What is Nutrition Coaching?
“I know what to do, I just need to do it,” said Nicole, an attractive woman in her forties who had struggled with weight all her life. I could tell right away that she was used to being able to achieve something if she just worked hard enough. She had accomplished everything she wanted - she had a rewarding career, a loving and committed relationship and a beautiful house. She was raising a smart and talented daughter who was at the top of her class.
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She knew she had risk factors and had seen family members become diabetic, be put on dialysis, be hospitalized and die young. She didn’t want her family history to become her destiny. She knew she was supposed to eat healthy, and she even knew how to make healthy choices. There was just something she was missing.
“It feels really dumb to be saying this, but If I exercise, I don’t eat right. If I eat right, I don’t exercise.” The problem was that she didn’t think about diet and exercise other than as a weight loss strategy. She was overwhelmed when she thought of following all the rules of a restrictive weight loss plan. There was a lot of “don’t eat this,” and not enough “eat this.”
I have met a lot of Nicoles over the years, and the fact of the matter is this: people just don’t have a healthy relationship with food. We have the idea that a healthy diet is restrictive and boring and that achieving health goals means giving up all the things you love.
Eating well isn’t about punishment or restriction. It’s about giving your body what it needs. Nutrition coaching gives people a framework for putting all the seemingly small pieces of the puzzle together and making it stick in their lives. The goal is to make eating well as intuitive and easy as brushing your teeth. Let’s clear up some of the confusion.
What Nutrition Coaching is not:
A meal plan or a diet. Those are short-term solutions that rarely lead to real change.
Someone yelling at you or slapping food out of your hand. There’s no such thing as bad food.
Therapy. We may talk about attitudes or feelings about food, but the focus is on building the habits that help you achieve your goal.
Constant weight and body composition check-ins. Although we may track some of those things, we’ll focus on metrics that tell the entire story.
What Nutrition Coaching is:
Someone helping you navigate nutrition by giving you tools to make good decisions.
A way to educate yourself and see food in a new way.
A clear path to navigate those difficult food situations like family or social gatherings.
Teaches you how to focus on health from the inside out. The scale is just a number.
A way to help you address unproductive feelings and attitudes about food.
A supportive, encouraging opportunity to change habits for good.
A good nutrition coach can be a game changer. Why not talk about what a nutrition program would look like for you? Schedule a free consultation!