Why Life, Health and Weight Loss Coaching?

I am writing this from Heathrow T3, feeling very excited. Today I continue my life, health and weight loss coaching journey by flying out to Texas for a 6-day live training with Brooke Castillo of The Life Coach School.

As I travelled to the airport I contemplated whether calling myself a Life, Health & Weight Loss coach is too much of a mouthful, and/or confusing for people. I’m aware that my future clients may wonder what life coaching has to do with weight loss. I found myself wondering whether I should ditch the ‘health’ bit, but I am reluctant to do that because the ‘health’ bit is fundamental. I believe that healthy eating doesn’t need to be difficult, time consuming or complicated. So, I find myself writing a blog post to explain to myself as much as to anyone reading this why all three components ‘life’, ‘health’ and ‘weight loss’ are fundamental to how I want to help people and provide coaching for my clients, and the foundations of my programs.

What has life coaching got to do with weight loss?

Before using life coaching principles to help me with my weight loss I tried every diet, sometimes I lost some weight, sometimes a lot of weight, but always I would put the weight back on and usually gain more weight than I initially lost. All the diets I tried, whether they were very restrictive diets only intended for a temporary period of weight loss, or a healthy way of eating that should have been maintained permanently, would have worked if I had stuck to them and/or not gone back to my old eating habits.

Life coaching taught me to think differently about my foods, eating and meals. It taught me how to find the pleasure in my life, previously derived from eating foods, elsewhere. It taught me that it was okay to not feel okay, and that I didn’t need to eat to escape the feelings of not being okay, whether they were boredom, frustration or stress. Note that when I first started to understand that my overeating was a result of how I was thinking and feeling – I didn’t really get it. I didn’t think of my self as an emotional eater, or someone who ate because they were unhappy with life. I would just eat if I was working from home in the kitchen because I felt like it. Yes, sometimes if I felt myself getting stressed out with work or the children I would have the desire for some chocolate or biscuits – but I didn’t see this as a major issue. And I certainly felt like I deserved a ‘treat’ in the evening once all the jobs were done.

It was only by learning to stop this unnecessary eating over a period of time, and evaluating where my desire or urge to eat was coming from, by trying to work out firstly what I was feeling and secondly why I was feeling that way – and by that I mean trying to find the thought causing that feeling…that I started to really understand and change my behaviours – and consequently stop over eating for good.
Losing weight through making changes to our diet and exercise, without understanding why we have the desire to eat in the first place, is like sticking cream on a rash without finding out what the cause is.

Why am I focusing on weight loss coaching?

I was plagued by being overweight most of my life. Sometimes I felt very low because of it, other times I could carry on without it bothering me too much. But now, having got to the root cause of the problem, and seeing how losing weight doesn’t need to be such a battle I feel compelled and passionate to help other women who are in the position that I was in just 18 months ago.

In addition to helping women feel better emotionally, I want to help them feel better physically. Once I passed the milestone of 40 years I started to become much more aware that the excess pounds that I was carrying were causing me a few aches and pains, and that I was quite tired and didn’t have much stamina. Even if I can help just a handful of people feel mentally and physically better and show them how to make small changes, by changing their approach to how they think and feel, that last a life time – wouldn’t that be wonderful.

I’m also very aware of the massive health risks that come with obesity such as cancer and diabetes. Obesity is the UK’s second biggest cause of cancer after smoking. Extra fat in the body produces hormones and growth factors that affect the way our cells work and contribute towards some cancers.
Having lived with a husband who has Type 1 diabetes, and having close friends with cancer who, some who have died and some who live with it every day. Diseases such as cancer and diabetes feel very real to me. There not just something that happens to other people, and I want to help people do all that they can to reduce their risk profiles for these diseases.

And why health coaching?

Healthy eating has always been important to me. I may have been over weight, but I mostly ate whole unprocessed foods with lots of fruit and vegetables.

Whilst the life coaching aspect of my programs is fundamental, I also want to ensure I have accurate knowledge and the most up-to-date information, to offer my clients advice regarding what they should eat for optimum health.

And I want to be able to support clients who wanted to lose weight alongside managing diabetes and other health conditions, including those that make it more difficult to lose weight such as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.

I’m also incorporating the Health Coach Institute’s dietary paradigms into my weight loss programs. Specifically,

• There are as many ‘‘right’’ diets as there are people on the planet
• What’s healthy for one person might not be healthy for you
• Your body has an innate wisdom, beyond any book or authority
• What’s an optimal diet for you will change as you change
• Your relationship with food and your body impacts your health more powerfully than the food you eat.

One off opportunity to join my beta ‘Lose Weight for the Last Time’ program

My inaugural Lose Weight for the Last Time program will start on 23rd September. I am looking for 25 people who would like to participate in this program at a reduced rate in exchange for honest feedback and reviews. I am also offering one spot on the program for free. Please email me at [email protected] if you would like to learn more.

• The Life Coach School
• The Health Coach Institute