Skip to main content

If You Dream it You Can Achieve it? Really?

I have started to feel a bit discouraged lately. Dr M hasn't had time to review our revised ethics proposal but she said she hopes we can get everything going by mid October. I'm worried that we won't get approval from the ethics board at the hospital. And then what? Doubt and anxiety that I will ever achieve my dream of being a psychotherapist have re-emerged. But one thing is for sure: I cannot go back to a job I hate. It will kill my spirit and destroy my soul.

Now that my mat leave is over, the only income I have coming in right now is my one weekly spinning class at the JCC...so really nothing. This is the first time since I was an undergraduate student that I have not had a fairly steady income...and I really don't like it. I have decided that if the research project at the hospital doesn't come through, I am going to try and get a job. Actually, I am trying to see if I can start a business. My business idea is something I have been thinking about for a while. I was planning to use it as a way to supplement my income after I finish school and start trying to build a practice. Then I realized it is something I could start working on now.

I don't really know what to call the service I want to offer..."Family Fitness Coaching" or "Family Health Intervention" are a few ideas I've come up with so far. Basically, the idea is that I would go into a home where the parents and/or children are facing health problems due to an unhealthy lifestyle (poor nutrition and lack of physical activity, not enough sleep, too much stress, etc). I would do a personalized assessment of their lifestyle and routines (each family member's schedule, how long it takes them to get to work, school, etc., what they eat, how much leisure time they have, etc.) and then come back to them with a detailed report of recommendations in terms of how to make easy, economical changes to allow them to improve their diet, fit in more physical activity into their daily lives and leisure time, get more sleep and better manage stress. This might include better time management skills, re-vamping schedules, walking to work and school instead of driving, better sleep hygiene, changing bed and wake up times, purchasing home exercise equipment, utilizing available community resources (community centres, parks, trails, etc.). Essentially, I would give them recommendations on overcoming all the real or perceived logistical barriers to improving their lifestyle and their health. Other services they could purchase from me would be a guided supermarket tour to educate them about reading labels and how to prepare quick, easy, healthy and economical meals, a detailed family dinner meal plan with recipes, individual or group personal training, etc.

Since I know nothing about the "business/accounting/marketing/advertising" side of starting a business, I'm meeting with my friend Jennifer in a few weeks for some advice. She runs her own in-home personal training business and seems to be doing very well. I actually don't want to do the personal training myself, and would prefer to refer clients to others for that, but we'll see how it goes.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: The A to Z of Children's Health

Hey there, welcome to Monday!  We had a delightful, relatively quiet weekend.  How was yours?  Hopefully no one in your home was sick...there is a lot of nasty stuff going around these days. If you're a parent, than you have probably spent far more time that you would like to desperately searching Google and/or parenting books trying to figure out if your child's rash, cough or fever warrants a trip to the doctor or if there is something that can be done to treat it.  It's hard not to worry that it could be something more ominous that just an every day infection and while you'd make yourself (and everyone around you) nuts if you panicked every time your kid has the sniffles, as a parent, you naturally want to do everything in your power to prevent your child from harm. Recently I was sent The A to Z of Children's Health , written by doctors Jeremy Friedman, Natasha Saunders, and Norman Saunders, of Toronto's very own Hospital for Sick Children .  One of th

How to Look Like a Celebrity

Okay, I know you're going to be interested in this post! I am sure virtually every woman in North America has wondered how Hollywood celebrities achieve such 'perfect' bodies.  Well, at CAN FIT PRO last week, one of Hollywood's top fitness trainers, Eric the Trainer , was there to tell us fitness professionals the secrets! Eric the Trainer, gave several presentations, and I caught the one on Celebrity Secrets, and it was most interesting!!!  I also found some of what he said rather disturbing. First off, he was very upfront about the fact that celebrities come to him for improve their appearance.  Not to improve their health or athletic performance.  To look their best.  He admitted that his approach then, is entirely dedicated to that end. Male and female celebrities are trained in completely different ways because Hollywood wants women to be lithe and thin and in his words, "look like they dropped out of heaven looking this way without every having ste

Blackfly Coolers: Product Review

Summer is over! Well, at least if you're a student. Officially it doesn't end for a few weeks, and it certainly still feels like summer. Yeah, I hate it. This f*cking hot, humid weather needs to end NOW! We made the most of our last weekend of the summer with our annual trip to the CNE on Friday, with a crowd of friends. It wasn't unbearably lot, thank goodness, and the girls and their friends had a blast on the rides.  Saturday I had to work, and Sunday was errand day. Monday we took the girls berry/apple/pear picking but didn't last long due to the heat. I organized the house to prepare for the construction workers starting back up yesterday, while Adam took the girls for a swim in our neighbourhood pool. Yesterday was the first day of school. Grade 2 and Grade 5. Yep, the girls are growing up.  We are fortunate that the girls don't have much anxiety about school, they are so much more confident than I ever was as a kid! But now, in the midst of our reno ch