While the media bubbles over with fad diets, 88% of the world’s population is still considered metabolically unhealthy. Now, more than ever, people need to understand and accomplish sustainable weight loss. While the information is out there, sorting through the fluff to find scientific facts can feel almost impossible. This is where the health coach comes in – here’s how they can drive positive change in your life.
What Is a Health Coach?
Health coaches are supportive mentors that provide guidance and accountability toward reaching your wellness goals by providing one-on-one personalized plans. The plans incorporate nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle practices tailored toward what works best for your unique circumstances.
Health coaches also prioritize helping you feel your best, adjusting the plan over time for the best results. Whether you’re looking to have sustainable weight loss, build muscle, or create overall wellness, a health coach can guide you through the journey and teach you proven methods to reach your goals.
Why Work With a Health Coach?
1. It’s Effective
Although coaching is a relatively new and unregulated industry, any health coach worth their salt has a certification from a nationally recognized school, like the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. These certifications not only teach health coaches about nutrition, but also the psychology of behavior change. This allows a health coach to drive effective change for you.
A 2017 study published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine found that health coaching “results in clinically relevant improvements in multiple biomarker risk factors (including systolic and diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting glucose, body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, and cardiorespiratory fitness) in diverse populations.” In other words, coaching can help you reach a variety of overall health improvements, regardless of your background.
2. Get Accountable
Another reason health coaching is so effective is that your coach will hold you responsible for your goals. Think of all the times you told yourself you’d go on a diet, kick the sugar, or start exercising. How long did you keep up the routine? If you told no one of your goals, probably not too long. If you told a loved one, you may have lasted a bit longer. However, even the most well-meaning loved one can’t ensure that you stick to your new lifestyle. They may even encourage you to make excuses and get off course.
Meanwhile, a health coach is a completely unbiased third party. It’s their job to help you stay on track. Even if you fall off the wagon, your coach can help you get back on track rather than giving up, as you might otherwise want to do. It’s this consistency that ultimately helps you reach your goals.
3. Achieve Results Faster
Although only you can do the actions that ultimately bring you to your goals, a health coach can greatly speed the process. If you’ve been on your health journey for a while, you know how much lacking guidance, education, motivation, and accountability can set you back. A health coach provides all of this, removing any guesswork and keeping you honest about your nutrition, workouts, and lifestyle.
4. Harness the Power of Positive Psychology
Traditional psychology focuses on what’s “wrong” and must be “fixed.” Meanwhile, coaching is rooted in positive psychology. Positive psychology zeroes in on what has, can, and will work for you. Rather than dwelling on things that haven’t worked, a health coach looks for and utilizes your strengths to improve your habits and behaviors.
5. Sustainable Weight Loss that Lasts
Joining in on the latest eating trend or fad diet can be fun and even motivating – at first. However, many of these diets have extreme rules. For example, eating a keto diet might require you to test yourself to ensure you’re staying in ketosis. While you may achieve some results, these diets aren’t necessarily helpful for sustainable weight loss or long-term lifestyle changes. This is why health coaches teach nutrition rooted in science – not fads. These are hard facts that you can apply for a healthy lifestyle, not just what happens to be cool right now.
6. Health Education for Life
Scientific studies are constantly teaching us new information about the human body. However, much of the basics of nutrition you learn during your time with a health coach remain the same. Plus, you’ll learn how to change your behavior and create healthier habits. All of this culminates in a wealth of health education that you can use for the rest of your life. Even after you reach your goals and, perhaps, no longer need your health coach, you’ll still apply and utilize the information they taught you. This invaluable education can keep you healthy for your entire life.
Ready to get started on a sustainable weight loss journey with your very own health coach?
Check out Jenny McCormick (@jennymacfit) to find out more details about her JumpStart program, starting March 14! Waco Mom’s followers will get a $50 dollar discount by using the code WACOMOMS at checkout.
