How many of you have heard of Ginger Vieira?
I guarantee that not enough of you have, and I’m going to shout her praises from the highest rooftop I can find.
Ginger was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and celiac in 1999. Besides being an absolute angel, Ginger is a professional writer, a contributing author at Diabeteens, an I.S.S.A. certified personal trainer, a certified Ashtanga Yoga instructor, and a Therapeutic Yoga instructor. Pretty impressive!
Oh yeah. She also holds 14 national, drug-tested powerlifting records AND the Vermont state record for the female bench press! Holy Crap, right?
I say that Ginger is an angel because her mission in life is to help others. And she is good at it (that qualifies for “understatement of the year”). I met Ginger last July at the Roche Social Media Summit. Later in the year she helped me get back in the gym by throwing together a quick workout program. Earlier this year she asked if I would be willing to help her with a project she was working on. After all the help she gave me with the workout program, of course, I would help!
She wanted a guinea-pig for her life coaching business. Not sure I wanted to get involved with introspective, deep-thought type stuff (that’s a lot of hard work!), I was a bit hesitant. But I have all sorts of things I could improve on, and I want to help Ginger with whatever I can, so I decided to jump in with both feet. We’ve been working together for almost two months. It is good stuff. She is good stuff. I’m glad I made the right decision.
I was worried it would feel a lot like traditional therapy. Her asking silly questions, lots of dead space in-between those questions and my obligatory answers, and lots of uncomfortable silence. I was worried about lots of “how do you feel about …?” and other Dr. Phil type nonsense. But Ginger is not a therapist. She will not look at my past and my problems, but rather who I am now, where I want to be, and how I can get there. It’s different.
By deciding to really be open and honest with Ginger, she has helped me make big steps in a few different areas of my life. What you put in is what you get out. Ginger is easy to open up to, and she holds no judgment. She did not giggle at me when I told her my vision of me exercising regularly was a mental image of Kerri on her ellipmachine…
Well, actually, we both laughed hysterically about that. But still. Ginger is really great, and if it’s Ok with all of you, I’d like to share more about our experiences over the next few weeks. In the meantime, check out the interview Ginger did with Kerri, um, not on the ellipmachine…
Also check out the interview that Ginger did here at Diabetes Daily recently!