Many of you ask me where I come up with the topics I write about. I have a confession to make (just in case you don't already know). These aren't really topics or teachings. What you read every week is a peek into my personal journey.

One of the ways I work though my issues is by writing about them. I have spiral notebooks filled with journal entries from all the way back to my freshman year in high school. I read through that first one now and then, which is difficult to do. It had been a year since my father died and my mother was in a nursing home. I was in incredible pain and scared to death and my writing reflects it. Throughout the years, I have kept journals and wrote poems to help express what I was feeling and when my life is most intense is when I seem to write the most.

These days, I could write every single day and usually do. There is something about the journey of transformation from the girl who thinks she is damaged beyond repair to beginning to know the truth about who I am that lights me up and pours out of me. I feel the energy of the work I'm doing around me all the time, often thanks to all of you. You reflect back the fight I have going on inside of me and help me see the truth. It is important for me to tell you that I don't know what is best for you or what you need. Some days I don't think I know anything at all. But I know this. I am on an amazing journey of discovery that I love to share with other searching souls.

I am afraid. When I say this to you, I mean it. I don't always feel good enough, and I will probably struggle with self esteem to some degree for the rest of my life. But I'm okay with that because I've come a long way. I don't feel like I live in that awful pit of fear or no self esteem anymore. I am moving forward one small step at a time; left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. When I write about food, it usually means that I struggled with my relationship with food that week and it's on my heart so I share it. When I write about exercising consistently, or at the right intensity, you are reading my letters to me. These are gentle encouragements and self-reminders that I live a better life when I am exercising regularly.

That others find encouragement in my thinking-out-loud is still amazing to me. My favorite part of every newsletter is the Client Corner. Some of the things you share and the insights you have are such a gift to me and everyone else. Keep writing to me and sharing your story. You matter here. I see that I matter here, too and I am really grateful for that. Thank you for caring about me the way you do. God is so cool. For a woman that didn't have a mom, now I feel like I have dozens. For someone who felt like she didn't really matter, now I feel like my life has purpose.

That still doesn't mean I really know anything except where (and who) I am today. I am making slow progress on a fascinating journey. I get stuck. I struggle. I quit and start again. Even so, I will be there for you every time you need encouragement. I will share my struggles and my triumphs so that you know it is also possible for us all. That anything is possible for us all. I will help you to move your body and stay consistent with exercise. I will tell you what healing my relationship with food has looked like up to today. And as always, if you don't believe you can change, heal, get fit, get well...I will believe enough for both of us until you do.

Now get moving.