The Place:  Whole Foods

The Cup: Whole juice for both Kim and I.

The Background: You may recall a few cups back when Cup 87, Tom Rhodes described the most significant thing that’s happened to him in the last 30 days – he said he did the LoveLife Program. In the course of the program, he learned what foods made him feel good and which ones made him suffer, and his relationship with food changed for ever. He lost 17 pounds, realized what a stable energy level felt like, and lost cravings for food that didn’t serve him.

What Tom experienced is common. Kim Love gets to hear about it every day, and it fills her with joy. Kim is the founder of the LoveLife Program, and Tom suggested I get together with her to hear her story. I’m so glad I did. Like most successful businesses, Kim’s was born out of solving a problem – her own problem. We’ll get into Kim’s health struggles and her journey to wellness in just a moment, but first, some:

Common Grounds:

1. What’s a food you can’t live without? Chocolate – really high-quality chocolate. We’re thinking about making it one of our food groups in the program. One of my favorites is local and she just launched – it’s called Chocolate Pharmacy.
2. What is your guilty pleasure? Besides chocolate? Red wine. But it needs to be French, Italian or Spanish. California wine has a ton of sulfites and it keeps me up at night.
3. What is the best place to eat in Austin? So hard to say. One of my favorites is Lambert’s, which always surprises people because I don’t eat red meat. But they have the most delicious veggie sides and are always really accommodating. And such a fun vibe and a great happy hour.
4. What is the best gift you ever got? Being sick, because I learned so many things from it. It was really hard, but it was priceless. Because of it, I learned so much about myself, the LoveLife Program was started, and I have been able to work with so many amazing people. {More on that in just a bit.}
5. What’s your favorite way to unwind? Yoga. Or walking my dog, hanging out with a friend, grabbing diner with my guy – there’s a few. Another favorite is going to Barton Springs. There’s just something about the water. It doesn’t matter what kind of a day you’ve had, walking through that gate, the stress just washes away.
6. What is the most impactful book you’ve read? There are so many. One of my favorites is The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle. I love The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. And I read a really interesting book recently called Dying To Be Me, by Anita Moorjani.

Texas Roots

A native Texan, Kim Love was born in Dallas but moved around a bit as a kid and also as an adult. In addition to Dallas, her childhood was spent in Virginia, Atlanta and San Diego. As an adult, she’s lived in San Francisco, New York and for the last 14 years, has called Austin home.

Perhaps it was all this moving around that contributed to Kim’s sense of adventure. She talks about herself as a young person and says she was full of curiosity and hope. She was also quite sick.

Kim tells me that her business began when she was 12 years old. She had long suffered from a variety of health issues, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic bladder infections, endometriosis and allergies. When doctors couldn’t tell her what was wrong and the only solutions they could suggest came from their prescription pads, Kim decided to take charge of her own health. Her quest for wellness has been a long and winding road. She went on every diet – vegetarian, raw, macrobiotic – she read every book on health and nutrition, and not surprisingly, when she still hadn’t figured out the answers, she studied nutrition in college.

Kim earned a degree in nutrition, but no matter what she tried, she never felt 100%. She tells me her degree was great for giving her a scientific background on nutrition, but did little to heal her. In her twenties, she says friends knew her as the chick doing yoga, meditating and always doing cleanses – before all of that was en vogue.  She was doing everything right, it seemed. But she says the result was that she was the healthiest sick person she knew.

Roughly nine years ago, Kim woke up with a 100 degree fever that lasted a year. What? A year? Yep, it’s true. Kim says that even though she had never managed to cure all her ailments, she did have a good level of energy, and for the most part didn’t let anything slow her down. But the year of fever wiped her out. Almost immediately, she had no energy. She was exhausted every moment of the day, and had lost 20 pounds in the first weeks of the fever. She went to doctors who tested her for everything. Kim says it was a very scary time – not knowing if she had cancer or some other life threatening illness. $20,000 later, Kim’s doctors didn’t have any answers. In fact, the more they searched, the less they knew.

Through it all, Kim turned to the practices that had sustained her to help her manage the isolation and fear. She practiced yoga and meditation, and one day something clicked. Kim realized that the answer was in her yoga and meditation practices – tune in and listen to your body.

Kim immediately began an elimination diet – which was a lot harder at that time, because there was plenty of information about what to remove, but no suggestions for what to replace those foods with. She carried on with the process – and this program, which has been (and continues to be) fine-tuned and tweaked over the years, is the basis for the LoveLife Program.

It didn’t happen overnight, but not long after starting the program, Kim was a new woman. She felt better than she had in years. The fever finally left her and her energy was back. She was amazed – but even more amazed when she realized that for the first time in her memory, she was free from the digestive, bladder and allergic issues that had plagued her all her life. By listening to her body and tuning in to how certain foods made her feel, how they affected her energy levels, her emotions and her ability to manage stress, she was able to determine the perfect diet – for her.

Eventually, friends noticed how great Kim looked, how healthy she was for the first time ever and how radiant and full of life she was. They wanted to know what she was doing and how she could help them do the same. Kim generously helped her friends, and after about 6 months, realized she had a business and knew she had to find a way to make it available to anyone.

The LoveLife Program is built around the idea that every person is unique and that foods affect us all in different ways. No one can write a book about the perfect diet – because it doesn’t exist. Each person needs to figure that out for themselves, and the program Kim created makes it super easy for anyone who wants to take control. And thousands of people have! The business has grown massively and it’s 100% from word of mouth. I’d encourage you to visit the LoveLife Program website for more information and to read more of the LoveLife story. It’s remarkable!

Kim glows. That sounds kind of weird, I realize. But you all know someone like this, right? A person who seems to be lit up from within. And that light radiates from them and you can’t help but bask in the warmth of their glow.  The smile never leaves their face and you can see it in their eyes and hear it in their voice. Happiness. Serenity. Contentment. This is Kim.

If I had to take a gander at where it comes from, I’d give her clean lifestyle a huge nod, obviously. But I’d also say that Kim is living a life of purpose. She has found a calling that is so true and right for her and she spends her days living that mission.

When Kim described for me the book mentioned earlier, Dying To Be Me, she tells me it’s about a woman’s death from cancer and then her coming back to life and being fully cancer-free. OK, I know what you’re thinking…or at least some of you are, anyhow. Skeptics, like me, just tilted their heads to the side, re-read that line., “coming back to life” and thought, Uh huh. Sure! I know. But then if you’re also like me, instantly you feel kind of bad for rushing to judgement and immediately try to open your mind. Is it just me? Tell me it’s not. Well, in any case, what Kim said next got my attention.

Kim says the book was full of lessons about love and change. Kim says, “The book gets you thinking, are we living our lives with meaning and purpose, true to who we’re meant to be right here and now? Because that’s all we have is here and now. Are we living a life aligned with who we are?” That’s it. A Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups-free existence, paired with a life of meaning and purpose. Kim truly has it figured out.

Here’s an interesting fact about Kim. Her last name is Love – we already knew that. But guess when she was born? Valentine’s Day! How cool is that? I mean really, what choice did she have but to end up full of love and passion for life?

Kim’s not big on bucket lists. She says, “I’m an adventurous person, not a bucket list person. Right now, my big adventure is my business and figuring out how to scale it and help more people. But my partner and I both love to travel and he and I have a revolving list of travels we want to take. I think we were all born with an adventurous, playful spirit and it’s amplified in our youth and then it’s becomes challenging to keep it when life gets complicated by responsibilities. The key is to keep your sense of adventure.”

How about an issue Kim thinks is a big one impacting our society today? Kim says, “We’re living increasingly busy lives and we get caught up in the things around us rather than being connected to ourselves. We become more reactive, rather than centered and rooted in those places from which we derive meaning and purpose in life. Purpose is a practice; to make sure we’re taking time in solitude to reflect on those things that really matter and keeping our priorities in check.”

When I ask Kim about a practice that she feels contributes to her overall well-being, it’s her practice of daily spiritual reading, meditation and journaling. She tells me on days when she does it, her entire day is different. She says the practice tunes us in and allows us to notice what feels good and to better manage our daily stressors.

With 30 seconds to make a speech to the word, Kim’s message is this: “We’re all here with a unique genius and gift and we’re meant to realize that and share it with the world, our community and the people around us. We’re seeing a shift. People in their 20s are now taking jobs not because of the money, but because it aligns with their purpose. Companies are focused on operating by a set of core values and not just writing them on a wall somewhere, but actually hiring, firing and making decisions based on them. There is a need within all of us to feel connected to what matters and to tap into our greatest gifts. Realize and live that!”

Kim’s journey to wellness offers lessons for all of us. What are we filling ourselves with and does it serve us? From the food we eat, to the people we allow into our lives. From our daily habits and practices, to the goals we spend our working hours driving toward. Here and now. That’s all we have. It’s something we all nod our heads at upon reading, but something that’s often difficult to remember day to day.

Kim’s answers came by slowing down, getting quiet and listening to the voice within. There are no shortage of people willing to tell you exactly what to do, what to eat, how to pray, what to believe. But the truth is, no one can possibly know what’s true and right for you. Well, except you, of course. Tune in, be still and listen. The wisdom is there – always has been and always will be.