The Texas hitman who inspired my career in holistic nutrition

Oprah's Lifeclass is looking for stories about how a change in thinking changed your life, and I submitted this story about how a Texas real estate developer who hired a hitman to kill his wife led to my career shift into holistic nutrition. People often ask how/ why I shifted my career from marketing/pr to nutrition and this is part of the background story in 2000 characters or less for Oprah:

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After college I worked in Public Relations, and one of my clients was a cranky real estate developer in Dallas. One day I emailed an editor at Texas Monthly about doing an interview with my client, and he said "I can only do it if he's willing to talk about what happened in 1987." I had no idea what happened in 1987, but after digging on Google, I discovered he had hired a hitman to kill his wife during a nasty divorce, was caught in an FBI sting operation (in which his wife had to fake her death) and there was even a made-for-TV movie about him!

I was appalled, but my mom told me to get over it. The unspoken thought pattern being passed down from my mom was that "work is work." It is not meant to have meaning or purpose. So what if you have to do PR for a criminal? Keep your head down, be grateful for your paycheck.

Well, I wanted more that that from life. I decided to retire the thought that work can't be in alignment with my values.

So I made a life-changing decision: I committed to doing work that matters. I created a new way of thinking that I could do work that makes a positive difference, feeds my soul, and is in alignment with my values. 

I enrolled in holistic nutrition school, and I am now a certified nutrition coach. I work with the top integrative doctor in New York City. Each day I sit with patients and help them to resolve their health problems in a natural way. I support people with getting off medications for high cholesterol, arthritis, reflux, anxiety, depression, etc. I help people to clean up their diet, lose weight, gain energy, heal their pain and take a whole new direction in their life.

I LOVE my work, and it all sprung from the change in thinking and leap of faith that I could choose work that matters. Choosing to change my thoughts has transformed my life!

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If you'd like to submit a story to Oprah, here is the link.

Weekly Health Challenge: Creative Brainstorming

*Welcome to Kerry's Weekly Health Challenge, a place to set 1 goal each week to propel your health to new heights*

Hello!

Last week's health challenge was to do Surya Namaskar (sun salutations) every day and it was wonderful. There was one day in particular when I was grumpy and my energy was low and after a few minutes of sun salutations my heart was pumping and I felt cheerful and fresh.

When I plan the weekly health challenge, I follow my intuition to choose an activity that is most needed. And this week what I'm craving is to carve out 15 minutes each day for creative brainstorming for my book idea. This means I will set an alarm clock and sit with pen to paper for 15 minutes each day and scribble away.  

In holistic health, we teach that it's all connected - spirituality, creativity, career, relationships, health. If you're out of balance in one area, it throws off your mojo and leaves you dissatisfied and unfulfilled. I believe that even if you're eating a pound of broccoli every day, when you forget to nurture creativity, it can lead to health problems, emotional problems or even out-of-control food cravings.

My nutrition school, Integrative Nutrition, offers a Circle of Life exercise that can be so insightful to see if there's an area that's out of balance and might need some extra attention. I first did this exercise in 2008 and I've done in many time since - the results are ever changing. Go here to try out the exercise.      

Photo: www.integrativenutrition.comSo this week I'm looking forward to brainstorming for my book idea, which is in the area of Creativity, as well as Career and Education. Who would like to join me?

Have a beautiful fulfilling week!
Kerry

P.S. Do you have ideas for an upcoming weekly health challenge? Leave a comment or send a message, please share!