Lifestyle Behavior Change
One of the most difficult challenges we all face in our lives is change. Most of us are comfortable with what's familiar and we like to stick with our daily routine. We practice the same daily lifestyle behaviors without thinking much about them because they've become habits over time. It may look something like this: we wake up, roll out of bed, shower, get dressed, brush our teeth and hair, quickly grab some food and coffee on the run, and then we're off to work where we drive the same route to get to work. We check our emails, make our phone calls, go to our meetings, grab a snack (and more coffee), and then around noon we rush to gobble down our lunch. After slugging through a post-lunch coma in the afternoon and stressing over a misunderstanding or conflict in communication (with a customer, colleague, or supervisor), we drive back home on the same route we came. In the evening we scramble to make dinner and eat with our family, then try to wind down for the night (maybe with a Netflix or Amazon series or movie), brush our teeth, and get ready for bed. Somewhere in the routine, we'd probably feel lucky to have made enough time for some exercise, healthy eating, managing our stress (avoiding alcohol or other substances), nurturing our relationships, or getting a quality night's sleep to feel rested. It's like groundhog day over and over and over. Sound familiar?
Routine and Habits
Routine is easy and happens each day without much thought. It's a damn hard thing to change our habits and replace them with new behaviors, even when we're very capable of doing it. It's especially hard to make changes when we are getting a reward that motivates us to keep doing it, even when it's an unhealthy one. Most of us benefit from getting some support and guidance to make a healthy lifestyle change. It takes courage, strength, self-discipline, readiness to change, confidence in our strengths and abilities, and some serious encouragement for planning our goals and prioritizing the steps for taking action!
What is a Health Coach?
A certified health coach, with knowledge and training based on national or international standards from an accredited organization, has expertise in behavioral science or the psychology of behavior change. They often have some type of general expertise in the areas of exercise and nutritional science. Some are even trained in fitness, sports, or lifestyle medicine. A skilled coach uses an integrated and person-centered approach that considers multifaceted and holistic factors that affect your health and wellness. These lifestyle factors include behaviors related to physical activity and exercise, food and nutrition, emotions and stress management, relationships and sense of connection to community, sleep and rest, and toxic or risky substances to avoid (that contribute to inflammation and chronic disease).
SMART Goals and Health Coaching Plans
Health coaches look at the root cause of behaviors and the barriers to changing them. They ask open ended questions to clarify and understand your priorities, values, motivations, strengths, needs, and goals. In terms of supporting changes, coaches assist their clients with developing SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound) goals that focus on a process for following strategies with small attainable actions steps for behavior change rather than a generic desired outcome (such as losing weight or getting stronger). The plan that you collaborate on creating with your health coach will guide you in developing a self-directed, customized, and meaningful action plan that energizes you.
Partnership and Collaboration
By partnering together, you and your health coach will shift your ways of thinking, feeling, and acting toward a more positive and self-reliant practice. This supports long-term and sustainable lifestyle changes that are rooted in a belief that you are highly capable of change with a toolkit of existing strengths to empower you. You will look forward to increased self-confidence and self-efficacy which generates lasting positive changes that both you and your coach will appreciate.
Encouragement, Inspiration and a Non-Judgmental Approach
Health coaches are committed to your lifestyle health and wellness. That's why they have a strong belief in your power to create change and to inspire you to be the expert of your own life and choices. They use a non-judgmental approach that creates a safe space to explore and continuous encouragement by meeting you where you're at. You may be at the stage of just thinking about a change; preparing or planning for a change; taking action steps to make a change; maintaining a change over a 6-month period or longer; or struggling to get back on track with a change that you were previously maintaining. Wherever you're at, the health coach will be there as your partner to collaborate with you and facilitate the ongoing process of developing healthy lifestyle behavior changes.
Lifestyle Balance
So, if you're seeking more balance with health and wellness in your life (and for self-care, leisure, or productivity activities), a health coach is a key professional for supporting you. Health and wellness is more than just exercise or nutrition. It's about balance in a variety of aspects of your life whether that be physical, emotional, social, occupational, intellectual, spiritual, or in another domain. Sparking change and maintaining it in daily life takes time and a lot of effort. You'll need help with clarifying, identifying, planning, developing, prioritizing, and implementing goals and actions in a plan for change. You'll also need plenty of encouragement and inspiration for unlocking your potential for self-directed change. Health coaching will seem pretty different from what you're used to experiencing in healthcare services. This is because health coaches are professionally trained motivators who believe in your capacity for change (and in your expertise in your own life), rather than professionals who believe they are the expert of what's best in your life and who are trained in directing you to change or prescribing seemingly simple solutions for complex problems.
So... Why Health Coaching Services?
The process for healthy lifestyle and behavior change isn't simple and it may feel quite overwhelming or frustrating at times. So, why work with a health coach and what are the benefits of health coaching services? Health coaches are the best choice in a professional who is skilled with inspiring and motivating you. While there are other health care professionals who using a coaching approach, there are few other trained professionals who are specifically skilled and equipped with the tools to be your ultimate partner and collaborator for creating sustainable and healthy lifestyle behavior changes. These changes can be so powerful that they have the potential to prevent, manage, or even reverse chronic disease and disabling health conditions. Don't take it for granted. Give it a chance and your best effort, and you can be on your way to living a healthy, meaningful, high quality of life!
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