We recently connected with Christina Dennis and have shared our conversation below.

Christina , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

At 40, I decided to leave my 20-year career in tax and accounting to go back to school and pursue my passion of becoming certified in health coaching and functional nutrition. As an introvert it was extremely daunting to put myself out there in a fully client facing career and give up my old job and steady stream of income for a new unknown journey. On top of the reward of helping people in this growing field, I knew it would be such a good opportunity for my own personal growth. It was (and still is) scary but has been the most rewarding thing I have done for my career and from a personal growth perspective.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I became a health coach because I am passionate about helping people live healthier lives and supporting them through the process. I’ve seen first-hand the impact nutrition can have on our health and believe that being healthy shouldn’t have to be hard. Most people have an idea of what is needed to be healthy, but lack the resources needed to make and maintain changes.

Prior to becoming a health coach, I earned a BS in Accounting and MS in Taxation and Financial Planning from Northeastern University. I spent 5 years working in public accounting and quickly burned out from the long hours and poor work-life balance. After leaving public accounting I moved into a single-family office setting, continuing to focus on accounting and tax. I worked there for 10 years until team changes and family goals made this position no longer a good fit for me. I continued to consult privately in the tax and accounting field, but still felt unfulfilled career-wise.

My personal journey towards health led to my passion for food, its powerful nutritional and medicinal values, and the role it plays in health and disease. I wanted to be able to provide this information and guidance to others who may be on a health journey like my own, so I decided to head back to school to obtain my Health Coach Certification and Functional Nutrition Training through mindbodygreen.

So how did I transition from a tax nerd to a functional nutrition health coach? After college I worked in public accounting, focusing on high-net worth individual taxation. For about ½ the year I lived at the office. I was at a desk for 12-14 hours a day, didn’t exercise, ate poorly, didn’t sleep enough, and got by on take-out and energy drinks. After 5 years my body was begging me for a change. I agreed and decided to work for a former client and build out his single-family office. The hours were much more manageable, I loved what I was doing, and I was able to start to spend more time focusing on my health.

I struggled with tension headaches that turned into migraines daily since my junior year of high school. When the daily Excedrin fix wasn’t working anymore, I saw a neurologist who was quick to put me on prescription medications. The medication helped for a while, but also made me lose too much weight, didn’t address the cause of the headaches, and instead just put a band-aid on the problem. When my husband and I decided we were ready to start a family I did a lot of research and decided it was ideal to stop the medication prescribed for headaches (and anxiety) prior to getting pregnant. I now had to find the root cause and a new solution for dealing with headaches, migraines, and anxiety. After lots of research, I decided to remove processed foods and switch to an organic, whole food diet. Soon after transitioning to a new way of eating, I was able to live without daily headaches and medication. It was amazing and eye opening.

Once I got into health and nutrition I was hooked. I continue to practice a minimally processed, whole food, lifestyle for myself and my family and we make as many of our meals and snacks as possible. It takes a little bit of time and energy, but I enjoy it and it works for us. This doesn’t mean there haven’t been some speed bumps along the way. I’ve run into some additional health problems along this journey, but I’ve been able to manage my symptoms through nutrition, lifestyle changes, and supplementation. I have seen firsthand how important putting the proper things in (and on) your body is, and hope that I can help others on their own personal health and wellness journeys.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

Recognizing that each person is unique in how they react to certain foods, exercise, and the toxins and stresses of everyday life. What works for one person does not necessarily work for another. I believe that when we work with our body instead of against it, amazing things can happen. By working together with an individual to review their unique physiology, how body systems impact one another, lifestyle, and even life experiences, we can understand the root cause of things. Given the right tools and environment I believe that the body can heal itself.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Plans don’t always work out as intended. Sometimes you can do everything right and things still go wrong. This is especially difficult for a Type A planner personality to hear! I don’t feel there is a single backstory for this lesson, but instead a lesson that I encounter regularly and continuously. I knew my junior year in high school that I wanted to go into tax and accounting. I went to college for accounting and got my masters in tax. Got burned out in the industry so I shifted to a different position that I loved and thought I’d be at forever. Then people and the environment changed so it was no longer a good fit for me. I learned that I also changed. I grew and was a different person than I was 10 years earlier when I first started the job. We are all on a journey of greatness and sometimes it’s better that things don’t go as planned, even if it doesn’t feel that way at the time. In the moment it can be stressful and seem like things can’t go right but trust yourself and this path you’re on. Looking back on my life, if I had followed my original plan, I wouldn’t have met my husband or had the beautiful family and life I have today. I also wouldn’t have followed my passion and been on this path to help people on their own health and wellness journeys.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.christinadenniswellness.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinadenniswellness/