Hello Sunshine,

How are you today? I hope whether it is sunlight, moonbeam or dark skies above, you are feeling showered with positive energy as you open this message!

On to the fun part! And this one is GOOD. Probably my favorite email ever.

I've been pulling some late nights recently. Which of course means 10 or 11pm - BUT as someone who was a former pre-dawn riser and practically immobilized post 7pm, this feels reasonable. And current situation (getting sales open for the pumpkin oat bars) calls for some temporarily long hours. 

Being up later and longer means I need to eat more. But it is an odd hunger; one more triggered out of awareness and not physical need. One that is fighting against both adrenaline pumping and pure exhaustion.  It would be super easy to exploit this and just not eat, but I've found I sleep, function and feel so much better the next day when I have a snack. Even when I am bone crushingly tired and just want to crawl into bed. Or so wired that my appetite is gone.

At times like this, it truly is as simple as it looks - a small low sugar Greek yogurt (not fat free) and berries. Sometimes a drizzle of peanut butter. It's not to check a volume/fullness box but rather nourishment. Self care to remind my body I'm listening. Satiety so I don't wake up ravenous. And this small but intentional shift with a late night snack is paying dividends for me.

Recently, in another random-yet-radical act of self care, I started singing songs to myself. Not like, singing along but actually singing them to me. Allowing them to sink into me like a love letter, to myself.  Mostly I visualize letting the lyrics wash over a former version of myself; the child or the adolescent who needed to hear things she never did. This may sound roll-your-eyes silly but I challenge you to try it. Pick a song - ANY SONG you love. Maybe it's one you've always loved, one that just jumped to the top of your summer playlist or even one randomly playing on the radio now - that's how wild this exercise is. How does it feel when you repeat those lyrics meaningfully to your younger self?

If you feel moved, would you be willing to share what song stirred something up inside you? I'll start with two I heard driving to target TODAY: Imagine Dragons 'Follow You' and 'What Else Can I Do' from Encanto. Still got chills.

Quietly letting you in on a little secret because as an email subscriber, you are one my bestest best friends...the Pumpkin Oat Bars are live and available for purchase. Cat has sort of been out of the bag because I need them live on my shopify in order to test the shipping, but there was no formal announcement. And sweet ReBecca here, as you can see, figured it out and made the first official purchase! I am thrilled to report that her order will out for delivery in the morning!

WHY am I not screaming this from the rooftops?

Well, I'll let you in on some behind the scenes insight...launching something with so many moving parts is HARD AF. Particularly at a time when there are shortages of everything and shipping moves both an exorbitant rate and...glacial pace. So I was hesitant to take orders and keep you waiting for too long. But I DO have enough of the protein version to begin shipping ASAP! The version without protein powder will be ready to go in a few days. So I'll begin here with a soft launch and see about inventory before I make the big IG announcement.

Additionally, for a limited time, either purchase will also include a free download of Food for Thought, my most recent recipe/storytelling creation as a small thank you to anyone offering their continued support. And if you already have that one, please email me and I can share a different digital creation with you - you're choice on my page.

My friend, I am shaking as I close this email, about to hit send. This next terrifying step in my expansion was unimaginable to me less than 3 months ago. Heck, my social media presence barely existed 3 years ago.

But since I started sharing recipes, people asked all the time for me to mail them or bake them a batch of pumpkin oat bars and I just laughed - haha sooo ridiculous, right?!

Until my good friend Kelly sat me down. Between her inexplicable belief in me (sharing a text below that I refer to daily) and her extraordinarily generous dispensation of business knowledge, I am here now, ready or not.

I hope you all have a Kelly in your life. If you don't - you've got me. I am here for all the positivity.

Thank you if you've made it this far. As usual, I've managed to drone on FAR longer than I intended. I promise they won't all be this long. The goal is more bite-sized tidbits, so we'll see if I can do better next week. 

Warmly,

Katie

P.S. Have you checked out the Favorites and Discounts section on my website latey? The codes switch up from time to time, as do the products (like this one and this one), so take a moment to check it out and see if I can offer you savings on anything you may be in the market for!

T H E  F I N E  P R I N T

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G E T  I N  T O U C H

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katie@empowernutritioncoach.com

@katiecrokus