i’m passionate about helping you...
...become the best version of YOU.
I’m a Certified Eating Psychology Counselor and Certified Holistic Health Coach with education in Culinary Arts, Mind Body Nutrition, Dynamic Eating Psychology and Science of Willpower.
My own struggles with health and wellness created a desire in me to help people look deeper at life’s challenges, to find the why and then the how, and then to overcome. While I understand we can’t change the things that happen TO us, I’m living proof we can most certainly change how we choose to see those events and how we will move forward as a result.
I am deeply committed to helping you discover what uniquely nourishes all aspects of your life. My desire is to guide and support you on a conscious path back to your individual vibrant health.
Each of us has unique gifts and talents. There is NO ONE like you! Are you using your gifts? Do you live with peace and ease? Do you feel good in your body? What are your passions? These are the things I’d like to know… and I can’t wait to meet you!
.
.
Ways to Work Together
Authentic Nourishment™
My Signature Program
This in-depth 12 week program is designed to transform your relationship with food. The powerful combination of content, coaching and community are proven elements to lifelong change.
bite-sized solutions
Mini-Courses
Start making rapid changes with these mini-courses you can complete in a weekend! Self-study courses that cover emotional eating, digestion, weight and more.
coaching
Work With Me 1:1
Individual and personalized coaching promotes change at the deepest level. Schedule a consultation to explore individual work.
My Story
Often, the best teacher, is experience. My own firsthand experience taught me how changes to diet and lifestyle can change absolutely everything… In April of 2008, some very scary symptoms took me into my doctor’s office… dizziness, exhaustion, blackouts, vision spots, digestive upset, and ultimately internal bleeding. After being referred to a specialist, I was given a diagnosis of Ulcerative Colitis. What in the world is ulcerative colitis? And what do I do now? The answer from the medical community was simple… “there is no known cause and no known cure…take these pills and your symptoms should go away”. Well, some of them did, but most of them didn’t. Additionally, the side effects from the medication were making me feel even worse than just the disease itself.
What I intuitively knew, was that there had to be a cause – and therefore there had to be a solution. For 2 years, I followed my instincts from one possible solution to the next. I was alone in an exhaustive search… countless hours of online research, diets excluding this and then that, multiple sessions and thousands of dollars in all kinds of different alternative therapies and different kinds of doctors – to no avail. I knew I wanted natural healing and I really believed I would have it… I was desperate and determined.
My search finally led me to a Naturopath who changed my life. By listening to me and to the symptoms my body was exhibiting, he helped me understand that the “dis-ease” in my body was a mirror of the “dis-ease” in my life. I was living a life that was not working for me… and my body was letting me know.
My symptoms were my body’s way of trying to get my attention. I had always considered myself a “healthy person”, but what I now understand looking back is that my previous relationship with life and with my body was driven by external expectations. I had a job I didn’t like, a relationship that wasn’t working and I strived to have the “perfect” body that mirrored all the images of perfection around me. Who was I doing all of this for?! Clearly – not me. I had all the things I thought I was supposed to have, but none of those things was feeding my soul. I was killing myself to live someone else’s idea of perfection and it hadn’t occurred to me I had a choice.
How did I get here? I had to accept that my choices had led me down a path away from my true authentic self – and it was time to retrace my steps. Over the next 2 years, I incorporated a whole food, therapeutic diet specifically designed for me. Yoga, walking and meditation became daily practice. Coming from someone who used to spend 7 days a week in the gym trying to reach that ever-dangling carrot – this was a challenging, yet refreshing approach!
I got it. I was maxed out, in all the wrong directions, and my body needed time to heal, naturally. And it did. And with every purposeful healing step I took, I got more clarity on who I am, what I want out of life and what my purpose is. As a result, I recognized my true passion… the profound relationship of our choices to our health! Ironically, my disease had led me to a much deeper healing and I knew that I wanted to share my experience in order to help others.
So, I left my corporate VP job and sought out my culinary education from The Professional School of Natural Cookery and then my holistic coaching certification from the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. Through each of these unique institutions, I gained the tools to support what I had learned firsthand. I am now, quite literally, living my dream!
I see my symptoms and diagnosis as divine messages calling me back to the truth of who I am and what I am meant to be doing. I am here now. My health journey was the most challenging time in my life, yet has afforded me a vibrant, purposeful life that I never knew existed. I am so grateful to have been given this wake up call and can’t wait to support you in realizing your unique best health too!
never without
Matcha and music
listening to
The Wood Brothers
favorite pastime
Hiking with Charlie and live music shows
last roadtrip
Knoxville
snackin’ on
Almonds and fruit
on my nightstand
My Journal and Daily Affirmations
Ways to Work Together
Authentic Nourishment™
My Signature Program
This in-depth 12 week program is designed to transform your relationship with food. The powerful combination of content, coaching and community are proven elements to lifelong change.
bite-sized solutions
Mini-Courses
Start making rapid changes with these mini-courses you can complete in a weekend! Self-study courses that cover emotional eating, digestion, weight and more.
coaching
Work With Me 1:1
Individual and personalized coaching promotes change at the deepest level. Schedule a consultation to explore individual work.
SIGN UP TO RECEIVE MY FREE 3-PART VIDEO TRAINING
Healing Your Food History:
How Looking Back is Critical for Changing Your Future
CHANGE YOUR UNWANTED EATING HABITS FOR GOOD BY
LEARNING WHAT CREATED THEM
Are you having a hard time breaking free of a pattern of unwanted eating habits? Do you feel like you keep failing and starting over when it comes to your goals with food and exercise? Do you feel confused about how to eat and you finally just want to be kinder to yourself and your body?
Hint: more willpower, effort and struggle is not the answer.
Mindset
Intention
Action
5 Days to a Weight Loss Mindset (FREE)
Join Eating Psychology Counselor Margaret Schwenke, CEPC, CHHC as we create both the inner and outer habits to cultivate a new mindset with food and weight loss. No more short term temporary quick fixes: we’re leaning into proven psychology to create the long term, sustainable results we want to see.
Each day you’ll receive one mindset shift and 3 suggested action steps you can start to implement to experience immediate progress.
Ditch the crash diets and hard core restrictive challenges so you can create long lasting habits fueled by more self awareness and intention…with ease!