Jennifer Kalynchuk

1. What brought you to study Holistic Nutrition at IHN?

I need to give credit to my hubby Scott and a friend of mine, Kaleigh. I’ve been working in the health food/supplement realm and Kaleigh made a comment (planted a seed) that I should go to school to expand my knowledge, I instantly said no way that was not happening, I don’t have the time or the money, quite fear based. When Scott and I moved back home to Alberta in 2023, he made the comment that I needed to go to school. He has always been extremely supportive of my journey in the realm of natural healing and saw how much I enjoy helping others. I again hesitated and shrugged it off. He then sent me a link. I don’t even remember the link or what it was, but all of a sudden, I was on the IHN website. Before I knew it, I was contacting the school and writing my autobiography! And I am grateful I did.

2. What professions have you worked in prior to enrolling at IHN?

I have been working in the health food/supplement realm since 2016. It has become a passion of mine. It’s been quite an adventure so far. Participating in dinner trainings with companies such as Can Prev, Salus, Veeva, Natural Factors etc. Webinars throughout the years have given me so much knowledge of products and how to properly and safely incorporate them into the lives of our customers. Attending the CHFA in Toronto was a great experience and perk as well. Conquering my fear of being on camera is another perk. I’ve had the pleasure of making social media customer education videos for two of the businesses I have worked for. I am extremely grateful for all these experiences; they have made me who I am today and set the stage for me to expand my knowledge and abilities to help myself and others.

3. What degrees or academic achievements did you have prior to IHN?

All I have is my High School diploma! So far 🙂

4. What are your goals and aspirations as a CNP?

Everything haha! I love helping others get back on track. When you work in health food/supplement stores, you hear from customers everyday about their health issues or concerns. From mental health, to cancer, to infertility, to hormone imbalances, to gut issues of all kinds. For me, working with clients to improve their gut microbiome, decreasing inflammation, and improving mental health is very important to me. Targeting and improving the state of these 3 are what I personally have had to work on through the years, and it has changed my life for the better. After receiving my diplom from IHN, I am very excited to open my business and help my community and surrounding areas get back on track with nutrition!

5. What has been your personal best achievement?

Getting through a very dark time in my life that went on for years, by changing the foods I ate, supplementing properly for each stage of change, and choosing my thoughts carefully by catching myself when I started to go down a rabbit hole of negativity. I have never felt so healthy and happy. Yes, I still have hurdles and traumas that come my way; however, I now have the tools, confidence and experiences to get through them much faster than I have ever done before. This personal achievement is me loving myself and appreciating the amazing vessel that I have.

6. What is something you overcame in your life, that you didn’t think you could?

Going back to school at the age of 40. I do not have social media, never have, I did not use computers other than to google or YouTube something. I knew nothing about excel, barely knew my way around making a word document. Never heard of Canva until the Comparative Diets course … I did everything in my life I could to keep myself away from technology as much as possible. Going to school made me let go of many old thought patterns and beliefs surrounding the realm of technology, and I am a very different person today because of that. I still do not have social media, but I now know how to use an excel sheet and export a word document to a pdf lol, among many other wonderful benefits I have learned through IHN. It sounds silly to many I am sure, but it is a huge levelling up for me in my life, and I am here to tell you that you can achieve greatness even if you don’t believe you have the experience or know how at this moment. My drive to make changes in my life, the teachers at IHN, fellow students, and my hubby have been extremely supportive throughout my computer/tech/school journey. I am grateful to them all.

I’ve been a midwife (if you will) for our goats for many years. I have experienced farm life since I was 7 years old, and it has taught me many things. Being a part of an animal giving birth to their babies is something that I have been blessed to experience. It comes with its ups and downs, of course. Cheering them on, jumping in when needed, hands on and sometimes hands in when there is a problem with the positioning of the baby in the womb, knowing when and what to do in serious situations is something that has made me who I am today. It is an absolute joy to welcome a baby goat into the world. Watching the kids and their mom bond is something that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Sometimes the moms will even come up and give us little kisses on our cheeks after their babes have been safely born into this world with our help.

IHN has been a huge steppingstone in my life and has helped me to level up in more ways than one. I am very grateful for the teachings at this school, and how it has assisted me personally to heal and how it has helped me to be of greater service to others. My favourite courses have been Symp 1 and 2. It was thrilling to take a deep dive into setting up protocols for clients and how to get to the root cause of their ailment. Psychology of Disease was exactly what I needed at the time, Divine. This class was very soothing and calming for me and changed my life for the better. Thank you.