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:
- What's your biggest challenge when it comes to food and body?
- In an ideal world, what would your relationship with food look like?
- What's your biggest challenge when it comes to professional satisfaction?
- 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?
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