Another year has flown by – where did it go?!

2024 was a BIG YEAR OF CHANGE at my end – exciting changes!

With change comes discomfort, of course. While I love and THRIVE being reasonably outside of my comfort zone, multiple big changes in the same calendar year can test you, at times!

Multiple big life changes at once really create this 'identity shift', when your identity can be so closely tied to the things you've been living and experiencing for so long!

Back in June of 2024 I wrapped up my teaching career with the latest public school board I was part-time teaching with (alongside coaching in my private Culinary & Holistic Nutritional Consulting Practice - Jessica Pecush Nutrition).

My resignation marked 20 years since I  started, back in August of 2004! I had started my teaching career with the Edmonton Public School Board for a few years, followed by several years out East with the Durham District School Board during my chapter living in Toronto, concluding with the Calgary Board of Education as of recent.

I enjoyed a rewarding career in Elementary Education over the years – much growth and development and touching many, many lives.

Halfway into that career, around 2015, I acknowledged the fact that the compounded demands on my health over time were going to require a new plan of action. This led to my gradual exit out of teaching over the past 9 years, marking my gradual segue INTO Culinary & Holistic Nutrition as a practitioner.

This transition did wonders for my autoimmune health journey, and I was driven by the mission to empower others to feel their very best, too.

Coaching adults through their health journeys with autoimmune gut disorders like Crohn's, Colitis and Celiac Disease (and other gut-based disorders), has been just as rewarding!

Supporting and witnessing others invest in transforming their current and future health trajectory, with targeted nutrition and lifestyle strategies, is incredibly moving. The investments my clients have made in themselves, past and present, not only deeply impact them, but the lives of everyone they come into contact with on a daily basis. It's quite the ripple effect!

To witness others live the rewards of their nutrition and lifestyle shifts is like nothing else! There have been many consults over these past 8 years as a practitioner, where eyes are brimming with tears as a client shares their wins with me! It's an honour to be part of their journeys and equip them with the life skills/tools they carry forward with them with independence and confidence!

Upon leaving the public school system for good this past year, and moving fully into health and wellness-based work, I really enjoyed working with the team and clients at Calgary multi-disciplinary clinic Active Back to Health. It was wonderful to experience supporting others in a clinical environment, where clients were tapping into multiple modalities in support of their health!

And then...my husband and I moved!

We left behind our most recent home, which I’d been in for 9 years upon moving to Calgary, and he in for 7.

While in the thick of preparing to move, I also sold my car of 17 years. I realize a car is just a machine and a 'bucket of bolts' at the end of the day, but vehicles are symbolic of SO MUCH MORE.

That vehicle single-handedly carried me through daily life for my entire chapter living in Toronto and my chapter in Calgary thus far. Road trips, daily trips, and a few moves happened with that car, but it was time to let a new owner enjoy it and make it their own.

This past Fall was a whirlwind, between selling our past house on time, moving out, renting a short-term Air BnB between moving out and taking possession of our new place, and all the unpacking work that would follow.

A few days after we finished unpacking everything, I started a new position at the University of Calgary in the Cumming School of Medicine at the Foothills Medical Centre! As the Program Administrator of the Student Advocacy & Wellness Hub, I look forward to working with a small core team to develop, implement and coordinate all of the workshop offerings (academic and health/wellbeing-based) to the Med School Students in the faculty.

It’s exciting to take my skill set and experiences at this half-way point in my career into a post-secondary environment, and I look forward to making a deep wellness-related impact with this student community!

Alongside this role, I’ll be continuing to coach some private clients and host gut health-related events in Calgary, starting with a 3-Part Gut Health Webinar Series with Community Natural Foods this February/March! Stay tuned!

Come Fall 2025, I look forward to releasing my e-Cookbook that I’ve been working on! Now that we’re in our long-term home with a bright and beautiful new kitchen, it’s the backdrop I’ve been waiting for with my culinary creations and the food photography that goes along with it! Can’t wait to see the chosen recipes and new photography all come together!

Before I sign off, amidst the 'organized chaos' of the past 6 months between home and career, there are always some key things I do at the end of the calendar year and into the start of a New Year, to calm my body and brain, make more creative brain space, and enter the New Year feeling calm, cool and collected.

A bit of time on them each day (e.g. 30-90 min) goes a long way!

I always clean up/out my:

• Cell phone
  • Contacts
  • Apps that will be used
  • Backing it up to my laptop
• All email Inboxes
  • Sorting through all Inbox emails, including unsubscribing from unnecessary email lists
  • Labelled folders
  • Contacts
  • Google Drive folders
• Laptop
  • Unused folders = TRASH!
  • Every document filed into a folder
  • Backing up my freshly-cleaned computer/ensuring updates are up-to-date

I'd normally clean out any closets, drawers, cupboards, etc. that need attention as well, but having moved this past Fall, the major purging and reorganizing has already been looked after. :D

Happy New Year to you and yours! Looking forward to all that 2025 brings!

Drop a comment below as to what you're most looking forward to in 2025, and/or how you set yourself up for success at the start of a New Year. I'd love to know what those things are for you!

Love, 

Jess!