What Is A Health Coach?

What Is A Health Coach?

Since graduating and starting Why-Health in January, I've been asked many times, what is it exactly that I do? Since I have such a unique roll as an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and work much differently than other nutrition experts, I decided to dedicate a post to answering that question which explains my evolution and how I work with women.

It took me 10 years of experience on a different path to eventually be led to changing other people's lives through diet and lifestyle as a career. As I began to learn more about nutrition as a hobby, friends and family began to ask me questions about health and nutrition. I also found myself getting into interesting conversations about food and exercise with co-workers and even patients I was working with at Vancouver General Hospital. While working in Neuro Rehabilitation, I was exposed to many people who either had a chronic degenerative disease or were recovering from a stroke. The more I learned about chronic disease prevention and reversal, the more I felt a desire to change people's health before they got to the hospital where I was seeing them. After extensive research on nutrition programs, I completed my certification through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and Functional Diagnostic Nutrition.

The Institute for Integrative Nutrition taught me a myriad of dietary theories that help me customize dietary protocols for clients based upon bio-individuality, personality, and emotional capacity for change. This approach does not involve strict regimens because 95% of diets fail and are not sustainable. My goal is to implement incremental changes that are realistic and based on what goals a person wants to achieve. After 12 sessions, people have the tools and experience they need to maintain their new found level of health. I counsel with food, stress, sleep, exercise, and relationships as they all contribute to a person's well-being. I meet people on their level because it's never just about the food. A person can eat all the broccoli in the world, but if they aren't sleeping or they are involved in toxic relationships, their health will still suffer. I guide people through changing the nutrition and lifestyle habits that cause chronic illness, in order to reverse it or avoid it from developing in the first place. 

As a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, I am trained to become a "health detective" by using sophisticated functional lab testing to find the root cause of health issues. I have been able to identify leaky gut, gut dysbiosis, pathogens present in the body (including bad bacteria, parasites, and fungus), liver/kidney/gallbladder/metabolic issues, and all types of hormonal imbalances. After identifying malfunctions in the body, I use intelligent supplement protocols for immediate relief while designing lifestyle protocols to address and heal from the root cause. Through my Medical Director Program at BioHealth Labs, I receive significant support with interpreting lab results from complex cases when necessary, and together design protocols to build health from the ground up. During the healing process, I guide people through a one hour session once per week for 12 weeks to ensure they have the support they need to get the results they want, and make adjustments as needed along the way. This is often help with healthy grocery shopping on a budget, how to read food labels, creating upgraded versions of unhealthy foods, how to improve sleep, and how to decrease anxiety.

Whether people just want guidance and support with how to eat healthier and change their lifestyle habits, or if they want to go deep and run functional lab tests to get to the root cause of their health issues they haven't been able to find answers for, I support people through their personal health journey. Everyone is different and I don't treat any two people the same, however, I do keep people accountable and focused on their desired goals.

To decide if my Know Your Body Program is right for you, I invite you to schedule a free consultation with me. During this session, we will discuss your health and lifestyle to determine how I can best support you in achieving your goals and what is most important to you.

Visit my contact page to sign up now.

I look forward to connecting with you!