Dropping it all to pursue a dream of healthy living

Alene Brennan kept a revolutionary New Year's resolution: to create the career of her dreams.

"I made my decision on Jan. 2, 2014," recalls the Mount Laurel resident, 35, who had been a corporate communications professional for a dozen years.

"I gave my notice and put my house on the market. I quit, sold, and enrolled at the Natural Gourmet Institute in Manhattan. I found an apartment in Union Square and lived there for six months."

The 2002 Rowan University graduate, health coach, yoga teacher, and freshly certified natural gourmet chef returned to South Jersey last summer. She's since become a consultant with "What Nourishes You" as her slogan.

Brennan says she wants to help others make, and keep, resolutions to improve their quality of life through customized plans for eating better, reducing stress, and improving sleep.

She'll offer a free workshop Tuesday at the Mount Laurel Senior Center.

"It feels fantastic," Brennan says, aglow with enthusiasm across the table from me at a Starbucks near her home.

"Having all this training, but not taking the final step, was scarier than going for it," she adds. "I could live with failure. I could not live with regret."

From 2002 until last January, Brennan worked for firms including Campbell Soup Co., Aramark, and Virtua Health System.

She loved these jobs but had felt drawn to the art and science of healthful living since childhood, when brutal weekly migraines circumscribed her life. "It was upsetting," she says. "Very isolating."

The condition eased only after Brennan revamped her diet, combining a neurologist's recommendations for "trigger" foods to avoid, such as chocolate, with her own research about foods - natural and less processed - to embrace.

At her mother's suggestion, she also began practicing yoga; later, she became an instructor and also obtained health-coach certification.

"I crave knowledge," Brennan says. "And instead of just reading a book, I got training - so I could share the knowledge."

Doing so during a Virtua event in October 2013 - when she spoke to an audience about mindfulness - provided the inspiration to make the leap to independence.

"I felt alive when I was on stage, realizing that what I was sharing was helping other people," Brennan says. "It was an incredible feeling, one of those pivotal moments. And while it's never too late, I knew that the window of opportunity to pursue my dream was narrowing."

Says former colleague Kate Shields: "The word I would use to describe Alene is courageous.

"It's not easy to leave a comfortable corporate job that has a really good trajectory," Shields says from Plymouth Meeting, where she is president of Vault Communications.

"Alene is standing on her own two feet. And she's never been better."

Anyone who's ever kept a New Year's resolution - even one far more modest than self-reinvention - knows it's no small achievement.

"You don't have to quit your job and sell your house," Brennan notes. "You can take small steps."

Particularly given her experience with migraines - helping fellow sufferers is her new professional "sweet spot," she says - Brennan also knows that positive reinforcement can be more effective than its opposite.

Meanwhile, will she be dissuaded or disheartened by those who might suggest that her new career is new age - and that those who want to boost their happiness should simply buckle down and do it?

"I think eating good food and sleeping better mean getting back to our roots," Brennan says. "And they're right about 'Lace up your bootstraps.' I know all about bootstraps."