Isn’t That Kind of… Morbid?

Quick story.

When I first got out of college, I got a dream job working in media relations at HBO in Manhattan. Television. Totally thrilling, especially as a new grad! But about five years in, I realized that I wanted something that felt more meaningful. 

I’d always been interested in health and wellness, so I decided to shift gears and got a job as the health promotion coordinator for a local hospital. Basically, my job was to plan health education programs and special events, represent the hospital at health fairs, and interact with the community to promote hospital services. 

I was beyond excited for my first health fair. I went to the venue the night before to set up my booth and the next morning, I was ready! Brochures displayed, giveaways set out, I was prepared to answer any question attendees had. Or so I thought.

The first person who approached my booth looked through the material and (liberally) helped himself to the promotional freebies. Then he said, “So…do you, like, market to get patients?” Not the question I was expecting.

“Yes,” I said, standing behind my marketing materials. “I guess we do.”

“Isn’t that kind of…like… morbid?” he said.

😳

Soul. Crushed.

To be honest, I’d never really thought of that before. But then it hit me. “Well," I said, "we can’t help people if they don’t know we’re here.”

As deflating as the encounter was at first, I was actually glad this man said what he did, because it gave me real clarity into exactly what I was doing – I was helping people get the help they needed.

And that’s what I have to remind myself now.

The last thing I want to do as a nutritionist is sell my services. It’s not the source of my passion and it’s not what I went to school to pursue. But it’s exactly what I have to do in order to do what I truly love to do.

Interestingly, this dichotomy is something I see with clients, too. I think it’s human nature. How many times has there been something you really wanted, but that required you to do something you really didn’t want to do? 

You already know one of mine – I love being a nutritionist, but I hate having to “sell.” My other one is that I love to travel, but I hate to fly. For a client of mine, she wants to reduce her risk of heart disease, but hates to exercise. That’s a quandary for sure, because the evidence shows that regular exercise is critical to heart health. So, for this client, as much as we focused on food, we also spent a lot of time working through her conflicting feelings and finding strategies for incorporating regular exercise into her week in a way that she enjoyed and that worked for her lifestyle.

Now, maybe you already know that you could feel better, function better, sleep better, workout better, live better if you ate better. You’re not conflicted. You know you’re ready. What I know is that I can help.

Or, maybe you are a little conflicted and hesitant to get started. I can help there, too. Talking through your goals and hesitations is a great way to clarify what’s important to you and what you’re ready for. You might even surprise yourself.

To close the loop on my original point, aside from wanting to teach as many people as I can how to improve their lives by improving their diets, I put these blogs out there to give people an idea of who I am and what I do. So, if one of my blogs makes you think of someone you care about, please pass it along. Because – as you now know – I can't help them if they don't know I'm here.