Hi, my name is Monica Shah and I am a holistic nutrition and life balance expert. I started my company, Ideal Balance based on my own experiences. I struggled with low energy and fatigue for years and even had the nickname “narcoleptic girl” all through college. Through trial and error and lots of nutrition books, I learned that I was incredibly sensitive to carbohydrates such as corn and white flour. I cleaned up my diet and even began to compete in triathlons. For a while, life was good.
But that was only the beginning of my personal discoveries. After earning my MBA (Kellogg School of Management) and working 80 hours/week as a marketing manager at a “lucrative” company, my healthy habits and social life began to fall apart. Again, through much trial and plentiful errors, I figured out how to prioritize my well being, the people I loved and still be successful at work. I learned how to get balance in my life and maintain it. And in the process, I also became a holistic health counselor, attending the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in New York.
Soon my friends began to ask me for advice and I realized how much I enjoyed helping them. In March of 2005, I opened Ideal Balance. Today I have a full private practice, teach classes and conduct workshops to help people learn how to eat healthy and create a healthy balance in their lives.
As I continued to build my practice, I realized that the demands of being an ultra-professional busy woman were still existent and I longed for an escape, so I planned a trip to India in July of 2006. On the trip I realized the importance of taking a step away from your life – that leaving the daily grind can sometimes be the key to finding a new perspective and making real changes. It gave me a whole new perspective on my life and my business. I came back refreshed and inspired. My business and my life reflected the changes – now months later they are still both better than ever.
The trip made me realize that sometimes we need a way to just stop the rollercoaster of our lives, take a deep breath and decide what is working and what isn’t. And since we can’t all leave our lives for a month-long vacation, I decided to create a class that allows just that: room and time to stop, take a breath and make a plan to clean out our lives and our bodies.
