Kristi Deeley

As a senior at Kansas State University pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Health, along with Health Coach and Community Health certificates, Kristi combines academic training with years of personal experience navigating chronic illness. Before changing career paths, she earned her degree as a physical therapist assistant. During that time, however, a combination of chronic medical conditions, genetic factors, environmental influences, injuries, and weight changes progressed to the point that she was no longer physically able to work in the profession she had prepared for.

One of the most difficult parts of her journey was discovering how often appearances shape assumptions. Although she has spent years committed to whole-food nutrition, movement, strength training, and restoring her health, the physical evidence of that work has not always been visible to others. Her story reminds us that healing is not always immediately reflected in the mirror. Sometimes the greatest transformation is happening beneath the surface, long before the world can see it.

Rather than accepting limitations, Kristi became deeply committed to understanding why the body loses health and how it can recover. After struggling to find healthcare professionals willing to look beyond symptoms and search for root causes, she redirected her career toward nutrition and functional health. She became a relentless student of the human body—not simply to heal herself, but to help others who have felt overlooked, misunderstood, or judged by their appearance.

Today, Kristi is living her own transformation. Like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, she is in the midst of a remarkable metamorphosis—one built through thousands of daily decisions rooted in nutrition, movement, perseverance, and hope. She understands that healing from complex chronic illness is rarely linear and often requires patience that few people outside the journey can appreciate.

That perspective makes her coaching uniquely different.

Kristi does not simply teach healthy habits because she studied them in a textbook. She practices them every day while continuing her own journey toward wellness. She understands the discouragement of doing everything right and not seeing immediate results. She understands what it feels like to be dismissed because outward appearance fails to tell the full story. Most importantly, she understands that true health is measured by far more than a number on a scale.

Her goal is to walk beside each client as a partner, helping them understand their body’s unique physiology, uncover the obstacles standing in their way, and build sustainable habits that create lasting health. She believes every person deserves a provider who listens carefully, investigates thoughtfully, and recognizes that every individual’s path to wellness is different.

Following graduation, Kristi plans to continue her education as a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and Functional Health Coach. She is also considering graduate study in nutrition, with the long-term goal of becoming a Certified Nutrition Specialist and completing advanced training through The Institute for Functional Medicine.

Outside of coaching and nutrition, Kristi enjoys painting, fiber arts, astrophotography, hiking, biking, swimming, yoga, strength training, camping, homestead gardening, cooking, concerts, karaoke, science fiction and fantasy, tabletop role-playing games, and traveling with her husband to watch rocket launches.

For clients who have ever felt unseen, discouraged, or defined by what others can observe at first glance, Kristi offers something difficult to find: a coach who understands that the most meaningful transformations often begin long before they become visible.