| Non Healthy Healthy Hints |
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My body feels like it has trekked the Andes but my spirit is full. I haven’t slept more than 5 hours a night for the past 5 nights, haven’t stopped talking (often very loudly) for one minute of those wakeful hours and haven’t laughed so hard for so long in my life. I have traipsed around in high heels for hours on end over concrete. I have eaten willy nilly and on the run everywhere from high end restaurants (whose stories will be told over time), buffet tables and street carts. I have cried many times over memories, stories and a simple, delectable dessert. None of these things are recommended “health” activities, not one would be at the top of my list of things to do for a healthy life. And yet, I can feel a blossoming in my core that is irreplaceable. I did not know what to expect from my first BlogHer conference but it wasn’t this. Joining a handful of women I semi knew and 2,300 others for a meetup about blogging was a business choice that I hoped would help me understand this world a little bit better and make a greater impact when my book Ace Your Health The learning came fast and furious but it didn’t come from the sessions I had paid for. (I did not go to one, not one.) It came from the women I bumped into, bunked in with or actively sought out. Genuine smiles turned into gut aching laughter as these relationships grew. The girl with the curls who is smart as a whip and was fun to play with at parties became my guide and trusted bedmate. The “other” nutritionist who is way more intense about our field become a roomie/confidant/lifesaver with all her natural perk me up potions. The exotic-ly honest web editor/blogger became a friend who lives close enough and shares easily enough to have coffee with every week IRL. Beyond that, I met the food writers I wanted to know, some decision makers who will factor in to my career and hundreds of other women who quipped with me at every turn. All without making any effort at all. See? There is something about women and birds of a feather who put themselves out there. I thought they were hard to find but they were all right here all the time. The other lunatics who research hard (whether it be their own feelings, their education or their topics) type fast, share well, tweet often, tell all, join easily, work much, raise families, love their lives and let me in were all here for the finding. And then…we danced to quote Balki Bartokomus (google “tv show perfect strangers” if you are under 30, and, I hate you.) We danced up and down NYC in many new pairs of spiky shoes, we danced on the hotel ballroom dance floor, I danced in the hotel room while singing fiddler on the roof (don’t ask) and we danced into each other’s hearts and lives. I am grounded, inspired and a little bit scared of what all this means to my future. It sounds ridiculous to say I am changed and equally ludicrous to say I just “had fun”. These five days that have ruined my feet and hurt my back have been healthy in ways unexpected. They have refueled my willingness to keep working this hard and forward my cause of making damned sure everyone I meet is a titch healthier than when I met them. Even if that means that they now know where to find me for some good advice. On shoe shopping, fiddler singing, restaurant dining or finding one’s people to fill a soul. It’s all for the greater good. |
(www.aceyourhealth.com) launches in December.