Why did you become a health coach?
When I was 20 I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, which is an autoimmune disease that affects your colon. If you aren’t familiar with it let me put it to you this way….you basically get to be on the toilet ALL THE TIME! Which, is super sexy when you’re in college, trying to be carefree and looking for a cute guy. The diagnosis made me feel unbelievably alone and isolated, not to mention unattractive and spiteful towards my body. All my friends were out having fun, letting loose, while I was scrutinizing everything that went into my mouth so I wouldn’t spend the whole day in the bathroom. No fun!
I saw countless doctors to help fix this “problem” and each simply gave me a different prescription, wished me luck and said, see ya! And, like a good patient, I did as I was told…with zero results! I kept asking “what should I be eating?” and their answer was always the same: “It doesn’t matter.” How could food not make a difference when healing a digestive disease? I began reading countless books on digestive wellness to see what other people with ulcerative colitis were doing to heal. I made a few experimental dietary changes and within a month I experienced tremendous improvements! Not one way of eating worked for me, but through good, well-sourced eating combined with intense (sometimes painful) spiritual growth, I found how to keep my symptoms at bay.
After 3 years of being asked by friends and co-workers, “How can I get clear skin like you?,“ How do you have so much energy?,” “What are you eating?” I decided to use my journey to help others get in touch with their own truths on how heal and live amazing lives. I enrolled at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, become a certified Health & Lifestyle Coach and I’ve never looked back!
What is the most rewarding part of being a health coach?
I LOVE seeing the change women experience when working with me. To start out with a busy, frantic, career-drive lady who has poor body image, sugar cravings, and low energy and see her become a kale-loving, self-care diva whose business only grows as she takes better care of herself is unbelievable. Magical, actually.
Speaking in conferences and workshops also feeds my soul as I can affect change among hundreds of people at at time. It’s incredibly empowering and gratifying to see the light bulbs going off in people’s heads and see that spark of acknowledgement as I give them the simple tools to crack open their worlds and see food in a completely different way.
What kind of clients do you work with? What kind of clients come to Jamie Living?
My clients are those overworked, stressed, strung out business women who simply can’t do it anymore. They are living a life they thought they wanted and now they are drowning. Too much work, too much pressure, too much go, go go and they are sick of it. On top of all of that they have this never-ending dialogue in their heads that says, “I don’t know what to eat, I hate my body, why don’t I fit into my skinny jeans, I used to be cute and now I’m not!” The women I work with are sick of the mental and physical merry-go-round and are ready to make some serious change.
How do I know I’m ready to make change?
You know you’re ready when everyday when you say something along the lines of “I’M SO OVER THIS!” You know you’re ready when you’re sick of feeling like crap, eating on the run, treating yourself like s**t, beating yourself up, hitting a wall at 2 pm and grabbing a diet coke that totally wigs you out. That’s when you’re SO ready!
How is a nutritionist different from a health coach?
A health coach not only focuses on what you need to eat but how, when and why you eat it. Together we focus on your food but also what I call your “primary foods” – your relationships, spirituality, career and physical activity. When your primary food is out of whack, we look to secondary food (cookies, cake, ice cream) to fill the void. Sound familiar? With a health coach you get a food guru, nutritionist, personal trainer and life coach all rolled into one. What’s better than that?!?
How are YOU different from other health coaches?
My number one concern is making our work together WAY too much fun! We laugh, we cry, we dance, we get down to business and we make major out-of-this-world change without pain, deprivation or willpower. Yes, this is seriously awesome stuff! I’m also fully and completely invested in creating a program that works for you! I could tell you to eat seaweed, radishes and mushrooms but if you don’t like those things we aren’t going to get anywhere. My job is to understand you, how you live and create a system that will works within your life. Not a diet that you go on and fall off but a lifestyle that you want to stick with forever.
Most importantly, I bring spice, flava’ and spunky personality to it. Food and eating is very personal and we can often get SO serious about it. However, trying new food and self-care tricks are fun! It’s an opportunity to break out of that shell that you think you need to be in, take some chances and be bigger than you ever thought you could be.
Making change sounds like a lot work.
If you are working with someone and their recommendations feel like a lot of work, you are working with the wrong person. What makes working with me different is that I break things down into easy, manageable pieces. That’s why I work with my clients for 4 months rather than just sitting down and banging it all out in 1 hour. Our sessions are a jazzy combination of going at your comfortable pace and me pushing you just a little bit 
It’s a combo made in heaven and a guaranteed formula for food and body lovin’ success.
What can I expect from working with you?
The ladies I work LUV to laugh! If you like to throw your head back and let out a cackle, I want to work with you. If you take things way too seriously and feel there is no hope for you, it will be hard for us to work together.
You’ve got to be open to vulnerability. Working with me means you are open to having someone else take the reins. I will take over and will help you figure out everything that is bothering you – and I mean EVERYTHING. Those things that you think you have a handle on, where everything is fine and then they sneak up and bite you in the a**, yeah, we will even handle those things! The goal is for you to relax, let go and let me steer you in the right direction. This is NOT easy – especially for a strong, driven woman like you. It can be hard to let go and get support but trust me, I’ve got it down. This is my specialty so you can be awesome at all that you do.
You must be open to being compassionate towards yourself. Self-deprecating, driven, business women are rarely compassionate with themselves. You might not have compassion for yourself right now but you are open to the possibility of treating yourself like a queen.
Lastly, I expect you to value yourself. Health coaching is something we always put on the back burner because we think we can simply figure it out alone. However, if you could figure it out alone, you already would have. I’m here to tell you that a) you really DO need support and b) if you keep your wellness on the back burner you will never be happy with your food, your body, your business or your lifestyle. It is time girlfriend to put yourself first!
Besides 1:1 coaching, what other services do you offer?
There are a number of ways for you to work with me depending on your needs and goals. To make it extremely easy for everyone to get access to eating well and living your best life, here are your options:
- Fantastic Food Fix- You and me all day long, baby! I show up in the morning and we do a Perfect Pantry Prep where I show you all the fabulous things you want to put in your pantry and a few things you might want to take out. Then we go to your favorite grocery store or the farmers market and have a shopping spree. Then, we go back to your place and cook a delicious meal together with all the amazing foods we just bought. Super fun!
- Speaking- I speak to women’s groups, offices and conferences on a variety of wellness and food topics. Please contact me directly to get more information on how I can get your group feeling fabulous and loving every bite.
- Cookbooks and Jamie shwag – I love me some food and the best way to get some good cookin’ inspiration is with my Spring Forward to the New You and Savor the Holidays while Saving your Sanity cookbooks. Also, my Quit the Sugar Fix and Best Secrets for Eating Well at the Office teleclasses are great way to get immediate (and awesome) wellness info with the click of a button. See, click!
What are other people’s experiences with you?
Read stories from my fabulous and gushing clients here.
