What is Health Coaching?
Health coaching is a collaborative effort in which the client and the health coach (hey, that’s us!) create a personalized plan to achieve health and fitness goals. Embarking on a health coaching journey will allow you to dig deeper into present unhealthy behaviors and focus on how to implement change. Often this is the missing link to fitness success, as we understand aspects of what better health entails, but may not know how to implement change. This is where health coaching is a valuable tool, linking the many components of health into one cohesive program.
Who is it for?
Health Coaching is perfect for those…
- Seeking to improve their health but may not know how
- Desiring a personalized plan that adapts with their life circumstances
- Looking to begin their health journey or break through a plateau
- Needing extra support and guidance for inevitable speed bumps
- Wanting to break the cycle of continually trying new diet and exercise programs
- Craving a better experience with health and fitness that focuses on caring for your body
Personalized for You
The beauty of health coaching is that you will never be given a generic health plan, as the “one size fits all” approach is really just lazy programming. A personalized plan will be created that is specific to your schedule and needs. This means that as life changes from week to week, your plan will also modify along with it, yielding better long-term success. Your health plan will be a collaborative effort where your input is valued to create the absolute best possible plan.
A personalized plan may include aspects such as…
- Tips, tricks and tools to help avoid pitfalls
- Strategies for better sleep and how to schedule time for rest
- Learning to love and care for yourself
- Creating new habits surrounding diet and exercise
- A step-by-step plan to progress towards your goals
- Specific education useful to your health and fitness goals
Benefits
There are countless health and fitness plans out there, so why choose health coaching?
Personalization
Most health and fitness plans are written for generic health improvements without accounting for the individual. While you may notice some improvements following a generic plan, a personalized plan will always be far superior for long term success. Personalization accounts for your specific schedule, exercise experience and dietary habits, allowing you to be appropriately challenged at a pace perfect for you.
Support
Making big lifestyle changes without the support of others is extremely daunting. Further still, seeking support from loved ones can be difficult, as friends and family may inadvertently steer you wrong with well-meaning but unhelpful advice about past techniques they have tried. Having a health coach to turn to when difficulties and questions arise can be the key difference between plan maintenance and plan abandonment.
Flexibility
Generic plans come just as they are without accounting for your specific life. This is problematic If you are progressing at a different rate than the generic plan allows for, often leading to plan abandonment altogether. Working with a health coach accounts for daily, weekly and monthly life changes so that the program can be regressed, progressed or tweaked depending on what life is currently throwing at you. The wonderful thing is you are still able to make progress without throwing the entire venture out the window when life gets hard.
What to Expect
One thing I like to tell my clients is that this is not homework, it's not graded, you're not being tested. What you're doing is seeking expert advice from someone who genuinely wants you to succeed, in the way that you need to be supported.
After your initial consultation, you'll begin using the calendar feature to set your sessions. We can discuss frequency and support needs during the consultation and this can be adjusted during your coaching.
Each session will be a virtual session, preferably through a video conference so I can get the full picture of what you're experiencing and illustrate corrections that can be made to help you better move, stretch or strengthen. Remote sessions also mean that you can be anywhere that you have internet connectivity. At home, the office, the gym, the studio or park... wherever you can safely stream and feel comfortable.
Support will also be virtual and depending on our plan together, this may mean a daily text, email, or call to manage accountability. It may be a weekly workout plan or a nutrition update. We'll have touchpoints that make sense for you and your schedule.
