Meet the Board-Certified Gastroenterologist & Certified Yoga Instructor Uncovering True Wealth

What started as a way to challenge ourselves during lent, has now blossomed into a health and wellness brand. Well, it wasn't exactly that clean cut.

Hi, I’m DeNeatra Love-Jeffers (but you can all me D), an award-winning advertising executive, yoga instructor, and co-founder of the wHealthy Life. So excited that you found our blog. Take off your shoes and stay awhile while I tell you how the wHealthy Life began. I’ll also explain why that’s not a typo, we actually put a “H” in the word wealth.

It all started when I met Kayin in the spring of 2019. I was a newly minted yoga instructor, and decided to give up meat for lent. At the time, Kayin was doing his gastroenterology fellowship, so I figured working in healthcare, he would be down to do it with me. I also knew he would want to impress his future wife (I knew by our 3rd date we would get married, but more on that in another blog post). Wait, I guess this is as good a time as any to introduce Kayin, or more commonly known as Dr. J.

Kayin Jeffers is a board-certified gastroenterologist. He completed his residency at Mayo Clinic, GI fellowship at Rush University, and a clinical nutrition fellowship at The University of Chicago. You guys should see our “degree wall”. My B.A. in advertising is really cute next to all of his. He’s also a former college athlete (Soccer) and a pretty dope poet.

Ok, now, where was I?

We met in the spring of 2019 and I asked if he'd be willing to give up meat for Lent. He was up for the challenge, and after 40 days of no meat, a new lifestyle was born – Something we call wHealthy Living.

Why the "H" in the middle?

In addition to adding things we naturally enjoyed to stay fit (yoga for me and running for Kayin) we soon realized how much better we felt. Don’t get me wrong, this was HARD. We’re steak-loving meat eaters! But, not only did we physically look better, but we both slept better, had better focus, and more energy throughout the day. We were sold that this is a lifestyle change we wanted to keep. As an advertising executive, I’ve worked with celebrities, shot tons of commercials, and worked on some of the biggest brands in the world. Yet, this lifestyle change had me feeling better than I’ve ever felt. That’s when it hit me, societal perceptions of success didn’t truly fulfill me. I felt more alive when I was adjusting someone leaning just a bit too far into their virabhadrasana, and I’d much rather discover new veggies at the local farmer’s market than mull over casting selects for an upcoming shoot. Now, don’t get me wrong. I LOVE my career as an advertising executive, but acquiring more money and prestige means nothing when you’re too stressed or giving yourself hypertension from all the airport food, to actually enjoy it. That’s when it hit us. Ok, I have to give Kayin credit for the name, so I’ll say, that's when it hit him. One day he said, “I love how we’re discovering true wealth, which is putting health at the center of all we do." That’s all the ad exec needed to hear.

The wHealthy Life was then born.

We hope to inspire you to take small steps to discover what wHealthy Living could add to your life and overall happiness. We’re still figuring this out as we go, but we’d love for you to take the journey with us.

xoxo

Dee and Kayin