Today I interview Katie Tallo from Momentum Gathering.What first attracted me to Katie's blog was her brilliant and creative use of metaphors. It's simply amazing and so is she!
Katie Tallo seeks to inspire simple, joyful life change through her blog, Momentum Gathering. She seeks to live creatively through her career as a writer, filmmaker, editor, motivator, volunteer and entrepreneur. And she seeks to learn, love and live a mindful and healthy life. Katie lives in Ottawa, Canada with her husband and daughter.
Katie I hear you have a new ebook coming out October 25! What inspired you to write The 7-Week Life Cleanse: A Simple Guide to Infusing Your Life with Momentum?
I was initially inspired to write the cleanse because I love cleanses. Food cleanses, that is. They make me feel energized. They sharpen my awareness and usually, each time I cleanse, I adopt one new habit, one small change that added together becomes big change in my life or “momentum”.
As I began to write about simple, joyful life change on my blog,The 7-Week Life Cleanse felt like a way to offer people very specific tools for change, not just words of inspiration. I wanted to give them something super useful that they could engage with each week. I also love workbooks that challenge me to take action and thought other people might find this engaging too.
I know you're a runner and a vegan from reading your blog Momentum Gathering. Will you tell us more about your healthy lifestyle?
Well, I wasn’t always this way. Like I said, small changes have added up to a completely different lifestyle for me. Five years ago, I was an overweight smoker who didn’t eat well or exercise. I felt bad about myself and my choices. My body and brain felt sluggish and I began to have health issues.
I asked around and a diet change was in order. Give up meat, dairy, wheat, and alcohol. That’s what I was told would help me get healthy. So I did and I felt great. The weight started coming off.
I took up yoga and that gave me the energy and focus to quit smoking. That made me feel even better and I quit drinking. Then I started running. I could run for about two minutes when I started. Now I run 5K every other day.
Momentum just kept building as I started making small, daily, healthy choices. I’m not perfect, and still bounce back and forth from a vegan diet to a vegetarian diet, but I’m living very differently from how I was five years ago. The cleanse is my way of sharing some of the questions I asked myself and insights I gathered during that time.
Do you have any advice for someone who is just beginning to eat healthy and exercise?
I think it’s important to do what feels right for your body. Some people feel good eating meat, some don’t. Some feel good doing yoga, some playing soccer, some running. Find your thing. Be kind to yourself, take it slow at first, mix it up, add activity to each day – stairs, walking, gardening, biking. And, breath, smile and soak in the joy of fueling your body with really good food and energizing movement. If it’s not joyful, then it’s not going to be sustainable.
Is there a defining moment in your life that changed everything?
There are several turning points. The moment my daughter was born I discovered there is a kind of deep love that I didn’t know was possible. A fierce, protective, painful, wonderful love. Mother love.
When I let go my filmmaking career to take a break, I altered my trajectory towards a path of self discovery and spiritual growth.
When I started blogging, six months ago, my life changed again, and I suddenly knew what I felt like, for the first time, to find my calling. Love, letting go, trying new things and sharing are my guiding principles now.
What legacy will you leave behind?
I’d like to guide my child towards a healthy, joyful, loving life. I’d like to inspire her and others to make meaningful change in their lives. Someone wrote a comment recently on my blog about how much I had eased her pain. I felt a rush of gratitude for my life. I had served one person. I hope to serve more. A legacy sounds rather grand, but if it means helping many more, then I’ll take it.
I heard from Mary R that you were going to Blog World. Can you share with us 3 of the important things you learned?
I learned that people are exactly as they are on their blogs. Just as wonderful and giving as their words. I learned that you can grow to love a good friend like a sister in just four days. I learned bloggers are a generous, intelligent and amazing bunch of people who are trying to change the world through positivity, enthusiasm and collaboration. Blogworld rocks!
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Love this interview. I love Katie’s approach – incremental. It’s so satisfying to make small steps and to see what works based upon how you feel rather than these approaches that are wholesale change outs. Thanks for sharing the inspiration.
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