Hello, I'm
Jennifer Bray
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Owner, Jennifer Bray Wellness
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Nutritional Therapy Practitioner
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Master Restorative Wellness Practitioner, Certified in Gut Healing, Hormone Healing, Comprehensive Blood Panels, Autoimmune Diseases, and Toxin Exposure
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National Association of Nutrition Professionals
WHAT IS IT THAT I DO?
I am a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and Master Restorative Wellness Practitioner. I help busy men and women balance their hormones and improve digestion so you can enjoy the simple things in life or your next big adventure. I am here to dig deep into your journey with a functional approach to find the root cause to your symptoms. Together we explore your health concerns and personal journey that led you here to day.
Nutritional Therapy takes a holistic approach to bring your body back into balance by using real food to help manage your symptoms to allow your body to function better. This might mean we are working together to help balance your blood sugar, reduce cravings, reduce headaches, hormone imbalances, or optimizing digestion. Your symptoms are a gift to us and they allow us to dig a little deeper into what your body is trying to tell us.
Your body didn’t just wake up one day out of balance! These things happen over time and it’s our job to listen. Symptoms are subtle whispers your body uses to guide us to the imbalance.
Together we restore your body by bringing in a balanced diet to reduce inflammation, support your lifestyle and habits to healing, and functional lab testing.
I don't believe in
one size fits all.
Do you believe there is a one size fits all approach to optimal wellness and health? I believe everyone has a basic understanding of nutrition as we have always been told to eat our fruits and veggies. Sometimes that advice does not always lead to the path of feeling our best or helping us reach our goals because there is more to it than just eating more broccoli or apples. Our bodies are amazing and each of us is unique in our own way making our daily nutritional needs and goals a little more personal.
I do believe however, that overtime we lose sight of the basics and our lifestyles and habits create an opportunity for havoc on our body.
I struggled for most of my life with digestive distress not being able to go out to eat without a bathroom nearby followed by bloating and indigestion. I thought this was normal for so long and I honestly thought everyone dealt with this. It turns out that food wasn’t really the issue here but rather something else inside my body. Most will say that food is just meant to fuel your body and nothing more but I believe it is so much more than that. Food is our culture and every event is centered around it. It is meant to be enjoyed among friends and family to bring people closer together. That can be hard though when you are struggling with digestion symptoms.
My journey continued well beyond just my digestive problems, as my hormones and thyroid felt like they abandoned me. My cycles were always irregular as some months I didn’t even have a cycle or other months I struggled with cramping, breast tenderness, migraines, and intense cravings. My doctor brushed this off as part of a cycling female and recommended birth control to “fix” everything. Little did I know that it was just a bandaid being placed on my body to mask what was really going on. Eventually my thyroid took a turn for the worst and brought on an extra 20 lbs overnight with some severe exhaustion.
By this time I was a new bride and I had felt like I failed my duties as a wife. This led us down a long path of fertility treatments and an ache in my heart longing to be a mom. No answers were given other than to take more medicine.
I share this with you because I felt lost! Not one of my doctors asked about the foods I was eating to nourish my body with. They didn’t ask how my environment was impacting my body whether it be stress, toxins impacting my hormones, or anything about my life. They simply looked at the numbers on a lab report and moved on. This is when I started to take actions into my own hands as I felt the people that were supposed to help me most weren’t looking at me as a person! As an individual!
MY PHILOSOPHY
I believe everyone has a unique story though our stories might be similar. It is about what brought you to this place today. The experiences we had as children molded our beliefs today and the opportunities provided impacted our journey.
Healing your body back to its natural place will take time, patience, and persistence on your part as it is your story and one worth fighting for.
To truly heal, we need to look at your past, present, and how you hope to feel in the future as each piece of the puzzle matters. Together we can build a healing journey with food that not only nourishes your body but brings enjoyment to your life. We can support your lifestyle to bring balance back to the mind, body, and spirit as it is a crucial part of healing. I believe looking beyond your symptoms to find the root causes of your discomfort as there is often more than one. Remember each symptom is a gift to us to dig deeper on where the body is trying to direct you.
Our health is not just about eating well and exercising though those pieces do help, I believe it is so much more like bringing balance back to your gut and hormones to allow you to live with confidence and energy for life!
How I brought my body back into balance.
I stepped into the functional and holistic healing space to find my answers! I began to nourish my body with foods that felt good to me and ditched the ones causing so much inflammation to my body. Food can be medicine but it can also do more harm than good. I utilized functional testing like a GIMAP (stool testing), specific hormone panels that went beyond blood work, and adrenal testing to see how my body was handling stress. Testing was just one piece of the puzzle though it provided a lot of answers of where I needed to focus most. I began to heal my body from the inside out by getting rid of a bacterial overgrowth, balancing my hormones naturally, and learning more about how my emotions impacted me as a person. Though my journey took time to discover my imbalances, I don’t regret it one bit as it brought me to where I am today!
I live in a small town in Texas, where the deer eat every flower I plant and the birds chirp in the oak trees. Honestly, I love living here as I grew up in Texas so it always feels like home. I have been married for almost 10 years now and we have a set of twins that are the light of our life. They also keep us on our toes.
We love to spend as much time outdoors as we can whether it is in our own backyard, sneaking off to a small mountain town, or heading to the coast to splash in the waves. The world is our playground!
My story didn’t always start out in the Holistic space as I was a teacher for 15 years. I loved being surrounded by my students and sometimes miss seeing their faces but I had a passion brewing inside of me. I couldn’t ignore the desire to help and serve my community in a different way which has led me here today.
I spent years trying to create this perfect body with every fad diet out there only to lose a few pounds and gain it right back. I spent years trying to run half marathons to lose weight only to discover I really don’t like running. I dealt with so many embarrassing symptoms of constant bloating, random hot flashes out of nowhere, running to the bathroom after meals, and irregular cycles. Everything I did in the past only drove my body farther down into struggles! I knew there was more to life than living like this and I know you do too.
A bit more about me
Every morning I wake up with the opportunity to help another amazing person find that balance within their body to live their best life! I no longer want to be the woman that chases fad diets or put my body through torturous workouts that were full of shame and guilt. I want to feel alive with food that feels and tastes good and move my body in a way that is aligned with me. You will always find me cooking new recipes in my kitchen or exploring the farmer’s market here in town for inspiration holding two little hands that fill my heart and soul.