Hi. I’m Tessa

Intro

For the past 20+ years, I have been a health care clinician working as a Registered Nurse for 8 years and then a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist for 15 years respectively. I have always felt that bad food and disease have a relationship and in May of 2017 I discovered more proof and a platform that really helped me dig into it. I took the plunge and became a certified FASTer Way to Fat Loss® coach. This move not only opened the door to help other women eat MORE and workout LESS, but it also gave me exposure to nutrition in a way that I had never experienced before. And it was a game changer.

That program was just the tip of the iceberg. I became obsessed with learning and changing my own view of nutrition to the point of pursuing a functional nutrition certification. I felt like this was the right time to get this right in my own life and I am so glad I did. I dove in and am now a functional nutritionist. As a certified nutritional therapy practitioner I have the tools to provide the proper testing and personalized protocol YOU NEED to discover the root cause of your greatest health concerns and heal them!

my mission

My Mission is to teach you how to be healthy from the inside out. I want women and moms everywhere to know that they have the power to have the energy they need to feel their best. I know that as a woman you are most likely the natural caregiver to everyone but herself. My heart is to help moms like you put yourself back on the top of your priority list and to empower women of all ages like you to realize that your health and the quality of your life is a choice. My heart is to empower women how to be healthy from within. What being sick taught me is that I did not understand my body and I made decisions based on what my doctor told me was best. I was my own biggest experiment and I actually failed. The only bad thing about failing is not learning from the failure. I am so grateful for everything I have learned so that I can help YOU!

My journey revealed my mis-steps, my inattention to what my body was telling me and where some of the simplest solutions could have changed my trajectory and I want to share what I’ve learned along the way with YOU>. Keep reading to learn more about my own journey.

we are ALL on a journey

I remember when I turned 40 (almost 10 years ago, yikes) I was reading a magazine article about all the body changes to expect after 40. I quickly closed the magazine and sat in the middle of my bed and cried. That is when I decided that whatever deterioration that my body was set for, I was going to do everything in my power to stop the process. It wasn’t going to be me, I could beat this. Oh, how silly to think I could fool Mother Nature. Life happens and I got crazy busy. As a full-time working mom of 2, forced into overtime hours, in the thick of a season whether I liked it or not….I felt like it was time to “DO” everything I could in a big way each and everyday.

Although my heart and mind where aligned and determined, my body quickly responded to the pace and said “screw you.” I found myself with adrenal fatigue and estrogen dominance as a result, on thyroid meds and despite my over-exercising and under-eating I was quickly gaining weight despite all of my efforts to defy the odds.

I have almost always maintained some level of working out and “eating properly” my entire life. It is not a choice but more of a lifestyle. I would have never imagined that I would be where I am today. Health and wellness coaching was not a goal I ever set for myself, but once I tried the FASTer Way to Fat Loss® and discovered a more sustainable way, I knew I had to tell others. It is unlike any eating and workout plan I had ever done. So from my purview the FASTer Way to Fat Loss® found me… that lead to functional nutrition which also found me. Here we are and you found me, and I am ready to help you be the best you can be, cause I have been there... right where you are.

On April 20th, 2019 my whole life changed. I had a mammogram…. and they found a lump. I was diagnosed with HER2+, estrogen + breast cancer on May 2, 2019. I had 6 rounds of chemo starting May 28th & 12 rounds of Herceptin and Perjeta. Each round was 3 weeks apart. My chemotherapy ended 9/11/2019 and then on October 8th, I had a bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction all in the same day. After this came the good news. I was declared cancer free when they found no cancer cells left in my breast and none in my lymph nodes. Truly felt like one of the best days of my life. I’ve been taking Anastrazole and Nerlynx ever since.

I felt like a warrior through the chemo. I maintained workouts and a whole-food eating plan. It wasn’t until after surgery that I felt like everything finally hit me. Surgery and chemo are classified as two big stressors that finally took their toll. Crazy how your body slides south pretty quickly. Life seems to be teaching me a lesson of surrender. You can’t just power through work-life and motherhood and you can’t just power through cancer. You have to surrender, you have to feel, and you have to heal. …And I feel like I’m learning how to truly heal a body from healing my own.

When I am not putting people to sleep for surgery or coaching others to better health, I am a mom to 2 amazing kids, 1 border collie/Blue heeler mix doggie, a white bunny Ginger and a wife to the most supportive husband in the world. I am wildly blessed by these 3 each and every day. They bring me joy and are a living reminders of Christ’s love in my life. I am no superhero, I live by choice and that is something that an truly empower my clients to do.

It’s not about struggle, it’s not about almost getting the results you want. It’s about YOUR goals, YOUR dreams, what you want for yourself. I am here to provide the guidance for you to get to where you want to be. Women weren’t designed as beautifully as we are to just put ourselves on the back-burner and suffer in silence.

it would be my pleasure to work with you

-Tessa