Growing generation

FORT RECOVERY — Learning and maintaining a better lifestyle is Jen Thompson’s goal for her clients.

She’s hoping to see that through with various additions she’s made to her fitness center, Jeneration Fitness.

In May, Thompson opened Jenfit and Fresh Cafe and Wellness at 1100 Commerce St., moving just a few doors down from where her original facility opened about eight years ago. Teamed with other coaches and holistic practitioners, the business now offers fresh food alongside its open gym complete with exercise classes, therapy treatments and infrared saunas.

Thompson, a Fort Recovery native, has been teaching fitness classes for 30 years. About a decade back, she had a health scare delivering her daughter, prompting her to take more steps toward a better lifestyle.

“I (was) active, but I never really zoned too much into the nutrition,” said Thompson, who has a master’s degree in exercise physiology from Ball State University. “I started dabbling in meal preparation, because that helped me so much to stay on track, and to eat clean, and really understand ingredients that are in our food sources. So it just kind of started snowballing into helping others with their meal preparation and teaching some basic, realistic approach to eating better.”

Thompson became certified in holistic nutrition, allowing her to open her own cafe and prepare fresh meals for her community.

“I just had this mission, wouldn’t it be great before I would die to see the day that there would be a fresh food choice in every town? So I wanted to start with my community,” Thompson said. “Hopefully down the road I do see this dream come true with neighboring communities coming on board with the nutrition aspect.”

Her fresh, home-cooked meals, she explained, are mostly organic and don’t contain artificial ingredients or other additives. She offers a wide array of “family friendly”  foods, including “guiltless desserts” such as sweet potato brownies and drinks such as collagen coffee, detox lemonade or smoothies. Meals on the menu this week include aloha chicken, stuffed pepper soup, Italian sub salads and buffalo chicken salads or wraps. 

Single portions and family sized portions are available, with folks having the option to order ahead or pop by the cafe during regular business hours Monday through Saturday. Thompson’s prepared meals are also available at Clear Choice Chiropractic in Portland and Wayne IGA in Fort Recovery, as well as locations in Coldwater and Greenville in Ohio.

“It’s fresh, but it’s good-tasting, and I want people to understand that,” Thompson said. “I’m just not a lady that makes salads. There’s all kinds of foods that come out of here in combinations that help your gut health, your taste buds, to understand what real food tastes like.”

Clients may take advantage of the facility’s infrared saunas, which use light to make heat. They’re also able to undergo one of the various therapy treatments available, such as red-light therapy, lymphatic therapy or nutrition response therapy, the latter of which allows folks to discover food sensitivities, bacteria, parasites or heavy metals affecting them.

Now located in the same building, Katie Diller’s Faithful Hands Therapeutic Massage provides therapy treatments alongside Thompson. Diller has been a massage therapist for 18 years.

“Our goal is to make this a wellness center for everybody of all ages to be able to come,” said Diller. “(We) want this to be a place that you can de-stress, relax … we’re learning that stress causes the biggest inflammation in the body, and we want to be that place that you can come and try to get rid of that.”

As for the gym, it’s open to anyone, Thompson explained. She and her coaches offer about 15 classes throughout the week, including specialty barre classes, suspension training, kickboxing and other workouts. Classes are available as early as 5:45 a.m. and as late as 6 p.m.

Cheryl Schoen has been utilizing Thompson’s services for nearly eight years.

“When you come to a workout and you have someone in front of you, it makes you do it, it gives you more incentive to do it, rather than do it all on your own,” she said. “You can get a really good workout and also get something to eat after that’s healthy for your body.”

Alongside the gym and cafe, Thompson also manages her Fresh Start Program, an accountability program that involves working with an individual for 90 days to keep in check with their nutrition and wellness journey. She considers herself a 24-hour, seven days a week coach for those in the program, who she checks in with daily.

“People say, ‘Why do you do all this?’” Thompson said. “Because not everybody needs the same thing. And I certainly continue working on my health, it’s a journey you’re always going to be on …”

“I encourage people to try it one time for free,” she said. “Just take a class, see if I’m your style. See what you think. It’s a pretty non-intimidating, non-judgmental zone here full of like-minded people that just want to get better.”