Previous experience in the food industry

Growing up on a family farm in Arkansas, I inherited a love for three things: family, cooking and outdoor activity. My love for cooking came from my mother.  She was an entertainer, a fabulous cook, and had huge parties with carefully planned out tables of food.  After leaving my first career in travel, I reinvented one of my mom’s recipes and entered the gourmet snacks industry. My product ended up on store shelves all over the country and I had my own large commercial kitchen and staff. I eventually sold it to a larger company and took a job managing a cooking store… and also worked with a cheese monger in Little Rock and learned to make cheese!  Best job ever!

Struggle with body image

My long struggle with food started after finishing high school and heading off to the University of Arkansas. I knew I needed to be skinny to fit in and belong to the sorority etc., so I went on a crash diet over the summer and I lost 60 pounds. My weight fell to 85 lbs and this led to me becoming anorexic. That was, and is, a battle that I have fought for a very long time.

I had a fabulous 4 years at university, married my childhood sweetheart and had two fabulous children.  I opened a travel agency and traveled the world… all was well until years later that childhood sweetheart had a midlife crisis and left me and our 4 and 1 year old for another woman. This is when my body image struggle kicked in again. 

I was a single mom working full time and exhausted all the time.  And, again, I thought I had to be slim to ever meet another person to be with.  Crash diet again. Eating Disorder again.  As my daughter grew older, she too, began developing body image problems that lasted all through high school.  My own as well as my daughter’s struggles have inspired my want to coach women and teenagers who struggle with body image.

Menopause and nutrition

I went through an early menopause.  I was very active in running marathons and adventure races, so I just chalked it up to the exercise.  I asked my doctor and he literally said “your ovaries have left the building”.  That was it.  Nothing else.  Not how to eat for hormones, vitamins to take.. NOTHING.  At 50, I went to have a bone density test, and BAM, full-blown osteoporosis.  If I had known anything or been told how to eat and treat myself it very well could have been prevented. This is why working with women going through menopause is a part of my current practice as a health coach.

I am currently settled with my now husband in a place I love along Little Red River in Heber Springs Arkansas… all 4 kids from our blended family are happy and we have 3 grandchildren and 2 dogs.  I had learned the love of fly fishing during my travel agency days… and now have time to do that alongside health coaching. Life is good!