Health Coaching Couple Helps Others Transform

Jeff and Cindy Berkowitz ditched their high-paying, stress-filled jobs for a new life as a health coach team, transforming their bodies, minds and health with a new way of eating.

“We realized that we needed to reboot and get out of these jobs that were sucking the life out of us,” Cindy said. “We realized that we weren’t really happy.”

The couple now help to lead others to better lives with their health coaching business, Intuitive Holistic Health. While Cindy is a former family law paralegal and Jeff is a former chef, they now create flavorful recipes filled with vegetables while finding individual plans for their clients.

The business is based in Wexford and the couple travels around the Pittsburgh area, appearing every Friday at the for cooking demonstrations and also conducting workshops at the East End Food Co-op. When they decided to make a life change, both attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

“We decided it was time to reinvent our lives,” Jeff said.

In an age of processed foods that can have a shelf life of three years or more, the pair said it is important for people to go back to grandma’s advice—eat your veggies.

“There are three things you put into your body to sustain your life—air, water, and then comes food,” Jeff said. “With those three things, you need clean air, clean water and clean food.”

Cindy said they have both experienced the spiritual, mental and physical power of simply changing the way you eat. She lost 50 pounds while Jeff lost 40 with minimal effort. They didn’t weigh their food, overexert themselves at the gym or measure portions—they simply ate more veggies.

The key is to enjoy the food you eat, they said.

“Food should taste great,” Jeff said. “It’s a principle that one should really enjoy one’s food. Sometimes we eat too much or eat on habit. We draw philosophies from every corner of the globe—we are not talking about salads with no dressing—we are talking about flavorful food.”

Their simple recipes are filled with flavor and give new perspective to eating healthfully in a world of fast food. Jeff also said people need to remember to eat what tastes good. At the age of five, he noticed he was feeling sick after eating milk, so he stopped drinking it. Over the course of his life, he forgot that simple step.

“As I got older, I would eat more cheese and milk and developed asthma,” he said. “When I stopped eating milk products, my asthma went away in three days with no medicine. No two people have the same requirements—everyone is different.”

Attending the Forest Hills Farmers Market is one way Jeff and Cindy feel they are able to expand people’s horizons on what it means to eat vegetables. Cindy’s transformation was complete after she changed her diet. After years of joint pain and other back issues, the pain disappeared after changing the way she ate and adding exercise to her life.

“We try and help people to enjoy their food and draw on different philosophies,” Cindy said.

Intuitive Holistic Health offers a free consultation. For more information, recipes and other resources, visit www.intuitiveholistichealth.com or call 412-513-5963. Jeff and Cindy will be attending the Forest Hills Farmers Market every Friday for the summer and fall, which is held between 4 and 7 p.m. each week at Forest Hills Presbyterian on Ardmore Boulevard.