Do you remember when you were young and dreamed about your future career? For me, it wasn’t just a childhood dream. I had it all figured out, or so I thought. College, career, family – I knew the boxes that needed to be checked and one by one, I checked them off. From the outside, it probably appeared that I had it all together. But in my soul, I knew there was more. So here is my story: it’s long and tangled, full of pivots and detours, but it ultimately brought me here, to the place I was always meant to be.

As a child, I loved anything to do with food and nature – exploring our country “neighborhood”, cooking and creating “recipes” out of natural ingredients I’d find around my yard. Some of my earliest and fondest memories were being in the garden with my mom and grandparents.

When I was in fourth grade, I participated in a Young Author’s Contest. Most of my peers wrote stories about adventures they’d like to try. I wrote a cookbook. All the recipes were my own creation- crayon illustrations and all.

It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized that those really were idyllic years. I spent my days with my fingers and toes in the dirt of the garden (or sandbox -I can hear today’s parents cringing) or building forts with my brother or riding bikes down our country road. I was able to create, explore and begin to understand how this magnificent world worked.

As I was looking toward college, I felt pulled in multiple directions. I loved food and cooking but I knew I could build a career with a science degree. And then one day it all made sense. I was going to study food science. It was a relatively new degree, only being offered by about a dozen college programs in the country. One of the most respected programs was in my home state of Indiana. I applied to Purdue University, was accepted and never looked back.

Food science is the interdisciplinary study of nutrition, food engineering, chemistry and microbiology. Basically, food scientists turn raw agricultural crops into value-added foods that you’d find in the local grocery store or restaurant.

My whole career objective was to create new and novel food products as an R&D scientist.

I loved my time at Purdue. My classes were fascinating and challenging. I made amazing friendships, grew and experienced some many new things. I learned about myself and did the hard things. I even stepped out of my small-town comfort zone and studied for a semester abroad in Sweden. Talk about life-changing!

As a study abroad student in Uppsala, Sweden I embraced the local culture.

In this picture, I’m celebrating Midsummer wearing hand-made flower crowns with the other students from my program.

As I entered the food industry, my aspirations turned into disappointments. I quickly learned that the food industry is driven by marketing and sales. Food processing techniques that fascinated me during college were less than appetizing in real-world situations. Whole, nutrient-rich ingredients left the processing plants so full of sugar, trans-fat, preservatives and dyes that it could hardly be called food. I was accustomed to the home-grown, hand cooked goodness of my younger years. How was I so naïve to think I could make this my career?

I’m not trying to bash the food industry but this was my experience in the early 2000’s. Kudos to innovative companies who are striving to make healthier, less processed food choices today.

I stayed in the industry until life changes allowed me to move on. Culinary school had always been a dream of mine and now was my chance. Culinary school was so much fun! It took my cooking skills to a whole new level.

**Highlight of Culinary School**

I won a culinary competition with the prize of attending cooking school in Paris, France

Part of my graduation requirement was an internship. With my unique background, I was granted permission to intern as a research chef at an international company, with local roots that designed and produced foodservice equipment. I was thrilled. I would be back in the lab, working with food as part of an R&D team. I learned two important lessons (along with many life skills) during my time there.

Just because we could build food warmers that could keep a gas-station breakfast sandwich warm for 12 hours doesn’t mean that we should.
Building rapport with customers (in a male-dominated industry) isn’t for the faint of heart. As a young woman, I had to work twice as hard and know twice as much as my male counterparts.

Even though I had hoped that this was the career I was looking for, I knew it still wasn’t. A large part of my job was traveling internationally to trade shows to promote and educate customers on our equipment. I was sent to Australia, Italy, Mexico and other places. While it all sounds exciting and a little romantic, it was just plain exhausting. I missed my husband and never really adjusted to flying through all those time zones. My body was burning out and my soul was unfulfilled.

As my career took another pivot, I had the opportunity to join the culinary school I’d attended as a faculty member. I taught food safety, nutrition and hospitality classes to students. I loved teaching and felt like I was one step closer to finding my dream career. While in this role, I was asked by a home healthcare company owner to develop and teach her staff basic cooking skills that they could use with their elderly clients. She shared story after story of caregivers brewing coffee with whole beans or trying to cook an egg (shell and all) in the microwave. Their biggest complaint was caregivers who couldn’t cook!

**Cooking and Nutrition Training**

The classes were great opportunities for staff to connect, collaborate and learn new skills.

Her solution was a hands-on training program and cooking class. That sounded like something I’d love to do and I jumped on board. I developed a curriculum around food safety, nutrition for older adults, meal planning and basic cooking skills. After a successful pilot program, Caregivers Kitchen was born. The classes turned into great opportunities for staff to connect, collaborate and learn skills that they used with their own families as well as their clients. And most importantly, clients stopped complaining about their caregiver’s lack of cooking skills.

Requests were made for additional classes on other topics like cooking for those with diabetes, heart disease, food allergies and other chronic conditions. My favorite part of teaching the classes was the interaction with the caregivers.

**This was my first taste of health coaching - probably before health coaching was thing**

During class we’d celebrate caregivers’ new skills and brainstorm ideas to make healthier choices in their own lives.

One caregiver’s story really stands out in my mind. She was diabetic and had been struggling to manage her diabetes. After she attended Caregivers Kitchen’s Cooking for Diabetes Class, she shared with me that she had used all the recipes at home for her and her son and added in some exercise. She was excited to report that her A1C levels were the best they’d been in years and her Dr. had lowered her medication. What a win!

I continued to teach and grow Caregivers Kitchen. Daily I would get to experience the excitement from staff who had learned a new skill or gained confidence in themselves. Many of the stories were just like that of Gatha - check it out here. I was fulfilled in my career and so excited to be expecting our first child. Life was good.

We had the joy of purchasing my husband's grandparents farm close to his parents. We grew grain and garden vegetables to sell at local markets. I enjoyed dividing my time between Caregivers Kitchen and working in the garden with my baby snuggled close.

My husband’s career continued to grow. He was promoted and took on more responsibility and travel. It was tough on me and our little family and the dreams of growing our farm market had to take a back seat to his career. When I learned I was expecting our second child the following summer, I decided that the farm market would be put on hold for the time. I knew raising two young children with my husband on the road multiple weeks a month was all I could manage.

**Home grown**

Our kids would help me in the garden any chance they could.

I was still teaching for Caregivers Kitchen and working on plans to grow and expand. Through my industry connections, I was asked to present the program and benefits at a national home care conference. The industry embraced the idea and had all shared in the same complaints that their caregivers couldn’t cook. The hands-on format was a tough sell as most didn’t have access to a kitchen. They asked me to create a virtual program to teach these vital skills. I was reluctant, but knew there was a niche market for this type of training. I researched online learning and came up with a plan to create cooking videos of all the recipes and interactive activities to teach the other skills. What I didn’t consider was the huge learning curve of creating and implementing all this and the stress that would come with it. I poured my heart and soul into it and became obsessed with seeing it succeed.

During this time, I taught less and less cooking classes and lost the connection with the caregivers and companies whom I was serving. I didn’t recognize this disconnect, or chose to ignore it to achieve what I’d set out to do. I finally launched Caregivers Kitchen Online Learning and was proud of my work. With the digital platform, we were reaching caregivers from California to Maine.

From the outside, my life looked successful, but internally I was struggling with the loss of what I loved doing - connecting with and teaching real people.

I contemplated quitting, but would always talk myself out of it. How could I quit something I’d poured more than 10 years of my life into? What would I tell my customers? How could I let them down? I didn’t have a plan for the next step - and I ALWAYS had a plan.

Eventually the feelings of being stuck turned into something more. I was emotionally numb and my body started to revolt. I was exhausted but couldn’t sleep, lacked the energy to keep up with my daily responsibilities, felt anxious and constantly on edge and I couldn’t tolerate my favorite foods. I knew something was wrong, but couldn’t see the connection between the lack of balance in my life and my overall health. I visited doctor after doctor and they agreed that I was experiencing real symptoms, but their only treatment options were medication. Deep down inside I knew there was a root to the problem and a connection to the symptoms.

I was finally connected with an integrative health practitioner. She approached my symptoms from a completely different perspective. Rather than offering me a band aid, she offered me hope that I could restore my health and a real plan on how to do it. She guided me to heal the inflammation throughout my body and restore my gut health. She addressed hormonal imbalances and listened as I talked about the overwhelming stress in my life. The road back to optimal health was long and I had to put in the work. I made shifts to my diet - and removed foods that didn’t serve my body well. I added strategic exercise and focused on rest. I worked to lessen my stress (I’m still working on that one) and became intentional about finding joy with my family and relationships.

“I’m still a work in progress, but I’ll take progress over perfection any day”

— Beth @ Intune Integrated Nutrition

After sharing my story with friends and family, I was amazed how many experienced the same health struggles. It was comforting to know that I wasn’t alone but also disheartening that so many were looking for the same help. I was fortunate to find help but that wasn’t always the case.

As my health improved and I began to look ahead in my career. I had a chance conversation with an admirable mentor who challenged me to explore my noble why. I remembered my greatest sources of satisfaction in my early years with Caregivers Kitchen- educating and encouraging incredible groups of caregivers around cooking, nutrition and preventing chronic disease through food and lifestyle. I saw countless benefits for their clients and also their own families and themselves. I also drew on my gratitude for the compassionate care I’d received from my integrative health practitioner who had helped me to take back my health. I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my career serving in these ways.

I began to explore career options and learned about the field of integrative health coaching. I enrolled in the Health Coach Training Program through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. I had extensive experience in nutrition but this program also taught me to look at the whole person - from the foods on our plates to the primary foods in our life - things like career satisfaction, creativity, social life, relationships, home environment and physical health. I learned from experts in areas from functional nutrition to the gut microbiome to transforming health and wellness to finding balance with primary food. The training was transformational for my own physical and emotional health as it it aligned with my goals, vision and character. I learned techniques in motivational interviewing, goal achievement and coaching. And it complimented my skills in culinary nutrition and chronic disease management.

As graduation from IIN approached, I launched Intune Integrated Nutrition with the intention of guiding individuals to use their body’s intuition to create the healthiest and happiest version of themselves. The path that brought me here was not the original plan; but nevertheless all those life experiences formed me into the woman I was meant to be.

My Path to Health Coaching