What it feels like to test for CIRS — How mold hits home is multifaceted and not a one-step process. With that in mind, I’m still preparing to take a bunch of diagnostic tests while processing that I probably have chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS). As I wrote before, I was exposed to mold during childhood, but it’s also…

Here’s Where My Story Starts I met last month for the first time with Tracey Long, an RDN/MPH with an extensive list of training credentials. She’s a nice lady, I studied nutrition and functional medicine with her during my ADAPT Functional Medicine Health Coaching Training Program (HCTP). …

What the Critics Miss to Their Detriment — Recently, the field of health coaching has been gaining attention, however with it, there also seems to be some common misperceptions about what it is and isn’t. The Washington Post published a summary piece that’s fairly on point. …

Yes, for a while we'll consider it maybe the 'new normal,' but eventually it will just be what we're used to in the here and now. Then we'll shift to what it was like before and what it was like after. From there, eventually a new generation will come and they'll say they can't even imagine a before. Those who care about history or like hearing stories, will want to know our experiences, through oral or written storytelling, history or novels, or other kinds of generational recounting.

Is there a self-help book for that? — Dear Q-Anon or Q-adjacent friends or acquaintances, or people I’ll never meet but who still believe this bunk: What. The. Fuck. Lately, I haven’t been feeling like myself. And I finally know why. You would suffer from chronic fatigue too if you were busy repressing your inner-lizard Jew. Now that…

What I’ve Had and Lost Along the Way — When you hit your 50’s, Jenny Joseph’s red hat poem helps. You start thinking about who you are and hitting life head-on, unapologetically. You’re in your second half of life and a seize-the-day-mentality helps fortify the vulnerability that comes with that. Why waste time feeling bad about being imperfectly human…

My troubled relationship with intellectual pursuits — Even though I was feeling sick and going through a fatigue spike yesterday, I’m feeling bad for having spent my time binge-watching Pose on Netflix rather than reading or writing. So, when I got up this morning and saw Dan Friedman’s awesome book list for the year, I immediately Googled…

2020 is dead; Long live something better. Please? — I find myself quoting Shakespeare a lot lately, and I’m probably not the only one. Whether it’s the Bard, the Bible, or your Bubbie, everyone needs wisdom these days. What We Are Mourning When the pandemic started, there was a spate of articles about mourning the loss of our current reality and adapting to…

Obstacles and Motives Pave My Compassionately Boundaried Way In Cup 1, I described my decades long intransigent addiction to coffee. A cup a day is fine for many, but while healing from a boatload of chronic conditions, it’s not fine for me. The definition of addiction includes knowing something isn’t…