“What is health coaching?”
….is a very common question and it doesn’t really have a black and white answer. When you hear the term “health coach” you may think that this is a person that can may be able help you figure out issues with nutrition/diet or… what new exercise routines to try…. or what natural/holistic remedies you can utilize to help improve your overall health and wellness.
And to be sure, a health coach can help you with all of those things.
As a health coach, I have studied both Functional Nutrition and Kinesiology and can provide general advice, guidance and support creating personalized plans related to diet and exercise. I can also help refer you to holistic specialists in these areas that can help you as well if you need additional support.
However, health coaching at it’s core is less prescriptive and more integrative and inclusive of YOUR unique circumstances.
Integrative in the way that your goal(s) are almost certainly are intricately intertwined with other areas of your life. For instance, let’s say your goal involves changing your diet to help balance blood sugar levels. Obviously, it will be important to consider the macro/micronutrients contained in your typical daily diet and come up with a plan/goals related to using dietary changes to help balance your blood sugar. However, in our health coaching sessions we can also explore all the other aspects related to WHY you want to make the change or perhaps WHY you have not been successful making changes in the past. Stress related to Work…. Finances… Family…Relationships/Social health… can all impact our ability/capacity to create and maintain our health and wellness goals and also can impact the efficacy of the changes we’re making.
Inclusive in that there are more factors than just diet involved when it comes to balance blood sugar levels. Other factors such as exercise intensity/frequency, sleep quality, exposure to environmental toxins (pesticides, microplastics, EMFs, excessive blue light) and optimizing hydration can all play a vital role in how well your body digests, absorbs, assimilates and utilizes nutrients from food. Not only that, but other factors such as the order you consume different macronutrients, whether or not you’re drinking liquids with your meals and the time/ frequency in which you are eating meals/snacking during the day can all play a role in balancing blood sugar and avoiding spikes in blood sugar.
In short, during our sessions together, we’ll explore all the factors that you suspect (or know) may be standing in the way between you and better health and come up with practicable and manageable goals to keep you moving in the right direction!
Look, we have ALL have been there at one time or another. Recognizing that we NEED to make a lifestyle change, but getting caught somewhere between not knowing what changes to make or how to even take the first step. Then once we’ve arrived at a decision on making the change we’re going to work on; actually following through on taking that first step, being consistent and staying motivated to keep up the lifestyle change can be incredibly difficult for most (myself included here)! This is where health coaching shines. While health coaching isn’t a replacement for your therapist or other conventional/allopathic medical professionals, partnering with a professional integrative health and wellness coach can be fantastic way to you help and support you in taking back some ownership of your physical, mental and emotional health and wellness.
What is your story? Lets work together on making the next chapter the best one yet….