I met Health Coach Quinn Asteak at a cooking party last month. She was the host and served a phenomenal meal that far exceeded my taste expectations for food prepared by a health coach (a good writer always admits when she’s falsely judged a book by its cover). We ate a delicious vegetarian bean stew with brown rice, pumpkin spice corn bread, a salad, and biscuits with homemade whipped cream. What made it a group cooking party was the fact that before we ate we spent a couple of hours learning to can and preserve tomatoes, peaches, and okra and green beans (and drinking wine, of course). We all left that night with full bellies, three jars of cupboard-storable goods, and all of the recipes and instructions to recreate the experience at home.
A Health Coach who acknowledges and promotes the joy and community of eating, as well as high quality and locally grown food, strong flavors, and wine drinking is a Health Coach I can get behind. Quinn is a graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and a passionate promoter of the idea that there’s a lot more to losing weight and getting healthy than simply diet and exercise. Quinn’s most recent venture is called FITrition Deluxe: Holiday Express, a joint effort with trainer Leanne Shear and Rogue Female Fitness to provide well-rounded, effective, and long-lasting guidance on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle, specifically over the holiday season.
Leanne and Quinn have the same approach to women living healthy – it’s all about balance. The two ran a joint program last winter that helped women kick-start their New Year’s resolutions and motivated them to see them through. This year, they’ve decided to preempt the post-holiday misery by providing their services at the most crucial time. This new program kicks off next Monday (November 14th) and meets every Monday night (except Thanksgiving week) until December 19th from 7pm to 9pm, plus a one-on-one private coaching session with Quinn. The group will consist of approximately 15 women and will include an hour-long workout led by Leanne, followed by an hour-long group discussion about food and eating led by Quinn that will include topics like meal planning, cravings, self-sabotage, and eating on the go.
Since this is a class about lifestyle changes and strategies, and not about the food equivalent of get-rich-quick-schemes, both the workouts and the food discussions will focus on realistic and sustainable additions to your life. As in, no master cleanses or starvations diets, and no 6am boot-camp classes. Instead, this is adding a personalized health coach and trainer to your life for six important weeks. These ladies are all about sharing how you can do a twenty-minute workout at the office, providing tons of delicious and healthy recipes, and constant encouragement.
We women share the privilege and responsibility of being the superior gender, but also the burden of living in a very female-body-conscious society. When I met Quinn I had planned on being intimidated (it’s my most comfortable and natural state) and I was quite thrown by how down-to-earth and grounded she is. She’s a woman’s woman – she doesn’t see her role as helping the rest of us fit into some pre-determined mold. Instead, she sees her role as helping the rest of us find and fit into our own molds, which involve a lot more than the food we eat and the miles we clock on the treadmill.
More information on Quinn’s program can be found at the website for Health Coach Quinn Asteak. If you’re interested in participating, let Quinn know that you read about her program at Woman Around Town and she’ll give you $50 off the price.
