Hi, I’m Lauren Helmkay and I’m a ‘Get-It-Done’er!’
I work with middle aged women who are struggling with the feeling that they aren’t living ‘their lives.’
I coach them to reduce the uncertainty and confusion, bring more intention into their lives, and gain confidence to live a life of THEIR design. #DREAMITDOIT
When I’m not coaching, you’ll find me generally doing solitary things – painting, reading, gardening, and boating. I recharge in my own space. But don’t get me wrong, I love a good party too!
And cooking. Did I mention I love to cook? I get fantasmagorically excited in markets and places like Whole Foods. I love the vibrancy of food, the colours, the textures, the aromas. I love to eat!
As a Culinary Nutrition Expert, I’ve learned how satisfying it is to nourish my body with whole foods. I love when people come in my kitchen and say “Yum! That smells terrific! What’s cooking?”
My excitement over food and nutrition expanded to studying the impacts of other lifestyle factors including sleep, stress, movement, and mindset. As a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach, I love to bring this all together, to help my clients with a holistic view of their wellness challenges and celebrations!
I’m a proud mama of Alexandra, 15, and we currently share our home with 4 cats (Stickers, Nightie, Mick Jagger, and Ribbons) and a dog, Albi, who thinks she is a cat. The best product I have ever ever ever bought in my life is the ScoopFree Self Cleaning Litter Box. I swear! I am almost evangelical about this product and if you have a cat, this will save you time, money, and the frustration of, well, poop. You seriously NEVER have to see any poop. And I have FOUR cats! And no, I don’t have any affiliation with this company!
I love, love, love listening to Podcasts, and turn them on every time I’m in the car, which is often. Some come, some go, but I have several tried and true favourites that never let me down:
- Alf Herrington, Being a Better Man
o ‘I am a man that wants to be a little better today than I was yesterday I want to keep doing that every day until I die. I’m inviting others to join me in this quest. (Great life stories highly applicable to women too! And read his ‘About You’, it’s great!)
- Lori Harder, Earn Your Happy
- Eleanor Beaton, Fierce Feminine Leadership
- Marni Wasserman, The Ultimate Health Podcast
So what brought me to sharing all this with you, and to helping women #DreamItDoIt.
I’m a ‘normal mom’ - employee, daughter of aging parents, sister, friend, lover, housekeeper, in-home chef, chief laundry consultant. I also run a seasonal cottage rental business, where I take great pride in helping ensure our guests have great memories of their stay. I juggle many balls at once and I wear many hats. I drive my daughter back and forth places. Endlessly. Remember, the podcasts?
Despite the obvious fulfillment of many of these roles (some more than others!), I found myself, as I was exiting my 40’s, just feeling BLAH. OVERWHELMED. UNINSPIRED. NUMB. LISTLESS. All the self love and mani/pedis and massages didn’t help. All the wine, chocolate, pasta (you name the comfort food of your choice), didn’t help either.
If you looked at me, you saw a successful, happy, patient, caring, productive person. Putting on some weight. Tired on occasion. Inside, my own self conflict was eating me alive. All the self-help books, chats with close friends, trusted counselling for some perspective, just didn’t seem to crack the sense of unease.
Until I realized.
I was not actually OVERWHELMED.
I was #UNDERWHELMED.
Not living life as I imagined. Not living life on my terms. Not fulfilling the potential I knew I had inside me. Not listening to my dreams. Frankly, not even having dreams.
And with that realization. Life changed.
-Lauren
