We recently connected with Claudia Alcantara and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Claudia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?
While working in hospitals as a Medical interpreter (English-Spanish), I saw how patients and families struggled to make changes to improve their health.
They had the intention to make healthy changes, but the underlying issue was their relationship with food. That’s when I realized there was a need for a different approach. I decided to get certified not only as an Integrative Nutrition coach, but also as an Mind-Body eating coach (Eating Psychology).
Now I help create the conditions for women to heal and transform their relationship with themselves and with food. In my Live To Thrive Coaching programs, I guide and support them to overcome binge & emotional eating, chronic dieting, negative body image, so they embrace Food Freedom and Body Confidence.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Sure! I’m originally from Guatemala and moved to Kansas City in 2013 with my husband. Moving to a new country, away from everything I knew – family, friends, and language – caused an amount of emotional stress that triggered an unhealthy relationship with food I already carried with me but chose to ignore. Food became my comfort and my punishment. To ‘fix’ it, I tried dieting, followed healthy meal plans, counted calories and macros, but that only made me feel restricted. I started overeating, binge eating, purging, and doing long fasting periods.
All the ‘healthy’ things I was doing were affecting my physical, mental and emotional well-being.
After healing my relationship with food and body, I decided to use my knowledge and experience in Nutrition and Eating psychology to help women who are struggling with Chronic dieting, Compulsive/Binge and Emotional eating, and Negative Body Image so they can also embrace Food Freedom and Body Confidence.
I’m particularly proud of the approach I developed in my coaching practice. Is a unique combination of food, lifestyle and mindset practices based on my unique background as an Eating Psychologist and Nutritionist, my knowledge in lifestyle medicine, and my experience coaching dozens of women to overcome yo-yo dieting, binge eating, emotional eating, orthorexia, and negative body image.
Here, my clients are empowered with easy to practice strategies that they can carry throughout their life without adding stress or more things to do (aka counting calories, hours at the gym, tracking macros, or going long hours without eating). My clients are able to eat intuitively and with confidence, without losing control, or feeling stuffed, guilty and ashamed.
We achieve this by working with your body’s natural rhythm, lifestyle and your food preferences so you can find your natural, healthy weight.
Also, we get to address your emotional connection with food and body, that means your experiences, thoughts and beliefs, which have a great impact on your emotions, actions, and your food choices. From here, we create lasting changes without relying on diets or willpower. This is what most programs are missing, and make it hard to stick to them, they never address the root cause, that emotional connection you have with food, they only cover symptoms with diets, restrictions and exercise.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
What I’ve found works well with my clients is creating and growing my email list.
Due to the nature of my business and the topic I talk about, many of my clients feel safer replying directly to me, not publicly. By giving value, creating free guides, trainings, webinars where they learn about how to overcome eating challenges is a great way to collect their email and keep them informed about upcoming events and special offers.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your firm or practice?
Back in the day, I was still working as a medical interpreter in a local hospital in Kansas City, that definitely helped cover my training and certifications. At the same time, I partnered up with a physician specializes in Lifestyle medicine. He referred patients to me, and I’d coach and follow up with them virtually once or twice a month. The income I made from that side hustle became the initial capital to start Live To Thrive Coaching.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ilivetothrive.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livetothrive_coaching/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ceam.1904
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/claudia-alcantara-LTT
- Youtube: @livetothrivecoaching