How Health Coaches Give You The Power

There’s an old joke about how many psychiatrists it takes to change a light bulb. The answer is: one, but the light bulb has to want to change.

A good health coach can help you nurture both the desire and the mechanisms for success in making positive life and health changes.

Here’s how:

A good health coach can help you see yourself as capable of healthy living. Many of us see our health goals as far-off and unachievable. Often, we’ve tried, and been disappointed, too many times. Your health coach can help you see what’s just over the next hill, and help you get there.

A good health coach doesn’t nag you to exercise or eat right. Rather, she helps you see physical activity and healthy good choices as instruments in your success. For instance, she can help you see food and physical activity choices as ways to take good care of your mind and body — to sharpen mental focus, inspire creativity, reduce stress, and repair everyday wear and tear on your body — rather than drilling in on the number of calories eaten or minutes exercised.

A good health coach helps you coach yourself. He can help you learn how to calibrate your goals around consistent small successes to encourage a positive mindset that gives you the momentum to continue with your healthy living program. He can also help you learn great ways to rethink roadblocks that tripped you up in the past.

A good health coach does not judge. Health objectives are milestones to walk towards, not must-hit targets. A good health coach will not see your health data as indicative of success or failure, because only you can define what those words mean. Your coach can help you avoid the cycle of negativity arising from self-criticism when numerical health objectives aren’t met, free you from the success-failure mindset, and can help you re-interpret the results of unmet goals as information for refining your healthy living strategy going forward.

A good health coach “clicks” with your style of thinking. She’ll take a data focus if you’re analytical, a motivational focus if you’re looking for inspiration, and the role of a trusted advisor when you want to brainstorm solutions. She’ll listen, and she’ll get why the day you threw out your oversized dinner plates was a Big Deal and help you celebrate those landmark personal victories.