Meet Nicolle

I’ve been on a health and wellness journey since middle school. I was heavier than my friends and always self-conscious about my appearance. Meals included self-made “salads” (okay, it was just lettuce) and stints with The Grapefruit Diet.

 

I jumped on the vegetarian bandwagon in the 11th grade of high school. I liked the way I looked enough to enroll in a modeling and finishing school. As a teenager, I was very active – cheerleader, majorette and played a few sports - basketball, softball.

 

Growing up, I never drank or smoked. As an adult, I exercised regularly and carefully monitored what I ate and drank. Imagine my surprise when I was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer at 45.

 

I thought I had a model “healthy” lifestyle. But when I stopped to reflect about my life, I realized that I was living in “3-D” – divorced, diagnosis, death of my mother due to Alzheimer’s for whom I was a caregiver. I thought I was managing my stress, but in actuality, I was just “busy.”

 

I realized that I was a modern-day Superwoman dealing with a modern-day kryptonite called stress. I didn’t just want to survive breast cancer. I wanted to thrive. Stress management became a focal point and I began to experiment, research and study.

 

I don’t want a diagnosis of any type to be the wake up call that forces you to pay more attention to your health and wellness practices. I get it. Change isn’t easy. However, it’s necessary for growth and development. Not changing can have detrimental consequences.

 

I inspire change...one step at a time. Your health journey begins with the very first step. Health is so much more than the physical. It’s the mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, occupational and relational.

 

Now, I don’t live with a comma, a period or a question mark. I live life with an exclamation point! And guess what? You can too.