So, you’re wondering, “Who is this person?” I like the way you think.

The Short (twitter) Version

Writing obsessed. Lover of great food, vino, chocolate (‘addict’ is such an ugly word). Have this rooommate, Ramón – we’re training to be race car drivers.

The “official” [boring] version

I struggle to bring myself to do this because, who likes to reading boring stuff? I don’t. You definitely don’t. So, I’ll be brief…

First, I used to practice law at a big, Manhattan law firm. Now, I write a ton and help people. These are very different career paths (so I help people find their right career path).

Second (and more importantly), I also eat out a TON, and canNOT get enough cool new food thingies in my life — but I do so, now, while maintaining a healthy, low weight (so I also help people enjoy food, but at their lowest natural weight).

Qualifications? I have some of those, too. I’m a certified Martha Beck life coach, and a certified Executive Facilitator Coach (that was done by a big consulting firm that loans me out to law firms and help lawyers live happier lives, and/or leave the law).

(Feel free to check out all of this in more detail in the conversation on the blog.)

FB? The twitters? Follow me at @LaurieGay, on Facebook (oh, for the love of other people’s pics) or on LinkedIn.

The better, unofficial version!

I figured out a few years back that there is a grand sum of who I am, consisting roughly of two things:

(1) all that I’ve studied (I’ve been self-help obsessed since ’91 with Reviving Ophelia); and

(2) all that I’ve lived through (that would be the totally wrong life — which I’m out of, but for it, I’m grateful… it taught me tons).

The grand sum of #1 (studies) and #2 (hard-won life lessons) is something that now allows me to live a happy, full life. It also permits me to help you live a happy, full life.

And your happy, full life is a life that reflects who you are now, and who you’re meant to be. It also includes who ‘you’ might be in the first place.

Mainly, I help you change your relationship with food and your body, so that you enjoy food (at your lowest natural weight). But, you and I both know that it’s never just a matter of the weight or the food-obsessed thoughts that we would love to lobotomize. So we talk about other things, too.

‘Other things‘ boils down to all of your relationships… your relationship with food, your relationship with your career, your relationships with important people in your life.

Relationships is, in a sense, what connects all of the stuff we talk about here. Here are a couple of examples of what I mean:

• we discuss weight loss in terms of our relationship with food and with our bodies;
• we chat about finding our right thing in terms of our relationship with the rest of the world and ourselves; and
• we work through how to find the way to be in our thing in terms of our relationship with our thing, with other people and with ourselves

And, other important stuff that comes up, as it comes up. You ask, I talk about it. We all feel better.

And, finally: here is some random stuff I’m into (in case you’re curious).

The FOOOOOD. Cooking it, talking about it, eating it (at home, in restaurants, at your house). My first love is anything that includes ‘chocolate’ as a top-3 ingredient. Fine, any ingredient. I have been to every chocolatier in Manhattan enough times that I’m known by first name, though my favorite is La Maison du Chocolat (go, right now, and buy the La Maison cookbook — you’ll thank me later).

Legend says (read: I say) that cocoa may actually be the one, true source of all life on this planet. And you thought it was water. Or, the atom.

I also have a red wine thing (it’s just too good). So, let me know if you need my mailing address for, oh I don’t know, red wine or chocolate.

My roommate! Have you met Ramón? He’s my roommate. I thought I had grown out of the roommate thing years ago. But, I swear, if you knew him, you’d totally want to live with him, too.

(I admit that he has quite the potty mouth, though he never quite learned the right way to use the swear words of the English language — his first language is Spanish. He says things like, “What the s*#t is going on here?” It’s actually very endearing.)

Traveling! Exploration = never gets old. Ramón and I love to travel. We’ll explore any new spot on the globe. But we do prefer burgeoning culinary meccas (read: where the excellent vino and chocolate flow ceaselessly from fountains — um, separate fountains).

Fast cars! I was driving a go-cart before I was writing on that paper with dotted lines. I am for anything with a motor and a steering wheel, but my deepest love is reserved for really nice, really fast cars. As it turns out, I’m currently training to be a race car driver. Amateur, that is. Ramón (of course) is, too.

Enough about me.  What do you think about me?

I kid! But, seriously, you can hear some of the gossip (from when I left the room) by going here.