Meet Jillian Greaves

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jillian Greaves a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jillian, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

I found my purpose through two a combination of two things: my experience working as an Outpatient Dietitian in an Endocrinology department at a big Boston Hospital and my experience navigating my own health journey.

While working as an outpatient Dietitian and navigating my own health challenges, the gaps in our healthcare system for how women are supported was abundantly clear. Women’s symptoms are dismissed, they’re told to go on restrictive diets, and they’re often only offered medications like birth control as a treatment option.

During a stressful time when I was working full time in research as well as earning my graduate degree in nutrition at the same time, my own health went hay-wire. I thought I was doing all the “right” things, but I was experiencing acne, anxiety, bloating, eczema, hair thinning, and more. I sought out support from my conventional providers who essentially told me I was the “picture of health” and that my only options were medications for symptom management.

I wasn’t willing to accept that taking birth control to suppress hormones or “managing” symptoms with band-aid treatments were the only options for myself or for women struggling with hormone and gut-related issues.

This is what really motivated me to dig into the research on female physiology and to seek out advanced training in functional nutrition and women’s health.

These experiences changed the trajectory of my health, life and my career. I became incredibly passionate about women’s health and educating women about their bodies and hormones. It became my mission to support women with personalized nutrition and lifestyle interventions that allow them to take back control of their health, reclaim their confidence, and to experience life at its fullest potential.

Ultimately, my personal health challenges helped me to find my clear purpose: to provide women with the support that I wish I had access to when I was struggling on my own health journey.

I started seeing clients privately on the weekends and at night after work. Within six months, I quit my hospital job and knew that I was meant to support women in truly healing their hormone and gut-related symptoms naturally and putting them back in the driver’s seat of their health.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I’m a Functional Medicine Dietitian and Women’s Health Specialist with a virtual private practice that serves women globally. My team and I help women identify and address the root causes of their hormone and digestive health symptoms using advanced lab testing, personalized nutrition, supportive lifestyle therapies, and target supplements as the first line of intervention. We specialize in hormone and gut-related conditions like PCOS, endometriosis, thyroid issues, fertility challenges, IBS, and SIBO.

What makes my business unique is our approach. We practice functional medicine nutrition AND work to support women in developing a positive, healthy, and flexible relationship with food and their bodies. We help women to deeply understand their bodies and the way it’s communicating with them and to learn how to work WITH their bodies to optimize health and well-being. Our approach helps women break the cycle of deprivation and restriction and is rooted in supporting whole-body health.

We’ve helped hundreds of women heal their hormone and digestive health symptoms naturally and to ultimately find joy and balance in their lives. It’s our mission to really change the landscape of healthcare for women and to put women back in the driver’s seat of their own health.

We offer comprehensive 1:1 functional nutrition coaching which provides women with this highest level of support and personalization.

We’re also SO excited to offer women effective support through some of our lowest cost options:

The PCOS Root Reversal Program is a 12 week self-paced program designed to help women with PCOS identify and address the root causes of their PCOS symptoms naturally.

We’re also about to launch an incredible new course called Eat to Heal Your Hormones. This course was designed to help women struggling with hormonal symptoms to kickstart their journey to balancing their hormones naturally.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1) Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. Starting a business, putting yourself out there, or doing anything new for that matter can bring up a lot of tough feelings and limiting beliefs. Something I worked to do early on in my career was to get comfortable with being uncomfortable! Being a beginner at anything and putting yourself out there is scary. Early on I really worked to identify the stories I was telling myself and the emotions I was attaching to these stories. I started to reprogram these thoughts, stories, and beliefs and to really embrace the growth that comes from being a beginner and from taking imperfect action. At this point in my business I know when I feel uncomfortable or nervous about something new, that I’m typically on the verge of doing something big or making an exciting change! Instead of resisting these feeling, I aim to work with them and to embrace how amazing it is to be able put myself in situations that really push me to stretch and grow.
2) Not being afraid to ask for help. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or to reach out to someone you look up to for advice! I credit much of where I’m at today to my mentors and coaches. I also now love paying it forward and offering help and support to colleague and other nutrition professionals.
3) Connect with your purpose/mission. Every journey personally and professionally will have ups and downs. Having a strong sense of purpose and a connection to your greater “why” is the most impactful way to keep moving, even when something derails you or the journey isn’t linear.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

When I feel overwhelmed I learned that this is a sign I need to take a step back to reflect and recenter myself. This can be hard when I’m overwhelmed and the to-do list is never ending! Taking a step back to really identify what’s creating overwhelm or what stories I might be telling myself that I’m attaching this emotion to is really effective for me. This gives me the ability to tease through priorities, asking for help/outsourcing, and working to shift the stories I might be telling myself.

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Elizabeth Sanders

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