Meet Trailblazer Jessica Zwiep

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Zwiep.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Jessica. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up in West Michigan and enjoyed a “classic” Midwest upbringing. Met and fell in love while in college pursing a nursing degree, got married and became a mom to a sweetly little boy. Life was safe and secure and right on track for a blissfully uneventful future. When our oldest was almost 2 years old, I was pregnant with our second child and our lives turned upside down. At 27 weeks pregnant we discovered that our baby no longer had a heartbeat. In an instant, everything that had once felt safe and guaranteed in life crumbled before my eyes. After leaving the hospital one August afternoon without our little baby boy, it was like the safety net I once knew had been ripped out from under me, I went home and after recovering from labor began to seek relief from the crushing grips of grief through movement. It would start with time spent on the elliptical machine while my toddler napped, and then turned into random YouTube video workouts here and there. The Lord began to nudge me to include others in my story and I began to share my relief from grief through fitness.

In 2014, my sister in law asked me if I wanted to study with her to take a personal training certification and at this point, I had been blessed with my spunky daughter, sweet second son and was grasping for something outside of “mom brain” so I agreed. I fell in love with all things health and fitness and nutrition! I couldn’t get enough information and after completing the trainer certification I went on to complete several nutrition specialists and women’s training courses. As someone who was never an athlete growing up and had tried every fad diet under the sun, it felt extremely out of character to be embracing balance and consistency in my life for the very first time. I was noticing changes in my confidence, my anxiety and my relationships because of the stability I had learned through my education and experiences and I could not keep it to myself. SPELL Fitness was placed on my heart in 2014 and has been a wild and unexpected journey. I had always struggled with the comparison trap and felt like every other woman had it way more together than I ever would, but here I was with women asking ME for help with nutrition and fitness!

Since 2014, over a hundred women have experienced freedom from the vicious yo-yo cycle of crash dieting and excessive cardio through SPELL. The acronym S.P.E.L.L. stands for Sweat, Pray, Eat, Lift and Love and the mission of my little baby brand is to empower women to be who their Creator designed them to be through movement (sweat), a relationship with Him (pray), balanced and unrestricted nutrition that they can maintain consistently for the foreseeable future (eat), a sense of community and accountability that is empowering and speaks Truth into their lives (love) and the introduction of resistance training to improve their overall health (lift). SPELL is my most unexpected and God-breathed gifts, I never in a million years would have pictured my insecure, grief-stricken, people’s-approval-seeking self helping incredible women all over the world realize their true capability and transforming their bodies.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been a wild ride! As someone who was never an athlete growing up and has maybe stepped foot in a gym less than a dozen times, I often struggle with feeling not up to the level of some other trainers available. The Lord has been faithful in bringing just the right women to my program who have enriched my life in ways they’ll never know, and in turn, their lives have been changed as well!

Just go for it! I think would be my biggest piece of advice. As a worrier and an over-thinker, I never would have taken this leap without a big God-nudge and the support of my incredible husband. I asked a lot of questions and seek the advice of a lot of people who knew more about business than I did. Tap into all the resources you can find and do a lot of research, but at the end of the day, trust your gut and your God! He’s got your back if He’s led you to it!

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about SPELL Fitness – what should we know?
SPELL Fitness specializes in online health and fitness coaching. I offer at home, minimal equipment workout videos paired with customized nutrition programs that aim to free up your schedule and still achieve lasting results. I believe what sets SPELL apart is that it aims to nurture and elevate the entire woman. SPELL clients are prayed for, receive accountability personally from me as a coach, are part of a like-minded community of women seeking balance in all aspects of their lives. I love that SPELL encourages growing closer to the Lord through fitness; our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and when we treat them as such so many other areas of our lives blossom.

So much of the media coverage is focused on the challenges facing women today, but what about the opportunities? Do you feel there are any opportunities that women are particularly well-positioned for?
I believe that women are primed to come alongside other women. As a culture, women tend to be more focused on out-doing each other, however incredible things happen when we are sharing each other’s burdens and encouraging each other’s strengths. It is an amazing area for the Holy Spirit to move in big ways to build up the Kingdom. When we as women have each other’s backs and can take on the daily battle as a unified front instead of trying to do it all on our own, it leaves more room for our God-breathed gifts to really shine instead of them being snuffed out by all the demands we place on ourselves daily.

Pricing:

• Initial Month of Fitness and Nutrition Coaching with a SPELL T-Shirt $100
• Initial Month of Fitness and Nutrition Coaching without a SPELL T-Shirt $75
• Each Renewed Month of Fitness and Nutrition Coaching $50

Contact Info:

• Website: www.SPELLFitness.com
• Email: SPELLFitnessJZ@gmail.com
• Instagram: @spell_fitness
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SPELLFitness/

Image Credit:
Jessica Zwiep

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