At Future Fit, we believe in the importance of following your passion for fitness and nutrition. Whether you are studying for personal interest, career development, or starting your journey into a brand new career, we want to celebrate our students who are on their journey towards achieving their career goals.
Meet Jo Sardella. She is a Nutrition student who has followed her love of food and nutrition into developing a career linking health and fitness through recipes. Read her story of how she came to study at Future Fit and her plans to work within the health and wellness industry in the future through her website josardellahealthcoach.co.uk.
Hi, I’m Jo Sardella. I am currently a FutureFit student studying the Level 4 RSPH Nutrition Diploma and Level 3 Personal Trainer Course. I have recently set up a food website/blog called myfoodpalette.com, which showcases healthy recipes that I have developed and explores different ingredients and combinations.
I have always had a passion for food, inspired by my Italian father and the happy memories I have of visiting Italy and the bakery where my uncle worked. My sister and I were fortunate enough to taste the distinctive sweet and savoury Italian pastries and decadent ice creams in the bakery where my uncle worked. I believe that this experience has had a significant influence on how my career has evolved.
At school, I studied GCSE and A level in Home Economics. This subject focused on nutrition, cookery, and meal planning, which developed my skills and knowledge in this area. I didn’t follow this route at first as I didn’t believe that I could be successful in this subject area at that time.
Instead, I used my creative side and studied Landscape Architecture, which became my professional career for over 20 years.
During this time, I did pursue my passion for food through the launch of a small cupcake business. I developed cupcake flavours based on Italian ice creams I had memories of when I was a child.
In recent years I have participated in competitive sports, including rowing and running. The experience of pushing my body in these situations taught me the importance of nutrition and the crucial role it has in the participation of sport and exercise and its potential to boost adaptation and performance.
It wasn’t until the pandemic of 2020 that my ‘health revolution’ truly took precedence in my life, and I decided to move fully across to pursue a career in food, nutrition and fitness.
I committed myself to work towards my true aspirations and leave the profession of Landscape Architecture behind me.
It was at this point that I started my Nutrition qualification and Personal Trainer Course with FutureFit. I am particularly interested in the relationship between nutrition and exercise.
The Nutrition for Sport and Exercise module has answered many of the ‘burning’ questions that I have had during my fitness journey. It will help me to advise and guide others in the future.
Since starting the course, new ideas and opportunities have emerged. I have realised that a career in recipe development could be one area where I can focus my creativity, passion for food and interest in health and wellbeing.
So, to embark upon this idea, I decided to set up the food website/blog called myfoodpalette.com to promote my skills and ideas and post nutritious recipes and ideas. Along the way, I am learning the skills of food styling, photography and website development whilst continuing my studies with FutureFit.
In the future, I envisage possibilities for the website evolving into something whereby I can promote my services as a Nutrition Advisor or Personal Trainer, develop a range of health food products based on some of the recipes I have been creating or even my own health food café!
I am absolutely sure that my training with Future Fit has been fundamental in giving me the confidence to do this.
My advice to others would be to make a change to your life, you need to make the first step towards it, and the rest will follow with commitment and belief in yourself. The decision to start my training with Future Fit was the beginning, and I’m very excited about the prospect of what the future holds.