Hi, I’m Cylee — and I’ve been where you are.

“Week one: I was definitely in a rut with eating healthy, feeling good inside my body, and my relationship with food. It was a transition time between having all my kids leave the house, being an empty nester, and figuring out my new role in all of it. My relationship with food seemed to suffer because I was suddenly using food as fun, an emotional escape, a lift. I knew I needed to make a shift, but until I started the coaching process, I basically reverted to my old ways of thinking and problem solving which seemed to land in the — suffer more, eat less, and plow through the process no matter how hard it was — lane.

At first, I wasn’t sure anything would really change my way of thinking, but by week three something shifted. I had always loved the idea of keeping my promises to myself, but this seemed to fall in the ‘all or nothing’ category. I thought if I was keeping my promises, that meant I had to be perfect — eating healthy, exercising regularly, and being in control. And as good as that feels when you’re on your A game, it feels so frustrating and hopeless when you’re not. Perfectionism is not realistic or maintainable. The balance I came to find while coaching with Cylee was being INTENTIONALLY imperfect. I’d never really thought of it this way. Being intentional when you’re gonna have that chocolate cake, that ice cream cone, that extra bite, means you’re choosing it. The guilt, the shame, the berating isn’t there to follow. It also feels like it doesn’t turn into an all or nothing game. Suddenly, that bite doesn’t change your trajectory. It’s one bite. And you can still go to bed at night feeling like you were in control. After all YOU chose that bite. And it’s okay. This shift helped me to not plunge into ‘well, I’ve had a bite I might as well have twenty!’

Honestly, I wasn’t sure coaching would change my perspective. I am a coach myself and a person who takes charge of what I want. I research it out. I write it down. I make a goal. And I am good with follow through. But, sometimes I can get in my own way. I needed another perspective. The strange part is that that perspective was already within me, I just needed to find it again. Coaching helped ME figure it out. Coaching helped ME see things I couldn’t without talking about it, reflecting with Cylee, and making tiny shifts. By week four it felt like I had discovered something life changing. And although the journey isn’t over, I love the perspective change I received from this experience and the new found balance through intentionality.

One thing I loved about Cylee is that she let the experience unfold. As a coach — or human — the temptation is to solve, rescue, and tell people what to do. Sometimes being on the outside it looks so easy. ‘Do this, do that,’ and everything will work out. But letting people find it themselves is POWERFUL! I’ve seen many coaches solve for their clients, and to me that’s not the purpose of coaching. Coaching is a space to quietly and resolutely hold space for your client so they can figure it out. This kind of support is hard to come by. It takes an enormous amount of effort to just listen, intentionally listen! It takes dedication to create a process that allows for self discovery. It takes self awareness to do the work and then to be there for someone else. Cylee is someone I trust and someone who wants the best for others. Her coaching style reflects that in all areas.”

— Lori P., a fellow coach & client