Anticipation

The two part-time jobs didn't hire me, but the weight loss clinic did offer me a job. I was almost gonna take it. But some red flags came up when I learned more about it, and I didn't take it. Which is for the best, I think – because something better came along. A professional, corporate wellness job as a health coach – the ideal thing I've been looking for and competing with many for. I've just interviewed for it and am waiting to hear, but I have a good feeling. It's in FL, but on the east coast instead of the west. Which is actually a great scenario – I get to move, but still stay in state : ) And it's 85% travel (with mileage reimbursement). I haven't done that before, but it means I'm not at a desk job 9-5! This could be life-changing. Getting my career off the ground for one thing, and shaking things up with my own health / way of living. When I look back at some of the things I did when I was younger (like being a movie extra in L.A., a thing which also had a lot of unpredictability) I marvel at how much changed in just the last couple years. It's a physical health issue I can't really explain, but I've kept wondering if a return to my old self / my old ways would somehow improve it. I just haven't known HOW to return to my old self / old ways.

Something that goes along with this is a post from the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, which I've mentioned before. The post is http://psychologyofeating.com/new-definition-metabolism/ . I love it because it gets at my long-time interest in how the mind or even outer circumstances in life can affect your body. It isn't just nutrition and exercise. After reading the post, it made me wonder – could there be people who are happy / have a sense of purpose, good relationships, everything good psychologically – who still have body / health issues? I guess so. But if I got in a job I loved and was happy like I was in college, would it help me? It's a research question for sure, and I feel like my life itself is essentially one big work of research. Hehe. Come to think of it, I believe there were some tough times in my life when I didn't have the health issues despite the fact that times were tough. So who knows? But yeah, I think when I'm coaching people, there WILL be some who are generally happy with their lives overall and just have some health things to address. Otherwise, we'd be getting into therapy territory, and I'm not a therapist. But behavior change DOES incorporate psychology and it DOES come about as a result of something not working in a person's life. So there's some overlap. That's what makes it so interesting to me and brings me back around to the start of this paragraph - your mind and life circumstances affect you physically in profound ways. 

Update

This week I had a few good job interviews. Two were part-time coaching jobs and one was part-time at a weight loss clinic. I am hopeful! I also signed up to coach another coach in Wellcoaches and have another coach to coach me. So it'll count towards the hours I need for recertification later. Plus it gives me the opportunity to network with others in my field. On that note, I've gotten access to more cool things with my certified membership. Like classes on marketing and the business of coaching. (Building my own business is still a ways off, but hey). 

And I'm still getting invitations to webinars and things outside of Wellcoaches but still health-related. One was about mindful eating and the Am I Hungry program. I found out about them from the Tampa Wellness Council. I think it's great. It kinda got me thinking about the dual messages in society nowadays. There are the body acceptance messages and there are the messages about trying to be physically healthy. I think the body acceptance stuff has come as a result of people trying too hard to be healthy (or a certain weight). But at the same time, it doesn't suggest an attitude of giving up or not caring about your body. That's where I think it can get confusing for some people. Oh, how I want to help! 

So job, coaching, continuing education, and reading a novel (my novel reading has been less frequent lately but I'd been waiting on this one from the library for a while). I am starting to get busy! But a good kind of busy. Not like how it used to be with me commuting 3 hours a day, working for 8 ½, and barely having time to do anything else except eat, sleep, check email, and talk to bf. I'm also feeling like the things I want will come eventually because I'm taking the right steps. I'm not in a rush. And I don't feel like “I'll only be happy once I get ___.” There is some happiness in what I'm doing now. The journey, as they say.

Update and stuff I've been researching

Practice client data came back and I'm now certified! The local job I was waiting to hear from didn't come through, but oh well. If I didn't mention it in my last post, I have a growing list of places I've been waiting to contact because they don't advertise but could possibly use my services. We'll see.

Another thing I thought I'd mention is that I've discovered some new health resources courtesy of social media. It started when I liked one of facebook's suggested pages for me – Health Coach Marketing. It wasn't until recently that I went to its actual page and signed up for its newsletter. This past week I got some emails from them that linked me to 2 new organizations. One was Underground Wellness, mostly run by one person, but he does lots of interviews with health professionals and I like what he's about. (He came up with JERF – Just Eat Real Food). The other organization is the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. How awesome is that? It's like the thing I've spent my whole life looking for but didn't know existed. They claim there are schools for nutrition and schools for psychology but none that really blend the two in a comprehensive way. It's about time, I say! They of course offer a training course to certify you. It's longer and more expensive than the one I did. (The most expensive one I've seen so far). I'm not about to do it, but I just have to say how cool it sounds anyway. (And a side note here – I've been hearing about more and more health coaching programs, it's crazy. ACE has one, the Institute for Integrative Nutrition is another. I don't regret doing Wellcoaches because they're ACSM-endorsed and nationally recognized. But I look at all the things out there and think, damn. They ALL sound good). Back to the psychology of eating program. It speaks to me because it addresses that food and body and weight issues are about more than nutrition and exercise. They recognize that it's also about how we eat, whether we enjoy life...things I've tried so hard to define in a scientific context but couldn't. But they do. And I want to say, “Yes – thank you!” The other thing that came to mind when reading about their program is that there are some pieces of knowledge they teach that I wasn't taught directly but which I've tried to learn on my own – things like digestive health, micronutrients (I know macro), how to address specific conditions, etc. I guess it's okay to not have all of that because wellness coaches are supposed to make referrals when necessary. No one can be a specialist in everything, right? I think I know most of the other stuff. (Oh, except the building business thing they also offer. But again, I could probably learn that on my own too).

One last thing I'll add here is something I wrote to them this morning in response to an email where they asked:

1. What's your biggest challenge when it comes to food and body?
2. In an ideal world, what would your relationship with food look like?
3. What's your biggest challenge when it comes to professional satisfaction?
4. In an ideal world, what would your career look like and what would you be doing?

I wasn't planning on responding, but I randomly got inspired. And a girl wrote me back pretty quickly, just like they promised. She did promote their program, of course, but she acknowledged some of the specifics in my response so I know she actually read it. Here is most of what I said:

 

Another personal challenge for me was transitioning into the world of work after college. Up until that point, I didn't think too much about food because I was always busy and it just wasn't a problem (and I was pretty thin and happy without really trying). But suddenly, when 9-5 jobs entered the pictured, I NOTICED that I was feeling bored and antsy, I had lots of energy that I couldn't do anything with, and I didn't want to lose the happy girl I was when I WASN'T being forced to do boring work. I ended up eating less over time (not because I wanted to lose weight but because I was unhappy) and became underweight (which I still am). (But I don't have an eating disorder, I still eat what feels normal). That got me thinking, what could I do for work that wouldn't be boring and would fulfill me? Something where I wasn't sitting down all day? What I decided was to go back to school for exercise science. I learned that there were careers in corporate wellness, where you could have an impact on the lives of people who WERE stuck behind desks or in cubicles. Cool. After I graduated (about a year ago), I enrolled in wellness coach training with Wellcoaches (which my professors told me about). I liked the idea of helping people on a broader level than just exercise. It involved motivational interviewing, behavior change theory, etc (and it was before I heard of IPE). I'm hoping that as a coach, I'll be able to help myself (by doing something that fulfills me). I don't really know what life as a coach will be like (will I be on the phone? Face-to-face? Working for a big company? Small company?) I'm still looking for work at the moment. But I think if we're happy with what we do for a living, that is a big part of fixing food and body issues. Maybe I'm over-simplifying it, I don't know. But it seems like an idea you put across in your free videos. And I am thrilled / impressed that IPE exists. Even in my exercise psychology classes there was very little talk of how the mind affected people's physical states (it was only how the physical could affect the mind – but it goes both ways). And I am also interested in how much of an art it is to achieve the right amount of awareness concerning food and bodies. If we don't have any awareness at all, it could be bad (because you have to have knowledge of what is healthy), but if we have too much awareness it could also be bad (obsessing over what the body is doing at any moment as far as digesting or whatever – I've been there). So I think this covers the 4 questions you asked. Thank you for asking. I've never written it all down like this, but it's great to be able to!

 

And I guess that's about it for this long post!

Oh, P.S. - in hindsight, I could've not gone back to school and just did one of the nutrition coaching programs and it still would've been less expensive than getting a master's degree plus Wellcoaches. And I probably would've come away with the same knowledge. Gotta love how life works, huh?

Summer catch-up

I finally completed my practice client data and turned it in this week, so now I'm waiting on the score for that. If I pass, I'll be certified as a wellness coach :) But now it's becoming a national certification, so there will be different requirements. Sort of. Luckily for those who have already gotten the old certification (or who are getting it now, like me) there will be a transition phase where we can get grandfathered in to the new one without doing too much. I think we need to fulfill a few more hours by taking some other course (for $165). We have until the end of 2016 to do it.

I've had a few job interviews. One local one is pending. It doesn't pay a lot, but it's a cool place and it involves coaching people for weight loss. It would be a step in the right direction that would help me get other things in time. (Plus if I participate in the coach-to-coach feature that Wellcoaches offers for people to keep their certification current when they can't coach in their jobs, I can use that as experience too). I do have a few other employers I was going to contact shortly anyway. Ones I might see at the annual Tampa Wellness conference in a couple weeks.

Since the 4^th of July is coming up, I might go to visit Josh. He was here last in March after I left my last job (and I was there last Sept for our birthdays before starting my last job). My sister might come visit this September. And in November will be the births of two of my best friends' babies :) I'm not sure when I'm going to see them, and I should probably catch up with them soon. Speaking of catching up, one of my near-neighbors from high school found me on facebook recently and we got to hang out for the first time in 15 years. Pretty cool.

I guess that's it for now. Lots of stuff on the horizon :)

More goings-on

I passed the oral exam, also with a 94% :) I think the examiner was very generous with that score, but I'm thankful that part is out of the way now; all I have left is the submission of my practice client data and my own wellness vision.

I found a new client, someone I don't know this time. As eager as I am to get this last requirement done, I want to do it right and not just turn in anything. Plus I could use the extra practice.

I've also been job searching and I've attended a couple webinars for continuing education. Although I can't get credit until I have my certification, I figured why not? 

I bought my membership to Wellcoaches which allowed me to attend one of the webinars. The other was for the National Wellness Institute, to which I got a free trial membership courtesy of the Tampa Wellness Council. 

If I could go back to any time in my life and live it forever, it'd be my undergraduate days of college. Specifically, the first year and a half or so. It was a magical time because I was living on my own, I was surrounded by friends who'd become like family, I had the most sense of belonging I ever felt. (And I didn't have to worry about making a living or paying bills yet!) They say that social life is an important part of wellness. There have been times when I've tried to be 'independent' and strong in the face of loneliness that occurred after the end of my college days when everybody moved and got jobs, families, houses, and basically transitioned into adulthood and the real world. I had my own path and own things to pursue, of course. But sometimes you just can't deny that you need some of that closeness back. Some of that prior 'belonging' back. It's not easy to get. I guess in a way, even though I've grown since college and experienced the world and figured out what I wanted to do career-wise, I'm still not as far advanced from the life of a twenty-year-old as some. I haven't 'settled down' or done the common milestones people do in their thirties. Am I okay with that? I think I'm okay as long as I keep progressing with what I want to progress with. Everyone has his or her own path. But right now, part of my path is finding people who are on a similar one as I am, lol. Camaraderie, companionship, wellness.

Goings-on, coaching practice

Today I took the written exam and passed with a 94 % :) Yesterday I updated my resume and LinkedIn so it includes my most recent job (which I've now left) and candidacy for the CHWC designation (certified health and wellness coach). I also added some people from my wellcoaches training.

Also yesterday I did the first coaching session with my second practice client. Both of my clients actually have the same reason for wanting coaching (weight loss), and both have pretty much the same challenges. So when I get an idea with one of them, I'm making a note to bring it up with the other. And I made a list of common goals from which I can draw if I get stuck. It's not like I'm supposed to come up with the goals myself, but it just happened that in my initial attempts at coaching, the clients asked me what I thought they should do. Normally, the conversation leading up to the goal setting is supposed to naturally facilitate ideas in both the client and the coach (conversation that explores strengths, motivators, challenges, wellness vision). But I guess it's okay that I dispensed some advice even though we're supposed to try and limit it. It's not like I said, 'you should do this.' We talked about things and agreed upon them. After I organized my notes following these first sessions, I found things to tweak that I didn't think of at the time and I added possibilities for future goals that I also didn't think of. (Like I said, when I made the list of 'common goals' it was so that I'd be better prepared next time). So we'll see how my first follow-up sessions go now!

Perhaps I'll listen to some of the demos again, too. I found myself wanting to stray from the scripted format, but tried to mostly stay on track. The cool thing about the session with my second client was she said I made her think a lot :) And after that session, I felt I'd stretched myself as well (in the sense of exploring possibilities that might work for her). The more I think about doing this as a job, the more excited I get about the prospect of really using my brain and really being challenged. I may have used my brain some in past jobs, but not in the same way. Definitely not in the same way. This way is better, by far.

More progress

I'm now done with the coach training! Since I didn't write about the last 3 classes, I'll just mention that one was a practice session, the next to last was going through a mock ongoing session as a class, and the last was a review and discussion of how we'd be using our training in our careers. Prior to the last class I actually did a little research on how much coaches charge per hour and what it'd take to make a living just doing it independently. While it is possible to make a living as an independent coach with your own clients, it's not the route I see myself pursuing right off the bat. I'd need more experience, I'd need to know how to operate my own business, I'd need professional liability insurance...and while I love the idea of working for myself, I still kinda need the stability that would come from working for someone else. For now. One of the perks you get with certification from Wellcoaches is that they list you on their website in their database of coaches so consumers can still find you and hire you if they want. And there are some other cool things you can get, like continuing education credits (which are needed to maintain certification anyway), networking, industry info, etc. It's all stuff I'm planning to get into once I get the certification.

Which brings me to that. I started studying for the written exam already, and I've started looking for practice clients. So far I just have my sister and my dad, and although we're not supposed to use friends or family, I'm still gonna coach them anyway. It's actually not easy to find people despite the coaching being free. But oh well. One cool thing that happened the other day was my reaching out to a friend from my undergrad days who's now teaching yoga. I mentioned that I was doing this wellness coaching and she said she was doing the exact same thing! I haven't gotten a chance to catch up with her yet, but what a coincidence :)

I also went to the 'find a coach' section of the wellcoaches site just to see who is coaching in FL and what the listings look like for when I possibly get one of my own. It was cool to read the bios for different people and to see what their specialties were. While many of the coaches I see claim to 'be' other things like dietitians, fitness specialists / personal trainers, nurses, etc., I am not anything other than a coach, period. Yeah, my degree was in exercise science, but I didn't use it for anything except to get into coaching because coaching appealed to me more. I hope that's not a bad thing. I don't think it'll hold me back from getting a job with a company as a wellness coach. And I'm thinking that once I get started, who knows where things will lead? The cool thing now is that I won't be doing something 'dead-end' or 'temporary'. I'll actually be doing something of my own choosing.

Coaching update

So I've had 2 coaching lessons since the last time I blogged about a lesson. The first was on goal-setting and the next was on generative moments, or the 'meat' of a coaching session (one that's not the initial session) that leads to brainstorming. (I guess the generative moment stuff in an initial session would be the vision-building). The goal setting is pretty much the same for initial and non-initial sessions, though. As I mentioned before, I've been focusing on career-related stuff for my own goals. (We have to submit wellness visions and goals for ourselves as part of our certification to prove our authenticity as coaches). Is it really authentic of me to ignore other health-related issues? I've been pondering that, thinking that career improvement / fulfillment would take care of the health stuff. But I think I'm going to do some things directly related to my health because I'm not 100% confident that it will be taken care of and I also want to enhance my knowledge of certain issues so I can better help other people. It's just weird that the issues I have are pretty much the opposite of most people. Most people in the world are trying to lose weight. And it's not easy to be surrounded by that all the time. But I'm going to figure out how to help myself AND them.

There will only be 3 more lessons after the one this Sunday. The one this Sunday (on goal review and measuring progress) is the last one we'll need before we can start working with practice clients. So right now I'm getting all my stuff together to review and prepare for that. We have to submit documentation of at least 4 sessions with a practice client as another part of our certification. (The other 2 parts are the written exam and the practical where we conduct a mock session with the examiner role-playing as the client). So it's a lot of stuff. But I'm up for it. I also need to give notice at my job soon. And then start the process of getting myself work in my field, at last! I'm so glad things are picking up :)

Random thoughts about work and future work

I still don't know when my job is going to end, they've kept me and 1 or 2 of the other temps past the new year due to losing some people and still having some stuff for us to do. But now I'm on automatic pilot, not really having to think about what I'm doing. I do like getting to take breaks whenever I want and getting to work pretty independently, which makes me think 'why did I always hate / dread office work before?' Maybe I wasn't kept busy enough at previous office jobs, I don't know. Bottom line is that I've discovered it's not so bad. But I'm not wrong to be seeking more. To be aspiring to really make a difference somewhere. Because while the office work can be comfortable at times, there isn't really growth attached to it. You can't let yourself get comfortable. 

In my last learning partner practice for wellness coaching, I mentioned to my partner that I had sort of a paradigm shift over recent years. I used to think when I was growing up that any high-earning job would be boring and that if you didn't have a boring job, you'd probably make very little while pursuing fun stuff (the arts). It'd be a trade-off. Money vs enjoyment. But it isn't always the case. Why did I think the arts were more fun? Well, I valued creativity and being able to make people think or see the world differently. And I wanted to leave a legacy, make some kind of mark, be remembered. Along the way I realized I could still make people think / help people if I were focusing directly on what made them happy and healthy (rather than telling stories or acting...which can also contribute to happiness and health, but hey). In my own life, that's what I ended up focusing on anyway. What makes you happy and healthy? As I've mentioned before, I think it has a lot to do with your state of flow, having something you're kept busy and challenged by, etc. I guess there are other things that can contribute too, but that's such a big one, I think. So in aiming to be a coach, I'd kinda like to help people figure out what they might want to do in life / what their passion is (if they don't already know). Could I ever (and would I want to) help people with eating disorder issues? Wouldn't I want to help people dealing with stuff I personally dealt with? Maybe I only dealt with it a little, which is why I don't claim to be an expert on it; but it's one of those things I feel a connection to, and something I feel like I learn more about with time and experience. So we'll see. I think it's all kind of related, though.