Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jennifer Kavanagh. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jennifer, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?

After spending 10 years in corporate America, I decided I no longer wanted the stress, pressure and long hours. For many years I was a chronic yo-yo dieter and binge eater. After leaving my corporate job and many years of fad diets and being overweight, I began to study nutrition and got certified as a Personal Trainer. I had no intention at the time of starting a business at the time. But when I actually learned how to lead a healthy lifestyle and how to keep off over 70 pounds, I decided I needed to help others that have struggled with the same things I had for so many years. I decided to give it a try and incorporated as Fitness For Women. I put out one ad and from there it just took off. I was able to convert my basement to a full gym and train clients in my home for many years as my kids grew up. After a few years, I branched out and got certified as a Nutrition and Weight loss coach. I changed my business name to Living Well Nutrition. Now I was in a position to help people get healthy, lose weight and learn how to live a healthy life with both fitness and nutrition. Again my business continued to grow simply through referrals and word of mouth. I continued to learn and grow helping hundreds of people lose weight, learn how to keep it off, improve their health and prevent long term disease. It has brought me such joy to walk along side others throughout their journey to health and help them reach their goals and succeed!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I think one of the biggest reasons for my success is that I can empathize with my clients. I am not just the skinny fit girl telling you what to do. I LIVED it. I was over 200 pounds at one time and I know what it feels like to be overweight, to be stuck in a cycle of poor eating, gaining and losing weight, low self esteem, feeling helpless and like a failure. I know how it feels and I was able to break the cycle. Now I can teach others how to reach their goals and finally find the long term success they have been desperately searching for. Helping others became my passion and mission in life. I think people recognize my passion and desire to help them succeed. I also don’t do a one size fits all plan. I treat each new client as an individual and meet them wherever they are in their personal journey. We find what works best for them and their personal goals. I create an individualized plan for each person and work one on one to help them find success. Mostly I want people to know that I care about each person I work with. I want nothing more than for them to succeed. One of my favorite stories is the day I reached out to a client and was met with shouts of joy as she had just weighed in and lost 100 pounds! It was life changing. She has kept almost all the weight off and has let me know it changed her life. She started dating again and got married. Now the couple cooks together and exercises together to keep the weight off and stick with their new healthy lifestyle. Not everyone loses that much weight. For many it’s just losing that last 15-20 pounds that they have felt stuck with for so long and have felt helpless to get off. Whatever their goals, I support them and give them the tools they need for success!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

After many years of chronic fad diets, obsessive exercise to recover from huge binges, I had to completely change everything I thought I knew about weight loss. I had to come to terms with the fact that there were no EFFECTIVE quick fixes. It was going to have to be about slow weight loss and small but sustainable lifestyle changes. I started with one small change and once that was mastered I continued to make more lifestyle changes I could maintain forever so I would not regain the weight I had lost. The difficulty came when clients came to me and always wanted fast easy weight loss. This really isn’t a thing. I had to convince each new client that they would get there eventually but it wasn’t going to be fast, at least if they want to keep the weight off. I started teaching lifestyle modifications. I tried to teach people that huge restrictions were NOT the way to go. What I had learned over the years was that severe restrictions ALWAYS lead to binges in some way and regaining weight. So I had to completely change my plan. Once I was able to convince people this was the way to go, they were much happier learning how to eat, exercise and live life while still enjoying the small pleasures they get from food and drink without huge restrictions. It was life changing for me and for many of my clients!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I had a job that I absolutely loved and one that I excelled at! Clients loved me and I loved being their coach. Sadly the environment became extremely toxic with a boss and other employees that made going to work every day ridden with anxiety and stress. I did not want to quit as I absolutely loved the job. Unfortunately I knew their were better opportunities out there. So sadly I had to resign from that position. I did not know what was to come and did not have anything else lined up at the time. But within a short time, I came across three new opportunities that were a better fit with better people and a better environment that made working fun and rewarding again. I learned that sometimes when good things end or a door closes, there is always a reason and most often something better waiting for you as long as you keep your eyes open and are ready for something new!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.eatplantsloseweight.com
• Instagram: @jenkavanagh
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/jennifer.maggiore.77/