The Inspirational Woman Project believes that every woman is inspirational. It’s our mission to tell their stories.
Katie Bressack works with her clients to implement simple, healthy choices that make a lasting impact on women’s health. Katie attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and is Board Certified by the American Association for Drugless Practitioners (AADP). She has furthered her education through the Institute of The Psychology of Eating, and trained with Dr. Sara Gottfried and Nicole Jardim. Katie is also a Registered Yoga Instructor.
Katie specializes in healthy weight loss, pre-natal nutrition, hormone balancing as well as stress reduction. With her support, the women she counsels lose weight, eat healthier, maintain a balanced mood, prepare for pregnancy, increase energy levels, and live a healthier and more vibrant life. She’s also supported businesses such as Mattel, Digitas, Karl Storz, Publicis Modem, Prodege, and more through corporate wellness programs, and previously worked in digital advertising and print journalism. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and dog, Piper. When she’s not health coaching, you can find her on her yoga mat, watching movies, walking on the beach, hiking and spending time with friends.
What is your gift? How does being a woman help or influence that?
{Bressack} I had a woman recently confide in me something that they had never told anyone in their entire life before, but they were sharing it with me because they felt so comfortable to.
That is my gift. The gift to help people talk about things they need to share but haven’t been comfortable to share with anyone else. I help people to release the thing that weighs them down and hinders them from living their best life. It’s not necessarily about being intuitive, it is allowing them the space and comfort to be who they are and share things about themselves in order to feel better about where they are in their life.
Being a woman helps with this, because as a woman you can relate to other women on a deeply emotional level. You can be non-judgmental and open and empathetic, no matter whether you have experienced the same thing or not. Being a woman helps you tap into that, so you can just be there open with love. I don’t know if it is being intuitive or just kind - perhaps I need to come up with a word for what it is…
What is your mantra?
{Bressack} Mary Oliver: “Tell me what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life.”
This quote is right above my dresser. I look at it every morning.
When do you feel most powerful?
{Bressack} I feel most powerful when I am sharing and teaching and helping support women to feel better in their bodies. I help women to create this healthy relationship on the inside no matter what they might feel they look like on the outside. I first accessed that power when I started practicing yoga. The strength and power I felt was coming from within, a somehow deeper mental space rather than a physical one. Being able to hold my own body weight is where I started accessing that power. Sharing this idea that strength comes from within with other women is when I feel the most powerful.
Who inspires you?
{Bressack} The women in my life inspire me. Especially my mother. I think that the older you get the more you appreciate your mom and everything she has done. I took it for granted growing up. She worked as a teacher full-time but made it to every one of my field hockey games, my theater shows, remembered all my friends names. She was always there. Looking back I know she gave up so much of herself for her children. It is inspiring to see what she was able to do in her life while taking care of others. Now I love watching her take care of herself and do her hobbies and take care of her health and feel better than she ever has.
My grandmother: Ninety six years young, had six kids and worked full time as a nurse. I am inspired by her for the same reasons I am inspired by my mother. Those two women have been strong, powerful, confident women that have helped me realize that I can do it all. I don’t know if I want to do it all, all at once, to be honest, but you don’t have to choose. You just need to know that you have the power to achieve anything you want when you want.
How do you deal with your inner naysayer?
{Bressack} I deal with my inner naysayer by not letting it get me in a tizzy. My perspective has changed in the last few years, now I choose not to take things so personally even if they are directed at me. I take a step back and think about whether or not it is true. I identify whether these thoughts are coming from my ego or are they coming from a place of love? Giving perspective and taking a moment to stop and wonder where they are coming from has helped me quiet that inner mean girl.
What’s one thing you want to tell the women who will read this?
{Bressack} Being healthy is not about a number on the scale. Being healthy is about how you feel when you look at yourself in the mirror, when you wake up in the morning, when you move your body and when you are laughing with your family and friends. Feeling healthy is how you feel from the inside out. We spend so much time on how we look physically that we often forget how we want to feel and why that is so important. So many of us struggle with our weight and what we look like and often times our health suffers as a result. The way that we feel is so much more important in the long term in regards to our health. That will help us become the woman in the body that we have and pursue the life of our dreams.
To hear more from Katie, listen to her episode on #BeAmplified: the podcast at bit.ly/beamplified {iTunes} or bit.ly/beamplifiedandroid {Google Play}.