New Vision Weight Loss Clinic in Karns is just steps away from a pizza place, a doughnut shop and a Chinese restaurant. When patients remark on this, clinic owner Holly Massengill tells them they’re likely to see her sometimes at those places, supporting her fellow small businesses.
“Life is about moderation,” she says. There are no fad diets or forbidden foods at her clinic. “We want to help you make lifestyle changes. Nutrition can be your best medicine or your worst poison.”
Massengill, a nurse practitioner, opened New Vision Weight Loss Clinic in February 2017. Since then, her patients have collectively lost more than 10,000 pounds.
“For us, that’s a huge accomplishment, very rewarding,” she says. Her patients, referred mostly by word-of-mouth, come from all over East Tennessee. This year, the clinic won Best Weight Loss Clinic in a Knoxville newspaper readership poll.
Massengill’s patients learn about nutrition: What’s a carb? What’s a protein? What are healthy numbers? What does health look like for each person?
“That’s more than just a number on a scale,” she says. “The picture of health is different for everyone.”
The clinic emphasizes meal planning, fitness education and other medically supervised approaches to steady and sustainable weight loss. She encourages patients to use apps to put their fitness achievements and food choices into an easy-to-track picture. She encourages lots of communication, checking in on her patients by email, quickly answering questions from patients who’ve taken their new meal plans to the grocery store or who feel daunted by an exercise goal.
It’s a whole-person approach, Massengill says, one that takes into account the patient’s physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual health.
Massengill grew up in Coalfield, west of Oliver Springs, and received her bachelor’s degree from Tennessee Technological University. Her first job as an RN was at Park West Hospital. She saw how cardiovascular disease and diabetes complicated other health conditions. As a health-and-fitness fanatic, she felt that she could serve people by showing them how to live healthy.
After receiving her master’s from Lincoln Memorial University, as she was thinking about opening her own clinic, she had her own health setback, a condition that required her to have chemotherapy for six months. She decided that as soon as she was in the clear, she would make this dream happen.
“I felt God saying, ‘You’re not promised tomorrow.’ It was a big decision, but I felt led,” Massengill says.
Her husband, Brandon, is an essential part of the business. A network engineer, he helps with everything from IT to accounting to leaky faucets. Her staff includes two medical assistants, and there is also a physician to provide medical supervision.
She hopes to grow her business by helping others shed unhealthy habits and by being an integral part of their journey.
“We go the extra two miles, not just the extra mile,” she says.
New Vision Weight Loss Clinic is at 7660 Oak Ridge Highway. Info here.