Amanda McKeen poses for a photo at Caffe Motivo in Kamloops, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

A Kamloops woman is taking her wellness business full-time to help more people build balance in a stressful, fast-paced world.

Amanda McKeen is a holistic nutritionist and health coach and the founder of Inspired Eats with Amanda, a business built around reducing stress with simple recipes. 

“I get excited helping clients manage their own stress and figuring out how to support them nutritionally,” she told iNFOnews.ca.

McKeen’s journey to running a wellness business started roughly five years ago when she was suffering from burnout, relying on processed foods and feeling exhausted after short walks with her young family.

Doing the work to regain her own balance and energy inspired McKeen’s new career.

“I’ve always been an athlete and super outdoorsy and had the idea if I ate fairly well and exercised, I’ll be good for life,” she said. “But I started aging and then with the added demands from the kids it just wasn’t working. I was exhausted and even lost a patch of hair.”

McKeen went to a therapist and naturopath for help.

“It was a combination of mental and physical health, it’s all tied together,” she said. “Part of it was having a strong stress response to life in general, it was consuming all of my energy.”

During this time McKeen was selling Tupperware and helping people make easy recipes, get organized and waste less food. Working with a naturopath fuelled her growing interest in nutrition, health and mindset, and the science behind how they work together.

She went to school to become a holistic nutritionist to help other busy but depleted women like her find balance and energy.

“Things are very noisy in the world and you can get to this point you’re literally dragging yourself out of bed and wondering how you’re going to do it again,” she said. “I approach things with clients where we build skills and strategies for daily life and add in nutrition specific to their needs. We also look at what thoughts we’re having, how we’re thinking about things. That’s where the mindset work comes in.”

McKeen looks at a client’s whole lifestyle, from sleep and activity levels, to hormonal function and effective digestion. She approaches health with flexibility and problem-solving, where new routines are often put into place.

Some people’s health issues are more of a mystery, but she enjoys the challenge.

“Sometimes it takes a few months to try things and see what is working or what it working, so it is a bit of a puzzle sometimes,” she said.

Many of McKeen’s roughly 20 clients are moms and middle-aged women going through menopause who are concerned about health as they age.

“I get a lot of women coming to me saying they suddenly can’t keep up, their body isn’t thriving and the menopausal changes are hitting hard and fast,” she said. “There are still a lot of women’s issues not being properly addressed in the medical field, we’re not being listened to. There are real metabolic differences between men and women, it isn’t one size fits all.”

McKeen has big plans for her now full-time business. She wants to put on health seminars at work places and work with youth athletes on nutrition education. She plans to do a webinar on food cost saving in the near future as kids are returning to school.

“There are systems to implement to offset food costs, like getting more organized and using Tupperware to reduce food waste,” she said. “Things like introducing more plant-based options can help. Lentils and dried beans are super cheap, we do a big batch of curried lentils all the time. There are ways to stretch out the groceries in a nutritious way.”

McKeen’s ultimate goal is to help others understand how to manage their own healthy lifestyle plans and take their own steps forward.

“I know how hard it can be when you want to do better but don’t have the energy, in some ways I’m still recovering,” she said. “It  isn’t just about food, it’s about mindset, movement and stress management.”

Go here to find out  more about Inspired Eats.

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