Hi! My Name is Jess
The best title I have? Life changer.
Protein-loving, vegetable-obsessed, wife, mom, Registered Dietitian, marathoner, wanderlusting adventurer. I have a lot of titles. And I love them all.
You see my goal in life is to inspire, encourage, challenge and educate you to push yourself to reach YOUR goals, live your best life and rediscover the joy within yourself.
My passion for nutrition began my senior year in high school. As a sports nut, I was eager to learn more about food and its effect on the body. More specifically my body. I wanted to learn how food (the “right” foods that is) could help my sports performance. So my senior years I completely changed my eating habits.
Gone were the days of cookies, junk food and other processed foods. Instead, I started preparing salads, fruits and lean proteins to take to track meets. I even started doing the grocery shopping and making meals for my parents! That track season, I flew past many of my self-imposed goals and even competed in the state track meet! (PS - I just missed beating the school record for the mile by 1 second!)
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That is when I decided to become a dietitian. I knew it was my calling to share how good food can change your life. After graduating from Iowa State University in 2007 with a degree in Dietetics, I began working with the West Des Moines School District. Through a couple of career changes, I gained more connection with my clients as a dietitian for Mercy Hospital, Koch Facial Plastic Surgery and lastly, The Spa at West Glen.
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My mission is simple:
Achieving a healthy lifestyle can be fun, tasty, simple and affordable. Using evidence-based nutrition information, healthy, family-friendly recipes and inspiration to live each day to the fullest, let me guide you on your own “expedition” to whole health.
Hi! My Name is Becca
Hi, my name is Becca Van Roekel and I was born and raised in central Iowa. I am a Registered Dietitian at Expedition Wellness. I attended Northwest Missouri State University for my Bachelors in Food and Nutrition: Dietetics and completed my dietetic internship and Master in Clinical Nutrition Program from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
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My background has been in long term care and clinical nutrition with encompassing many areas. My husband and I live in West Des Moines with our two dogs. We are always on the go whether that be riding horses, hiking, running, gardening, walking our dogs, cooking meals and spending time with family, but I wouldn't have it any other way! My love for nutrition began with learning about the physiology of our body and how the foods we eat play such an important aspect on how we fuel our bodies. I began experimenting in the kitchen as my mom called it with incorporating nutrient dense foods into my family's favorite recipes.
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I have continued this love for nutrition and enjoy getting to work with individuals by guiding and educating them toward their individualized nutrition goals. I believe there is no one size fits all and that everyone has their own journey and goals on how to fuel their body but also enjoy the foods that we are eating! I am looking forward to getting to work with my clients to guide them toward their individualized nutritional goals.
Hi! My Name is Jennifer
I was born and raised for half of my life in San Bernardino. California. My Mom decided to move us to Iowa when I was 14 years old so we can be closer to her family. I have lived in two different states in Mexico, 4 years in Durango MX and 1 ½ in Guanajuato, MX. I really loved it there, it is so beautiful, and the life is so slow paced compared to here in the States. I am married to my best friend and have 4 beautiful children who literally drive me crazy most days.
My love for running and playing sports all started my sophomore year of High School when my new friends talked me into joining the basketball team. Although I wasn’t the best at this sport, I loved how it made me more social and helped me make more friends who then convinced me to go out for track. Track is where I fell in love with running and the adrenaline rush I would get right before a race.
I have always had a passion for trying to maintain an active healthy life but have never been the best at it. It was literally just recently I contacted one of my best friends from high school (A.K.A Jessica Schroeder) to start getting some help on eating healthier so I can achieve my goal of losing some weight and to start toning my body a little. I started on this journey in mid- March of this year (right before the corona virus took over) and have lost over 20 lbs now. Not only did eating healthy help me lose weight it also helped me become more confident in myself and has given me more energy to accomplish more
things in my day-day life.
I have found my passion not only for exercise but I have found my passion for healthy eating and am now very passionate to share my experience and knowledge to others who a struggling with managing their weight and eating healthy.
Hi! My Name is Azra
I am Azra Kolz, a Board Certified Functional Nutritionist dedicated to helping you reclaim your health. My journey began at Iowa State University, where I earned my Bachelor’s in Nutritional Science in 2014. Over the past decade in the nutrition field, my approach has evolved from providing general nutrition guidance to helping people resolve chronic issues using therapeutic nutrition.
I believe your body is an interconnected system, not a list of separate problems. Instead of just managing symptoms, I use targeted dietary and lifestyle changes to uncover and treat the underlying root causes of your health struggles. The most rewarding part of my work is watching my clients completely transform, regain their vitality, and finally feel like themselves again.
I truly believe that food is either the strongest form of medicine, or the slowest form of poison. Once we realize that this is the reality, and stop trying to take shortcuts to our health, that is where the true transformations happen.
I am deeply passionate about changing the conversation around what we eat. Food and nutrition are not just about losing weight or how you look; rather, food is information that runs every single function in your body. It directly impacts how we feel, think, move, react, love, and grow. When we fix the foundation, everything shifts. To me, having true health means having a life full of joy, and I am here to help you experience that transformation.
