JACQUELINE MAY CONTE, CNP | This Is Me

My name is Jacqueline, but you can call me Jacquie. I'm a Certified Nutritional Practitioner (a.k.a. Holistic Nutritionist), Level 2 Essentrics fitness instructor, self-taught home chef, urban organic farmer, and writer committed to improving your well-being by focusing on the connection between food, exercise, mindset and environment in relation to your health.

You're an individual with a unique physical makeup affected by your lifestyle and the environment you live in.  Together, and in a way that's best suited to you, we'll gently rebalance your body by removing negative stressors, damaging foods and toxic stimuli, replacing them with more beneficial versions that will allow you to feel good now and sustain your well-being in the long-term. 

Why Holistic Nutrition?

Holistic nutrition speaks to me and it works for me. It's given me more options for healing - ones that were once unfamiliar, but now feel right. It allows me to take control of my health and see life in a more positive way. It's a way of healing I needed to embrace, because I was sick of putting a bandaid on my symptoms and having them come back over and over again, thinking they'd never go away, which was both annoying and scary. Taking this perspective required a necessary shift in my mindset and I'm so glad I followed it, because it helped me break through health barriers I hadn't been able to before.

Holistic nutrition focuses on many aspects of health, but the real reason I love it is because it involves digging deep to find and alleviate the reasons why symptoms appear in the first place. The body is very complex and everything is connected, which is why, as a practitioner, I focus on your body, mind, and energy as a whole unit. I work with individuals, couples and families who require support alleviating their symptoms and setting up a strong foundation for health and well-being. I'd love to work with you to regain your health by helping you break through the barriers in your life.

What Do I Do?

I focus on the following areas in my practice:

stress management
energy imbalances
digestive health
recipe & meal planning
movement & the mind/body connection

I work under the following principles:

food IS medicine
one diet does NOT fit all
a disease does NOT define a person
better health IS achievable, no matter the circumstances

My Mission

EMPOWERMENT + INSPIRATION + MOTIVATION + support

by teaching, I hope to EMPOWER you to take your health into your own hands

by doing, I hope to INSPIRE and MOTIVATE you to kickstart your way to a healthier you

by guiding, I will SUPPORT you as you challenge yourself and make positive change happen for you

When you get sick or struggle with health issues, you feel less like yourself and become disconnected from who you are at your core. My mission is to show you that you can feel better again, but I need your help. It takes guts to start changing the way you live, especially in the face of a health crisis, but as they say, the journey to feeling well is just that...a journey. It's what you make of it that matters.

Nothing has to happen over night, but your dedication must be there. Help me achieve my mission by making a commitment to yourself.

My Personal Health Journey

My journey stemmed from being fed up with not being able to find relief of my chronic symptoms. For most of my life I'd had problems with not having enough energy, constant anxiety and painful indigestion. During my mid-to-late twenties, I also experienced muscular pain and chronic stress, including phases of burnout and insomnia, as well as recurring infections. For years I found it really hard to find answers and had no clue how to feel better.

In my late twenties, at a time when I was searching for new meaning in my life and was becoming increasingly frustrated as my symptoms worsened, I was led to some books that opened my eyes to the alternative health world. As my interest and excitement around holistic health intrigued me further, I found myself spending more time with like-minded people and those in the holistic health industry. As I soaked up new information and relationships like a sponge, my path was being laid out. 

I started integrating what I was learning into my daily life. I bought organic produce, made more of my meals at home, and added some variety to my diet. I was exercising 3-5 times a week - unheard of during most of my twenties. I even started making my own beauty and cleaning products. After just a few weeks, the impact of the changes started to show as my energy level grew and some of my more minor symptoms disappeared. My excitement around how easy it was to fix my own health problems was incentive to keep going.

After a few months, I took on juicing at home and was drinking it almost daily. I also began making some of the packaged products I was buying from scratch, like cooking my own beans and making my own sauerkraut. I had to know how to do these things, not only because I'm a need-to-know type of person, but because I continued to see results in my health and if I was going to fully embrace this way of living, I wanted to do it at 100%. This helped me become more mindful of my daily practices and how I could make them more suitable for my needs and my lifestyle, but more importantly sustainable for myself and the earth.

As my comfort level with alternative and holistic practices expanded, I found myself craving an intense foundation of knowledge to prove to myself why the things I'd started doing were working. I craved an educational environment, surrounded by like-minded people to propel me further. I realized that if I could help myself, I could certainly help others with my education and real-life application of what I was learning.

I was led to The Institute of Holistic Nutrition by a good friend and applied almost immediately. Just a few months later I attended and my mind was blown. My year in nutrition school was the most intense year of my life. I learned a lot and as I changed, so did the world around me. My attitude and perspective of the world was drastically changing for the better and I knew I had to share it with others.

After graduating in October of 2016 with First Class Honours (did I mention I'm a bit of a go-getter?), I decided to take some time to see how I wanted to apply what I learned. In the summer of 2017 I pursued a dream by doing some volunteer farming in the B.C. interior, learning about where food comes from and strengthening my connection between what I was doing at home and how it impacted the planet. I also learned a lot about myself and what I'm meant to do with my passion for holistic health. Fuelled by determination to make the world a better place, I returned to the city and decided to put my experience to good use by helping others regain their stability in health using whole food as the foundation.

What I teach in my practice is also what I do in my own life. It's relatable and realistic. I don't expect anything more than I could do myself or that I know is within reach for others. I've had a lot of hard times with my health, but the fun I've had and my ability to feel and be well outshines the bad times. I want you to know that even though you may get knocked down in life, your journey back up, should you choose it, will make you stronger than ever before. You'll believe in yourself again. You may also see the world through different lenses, and that's okay. As long as it feels right for you.