What in your life do you want to create anew? At the end of this article is a link to take my free “Healthiest You” assessment and help you answer this question. AND through April 30^th, I am offering a free 30-minute coaching session with me to debrief your assessment and claim your intentional fresh start!  Read on.

We are less than a week away from the first (calendar) day of Spring!

What does the approach of Springtime evoke in you?

For me, the start of Spring evokes excitement and wonder over the new life happening in the natural world around me:

• Shoots and sprouts are pushing up through the earth
• Trees and perennials are forming buds
• The animal world is busy welcoming in new babies
• Color is slowly creeping back in to my yard
• Bright leafy greens adorn the local farm stands

The start of Spring also brings to mind ‘spring cleaning’. When I was a kid, spring cleaning involved washing and ironing curtains, emptying and washing out kitchen cupboards, and cleaning out closets. While I’m sure I did my share of complaining, I did, at some level, feel connected with the idea of de-cluttering and an intentional “fresh start.”

An Intentional Fresh Start

My examples above are but a few of the many metaphors Springtime offers us, pointing us in the direction of “creating anew.”

What in your life do you want to create anew?

Perhaps a relationship, your fitness level, your work/career, your emotional resilience, a goal you want to reclaim, your home environment? Align with the inspiration of Springtime and create some new possibilities for yourself now!

I’ve created a coaching package to support you, called The Healthiest You. The package provides a structure for you to explore:

• Your goals and taking action towards them NOW
• The balance in your life now (or lack of balance)
• New perspectives and activities to get you “unstuck” and make a fresh start
• Empowered choices for yourself
• Fulfillment in your work and relationships

Get started now! I am offering you a no-cost opportunity to take my

“The Healthiest You” assessment, powered by ChangeWorks (the online system you’ll click through to).

“The Healthiest You” looks at 12 activities that lead to a balanced and healthy life.  Click on the link above (and below) to access the assessment. It will ask you to rate how challenging you find each activity, how important each activity is to you, and your current ability to successfully handle each activity.

Through April 30^th, I am offering a free 30-minute coaching session with me to debrief your assessment and claim your intentional fresh start! I’ll email you to schedule our session once you’ve completed the assessment.

Here’s the link again:

The Healthiest You Assessment.

And thank you for taking this first step to creating anew the life you truly want!

One of the niche areas I focus my coaching practice on is working with individuals who want to reduce their environmental footprint; to learn new choices or approaches that create greater planetary health. One area I am particularly passionate about is food. It is part of my personal mission to help people understand why and how to make different food choices; choices that include understanding the terms sustainable, organic, conventional, etc., exploring traditional (“old-fashioned”) food preparation methods, building relationships with local farmers, and having the peace-of-mind of knowing where your food comes from.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a new USDA initiative called “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” that is focused on connecting local consumers with local food producers in an effort to revitalize communities. I wanted to add to my previous comments about the importance of this initiative and of buying locally grown food.

Environmentally speaking, food purchased in the same local region where it was produced does not require the massive amounts of fuel and energy as most of the food you find in the average supermarket. Most of the fresh foods sold in the US today are grown in California, Florida, or Washington, and are then shipped to your local store. It is estimated that food travels an average of 1,300 miles from farm to table! That’s a whole lot of carbon dioxide emissions and packing materials.

Economically speaking, buying locally, and especially direct from the farmer, ensures that the farmers receive a larger share of the profit for their food and helps to make farming more profitable (and selling farmland for development less attractive).  Local farmers spend their money with local merchants. The money stays in town where it benefits everyone and builds a stronger local economy. Independent, family-owned farms supply more local jobs and contribute to the local economy at higher rates than do large, corporate-owned farms.

And from a health standpoint, purchasing food direct from the farmers who grew/raised it allows for a few things to happen:

• Most local farm operations are smaller and more open than large factory farms. You can go and visit and explore firsthand how the animals and the people working the farm are cared for and to learn about the processes involved in growing and producing your food.
• Knowing where your food comes from and how it is grown or raised enables you to choose safe food from farmers who avoid or reduce their use of chemicals, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, or genetically modified seed in their operations.
• Most local farmers also live on the farms they work. They have a relationship with the land there and a vested interest in taking proper measures to keep their land and environment healthy so it will continue to produce healthy food.
• Local produce is frequently picked within a day or two of the consumer’s purchase. The longer the fruit/vegetable is allowed to ripen and mature in the earth, the more nutrients (and flavor) it will contain. In many cases, you can go right to the farm or orchard and pick your produce yourself.

There are so many reasons to seek out local sources of food. And finding sources close to you is pretty easy these days. Here is a link to one of many websites where you can search for local farmers’ markets, farms, CSAs, and more.   http://www.localharvest.org

I’ll talk about CSAs and some of the local food opportunities in my community in my next post. In the meantime, let me know if you want to explore your personal food choices and nutrition in detail. I’d love to help you get started.

www.SherpaDeCoaching.com/personal

One of the niche areas I focus my coaching practice on is working with individuals who want to reduce their environmental footprint; to learn new choices or approaches that create greater planetary health. One area I am particularly passionate about is food. It is part of my personal mission to help people understand why and how to make different food choices; choices that include understanding the terms sustainable, organic, conventional, etc., exploring traditional (“old-fashioned”) food preparation methods, building relationships with local farmers, and having the peace-of-mind of knowing where your food comes from.

Do you know where your food comes from? And I don’t mean the grocery store. Looking lower down on the food chain, where were the ‘raw materials’ making up your food grown? In what manner were they cared for and produced? How did they get from their place of origin to your grocery store? If you’ve been following the sustainable food conversation happening for some time now, you probably already know the importance of seeking out and purchasing food through local sources.  This is important on many fronts, including economic, environment, and health, to name a few.

Economically speaking, and stated simply by USDA Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan,  “by connecting local consumers with their local food producers, local wealth stays in local economies, and rural communities get revitalized.” This is also the intention behind the USDA’s recently announced initiative, “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food.” Among other aspects, the initiative will provide funding and assistance for schools to partner with local farms in providing healthy, fresh food for school lunches. Read a news article and view a short video about the initiative here: http://www.kticam.com/news/agricultural/50733a14-cdc5-4b96-a6eb-81e9c80c67b5

For a sustainable food fanatic like myself, this announcement is exciting, yet frankly sounds a little “too good to be true” and is raising a lot of questions for me. I’ll continue to explore these and report back here. I’d love to hear your questions and comments as well. Stay tuned as I’ll write about the environmental and health impacts of local food economies in my next blog posts.

Until then, a question to consider: what resources do you have in your community to help you find and purchase locally grown and produced meats, grains, eggs, produce, dairy products, etc.?

Not sure? Let me know. I’d love to help you get started. www.SherpaDeCoaching.com/personal