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Dorothy Holtermann is the founder of Birth a Book, certified integrative nutrition coach, teacher, and publisher. Her mission is to teach wellness professionals how to write and publish books that matter. She is a passionate speaker and dedicated to her philosophy that life fully nourished is life fully expressed.

Excerpt. (c) Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1 - You Won’t Live Out Your Lifespan

In the fall of 2012 I was badly shaken and forced to face a reality I had long denied.

I was at my doctor’s office being analyzed by my ＂team＂ of healthcare professionals when it became clear that my weight gain, blood work results, and complaints about various pains were getting progressively worse each visit. They were running out of new prescription drugs to give me, or organs to remove. I was being examined by Keith, my favorite team member, when suddenly he looked me square in the eye and told me bluntly, ＂Dorothy, you need to do something about your health.＂ I glanced away, trying to tune him out, ignoring him. I was at the doctor’s office, wasn’t I? So of course I was taking care of my health! He persisted, and in a more firm tone said, ＂You need to hear me. You need to listen to me. This is not a joke. This is your life.＂

I remember looking up, pretending to listen to him, mostly to be polite. I remember thinking-he has nothing to tell me that I do not already know. I was about to make a quip, or find an easy way to bow out of this awkward and highly unusual conversation. However, he did manage to get my attention with his very next sentence. I will never forget hearing these words, and feeling the enveloping fear that they generated in my body.

＂Dorothy, you are not going to live out your lifespan!＂

I thought immediately about my family and what these words would mean to them. I had two beautiful daughters that I loved deeply and who needed me. And I had been married 30 years to my childhood sweetheart; the man I treasured and desperately wanted to grow old with. Though not-so-young, I was not-too-old either. Not old enough to hear these words.

My beloved family had been through a lot. It seemed like we had unwittingly managed to purchase front row seats to several of the worst catastrophes of the turn of the 21st century. We were witnesses to the attacks of 9/11 that occurred blocks from our home... A few years later, we fell victim to Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf of Mexico...

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