What is Health Coaching REALLY??

How do you get and stay healthy… and what does this mean? Many people think a health coach is someone that tells you what to eat and what exercises to do and this will improve your health. I’m here to tell you that if this is all your health coach is doing then you could have just read a good book. A real health coach, a high quality one, needs to evaluate your current diet, activities, level of motivation, goals, known health conditions, family health conditions, and level of health knowledge among other things.

Fad diets, unsustainable exercise regimens, and yo-yoing weights are common practices for many looking to obtain health. Many just don’t know the little tricks and small changes that can lead to massive health improvements. For example: Walking for a half hour only burns about 100-150 calories while switching to water from juice/soda might reduce daily calorie intake by 500-1000 calories. Some people say they don’t like water! Part of the reason is their taste buds need time to adapt to the change, and if they can stick with this change they might cut 1000 calories from their daily diet. That’s like walking for 4-5 hours daily, with far less time and energy used.

It can many times be the little things, that people don’t realize, and this is just a small example. A real health coach is someone who has spent years learning about how the body works. Not only this, but learning how the human mind works in relation to habits, diet, and activities. The little things in our daily routine add up to equal our health.

So I am also a Family Nurse Practitioner, and in my practice I had a patient with a vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to all sorts of problems including low energy, decreased ability to process sugar (diabetes), and depression. They were taking two different vitamin D supplements to address this problem… but they weren’t working. The supplement makers even had “lab tests” verifying their vitamin D content. Well guess what, the form of the vitamin D they were using was not easily absorbed and long story short they had almost no effect on raising my patient’s vitamin D. I switched up his form of vitamin D, and within a month corrected this problem for them.

Sometimes people think they are doing the right thing to correct a problem but just don’t know a key fact that is preventing their best health. Another example- many people think switching to diet soda is a great way to fight off worsening diabetes. This might be correct in the short term but artificial sweeteners are sometimes a thousand times sweeter than sugar and can further impair certain cells responsible for controlling blood sugar. You might prevent short term spikes in blood sugar with diet soda but in the long run you still might be worsening diabetes.

So what is health coaching all about? Health coaching is taking years of acquired knowledge and evaluating your clients health, then helping them make changes to improve their health, live better, and feel better. Some people can exercise three hours every day, and some can’t. Everyone is unique. A health coach needs to be able to recognize a persons maximum potential and help them reach it. A health coach needs to pick up on that a person thinks they have a healthy habit but it is actually causing them harm. Some clients need motivation, some need education, and most need both. A skilled health coach should be able to help people reach their maximum potential while working within the abilities of the person they are helping.

What is Health Coaching REALLY??

How do you get and stay healthy… and what does this mean? Many people think a health coach is someone that tells you what to eat and what exercises to do and this will improve your health. I’m here to tell you that if this is all your health coach is doing then you could have just read a good book. A real health coach, a high quality one, needs to evaluate your current diet, activities, level of motivation, goals, known health conditions, family health conditions, and level of health knowledge among other things.

Fad diets, unsustainable exercise regimens, and yo-yoing weights are common practices for many looking to obtain health. Many just don’t know the little tricks and small changes that can lead to massive health improvements. For example: Walking for a half hour only burns about 100-150 calories while switching to water from juice/soda might reduce daily calorie intake by 500-1000 calories. Some people say they don’t like water! Part of the reason is their taste buds need time to adapt to the change, and if they can stick with this change they might cut 1000 calories from their daily diet. That’s like walking for 4-5 hours daily, with far less time and energy used.

It can many times be the little things, that people don’t realize, and this is just a small example. A real health coach is someone who has spent years learning about how the body works. Not only this, but learning how the human mind works in relation to habits, diet, and activities. The little things in our daily routine add up to equal our health.

So I am also a Family Nurse Practitioner, and in my practice I had a patient with a vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to all sorts of problems including low energy, decreased ability to process sugar (diabetes), and depression. They were taking two different vitamin D supplements to address this problem… but they weren’t working. The supplement makers even had “lab tests” verifying their vitamin D content. Well guess what, the form of the vitamin D they were using was not easily absorbed and long story short they had almost no effect on raising my patient’s vitamin D. I switched up his form of vitamin D, and within a month corrected this problem for them.

Sometimes people think they are doing the right thing to correct a problem but just don’t know a key fact that is preventing their best health. Another example- many people think switching to diet soda is a great way to fight off worsening diabetes. This might be correct in the short term but artificial sweeteners are sometimes a thousand times sweeter than sugar and can further impair certain cells responsible for controlling blood sugar. You might prevent short term spikes in blood sugar with diet soda but in the long run you still might be worsening diabetes.

So what is health coaching all about? Health coaching is taking years of acquired knowledge and evaluating your clients health, then helping them make changes to improve their health, live better, and feel better. Some people can exercise three hours every day, and some can’t. Everyone is unique. A health coach needs to be able to recognize a persons maximum potential and help them reach it. A health coach needs to pick up on that a person thinks they have a healthy habit but it is actually causing them harm. Some clients need motivation, some need education, and most need both. A skilled health coach should be able to help people reach their maximum potential while working within the abilities of the person they are helping.