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Hello My Midlife Friend

In this post, I want to discuss a subject I have become very passionate about after recovering from cancer, and Why Having A Health Coach Can Be Life-Changing.

This is quite a long post, but stick with me as these are observations and some recommendations that hopefully may resonate with you. Kind of like my other posts discussing mindset, anxiety, intentional living, etc.

It’s all about things that I have, or am still experiencing in my midlife years…and maybe you are too.

If you have been reading a few of my posts, you’ll probably be aware that I’m training to be a Health Coach with Institute For Integrative Nutrition (IIN)

The reason for this decision came about when, following my kidney cancer, I consulted with a health coach. I wanted to explore a better way to approach my diet and lifestyle. (related post)

I was so impressed with the information and insight I received that I felt inspired to help others. in particular women in their midlife years like me.

So now, I’m a qualified Health Coach and it’s the best thing I have done with my life!

BTW…if after reading this post you feel that becoming a Health Coach is something you would love to do, contact IIN to find out more info.

What Does A Health Coach Do?

Health coaching is not to be confused with a nutritionist, life coach, fitness coach, psychologist, or dietician. Although there is a little bit of cross-over included.

So why consult a health coach?

What you don’t often consider is how much your food choices can affect other aspects of your live. Like digestive problems, bloating, gas, headaches, fatigue, and insomnia among others.

Choosing what and when you eat is often linked to other imbalances in your personal life…like comfort eating if you’re upset, or reaching for sugary foods to make you feel good when you’re anxious.

Your Food Choices Can Cause More Problems Than They Solve.

Like messing with your immune system, weight gain, plus a host of other issues affecting your overall wellbeing. It’s just not something we consider until it’s explained to us. This is what happened in my case.

But contrary to what you may expect, health coaching isn’t about just discussing diets. Mainly it involves listening to people talk about their issues in a non-judgmental way.

Issues such as:

“I’m always tired and don’t know why”

“I’ve developed an allergy recently”

“I’ve started to feel depressed and I’m eating junk food to feel better”

“I have bloating and gas”

“I’m feeling unsettled and unfulfilled in life”

Discuss What Foods You Eat With Your Health Coach

They will discuss the different foods you’re eating and explore why you choose those particular foods.

Make suggestions about what you could change to help you feel better, and encourage you to talk about what has happened in your life recently that may be prompting your food choices.

Maybe exploring what could be causing your recent bout of depression, and look at what could possibly be changed to resolve the issue.

It’s all very low-key, totally non-confrontational, and non-judgmental…like friends having a heart-to-heart chat about ‘stuff’.

It certainly won’t involve you being put on a restrictive diet, or told you must follow any specific exercise regimen. That’s not how it works.

It also doesn’t involve you having judgment passed about aspects of your life that may not be bringing you joy at present. Although a health coach will certainly encourage you to explore these.

Health Coaches Respect That You Know Your Own Body

Health coaching is based on the premise that we all know our bodies better than anyone else. We know when something isn’t right. As women, we are especially good at this.

We listen to our ‘gut’ (pardon the pun). We are intuitive, and unlike many men (sadly), we choose to acknowledge and take notice of that inner voice.

Humans are all totally different from one another. What may be a problem for me, be it food, stress level, hormones, etc, may not be an issue for you.

This Is Known As Bio-Individuality.

This also means that there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ approach to resolving a person’s mental, physical, or dietary problems and this is definitely the case with foods.

We all react differently to food.

For example, my husband loves chili and can eat it without any side effects. On the other hand, I will spend the next 2 days on the ‘throne’ if I so much as look at it!

So technically, there shouldn’t be ‘one medication fits all’ for medical complaints either. And yet, look at the overuse of antibiotics given for just about everything.

This has resulted in an antibiotic resistance situation where the bugs are becoming immune to the antibiotics so they no longer work…in many cases leaving us at the mercy of the little blighters!

Sometimes it’s difficult to articulate this to a physician as they have a pre-conceived idea of what the problem may be already…and they’re not always correct even though we expect them to be. They’re only human – not miracle workers!

Also, to be fair…many physicians would rather NOT give out scripts for antibiotics unless really warranted, because they’re acutely aware of the growing resistance problem.

BUT, we patients/consumers expect to leave their office with something, otherwise we don’t feel we have got value for money. We really can be our own worst enemy sometimes!

There May Be Some Other Imbalance In Your Life

Your food-related problems may be manifesting due to an imbalance in some other aspect of your life, and it may be something you don’t feel comfortable discussing with family or friends.

Things such as relationship or career problems, unhappy social life, lack of creativity, or even a lack of joy or spirituality in your life.

Humans are complex and we need to approach health from a Holistic point of view. Mind, Body & Spirit are all connected.

Your health coach will provide a safe space for you to explore these other aspects in your own time. This will often provide some surprising insights into the food choices you make, and how they relate to your current life situations.

Bear in mind that your current food or intestinal issues may be related to an imbalance in other aspects of your life.

Your affliction may very well be due to what you’re eating, why you’re eating certain things, and whether there is a reason you’re not digesting correctly.

A Classic Example Of This Is Celiac Disease

If you suffer from this disease, you probably experience symptoms that are so varied that it’s often misdiagnosed. You can also suffer from a host of symptoms and debilitating afflictions that don’t appear to be related.

Celiacs can be shuffled from pillar to post trying to get someone to connect the dots and finally get a diagnosis.

Thankfully, things are changing and this disease is being better diagnosed…but it took a long time.

You can tell the doctor how you’re feeling but guaranteed he/she won’t ask about your home life. They won’t spend time letting you talk, and get out what may be the fundamental issues behind your problems.

You may be overeating, depressed, sleeping badly, no energy, or have digestive issues. Sadly you won’t be given much time to discuss these or numerous other problems that you know aren’t right with you.

This Is Not A Criticism Of The Medical Profession

Physicians are usually so incredibly busy that they have limited time to spend with you.

Many will be the first to admit that they’re not taught in medical training that what foods we eat or don’t eat, can either cause or solve many problems.

They naturally observe our bodies in a different way…a clinical way, and look to medications or even surgery to treat the problem. But this doesn’t always get to the root cause.

…and please don’t misunderstand

No ethical health coach would ever try to take the place of your doctor by behaving like they have all the answers. Or suggesting that you don’t need to consult your physician.

Quite the opposite in fact.

Particularly if after chatting with you, it appears that there is something more serious going on with your physical or mental health, your health coach will be the first one to refer you on to see a Specialist.

A Non-Judgmental Chat Can Give You Insight And Comfort

Discussing things with a health coach may give you some new insights into yourself and how you feel emotionally. They can suggest some changes in your eating habits to improve your nutrition and help lift your mood.

Plus, they can encourage you to evaluate what issues may be causing an imbalance in other aspects of your life, and this can be supercritical to improving your well-being.

Just talking and getting some things out with a person who isn’t judging you in any way is very cathartic. Someone who has the time to listen to you and can help you come to your own conclusions.

This can lead to YOU recognizing where your problems may lie and allow YOU to diagnose your own issues.  You’ll be surprised how this can happen…it happened to me.

Interestingly, I found that being assisted to reach my own realization about my issues was more powerful than just being ‘told’ by someone else.

Health Coaches Often Have Their Own Health & Lifestyle Issues.

It’s a misconception that health coaches are a picture of amazing physical and mental health. Many are experiencing some health or personal issues themselves that they are still working on…and this is a good thing.

That’s often the reason they become coaches, directly as a result of experiencing the benefits of healthy changes in their own lives.

So you’ll be chatting with someone who truly ‘gets’ where you’re coming from. You won’t be trying to explain yourself to a person who may not understand how or why you’re looking to make changes to your foods or lifestyle.

They’ve already been there and bought the T-shirt, so to speak!…and that’s a comforting feeling.

The health coach can prompt you with certain questions to enable you to think about things differently. They can also share suggestions for gradual dietary or other changes that you may choose to adopt…and why those changes may be beneficial.

Note: these will only ever be suggestions

It will be up to you to decide to take responsibility for your health and choose to implement changes to help heal yourself. Remember, you know your body and your life better than anyone else…and your health coach understands this.

By the way…you don’t have to visit a health coach in person.

All types of coaching are online now, thanks to the wonderful world of video platforms like Zoom. Many people are unable to attend in person, or are stuck in different places around the world.

A New Approach Is Needed & Health Coaches Can Help

As a population, our health is declining every year!

Whilst there’s a time and place for medications, they aren’t always the solution. Most medications are man-made. They have chemicals in them.

Granted, they may ease the symptoms, but they can also mask the underlying issue. This could possibly be addressed with a better diet and better nutrition, correcting a lack of certain vitamins and minerals.

A new approach is certainly worth a try…don’t you think?

For the sake of this discussion, I want to leave aside the devastation being wreaked by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has completely shifted the goal-posts this year for the whole world’s health concerns.

Nothing could have prepared us for this.

But in normal times prior to 2020, America and other First World countries are nations with rising chronic diseases and so much of this is directly related to our diet.

We’re seeing unprecedented cases of serious illnesses striking people at younger ages than ever before.

– Diabetes in children

– Cardiovascular disease

– Early-onset type 2 diabetes in adults AND children

– Increasing cases of stroke

– Increasing cases of hyperactivity in children

– Issues related to digestion and auto-immune disorders in adults AND kids

– Growing cases of early-onset Alzheimer’s and dementia

– Increasingly serious levels of obesity in both adults AND children

– Serious depression, anxiety and ADHD in children

And the list goes on and on!

Health Coaches Can Help With Weight-Related Issues

Don’t beat yourself up for being overweight. In many cases, it isn’t necessarily your fault. There are other contributing factors besides just overeating.

Yes, many people do overeat. But contrary to what society wants to say and think, it’s very often caused by too much unhealthy crap added to processed foods.

This is coupled with an increasingly high level of stress in our daily lives that we often try to resolve by eating…which is extremely common. Health coaches help you talk through these issues in a non-judgmental way.

Food was my ‘drug of choice’ to deal with anxiety and stress.

Couple this with an addiction to sugar that the food industry WANTS US TO HAVE!. Sugar releases dopamine in the brain, a feel-good sensation akin to an addiction to nicotine or alcohol. It can be very difficult to overcome.

It took me some time to ‘kick’ the sugar habit…and I’m still not completely out of rehab!

There’s Commercial Interest At Play Here…And It’s Legal!

Let’s set the stage.

There was a backlash some years ago to how much fat we were all supposedly consuming in processed foods. Suddenly fat became the ‘bad guy’ (trans fats, saturated fats – definitely NOT good for us).

As a result, the food industry took note and had to change its way of producing its goods in order to be seen to be doing the right thing by consumers.

So, to look like they were heeding the public’s worry about fat consumption, they took out the fats, (some of them), but they still had to make the food tasty and appealing so guess what?…they started adding sugar…lots of it!

Low-Fat Diets Are Not Always The Best

It’s all about which fat we consume.

There are some fats our bodies really benefit from such as Olive oil, avocados, flaxseed oil, and sunflower oil. There are other good fats that we need in for our bodies to function such as essential fatty acids Omega 3 and Omega 6.

These are ‘essential’ because we can’t survive without them, and our bodies can’t manufacture them.

They have to be supplied via our food  – namely oily fish like Atlantic mackerel, salmon, sardines, tinned light tuna, walnuts, and flaxseeds) or good quality supplements of Omega 3 Fish Oil.

Trans fats and saturated fats are not good for us even though they’re in so much of our food. Check out the label on a jar or can of processed food next time you’re at the grocery store and see them on the label.

Also, look at the ingredients you can’t even pronounce or they are represented by a number or abbreviation. If you need Google just to find out what they are (sadly, most of us don’t bother) then that can’t be a good thing.

There’s a great saying:

If you can’t pronounce it, or it has. a barcode on it, it’s probably not good for you

The Fact Is That Sugar Is Worse For You Than Fat

Depending on what the food is for, do you think it needs sugar in it?…probably not. Even naturally sweet food items have ‘added sugar’ like corn syrup…why?

To make us want more of it…because sugar is addictive!

Yes, sadly it’s true. And if this wasn’t enough, sugar also messes with our appetite hormones causing havoc!

Now it’s known through copious amounts of research into diabetes and cardiovascular disease, that sugar is worse for us than fat…particularly corn syrup.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Is the Enemy In Disguise

Scarily, this stuff is used in so many processed foods these days!

It’s metabolized by our liver and enters our bloodstream almost immediately. This causes blood sugar to rise, triggering the body to release insulin to normalize our blood sugar levels.

Continuous insulin spikes needed to deal with consuming corn syrup regularly may lead to insulin resistance. Chanced are, this will lead to weight gain, high blood pressure, and possibly type 2 diabetes.

Processed table sugar (sucrose) is 50% fructose and 50% glucose. These two are processed differently in our bodies. Unlike glucose, fructose is almost entirely metabolized by the liver.

If we consume too much fructose the liver can’t process it fast enough, so instead, it’s converted into a key component of triglycerides…a high level of this in the blood is a key risk factor for heart disease.

Also, continued spikes in insulin can lead to  ‘non-alcoholic fatty liver disease’ which is said to affect 70+ million people in the US.

How To Calculate Your Daily Sugar Consumption

Shockingly, the average American consumes over 18 teaspoons or 75gms of sugar per day

When you check the labels on foods, be aware that 4gms of sugar is equal to 1 teaspoon. So if you divide the serving amount by 4, it will show you how many teaspoons of sugar you will be consuming.

If you divide the total amount you will get a very nasty shock! So if you’re in the habit of eating/drinking the full container rather than the serving size, guess what…you’re consuming an enormous amount of sugar!

The most sugar an adult should consume for weight control and optimal health per day is no more than 6-9 teaspoons per day (not counting natural sugar from fresh fruits and veggies)

This is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and American Heart Association (AHA)

Health Coaches Believe There Has to Be A Better Way

It’s plainly obvious that the healthcare problems are getting worse every year.

Even the medical profession is very aware of this and is profoundly worried. They can see the cost of medical care and the demand for it increasing every year. But their hands are tied.

They can only work within their scope and specific expertise. That usually means dealing with the issues once the patient has presented to them with the chronic illness. Then it’s up to medication or worse still, surgical procedures to resolve the issues.

But can we approach healthcare from a prevention standpoint rather than fixing it once there’s a problem?

We Have All Been Duped By The Processed Food Industry

Sad but true. It sounds very dramatic but processed food as a multi-billion dollar industry with a vested interest in keeping us eating what they produce, no matter how much bad stuff is in it.

Health-wise we’re paying an extremely high price for it. So much so, that the healthcare system can’t keep up with it.

As a direct result of the sugars and other undisclosed ingredients we are inadvertently eating…and make no mistake, in far too many cases it IS as a direct result, the cost of healthcare will continue to rise and rise.

And Let’s Not Let ‘Big Pharma’ Off the Hook!

Once again, a multi-billion dollar industry. The pharmaceutical companies benefit hugely as our population gets sicker and sicker.

Ever stopped to notice how many advertisements we get on TV for prescription-only medications? It’s astonishing that it’s legal to keep telling us we need this new purple pill or that new green pill for ailments we haven’t even got yet.

I’m from Australia and it’s strictly illegal for the pharmaceutical companies to do this! Same in the UK and Europe. In fact, only USA and New Zealand are permitted to do this.

That should alarm you that these drugs are being ‘pushed’ in a such a way…and it’s constant. Nearly ever second advert on some channels is for a medication.

It’s designed to frighten us into running off to our GP, or even the pharmacy, because they design the ads to make us feel we will get ill without these new pills. More often than not it’s total crap!.

Too many medications leave the body’s immune system in a state of constant alert. It’s ‘Fight or Flight’ mode, leading to a state of inflammation, which left unaddressed can lead to some serious illnesses.

Make no mistake…

We’re all getting sicker while the drug companies and processed food industries are getting richer by the second!.

Between them, these two enormous industries are contributing to the health crisis in America and other first world countries. As a direct result, the cost of healthcare is skyrocketing!

It’s already reaching the point where many people are terrified of getting sick because they literally can’t afford the care.

We Do Have A Choice

Whilst I’m obviously no fan of the processed food and big pharma industries, it’s up to us to choose whether we fall into the trap, or whether we make the move away from this way of living.

Much of our reticence probably comes down to a lack of knowledge of what is really going on.

Our body will always try to return to a place of health if we let it. We are preconditioned to try to stay healthy, it’s in our DNA for our survival.

But we’ve stopped listening. This is where health coaches can help to inform and guide you.

In An Ideal World We Wouldn’t Need Health Coaches

But alas, the world isn’t ideal.

There’s mounting evidence that the way we eat is slowly killing us. For example: what’s in our processed foods, how much sugar we consume, the level of pesticides on our vegetables.

You are probably unaware that there are hormones added to our livestock feed, and as recently as 2016, arsenic was fed to commercially-raised chickens to stop them from getting parasites (we can only trust that this practice has stopped)

It’s all causing ever-increasing chronic illnesses because our bodies are not designed to metabolize these things!

It’s depressing stuff, and I understand that it can be overwhelming, but it’s better to be aware so we can make informed choices.

This is just what Health Coaches learn, along with ways to take help you take back control of your own health and that of your family using whole and naturally unadulterated food.

In an ideal world, maybe the way we would have eaten 100 years ago, we would easily be able to buy genuinely certified organic veggies, grass-fed meat, and pasture-raised chicken.

We wouldn’t need to mistrust our processed foods or be duped by the commercial food and drug industries. But the world isn’t ideal.  So do what you can to be informed and make decisions accordingly.

So seek out organic wherever possible.

We Can Head Off Some Of These Major Health Problems

Let’s achieve this in the very early stages by looking at food…how and what we eat? Slowly replacing processed foods with whole foods, which means foods that are in their natural state.

This includes replacing white rice with brown because white rice is milled so much it’s lost the ‘germ’, bran, and husk rendering it nutritionally very low. Basmati rice (both brown and white) is the best for you.

Also, white flour used in white bread is bleached using Chlorine, so maybe limit your white bread consumption…just a thought. Cornbread is worth a try, as is pumpkin or sweet potato bread.

Let’s Shift Our Way Of Thinking

BTW…I’m not saying give up your favorite foods forever. (I still indulge occasionally…ok, maybe a little more than occasionally)

But instead, shift your thinking:

– Have that hamburger and fries or pizza only as a treat.

– Stay away from processed sugar-filled food and sodas as much as possible.

– Removing processed sugar from your diet is a great start.

– Using healthy fats that your body needs.

– Choose not to eat, or at least reducing anything containing trans fats, saturated fats, and corn syrup.

– Get into the habit of drinking more water.

Eat fresh, whole foods as much as possible. Your body will notice the difference and reward you for it.

Conclusion

Don’t you think we need to start thinking differently about what we consume?

I know this sounds like a rant, but we only have one life and personally, I want to live as long and healthy a life as possible, don’t you?

Consulting with a health coach was incredibly beneficial for me and not just related to food. I was encouraged to evaluate other aspects of my life causing concern, and this resulted in me making some life-changing decisions.

As a result, I lost 66lbs, changed my diet to mainly plant-based foods, drink more water and a lot less coffee (still a coffee addict!), and decided, along with my husband to ditch our stressful 9-5 lifestyle and become Digital Nomads.

The last one is a little radical I know (not for everyone)…but the others are definitely worth it when your doctor tells you “you’ve probably added an extra 8-10 years to your life”

…can’t beat that!

Hopefully, you can see how consulting a health coach may be beneficial for you too.

You may also enjoy this post: 16 REASONS WHY WATER IS CRITICAL FOR YOUR HEALTH

Please drop me a line in the comments…I’d love to hear your thoughts.