We recently connected with Jordana Edelstein and have shared our conversation below.

Jordana , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

Prior to working as a nutrition, behavior and body image coach I had 2 other careers. Right after college I worked in advertising for 10 years, with a successful career working on brands like Folgers and Hershey’s chocolate. After my son was born I followed a personal passion and did a major career switch to start teaching yoga. Over time, I blended yoga with strength training, mobility and somatics, creating a really unique style of practice and movement that didn’t really exist anywhere else. I built my own successful business, teaching classes and privates in my home and then online.

But behind the scenes, I was really struggling. Over the course of those 15+ years, and during my college years leading up to it, I was dealing with severe disordered eating and body image issues. Constantly jumping from one diet to another, in a never ending search for what I believed was a weight and a body that would make me happy. Cutting out carbs, sugar, bread. Fasting for days at a time. Spending money on ridiculous weight loss shakes and supplements. Obsessively tracking every morsel of food that went into my mouth. Crying in my closet when my belly would roll over the top of my pants and I couldn’t fit into the largest size in the store.

I lived like this for nearly 20 years. Until I worked with two different coaches, both of whom helped me learn skills around food rather than how to follow the rules of a diet. That experience was transformative–I never thought I would be able to have leftover cake in the fridge or fries on my plate without obsessing over them. But I learned how to and it changed everything for me.

Well, as the saying goes, your mess becomes your message. I wanted to be able to support other women who had struggled with food and body image the way I had. This way of living has become so normalized in our culture and yet women are suffering everyday, engaging in abusive self talk and restricting food to the extreme detriment of their physical AND mental health. And it’s just not ok.

So I began my continuing education to become a coach. The transition from teaching movement into coaching was seamless, because I had spent so many years helping women become more connected to their bodies through movement. And now I was helping them use those same skills to rebuild their relationship with food. Just as I had done for myself.

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?

Most nutrition coaches have a look–thinner, smaller, lots of visible muscles, flat stomach. But that’s not me. I wear a size 12 with a soft belly that rolls over my pants. I love being able to represent a body type, especially in the health & wellness space, that barely gets any air time and is usually perceived as unfit and unhealthy. Because health & fitness doesn’t have a look.

After years of excruciating yo-yo dieting, strict food rules and debilitating body shame, I help women finally build the self trust to eat and exercise in a way that feels amazing instead of white knuckling through the latest diet and working out to burn off last night’s pizza.

I’ll help you discover the weight and size you feel your best at by learning what it means to be hungry and full. By learning to enjoy exercise rather than using it for punishment. By figuring out what foods make you feel nourished, satisfied and satiated.

After coming out on the other side from years of my own hard fought battles with failed diets, disappointment and humiliation, and working with countless women who have been through the same misery, I know what works and I know what doesn’t.

One on one coaching offers women the permanent answer to your relentless struggles with food, dieting, weight and body image. We work together to create a lifestyle where you eat what you love and love what you eat, end the guilt and fear around food and finally find the weight and body you feel most comfortable in using my Eat with Ease framework.

In Eat with Ease personalized coaching we work on skills in three key areas:

1. What, why and how to eat so you can lose weight without counting calories and feel at ease around food

2. Behavior change so you can make the changes you know you want and need to make and finally stick with them

3. Body image fundamentals so you can shift the way you see your body and feel at ease in your skin.

This is a huge shift from the way most women have approached food through strict rules and diets which trap us in an all or nothing mindset. Coaching supports you to learn the skills of what, why and how to eat so you can feel at ease around food and in your body. Skills allow you to make thoughtful, intentional choices in any situation so you never end up stuck in “screw it” mode or “being good” mode.

Coaching also focuses on skills to improve how you feel about your body and the way it looks, because our appearance is inextricably linked to our relationship with food. Learning how to respond to your thoughts and reframe old stories are two key skills we learn and practice that help you find more neutrality around your body.

Fat loss happens as a side effect of learning all of these skills–which means your self worth no longer rides on whether or not the scale goes down, but rather on your ability to make choices around food and your body that are in alignment with your values. Taking a values based approach to this work helps eliminate all of the rules and pressure and expectations that we are so conditioned to believe.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Referrals are everything. This work is deeply personal and long term which means the coach/client relationship is key to success. I take on a limited number of 1:1 clients to ensure I can give each person the time, energy and attention they need and want. Giving clients the right balance of support and autonomy is crucial to their ability to learn and practice the nutrition, behavior and body image skills for long term change. The trust and rapport we establish makes them feel comfortable referring me to their friends and family and then provides a great foundation for that new relationship to begin.

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

Consistency. Showing up for my community with helpful content on a regular basis. I offer MANY free resources including my Instagram account where I post daily stories, a weekly podcast called The Diet Diaries and a weekly email offering personal stories, client stories, skills to try and helpful resources. There is SO much noise and clutter out there that showing up with a clear, consistent message for my community makes a huge impact.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jordanaedelstein.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanaedelstein/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordana-edelstein-2813134/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jordana_edelstein
• Other: Podcast:
  https://jordanaedelstein.com/thedietdiaries

Image Credits

Lauren Anzevino