Someone recently asked me why I started Live Well Kitsap. While there are several reasons, more than this short blog allows for, I will share a bit of my motivation as the Founder of Live Well Kitsap.
I was a pretty unhealthy kid. Though there wasn’t a name for it then, if there was, I would have fit the criteria for an ACE’s kid. (Adverse Childhood Experiences).
I had a lot of responsibility early on. By the age of 10 I had started my own business babysitting, motivated by the need to buy my own clothes. I soon found out I really liked caring for children, and by the time I was 13, I was watching babies and running a daycare from our modest apartment.
I was a kid, with the stressors of an adult. While I felt very grown up having my own business when other kids were hanging out or playing in the street
(long before ipads/ cell phones etc.) I just sort of fell into getting job after job to where I would watch children of multiple families, morning, noon and night in the summers, and evenings during the school year.
All of that came at a price. I worked a lot. No one really knew much or talked about eating healthy then… or managing stress… or getting plenty of exercise and outside time, or staying well hydrated. In short, I was not well.
I worked my way through college and was really not any healthier then. Cafeteria pizza and French fries along with generous servings of mac and cheese and “low beer” were my staples with weekend visits uptown to obtain the latter.
In short, most of my childhood and young adult years, I was very far away from any kind of wellbeing lifestyle. And I was sick a lot.
Having experienced so much sickness I really wanted something different for my future. Starting to have children in my late twenties also really motivated me to begin to live a healthier lifestyle, for myself and my children.
So, I started researching. What to eat, how to exercise, what I should do to manage my stress. Information was harder to come by then, but I got what I could. By the time I was in my thirties, my then husband and I opened a juice bar. By then I was truly committed to living a healthy lifestyle.
There is something about making a decision to make even one change in your life that has a beautiful pebble in the pond effect.
Once I started eating so much healthier, I wanted to work out. I wanted to feed my babies homemade baby food and give them a healthy environment that I didn’t have.
Additionally, from the time I was in my thirties, I’ve owned businesses. Most have been under the umbrella of health and wellness.
As time went on, I began to notice that sometimes being a business owner felt very lonely.
I often felt unsupported and stressed out. So many decisions and tasks and so little time.
I joined a networking group here and there, but most of them were so rigid and rote that I still felt alone even amongst other business owners.
Now in my sixties, the fire in me is stronger than ever to motivate people to live their healthiest best life, physically, emotionally, mentally, financially, relationally, spiritually – in other words looking at wellbeing and healthy living through a holistic integrative lens.
Additionally, my wish is that business owners don’t feel so stressed, siloed, unsupported and disconnected that they want to give up-or they do give up when if they had better support, connections and additional exposure they could actually accomplish their goals and dreams - without sacrificing their health and wellbeing.
Now and for many years, healthy living is not only my passion for my businesses, but it is what I pursue every day. I made a choice long ago to move my body and nearly everyday I act on that choice. I made a decision long ago that my body and brain were valuable, vulnerable and precious gifts and that I wanted to treat them as such, so I largely fuel my body with life giving organic, healthy food that allows me to thrive.
Now, all my businesses including Live Well Kitsap allow us ( myself and the LWK team) to come alongside others, supporting, creating connection and community and influencing others to choose healthy options to achieve wellbeing.
And when I have a day that doesn’t exactly go the way I hoped, I remind myself that if my 85 year old dad, and 88 year old mother can make a choice to start making organic smoothies daily, and shift into that new habit, anyone can make a change today to enhance their own wellbeing. That reminder alone brightens my day. ( side note- they report having so much more energy now!)
As the saying goes, it takes a village to Live Well, and I am grateful every day to have a business that is all about supporting and motivating the community to live well, and one that supports wellbeing business owners in Kitsap who are doing great things.
When we shout out, “Together We Can, Live Well Kitsap”, it is because we truly believe it.