Meet Jeannette and Tracee
Jeannette's Real Food story...
I suffered from an autoimmune disorder and gained a lot of weight after each of my pregnancies. Not satisfied with conventional treatment options and shocked by a diagnosis of diabetes, I started exploring healing with food and natural practices, eventually going into remission and finding blood sugar balance without any meds. As my kids grew up, I started the balancing act of raising a healthy, happy family, running a household, and launching a career I love. Over time I've struggled to balance my work, my social change efforts and my own self-care, while keeping my family's needs as first priority. I understand first-hand how challenging it can be to invest time and energy into making healthy lifestyle choices in a consistent way. I'm not an "abstract academic" dabbling in the theoretical; I'm standing right beside you, writing from the trenches. I work intimately every day with people of all backgrounds, ages and walks of life who are doing their best to improve the overall quality of their lives and the lives of their children.
More about Jeannette's work with over-40 weight loss as The Clean Food Coach
More About Jeannette Bessinger and her company Balance for Life, LLC
Tracee's Real Food story...
I got interested in the relationship between high-quality food and personal health as I grew up in a household with sick parents. When I was six, my mother was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. When I was sixteen, my father had a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery. Although generally slim and healthy myself, I faced some health challenges of my own when I went back to work after having my children. Balancing family and career was a huge challenge. I struggled with fatigue and digestive issues. Through education and experimentation I changed my diet and reduced my stress levels, really improving my vitality. As life changed and I became a single mom, I found myself working more hours and the family balancing act got even more difficult. As things got harder, I made even more of an effort to maintain a healthy vibrant diet for myself and my kids because I saw firsthand how much better it made us all feel. I am totally committed to a Real Food lifestyle, and enjoy supporting others to make that commitment as well.
Our Professional Bios...
Jeannette Lee Bessinger, owner of Balance for Life, LLC, www.thecleanfoodcoach.com, and co-founder of Real Food Moms, LLC is a board certified health counselor and mother of two teens.
An award-winning lifestyle and nutrition educator, Bessinger developed a nutrition- and cooking-based obesity prevention program for Head Start parents and toddlers with a grant from the American Academy of Pediatrics. With a grant from the Rhode Island Department of Health, Bessinger helped design a citywide obesity prevention/intervention plan for families.
Designer and lead facilitator of a successful hospital-based lifestyle change program, she acts as a consultant and speaker to public and private groups and coalitions working to improve the health of schools and cities in the U.S. Her simple, practical approach has helped hundreds of women successfully meet the challenges of imbalanced health and nutrition with hope and grace.
She is co-author and recipe designer for The Healthiest Meals on Earth, The Healthiest 15-Minute Recipes on Earth (Dec 2010), and The Most Effective Ways to Live Longer Cookbook (spring, 2011) with Dr. Jonny Bowden.
Tracee Yablon-Brenner is a registered dietitian, board-certified holistic health counselor, owner of Nutrition is Healing, co-founder of Real Food Moms, LLC, and mother of two girls. She completed her internship in dietetics at New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center, and is American Dietetic Association trained in childhood and adolescent weight management. Yablon-Brenner is a member of the American Dietetic Association and Pediatric and Diabetic Practice Groups, the American Botanical Society, the Haworth School Wellness Committee, and Action for Healthy Kids.
Together, Bessinger and Brenner are the Real Food Moms (www.realfoodmoms.com), dedicated to educating parents about family nutrition and whole foods cooking. They have co-authored two comprehensive and practical guides for family nutrition, Great Expectations: Best Food for Your Baby and Toddler and Simple Food for Busy Families.