What is nutrition and health coaching?
Just like a sports coach, a nutrition and health coach is trained in elements of nutrition and behaviour psychology, working alongside its players, or in this case clients, to get the best out of them – for them to improve their own lives. Coach and client work, over time, to discover the best ways to mould habits and lifestyle changes that in the long term become second nature.
How does it work?
A coach will work with a client to identify the key problem areas and where they would rather be. The coach then works with them to get there. Solutions may already be in front of them but just not seen, or new ideas and education may be required.
Through a series of
- goal setting
- identifying barriers and patterns
- problem solving and knowledge sharing
they will
- work to change common behaviours
- form new habits
- recognise what their mind responds to positively
- recognise what their body responds to positively
- understand the value of foods and the importance of them in their nourishment.
So how is nutrition coaching different from dieting?
Research shows that strict diets infrequently work in the long term. In coaching there is no ‘quick fix’. Instead, coaches concentrate on
- the creation of positive patterns that work with an individual’s lifestyle
- sharing knowledge to assist the client in understanding food and nutrients, along with its benefits to our bodies
- helping to identify how we feel when we are giving our body what it needs.
Unlike diets, coaches do not hand over strict eating plans and leave someone to it. Instead, together they share ideas along with a variety of options, accompanied with as little or as much detail as wanted, ensuring a client remains motivated and supported, but also held accountable.
Which part of a person’s health will it benefit?
If done right, all of it! A successful coach will look holistically at the individual in front of them. Mental, physical and emotional health should be treated equally, and this is the core value of a good nutrition, health and wellness coach. This is where the time of understanding the client’s full background and day-to-day life, becomes imperative.
How will it be adhered to long term?
Successful coaching results in clients feeling fully empowered. They will make positive, long term changes, having reached conclusions themselves, from guidance into reasoning and understandings, perhaps where only prescription lay in the past. Ongoing motivation is easy when new habits become easy and are no longer a decision, but rather a lifestyle.
Nutrition and health coaching, in a nutshell.
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