Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Nusbaum.
Hi Jessica, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
As a teen and through my 20s I struggled with depression and binge eating. I would diet to “fix” my bingeing, I would binge when I felt sat, and I would feel sad after I binged. It took me over a decade, plus therapy, to go through this cycle over and over to heal it. A good portion of this was happening while I worked as a personal trainer. I worked with hundreds of clients, mostly women, who came to me with many health struggles. All of which circled back to stress. I knew that there was way more to “being healthy” than just exercise and counting calories. In the middle of all this, an autoimmune condition began affecting my skin with large inflamed rash-like breakouts.
I spent years going back and forth with doctors who had no idea what was wrong with me and just prescribed steroids and antibiotics. I knew it was time for a completely different approach to healing. Healing is far beyond eating clean and working out. The missing piece of the puzzle on my health journey was addressing my nervous system. The body can’t heal if it’s stuck in a chronic state of stress and on high alert. I found The Institute for Integrative Nutrition and shortly after graduating, I created Nourish with Jess – my online health coaching business.
It’s been close to four years and I have worked with women all over the world virtually!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s been as smooth as crunchy peanut butter!! I prefer smooth peanut butter btw! Along with being a health coach, I’ve had to learn the ins and outs of running a business and being a social media guru, and I’ve been a full-time student for the last 3 years as well! By far the biggest struggles haven’t had anything to do with time management or organization, but rather with battling my self-doubt and at times relentless lack of self-worth.
Every time I took on a new challenge or wanted to level up in my business and offerings, I would be met with my own internal crippling self hate to be honest. It’s taken me a long time to learn that you don’t always have to feel good about doing something, to do it. I’ve been able to slowly take steps forward with my business that scare the sh*t out of me by just allowing the fear to exist. I think putting yourself out there is scary no matter what! But when you are running a business that is dependent on it, it can bring up all kinds of fears. Each day I now work on showing myself compassion, even if it’s just compassion for wanting to give up sometimes, but never quitting.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Nourish with Jess is my online health coaching business where I work with women virtually all over the world to help them take a root cause approach to hormone balancing! I specialize in gut health, metabolic function, and women’s hormones. I help women naturally balance their hormones without tons of supplements, testing, or restrictive dieting. There are way too many women living in chronically stressed bodies! On top of that, it’s so easy to get bombarded with health information these days that just leaves us more confused and frustrated! Regulating the nervous system creates safety in the body so the body can come back to balance as it’s intended to do. You won’t ever have me recommend spending hundreds of dollars on supplements or carb and sugar-free meal plans! I believe that sometimes doing less is exactly what is needed to lower stress on the body.
How I relate to the women I work with stems from years of working with women who share the intimate details of their history of yo-yo dieting, food restriction, stress, over-exercising, and digestive issues like bloating and constipation.
They’ve shared their frustrations with feeling unheard by traditional doctors, being told everything looks “fine”, and the burnout from trying everything just to feel better. I know because that used to be me. Now it’s my mission to help women step into a real health transformation, not just another diet that isn’t sustainable. My clients have so much more space to live their life with ease without being stressed or obsessed with food. They have more excitement about taking care of themselves and more energy to live their life and THRIVE!
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I wanted to move to LA years before I did. I would drive here from the Bay Area, where I’m from, and always felt heartbroken when it was time to leave! Obviously, the sunshine most days of the year brought me here! There’s nothing like a sunny day that just improves your mood and makes you want to get outside… until you’re sweating and need to back into the AC lol.
I love how most people I’ve met here aren’t from here. Everyone comes from a different place and culture and shares that with everyone they meet. I don’t love that it takes more than thirty minutes sometimes to drive a few miles!! I also think some folks have a touch of road rage here. People love cutting me off in a residential area when I go the speed limit lol.
Contact Info:
- Website: nourishwithjess.com
- Instagram: @nourishwithjess
