Find YOUR Fit!

Finding YOUR Fit...what being "fit" means to you...and how do you get there? It is so different for everyone. Just recently, I'm trying yet another exercise studio... and I've tried alot throughout the years! I've experienced Personal Trainers (which I really enjoyed and were pretty expensive) but I thought paying all that money would really get me to the gym. It worked for awhile. I've tried numerous inexpensive gyms where I paid the yearly membership fee upfront thinking that would really get me to the gym! It did for awhile but my enthusiasm faded until I just couldn't muster the energy to go anymore.  I tried my own workout programs that included walking, running, doing videos at home, playing tennis, kayaking, hiking, and snowshoeing... pretty much just trying to move and have fun while doing so. I still continue that for the love of it, not just for the exercise. And now, I am trying a new fitness studio in town called KOKO FIT, and I am pleased to say I am actually going! What I enjoy about it is the convenience of location, and the automated program that I selected to follow.
I can just put in my headphones for a cardio workout on either the eliptical or the treadmill and there is a voice telling me exatly what to do! When I do my strength workout, there is a predetermined program to follow and I am done with a full body workout in 30 minutes (45 when you include the 15 minutes of cardio)! Concentrating on following the instructions takes my mind off the fact that I would rather be playing tennis or reading at the beach! I like going...I'm feeling good about it...I think I'll try it for awhile!

My point is....find whatever it takes to get you moving...try differnt things until you find your fit!

What is an Integrative Health Coach?

What is an Integrative Health Coach?

An Integrative Health Coach partners with you to create a personalized health plan that is responsive to your current health needs as it is adaptable to your future health.  In my coaching, I begin with the Wheel of Health as a framework of our planning. I do not prescribe or recommend specific treatment options. I do provide resources for your consideration such as those contained in Duke Integrative Medicine’s Personalized Health Plan Manual.

What is The Wheel of Health Model?

The Wheel of Health is based on two important premises: 

• The human mind and body have essential capacities for self repair that can be supported and enhanced by our life choices as well as appropriate therapies and medical interventions.
• Optimal Health is a journey, a process, and it requires frequent reassessing and rebalancing.

There are seven dimensions of Self-Care on The Wheel of Health that will help guide you along your journey to optimal health and wellness: 

Movement, exercise, and rest

Nutrition

Physical Environment

Relationships and communication

Spirituality

Personal and Professional Development

Mind Body Connection

You: Discovering your health goals

The roadmap to your optimal health rests within you. The first and most critical step is to know what you want from your health -- and why. Combining and coordinating all the dimensions that you are will help you  to understand what your health goals are. It is not always easy or straightforward, but it can be fun!  As a health coach, I will use simple tools to help guide you. Our work together will give you time for deep, personal reflection and introspection that will help you understand where you are and where you want to be!

When you are ready....

Contact me at joyceaevans@gmail.com or 203.216.2171

If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.


~ Ivan Turgenev

The Dragonfly

For the last few years I have been drawn to the dragonfly. I have no idea why, especially since as a child I was extremely frightened by them. We used to call them "sewing needles" and I feared they would start to sew me up like a needle and thread through my skin. So I became surprised and intrigued when I noticed I was curious about them. I learned that they don't sting, and if I could relax about them, I would be able to actually appreciate their beauty. I'M NOT AFRAID OF THEM ANYMORE! So now I collect little dragonfly figurines and I  see them as a symbol of overcoming fear. I was even more thrilled when I read about the symbolisms of the dragonfly: maturity and a depth of character for one. In many parts of the world it symbolizes change and change in the perspective of self realization; and the kind of change that has its source in mental and emotional maturity and the understanding of the deeper meaning of life.  Its ability to scurry along water represents an act of going beyond what's on the surface and looking into the deeper aspects of life. It symbolizes power and poise. It can fly at 45 miles and hour and move in six different directions as well as hover like a helicopter and fly backwards like a hummingbird!
The dragonfly has an iridescence about it. It shows itself in different colors depending on how light falls on it. This property is believed as the end of one's self created illusions and a clearer vision of the realities of life. It doesn't have a long life span so it symbolizes the virtue of living in the moment and living life to the fullest.The eyes of a dragonfly can see 360 degress around it which symbolizes uninhibited vision of the mind and the ability to see beyond limitations of the self.


Now that's my kind of insect!!


What part of nature are you drawn to? Is there a particular animal or bird or plant or insect that just calls to you? If so, look up what it symbolizes! It just might connect with you more than you know!

Thriving or Surviving?

Thriving is all about feeling fully alive. A state of feeling wholeness, satisfaction, or a state of "rightness" and harmony. The power to create your life according to your values. It may be through meaningful work, fulfilling relationships with family and friends, a healthy and strong body, or a sense of connectedness to the universe. Or all of the above! Imagine living your life according to what you value most in life!

Surviving is all about hanging on. It's about barely dealing with life's challenges as they come along, and believing that if life could only be a certain way, then maybe you would be okay. It's a perspective that "someday in the future" my life will be good...but not today. Maybe never.

But you can start today to move from surviving to thriving. Think of the image of a wheel. Each spoke represents an area of your life. As you look at each area, rate your level of fulfillment on a scale of 1 to 10. Here are the spokes: Personal Growth and Spirituality, Mind-Body connection, Movement and Exercise, Nutrition, Physical Environment and finally Relationships. After you rate each area of your life, ask yourself "What would it take to be fulfilled?" Keep probing....try to get a glimpse of the future. It just might help you to figure out what it is you need to do to get there.

A Must Read

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life. 

Derek Walcott

Which way do I go?

At some point in your life, you will find yourself at a crossroad of sorts. There is perhaps a tugging at your heart. A nagging feeling pulling at you in different directions. You can't quite put your finger on it, and you can't seem to dismiss it. This feeling of not quite knowing where you are in your life, or where it is you want to go. Maybe you are experiencing a feeling of discontent in your relationships. Maybe your health is being affected in some way. Things are just not balanced in your life. You feel stuck and want to move forward, but have no idea where you want to go. Where do you begin? Which road do you take?

You are standing at the thresh hold of change. On the other side of the door is the person you have been looking for: YOU. The real YOU. The happy, healthy, living you life to the fullest YOU. It's a little scary reaching for the handle of this door in front of you and taking a peek inside. But at the same time exciting and invigorating!

With the support from a person who is willing and able to walk beside you through that door, you will discover the answers to your deepest questions about where you are in life, where you want to go, and how you will get there. Integrative Health Coaching is the one on one support and guidance to help you through the process of discovering yourself again, or for the very first time!

You will know when you are ready. And when you are, nothing can stop you! Are you ready to take the first step? Open The Door!!