Wellness Coach | Emotional Eating Expert | Personal Chef
Founder of Body Bliss Coaching
Kristen Kancler’s Professional Bio
As the founder of Body Bliss Coaching, Kristen Kancler believes that every woman deserves to love what she sees in the mirror, love how she feels in her body, and love the lifestyle that has her looking and feeling so fabulous.
Kristen knows this intimately – it’s how she lives her life each and every day.
But she also knows what it’s like to struggle with food, weight, and her body image. Overcome with the desire to have a “perfect” figure, she started dieting when she was 12 years old. She spent the next 20 years stuck in a cycle of restricting what she ate and overeating, giving in to cravings and emotional eating, hating her body, and feeling like a failure.
Her quest for healing led her to study at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health in New York City. From there, she worked as a Natural Foods Chef and became the Health and Wellness Expert/Editor at Glam Media. Ultimately, she found that the combination of healthy and delicious food, eating in balance, and self-love led to her remarkable recovery. And the joy and freedom she found inspired her to create Body Bliss Coaching. Now, she empowers other women to release their struggles and embrace a healthy, easy, and blissful body.
Drawing from her years of personal and professional experience, Kristen’s unique customized 1-on-1 coaching programs help women get a body they love and live happier, healthier, and with greater ease than they ever imagined.
Kristen’s Story (In Her Own Words)
It started out simple enough. I was a skinny kid, blessed with good genes, a small frame, and a healthy metabolism. I loved food, too, and could eat whatever I wanted without gaining a pound. People would always ask me what my secret was. At the time, there was no secret; I was just lucky.
But at the age of 12, entering the 7th grade – and adolescence – everything changed dramatically. After a physical assault, my world fell apart. My safety and security were gone and I felt completely lost. From a place of fear and vulnerability, I sought to regain control of my life in any way possible. Grasping at straws, I eventually turned my focus to food.
Thus began my 20-year affair with dieting.
Binging, purging, restricting, compulsive eating, over-exercising, low-fat, low-cal, no-fat, no-cal – you name it, I lived it.
I spent over half of my life on a diet. And because my low self-esteem was coupled with a lack of nourishing foods, it meant that I also spent over half my life feeling depressed, exhausted, and totally helpless.
My once carefree relationship with food had turned into an overwhelming struggle – and it completely consumed my life. I was caught in a cycle of dieting, slipping up, hating myself for being “weak,” and eating to cover my pain. Feeling unattractive, out of control, and worthless, I eventually stopped dating, socializing with my friends, and even leaving my house.
It was an exhausting cycle. And it was a long road back.
To say that food was an obsession for me is an understatement. It was both a cruel adversary and a lifelong passion. I was consumed by dieting and starving my way to a “perfect” body, yet I loved to cook! My obsession grew and grew until I eventually quit my job, moved to NY, and enrolled in culinary school.
The Natural Gourmet Institute for Food and Health was a heaven-send. With a health-supportive approach, it opened my eyes to the importance of eating real, whole, organic foods as well as the extensive connection between what you eat and how you feel. It changed my understanding of food forever. But even though it was a powerful start, it was not enough to diminish the compulsive habits that kept me from living a healthy, balanced life, free from the struggles of dieting.
Even during the years I spent after school promoting a healthy diet as a personal chef to the Silicon Valley elite, I was still not able to live up to the standards I was endorsing. I was able to cook nourishing foods for others, but I fell short and continued to give in to unhealthy cravings on my own.
When I became the Health and Wellness Editor for Glam Media, I suddenly had an abundance of resources everywhere I looked! So I dedicated myself to learning everything I could about the underlying emotions and pain behind my “indulgences.” I went to therapy, I read books, I meditated, I sat with the pain, I journaled…. It was an amazing and powerful time for me, but even though I grew myself in every other area of my life, when it came to food I still gave in.
What finally did change my habits – and my life – was so simple it nearly blew me away!
My road to recovery took a dramatic turn for the better in 2009 when I gained the vital knowledge and support I needed to make real change in my life. It was the missing piece of the puzzle for me.
Once I learned what to eat, when to eat, how to eat, and why all of that mattered, I had the foundation for a new way of eating. And my culinary background made it possible to transform these principles into healthy, delicious, delectable treats!
The change in my life over the last couple of years has been absolutely magical. I am completely liberated from the struggles of food that once consumed my mind, my body, and my spirit. I am at my ideal weight and I am able to eat what I want, when I want, and not gain a pound!
Every single day of my life, I love what I eat and how I feel in my body!
Now when people ask me what my secret is to eating the foods I love and staying at my ideal weight, I do have a secret share. I have been blessed beyond measure in finding my way to peace, joy, and freedom from struggle, and I am dedicated to helping other women find theirs.
My practice combines my professional background in holistic health and wellness, nutrition education, training as a health-supportive chef, and over 20 years of personal experience, along with the understanding, compassion, and dedication to helping you reach your most essential goal: getting the body you’ve always wanted!
If you’re ready to take the first step, contact me TODAY to schedule a free session!