Life and Work with Daniela Kende

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniela Kende.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Daniela. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I have always been fascinated by how people think and make decisions, which led me to major in psychology in college. After graduating from Princeton University, I moved out to LA, lured by the sunshine and the (seemingly) glamorous entertainment industry. Five years of long hours, living for the weekends, and debilitating migraines finally helped me realize that the entertainment industry wasn’t for me. Throughout the work chaos of my early 20s, what remained a constant in my life was my love of cooking healthy and tasty food for myself and friends as a nourishing release. I realized that my passion for food — specifically food’s power to heal or to hurt, to energize or to drain — and my desire to share this with others was my life’s calling. Combining my love for psychology and nutrition, I became a certified Holistic Health Coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and launched my holistic nutrition practice in 2014. Since then, I have coached hundreds of clients in settings ranging from private 1-on-1 sessions to small group workshops and  corporate wellness programs.

Since 2014, I received additional coaching training through the Holistic MBA Health Coach Institute, and completed a 6-month intensive coaching mastery program with renowned spiritual life coach, Christine Hassler. Most recently, I received my diploma in Applied Nutrition from the Sano School of Culinary Medicine. Doing so while breastfeeding around the clock and caring for my then 2-month old baby was a tall task, but thanks to my very supportive husband, was possible and really rewarding!

Ever since navigating my own pregnancy and transition into motherhood once my daughter, Eliza, was born in January 2018, I’ve become incredibly passionate about supporting women through their pregnancy and postpartum journeys. I created my Glowing Mama workshop and coaching program to provide practical nutrition guidance plus emotional wellness support for pregnant women and new mamas. It’s my goal to help women feel less stressed and more nourished during the incredibly transformative journey into motherhood!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’d love to meet an entrepreneur (or anyone, for that matter) who has had a totally smooth road! Leaving my full-time corporate job back in 2013 in order to start my own coaching business was definitely a bit scary. I didn’t have a business plan, carefully plotted growth goals, or even my coaching certification quite yet. But my personality has always been very “all or nothing,” so I knew that making that leap was the only thing that would really motivate me to make it work. I knew in my gut that I was doing exactly the right thing for me, but it took a lot of time, tears, and hard work to really find my voice within the wellness world and share it with confidence and conviction.

The advice that I continually give to myself and would share with young women who are just starting their journey is to start by doing the introspective work required to really get to your why. To peel back those top 3 or 4 layers of initial motivation until you really get to the heart of what it is you feel most compelled to share with the world, and why you feel compelled to share it. It’s that deep and intimate connection with my why that carries me through the tough days in solopreneur land.

As well, once you have an idea of what it is that you want to create, my advice is to really run with it and start sharing it with the world, being mindful not to get stuck in the planning and creation phase for too long. My website was soo embarrassingly DIY for the first four years of my business, but I still had as much work as I could handle because I focused on making lots of connections in person and through my personal and professional networks. The fancier photos and website came later, and nobody really seemed to care (and if they did, well that’s just too bad for them! ;))

Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
Something I’ve grown to really love about my work as a holistic nutrition coach is the range of work I get to do, which keeps it really fun! Within a given week, I’ll have coaching calls with my 1on1 clients who I support in reaching specific health goals and maintaining a healthy lifestyle through detailed goal-setting, food journal feedback, customized menu planning, and more. I also offer hands-on cooking lessons, grocery shopping how-to, and pantry cleanout. For my Glowing Mama clients, I love providing in-home postpartum pantry and freezer prep sessions, where we work together to prepare a bunch of healthy freezer meals and snacks and stock their pantry with nourishing and sustaining snacks for those sleepless and especially vulnerable early postpartum weeks. Some of my most memorable work has included designing a healthy travel menu for a client’s private plane and supporting one of my very first clients through a transformational 55 lb weight loss journey!

My approach to nutrition is grounded in my belief that it is impossible to reach our health goals without addressing deficiencies in the areas of life that go way beyond our plates. A few years ago, I created a framework called the Core Four™, which consists of the four emotional wellness pillars I believe are essential to achieving that glow-from-within wellness that we all desire. These pillars are self-care, connection, creativity, and play. I dive deeper into how I define each category on my website, but I believe that all of these areas work synergistically to help us feel emotionally stable and complete each day. Whenever I start working with a new client, I ask them to assess their satisfaction level in each of these four areas, and we then work together to create an action plan to nourish the areas that are the most depleted. I believe that neglect or trauma in any of our Core Four™ needs is at the root of so many eating disorders and common challenges around relationship with food. When our emotional needs are not met, food and drink can become a powerful and addictive tool for distraction and numbing. The key to dialing back a nightly wine habit, for example (which can wreak havoc on blood sugar, hormonal balance, and quality of sleep), is usually more meaningful daily connection with a loved one, or a nerve-calming bath with essential oils, rather than deprivation and restraint, which can just lead to another numbing agent taking the place of the wine. I love helping my clients approach their cravings with a great deal of compassionate investigation, as cravings can usually provide a lot of insight into our actual underlying needs.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.danielakende.com
• Instagram: @danielakende
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/dkende

Image Credit:
Kat Page, Stefanie Villers

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