Deirdre Walsh – Integrative Health Coach

I’m always admiring and a little bit envious when I meet people who have accomplished transformations in their lives.  Admiring because I love to see the results when someone applies their spirit, determination and belief in themselves for a great purpose. Envious because they’re on the other side of all the hard work that goes into one of those transformations. They already pulled themselves from the inertia of the routine. They’ve ignored that internal voice telling them that they’ve had better ideas. And they did it day after day after day. Read the rest of this entry →

Goal setting is one of the most important parts of bringing your vision to fruition. But what a tangled thicket some of us have to climb through to get there. Too much like work, I often hear. Some people do better when they work with the intentions – the idea of setting a general direction or theme for accomplishment and grabbing opportunities that push you in that direction. Others like the idea of practices – daily rituals that will create space in your life for the good stuff to show up. Read the rest of this entry →

Welcome to 2012!  Best wishes to all of you resolving to create a new style of health this year.  Heaven knows the gluttony of the season pushes most of us into a treat fatigue and lethargy that doesn’t look or feel good.  I’m sure I’m not the only one who remembers moments of jamming something in my mouth, hoping no one saw.  I always feel by New Year’s Day that I’m disconnected from the nourishment of food and exercise.  It’s the novelty and mood-changing abilities that I’ve been after – (ahem) chocolates and wine.  Read the rest of this entry →

You know the ones I mean – those fantastic before and after shots. The one where the person starts out looking like they’ve eaten at one too many buffets and watched one too many reruns of The Real Housewives. Then in some incredible period of time – like six weeks – they’re as sleek and toned as any Hollywood star and taking calls for their own reality show. We all get sucked in to the promise of that kind of miraculous transformation in our lives.

The good news – that kind of transformation is possible. Read the rest of this entry →

There’s been an surge in technology tools for health in the past few years, with some really interesting apps and gadgets coming to market. They hold promise to help people engage closely with healthy behaviors.

The tools can be broken down roughly into four categories:  educate, connect, track, and remind.  The more interesting apps combine multiple functions.  Here are some buzz-worthy health tools I’ve seen at health IT conferences in the last couple of years – through the filter of a non-techy person. Read the rest of this entry →

I started a fantastic health balancing program under the direction of Dr. Natasha Turner, author of the Hormone Diet. Almost two weeks in, and I feel fantastic and well past the bumps and rattles of detox. Her program is a genius combination of good sleep, good food, good exercise and balancing supplements. Still, there are a lot of changes to my day and I have to check the schedule quite a few times to make sure I’m hitting all the high points. I pulled out a great change model we were taught at Duke for help – the Change Ladder. It reminds me to be patient with myself and the process and to appreciate the progress I am making on my goals.

Any change involves four steps Read the rest of this entry →