Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristin Thomas.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Kristin. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My path to where I am today is paved with bright lights in the ER room, serious digestive disease diagnoses, and ultimately the best experience of my life. I was that girl who looked bright and cheery on the outside, but on the inside had constant stomach pain and was afraid to talk to anyone about it. One day, it finally hit me. What I was doing to address my health wasn’t working anymore — and it was up to me to change it.
By making strategic changes to my diet and lifestyle, I went from facing surgery to full remission from ulcerative colitis in just 6 months, after a wild 10-year battle with the disease. As crazy as it sounds, I’m so grateful for the digestive issues that stole my teenage years and early 20s because, without them, I would have never figured out a way to overcome them, reset my digestive system, and to go on to help so many others do the same.
After experiencing firsthand how fast I was able to recover with the power of food and looking at my health and body in a more holistic and functional way, I knew I had to make a big shift in my career to be in health and wellness. I soon became certified as an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, and then went on to be a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner (FDN-P) so that I could offer my clients the same path and level of healing that I finally found.
Today, I work with the most determined and incredible women who are very much in the place I was just a handful of years ago. I’m able to help them achieve deep, full-body healing by giving them make strategic changes that will support what their body has been wanting this whole time — natural, individualized care.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
My journey to becoming a health coach was paved with clarity once I was on it, but before, that, my career path was very unrewarding and full of confusion. Formerly, I held marketing roles at several Boston-area startups, and while I worked with some of the smartest people around, I was not fulfilled by my work. Simultaneously, my digestive issues were at their worst, so I knew I had to make some big changes. It’s certainly not easy shifting into a totally different industry and launching your own practice, but I’m confident that nothing stop my mission to help people learn how to better manage and heal from digestive issues. I spent a lot of time a researching the schools I wanted to attend and studied until the sun went down, learning as much as I could every day so that I could become the best health coach to my clients.
Even though I have a deep marketing background, I find it is still hard to promote myself because I’m putting myself out there and opening up about my story. But I have seen that by opening up about my crazy health history, so many people have felt comfortable finally talking about theirs. Together, we’re on a movement to broaden the discussion about the state of gut health, asking the right questions, and finding real answers.
Please tell us about Thrive by Food.
Thrive by Food is a functional nutrition practice focused on helping clients learn about and heal from digestive issues — everything from chronic diseases like Crohn’s and colitis to acid reflux and irritable bowel syndrome. Drawing on my 10+ year battle with everything from ulcerative colitis to acid reflux, leaky gut to parasites, and several bacterial infections along the way, I’m able to step into the shoes my clients are wearing and heal them from a place of understanding and experience. Coupled with my years of deep training in holistic, natural, and functional healing modalities, I’m able to uncover what’s at the root of their health concerns and develop a customized plan — including diet, lifestyle, and some supplementation, to aid the body in recovering.
By enabling the body to heal on its own through natural protocols, clients experience full body healing that goes far beyond just their digestive symptoms. Issues like brain fog, sleeplessness, hair loss, weight gain, acne, and much more tend to just fall away as we support the whole body, the whole time, in my program. With this approach, we can address a client’s entire concerns in a single 3-month program, because by treating the entire body and seeing it functionally, we can restore it back to health.
What sets Thrive by Food apart from others is that we start at the gut, which is the core of so many bodily functions, and through a combination of functional lab work, customized protocols, and deep coaching, we can return the body to its normal function, leaving clients feeling out of pain, fully energized, and with a much more loving relationship for their body.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would have opened up about my story even more using video as a platform, as I’ve found it to be an incredibly powerful way to connect with people. The moment I began doing this, my business really began to flourish. Otherwise, I really wouldn’t have done anything – I always believe things happen for a reason and there is a right time and place for everything, so I’ve totally embraced what I’ve done in the past and where I’m headed and don’t like to compare the two as they’re completely different phases of my life and the business.
Pricing:
- VIP one-on-one coaching program: 4 months, $499/mo
- Love Your Gut Group Program: 3 months, $596
- Single Session w/2 lab reviews & 48 hour follow up support: $399
Contact Info:
- Website: thrivebyfood.com
- Email: kristin@thrivebyfood.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/thrivebyfood
- Facebook: facebook.com/thrivebyfood
- Twitter: twitter.com/thrivebyfood
- Other: https://programs.thrivebyfood.com/p/loveyourgut
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