Give yourself credit, and cut yourself slack

This is Lyra in a grocery sack, obviously

April 27 – post 5! 

What a week!

A lot going on that isn’t health coach training related (when the co-parent travels, the other parent loses sleep…no exceptions). It is a reminder to myself that if I am not going to have the outside structure of an entire coach training program that I need to institute some structure myself – get a plan and make things go.

Is that what I said last week? I mean it this time.

My health coach musings of the week:

I have been working on what might become a small book – a manifesto of sorts, or perhaps it will be the guts of a website about my coaching services. The working title is ‘A Unified Theory of Fatness’. Because the thing is, I have read a LOT about weight loss and health around weight issues. And I have studied feminism and definitely subscribe to the notion that Fat is a feminist issue. So, to be embarking on a career that is potentially centered around helping people try to lose weight (likely many women) – it is potentially problematic. Right?

There is also evidence that calorie restriction as a way to lose weight is actually bad for your metabolism. And I definitely think it is potentially harmful to your psyche as well.

My solution for a metabolically sound way to lose weight and improve all the health markers is a low carb diet (high fat too, but we don’t have to get into that yet – I know it’s scary to eat fat!). And, I will also place the emotional context of diet (food one eats), history of dieting (controlling the food one eats for a variety of reasons), and body image and all the baggage that our culture gives us about all of those things.

Anyway… Honestly this post feels distracted and scattered and I am just proud that I am putting words together in more or less sentences after the (not) sleep I have had lately! There’s another good health coach lesson – learn how to give yourself credit and cut yourself slack.

Peace out, everyone, and be excellent to each other!

And this is what you get to have for lunch
if you skip bread and potatoes. Bacon wrapped avocado.
Delish.

Extrospective (tm)

4/20/17 blog # 4

I am feeling introspective this week, but also extrospective (should totally be a word).

What I mean by that is that I am reflecting on what I have to give from inside of me to the outsside world. Specifically, what do I have to bring to future health coaching clients.

This is a pep talk process that will probably continue for some time.

So, this is a picture to make the post look more
interesting. Feel free to consider the possibility
of me exploring the roots and branches of my
future health coach career or something.

But I am coming to the conclusion that probably the thing I need to launch health coach business is a coach of my own, and a deadline. Rather than following a 6 month online program with someone else’s health ideas, I am going to set myself a schedule of learning and preparation and then just jump in.

Ack!

Now, I need to focus on the timing of the thing. While it is a truism that there is never a perfect time to start a project like this (or, for example, have a baby), it is also true that there are some BAD times for such things (for example, moving country while pregnant – been there, done that). If summer break were not fast approaching, I would probably set my deadline in the 3 month range, but if I’ve learned one thing about summers over the past couple of years its that they have a habit of being wildly disruptive.

I think perhaps the answer is baby steps – I may be calling on those of you who volunteered to by my first clients and beginning sessions over the summer and then go for a full launch in the fall.

I’ll keep y’all posted.

...what was that about health coach training?

Post 3: 

4/13/17

Was it just last week that I started this once a week blog thing?

And it was to be for 6 months, because that was the length of my health coach training?

Well, I quit my health coach training this week. I did not leave the idea of being a health and/or life coach – that is still on, I just won’t be learning it from that program.

They lost me when, in a section about how important sleep is for health, they said you should go to bed before 10 because of Ayurveda. After a 5-minute explanation of Ayurveda while also saying, some people don’t think it’s true, but isn’t it *interesting*. No, not interesting to me, and stop wasting my time.

There is so much actual information about sleep and why it is important and even when might be good for you to try to go to bed. And this whole section of the course is supposed to be the ‘essential’ and best ‘20%’ of the nutrition curriculum they learned in health coach school. They point out that clients do not want ALL of the information you have, they want a curated set of information they can act on. If this is how they curate, it’s not for me.

from last winter's trip to the Oregon coast

Anyway, now I am a bit adrift as I choose the better path for building this health coaching career.

If anything, my experience with this program maybe makes me think I don’t so much need a certification as I need a couple of good books on coaching and some time to throw some handouts together.

Which causes me to circle back around to why I was seeking a certification in the first place. And that was confidence, and also structure. I have a ton of nutrition, exercise & health knowledge – more than any coaching client is likely to want. But I don’t, yet, have a thoughtful way of getting the information to clients, and helping them to make positive changes.

So, I am starting to work on the structure I would like to use, and gathering information about where to get more skills in coaching and behavior change and will keep moving on down the line towards the ultimate goal – which is to help other people achieve health and balance in their lives (and me too!)

 PS - It is my wedding anniversary! 4 years ago and 12 years after we got married, March and I had a lovely wedding. Sam and Lyra were so tiny!! Sam is as tall as I am, and Lyra can no longer be swung by her arms...time flies!

PPS - I am giving myself bonus points for a post during spring break (with no childcare help), finishing it one handed as Lyra has claimed my lap for snuggles...

Health Coach Training, first thoughts

This photo is totally unrelated to the content. But pretty!

April 6 2017

Post 2

I have just completed the second week of my health coach training.

And I just published a post promising to write about my journey towards being a health coach.

…what was I thinking?

Since today’s first post was all about how I plan to do this writing reflection exercise and not actually in itself a reflection on my process, I thought I would bang out a second post. Bonus Thursday!

So, I feel like I have come into this training program somewhat abruptly. I found the program; signed up the same week; and started the week after that. Lickety split!

But sometimes all you get from taking time to reflect is wasted time, and that’s what it felt like this time. I was ready to do something, have been thinking about something in this area for a long time and the program seemed about as right as I could expect to find.

For me, the big pros of the training are that I will leave with a structured 90 day program that I can offer clients. I have LOTS of information in my head about health, diet and how to take care of your whole self. But that isn’t the same as having a way to convey that – a plan of action!

And, the added piece that I think is key – their program is built on principles of habit change. No diet for 3 months will fix your health, but focused work on behavior change can. Especially as it delves deep into the ‘why’ of our food challenges. Juicy stuff!

It also covers business aspects – how to market, how to price services, etc. Another area that I am very happy to take direction on!

Now, I find myself in the first section of the training which I expected to be the least useful. This is where they share their ‘essential nutrition’ principles. The basis of their content surrounding food and health. Already I nearly sprained something rolling my eyes hard when among their arguments for less sugar was the fact that most sugar is GMO. Wow. That is about the least of my concerns around the proliferation of sweeteners throughout the food supply.

I expect it not to be useful because I have already read so much nutrition data, and have pretty set opinions (backed by science and experience) about what the best choices are for me at least, and much of that I think is pretty well applicable to anyone that I would be coaching. But I’ve decided that this attitude just means that I will be grateful for any aspect that I do find helpful.

For one thing, it is the context of coaching. While I do feel like I have a lot of ‘The Answers’, the point is not to show off my knowledge to clients (that’s what I have a blog for); the point is to help folks find their own best health. There is so much more to health than food and even exercise. Food is emotional, it is cultural and it all happens in the context of sometimes very chaotic lives. So information sharing is good, but better to learn how to help people figure out their own shit. Because there will always be shit to figure out.

Another key principle is the idea that most people do not want ALL of the information about health and nutrition. Most people’s kindles are not loaded with nonfiction books about insulin resistance and the history of food industrialization and its impact on health. What they want is distilled information that leads to actionable change. Curated content is how the program refers to it. I am a big proponent of the value of editing, or curating to use their word. In writing as in life. And, also it turns out in health.

I disagree with some of the elements the instructors have pulled out as essential nutrition information, and that’s ok. My assignment for myself is to hear their thoughts, and then go to my own research and develop a similarly actionable plan based on the best science I can find. There is no perfect diet for every person, and there is a lot that influences everyone’s choices. But I do think there is best evidence, and that everyone deserves to have the best information to help them make good choices.

That’s me for the day for reflection. We’ll see how these Thursdays shape up…

Make good choices, folks!

PS – re: value of editing in relationship to these posts. While I dearly value editing, I am forgoing a lot of editing and revising in favor of just getting something done, on the page and published. So please forgive my run-on thoughts and rambling sentiments… I am letting you into the meandering workings of my consciousness.

You’re welcome.

Once more into the breach...

I have solved for success!

You guys – I have totally figured out everything. I know how to be the best most successful version of myself and look good doing it!

OK, perhaps I am overstating, but I am feeling remarkably clear about what I want and how to get there. It is a new and wonderful feeling.

How did I get this amazing clarity you ask?

Well…actually…

I don’t know entirely. But I think it has something to do with bacon and hollandaise sauce.

Seriously, I think my food choices are part of it. My brain is very happy without carbs (though there is a small voice in that brain that is still wailing for bread with my butter). Where before I would face each school day with a list and a big dose of overwhelm, now I tend to be more directed with my time. And even when I don’t ‘get anything done’, I am feeling less anxious about the whole thing. And I 100% think that this is because I am feeding and exercising my body better.

I also recently started a program to become a health coach. For the first time in a long long time, I can see a path forward career wise that really draws from my life and professional experience to date. And, most importantly – a path that I want to follow and can see many inviting opportunities along the way.

One of those opportunities is writing. I know I have always had the option to write. I know words and I have a computer (and paper and pens). But this focus – of helping people figure out how to take care of their bodies and their lives – is very freeing. No more ‘but what do I write about?’

My step one down this newly recharged interest in writing is a commitment to write about my process over the next 6 months of health coach training. I am adding an appointment to my calendar to write a post for this blog once a week for the next 6 months. Come hell or high water, I will post once a week. (I do hope I am not inviting figurative high water by making that statement).

I don’t think I have ever made a commitment like this to myself around writing. I think I’ve said ‘I will try’ or ‘I really should’, but I think there is power in the declarative: I will write. One post. On Thursday. I am also publishing this very commitment! Wow, I’m getting ballsy in my old age (or is it ovary-ish?)

I hope you enjoy, and please feel free to share.