Living Healthy
Ready to make a change?
Let’s meet up and talk about your health.
“Jen made getting started so very easy. I brought the will to change and she gave me the steps to walk it out. I love how she slowly eased me into things … I never felt deprived or starving. Her methods and counsel worked! I’d highly recommend her to anyone seeking to change their relationship with food!”
-Happy Client March 2023
UPCOMING CLASS
Join me in my barn for a time of learning, exchanging ideas and finding new motivation in health for your family!
Your entire lifestyle defines your health.
What is the first thing you think of when you imagine health? Often we go straight for the numbers on the scale. Or we might even think of “healthy food” or working out or getting rid of some frustrating symptoms. While those are important factors, I believe most of us miss looking at the full picture. There are layers and layers of factors in each of our individual lives that define our very specific circumstance of “health”. And we often want a quick fix, rather than making slow change and seeking long-term results in attainable ways.
Let me help you with this! I offer a range of tools to help you begin to make change in your life in a sustainable and satisfying way.
One-on-one nutrition coaching with the goal of overall lifestyle improvement (we take a BIG look at your entire life and all the contributing factors)
Kitchen Pantry make-overs to teach you and your family to have the best foods at your fingertips for everyday habits
Hands on cooking classes in your home or mine
Group nutrition classes to inspire you and offer group support
Homesteading classes to teach you how to grow your own food and live off your land (even if you don’t have a farm!)
Family-based learning opportunities with cooking classes for kids and other creative ways to incorporate everyone in your home
Food intake is just ONE PIECE (an important one, but not the whole thing) of your health. We will work together to look at your whole life so we can get you and your family into whole health. And I think you’ll be excited about it! You’ll feel better and you’ll be in control of how you feel on a regular basis!
My journey as a nutrition professional
I am a registered dietitian (RD), accredited by the American Dietetic Association. This is a result of a BS in Nutrition and Dietetics from Seattle Pacific University, an accredited wellness-focused internship at Keene State College in New Hampshire and the passing of a national level exam to become registered. This registration requires on-going continuing education credits.
Certificate of Training in Adult Weight Management, Commission on Dietetic Registration, 2013
Certified Functional Nutrition Counselor, Functional Nutrition Alliance, 2023
Although I've kept my RD credentials up all these years, I always felt that the clinical side of nutrition and the education I received was very mainstream and lacked any sort of consideration for one's overall life and health in general. Most nutrition settings felt very stale to me and there always seemed to be an agenda to get people to eat a certain way to appease certain industries. I've always been interested in a more holistic approach and through the years have become passionate about alternative healthcare, essential oils, gardening/sustainability and most recently, natural remedies and preventative measures for immunity. I've been so saddened this past 18 months to see what has happened in healthcare and I hope to be a leader in guiding new healthcare practices for those of us that want to make our own choices and pursue a more natural approach to overall health.
My food story:
Nutrition in my own life has not always been easy and I spent many years very distracted by life, business stress and raising kids and pretty much let my own eating habits fall to the wayside. Every once in awhile I would jump on some sort of wagon and try to shed a few pounds, but it never lasted. A few years ago in 2019 I was introduced to intermittent fasting and finally found something that I saw results with. I realized how much my body was depending on a blood sugar spike to give me energy and intermittent fasting showed me that I could have a more balanced energy level through the day. As a dancer and runner most of my life, I also bounced up and down with commitment to my physical activity. That same year I finally made a more serious commitment to my running. And then in 2020 I decided I really needed a serious change to get rid of the extra weight I hung onto from my last pregnancy. I was frustrated and felt like I lived out of my own skin on most days. For me, what worked was a full-fledged keto diet for several months. I’m not a huge keto fan, but what I realized with this new eating style was that I spent most of my life eating A LOT of carbs, a significant amount of sugar and very few vegetables, despite what I knew was good for me! Even with all my nutrition knowledge, I still wasn’t doing it right! I committed to this new eating style for a year (well actually for 4 weeks, but I quickly realized I needed REAL CHANGE) knowing that I needed to lose the pounds and hold steady to reset my body weight. This takes slow and steady progress to retrain the body and teach it where it needs to stay. These days, I can say I eat “mostly keto”. I’m not a big fan of fad diets, but eating very low carb, grain free, sugar free and high protein diet with tons of vegetables seems to be a very good path toward overall health. I used to be bloated EVERY night before bed. I would feel miserable and looked 5 months pregnant at the end of each day. Now I rarely ever experience bloating and when I do, I pretty much know why. (because I probably nibbled on somebody else’s leftover grilled cheese sandwich or something!) Another really great outcome of this lifestyle change is that 6 months in, my husband jumped on board - not because I asked him to or told him to… he saw my results and wanted the same. This made it even better because now our whole family eats the bulk of our meals this way. Very little grain in house - mostly proteins, fats and veggies and a vast decrease in sugar intake overall. And while I know we don’t all have the same exact nutritional needs, I am excited to find ways for you to shape your eating habits to get you (and your family) on the road to health.