Apparently, I'm Changing Everything 😂

Hi Green Door Life Friends,

Something feels different around here lately. My body, my routines, the conversations Rafa and I are having, the work I’m doing with clients, the things I’m interested in, even this newsletter. 

It feels like we’re in a season of revisiting a lot of things and asking, Does this still fit? Is this still how I want to do this?

So it seems appropriate that we’re changing things up a little here too.

Today's Lineup:

• I’m changing how I write these emails

• A beach video gave me the kick in the ass I needed

• Rafa and I might be entering our reinvention era

• Plus, I’m spending Saturday nerding out about longevity

These Newsletters Are Getting a Little Revamp

I've been thinking about this for a while. Writing these newsletters had started to feel a little... tedious.

Not because I didn't have enough to say. Quite the opposite.

I have so much I want to share that every time I sat down to write, I felt like I needed to give you everything I knew. The science, the research, the practical application, the nuance, and the seventeen other things my brain decided you also needed to understand before I could possibly hit send.

Somewhere in all of that information, I think I lost a little bit of me.

So we're changing that.

I want these emails to feel less like I'm sitting down to write you a health article and more like you're getting a peek into my world every week. What am I thinking about? What are Rafa and I experimenting with? What am I noticing in my own body? What am I questioning? What am I learning from clients? What am I completely nerding out about?

And yes, I'm still going to teach you things. I don't think I could stop doing that if I tried.

But I'm adopting a new rule around here: teach one fascinating thing, not everything I know about it.

So expect a few different conversations from me each week.. And sometimes I might be inspired to sent 2. Sometimes educational. Sometimes personal. Sometimes something I'm trying. Sometimes something happening inside The Green Door. Sometimes something that has absolutely nothing to do with nutrition.

Fewer rules. More curiosity. More life. More me.

I have no idea exactly where that will take us, which is kind of why I'm excited about it.

A Beach Video Gave Me a Kick in the Ass

A couple of weeks ago, Rafa and I were in Fort Lauderdale. We're on the beach, having fun, and he takes a video of me.

I watched it back and thought, Wait a second. That's not the physique I'm used to seeing.

It wasn't some horrible body-shame moment. I didn't spiral. I didn't suddenly decide I needed to lose 20 pounds.

It was much simpler than that.

I realized I'd stopped paying attention.

For the last year or so, I've been pouring an enormous amount of energy into other people. Clients, coaches, business, relationships, life. Rafa has been experiencing his own version of that too.

We started talking about it and realized we'd been spending a lot of time building everyone else's houses.

And maybe it was time to put some of that energy back into building our own.

For me, that meant returning to something I hadn't done consistently in quite a while: tracking my food.

Here's the funny thing. I actually really enjoyed my time not tracking. There's something beautiful about periods where you step away from the numbers and give your brain some extra space.

But coming back to tracking showed me things I couldn't see as clearly without the data.

My intake had gotten inconsistent. Some days I was eating more than I needed, other days I wasn't eating enough. My protein wasn't nearly as consistent as I thought it was, and three meals a day wasn't giving me enough opportunity to get the protein and overall nutrition I wanted.

So I added a fourth meal. I've also been playing with the amount and timing of carbohydrates based on my training, activity, appetite, and how I feel.

A little over two weeks in, I'm down about two pounds. And for me, that's significant because I'm only looking to lose another two or three.

But what's been even better is that I feel back in rhythm.

Rafa and I have been getting 10,000–15,000 steps most days, strength training around three days a week, taking our sunrise walks, eating more consistently, staying on top of hydration, and doing it together.

I'm noticing the difference in my energy. I'm feeling stronger in the gym. I'm sleeping better. And I go to bed feeling lighter, but not hungry.

It's reminded me why I still love tracking after all these years.

Tracking doesn't have to be something you do forever, and it doesn't have to mean you're obsessing over food. For me, right now, it's simply giving me information that I wasn't getting when I was eyeballing everything.

Sometimes stepping away from structure gives us freedom. And sometimes returning to a little structure gives us exactly the awareness we need.

Funny enough, people inside our Belonging Circle (our somatic and attachment styles group membership) have started moving back into tracking too, so now there's this little cross-pollination happening where we're comparing notes, noticing our patterns, and supporting each other.

Apparently we're all building our houses again.

Rafa and I Might Be Entering Our Reinvention Era  

The body piece is only one part of what's happening over here.

For the last six to nine months, Rafa and I have both felt like we're moving through some kind of identity shift.

We've been asking ourselves questions like: How do we actually want to live this life? Do we want to stay in Tennessee? Who do we want around us? What kind of work do we want to create? What kinds of conversations do we want to spend our lives having?

We've even had an opportunity to explore a regenerative property in Costa Rica, which is an entire conversation for another newsletter.

At the same time, I've been noticing that there are parts of me that haven't always made it into The Green Door in a very front-facing way.

Somatic and emotional-release work has become a deeper part of what I do with one-on-one clients. I've been diving into plant-medicine.. My own spiritual practice has evolved tremendously over the last decade. I'm endlessly fascinated by our beliefs, our behavior patterns, our relationship with reality, and how all of those things influence the way we experience our lives.

We're also finding ourselves around more people talking about regenerative agriculture, conscious AI, somatic work inside companies, individual health, collective health, and some really fascinating ideas about what a healthier future could actually look like.

None of this means nutrition and strength training are going anywhere. I love those conversations as much as ever.

I just don't think I want to compartmentalize myself quite as much anymore.

These interests have been informing how I think about health and how we've built The Green Door whether I've explicitly talked about them or not. And I'm becoming increasingly interested in what happens when we allow all of those conversations to sit at the same table.

Maybe that's part of what The Elevated Frequency Weekly becomes.

A place where we get to talk about the whole human experience: mind, body, heart, spirit, and everything that happens somewhere in between.

I'm curious to see where we go.

Saturday = Longevity Nerd Day  

Speaking of curiosity, this weekend one of my girlfriends and I are spending basically an entire day at a longevity conference here in Nashville.

9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Because apparently this is what I consider fun now.

We'll be hearing about longevity research, blood testing and diagnostics, brain health, recovery, and some of the newer technologies and tools becoming available to help us understand our bodies differently.

I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to come home fascinated by, skeptical of, wanting to try, or rolling my eyes at.

Which is exactly why I'm excited to go.

I'll report back next week on the things that actually made me think.

Nice chat. Let's do it again next week.

Until then, build your own house before everyone else's, question what no longer fits, and I'll go see what the longevity people think will keep us alive forever.

All love,
Shannon

P.S. Speaking of building your own house, we're getting ready to welcome the next group of women into Awaken Your Nutrition, beginning September 21st.

This cohort feels particularly special because our team of seven coaches will be leading the weekly group sessions, bringing together perspectives from nutrition, exercise science, biology, holistic health, behavior change, lifestyle, and more.

You'll have your own one-on-one coach, but you'll also have the group: a place to ask questions, share wins, learn from other people's experiences, and have other humans beside you while you figure out what your body needs.

If you've spent the last year taking care of everyone else's health, schedule, needs, meals, emotions, and life, maybe it's time to put some of that attention back on you.

Book an application call and register for Awaken Your Nutrition before September 18th and you'll receive $500 off enrollment.

The next cohort begins September 21st.