Setting Fall Career Intentions

School is finally back in session for us New Yorkers who are the very last to return in the country. 

For me and many others I’m connecting with, there’s a familiar wave of grief. 

A chapter closing on a nourishing slower pace, travel and adventures, an abundance of family time and a dip in stress levels. 

A glimmer of possibility for how life all year round could be different. 

There are clues for you, your career and your life in those possibilities. Now is your moment to mine them and be intentional about small tweaks you can make to access that summer vibe.

So, if you’re someone who is feeling that sadness about the end of summer, sit down and brainstorm a list of everything you loved and even liked about how it all went. 

And then choose two of those things that you’re able to intentionally build into your career this fall and ongoing. 

Did you schedule more in-person coffee dates and lunches with your people?  

Did you naturally have more buffer between meetings because colleagues were on vacation?

Did you have more time for deep thinking projects? 

There’s much we can learn from the change of seasons and just like a career transition–the change doesn’t have to mean that we’re starting fresh. We can bring a few gems along with us, to sturdy us and keep us whole amidst the shift. 

After one of my favorite summers of all time–I’m feeling both loss and gratitude for what I’m leaving behind. 

Yet, I’m stepping into fall with the muscle memory of freedom and play and release of control that made this summer unique. 

The work to come is intentionally building these elements into my daily life when the culture around me is bringing their Big Fall Energy. 

More details on results will follow, but for now I’m off to an outdoor coffee date with a colleague in the last days of my sandals and flowy skirts. 

Podcasts To Help You Free Yourself From Diet Culture

As you may remember, in recent months, I’ve been on a journey to heal my relationship with food and my body. I’m learning to practice a more intuitive and trust-based approach to food and releasing all of the millions of rules I’ve learned my entire life from different flavors of diet and wellness culture. 

It’s liberating: I’m  grateful for all of those additional hours back in my day, my energy and the creativity that shows up when you’re not starving.  

And it’s also terrifying: it means I’m giving up some of the power and privilege that comes along with having a “thin” body in our culture.

If you haven’t thought about how thinness is connected to power, keep reading…and of course listening to all of the experts whose labor and brilliance in this area of education I continue to lean on for support. 

With that TED Talk completed, I’m thrilled to share 1) A roundup of podcast episodes with Black experts in the field who are leading the way in this work and don’t have their own podcasts. 2) Some of my favorite podcasts supporting all of us Anti-Dieters from afar. 

My favorite interviews with brilliant Black women leading this movement: 

• Sonya Renee Taylor, author of The Body Is Not An Apology  on We Can Do Hard Things

• Sabrina Strings, Sociologist and author of Fearing The Black Body on The Nod 

• Jessica Wilson MS, RD and author of It’s Always Been Ours on Full Plate

• Chrissy King, author of The Body Liberation Project  on The Balanced Black Girl
  

My favorite anti-diet podcasts where I learned about most of the above experts: 

Maintenance Phase  

Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes are the OG’s of Anti-Diet Podcasting. They dispel countless myths and lies of Diet and Wellness Culture that we often simply accept as fact. Their BMI and “Obesity” Epidemic episodes are wonderful primers for those just getting started in this deprogramming.

Full Plate 

The incredibly compassionate Anti-Diet Nutritionist, Abbie Attwood creates space for Anti-Diet practitioners to share their expertise AND also vulnerably tell their stories of how disordered eating and relationships with exercise have impacted their lives. She’s both present and quirky so conversations often go to fun and unexpected places and I always feel like I walk away with some new angle to think about this work. 

Food Heaven Podcast 

Sadly this podcast recently ended, but there are many fantastic episodes to check out from their archives. BFF’s and registered dietitian nutritionists Wendy Lopez and Jessica Jones talk to different health & nutrition experts living more balanced lives–from an inclusive - Health At Every Size (HAES) lens

Burnt Toast

Virginia Sole Smith, author of the recent book - Fat Talk and the Burnt Toast substack newsletter creates this thoughtful and expansive podcast where she interviews activists, nutritionists, MD’s, therapists, Fat Liberation artists, researchers–the list goes on. I’ve learned about so many of the experts I’m following from this podcast and her spotlight on parenting truly hits home for this mom wanting to do all the things differently with my kids around food and body. 

Honorable Mentions…

In an effort to force myself to edit, I haven’t included summaries of all of the podcasts that are helping me on this journey and yet I couldn’t help myself from including these others that are also excellent, but either have ended or don’t come out as regularly. 

• Can I Have Another Snack With Laura Thomas, Anti-diet Nutritionist

• Eat the Rules with Summer Innanen, Body Image Coach and author of Body Image Remix.

• Food Psych Podcast with Christy Harrison, RD, MPH, CEDS and author of Anti-Diet and The Wellness Trap

This work takes awhile to sink in. It’s disruptive. It flies in the face of most of what we will hear from our people. So, I encourage you to find community, support and all the podcasts. If you are listening to any that I’ve missed, please send along. 

I appreciate you. As you are.

Build in Buffer Time

In the past few years I’ve learned a thing or two about my energy and how it relates to my work.

I’m close to equal parts introvert and extrovert so I love my alone time for deep thinking, writing, rest and of course baby + dog videos.

AND – I must, must build in time to connect with friends and colleagues during the week – outside of my client sessions. Fun and learning with other humans is my favorite sport.

This is the dance I weave through my calendar weekly and when I’m on my game, feeling flow and momentum in my work – I know I’ve hit the magic formula.

And then there are the times when I feel depleted, my throat is sore from talking, I forget to do something for the kids or I say to myself – I just need to make it through today.

Uhm, no.

Those are the days I know I bought into the systems that want me to be productive, to get one more thing done, to push myself past my limits at my own expense.

It’s at those times that I deploy one of my favorite tools to return to peace and my way of managing time.

I commune with my calendar and embrace the beauty of the buffer.

For all of my Chief sessions, I block out 30 minutes on each end.

If I have a two hour corporate workshop, I block out the ENTIRE day. Yes, I said that.

I love the experience of my workshops and I’m grateful to make such a big impact on a large audience at one time. And also – it’s a tremendous energy output for this introvert/extrovert and I do best when I have the time to put myself back together and rest.

I also block out every morning until 10am so I have time to ease into the day. I am not and will never be a morning person. I have stopped expecting to ever have a “Miracle Morning.” Miracles are reserved for self-awareness and calling out patriarchy when I see it.

If your days are stacked with meetings, start cutting your meetings to 45 minutes and blocking 15 minutes for yourself in-between.

Add a 30 minute lunch break. You are worthy of rest, recharge and a few minutes to swallow your sandwich!

Book a vacation day or half day after work travel.

Reclaim your time little by little and if you’re on the hunt for your next opportunity, look for cultures where breaks are the norm and you can embrace the buffer.

What's your Power Song?

In 2015, when I started my business, I spent a lot of time and experimented with MANY tools to take the leap, to believe in myself and to know in my bones that this whole vision was possible.

Beyond the hours of training and certification, practice and feedback from mentors – I found my own rituals to rev my energy and to take the essential risks required for change.

One of these is something I still use 8 years later.

It’s free. It’s fun. And it gets results.

It’s your Power Song, people!

In the early days – and for the entire first years of my business – my Power Song was “Brave” by the incomparable, Sara Bareilles.

Before each potential client session, I reserved 5 minutes for my Brave dance party.

Then I expanded the ritual to dance it out before corporate partnership conversations and other high stakes meetings.

It felt both disruptive and empowering to be a little wild before these buttoned up chats and frankly, it reminded me of who I am and why I chose this path.

The feeling in my body was always the same.

Alive. Worthy. All the way lit up.

It shook me loose from my death grip on my mind and allowed me to BE, to be me, to speak from my gut and from all of the internalized preparation.

After a while – I only used the Power Song for something new – like my first Chief meeting or my first in-person workshop after lockdown.

And the songs have changed over the years. Dancing On My Own, Dog Days Are Over, Empire State of Mind and Juice, because Lizzo!

I recommend a Power Song to all of my clients as they prep for interviews or negotiate or resign after getting the big next job. Have you ever tried 9 to 5?

Why not make leveling up fun?

Please, share your Power Song with me so I can begin putting a rev up playlist together and let me know how it worked for you!