We were lucky to catch up with Jennifer Woodward recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jennifer, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
My chief source of resilience is my strong relationship with a faithful God who has been my shield and strong tower my whole life. He cares for me through others in my life as well. I want to share a story.
My baby sister passed away unexpectedly 9 years ago. She was hit by a driver who was high on meth and sought to hit the car she was driving. There were two other young women in the car with her. One passed away that night as well. One survived, spent weeks in a burn unit, and now seeks to advocate for victims of drunk driving. In the dark and confusing days following my sister Jackie’s death, my maternal grandmother came out to stay with my mom. My own family and I spent lots of time over at my mom’s house, soaking up the company of my grandma Dorothy, whose ancestors are from Poland. We were all broken, breaking down in tears periodically throughout the day. It must have been a confusing environment for my children, who were so young at the time. My most empathetic child was 4 years old at the time, and we could tell he was hurting too. Every time my grandma Dorothy would pass by my Roman, she would clap him on the shoulder and declare, “strong Polish boy!”. Hearing and seeing that helped us all become more resilient in our grief. And when times are hard, I hear my grandma in my mind, declaring, “strong Polish girl!”.
I say all of that because my family gives me resilience. When you are loved and safe in a strong family, resilience comes easily. I thank God for my husband and children, for my parents and grandparents and extended family. I’ve had the lifelong blessing of being loved well so that I can love well, and this gives me resilience.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I never really wanted to be anything when I grew up. I just always thought I would become a mom.
As a kid, I was chubby and quiet. I loved to read, and I had a few close friends instead of a big crowd of buddies. I was shy and unsure of myself. My mom had contracted Type 1 Diabetes at the age of 4, and her disease pretty much ran our lives. We didn’t have a ton of social interaction or fluidity to our family culture because my mom would go into a diabetic coma if she overexerted herself or lost control of her blood sugars. She tried valiantly to control her disease, but it was always a fight (PS- she is thriving currently and has great control of her illness!). Food was a huge fixation for my mom, and as the oldest kid, it became the same for me. My mom wasn’t supposed to have a ton of sugar, but it was still hidden all over our house. One of my favorite activities was to sneak downstairs, find a whole bag of candy, squirrel it away in my room, and read a book while taking down the entire thing. Needless to say, I got more chubby and more quiet.
One summer, a neighbor invited me to a weight loss support group for teenagers. I went, and became obsessed with the game of losing weight. For a whole summer, I ate very little while doing an hour or two of Jane Fonda workout tapes and drinking tons and tons of Crystal Light. I lost a significant amount of weight and sprouted from 5’4″ to 5’11” in the summer before my sophomore year of high school. With this transformation, I no longer had to be content with my quiet and bookish persona. I had energy and desire to do more, and to be more. And for the first time, though I looked better and felt better, I started to feel less content.
Throughout my school years, I played every sport, excelled in all of my classes, and did every extracurricular activity I could. I got married young, worked three jobs to help pay our bills and put myself through college, and graduated cum laude from my university half a year early. Even with all of these strivings and accolades, I still never really felt content.
I got a great job selling pharmaceuticals right out of college, and I loved my work. It paid well and it was fast paced. I spent three months in Chicago in an intensive training session, learning all about the systems of the body while I studied the drugs I would be selling. I excelled at my job, but yet- I never really felt content.
After a few years working for Abbott Laboratories, I got pregnant. Once we started, we did not want to stop having kids. We were in the groove, and I loved being pregnant and having babies. Beau and I had gone through some marital issues and during that time the Lord had saved us. We became happily involved members of a young group at a Christian church, and I was finally starting to feel more content in who I was and where the Lord had me.
But I had this drive to be the best at what I did. I made sure I always had an immaculate house. I home cooked all of our meals, and hand made baby food. Since I couldn’t nurse our babies sufficiently, I made my own baby formula. I hosted all of the events, and volunteered for all of the things. I homeschooled and taught Sunday School and signed up for every potluck even as my heart was in service less and less. I dieted and exercised and pushed myself and my family because I needed to prove that I was good, and worthy, and enough.
And four kids later, I was completely exhausted. I had pushed too hard, and my body began to fight back.
Problems started to show up with my hormones. I began to suffer from crippling insomnia. I had major anxiety and would be stricken with panic attacks. I got sick with every cold that swept past my house. My acne was terrible, my psoriasis was spreading, I had to take naps just to get through each day, and my gut was in a horrible state. I was painfully bloated by 2 pm each day, I felt like I couldn’t eat anything without having stomach pains, and I was super constipated. My brain was always foggy and it was hard to focus my thoughts. I snapped at my kids and cried about it and had no energy to be intimate with my husband. It didn’t matter anyway, since my libido was long gone.
During this time, I went to two regular doctors, two nutritional chiropractors, and one hormone specialist. I was offered antidepressants, sleeping medication, the Pill, and estrogen. My own interest in nutrition as medicine had continued to increase while my body was breaking down, and I refused to take any drugs. I knew lack of drugs was not the cause of my issues.
Right before our last (stressful) year of homeschooling, I found this thing called Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. Here was this amazing new piece of my health puzzle- I had access to lab testing that went deeper than normal bloodwork. And with the data gathered, FDNs were getting to the bottom of chronic health issues that people like me were suffering from. I wanted in.
Beau was surprisingly all for it, and graciously financed my education so I could become an FDN. I took my courses at night and graduated in 2017. Part of the program was practicing on myself. After running a series of 5 labs, my mentor and I had found that I had too much cortisol at night, very little cortisol during the day, and insufficient amounts of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. I had a leaky gut, and I had two parasites living in my small intestine. I was eating the wrong foods for my body. I finally had some explanation for all of the chaos I was dealing with.
After slowly building my own health back up through a combination of diet, rest, exercise, stress reduction, and supplements, I got to start working with other women to help them do the same thing.
The more women I worked with, the more I saw that many of us are similar- we push ourselves to the point of exhaustion while denying ourselves proper amounts of ancestral, nourishing foods. We shun the sun and nature. We stay up too late. We refuse to rest or take breaks. We an unbalanced and malnourished.
Once I realized this, it became my mission to help women learn to nourish and balance themselves. I use lab testing and a holistic approach to teach them to do just that.
My model of care is an opt-in, self-care holistic approach. I can’t diagnose, treat, or prescribe. I am not a medical professional. I am a guide and teacher. I am a motivator and encourager. I never stop learning and am currently pursuing my master’s degree in Integrative Nutrition.
But now, I do these things for pleasure and fun. And I take my sweet time. and I don’t stress if I get a B. I would rather hang out with my family than do another workout. I’m ok with my belly pooching out after a slow and lovely evening with friends, good food, wine, and dessert. Even though I have always known that humans can’t be perfect, I now actually believe this.
But I take good care of my body, and I listen to it. I prioritize protein, fruits, and veggies. I get good sleep. I move my body daily. I cherish time with my family. I spend time in the sun and in nature. I rest and nap if I need to, and I look at these things as nourishing instead of seeing them as a weakness.
I also work hard to bring my clients actionable and simple ways to learn and implement these same principles for themselves. By relaxing a little, and by being thankful for your body instead of always fighting it, and by having good data from lab tests to work off of, the body balances itself out beautifully.
And a balanced body makes for a balanced babe. You can be a better wife, mom, employee, philanthropist, and friend when you are balanced and nourished.
You’ll hear me say those words all of the time. They inform everything I bring to my clients, and everything I do for my family and myself.
We all need a little more balance, and a little more nourishment, don’t you agree? My newest program, Easy Perimenopause, launches early 2024. It will be a more affordable group coaching program- yet women will still get access to the next-level functional lab tests they need in order to find out real answers to the questions they have about their hormone, digestive, thyroid, energy, sleep, and libido problems. Easy Perimenopause isThe new way to gracefully sail through perimenopause while loving your metabolism, digestion, energy, and life- without intense exercise or starvation.
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?
Most people get stuck thinking that success is about arriving at a destination. But those of us who have been in this space for a long time know the secret- success is about growing, evolving, learning, and creating. To thrive as an entrepreneur, one cannot be stagnant. I’ve got a long way to go myself, but there are a few things that have served me well thus far.
Faith is everything. If I relied just upon myself, I would fail and give up. But my faith in God allows me to realize that failures are an opportunity to let go of my pride and look for the lesson that is out there for me to learn from. My faith shows me that I am not the be all and end all of my business or my life. Being able to put my trust in a good God allows me to step back, remove my ego from my business and look at it objectively. My faith allows me to pray for my clients and support them in that way. My faith gives me the reassurance that while I need to be focused and diligent in what I do and how I work on my business, the growth is up to God. That gives me a lot of peace.
Personal growth is necessary. I’m constantly investing in coaches, courses, and books that allow me to grow in three areas: spiritual life, business acumen, and women’s hormones. I want to be as well-versed in all of these areas as I possibly can. Every time I grow and expand, I end up inevitably hitting a ceiling somewhere. My self-knowledge runs out. I need to seek out people who are wiser and more experienced than myself so that I can keep growing. It’s impossible for my brain to accept that I can cruise along for a period of time without seeking growth in some area. I see the same trait in many of my successful colleagues- their thirst for knowledge is strong.
Practice what you preach. I am in the hormonal wellness space. I ask my clients to do hard things- I ask them to prioritize rest, eat home-cooked healthy meals, get to bed early, exercise appropriately, and care for their bodies well. If I didn’t do these things myself, it would be very evident to my clients. My inauthenticity would show through. I have to use self-discipline just like anyone else in order to care for myself and my family well so that I can guide others to do the same. It’s tempting for solopreneurs to overwork, undersleep, skip meals, and stay in front of their computer too long. But we have to care for ourselves well so that we can build strong and healthy businesses.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
My parents didn’t coddle their three daughters. If we wanted to buy something, we had to figure out a way to earn money to buy it for ourselves. During summer vacation, the inside door was shut and we ate fruit from our trees and vegetables from our garden and drank from the garden hose to meet our needs. There was no acceptance of grades lower than an “A”- high marks were simply expected. My parents were ceaselessly frugal- we didn’t run the house heater or air conditioner, and if we girls were uncomfortable, we had to figure out a way to become more comfortable. I remember putting washcloths in the freezer in summer to lay over my forehead in the sweltering night heat, and bundling up in multiple layers in winter to get warm at night. We were always loved and cared for, but my parents didn’t raise no sissy girls. I look back now and realize that this was a gift. My parents raised three self-sufficient girls who could take care of themselves and their families. We never expected anything then, and we don’t expect anything now. I know that if I want something in life, I need to put a plan together in order to work for it, and my sister Jessie is the same way. I know that if Jackie were still with us, she would be the same as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jenniferwoodwardnutrition.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennifer_woodward_wellness/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jenniferwoodwardnutritionist
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRg70Sr6VjaBH65kiYBVkQg
Image Credits
Lorie Chambless Photography
