I grew up in Franklin, Tennessee just outside of Nashville with my amazing family. I love my home but for as long as I can remember I had always wanted to see the world and get out of that "small town." That being said, I've spent a large majority of the last 8 years of my life traveling all over the world for my husband's career, which is what ultimately led to me on this journey to becoming a Coach. But my story begins much before that.
I was a competitive athlete for most of my life. I played Division 1 volleyball and was always extremely active growing up. Since high school I've had a love for sports and realized I also had a big heart for helping others. During my college career I suffered 3 (back to back) ultimately career ending injuries, which left me devastated. I had worked so hard my whole life to compete and had big goals for myself. After struggling through these injuries I felt like I had failed. I had planned to start a career in the Sports Medicine field but after all my time spent in and out of physical therapy and doctor's offices I felt completely drained from the whole sports world. I decided before I got too far with the career path I was headed on that I needed to figure out what I REALLY wanted to do that I could find passion in. I searched for a LONG time and just couldn't find the right opportunity for me. I became extremely unhappy and depressed with my life and my future. I graduated college with my degree in Journalism and Communications thinking I would work in this field but quickly found out it wasn't the most family friendly career path and ultimately wasn't something I was truly passionate enough about to give up my dream of being a wife and mother and traveling. During college and even after I tried job after job but nothing I did was fulfilling or what I had expected. I thought "everyone hates their jobs" so I probably was destined to as well.
In 2009 I married my best friend and college sweetheart, who had already started his career as a professional athlete. I immediately took on the role of "basketball wife" and started traveling the world with him for his basketball career. As exciting as that sounded, it was often very lonely at times. I was so blessed to have the opportunity to see new things and did find a sense of fulfillment supporting him and being a wife, but I also felt very alone. I yearned for something I could feel passionate about that would give me that sense of self worth. We lived mostly in Eastern European countries with very few people who spoke the English language, which also meant there were very few work opportunities for me. Outside of my "wifely duties" I didn't feel like I had much of a purpose. Over the years we've had some incredible experiences and some not so incredible experiences, but every hard situation we've been in has ultimately been a blessing now looking back.
During this time in my life, through the loneliness and solidarity I taught myself how to cook and formed a real LOVE for fitness and health again. I continued to search for myself and what I was meant to do with my life outside of just "wife". Although I had been an athlete in the past, fitness was something I did because I HAD to not because I wanted to. And of course just like most former athlete I started seeing my body change when I didn't have any reason to compete anymore. On top of that I had developed some nasty eating habits, which simply consisted of me eating anything and EVERYTHING just because I could. I had this mentality that because I was an athlete I was "healthy" no matter what I ate. Wow, was I wrong! When my athletic career was over I felt a big change in the way I felt and looked so I decided to get back in the gym -- which is what ultimately became my sanctuary during those lonely days overseas. It was the one place I could go where I could escape and feel like my "old" self again. During this time I fell in love with fitness and with cooking. I started experimenting in the kitchen, learning new recipes and loved the creativity of it all, but I still wasn't eating anything "healthy."
For years, I had heard about clean eating and eating organic or natural foods but I didn't think it was something I really needed to do because I was "fit". After so many years of feeling low on energy and having terrible skin issues, I decided to take action and just learn more about it. When I started researching nutrition, I realized I was doing my body an injustice by putting so much junk into it. I had no idea the damage I was doing by eating Oreos and Dr. Pepper. As I learned to cook, I also learned to start substituting the good for the bad and traded processed foods for whole foods. Slowly but sure I saw my body changing, I saw my energy increase and I saw my skin clear up. By this time I was consistently working out and just simply by changing my eating habits I lost about 15 lbs that I never even knew my body didn't need!
After feeling the amazing effects on my body I became excited about this new healthy and natural lifestyle I was leading and organically wanted to share it with EVERYONE! I became the "go to" girl in my family for organic, clean eating and fitness. I knew that I could TRULY help other women feel as good as I did if I could teach them about eating clean whole foods. I thought if I could just figure out a way to monetize that, it would be the PERFECT job. After years of supporting my husband in his career and never knowing what I could be good at, I felt like I had finally found my "thing". I decided that I wanted to immerse myself in some sort of health and fitness career but I couldn't quite find where I fit in.
I tried to start my own fitness studio or personal training business but without investing thousands of dollars (which we did not have) or going into debt to go back to school, I found myself at square one again. I searched for other opportunities in other health based careers, but nothing ever seemed to fall into place. At this point my confidence completely dropped and I became depressed and lost hope that I would ever be able to truly help people in the way I wanted to.
I battled low self esteem, confidence and depression for a few years, hiding it well {considering I didn't have to see many people while we were living in a remote part of the world}. I was constantly angry and unhappy with who I was and became resentful toward my husband for "keeping" me from having my own career. Thinking about that now makes me sick to my stomach to see how "ugly" and complacent I had become on the inside.
I finally realized I had to stop blaming the world for my problems and that I needed to start improving my mind even more so than my body. This is when I picked up my Bible and starting diving into where I really needed to find the answers I was looking for. My relationship with Christ is ultimately what has led to the person I am today. I'm so thankful now for that dark time in my life that led me to build my relationship with Christ. My husband and I both got baptized and reconfirmed our commitment to Christ in 2011. This is where the mind, body and soul transformation truly started for me and I believe where I became transformed from the inside out.
I realized soon after that I had a real passion for Coaching and mentoring high school girls, so I began Coaching and training athletes at the local high school, I started my own live bootcamps in the park for women and ALSO worked in the health field. I had a lot on my plate, but I loved what I was doing, I enjoyed the people I worked with but with my husband's crazy career we were constantly separated and it barely felt like we were a family anymore.
Plus, at the end of the day, I was still working for someone else, on their time, on their terms, with no flexibility and helping someone else build their dreams instead of my own. I knew long term that I would never be truly happy doing that. The desire for FREEDOM and flexibility is what ultimately led me to Coaching.
When I found out I was pregnant with my first daughter, Nora, I knew I was in need of a career change that would give me the flexibility I needed to be home with my baby and to be a full time wife again.
In 2013 I discovered a company called Beachbody and unknowingly dove into the world of network marketing. I actually had no idea what network marketing was, all I knew was that I could help people get healthy through this company.
Within 2 1/2 years I was leading a team in the Top .01% of the entire company. I reached some of the highest leadership ranks in the company as an Elite Coach. After 4 years with Beachbody I helped hundreds of women get healthy and build their own network marketing businesses. I absolutely loved the impact I had with Beachbody but there was a part of me that was yearning for more. While I truly loved the mission of the company and my team, I missed the creativity of training people and creating my own workouts.
Then after having my 2nd baby, Sofia, I went through a complete life change. I struggled with postpartum depression, anxiety and chronic stress. This journey led me to researching post partum and hormonal health to help heal my own body. After this part of my journey is when I created my signature fitness + nutrition program, Body After Baby Bootcamp and wrote my e-book, "21 Days of Healthy Living for New Moms."
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| Post Partum Journey After Baby #2 |
I've since worked with over 70 women in Body After Baby to help them re-set their hormones, overcome post partum depression, get healthy bodies, get fit, toned and re-gain confidence while honoring their priorities!
I'm so grateful for all the experiences I've had that led me to where I am now. I believe that each point was a stepping stone to the ultimate path I needed to be following.
Jackie and her family are still traveling the world (currently living in Lithuania) but they reside in sunny Phoenix, Arizona each Summer. She runs her fitness company, Jackie Peterson Fitness, from all over the world. Her mission is to help moms get healthy + balanced while honoring their priorities.
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