Thoughts on becoming a certified health coach.

Airplanes instruct us to put our masks on before helping others put theirs on. Firefighters put on protective clothing before going in to put out the flames. Monks meditate and clear their minds before doing their daily chores and counseling families. Chefs prep and cook before making a beautiful presentation and serving to the customers. Everyone makes a preparation, a plan, a protective practice, before going in to meet the needs of their population.

As a health coach, I realize that I may have a largely varied group of people who represent a cross section of the population, or a certain set of goals. There will also be the client that needs close to an emergency level of help with their situation. In fact I am often in awe of the scenarios painted in the Integrative Nutrition forums on a regular basis. As I would love to have an ideal client, I may get a few that expand my practice in ways I would not expect, always giving me something to grow into.

I've been in fitness and nutrition for some time, since 2000, and have been a vegetarian for as long. I sometimes wished I would have made a bigger stink about writing nutrition articles and journals then. People would have known me, and I would have a brand. Either way, I've always been a bit obsessed to the point of either something definably noticeable as exercise bulimic or orthorexic (addicted to healthy eating to anxiety ad nauseum), as clarified by Dr. Steven Bratman. Yeah, when I started worrying about peanut butter possibly being the demise of my health (I was eating a sandwich on whole grain and running marathons), I knew I was either passionate about what I was doing, and needed to make a better living at it, or I needed mental help.

Today I am more obsessed with experimentation and finding the best fit for my body at the age and shape I'm in. This is no easy feat, when one looks at the factors that seem to weigh against us as we age. But do most people know that food is a deciding factor on how well or how poorly one ages? Do people realize that all we need to do is follow a few simple rules about what we put into our mouths and minds? Do we all understand that the same universal principles apply for all, and that age has little to do with level of health to a large degree? And finally, do we realize that we can have optimal health at any age? I hope so. If not, I'm here to teach you that.