When someone asks me what I do as a Health and Life Coach, it’s challenging to answer! There are many aspects to professional coaching that I can’t fit into a 2 minute elevator speech. However, here is an example of a professional who could use one, read on and see if you can relate to her!
Health coaching in the career space helps you deal with stress, increases your energy, and puts you in a more positive mindset, so you can feel good about yourself, you aren’t tempted to skip workouts and you can truly enjoy your life.
Meet Sue. She is a 45 year-old Director of Sales for a medical manufacturer. She has been with the company for 10 years; starting as Sales Representative, promoted to Manager, and now Director. Her husband is a manager at a local advertising agency, and they have a 9-year old daughter.
Although Sue is in good shape for a woman in her 40’s, she dreads getting up in the morning and finds she needs at least 2-3 cups of coffee before she gets the “spark” to move her into high speed mode. Once she gets momentum, however, she doesn’t stop all day. In the morning, she does some yoga poses and lifts a few dumbbells, and drinks her 3rd cup of coffee on her one-hour commute. No breakfast.
At the office, Sue attends meetings throughout the day, addresses emails, puts out fires, coaches her managers, monitors sales numbers, etc. In addition to caffeine, she is addicted to sugar, and skips a lot of meals, replacing them with energy bars and Red Bull. When she does eat lunch, it is usually around a conference room with catered lunch of salad or sandwiches, or at a local restaurant with her co-workers while wrapping up business. She tries to choose what she believes is the right food so she doesn’t gain weight, such as Caesar salad with chicken or salmon, or whole-wheat wrap with veggies and light dressing. Good, right?
Occasionally her husband, who is an excellent cook and who goes in early and is home by 5:30, will make her a lunch with leftovers from dinner. Usually a chicken and rice dish or maybe pasta and meat sauce, or a veggie burger on whole wheat bread.
Although she runs around all day, Sue only logs about 4,000 steps per work day. At her last health check, she learned her BMI is on the higher side of healthy, but was told her waist was too large for her frame (BMI is no longer an accurate measure of health, we are now measuring waist size to establish if there is risk for disease). Her doctor wants her to watch her cholesterol, and he told her to cut out all fat from her diet, so she doesn’t eat any beef, pork or anything fried. A typical looks like this:
6:45 – 7:30: coffee – yoga/weights – coffee
8:30 – 12:00: meetings, puts out fires
12:00 – 1:30: lunch – sometimes she orders a salad from a sub shop and eats at her desk, or she grabs an energy bar from the vending machine. Other times she goes out with her leadership team (see above).
2:00 – 5:30: catches up on email, consults with direct reports as needed, pulls reports, and a final check in with Joe, the President.
5:30 – 6:00: stuck in Joe’s office catching him up on the day’s sales figures in person (even though she already emailed him the report).
7:00: home for a much needed glass of wine (or two), helps with homework, checks personal email and reads industry-related periodicals online.
10:00: to bed where she lies awake – her mind racing – until past midnight.
This is a very basic example of an average day…all those meetings and reports require a lot of bandwidth, brainpower and fast decision-making capabilities. She loves what she does and doesn’t really understand why she is so tired, moody, gaining weight and unable to sleep.
Can you relate?
Many of us are working remotely, and the only things that have changed are we have no commute, and we get even fewer steps – not running from parking lot to office and from office to conference rooms throughout the building.
With this lifestyle, here are a few things on Sue’s horizon. We know about the cholesterol, but there are other risks that she faces and she doesn’t even know it [yet].
- Diabetes or pre-diabetes risk from too much sugar and bread
- Malnutrition from a diet high in calories, low in micronutrients (i.e. vitamins and minerals)
- High blood pressure from the stress of the job
- Afternoon crashes from sugar in the coffee and Red Bull
- High cholesterol from the hidden trans-fats and excess sugar that sneaks into her diet
- Insomnia from the blue light of her tablet late at night
- Restless sleep from the wine
- Weight gain from consuming prepared foods and processed products
- Threat of Metabolic Syndrome (as indicated by her waist measurement)
- Risk of thyroid disease
So, how could a Health Coach possibly help? Certified Coaches like myself treat their clients as a whole being. Everything is connected – so if we uncover what’s causing your symptoms, you make smarter decisions, and your health improves; you have more energy and an improved mindset. You won’t need to fill up on empty calories or use wine to “unwind.” I help you set boundaries, schedule your priorities instead of prioritizing your schedule, and develop new habits so you can feel and perform at your best. You will enjoy a less stressful day, sleep well and as a result of your new habits and rituals, will feel better about yourself.
Coaching includes a number of techniques, experiential exercises and habit change practices. Together, we dig into your motivation, work to find the right foods for you, and identify behaviors to change so you can accomplish your outcome.
Whether you are looking for a coach to help you with a career transition or dealing with stress, you control the journey and do the work. I simply curate relevant resources, introduce new tools and provide the right steps in the right order. I act as cheerleader and tough love coach, support you when things get rough, and provide you with the accountability (i.e. occasional kick in the butt!) you need to see it through.
If you’d like to learn more, or talk in more depth about how I can help, please schedule an appointment to discuss your goals so we can uncover what’s keeping you from achieving them. We will decide if we are a good fit to work together. There is no obligation to move forward with a coaching program and the session is free. Click here to schedule your “60-minute Breakthrough Session” now.