Connect
To Top

Meet Jennifer Garibaldi of Health Conscious Solutions

Avatar photo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Garibaldi.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Jennifer. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’ve always been interested in health and wellness. My parents instilled these values in me growing up. After high school, I decided to get a Bachelor of Science degree in Exercise Physiology and later became a personal trainer. My boyfriend at the time (now husband) and I moved to the DC area and I started personal training full-time. I loved what I did as a trainer, but I could feel that something was missing. I began to get frustrated by only being able to give my clients basic nutrition education and advice.

About four years later, we moved to North Carolina. Within five months of being there, I decided to apply to UNC’s Master of Public Health Nutrition program. I graduated in 2013 and obtained my RD (registered dietitian) credential in 2014. I learned from my internship experience that I prefer the outpatient setting because I believe you can make a greater impact in people’s lives by spending more time during the sessions and following up to track progress. But once again, I felt like something was missing. Working under physicians can be very challenging. I found myself getting frustrated during my counseling sessions because I just felt like a messenger telling patients what the doctor wants them to eat and not to eat. My expertise in the field was often dismissed. There was also no time due to patient load to really dig deep and get at the root of the eating issue. Every month, patients would return with no or very little progress. Some patients would stop coming altogether due to feelings of shame of not following what was prescribed or recommended. I just couldn’t keep counseling using this “I’m the expert, listen to me” type of approach anymore.

I knew then and I know now that:
1. People don’t like being told what to do.
2. Psychology plays a major role in your eating and activity habits.

In 2016, I decided to finally start Health Conscious Solutions. I say finally because I had been sitting on this idea since I graduated UNC in 2013. Health Conscious Solutions started off as a side job. I saw clients after work and on the weekends at my home office. But I quickly found out that if I wanted to reach more people and make a greater impact, I would eventually have to go online. In May of 2018, my husband and I decided to move our family to ATL to be closer to family in New Orleans. I was pregnant with our second child at the time and definitely showing. Instead of looking for a job, I decided (with my husband’s blessing) to build Health Conscious Solutions into a full-time virtual nutrition practice. Now, I only see clients virtually and I counsel in a way that truly makes a lasting impact. I finally feel like I’m living my destiny.

Has it been a smooth road?
My greatest challenge is acclimating prospective clients and new clients to my approach. I don’t follow the traditional nutrition counseling approach where I just focus on your eating, prescribe a specific diet, and tell you what you can and cannot eat. I follow a non-diet/whole-body approach that’s rooted in psychology and digs deep to find the root cause of your eating-related issues. It takes some getting used to, but once I explain why this approach works better, especially when looking to make long-lasting lifestyle changes, it becomes a refreshing experience for the client. It’s ironic that this approach seems like a novel idea when I’m actually teaching clients how to tap into their natural instincts that they were born with. Restrictive eating moves us away from trusting our own bodies to do what it does naturally (if we let it).

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Health Conscious Solutions story. Tell us more about the business.
Health Conscious Solutions is a virtual nutrition and wellness private practice that offers one-on-one counseling. In the very near future, online courses and group coaching will be added as part of my offerings. Although I mainly conduct business online, I still engage with the local community by giving presentations and sharing my story through interviews.

I specialize in helping women end the cycle of restrictive eating/overeating and heal emotional eating by empowering them to become confident eaters (where food no longer has control over them), so they can finally get back to living and reach their goals. I’m most proud of my decision to create a signature online program to reach more women and offer more support. This signature program will be available soon.

I’m a wellness, non-diet dietitian which is different from what many people expect from a dietitian. I’m expected to tell people what to eat and what not to eat, track your calories, offer meal replacements or prescribe rigid meal plans. But I meet you where you are and use more psychological approaches to lifestyle change due to my wellness coaching training/background. I focus on the body as a whole and I don’t promote a particular diet. I encourage women to find a way of eating that’s realistic and sustainable for THEIR lifestyle. For example, if they feel great eating a modified Paleo type of diet, then I encourage them to remove the label of “Paleo” and just adapt it into their lifestyle. When you get into the habit of labeling everything, you create guilt and shame when you don’t follow the rules. No labels….no rules to break because you’re living your life. I’m different from many other non-diet dietitians because I offer a balanced and individualized approach. For example, I don’t encourage all of my clients to avoid the scale and never use meal plans. I empower women to use their instincts first when making decisions, but I help them approach external tools mindfully. I don’t view lifestyle changes in black and white. I don’t believe you have to pick a side like you’re either aligning with “diet culture” or choosing to be more mindful and intuitive.

People are multidimensional and can’t be put into neat little boxes. Some tools can be helpful if you approach them in a mindful way. If you’re fine with weighing yourself periodically and using the information as just data, that’s fine. It becomes an issue when weighing yourself causes shame and guilt. Also, if you start trusting an app that tracks calories more than you trust yourself, that’s also an issue. I teach women how to trust themselves first and use external tools to supplement their journey. Staying open and honest with yourself is very important during your wellness journey.

I believe there’s nothing wrong with the desire to lose weight. This doesn’t automatically mean that you’ve been sucked into the “diet culture” beauty standards trap. You can be more mindful and trust your own instincts as well as have a desire to lose weight. I don’t focus on weight during my sessions; however. This is because when you put a lot of focus on weight, you tend to get discouraged and not notice all of the other changes that are happening that may not be weight-related. To be honest….weight loss is like watching paint dry, so we focus on the lifestyle changes that can get you where you want to be and trusting your body to find its natural weight. I also encourage physical activity. When you have the power of both nutrition and physical activity, you’re less likely to overdo any one of them. You can use both to have a more balanced lifestyle. But believe me….I get the desire to want to lose weight.

During my second pregnancy, I gained about 10 lbs over the recommended amount of weight to gain during pregnancy. I was always tired and wasn’t as active as my first. As a result, I struggled with emotional eating. After I had my baby, I was left with a stomach that wouldn’t go away due to a condition called diastasis recti and having gained a lot of extra abdominal body fat. I was tempted to restrict my eating, but I knew that wasn’t the way to go. I lost 50 lbs (some muscle) by trusting my body to get back to its natural weight through mindful eating and listening to my hunger and fullness cues. I also worked to heal my emotional eating. I didn’t have to follow a restrictive diet or spend hours in the gym. But I did have to put in the work, especially since breastfeeding didn’t work out for me. Even when I had to take a break from the gym, I was still able to lose some weight. I was open and honest with myself and backed off of using the scale when it started to cause me more stress. I also reminded myself that the scale is flawed and it doesn’t differentiate between muscle mass and fat mass. I focused on how I felt, how my energy increased, and how strong I was getting overall. Shifting my focus to those things helped me remain consistent enough to lose body fat. I started to love myself at every phase during my journey and trusted my body to do its thing.

What has been the proudest moment of your career so far?
Just taking the leap and investing in the business full-time is what I’m most proud of. It takes a lot of drive and dedication to make a business work. I have times where I may doubt myself, but I believe in what I’m doing. My passion is helping others reach their potential.

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Breya from Equilibreyaum (interview picture)

Suggest a story: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.

Related Items

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in