My
story
hi, I'm jade.
I’ve spent most of my life being fascinated with how the human body works and what it’s capable of. I started changing my diet at 10 years old, when I went vegetarian for the first time. While it was originally “for the animals,” a fascination with health quickly developed. (It took me a while to learn that vegetarian does not equal health, lol, but that's how my journey started.) In my early teens I started having distorted thoughts about my body & developed an eating disorder. At 15 I got into bodybuilding, which thankfully taught me about macronutrients & the importance of protein, and helped me overcome some of those eating disorder behaviors.
my fascination with health was also my calling.
One of my very first jobs was at a local health food store, which combined with weight lifting lead me further down my health & fitness explorations. But It wasn’t until my loved ones started to get sick, that I understood that
Fast forward a few years, in my early 20’s, I found out my high school boyfriend was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. I was 100% convinced that eating better could give him a chance at life that the doctors said he didn’t have, but he wouldn’t listen to me. My thought at the time, was that if I had some letters after my name maybe he would have, so I set out on my quest for education. Even at that time, I could see how limiting our current nutritional education landscape was.
However, I became a certified health coach, convinced green juice, raw foods, and traditionally prepared grains were clearly the answer to all disease - as that’s what we were taught - that’s what all the gurus were saying - plus, everyone knows that we should eat more veggies...
I was completely convinced of all of this until I started to see it not working, over and over again. The answer from mentors was always that the client wasn’t following the diet - always the clients fault. Never the diet or protocol. But something didn’t seem quite right to me.
Things really changed after I met Ben. He was a 185lb of solid muscle, 25 years old, 8% body fat, lean and athletic.
He was an athlete, skateboarder, and MMA fighter.
He worked out and trained regularly, ate very clean, lots of veggies, grass fed meat, kombucha, and only sprouted, fermented, and/or ancient grains. I thought I had met my match.
After we got to know each other, we decided to go on a 6 week road trip down the west coast. Right before we left though, Ben started having some intense stomach pain, and went to the hospital. They didn’t see anything wrong with him, and sent him home telling him to take some Prilosec.
And that was the beginning of a long 3 years.
"I was completely convinced of all of this until I started to see it not working, over & over again."
As we started out on our road trip, the stomach pain persisted, mostly after eating. He wasn’t recovering well and had a hard time keeping up. We kept up our clean diet even on the road, stopping and cooking our food over camp fires. By the time we got to the end of our trip, he had lost 40lbs. We didn’t see it on the day to day, but when he stepped on the scale and saw that number, it was quite a shock. Mind you, this wasn't fat loss, this was loss of lean tissue. I was a trained health coach, used herbs instead of OTC meds, and was convinced green juice could cure cancer, so I felt like I knew what to do. We would just go on a healing diet and he would get better.
but he didn't. more symptoms developed. from brain fog, to chronic and persistent joint pain, insomnia, indigestion, and that intense abdominal pain.
He had a hard time reading, thinking, and couldn’t even rest without pain. He even got down to 119lbs at the lowest point. He looked like he was starving to death, even while eating 6000 cal per day. I used to say it was like having all the symptoms of all the diseases at once.
We spent 3 years trying ALL the things. We started with the Western Docs, got scoped from both ends, the scans and all the blood work always came back “fine” and “normal.” We didn't get answers there. So we tried the Chinese and Ayurvedic docs, the Naturopaths and Chiropractors, and finally saw a Functional Medicine Practitioner who diagnosed him with Chronic Lyme Disease. That felt like hope for a minute - finally an answer, but going down the Lyme rabbit hole didn’t provide any relief either. We did herbal protocols, Rife machines and energy medicine, therapy and mental health work, we even did MMS (which if you're not familiar pretty much amounts to drinking bleach to “kill the pathogens").
"We did food allergy testing, GI maps, elimination diets, low FODMAP, GAPS, paleo, grain free, no sugar, fasting, juice feasting, and more. Nothing helped. Until one day..."
All the while we exploring so many different eating protocols. We did food allergy testing, GI maps, elimination diets, low FODMAP, GAPS, paleo, grain free, no sugar, fasting, juice feasting, and more. Nothing helped. Until one day, we were introduced to a strange man who completely blew our minds. The things he was telling us seemed almost unbelievable. At the time we were not even eating fruit (because fruit has fructose (bad) and too much sugar (very bad). And here’s this guy telling us we NEED sugar as fuel for our cells and metabolism, that sugar and dairy are NOT terrible poisons, and that almond milk (even homemade) was a problem, and that we should probably just go eat some ice cream.
it sounded absolutely crazy,
but at the same time, the way he explained how the human metabolism and digestive system actually work made a strange amount of sense. We looked at each other in that moment, knowing we had nothing to lose, and decided to go all in. BUT, we weren’t going to tell anyone. After all, at the time I owned a gym and fitness center where I had over 300 clients on low carb diets!
We went all in, and within 3 weeks he had started healing. Symptoms that we couldn’t put a dent in for 3 years started resolving. He started being able to sleep. The pain started subsiding. Everything didn’t just completely heal and disappear in those 3 weeks, but it was like night and day to where we had been before, and the healing continued. It was apparent that we had finally found some answers, found a way to support him metabolism & his human systems in a way that made sense.
Once we could clearly see that this was the way, I felt a moral obligation to switch over the entire nutrition system at my gym. It was a BIG move, but the results were nothing short of amazing. I got to see eating and living in a biologically appropriate, bioavailable, metabolically supportive way help so many people. I got to witness these concepts help people with MS, Diabetes, and “High” Cholesterol, all sorts of hormone issues from PCOS to endometriosis, to PMS and painful periods, hypothyroidism and autoimmune issues… and these improvements were just the “side effects” of implementing a pro-metabolic lifestyle, as most of these people originally came in just wanting to lose weight.
The really cool thing about my gym was that most everyone came for weight loss, and working with that many people over the years, I got to prove first hand that prometabolic nutrition works for weight loss too - when most of the world thinks you need to starve, restrict, and overexercise.
One other thing I rarely mention, as Ben’s story & profound healing eclipses my personal experiences, is that just before we found pro-metabolic nutrition & the bioenergetic view, I ended up in the ER bleeding from my intestines. (And this was while I was doing a Whole 30, if you're familiar.)
After being in the hospital overnight, they told me I had Chron’s Disease, and I better get used to autoimmune being my new lifestyle. I didn’t accept that, and the universe had my back as we made the switch to a prometabolic lifestyle shortly after that event, and I’ve never experienced anything similar since (almost 10 years ago now).
"working with that many people over the years, I got to prove firsthand that pro-metabolic nutrition works for weight loss too..."
I spent 6 years teaching a pro metabolic approach to 1000’s of people at my gym. In 2019 I closed that chapter in my life, and moved out of the city to a smaller town. And got back to focusing on 1:1 practice.
I could never shake the desire to be the coach that Ben and I wished we had going through our experience.
Now I am that coach.
To me that means working with people on a more personal level, helping you address your personal needs starting with what matters most to you, knowing someone is in your corner, having a plan tailored exactly to you, and having support & guidance, and being taught the tools you need to actually be able to implement the steps in that plan.
Over the years I learned the value of real coaching - teaching folks how to use their brains to work for them instead of against them, to build resilience & confidence, instead of just telling them what to eat, think, & do.
It's the difference between having to follow a meal plan for the rest of your life, feeling limited & restricted, versus being able to eat wherever, whenever, & whatever you want, because you have the knowledge & confidence to make the choices that best support your body, in any situation.
If you are ready to make some positive change in your life, wether that's healing a chronic condition, losing weight, finally creating the life you know you were meant to live, or a combination of those 3, I'd be honored to be your guide.
Click the button below & schedule a time to talk with me. Let's see if this is a good fit & get you started on the path to true resilience.