Another ATTN: KatieDid

[TarHeelMom]

Katie --

I, too, am very intrigued by the cardio-intensive eight-week workout you did to lose 20 pounds. A couple of questions --

1 -- May I include this in our Rotations Volume 4, and would you like to elaborate with any notes, pointers, substitutions for your rotation?

2 -- What did your diet look like during the 8 weeks? I figure you stuck to clean eating, but did you change anything, like calorie intake or carb-protein-fat ratio?

By the way, I am a retired lawyer now working as a corporate trainer and educator -- do you still practice and if so what kinda law? I was a trial lawyer with a big firm for 8 years and then as a working mom moved in-house to do telecommunications transactional law for several years. I could see going back to it someday but for the moment I'm all lawyered out. Just interested in your experience.

Kathy S.

 

[KatieDid]

Kathy - I'm thrilled to think that that work out could be considered a rotation. Of course you may use it. Mostly I kept detailed food and exercise records and the only thing special I did was use HMR shakes as a supplement (I'm not a good snacker).

I've been a JAG for the last 12 years. 5 years on active duty and 7 years in the Reserves. I recently had to quit though because of the weight. It broke my heart. The last 3 years I've also been a civilian torts attorney for the Army. But I'm moving to Germany with my family next month and I don't know what I'll do next. My true love is medical ethics and health law, but I seem to have a talent for helping others set up home-based businesses. Do you like training? How does it compare stress wise to trials? I hate being in court, but I spent 4 years doing a lot of child abuse prosecutions and I got burned out. Even now I feel guilty because I'm not able to stop it all!

Tell me more about your experiences. Have a great Sunday!

Katie

 

[TarHeelMom]

Hi Katie!

Hi there -- quick response!!

What an interesting career you've had so far! I went to law school at UVA and of course the JAG school is there, so I had many classmates who went on to become JAG lawyers. It fascinates me. And how exciting that you're going to get to live in Germany for a while. I always thought it would be fabulous to live in Europe for a time, but life didn't work out that way (yet ).

I love working as a corporate trainer. When I was a practicing lawyer, especially in trial law, my favorite part of the job always was the educational component -- teaching my clients what was going on, teaching younger lawyers who were assisting me, writing explanatory briefs and "teaching" my side of the story to the court/jury/opponent. I am now working as a trainer for a high-end women's fashion design company, and believe it or not the gist of my job is teaching women how to set up (from the ground up) and run a home-based direct-sales business wherein they'll display and sell my employer's very expensive clothes. My partner and I teach everything from "A" -- how to get your business license, checking account, sales tax ID number, MasterCard/VISA privileges -- to "Z" -- knowing your product, displaying it, "romancing" it, fitting it, selling it, delivering it, re-closing the sale upon delivery, and handling the post-sale bookkeeping and paperwork. We also teach four times a year at the company's training institute in Pittsburgh. It is sometimes hectic work, but it's a blast. I am SO enjoying giving other women the tools and the confidence they need to set themselves up sucessfully as "CEO's" of their own small companies.

This couldn't be farther from the stress level of my law practice. At the end, last year about this time, I was working way too many hours on high-stress deals with big money and short deadlines at stake. It just *&#% near killed me. Then this other job offer just materialized, and I took a leap of faith and a cut in pay which has resulted in an INFINITELY improved lifestyle. Sometimes, as my mother says, God drops an anvil on your head. Glad I listened.

Maybe moving to Germany is your jumping-off point to re-thinking what you love to do and what your skill set really is. I know that I've learned from this job that I really am good at teaching, and it's really focused my attention on what it was about law practice that motivated me. (And what didn't.)

While I could see returning to law someday, I'm now thinking that I'd approach it differently -- I can't see myself returning to the "box" of what I used to do. This new job's given me the mental freedom to think outside that box -- to consider how I could use my training and long experience as a lawyer combined with my love of teaching. I might take a traditional teaching position, for example, in a high school doing an introductory "business law" class for young people, or I might sign on as a lecturer at one of the colleges in this area that offer evening law-related classes to businessmen and women. Who knows -- at this point I feel totally open-ended!

Would love to hear more from you -- e-mail me anytime at [email protected]!

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Kathy S.