Growth. Change. Elevation.
The idea behind the relaunch of this website was to show the growth Ambrianna Sherif Health has had in the three years since I opened my virtual Holistic Health Coaching practice. When I started, we were four months into a worldwide pandemic, I had just quit my job as a full-time Dental Specialty Treatment Coordinator, and I was a recent Holistic Health Coach Practitioner and Integrative Nutritionist graduate from The Institute of Integrative Nutrition School (IIN). The original plan was to find a job as a nutritionist or health coach at a wellness office, however, after months in lockdown I was extremely nervous about what working in a pandemic would look like. I was drawn to the excitement of seeing where I could go as an entrepreneur, to really shoot my shot at my dream career by creating it!
On July 1, 2020, I launched this website with the goal of finding other young women interested in improving their eating habits to become the best version of themselves. At the time of the launch, I was hyper focused on plant-based nutrition and intentional movement in the form of walking and yoga - since this is what I personally found the to be a great starting point to improving one’s health at the time. Combining my previous nutrition counselling experience gained as a treatment coordinator (read more about this here) and the knowledge + resources gained from IIN, I jumped right in!
After working with my first round of clients I noticed a huge need to incorporate mental health counselling. Every single client was dealing with chronic stress and anxiety (work, school, or health related) and a few dealt with anger issues, depression, and disordered eating. I decided to take an additional course in Positive Psychiatry and Mental Health and gained a certificate to be able to help clients navigate healing their relationship with food and all the anxiety that comes around that; in addition to being able to offer tools + resources to manage anxiety, chronic stress, and depression. I loved adding this layer into my practice!
For one, I felt better equipped to dive into those deep connecting conversations with my clients and community members. Secondly, I knew I was creating a greater impact with my clients, being able to offer support and resources to navigate improving body image, healing their relationship with food, increasing emotional intelligence, and giving them a great starting point to managing good mental health.
Three months after launching my business, my husband and I successfully got pregnant naturally and I began to see just how much our medical system has really neglected women’s health. Every symptom I felt during my pregnancy and postpartum was answered by my medical doctor with an “oh that’s normal” … If I dare googled my symptoms, I would be bombarded with thousands of different opinions with majority of them pointing to the need for prescription medication – that was a hard no for me.
The more I expressed my concern with the “oh that’s normal” response, the more I learned that it was NOT normal, just common symptoms many women were suffering with that most doctors did not have a real answer or solution for (mostly due to lack of representation in clinical studies, learning about women’s health and hormones – aside from pregnancy - is not studied in depth by medical students). This prompted me to take a course on Pregnancy Nutrition and Lifestyle to understand what was actually happening in my own body to be better equipped to make a plan on managing my pregnancy symptoms and feel good about my ever-changing body. The more I learned about the hormonal changes happening in my body to grow a healthy baby, the more at peace I felt during my pregnancy. Knowledge truly became a powerful way for me to ease any anxiety around my body changes/aches/pains as well as mentally preparing me for labor and delivery.
At this time, I also became very comfortable asking my health care team any questions I had. I would often arrive to my OB’s (obstetrician gynecologist) office with a list of questions and possible holistic solutions to review with her. Due to some of my pregnancy symptoms (like extreme joint pain, low back pain, etc) I spent a lot of time with my chiropractor who specializes in pediatric, prenatal + postnatal chiropractic treatment with a passion for holistic health and really picked her brain for solutions to help myself navigate pregnancy and postpartum. The information I learned from them and the course I took helped me manage my pregnancy symptoms naturally through nutrition, healthy lifestyle habits and intentional movement.
Heading into year two of having a virtual practice, I had the wonderful experience welcoming my daughter into this world. I had a challenging time healing postpartum between the struggle to lose the pregnancy weight to sleep deprivation and everything in between. Again, there was not much support from my medical doctor other than the typical 8 weeks check-up. I did not know how to effectively communicate my needs. I did not know just how exhausting breastfeeding AND not sleeping would be. I did not know how deep body dysmorphia would find me and hold me hostage. No one likes to talk about the hard parts of motherhood. No one likes to talk about the challenges and emotional toll getting pregnant and carrying a baby to full term will be. No one dares talks about the mental haze you are in during the postpartum healing time (which for me I feel was legit 2 years).
I decided to learn as much as I could about women’s hormones from evidence-based studies and articles, as well as discussing the topic with other holistic health practitioners. During this time, I also decided to expand my nutrition expertise to learn more about the benefits of animal protein, our digestive system and detox pathways. I added another layer to my practice when started collaborating with Seed Health and designing my own Healthy Living Workshops to reach more community members and inform them about the power behind optimizing their gut health!
One thing that really helped me heal and balance hormones naturally was movement. Every single day I would do yoga with my daughter and have a dance party, a few times a week we would go for walks and soak in the sunshine. I did this primarily to help my mental health but what I didn’t realize was this was also reviving my metabolism, increasing circulation, boosting my digestive health, and rebuilding lean muscle mass that was lost during pregnancy.
When the pregnancy weight started melting off, I decided to dive deeper into the science of fitness and link that information around the emotional and mental benefits with the physical benefits. This prompted me to take an exercise science course and finally get certified as a personal trainer with The National Academy of Sports Medicine.
With all this growth, we needed a new site to reflect the changes and new services offered! All the information I learned from the courses I’ve taken, the helpful resources I have collected, and the insightful healing tools shared with me from other practitioners, I have added to my health coaching programs. As a certified personal trainer (and soon to be Women’s Fitness Specialist!) I now have the tools to effectively help women in all stages of their life – pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, postpartum, and menopause. To give them curated information, resources, and tools to help them feel good, function well, and reach their goals!
Now heading into year three, Ambrianna Sherif Health has elevated to offering virtual and in person Holistic Health + Fitness Services designed for mothers and modern women. Holistic health coaching that links how what we consume (food, environment, media) and our lifestyle choices affect our hormones. Efficient Personal Training programs that promote core stability, muscle endurance, and increased metabolism while achieving desired muscle definition.
My hope is to help inspire and empower women to go through each phase of life confidently. Helping them understand our unique biology so they can honour their hormonal rhythms and heal any poor health symptoms through nutrition, healthy lifestyle habits, and intentional movement.
MORAL OF THE STORY: The more you educate yourself on health, wellness and fitness from evidence-based trusted sources, the more power you have to make informed decisions to better your health xx