Many Integrative Nutrition students enroll in the Health Coach Training Program and end up rediscovering other interests like teaching, exercise, or a new spiritual practice. What’s really special is when a student takes something they’re passionate about and combines it with what they’ve learned in the program to forge a new health coaching practice.
Alina Zhukovskaya is a 2011 graduate living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and has incorporated her love for fashion into her work as a Health Coach and raw food chef. Her unique approach applies the concept of wearing clothes that fit to wearing food that fits. After years of working in the catering business, she enrolled in the Health Coach Training Program, and soon melded her passion for fashion with easy, healthy meals. Alina now shows her clients how easy it is to “love your Gucci’s and your green juice!”
Describe how you began to transition to a healthier diet while working in the food industry.
For nearly four years, I was a vice president of marketing at one of Washington, D.C.'s largest catering companies. My days were wrapped around talking about food, writing about food, designing projects around food, thinking about food and tasting food. It took a big toll on my health and my relationship with food overall.
Because of my passion for food (and no extra time to spend on making it), I started to come up with tips and tricks for easy and healthier cooking. I was offered a TV show on a local cable station in Maryland and hosted my own show for a few months before moving to Florida from the Washington, D.C. area.
The catering company I worked for did not specifically focus on healthy cooking, but because I was so passionate about it, I started the TV show to illustrate how you can take tips and tricks from the pros and make food at home healthier.
