I recently had the delight of sitting down with Cathy Zolner, a compatriot in the battle for healthy living and eating who happens to live in the same town I do. We connected, quite appopriately, after a screening of the film documentary "Lunch Line" at Boston's Museum of Science. I found a great deal in common with Zolner, a "wholistic health coach" who works primarily with women.

I felt our strongest connection over common belief that while food choices are enormously important to health, anyone who focuses only food choices — aka dieters — are missing the larger point about personal nourishment, which ideally includes self care, exercise, and spiritual attention. But I sensed that we also share the enthusiasm that comes with what some would call second careers: Several times she said, "I don't have the time," as in, "this is important work and I came to it only recently. Let's get moving." I can relate to that.

Much of Cathy's training came at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City. She shares her knowledge in a bunch of different ways, including individual and group consulting, pantry makeovers and personalized cooking classes, and workshops both within and outside the workplace. We might have enough common ground to put together a joint workshop, with or without a third speaker, but for now, I wanted to share about her and what she's doing.