also being live streamed to thousands more globally? It was.

I was scared. 

Just like I was scared two weeks ago when I delivered a keynote address to a few hundred parents and high school athletes at Northampton High School. 

By “scared,” I really mean gut-roiling, hand-shaking, adrenalized fear so bad that I couldn’t even eat. I mean waking my husband up because I’m apparently delivering my speech in my sleep. I mean suffering from anxiety dreams that range from the microphone turning into the sandworm from Beetlejuice, zombies closing in on me at Jazz or falling like Carrie Bradshaw on a catwalk.

Last week, two things happened. One, Stephen Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, died. R.I.P. Two, I drove an hour to see the one-night screening of Shut Up and Dance. It's a rockumentary around the last, voluntary,celebratory show of one of my favorite bands, LCD Soundsystem.  

LCD Soundsystem is fronted by James Murphy, the most unlikely, yet supremely charismatic and articulate front men. As a new entrepreneur and coach, he's inspiring. Success came in his late 30s ("ancient" by music industry standards) when he opted to just be himself. He made a record that he and friends dug. To me, that's the epitome of flow. Coincidently, one of their last shows was one of my last shows as a resident of Brooklyn. It was a fitting bookend to my decade of Tom Foolery in The Big Apple. 

People ask me what I eat, all the time. I’m a Health & Lifestyle Coach, so it’s pretty fair game. My answer: I eat mostly plants most of the time.

Earlier this year, I gave the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s 21-Day Vegan Kickstart a try. I was approaching this from a health perspective. So, I kept my leather shoes, but agreed to take a time-out from consuming all animal protein. That means no meat, dairy, eggs or even honey.

Those of you who follow me on facebook or twitter have seen all the recipes and “#vegan” resources getting posted. Now, I’m a foodie and a health coach. I’m also training at the Natural Kitchen Cooking School, a culinary school that is both vegan and macrobiotic in approach. So, the kickstart wasn’t too big of a leap from my pre-January diet. In the interest of full-disclosure, I forgot and put honey in a tea once.