Apparently, I Needed a Little Space
Hi friends,
We are back in Tennessee, and this week I had something I haven’t had in what feels like years:
The house completely to myself.
No visitors. No travel. No one else’s schedule to navigate.
Just me.
And apparently, when left entirely to my own devices, I become an extraordinarily efficient little human.
Today’s Lineup
What I discovered when no one else was home
The book currently rearranging my brain
Watching something I built grow beyond me
Two things I created... and somehow forgot existed
Apparently, I do everything at once.
A few days alone gave me the chance to notice how I naturally move through my day.
And wow, do I like efficiency.
If I’m walking from one room to another, I’m carrying three things that need to go there.
I’m listening to an audio while brushing my teeth.
Sometimes I am watching a show and reading a book at the same time, which feels slightly unhinged now that I’m admitting it publicly.
But underneath all that efficiency, I noticed something else.
With no one else’s rhythms to move around, I could hear myself a little more clearly.
I trained. I paid attention to my nutrition. I played with some of my health practices. I walked in the mornings.
And apparently I walk a LOT when left alone.
I was averaging around 15,000 steps a day without really trying.
Which made me wonder:
How much of who we think we are is simply who we are inside the environment we’re currently in?
Change the environment, and different patterns emerge.
Sometimes we don’t need to become a different person.
We just need enough space to notice the person who is already there.
What I’m reading right now
Speaking of patterns, I’m currently reading The Five Personality Patterns, which was recommended to me by a dear friend.
And it is fascinating.
The book explores how patterns of behavior and survival develop and how those patterns continue shaping the way we move through life long after we actually need them.
If you enjoy the personal development rabbit hole, this is absolutely one to add to your list.
It has me paying even closer attention to all those little automatic things we do without realizing we’re doing them.
Which, given my newly discovered habit of brushing my teeth while consuming educational content, feels timely.
Watching something grow beyond me
This was also the first week our team of coaches took the lead inside Awaken Your Nutrition.
And there was something really special about sitting back and watching it.
Each coach brings their own lens into nutrition, hormones, lifestyle, behavior, labs, strength training, movement and the dozens of variables that make a human body... human.
That is one of the reasons I have always loved learning in a group.
No single person sees the entire picture.
Someone notices one thing.
Someone else sees another.
And suddenly there is far more depth in the room than any one of us could create alone.
Week one of AYN is also one of my favorite weeks because people begin looking at food differently.
Not through the latest gadget, shot, supplement, hack or headline.
But through the fundamentals.
What am I actually putting into my body?
How much energy does it contain?
What nutrients am I getting?
How is my body responding?
Some clients are already seeing one to three pounds of movement on the scale during this first week. That early change can include shifts in water, glycogen, digestion and food volume, not simply body fat, but it is often the first moment someone realizes:
Oh. My inputs really do create a response.
There is something beautifully unsexy about returning to the basics.
Sometimes the physiology really does begin with math.
Simple does not necessarily mean easy.
Especially when no one ever taught you how to understand it.
If you’ve been thinking about joining us, enrollment is staying open through the rest of the year. You can come in during the week that works for you and begin from there.
[Explore Awaken Your Nutrition →]
Things I apparently made... and forgot about
Here is another thing that happens when I have space:
I start wandering through old corners of The Green Door Life and discovering things I created years ago.
This week I rediscovered two.
The first is our Meal Prep Mastery eBook, which I originally wrote almost ten years ago, back when we were still known as Diet Doc Lifestyle.
And I opened it thinking, What exactly did I put in here?
Turns out... pretty much everything.
Kitchen equipment. Cooking times. Macronutrient basics. Measuring food. Using a kitchen scale. Building meals. Meal prep systems.
Essentially, it’s a beginner-to-confident guide for anyone who wants meal prep to feel less like Sunday afternoon chaos.
And with fall arriving, this feels like a pretty perfect time to bring it back into the light.
And then I rediscovered one of my first loves.
Before nutrition became such a huge part of my career, there was movement.
Pilates came first.
After a severe concussion when I was around 18, Pilates became part of my rehabilitation. I eventually became an instructor and fell in love with understanding the body through mechanics, breath, stabilization, core control and mind-muscle connection.
Later came strength training.
And I never really stopped being fascinated by either.
A few years ago, I poured that fascination into an eight-week program called Awaken Your Strength.
I wanted to create something that didn’t simply hand you workouts.
I wanted to teach you how to understand what you were doing and why.
Inside are professionally recorded progressive strength workouts, Pilates, mobility and flexibility work, anatomy, movement mechanics, program design, muscle development and fueling strategies for different types of training.
The goal is mastery.
To understand how to train for your body, your equipment, your time and your goals.
Want stronger glutes?
Broader shoulders?
More balance and symmetry?
More muscle?
A body that actually supports the life you want to live?
You should understand how to build it.
So, in the spirit of apparently rediscovering my own library this week, I’m bringing Awaken Your Strength back with an extremely early Black Friday offer.
Because Black Friday is coming eventually, and I’m clearly not great with arbitrary dates.
Anyone who joins Awaken Your Strength during this offer will also be able to book private virtual training sessions with me for 50% off my usual $350/hour rate.
And you’ll have lifetime access to the course, so you can move through it at your own pace and return whenever your goals evolve.
[Explore Awaken Your Strength →]
Maybe space is useful for more than rest.
This week reminded me that space doesn’t always need to be filled.
Sometimes it lets you hear yourself.
Sometimes it shows you the patterns you’ve been moving through unconsciously.
Sometimes it gives someone else room to step forward.
And sometimes it reminds you that you already created the thing you’re looking for ten years ago and simply forgot it existed.
Nice chat. Let’s do it again next week.
Until then, maybe notice what becomes visible when you give yourself a little more space.
All love,
Shannon
P.S. Next stop: California. We’re heading back for a retreat, some time with a few Green Door Life humans, and a little return to our old home turf in Marin County. So I imagine next week’s edition will include some combination of travel, humans, health, strange observations and, quite possibly, something metaphysical. As usual.
