Hailing from New Jersey and having lived in fast-paced New York, Zhenya’s passion for gut health and overall wellbeing began while living in California in the late 90s; discovering what proper nutrition meant, what lifestyle choices were best for her own overall health, and how to implement that into day-to-day living.
If you ask Zhenya what triggered her interest in all things gut health, she’ll tell you it all started with her own tummy troubles as a teenager, at around age 16. While looking for answers into her 20s, she met a nutritionist and colon hydrotherapist in San Diego and started to discover that overall health and wellness begins by healing your gut.
California Healing
It was during her time in California that Zhenya started to more widely explore the holistic side of health, wellbeing and life. She began taking yoga classes (and later became a qualified teacher), seeing acupuncturists and Naturopaths and began following a holistic lifestyle. She also started regular colon cleansing, while working through and discovering what eating right meant for her own body.
Seeing, and feeling, the differences that colonics and the right food choices made to her overall health - right down to her skin, mind, hair, mood and manner - she wanted to help others in the same way. This personal learning and experience of how these practices had helped with her own healing lit a spark inside Zhenya, which ultimately changed the course of her own professional life; pursuing studies and practice in the area of gut health nutrition and colonics.
Heading ‘Down Under’ & Diving into The Maldives
Ready to explore the world, in the early 2000's Zhenya headed to Australia and continued to connect with her holistic health journey and healing. Then, in 2008, she landed a role as spa supervisor and yoga instructor at a luxury resort in the Maldives. Here she continued her learning working closely with the in-house Naturopath and upon her return to Sydney she fully launched her gut health career, eventually opening her own clinic in 2013.
Also prompting this career choice was her father’s colorectal cancer diagnosis in early 2008, which was thankfully caught early and treated successfully. Zhenya wanted to be a bigger advocate for gut health knowing that bowel cancer is one of the most treatable forms of cancer, if caught early. And with a healthy lifestyle, we can also reduce the risk of many other bowel diseases and issues that exist in our fast paced, modern way of life.
These days Zhenya is driven by empowering people to be aware of their own bodies, to live a healthy life and to make conscious decisions about their own health and personal wellbeing.
When a PROPPR Opportunity Presents
It was while working in her Sydney based wellness clinic that Zhenya discovered the PROPPR toilet foot stool. Launched in 2015 when a gap in the market was identified for a quality and beautifully designed bathroom foot stool, Zhenya’s clinic became a stockist of the product. Then in 2018, when Zhenya heard that the business was for sale, she was hopeful that the product would continue… By virtue of an opportune conversation with now business partner and co-owner, Jacqueline, the PROPPR has since become Zhenya’s primary business focus.
Zhenya says, “I’m deeply passionate about helping people with their gut health, making it easier to get through their day, to think more clearly, and avoid the ‘tummy rumble’ in the middle of that important meeting with your colleagues. Owning a toilet foot stool business allows us to help many, many people across the globe. It’s not a cure-all of course - people need to look at their nutrition, water intake, exercise, sleep and stress levels - but with a simple shift in alignment on the toilet we know it can help people. It’s just another tool to help you enjoy happy, happy bowels!”
Full Circle to Stateside
A couple of years ago Zhenya and her Aussie husband started exploring the idea of relocating back to the US. The global pandemic was a trigger with Zhenya wanting the option to be closer to family, having lived away for over 20 years. Plus, the timing seemed right with opportunities presenting for her husband Shaun through his employment with a US based IT firm.
Despite a few setbacks (always the way) and some decisions regarding location, Zhenya has recently landed back home in South Jersey where she, Shaun and their pooch, Dixie, will be based as a start.
For the PROPPR, this opportunity is particularly exciting as it coincides with our partnership with US based manufacturers for our Acer range (which has been in play for a few years now) and our new US made timber range, to will be released by the end of 2024. Stay tuned for more on our US developments.