We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Abigail Parker a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Abigail thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. 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.

I went to college for a job in healthcare because I thought that was the place to help people. I was excited to land an amazing job as an MRI technologist at a children’s hospital right after graduating. I was determined to be great at my job. Within 2 months of starting, my boss announced he was leaving. In that moment, I knew that that’s what I wanted – to be the boss.

Of course, only having 2 months of job experience meant that I was nowhere near ready. Can you imagine having someone fresh out of school as your boss!? I took it upon myself to learn everything I could and create opportunities for growth with my new boss. After a couple of years, again the position opened up. I still wasn’t sure if I was ready to take the leap when opportunity struck – they decided to add a lead technologist role. I was thrilled to further myself and my career in this new position.

I loved my job…but something happened. I found myself with more time spent at home and scrolling social media in 2020. All my life I had thought of food as just calories, but I started to see people on social media sharing about nutrients. I started to learn that the food we eat can make a difference for how we feel. Not just how we feel now, but how we feel years to come even. I learned that one particular ingredient can increase our risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. My grandpa passed away from complications due to Alzheimer’s, and it left a lasting impact. This revelation was eye opening.

In 2020, my outlook on life changed. I started learning all that I could about nutrition and was fascinated watching people sharing on social media as their jobs. I realized I didn’t want to work my life away for someone else; I wanted to be my own boss like them. I wanted to help people, and I was being called to change people’s lives by helping them eat better. I already had started to see the difference it could make in my own life. I lost weight, stopped craving sugar, and had more energy because of how I was eating.

On New Year’s Eve 2021, I took a leap and signed up to go back to school for a nutrition certification from The Nutritional Therapy Association. I spent most of 2022 working my full-time job in healthcare while completing my education during any free time I had, keeping my eye on the prize. As soon as I completed my certification, I went for it. I quit my job that I had worked so hard for to change paths. I launched my own holistic nutrition business, ready to help as many people as possible. I cried when I signed on my first client.

I say I’m the crazy person who quit a stable career in order to start my own business. I’ve learned not to take life so seriously. It’s crazy to do things different; crazy, but so much more rewarding.

Abigail, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I didn’t used to care about nutrition. My favorite food was…well, anything sweet. Like most people, I thought normal things like cravings, bloat, acne, heartburn, joint paint, and fatigue were just…normal. As I found a passion to learn more about nutrition, I realized that symptoms like those are how our body communicates with us. It’s saying that something is off. We often look for a physical solution to those struggles, like an ointment or a pill. By learning to listen to our bodies and those symptoms, though, we can get to the root cause, support the symptom, and find lasting relief.

We have to eat, but the food we eat makes a difference in how we feel. Each food provides different nutrients – we need a variety of food and a variety of nutrients! It’s also important to eat enough for your needs. Not eating for your needs can result in cravings, fatigue, depression, anxiety, joint pain, and more. We have the power to take control of our health through the food we eat!

That’s really the driving force behind my decision to name my business Nourished Revival. If you think back to your grandparents, mealtime was special. It meant a homemade meal at the table with family. We’ve gotten away from that and often now barely make time to eat during our busy schedules. I see you skipping lunch during the workday! Nourished Revival is about getting back to finding that satisfaction and improving our lives through food.

I work with clients on an individual basis as a Certified Nutritional Therapy Pracitioner to help them improve their nutrition and overall health. I work virtually so that I can help a variety of people on their own time. People come to me with concerns, like those mentioned above, and we work together closely over 3 months to make simple nutrition and lifestyle changes that get them the results they long for. I help you get away from diet culture to eat for your body, heal your metabolism, and have more energy for the things you care about.

I focus on data and research to provide help, along with meeting every person where they are at currently. Working with me means we’re a team! I do the hard work to provide you with recommendations that can be of benefit, and you tell me what changes sound manageable for you. My goal is that after 3-months of working together, you both feel better and see through the data that you’ve made improvements, along with being able to continue maintaining all the changes made!

Balance is at the root of everything – even too much of a good thing can be bad! My personal struggles have better helped me to understand my client’s struggles. My sweet tooth used to rule my life. For years I thought that my cravings were all in my mind, and I needed to find self-control. I’d try to eat a half a brownie, then a whole one, and somehow I ended up eating 2. When I learned how to listen to my body and understand my sugar cravings, I finally ended the battle. I still love sweets, but I’m grateful to enjoy them now without feeling guilty about it!

When it comes to eating better, it’s really all about simple. Don’t try to change everything at once. I run a 3-month program because it’s easier to make changes step-by-step over time. When you try too much at once, you end up overwhelmed and doing nothing. Also, think simple when it comes to ingredients. The foods with fewer ingredients, like fruit, veggies, and meat, tend to have greater nutritional value. My last piece of advice is that when you eat, keep it simple by not multitasking and enjoy your food to get the most benefit from it!

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

My entire job is to say, I can help you. My education allows me to do the work, but the main thing required to succeed is the drive to make a difference for people. My business isn’t a brick-and-mortar location for people to drive by and see. It’s also not a common experience people are looking for. In order to succeed, I have to let people know – I can help.

When I first launched Nourished Revival, I was excited to think of working from home and just being on social media all day. After all, I had found my passion because of social media! However, I quickly came to realize that it wasn’t all I had hoped for. I felt like I was talking to everyone but no one at the same time by just sharing information.

While I enjoy the idea of helping infinite people through social media, I love getting to have actual conversations and connect with people! I offer free breakthrough sessions over video (or if you’re local to meet in person, coffee is on me!) with anyone interested in talking through their greatest struggles when it comes to eating better. It’s a true opportunity for me to provide help on a personal level without anyone having to commit to anything.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Within 2 months of starting my business, I ended up in the emergency department with an infection. There was an irony there, that I quit my job in healthcare to almost immediately be on the other side as a patient. Stress is a root cause of the majority of illness and disease, and it caught up to me. I was stressed most of the year working full-time while completing my education, stressed to learn how to start a new business, stressed to newly be taking on clients during the final days at that job – lots of stress.

It seemed that as quickly as I was excited to be starting this new business, it was all I could do to keep going with it. For almost a month, I stayed on the couch, even completing client calls from there. I had discomfort and pain whether I was sitting or moving, and it wore down on my mental health. As joyful as I was to have clients, I quit putting myself out there to get more. I quit doing anything other than the bare minimum I had to.

It’s easy when life feels hard to accept defeat. I felt like any traction I had gained in my business was gone, and it was as if I was starting over. I felt like a failure for just sitting there. It seems silly to think about now since I was dealing with an issue bigger than me. When you’re struggling, though, you have to work to be positive. The good things in life don’t happen without the bad. We know that there are only 2 options when we get knocked down: give up or pick yourself back up and keep moving forward. I’m grateful to have my husband, Zach, who’s helped me to see to keep moving forward every time.

I came back stronger, ready to think of more ways I could help people. I put myself out there more to help people. I’ve done an online masterclass on sugar cravings, a public talk on nutrition and mental health, and have shared information on stress and wellness at events. The coolest thing happened right after I got back up, though – one of my client’s referred me to someone else. Even in my time of struggle, I had still been making a difference for her.

I’ve learned a lot about myself from starting my own business, but the 1 major thing is that I’m stubborn. Well, Zach has reminded me of how stubborn I am too, haha. Stubbornness is often looked down upon and thought of as a negative trait. The word tends to be used as an insult, telling someone how stubborn they are. It’s come to mean more in my house. It means you don’t give up. And as long as you don’t give up, you’re never failing.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nourishedrevival.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/nourished.revival
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nourished.revival1/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@nourished.revival