Jasmine Kelly-Stephens is a Holistic Health and Wellness Coach. She is a wife, mom, encourager, church ministries leader, just to name a few. Her latest accomplishment is becoming an Amazon 1 Best-Selling Author.
As one whose own struggles with stress eating, binge eating, overeating, and cravings date back to over thirty years, Jasmine is passionate about putting a stop to the emotional eating epidemic and helping women get back to a place of healing, restoration, and liberation.
Jasmine does not believe in the one-size-fits-all approach. She also believes that this epidemic can only be overcome with the truth of God’s word. Her mission is to help women break free from the stronghold of emotional eating through self-awareness and sound biblical truths so that they can heal their relationship with food and their bodies, once and for all.
She mainly works with Christian women entrepreneurs one-on-one but is also passionate about spreading this transformation with anyone who’s willing to listen.
Jasmine believes that when women are healed, it creates healthier environments for their families and communities, and they can show up with more confidence and energy in their God-given assignment.
Jasmine Kelly-Stephens, Holistic Health and Wellness Coach
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
My name is Jasmine Kelly-Stephens. I was born and raised in the beautiful island of St. Kitts by a praying, bible-reading and God-fearing grandmother. Life in the Caribbean was full of adventures, fun, excitement, and a whole lot of outdoor activities. Some of my fondest memories include going to the beach any time of the year, playing outside for hours, having access to delicious fruits such as guavas, mangoes, passionfruit, tamarind, soursop, coconut, and herbs such as lemongrass and ginger. And finally, traveling outside of the country to spend summers and holidays with my mom was a treat I looked forward to. Life was wonderful!
This all changed when I migrated to the US shortly after graduating from high school at the age of sixteen. It was very time for me, as I did not want to leave my island in the sun. Life as an immigrant was not a walk in the park. The struggle was real, but so is the God who has orchestrated every step of my life so I can be here today. He has truly been faithful.
I am a wife, mom, church ministry’s leader, an encourager, just to name a few. But I am most proud of my role as a daughter of the Most High. I value family, friendship, honesty, simplicity, and serving others. I love the great outdoors especially long walks enjoying God’s beautiful masterpiece and meditating on His awesomeness. Another outdoor activity I enjoy immensely is skiing. I have not found anything quite as exhilarating as gliding down the vast slopes with the wind in my face and feeling like I am on top of the world. And lastly, which should come as no surprise, I absolutely love traveling and spending time on beautiful beaches.
My educational background includes a BS in Accounting, and an MBA in Global Management. I spent several successful years in Corporate America but felt God calling me to something more. Several years later after working with an Integrative Doctor and experiencing a radical transformation, a spark was ignited, and that led to my decision to becoming an Institute for Integrative Nutrition Health Coach. I am happy to report my most recent accomplishment, which is becoming an Amazon 1 Best-Selling Author for the second time and a first time number 1 international best-selling author in twelve countries for the book, Get Up! God’s Not Done with You Yet!
What is your business name and how do you help your clients?
After much deliberation, I decided to name my business Jasmine Stephens Wellness. As a Holistic Health and Wellness Coach, I empower Christian women entrepreneurs to optimize their health by breaking free from the stronghold of emotional eating. I am passionate about putting a stop to the emotional eating pandemic and helping women reclaim their place of freedom, restoration, and liberation by removing the discomfort and anxiety caused by emotional eating so that they can experience God’s best for them.
The work that I do with my clients is sensitive in nature and is the main reason it is currently conducted in a one-on-one 12-week coaching container. The process of breaking free is a very personal one so how I help my clients is dependent on the woman and what comes up for her. It is important for me to get to know my clients and the beliefs they have held on to. In addition to utilizing modalities such as lifestyle, mindset, and habit coaching, I also utilize biblical truths because I believe that only through the truth or the word of God can we tear down the stronghold of emotional eating.
I deem it an honor to hold a safe and comfortable space as well as establish trust with my clients, as I connect with them on an emotional level. This allows them the opportunity to feel heard and seen so they can freely increase awareness around their relationship with food without judgment, shame, or guilt. I also help them manage the stresses that trigger eating as a coping mechanism. Once they do that, they can then take specific steps to avoid self-sabotaging their wellness goals. As a result, their lives begin to flourish as they begin to see the possibilities they never thought of. It is important to note that this is not about deprivation.
Having an ally who can provide them the inspiration, empowerment and support is key to realizing my clients’ potential and achieving lasting behavior change. Healthy behavior requires hard work, consistent effort, and practical tools to be successful. My goal is to help facilitate a process of change and help my clients develop the tools and framework towards actualizing their dream of food freedom. They can grow while staying motivated through small milestones celebrated throughout their healing process. It is all about the small wins that build toward enormous success.
What kind of audience do you target your business towards?
I target my business towards Christian women who are exposed to increased stress and responsibility due to the highly demanding nature of entrepreneurship. They are motivated to improve their health but are trapped in behaviors such as bingeing, overeating, stress eating, grazing all day, snacking mindlessly, obsessing over food and weight, hiding, pretending, sneaking, dieting, over exercising, spending endless money on new programs and diets. In other words, women who regulate their emotions using things outside themselves such as food instead of finding other healthy outlets for themselves.
They are sick and tired of feeling out of control with food and tired of the control food seems to have over them. They carry guilt and shame around their eating behavior and may even hate themselves for it. They struggle silently because they are educated, competent and spiritual. They are perfectionists, people pleasers and engage in all-or-nothing thinking. They think they are the problem and think the next diet or fad will help them. They are tired of having a poor body image. They have missed out on adequate emotional nurturance in childhood. They are feeling like they need to shrink or be fixed…and that is the kind of thinking I would like to disrupt by offering hope and compassion.
Who inspires you to be the best that you can be?
I would have to say that my son has been my greatest source of inspiration. As a mom, I strive to be the person my son can look up to and be proud of. But I can also say that I have been privileged to see the world through the lens of my son. He has taught me some of the most valuable lessons in life that have inspired me to be a better person.
The way he can forgive so easily encourages me to be more forgiving of people who have hurt me. That has been an area in which God has been refining. Additionally, watching my son discover his talents and executing them with excellence has encouraged me to cut through the noise in my head to discover the things that make me happy and just go for it. Who would have thought I’d be learning all of this from my son? What an honor it is to be a boy mom!
What is your work inspired by?
My work is inspired by my own emotional eating journey. As one whose own struggles with emotional eating date back over thirty years, I know firsthand how frustrating it can be to feel stuck in a cycle of bingeing. I had an affinity for sweets with a special sweet spot for a particular treat, called sugar cake (a delicious blend of coconut, sugar, and ginger). So anytime I could buy some I would eat them all by myself when no one was looking. I hadn’t learned how to navigate my emotions, so food had become my primary emotional coping mechanism. As a result, I experienced weight gain, incessant headaches, and terrible acne. My energy levels were at an all-time low, which negatively affected my level of performance. My emotional eating habit had completely sabotaged my health and wellness goals.
Working with an Integrative Doctor was a game changer for me. The transformation and my natural love for all things health and wellness ignited my passion and led to my discovery of helping other women in their wellness journey. My mission is to put a stop to the emotional eating pandemic and help women get back to a place of safety, freedom, restoration, liberation and trust. I believe when women are healed, it creates healthier environments for their families and communities, and they can show up with more confidence and energy in their God-given assignments.
Change and transformation are not quick fixes. But I believe when those baby steps are taken consistently, they will help lead to big results and true success. If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?
If I could change one thing about the health and wellness industry, it would be for it to stop treating women’s bodies like projects and weight loss like an Olympic sport. Unfortunately, we live in a world that is obsessed with aesthetics, specifically body aesthetics. This means that there is a whole industry working hard to make sure you feel like you need to lose weight. Not that there is anything wrong with wanting to lose weight. But if you decide to go on a weight-loss journey, are you going about it the right way and with the right attitude?
Women are encouraged to diet, hardly eat, and then blame themselves when these plans do not work. But women need to know that they are more than capable of making decisions for their bodies because they know their bodies better than anyone else. Instead, many women have been led to believe that someone else knows better and if they listened to them then they will have the body they desire. That is the biggest lie. All this has done is rob women of their confidence, safety, and trust; and cause them to continuously focus on food. They have become so disconnected from their body signals that even in a land of plenty, they still have unmet bodily needs. How is that possible?
As a Health Coach, I have seen how damaging diet culture can be. It’s time we take a stand! It’s time we all agree that women are not lazy, they do not need any more willpower and they do not need another diet. My mission is to empower women to reframe their mindset and beliefs when it comes to the food they eat. They can have lasting freedom and peace with food without deprivation. They can learn to trust their amazing bodies and embrace who God created them to be without reservations.
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
I appreciate this question because I believe all of us have had moments of clarity, whether big or small, that have provided us with new perspectives and or opportunities to change our lives. Coming to America was that moment for me. I came here at the tender age of sixteen with a set of expectations, but God had other plans for me. I shared a part of this story in my most recent book anthology, Get Up! God’s Not Done with You Yet! On November 12th, 2022, this book became an Amazon 1 best-seller in five categories as well as 1 international best-seller in twelve countries. Once again God continues to open doors that I never thought possible. It is my hope that my story, along with those of the other authors, will uplift the spirit of the readers. I hope they will be inspired and encouraged to stay the course and know that God has a wonderful plan for their life even when they cannot see it. I hope they will have the courage to faithfully live their unique life.
