As a Certified Wellness Coach, it is my privilege to help guide my clients as they make the journey toward wellness. Each person’s journey is unique, but along the way, there are always challenges and triumphs, trials and joys. The journey toward your optimal level of wellness will not always be easy, but it will be rewarding. You may be a little unsure of where or how to start, unsure of how it will all turn out in the end, unsure if you can really do it. It feels safe to stay the same; it’s tough to challenge our comfort levels.
As a wellness coach, my job is to work with you to understand what your wellness vision looks like. It’s a different and unique vision for each of us. Some clients need to focus on weight loss; some clients are working to better manage stress in their lives. Most of my clients are extremely busy and are managing jobs, commutes, kids’ school schedules and activities. It is sometimes tough to make our health a priority in this busy non-stop world, and that is what I help my clients do. Together we will break your goals down to the smallest components and tackle 1 or 2 areas at a time, depending on your level of readiness.
For example, a client, who we will call Jane, wanted to lower her cholesterol so that she would not have to take pills. Her doctor recommended a change in diet and to begin an exercise program. She is a busy working mom with little extra time. The task of lowering her cholesterol seemed monumental to her. She knew that she needed to change how she was eating, incorporate cholesterol-lowering foods into her diet and start exercising. When we started working together, she decided that the one area that she was ready to make a small change in was incorporating more cholesterol-lowering foods into her diet.
She decided that she would try eating oatmeal 3 times a week for 4 weeks. She researched different recipes/toppings and went out and bought all of the ingredients she needed. Each week, as we had our coaching call, I would ask how she did. We would celebrate when she ate the oatmeal 3 or more times. When she did not accomplish that goal, we would discuss what happened, what obstacles she had encountered and how to overcome those. By the 3rd and 4th week, she was consistently eating oatmeal and it is now a part of her diet on most days of the week. Buoyed by this success, she has also added other cholesterol-lowering foods to her weekly diet. The next area she has chosen to focus on is exercise and we are now talking about what kind of exercise she will do, where and when she will do it and how she will fit it in to her already busy schedule. Soon, she will be both eating more cholesterol-lowering foods AND exercising. She is solidly on the path to lowering her cholesterol step by step and achieving her health goals.
Personal change has got to be one of the most difficult journeys we can make. But, if you have a good guide, a partner, who can help lead the way, it becomes not only doable, but incredibly rewarding. You are not in it alone. Rather, you have an ally that can stick by your side and help you celebrate both the large and small successes and work through the challenges. If you are on a journey toward a higher level of wellness and would like a guide to provide support call Deb to find out how coaching can help set you on the right path.