It's not easy to let go.

My son Simon just graduated from high school and he'll be leaving the nest in one short month. It's shocking just to see it in writing as I type. Ugh. The picture above is Simon climbing, something he does most days. I'm happy that I don't watch very often, because it's difficult to watch him reaching for hand and footholds that don't look secure. It looks so dangerous. As I watch him, all I can do is nothing. I have to let him feel his way and trust his skills.

As Simon prepares to leave in August, my mind spins with the lessons I've yet to teach him. And that's where the letting go comes in, right? Just like watching him scale a boulder, in life I just have to be quiet and trust his abilities, his character and his path.

A strong foundation is everything.

Obviously, when they are navigating their paths, it helps our kids immensely to have common sense and accurate information. As parents, we do our best to help them establish this strong foundation. Since they are growing up with the internet, they have access to both accurate AND inaccurate information. In regard to health, they're also growing up during a time when rather than getting a solid understanding about nourishment, they've been bombarded by random nutrition factoids. As adults, it is a pretty confusing time to know how the heck to feed ourselves. Hard to imagine why our kids can't figure it out either.

Happily, because it's getting more trendy to eat healthy foods, many high school and college age kids are interested in health and nutrition. It's important to get them educated and empowered so they understand the logic behind dietary paths and how best to meet their own individual health goals. Juice cleanses, eating Paleo, going vegan or gluten-free are intriguing options, but most of our kids have only a superficial knowledge of diet and its impact on health.

And then there's the whole issue of dieting for weight loss, which can be both physically and emotionally damaging. In addition, a lot of our teenagers are suffering from health issues that could be (and probably are) food related. If your teen is suffering from anxiety and mood disorders, ADHD, acne, migraines and digestive issues, there's no time like the present to empower them with tools to improve his/her health and happiness.

In general, as our kids start to shop and prepare food on their own, it's an excellent time to intervene with some training and education. More likely than not, they don't want a lot of input from you. Been there.

This summer, I'm offering two workshops: one for high school students and one for college age kids. The goal of these workshops is to help them establish a strong foundation in self-care. I also want them to be connected to the power of food: the food choices they make can help them concentrate, clear their skin, and manage stress and moods. On a practical level, I want to help them figure out how to quickly put healthy food on their plates.

In addition to these workshops, there is also an option to tack on 1-on-1 work with your teen/college age child.  Through my intake process, we can quickly see what is out of whack in the body and what we need to do to restore balance. My goal would be to empower your son or daughter by helping make connections between their lifestyle and symptoms. These connections are fascinating to them. Once those connections are clear, together, we'd map out simple and age-appropriate steps to address their health issues. Tacking on 1-on-1 work would individualize and add depth to the workshops.

If this sounds interesting to you, click on the image below to read on and register. Please let me know if you have any questions.