Becoming a Health Coach - Megan J. McCrory

Hormones!

Such a balancing act - in this episode I review the Institute for Integrative Nutrition’s Advanced Course on Hormone Health. If you are an IIN grad and considering to take this course then take a listen!

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In this episode, I’m reviewing one of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition’s Advanced courses, Hormone Health. I just completed the 7-month course and I am excited to tell you all about it.

The text below is a transcript of my spoken words. I’ve edited and rewritten a few sentences to help someone who is just reading and not listening. Please keep in mind that this is a transcript and not a written piece of work.

INTRO (00:54)
COST (01:51)
WHEN CAN YOU TAKE IT? (02:51)
MY REASONS (03:54)
COURSE LOGISTICS(05:59)
MODULE TIMING (07:02)
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
HANDOUTS, HOMEWORK, AND REFERENCES (08:06)
HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE? (09:19)
LECTURES (10:15)
ALL THE MODULES - A WALKTHROUGH (11:31)
PROS & CONS (26:15)
WRAP-UP (30:48)

Hello and welcome to the podcast all about becoming a health coach. I'm Megan McCrory, a Certified International Health Coach. I received my training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

In each episode, I recap what I've learned and how I’m using it in my Health Coaching practice.

If this is your first time tuning in, I'm happy you've found the podcast, and a very special welcome to you. You may want to go back and listen from the beginning to hear more about my journey to becoming a health coach.

For episode 23, I am going to review one of IIN's advanced course series. They have several advanced courses that are only offered to students that have completed or have started the Health Coach Training Program (HCTP), that's the first program you need to complete. I'm going to review the Hormone Health Course (HHC).

INTRO (00:54)I also have done the gut health course and I'll be reviewing the Gut Health Course (GHC) in another episode. I wanted to review the Hormone Health Course (HHC) first because I just finished it. So it's very fresh in my brain. I'm very excited to inform you guys about is it really worth it to take this course? What do you get? What do you don't get? So let's get right into this. First I'm going to tell you why I decided to enroll in the Hormone Health Course (HHC).

COST (01:51)I purchased two courses in a special offering last year when I was in the Health Coach Training Program (HCTP) to buy one advanced course and get one half off. And that is what I did. So I actually purchased the Gut Health Course (GHC) and the Hormone Health Course (HHC) at the same time. And the combined special cost me $1,492 US dollars. So it was off from the normal price of $995 per course, I saved about $500. Both courses really interested me. I really took the courses to understand better gut health for myself and also for hormone health.

WHEN CAN YOU TAKE IT? (02:51)That's another thing someone asked me, can you do an advanced course at the same time as you're doing the Health Coach Training Program (HCTP)? And the answer is yes, you can start it. So I started my Health Coach Training Program (HCTP) in January 2018 and I started the Gut Health Course (GHC) in April of 2018 and I started the Hormone Health Course (HHC) in March 2019.

MY REASONS (03:54)I chose to do the Hormone Health Course (HHC) to really understand my hormones better. I had learned at quite an early age that I did not care for hormonal birth control. There was quite some time when I was not on any birth control at all. When I moved to Europe, I got the copper IUD, the intrauterine device, and this is the only form of birth control that I saw that was really, let's say, reasonable and didn’t have hormones.

There's a long story behind this but essentially I had fibroids in my uterus. Now I realize that I had what was called estrogen dominance, mostly probably developed because of my coffee habit and consumption. When I stopped drinking caffeine and my fibroids stopped growing. So I really think that any female that's drinking a lot of caffeine throughout the day has a really, let's say you're potentially putting yourself in a position for estrogen dominance, which is really what feeds those fibroids that are in your uterus. I ended up getting a hysterectomy in December of 2018, you can let me know if you’re interested in my story about the hysterectomy. I do still have my ovaries and that's very important because that's actually where most of your sex hormones come from as a female.

I also became very interested in the hormone health course because now I no longer had any menses to mark my hormone cycle. It was kind of tricky to understand what was going on in my body. Is this kind of feeling that I'm having mood swings and aches and pains? Is it because of my hormones that are still going through their normal cycle? or is it because of something else? So I become very religious about tracking my cycles. I tracked my cycles before I had the hysterectomy. I had a very good legacy of my menstrual cycle and I've just kept that going in my app to keep me aware of what my hormone cycle is. So that's a little bit why I decided to enroll in the Hormone Health Course (HHC).

COURSE LOGISTICS (05:59)So here are some more details about the course. It takes about seven months. I started in March 2019, I ended in October 2019. If you've taken the Health Coach Training Program (HCTP), the structure is very similar to that in terms of how each of the modules is released and the structure within the learning system that they use called edlumina. I'm just gonna walk you through what it looks like.

MODULE TIMING (07:02)The modules open every week except for in case of holidays or tests. The modules are, let's say, far less content than the modules with the Health Coach Training Program (HCTP). However, the content that is there is way more intense. I spent just as much time in every module with the Hormone Health Course (HHC) then I did with the Health Coach Training Program (HCTP). And the same was true for the Gut Health Course (GHC) as well.

LEARNING OBJECTIVESAt the beginning of every module, you'll have the Learning Objectives, this is a couple of bullet points on what you're gonna learn in that module. Here is an example from Module 10 - All About the Adrenals, Part 3

Learning Objectives

By the end of Module 10, I’ll be able to:

Describe the impact of chronic stress and HPA-axis dysfunction on the brain and nervous system
Apply the step-by-step Adrenal Health Protocol with clients while taking their bio-individuality into account
Identify four ways to preserve and improve brain neuroplasticity
Discuss the importance of identifying the right kinds of exercise for a client based on their adrenal function
Understand and work within my scope of practice as an IIN Health Coach when supporting clients who have adrenal fatigue and stress-related health conditions

Then there are anywhere between one to three videos, which range between about 20 to 50 minutes worth of content to watch. And that is heavy content, lots of data, and lots of information.

SYLLABUS

HANDOUTS, HOMEWORK, AND REFERENCES (08:06)One of the things that they do differently in these two advanced courses is they give you a Recap Handout that summarizes all of the key points. I typically always wrote my own notes, but in the second half of the Hormone Health Course (HHC) I was a little behind so I used only the recaps for studying for the exam and I did fine. In addition to the videos, there are also anywhere between one to three handouts that you should review. They always provide also a Reference Handout, which is literally just a page of links that reference all of the information that they use to build this particular module. We have also Homework Assignments and then a Quiz. That is the structure of each module. There are 24 modules in the course. There are two tests, and it says in the syllabus that the tests are 50 questions long but there are actually only 30 questions in the test and these tests are multiple-choice. You have two hours to take the test you get two chances.

EXAMPLE RECAP HANDOUT

EXAMPLE OF REFERENCES

HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE? (09:19)You have a minimum amount of time just to watch the videos, but the total time could range anywhere from about an hour and a half to two and a half hours per module. And I would say that's doing the bare minimum. I didn't really do a lot of the homework assignments. I didn't really read through a lot of the handouts simply because the course was running over the summer and I was quite busy. I would say I did the bare minimum. You could do a lot better than I did. With that said, I still passed the course, the test questions. You do need to have watched the material to understand the questions. I printed out all of the recaps which made it a little bit easier to study. I still missed three questions out of 30, but I passed. So that's my experience with the actual course.

LECTURES (10:15)The lectures are almost 100% done by the learning center staff. That’s a big difference from the Health Coach Training Program (HCTP) where there's a lot of guest lecturers and guest speakers. And in this program specifically, there was only one guest lecturer and that was Christa Orrechio. Another nice thing that they do for you in these courses is these kinds of ‘done for you’ handouts in the business toolkit. So for example, in the Hormone Health Course (HHC), there's a module on adrenal health, thyroid health, and menopause and in all of these cases they give you also some done for you handouts, protocols even, that you can use with your clients. That's very, very handy to have something to start with.

EXAMPLE 'DONE FOR YOU' HANDOUT

ALL THE MODULES - A WALKTHROUGH (11:31)Now I'm going to just run through all 24 modules and just give you kind of a title and a few words about each module so you'll know what's in it. So they do give you a pre-course bonus module, which you can take I don't think it counts towards anything, but it's kind of like something they give you while you're waiting for the course to start.

Module 1 is the introduction to the endocrine system. The endocrine system is your hormonal system. That's the medical term for your hormonal system. You might have heard the term endocrinologist, which is a doctor who specializes in hormones and hormone type problems. So you're going to get an overview of the endocrine system. That first module is pretty heavy with a lot of technical detail.

Module 2 is understanding basic hormone imbalances. This is where I really knew that hormones were super tricky because when they talk about the hormone imbalances, it's really like if one hormone is off a little bit, let's say your cortisol, let's say you're stressed out, which means you have a lot more cortisol going through your body, which means that you're not producing as much progesterone, which means, you know what I mean? Like there's like this knock-on effect that goes through your body with one thing out and then, and then it kind of cycles back and it feeds the cycle to break the cycle I think is pretty hard. You have to find the first root cause and get that back on track. And then the next thing and the next thing. After I watched that module, I realized how impactful hormone imbalances can be in your life. How many people probably have imbalanced hormones, and then also how hard it is to get them back in balance.

Module 3 is the conditions that are associated with hormonal imbalance. A lot of this course is about female hormones. That's pretty much just because female hormones are a little more complicated than men's. But they do go into the fact that men can also have hormone imbalances.

Module 4 talks about maximizing nutrition to balance hormones. I think this is incredibly powerful to understand that it’s not about giving your client a specific diet but to tell them that this specific food will help that specific hormone or this specific food will help your liver do its detoxification process, which will help to process out all of the extra estrogens. There is some really interesting stuff there with the nutrition. So module four is really good, actually, all the modules are pretty good. That's one of the things I do like about these courses is that I don't think any of the modules was a waste of time.

Module 5 is a special diet for balancing hormones. They talk about specific foods that you can recommend for balancing hormones.

Module 6 is mighty micronutrients and they explain how vitamins, minerals, and trace elements. What do we need, why do we need them, where do we get them from? and how to supplement in case they don't get enough.

Module 7 is balancing blood sugar for optimal hormone health. Blood sugar is super, super important. I've been working in the diabetes care industry for about 15 years now, so I know a lot about blood sugar and blood sugar management. And this is probably one of the things that I think, obviously with the rate of type two diabetes, people need to know more about. I don't think people realize that insulin is a hormone and that hormone is created with the other hormones. When you're talking about hormone health, blood sugar is an important topic to talk about as well.

Modules 8, 9, and 10 are all about the adrenals and how they work, what they do, and talking about the HPA axis dysfunction. That's these types of connections between the different parts of your body. There is a lot of these axes and in the course, they go through and explain them, there are a lot of acronyms. There are a lot of complex words in these modules. I think that's another reason why it takes a little bit more time to go through. There's a lot of information about that and they also provide you with one of those done for you adrenal health protocols. If you have a client that has symptoms of kind of adrenal fatigue or you know that they need more support for their adrenals, then they do provide a health protocol for that.

ADRENAL SUPPORT ‘DONE FOR YOU’ PROTOCOL

The last two modules in the first test, 11 and 12 are both covering the connection between gut health and hormones. The fact that I took the Gut Health Course (GHC) first and then the Hormone Health Course (HHC), was very helpful for me, to see both working sides by side. Then the course reviews how when the gut is dysfunctional, that affects your hormone health and vice versa.

After Module 12, we had the first test.

Module 13 is a crash course in men's hormonal health with Dr. Susie Gronski. She talks about men and sexual function, and the negative effects of stress on men's hormones. I think this was the only module that was really focused on men's health.

Modules 14 and 15 are all about thyroid health. The thyroid is one of those things that I think maybe a lot of people are imbalanced in. They don't necessarily have a disease or a problem that is so noticeable that a doctor's going to pick up on it, but maybe it's not optimal. The course reviews tests and what you should look for and how conventional medicine will have a range for a thyroid test and that range may be normal, but it may not be optimal. That's also something that you should always bear in mind when a client might show you some of their blood tests and how you look at those. Of course, you know, you're not supposed to really be doing any kind of diagnosis or anything like that. But my clients send me their blood work and I can just look at it and see an overall picture of what's going on. It's very helpful.

Module 16 is all about menstruation and the course talks about the four phases of the menstrual cycle, what a normal cycle should look like. They talk about what it looks like when there are problems.

Module 17 we had another guest speaker, Christa Orecchio, a healthy fertility and pregnancy coach. She talks about how to support fertility and conception. She also talks about the hurdles that couples together face because a lot of times of course people think it's maybe necessarily the woman, but a man can also have problems with hormones that are also affecting his part of the job.

Module 18 is about the female reproductive system. This is one of the modules that if you watch on your iPad, you shouldn't be watching on the bus or a train because there are lots of pictures. So it's quite graphic which is good. I mean, let's say I'm not embarrassed, I would just think that somebody glancing at it might be a little like, it might make someone blush.

Module 19 is all about low libido and pelvic pain conditions and they do also give you a Six Ways to Boost your Sex Drive handout that you can give to your client's number.

Module 20 is on menopause. This for me is very, very interesting to hear. I have a lot of women in my life that I know they've gone through menopause and some of them it's really hard and other people, they like basically don't have any symptoms at all. I really want to dive more into menopause. I just started with a new client who is going through menopause and the reason she's reached out to me specifically is to work on hormone health. So I think that that's fascinating. And, and again, one of those universal things where I'm done just done with my hormone health course and she wants to talk about menopause and how she can balance her hormones. So I'm really excited to be working with someone on that to kind of reinforce everything that I just learned.

Module 21 is how to detox to balance hormones. I mentioned a little bit at the top of the show about how I believe that my liver function was not at its peak because of my overconsumption of caffeine, which did not allow for the estrogen to be processed out of my body and therefore produced some estrogen dominance because the estrogen was being recycled back through my body. I think this is probably one of the first places I'll start with any client is to reinforce their liver function and get them eating a few extra foods that will help with liver function, decreasing a little bit of caffeine. And then there are some supplements that you can use that support healthy liver function.

Module 22 is toxin identification and genetic mutations. This one was super important for me because I have a couple of people in my life who probably should have been tested for some genetic mutations. There's a specific one, MTHFR genetic mutation that affects the methylation cycle in your body, which is part of your detoxification processes. I think everybody has heard about folic acid and folate for pregnant women who are trying to get pregnant or are pregnant and about the functionality of folate and folic acid, in the development of the fetus’s brain and brainstem.

Actually, that same genetic mutation just because of the pathways that it hits can also be linked to things like fibromyalgia. I have a friend with fibromyalgia and I asked her, have you been checked for this mutation because the mutation is quite common. And then there are things you can do. Supplements like methylated folate that she could take to support that part of the detoxification and that might support her symptoms with fibromyalgia. It the same thing for a lady I know who has been trying to get pregnant. And if you've had several miscarriages, they should check for this mutation because it could be similarly affecting the implantation or the fetus’s growth. So that was something I'd never heard about before.

And neither one of these ladies had heard about that mutation or knew if their doctors had tested them. So this is exactly the type of thing that I try to keep in my toolbox when I'm talking with clients. Obviously, I can't say that that mutation is affected either one of them, but I can say that I know already what the symptoms are here and the kinds of things that are affected by this mutation and offer them some advice to work with their doctor and to get that tested for if it comes back negative you know that there's no problem, fine. That's one less, you know, one thing you can check off. Okay.

Module 23 is understanding test options and results. And this one was interesting. They talked through several tests.

And the last module is all about supplements.

Module 24 for supplementing for balanced hormones and what different supplements you can take and so on. That's the overview of the course modules and syllabus.

PROS & CONS (26:15)Now I would go a little bit into the pros and cons. So I was trying to think through what would I say here. The pros are that the program is very comprehensive in covering a lot of different areas of hormone health. They do give you a ton of information, a ton of resources. It's a seven-month course and a very easy course to manage you, even if you are late, you can catch up.

There's no reason why I wouldn't recommend this course. The only con is the price, I guess if you can't afford the cost of the course, which again, without any kind of discount is $995, if you can't afford it, I think that's probably the biggest con. Can you research hormones on your own, of course, you can probably buy a textbook with a lot of this stuff in it and there's information of course on the internet, but at least with IIN, they frame it in the way of how to use this information with your clients. I don't really see any cons other than price if you can't afford it. So if you can afford it and you have the time, I think it's a very valuable course to take.

So I think as a coach if you want to add something like hormone health to your toolkit and use it as a promotional thing, I think it's definitely a very wide-open field. There are a lot of people that have problems with this, a lot of females that have problems with this. I see it as a valuable marketing tool as well. I feel very comfortable now writing more blog posts, maybe doing a couple of podcast episodes. The course has given me a lot more content. It also helped me feel more comfortable talking about that and also gives me a resource where I can go back and kind of re-watch something or reread something if I'm not sure.

With the references that they provide, I can do more research on my own at this point.

WRAP-UP (30:48)That about wraps it up for the review of the hormone health course. I would like to remind you that I do have a Facebook group for my podcast called Becoming a Health Coach.

I’d like to do a lot more on my Facebook page, maybe some live videos, let me know how much interaction can we have. You can message me through the Facebook page I respond as quickly as I can.

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Hello and welcome to the podcast all about becoming a Health Coach. I'm Megan McCrory, a Health Coach in training at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition!

Each week I recap what we’ve learned and how I’m applying those lessons in my life.

If this is your first time tuning in, I'm happy you've found the podcast, and a very special welcome to you. You may want to go back and listen from the beginning to hear more about my Health Coaching journey.

Let's dive right into episode 22.

This week is a break from my normal episode format. I recently had the opportunity to present as a health coach at a corporate wellbeing day event. I'd thought this might be interesting for you to hear as an example of how to talk about health coaching. The event format had 5 different topics in which therapists and other health care professionals were to present how they could support that topic. The topic I presented was Regaining Control of Life, and therefore my presentation is just a taster of how as a health coach I can support someone in regaining control of life.

Just one more quick note before I play the presentation, I have a new Facebook Page where I announce the new episodes and provide more information on how to become a health coach. I would love to see you all there! Just search for ‘Becoming A Health Coach’ podcast on Facebook.

Ok, here is the presentation.

Hello and welcome. My name is Megan McCrory and I am a certified international nutrition health coach based here in Basel. Today I'm going to be talking to you about how to regain control of life through health coaching. There are a lot of concepts that I can talk to you about today, but given the fact that I only have half an hour, I thought I would bring to you the one concept that I think will be the most impactful and that you can do today, right now. And that concept is a reflection. Reflecting on your behavior and your daily activities can bring about more time and control and balance to your daily life.

TIMETo start off with, let's talk about time. How many of you feel that you don't have enough time to do what you'd like to do? Most people don't feel like they have enough time. And how many of you have already said today the phrase, “I don't have time”?

Again, a very common thing for us to say we don't have time. But the fact is that we all really do have a lot of time in our day but unfortunately time feels very different while doing different activities. From my point of view, time is very elastic and relative, right? If I'm bored, then time feels like it just drags on forever. If I'm excited about something or learning something new, somehow time seems to fly by.

So I think we can all agree that the feeling of how much time we have is very much dependent on what we're doing. It's also dependent on how conscious we are of what we are doing when we are doing it. This is, a bit of a mindfulness piece, which I'm not going to go into depth about today, but a lot of times we're distracted. And this whole idea of just being conscious, or mindful, of what we are doing when we are doing it can bring you one step closer to understanding what you're doing with your time and how it makes you feel. But today we are not going to talk about mindfulness. I am talking about reflection and how reflecting can help you control and balance your time.

Reflection means to give serious thought or consideration. With all of our daily distractions we often don't take even a couple of minutes to consider what we're doing with our time, then time somehow just slips away and therefore we feel that we don't have any time. The act of reflection means we take a few moments to really just understand what we do with our time. And more importantly, why were we're doing what we do. So today I have two exercises for you, one that we can do right now and one that you'll need to take home with you because it's a, it takes a little bit more time.

PRIMARY & SECONDARY FOODMy goal for you today is to help you walk away with one area of your life that you want to spend more time and energy on to create more balance and control in your life. In order to do this, I need to explain a concept that I learned at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition where I received my health coaching certification. They teach the concept of primary and secondary foods. Secondary foods are actually the food that you would eat that you think about when you hear the word food, right? So you know whatever you had for breakfast, the coffee you're drinking right now.

Food is important. There are a lot of things that focus on food. However, health is not just defined by what type of food you eat. This is where the concept of primary food steps in. And what is primary food? Primary food is the other area of your life that also feeds you. We're talking about your career, your relationships, your physical activity, and your spirituality. You want all of those things to be balanced. I'm sure everyone has heard of work-life balance.

FREE HANDOUT ON PRIMARY FOOD

Well, there is more to life than just work. Work is part of your life and you have to balance that, but you also have relationships and if you're in really good relationships, this is going to affect your health differently than if you're in a bad relationship. The same thing goes for spirituality, whether or not you believe in one God or many gods or any god. The idea that you have a purpose in life, a purpose for being here on this earth, also has a balancing effect in your life. We don't have time to get too heavy or too deep in any one area, but the concept is to show you that we need to reflect on all of the different areas of our life to understand where we are imbalanced.

CIRCLE OF LIFE EXERCISEAnd this all leads back to how you're spending your time. So our first exercise today is going to be the circle of life. The circle of life is designed to be a simple, quick way to identify any imbalances in your life. Simply ask yourself the question, "Am I satisfied with my social life" for example, then place a dot on the line to indicate your level of satisfaction. A dot toward the center indicates dissatisfaction, and a dot toward the periphery indicates satisfaction. In this example, if your social life is abundant, place a dot on the line somewhere toward the outside of the circle.

I also want to stress that this is your level of satisfaction based on your own scale, not what society thinks you should be satisfied with. I had a client, an introvert, indicate she was dissatisfied with her social life. After talking about it for a little while, it was clear that she was feeling pressure from her co-workers to go out more. When in fact she was very happy and satisfied to be at home in the evening. She was quite satisfied with her social life.

After you place a dot for each area, connect the dots to see your Circle of Life.

FREE CIRCLE OF LIFE EXERCISE

So now that you have completed the activity, what imbalances do you see? Which areas of your life do you believe you should be spending more time and energy to create balance? Typically when I do this exercise with a client we focus on just one area at a time. If your circle is perfect, congratulations on your ability to live a very balanced life!

But for most people, there is at least one area to focus on more in-depth. Okay, so back to the topic for today. Today is about regaining control of life. So now by doing this exercise, as an act of reflection, we have already identified one area of your life where you'd like to gain more control or balance. So how do we fit this into your daily schedule? How can you spend time balancing this area? Well, the next exercise I'd like to introduce is the time makeover.

TIME MAKEOVERThis exercise is from Laura Vanderkam. She has a great ted talk on time and this is where I this exercise from. This exercise is going to help you create a baseline of where you are currently spending your time. The first step to using your time better is knowing how you're spending your time now. This is a very eye-opening exercise.

For ideally one week record every day, what you're doing. I do mine in pencil and I do it in a physical format. You can use an app or really whatever works best for you is what you should use. Fold this up, put it in your pocket throughout the day, every hour. Just pull out and write down what you did the last hour. Then at the end of one week, you can go through your timesheet and put your activities into buckets like chores, work, sleep, family time, and travel. maybe three, four different highlighters to highlight areas so you have a good visual.

FREE TIME MAKEOVER EXERCISE

FREE TIME TRACKING SHEET

PUTTING IT TOGETHERNow let's put the results of the two activities together. The best way to explain this is with an example. I have a client that figured out from her circle of life that she wanted to spend more time on creativity. After she did the time makeover she realized that she had about 3-4 hours every evening where she was answering work emails and watching TV with her husband. Seeing on paper how she was spending her time was a big wake-up call. Even if she was only watching TV 2 hours a night that's still 10 hours a week that she could be devoted to doing more creative things. She didn't want to stop watching TV since this was something she did with her husband but she did see the opportunity to balance her time to accomplish her goals. She chose to dedicate one evening a week to her sewing and other creative pursuits. This one change made a big impact on her. She didn't give up time with her husband but she gained time with her passion. It sounds so simple, and really it is, but without taking the time to reflect she would not have realized the opportunity.

So obviously we won't be able to review this today in our very short amount of time. But I'd like to offer you one free coaching session to discuss your circle of life and your time management sheet. This is a real coaching session, it's not an hour-long sales pitch, but really working with you one on one to understand the areas you'd like to improve and help you come away with actionable items, which you can do right now to make sure you're getting where you want to be.

HOW HEALTH COACHING WORKSAnd that brings me to how health coaching works in general.

First I'd like to tell you what I won't do as a health coach. I am not a medical doctor so I won't be diagnosing any ailments. I'm not a Dietitian or Nutritionist so I won't be prescribing a particular diet for you. And even though I used to be a lacrosse coach I'm not going to yell at you to run or do push-ups.

As a health coach, my job is to help you reach your health-related goals. Full Stop. That's it. I typically ask my clients to come up with, three to nine goals achievable within one to six months. You may have tried already to reach these goals by yourself but haven't been able to do it on your own. A health coach can now step in and help you achieve these goals.

SPACEA health coach provides you with a couple of different things. First of all, a health coach provides you with the space in which to think and analyze and plan for those goals. Just like what we did here today, a few very simple exercises can bring a lot of insight into your daily life and where you're spending your time, and how you organize yourself. Dedicating just a couple of hours a month to reflection can make such a difference in your life. that's one of the reasons why I wanted to do these exercises with you today.

ACCOUNTABILITYNow another thing that a health coach provides is accountability. You know, we are all very intelligent people and you all know exactly what you should in theory be doing to get to your goals. However, for some reason, you haven't been able to accomplish them. And that's because life is complex. You know, it's not just one decision. It is a decision that they're making a ripple effect and how it can affect the other parts of your life. And what a health coach can do in this area is to help you be accountable.

You are the driver in the coaching relationship, you need to be the one who decides which path to take. My job is to help you keep driving and to help you avoid obstacles on the road. And sometimes to help you pull over to the side of the road to check the map.

KNOWLEDGE AND TOOLSThe third thing I bring to the coaching relationship is the knowledge of what I gained as a health coach and my health coaching certification. So the knowledge of behavior management, nutrition, and how the body works. I've studied over a hundred different dietary theories and in the end, everybody's body is very different and everybody's life is very unique.

PRIVATE COACHINGFor that reason I don't have a cookie-cutter plan for our time together, but rather each person, each individual has their own plan and their own goals, and how they get there is as unique as the individual. My private coaching program runs for 6 months and we meet 2 times per month to focus on you and your goals.

GROUP COACHINGI also offer group programs that can run 8 weeks meeting a total of 4 times. Groups have also a very different dynamic than private coaching both are good in different ways. With a group, you can give and receive support while hearing what other people's concerns are and other people's struggles. where you can help them and they can help you in addition to the health coach who's leading the program. So that's just a little bit about what health coaching is and how it works.

If you would like to chat with me about your circle of life, the time makeover tool, or any other health-related goals, here is how to get in contact with me.

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It can be difficult to explain how working with a health coach can help you reach your goals since everyone is unique and we all face our own specific challenges. The following post is a presentation I gave at a corporate Wellbeing day, my topic “Regain Control of Life” and how this can be accomplished with the support of a Health Coach. During this short 20 minute presentation I explain to the group one concept in coaching, two exercises that you can do on your own, and then how I can help you as a health coach.

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Hello and welcome to the podcast all about becoming a Health Coach. I'm Megan McCrory, a Health Coach in training at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition!

Each week I recap what we’ve learned and how I’m applying those lessons in my life.

If you are a long-time listener to the podcast you will have noticed that my introduction has changed slightly. By the time of this recording in April 2019, I have successfully completed the Health Coach Training Program from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

insert crowd applause

I’m very happy with my dedication to completing the program, I sacrificed many weekends and evenings last year to make sure I put all my energy into learning as much as I could.

Last year I also completed the Advanced Gut Health Course from IIN. I can highly recommend that course.

Earlier this month I sat for the International Association of Health Coaches certification exam and passed! Now my official title is Certified International Nutrition Health Coach.

My initial intention with this podcast was to chronicle each week of the Health Coach Training Program which I did really well for the first 3-4 months. Then life happened and the podcast episodes became more sporadic. This episode will cover Module 18 - which leaves another 22 episodes to cover the rest of the content of the course. But I’m not actually taking the course anymore, so what do I do?

I have been struggling with this question for the past couple of months and I have decided to reformat the show slightly. Starting with this episode, I will cover only the highlights of each module but then go more in-depth with how I’m actually building my business. I hope this change will keep to my original commitment to help you understand what is involved in becoming a health coach while serving as a refresher for me. Meanwhile, I can keep you up to date on what I’m doing on a daily basis to become a health coach.

To help be more interactive with you I’ve created a Facebook page for the podcast where I will be posting but more importantly, this is a space for you to connect with me more easily. Just search on Facebook for Becoming a Health Coach or you can click on the link in the show notes.

Let's dive right into episode 21

This week in Module 18 we learned the importance of listening to your own body and advocating for your health, we learned the history of grains and their role in the diet, we learned how to classify gluten-related disorders, we took the DiSC behavior style evaluation to better relate to clients, and finally, we learned how to coach potential clients through perceived limitations to signing up for the 6-month program.

INNER VOICE ON HEALTH (03:16)Module 18 started off with an impassioned lecture from actress Jennifer Esposito. You might recognize her from the show NCIS. Although she is an actress I don’t think there was any acting in the lecture she gave on how to be your own health advocate. Her story is truly heartbreaking and unfortunately all too common.

Jennifer struggled with Celiacs disease for almost 15 years before it was finally diagnosed correctly. Some doctors just thought she was depressed, others had no idea what might be causing her symptoms. Many of the health coaches I studied with have similar stories. An issue that no Western-trained doctor could diagnose so they turned to eastern medicine or functional medicine to find answers. This in turn leads them to the path of becoming a health coach because they want to help other people find their health answers.

I wonder how many of you listening have had this experience or know someone who has struggled with finding answers to their medical ailments. Comment in the show notes and let me know.

I recently watched a Buzz Feed video, where several women recount their experiences of begging doctors to help them only to be told that nothing was wrong and maybe it was all in their heads. The video is called “My Doctor didn’t believe my pain”.

It seems that this type of thing happens more to women, I don’t want to go too far down this huge rabbit hole but it is true to state that not a lot of studies have been done on women of child-bearing age. Therefore there are still so many unknowns about what causes many of the issues with women and specifically their reproductive organs.

This section of the module was fairly short compared to the other topics of food allergies and gluten-free living but I believe this section deserves a bit more attention. Oftentimes people have a symptom, maybe something that came on slowly over time, maybe all of a sudden, but they don’t want to go see a doctor. Why? In my experience, I believed the doctor wouldn't find anything wrong with me and I'd walk away feeling like a hypochondriac. So we wait, we wait to see if it goes away, we wait to see if it gets better, we wait. Often then we wait so long either we grow used to the symptom and just live with it or by the time we see the doctor it’s way more serious than if we had gone earlier.

Now with the internet and Dr. Google, we sit in the comfort of our home and try to diagnose ourselves, like that ever really works.

The simple fact is if you don’t feel good, then something is wrong with you. What it is will need to be figured out. However, you are the keeper of your body so you need to be the one to advocate for its well-being. If your car started losing gas mileage or puffing smoke out of the tailpipe you would take it to a mechanic. The same is true for your body. And just like your car, what can be wrong with your body can be a simple as eating better food or as complex as cancer - you won’t know until you talk to a doctor.

If you haven’t had the best luck with western-taught doctors, search out a functional medicine practitioner. These are health care professionals that have taken additional training in functional medicine. More and more people are finding success with functional medicine practitioners, there is a link in the show notes that goes into more detail about functional medicine.

https://drhyman.com/about-2/about-functional-medicine/

The take-home point is to listen to your body and take action when something is wrong. If you are turned away or not being helped, don’t give up, keep searching for answers because nobody is going to do it except for you. You are your own best health advocate.

Do you have a story about listening to your inner health advocate? Tell me about it by email at becomingahealthcoach@gmail.com.

If you have been listening to my podcast for a while now and it’s been part of helping you make your decision to become a health coach, please let me know. If you decide to sign up for health coaching at IIN, please let the admissions officer know that I’m your IIN ambassador. As an ambassador, I do get a referral bonus which helps me keep making this podcast and doesn’t cost you anything! You can reach out to me directly and I’ll send you a special phone number to call to help you enroll.

GLUTEN! (08:01)Oh, the G-word. Gluten! Let’s dive headfirst into the topic that’s been on everyone’s lips for the past 10 years. In the show notes, you’ll see a graph of the rise of the relevance of the word gluten in Google searches. It peaked in 2013 but has been hovering near the top ever since. In Module 18 we had two speakers present information on grains and gluten. Dr. William Davis, author of the book Wheat Belly and Rachel Begun, registered dietician, and food & nutrition consultant.

William Davis’s lecture was enormous! There was so much information to absorb. He broke out his lecture into 3 parts, Part 1 is called “Are you part cow” where he talks about eating according to species and asks a very good question “why doesn’t our mouth water when we look at a field of grass?”. Part 2 is called ’The Green Revolution” in which he describes all the mutations that grains have undergone since the 1950s that correlate to the 400% increase in Celiacs disease since then. And Part 3 is called “What is in the seed of grasses (AKA grains)" where he introduced the word Gliadin, which is the component in gluten that is causing all the fuss. Then he proceeds to talk about lectin protein, amylopectin A and allergens. If you are interested in learning more about Dr. Davis, check out his website called wheatbellyblog.com, I have a link to that and a link to Dr. Davis’s youtube channel in the show notes.

At the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, they pride themselves on not being tied to any one doctrine, belief, or diet. They basically have a level playing field for all the proponents and opponents for specific diets to have equal air time to voice their rationales. It’s clear in Module 18 they are allowing the anti-gluten camp the right to provide the evidence for their case to the students. Back in Module 10, Andrea Beaman gave a lecture called the Goodness of Grains. This is one of the things I like most about the school. They really recognize that not one diet fits all and what works for one person may not work for someone else.

GLUTEN-FREE LIVING (10:23)Next, Rachel Begun talked to us about Gluten-free living. The first thing that stuck out to me in her talk was the way she describe gluten-related disorders. I have since used this explanation several times when talking to people about gluten.

There are three branches of gluten-related disorders, autoimmune, allergic, and gluten sensitivity. The most well-known and documented autoimmune gluten-related disorder is Celiac disease. Like all autoimmune diseases, in this case, the body is attacking itself when you introduce gluten into your body. Someone could also have a gluten allergy, this is completely different from Celiac's because the body attacks the gluten directly not the body itself. The third type of gluten-related disorder is a general term called Gluten insensitivity. This encompasses all the remaining classes of symptoms that are not diagnosed as either Celiac or allergy.

There is no definitive diagnosis for being gluten insensitive rather you would be tested for Celiac’s and allergy and if they both come back negative you would by default be diagnosed. There is so much more to say on how the body can build up sensitivities to your favorite foods which I hope to cover in a future episode.

Rachel states that 30% of the US population are eating gluten-free and most are doing it without any medical reason. If you are interested in learning more about gluten I recommend that you read the research from Dr. Alessio Fasano, there is a link to his research in the show notes. He is without question the one scientist that has done the most research on this topic.

https://www.massgeneral.org/doctors/doctor.aspx?id=19184#

There is a bit of a fad with gluten-free right now but it is also a real trend because celiac disease is on the rise. Rachel goes through a list of all the types of foods you can eat that are naturally gluten-free. You can find this list plus more on how to live a gluten-free life as a free printable in the show notes.

FREE PRINTABLE - GLUTEN-FREE LIVING

ADDRESS POTENTIAL CLIENTS (12:40)The last part of Module 18 is how to address potential clients. First, we took the DiSC evaluation which helps you identify if you tend towards, Dominance, Influence, Compliance, or Steadiness. I fall squarely in the Influence area leaning towards Dominance. Knowing your style can help you relate to others with different styles.

The speaker for this talk was Eric Barron, his main message was you can’t be afraid to be a sales person and he had a handy slogan, ” Feed the motivation and manage the fear” when it comes to talking to potential clients. Be confident in what you have to offer and how this will help the client.

Not everyone we talk to will become our clients. Module 18 also dove into how we can address hesitations. The magic of addressing hesitations comes in believing in yourself as a coach, letting go of your insecurities. Think about the last time you talked to someone who was super passionate about their job vs. someone who is not very confident. Who do you respond to better?

What is behind typical hesitations:

lack of resources whether it’s time or money or both
fear of change
fear of failure
even fear of success.

Module 18 goes through all these scenarios and helps you ask the right questions to make sure the client’s hesitations are addressed in a way that ultimately helps the client regardless of whether they sign up with you. look at hesitations as opportunities to show clients how they focus on their goals and priorities.

WHAT I’M WORKING ON DAY TO DAY (14:49)Please email me at becomingahealthcoach@gmail.com and for links to the resources I mentioned check out the show notes at mybestself.fit.

Thank you again for spending this time with me

I’m Megan McCrory and you’ve been listening to how I’m becoming a health coach, until next time, stay happy and healthy!

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This week in Module 18 we learned the importance of listening to your own body and advocating for your health, we learned the history of grains and their role in the diet, we learned how to classify gluten-related disorders, we took the DiSC behaviour style evaluation to better relate to clients, and finally we learned how to coach potential clients through perceived limitations to signing up for the 6-month program.

https://www.meganjmccrory.com/becoming-a-health-coach

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Hello and welcome to the podcast all about becoming a Health Coach. I'm Megan McCrory, a Health Coach in training at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition!

Each week I recap what we’ve learned and how I’m applying those lessons in my life.

Let's dive right into episode 20

This week in Module 17 we learned more about coaching through Secondary food, we look at the Integrative Nutrition Plate, we then get into cravings and food tracking.

Coaching through Secondary Food (00:00:44)In the last episode, we went into how to coach through Primary food, specifically relationships. If you are new to the podcast, Secondary foods are what you eat, drink, inhale, ingest, this is what we first think of when talking about nutrition and feeding the body. Primary foods are your physical activity, career, spirituality, and relationships.

The concept of primary and secondary foods is taught in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, or IIN, as a way to understand that we need not only nourishment from food and drink but we also need to have healthy relationships, a sense of purpose in our life, a career that you love, and to be physically active in order to be in the best health possible. Primary and Secondary foods are connected and you have to address both at some point.

Today we will go into how to coach through secondary foods or the foods we eat.

Before we go further, did you download the Circle of Life from Episode 19? Have you determined which areas of your relationships you’d like to work on? If you need some accountability, drop me a line at becomingahealthcoach@gmail.com and let me know what you are struggling with.

DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY OF THE CIRCLE OF LIFE

One of the issues coaches have when working with clients is they bombard them with too much information. Most people don’t need more information, they need to shift their behavior. Ask anyone what they should be doing to be healthier, they will tell you, move more, eat well, get sleep. Ask them why they don’t do it, and you’ll hear silence or excuses. Either way, they are not doing what they know they should be doing.

So what are you as the coach bringing to this coaching relationship?

Your value comes in two ways, first, you are creating a space to develop self-awareness around the inner workings that will in turn guide decisions and motivations. Allowing people the space to talk and think for an hour is so powerful. You are the dedicated time that person needs to focus only on themselves. Asking those high-mileage questions then sit back and let the client talk through what they need to say.

After they talk it all out and you both can start to see the why behind the behavior your next value comes in providing the right tools for the client to take with them to really affect lasting change. I think this is where some coaches get nervous that they won’t have all the right answers. You don’t need all the right answers. You’ll learn what works along the way. You are bringing them an understanding of bio-individuality, to know themselves better. Ask them what they think they should do.

What happens if you get a client that really pushes to know more nutrition information than you have in your toolbox? Bottom line: the behavioral changes and relationship with food are the most important. It’s your job to ask the great questions that will get them there.

Things like:

“What is it about this detail that you feel will help you reach your goal?”
“What is it about this detail that you feel about changing the situation for you?”
“What about this is important to you?”

Try to bring the focus back on the clients’ relationship with food and help them to be curious about their own process with food.

When was the last time you sat down are asked yourself, why am I eating this?

If you are still feeling a bit uncomfortable in this area of coaching, IIN provides the following 10 tips to help you coach through secondary foods

Offer support - the last thing people want to change is their food
Don’t prescribe a diet - whole foods are okay, help them to explore bio-individuality
Use the Integrative Nutrition plate as a guide - the Integrative Nutrition plate is IIN’s version of the USDA’s plate, almost all countries have their own version of the plate.
Keep it simple - get back to the basics, provide resources like recipes
Accept when you don’t know something
Keep bio-individuality in mind - remain open and non-judgemental
Gather evidence - 3-day food diary
Ask high-mileage questions - imbalances in primary food
Help clients crowd out less-nutritious foods
Acknowledge areas that are going well

Remember you are coaching your client to become experts on themselves!

DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY OF THE INTEGRATIVE NUTRITION PLATE

Cravings (00:16:29)Let’s move on to cravings. We have all been there, right?

Like something beyond us is forcing us to eat that chocolate or munch on those chips. You’re not even hungry, but no matter how hard you try, you turn into a crazy person and stuff your face.

I typically crave cheese, lucky for me I live in Switzerland, the land of cheese. Their national dishes are fondue and raclette, both cheese-based. Those things that are not based on cheese are still covered in it. It is so hard to manage a craving for cheese living here.

You may ask, but why not just eat the cheese. Believe me, I do, but the point is I don’t want to have my body overriding my head. I want to be in control of what I put in my mouth and when you crave something that is definitely harder to accomplish.

Many people view cravings as weaknesses, but often, they’re important messages from your body to guide you in maintaining balance.

When you experience a craving, deconstruct it. Ask yourself, “What is my body trying to tell me?”

Lack of Primary Food - Being dissatisfied with a relationship, having an inappropriate exercise routine (too much, too little, or the wrong kind), being bored, stressed, or uninspired by a job, or lacking a spiritual practice can all cause emotional eating. Many people try to cope with uncomfortable emotions or difficult situations by seeking balance through food. Food can provide a form of relief, or even an escape when you’re under stress. In this way, food is being used as a strategy to fulfill areas of primary food that aren’t being satisfied.
Water - Staying hydrated is a great way to help reduce extreme cravings and may ultimately help regulate the amount eaten to match needs more closely. A glass of water before eating has actually been shown to reduce the amount of food consumed during a meal. Another factor to consider is that your hydration status affects your body’s electrolyte balance. When you sweat and lose water, you also lose electrolytes, like sodium. This may lead you to seek out sodium-rich foods following an intense workout.
Yin-Yang Imbalance - According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, certain foods are more yin (expansive), while others are more yang (contractive). Within this theory, foods that are too yin or to yang may lead you to crave the opposite in an attempt to maintain balance. This theory suggests eating foods that are more neutral (like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and beans) and avoiding extremes on either end that may lead to cravings. For example, eating a diet rich in sugar (yin) may cause a craving for meat (yang), and eating too many raw foods (yin) may cause cravings for heavily cooked foods (yang).
Inside Coming Out - Cravings often come from foods you’ve recently eaten or foods from your childhood. Recently eaten foods tend to be fresh in your mind, so you’re more likely to crave that food in an attempt to re-create a positive eating experience. Similarly, when you crave foods from your childhood, you may really be seeking the feeling of comfort those foods may have provided when you were younger.
Seasonal - The body often craves foods in accordance with the season. In the spring, people crave lighter foods, like leafy greens or citrus fruits. In the summer, people crave cooling foods, like raw foods and ice cream. In the fall, people tend to crave grounding foods, like squash, onions, and nuts, and many crave heat-producing foods, like meat, oil, and fat, in the winter. Cravings can also be associated with seasonal holidays. For example, turkey, eggnog, or Christmas cookies.
Lack of Nutrients - If the body has inadequate nutrients, it might produce odd cravings. An extreme example of this is a disorder called pica, which leads to extreme cravings for nonfood items, like clay. This condition may arise due to a chronic iron deficiency.
Hormonal - When women experience menstruation, pregnancy, or menopause, fluctuating testosterone and estrogen levels may cause unique cravings. Stress has also been shown to alter hormones in order to promote cravings.
Devolution - Any big change that you make, dietary or otherwise, isn’t going to happen overnight. Sometimes, you may revert to old habits because they are familiar or you’re not totally ready to let go of them. If this happens, remember to be patient with yourself – take a step back and recognize that even if your diet got off track briefly, you don’t have to throw in the towel! In fact, this is often just a part of the process of changing your diet.

Sugar (00:27:30)One of the cravings that most people have and many people would like to control is a craving for sugar or sweet things. Sugar is said to be at the root of many metabolic diseases, the most well-known being insulin resistance and Type 2 Diabetes.

Guest speaker Sarah Wilson was back to tell us how to quit sugar. The first step is to quit eating processed foods, in order to do that you should learn how to cook. Cooking your own food is so important to manage what you are eating, and also have respect for the food you make. Home-cooked food always tastes better, part of that is the love that is put into it.

DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY OF 56 NAMES FOR SUGAR

Sarah breaks down how to quit sugar in her book titled I Quit Sugar. She notes that it takes about 8 weeks to achieve freedom from sugar.

First, start by dialing down sugar daily. If you don’t like your coffee without sugar, try switching to tea. Try not to deprive yourself but switch out items for healthier versions with lower sugar. Depending on your starting point, do this for a week or more until you feel comfortable.

Next, go without sugar or any sweeteners for 8 weeks, this includes fruit and fruit juices. The point is to retrain your taste buds to appreciate less sweetness.

In the first 2 weeks, you will notice that your skin and tastes begin to change, in weeks 4-5 your body starts going through a detox process, in weeks 6-7 your appetite starts to change. After week 8 you can start to reintroduce fruits but limit them to 1-2 portions a day. Never reintroduce fruit juice, it has the same concentration of sugar as soda. Utilize safe sweeteners, ones low in fructose like stevia or rice malt syrup.

It’s quite easy for me to run through what to do it’s quite another thing to do it, especially if you are currently hooked on sugar. You’ll need to work with your clients’ own bio-individuality to determine what’s best for them. My client switched out store-bought muffins for homemade muffins as a first step. This way she could control the amount of sugar in the muffin. You have to start where the client is ready to start and as the coach you have to be okay with that starting point, don’t try to push the client where they are not ready to go.

Are you hooked on sugar? Everyone can benefit from reducing their sugar intake. Try eating sweeter vegetables like carrots, beets, or sweet potatoes, or add cinnamon or coconut to a dish. Like every journey, it all starts with a first step. Check out my newsletter on root vegetables!

If you are interested in the steps to Sarah Wilson’s program to quit sugar I have it available as a free PDF for you to download.

Ok, we’ll need to stop there for this episode but join me next time when we will talk about the Gluten-Related Disorders, Listening to your Body, and Intuitive Coaching.

Please email me at becomingahealthcoach@gmail.com and for links to the resources I mentioned check out the show notes at www.meganjmccrory.com.

Thank you again for spending this time with me

I’m Megan McCrory and you’ve been listening to how I’m becoming a Health Coach, until next time stay happy and healthy!

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Get links to all the resources in the show notes at www.meganjmccrory.com

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Hello and welcome to the podcast all about becoming a health coach. I'm Megan McCrory, a Health Coach in training at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition!

Each week I recap what we’ve learned and how I’m applying those lessons in my life.

If this is your first time tuning in, I'm happy you've found the podcast and a very special welcome to you. You may want to go back and listen from the beginning to hear more about my health coaching journey.

Let's dive right into Episode 19This week in Module 16 we are learned more about coaching through Primary Food in the area of relationships and using the circle of life tool.

Health is Wealth (00:00:47)The guest speaker was Andrea Beaman, I first talked about her in Episode 3 and again in Episode 11. She is a former IIN student and has built quite a business for herself.

Chronic diseases are common but not normal for humans - we’ve accepted it as normal.

The first thing she said that hit home for me was that “chronic diseases are common but not normal for humans - we’ve accepted it as normal” I’ve heard this sentiment before when relating humans to other animals. Firstly you don’t hear of wild animals having heart disease or other stress-related diseases. Why? Because wild animals eat according to what they are supposed to eat in the wild.

At a zoo or aquarium, you see that each animal has a specific diet to meet its needs. Humans are only different in that we have available to us and marketed to us all kinds of food and food-like products that were never meant to be eaten. If we didn’t have grocery stores or restaurants we would eat drastically different and have a less overall chronic disease because of it.

Sickness doesn’t happen over night and wellness doesn’t happen over night

This is the first thing we should tell our future clients. This is one of the reasons the Institute for Integrative Nutrition teaches a 6-month program to the students. It takes time to heal. The body will heal itself when given half a chance but you need to give your body the right food, the right amount of rest, the right amount of activity in order to heal.

Andrea Beaman gives us the best ways to invest in your health, meaning the best ways to spend your money to benefit your health.

It is quite simple, eat organic, clean, and naturally raised foods. Everything we eat becomes us on a cellular level. I’ll say that again, everything we eat becomes us on a cellular level. Do you really want a pesticide designed to kill bugs in your cells, messing up stuff? Humans are bigger than bugs, it just takes more time to kill you.

I have to admit that I’m also not super great at buying all organic, clean, and naturally raised foods. I recently tried out a service called Farmy.ch, based out of Switzerland where I live. They gather food from within Switzerland and other organic producers and deliver the goods to your door. It’s a great service and I find the food amazing. It’s just about the same cost as going to the local grocery store but I know exactly which farm the produce is coming from.

In the US and other countries, you can join a local Community Supported Agriculture farm, typically called CSA. Check out Localharvest.org to find one near you. I’m lucky in Europe to have local farmers’ markets open daily, year-round. It does come down to changing my habits. I’m used to walking down the street to my local grocery because it’s what I’m used to. It’s just as easy to get my bulk goods at the bulk store when I go out for lunch. Or hop online and order from Farmy.ch. I’m still interested in signing up for a CSA here in Switzerland so that I can visit the farm, meet the people growing the food and support the local economy. All while eating really good, in-season food grown locally.

“You don’t think twice about the $6 latte or even the $600 new smartphone but an extra $1 for organic strawberries?

Some people look at the cost of organic and are immediately put off, why should I spend $3 on organic strawberries when I can get the other ones for $2. It’s amazing how we view our finances, isn’t it? You don’t think twice about the $6 latte or even the $600 new smartphone but an extra $1 for organic strawberries? I believe it comes down to not really seeing a difference between the two. They look the same, maybe even taste the same but what you get with organic is primarily the lack of pesticides.

If you are not yet on the organic bandwagon maybe I can convince you to just switch to the organic for just the Dirty Dozen. The Dirty Dozen are the top 12 foods that have the most pesticide contact in the produce section. Remember, pesticides cannot be washed off necessarily. For fruit like strawberries, there is no protective barrier between the fruit flesh and the pesticide. The pesticide is absorbed into the fruit.

DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY OF THE DIRTY DOZEN

Andrea’s last point is to encourage your clients and maybe even yourself, that they are worth every dollar that they put into their bodies. There are many ways to save money, eating sub-par food should not be one of them.

Coaching Through Primary Food - (00:10:53)Let’s move now to coaching through Primary food. The Institute for Integrative Nutrition teaches the concept of Primary and Secondary foods. Secondary foods are what you eat, drink, inhale, ingest, this is what we first think of when talking about nutrition and feeding the body. Primary foods are your physical activity, career, spirituality, and relationships. These are also required to nourish the body, mind, and soul. The popular phrase in school is, you can eat a perfect diet for your body but if you are unhappy with your job, in a toxic relationship, not moving your body, or don’t know your purpose in life, you won’t be truly healthy and happy.

IIN does a great job in teaching nutrition and all the different dietary theories but it also does a great job teaching us how to coach through those primary foods. Specifically for this module, we concentrated on coaching through the primary food relationships.

Nutrition is a bit of a dry subject for many people.

They don’t want to think about what they eat, they just want to eat good food and be satisfied. Primary food, when balanced and satiated, allows life to feed you. The root of many Secondary food issues is rooted in primary food issues. So getting those primary foods in a good place allows you to make better secondary food decisions.

Coaching through Primary foods can seem intimidating for some people but IIN gives us 6 tips for helping us to use primary foods in coaching sessions

Trust your intuition
Embrace the gray
Come back to the Circle of Life - the Circle of Life is a tool that allows a person to evaluate different areas in their life and their current level of satisfaction. You can print this out and try it for yourself. Use the circle to identify areas you’d like to work on. Keep a copy and in 6 months do it again without looking at the first one. How does your circle change over time?
Remember that everything is connected
Let your client lead - notice the first and last thing that they say, pay attention to tangents
Tune in to your client’s nonverbal cues

DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY OF THE CIRCLE OF LIFE

Coaching through relationships is probably one of the most interesting conversations to have with your client. Who doesn’t love to talk about relationships? Joshua Rosenthal lectured on this topic specifically outlining the 5 areas of relationship needs: friendship, love, touch, intimacy, and sex. People can often confuse these five things. Someone that needs physical touch may believe sex will satisfy that need. Or someone might be lonely and in need of friendship but mistake that as a need for love.

The first thing to do as a Health Coach is to evaluate those areas for yourself. Determine if there are any imbalances in these areas in your life. Journal about it, or make a video for yourself to watch later. Somehow document where you are in these areas. If you don’t document it then it’s difficult to see the shift over time for better or worse. Pick one that you’d like to work on bringing into greater balance. List three healthy, simple action steps you can take to satisfy that area.

For example, if your area of friendships is out of balance you could consider making a lunch date with a friend. I do this all the time otherwise I wouldn’t see my friends so much. We all have busy lives but everyone stops for lunch. I keep my lunch hours sacred for my friends.

Tell me, what will you work on? Write me an email at becomingahealthcoach@gmail.com or leave a comment below. I’d love to know what you struggle with and what steps you are taking to work on it.

Coaching Demo (00:23:42)The last thing I want to leave you with today is that after the announcement of the 6-month program, they have been showing us coaching demonstrations in each module. Since this is an online course it’s nice to see some demonstration on how to coach. Of course, it’s not exactly like this in real life but Joshua stops and explains why he asked that question or noticing how she responded.

These Coaching demos are quite helpful and I like to take notes and try new things in each session I have with my clients.

Ok, we’ll need to stop there for this episode but join me next time when we will talk about Coaching through Secondary Food, Integrative Nutrition Plate, Cravings, and Food Tracking.

I have great news! The podcast is now available on Google Play! No matter where you listen from, I would really appreciate it if you can rate and review the podcast. It helps other listeners discover the show.

Please email me at becomingahealthcoach@gmail.com and for links to the resources I mentioned check out the show notes at mybestself.fit .

Thank you again for spending this time with me

I’m Megan McCrory and you’ve been listening to how I’m becoming a health coach, until next time, stay happy and healthy!

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This week's episode is a Life Update episode. Every few weeks a take a break from talking about the class and instead turn the focus completely on how I’m building my business and using the tools from the course in my life.

becomingahealthcoach@gmail.com

Hello and welcome to the podcast all about becoming a health coach. I'm Megan McCrory, a Health Coach in training at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition!

Each week I review what we’ve learned and how I’m applying those lessons in my life.

If this is your first time tuning in, I'm happy you've found the podcast, and a very special welcome to you. You may want to go back and listen from the beginning to hear more about my health coaching journey.

I want to take a second to say thank you to those of you that have rated and posted a review of the show on Apple Podcasts. It means a lot to me that you took the time to do that!

Let’s dive into Episode 18Every few weeks a take a break from talking about the class and instead turn the focus completely on how I’m building my business and using the tools from the course in my life. So this week it’s a Life Update episode.

COACHINGMy last life update in Ep 12 aired just before we learned about the 6-month program. You may have noticed that also my release dates for the podcast took a big break over the summer. I started traveling a bit and my schedule went completely out the window. So this life update will cover quite a bit of time, 6 months almost!

The first, an exciting update is that I have been coaching two clients. I casually mentioned this in the previous episode but now I’ll go into more detail. It feels really good to practice what I’m learning. I mentioned in Ep. 17 that you can always keep learning but actually putting yourself out there to coach is a big step. One client is someone I met recently so I didn’t know much of her history. My second client is a friend for some years so I know more of her routine and life.

Let me tell you about what I’m learning from actually coaching. The most important and hardest thing I’m learning is how to be quiet. If you have been listening to the podcast for a while you know that I can talk, I love talking especially about topics I’m passionate about. So learning how to be quiet is not easy for me. One way I’m learning how to do this is to record my sessions. Both my clients have agreed to allow me to record every session. I do this so I can pay more attention to the conversation and not worry about taking so many notes. But I also listen back through the session to listen to myself. I find that I have a tendency to repeat my points more than necessary. I take the silence from the client as more room for me to talk. Really here I should make my point then be quiet and let them come back after absorbing. The other thing I’ve learned is that I sometimes jump in to further the conversation instead of just listening and letting the client have room to explore their thoughts. Joshua Rosenthal from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition always says you don’t need to do much in a session. Listening and asking high-mileage questions are pretty much it. You can’t know everything and you don’t need to know everything.

I’ve had 12 sessions total between my 2 clients and over that time I know I’ve gotten better at just listening and waiting, allowing the space for them to talk about themselves.

Another important lesson to learn when starting out, even though they tell you this in school, is that you can’t do it for the clients. Meaning actions and changes need to come from the client and they need to take the action and responsibility to do it. On top of that, you can’t take it personally when they don’t do it. You did not fail, they did not fail. Whatever it was just didn’t work well for that person at that time. So we try something else. I notice that I haven’t yet perfected the art of getting the client to come up with their own recommendations. I do make recommendations that are built on what the client says. This is the next thing I need to work on because when the client develops and decides on their own actions it’s more likely they will do it.

Along these same lines, it’s been difficult to meet the client where they are. I tend to push a bit too much and I need to be very careful about that. Now before each session, I take 10-15 minutes to meditate and focus on the client. I try not to prepare too much before the session. I will look for potential handouts that will reinforce what we talked about last time, I’ll listen to the last session or review the notes that I’ve written but other than that I try not to imagine where they are in their progress.

I’ve been both pleasantly surprised and also disappointed during sessions. I need to work on my own reaction since my face doesn’t lie with my emotions.

The last thing I want to tell you about in regards to coaching is learning to ask great questions. This is amazing and so practical in your everyday life too. The school provides a list of high-mileage questions and I review this list often but I’m finding that I’m getting good at coming up with them on the fly now too. From my limited experience, I think asking really good thought-provoking questions and then being quiet are the two keys to being a great coach. These are the areas I will concentrate on improving. You can do this without any training or clients. The next time you have a conversation try to be completely present with the person, don’t think about what you want to say, listen, and when it’s right ask a great question to let the other person dive deeper into the topic. Try it and let me know how it works for you and how your conversations change with people. Send me an email at becomingahealthcoach@gmail.com or leave a comment on the show page at www.meganjmccrory.com.

SYSTEMSI am actively using Practice Better to schedule my sessions, provide recommendations and session notes to my clients. I’m still using the free version since I only have 2 clients but I’m excited to move into the paid version when I’m ready to also host group online programs or self-directed programs, both can be done in the platform.

I’m using Zoom for my calls and conferences, I will try Uberconference since I like the look of that platform better.

I use Gmail for email. I want to graduate into G-suite so I can move away from a @gmail.com address since these can more frequently be sent to Spam.

I use Mailchimp free version to send out my newsletters.

I use Canva for graphics, images, etc.

I’m Squarespace for the meganjmccrory.com site and to host this Podcast.

Some links in the article may be affiliate links.

MARKETINGNow for an update on what I’m learning in Marketing. The modules after test 3 start to give you more business-building learning. In addition to what IIN is teaching, I’m also researching online and reading a lot about what to do and how to do it. I notice that there are several things that everyone says you need to do in order to succeed in marketing and branding yourself.

You need to know your audience. Who are you targeting, who is your ideal client? you need to make your ideal client avatar, give them a back story, what do they want, and most importantly, what do they fear? you have to be clear on who this person is and whenever you write a blog post, film a video, or post a picture on Instagram you should have that person in mind. if you don’t do this then your hard work might fall on deaf ears. what links do you click on? why did you click on it? if you are authentically talking to that one person your audience will find you!
Marketing takes time - you can find ways to minimize the time by creating content that can be used across multiple platforms. The easiest thing I’ve found is to choose one thing like your Facebook page or your website and let that be the center of your marketing universe. Everything you put on the other platforms, Instagram, Twitter, newsletters, etc. should always lead the person back to the center of your universe. If you use this strategy it’s easier to focus your content. Write one blog post then find a good image to post on Instagram that relates to the blog post, find a great quote to post on Twitter, put a teaser to the blog post in your newsletter, and lastly post on Facebook with a call to action.
A call to action is things to get your audience to engage with you. An easy call to action is to ask them to comment on the blog post or click a link to get free a free handout related to the blog post. I’m just starting to use these and it works. I’ve had a call to action in this podcast, I’ve asked you to email me and you did!!! It’s utterly amazing when I receive an email from one of you. I’m so touched that you’re listening to what I have to say and that you were moved enough to take the time to write me an email. I’m blown away. So keep those emails coming!
The last thing is to get someone else to look at your stuff, a professional or someone in the industry longer than you. I had my sites briefly reviewed by Matt Rosenblum from Advanced Life Coach Marketing. He gave me some great advice that I will implement soon. I’m also keeping a list of sites that I love and seem to be really focused and user-friendly. I may eventually hire a web designer to get the site where I want it to be then I’ll take over keeping up the information. I like to still have control over my stuff but I have limited time. I’m fine to pay someone to do the major construction. I also need some good headshots, all my pictures are of me sweating and red-faced in front of some beautiful mountain landscape. It’s real, it’s me so I’m happy with those but I will make an effort to get some more professional photos, still of the real me but with a bit of intention.

STRUGGLESSo now I’d like to talk a bit about the struggles I’ve had, specifically with time. It’s been difficult enough trying to keep up with the course, having two clients, a full-time job, and a bit of social life. I love working the whole weekend on my coaching but I need some balance or I get a bit burned out. I have found a rhythm though. I take mini-breaks and mini-power sessions. I also know that I need to have complete focus and a clear goal plus a deadline to be most effective. I have dedicated a lot of time this year to the coursework and to starting my business. From the beginning I wanted this podcast to be a weekly show so I could repeat what I was working on in order to imbed the program deeper in my brain. When I started having more trips my schedule went out the window, I even got really behind on the course material. With my focus being the course, I let the podcast slip as you can tell from the publish dates.

What has kept me going is you, my listeners. I don’t have thousands but the listeners I do have I feel responsible to provide you a great podcast especially when you email me and tell me how the podcast has helped you finally decide to take the plunge and sign up for a health coaching course. Amazing!

I can’t promise that I’ll be able to get back on a weekly schedule but I’m trying. I’m all caught up on the modules but I’m so far behind with the podcast it seems like a big uphill. So while I’m getting back on track I’d like to make sure you know when I post a new podcast. If you’d like to be updated by email when a new episode goes live please send me an email to becomingahealthcoach@gmail.com with Podcast in the subject line, or you can click on the link in the show notes.

Thank you all for joining me today, this has been Megan McCrory and you’ve been listening to how I’m becoming a Health Coach. Until next time stay happy and healthy.

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This week in Module 15 we are introduced to the 6-month program, the value and significance of the 6-month program, how to close the deal, and add-ons for the program.

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Hello everyone and welcome to the launch of my newest podcast. This year, 2018, I have committed to a one-year course to become a certified Health Coach. The podcast, with episodes released weekly, will cover the material we are learning, my own personal growth, and hopefully some other students on as guests.

Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

This week in Module 15 we are introduced to the 6-month program, the value and significance of the 6-month program, how to close the deal, and add-ons for the program.

becomingahealthcoach@gmail.com

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This week in Module 14, we explore sleep quality and quantity, the hot-button topic of caffeine and more on how to effectively coach.

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Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

This week in Module 14 we explore sleep quality and quantity, the hot-button topic of caffeine, and more on how to effectively coach.

becomingahealthcoach@gmail.com

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Guest Lecturers

Rubin Naiman - https://drnaiman.com

Arianna Huffington - http://ariannahuffington.com

Video of Arianna Huffington talking about sleep

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Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

In this week's lesson, Module 13, we learned about clean eating and how to take small steps toward a diet based on whole foods, the importance of physical activity and its impact on health and happiness, the effects of exercise that contribute to improved health, longevity, and a reduced risk of disease. We explored physical activity options that align with our own bio-individuality and practiced using active listening, direct communication, eye contact, and high-mileage questions and understand their importance in the client’s self-healing process.

becomingahealthcoach@gmail.com

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Terry Walters Video

Clean Food by Terry Walters

http://terrywalters.net

Norwegian Study on Exercise and Depression

Dr. Jordan Metzl Video

http://drjordanmetzl.com

My favorite exercise channels on YouTube

Blogilates

Fitness Blender

Joanna Soh

Popsugar Fitness

Clean Food, Revised Edition: A Seasonal Guide to Eating Close to the Source

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This week's lesson, Module 13, we learned about clean eating and how to take small steps toward a diet based on whole foods, the importance of physical activity and its impact on health and happiness, the effects of exercise that contribute to improved health, longevity, and a reduced risk of disease. We explored physical activity options that align with our own bio-individuality and practiced using active listening, direct communication, eye contact, and high-mileage questions and understand their importance in the client’s self-healing process.

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This week's lesson, Module 12, importance of walking my talk as a health coach. Guest speaker, Gary Taubes challenges the current understanding of the causes of obesity. We also learn about the concepts of volumetrics, metabolic type, calorie density and the usefulness of traditional weight and BMI measurements as a measure of health.

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Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

This week's lesson, Module 12, is the importance of walking my talk as a health coach. Guest speaker, Gary Taubes challenges the current understanding of the causes of obesity. We also learn about the concepts of volumetrics, metabolic type, calorie density, and the usefulness of traditional weight and BMI measurements as a measure of health.

becomingahealthcoach@gmail.com

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes

Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes

Video of Gary Taubes

BMI Calculator

Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control, and Disease

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Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

This week's lesson, Module 11, focused on all things sugar. Where is it found and what is the effect on the body. We also learned about the primary food area of finances and how it impacts your health and happiness. We took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and also learned more about conducting a health history.

becomingahealthcoach@gmail.com

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Global Sugar Consumption

Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes

Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes

Video interview with Sarah Wilson iquitsugar.com

Manisha Thakor

Myers-Briggs Personality Test

Gretchen Rubin's Four Tendencies Quiz

Four Tendencies Book by Gretchen Rubin

The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People's Lives Better, Too)

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Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

Every 10 Modules we have a test so this week instead of talking about what I'm learning in the course, I'll be telling you all the other stuff I'm doing to get set up to become a Health Coach.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Practice Better

That Clean Life

Acupuncture

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Every 10 Modules we have a test so this week instead of talking about what I'm learning in the course, I'll be telling you all the other stuff I'm doing to get set up to become a Health Coach.

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Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

This week's lesson, Module 10, focused on understanding the last macronutrient, carbohydrates, including the types, dietary sources, and effects on the body. We get into the pros and cons of carbohydrates in the diet and how to prepare and cook grains. On the coaching side, we learned about the value of becoming a health coach, learned the concepts of coaching skills, and were introduced to Health Histories.

To hear Andrea Beaman talk about the whole grains, click here

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Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

This week's lesson, Module 9, focused on understanding another macronutrient, protein. Also, we dive into the protein-based dietary approaches most notably the Atkins diet, the Primal Blueprint, and Paleo diets, and to round it out we learned more about self-care on a regular basis.

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This week's lesson, Module 8, focused on the understanding the basics of fats and their effects on the body, how inflammation plays a role in health and disease, real food vs. industrial food, using food as medicine, the dairy debate, and lastly focusing on the area of Creativity and its impact on health and happiness.

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Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

This week's lesson, Module 8, focused on understanding the basics of fats and their effects on the body, how inflammation plays a role in health and disease, real food vs. industrial food, using food as medicine, the dairy debate, and lastly focusing on the area of Creativity and its impact on health and happiness.

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Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

This week's lesson focused on the healing capacity of whole foods, how a nutrient-dense diet can aid in disease prevention and accountability coaching.

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This week's lesson focused on the healing capacity of whole foods, how a nutrient-dense diet can aid in disease prevention and accountability coaching.

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Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

This week's lesson focused on the great organic debate, the value of eating locally grown food including a trip to the farmers market, holistic, sustainable farming, the importance of relationships as primary food, and how to communicate more effectively with the people in my life.

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This week's lesson focused on the great organic debate, the value of eating locally grown food including a trip to the farmers market, holistic, sustainable farming, the importance of relationships as a primary food and how to communicate more effectively with the people in my life.

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This week there was a break in the Modules so I'll be filling you in on all the OTHER stuff I'm doing/learning/trying on the side.

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Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

This week there was a break in the Modules so I'll be filling you in on all the OTHER stuff I'm doing/learning/trying on the side.

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This week's lesson focused on raw food and superfoods, juicing and blending, career satisfaction, fear and taking action, the relationship between money and self-worth and the Golden Path Step 4.

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Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

This week's lesson focused on raw food and superfoods, juicing and blending, career satisfaction, fear and taking action, the relationship between money and self-worth and the Golden Path Step 4.

Links to the speakers

David Wolfe

Joe Cross

Mastin Kipp

Kate Northrup

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This week's lesson focused on the unique roles of health coaches, dieticians and nutritionists, how people learn about nutrition, and the role of joy in our health and happiness.

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Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

This week's lesson focused on the unique roles of health coaches, dieticians and nutritionists, how people learn about nutrition, and the role of joy in our health and happiness.

Take the 24 Signature Strengths test here

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Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the podcast all about becoming a health coach. I'm Megan McCrory, an aspiring Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, and an avid knitter!

Let's dive right into Week 3/Module 3

This week's lesson focused on food politics and cooking.

Let me just say wow, I am just in awe sometimes watching lectures by people who really know their stuff.

The best part of the lesson this week was listening to Marion Nestle present on the topic of food politics. She presented in such a clear way with content that was easy to understand.

She presented information and data that correlates the climbing obesity rates starting in the 80's alongside deregulation of the agriculture industry and wall street, to portion sizes increasing and cost of whole foods on the rise.

It makes me a bit angry to think about how much money is wasted by big companies for lobbying. Making processed foods cheaper and more accessible hurts more of the lower economic band causing then long-term health consequences. People, just like water, will always take the path of least resistance. That's why it's so important to make healthy choices the easiest choice. I've never heard of a drive-thru for just salads and healthy alternatives. No, usually you have to stop, get out of your car and go into a grocery store or health food store. That's not as easy as driving thru and paying a buck for a burger.

Marion Nestle has authored and co-authored several books on the subject of politics and food Food Politics, What to Eat, Safe Food, Why Calories Count

Some of the top points from her lecture were to look at the food system as a whole from production to consumption. From agriculture to food to nutrition to public health. We have to look at the whole system.

Also, the cost of healthy eating has actually risen, while items like beer and soda the prices have dropped. So to the consumer who might have made the healthier choice in the 1980’s now sees drastically lower cost unhealthy foods more widely available.

She talked about the school lunch proposals and how again big company money was able to sway Congress to pass a bill that pizza is a vegetable. Wow!

I’m not going to go on any more about her presentation because I was able to find the same lecture on youtube so I will link to that for you to watch on your own. I really encourage you to take the time to hear her information.

In what ways is food political? What are the leverage points for political change related to food? How have politics influenced the development of the food system at large? How can we expect these issues to change as our population becomes larger, more diverse, and less economically stable?

After getting our dose of reality from Marion the course turned attention to whole foods and cooking. The IIN teacher went through Joshua’s 17 keys to healthy cooking, things like local fresh foods are the best but frozen is actually okay too since it’s usually frozen right after harvesting. Keep cooking simple, cook larger meals so you don’t have to cook every night. Experiment with new foods and use spices!

One of the hand-outs they gave us were all different kinds of spices. Salty, sour, sweet, nutty, and spicy. It’s really great to have a list like this handy, it’s also nice to see how many of these items I already have on hand!

We had a new guest speaker, Andrea Beaman, who presented the types of kitchen equipment you need and then prepared several recipes.

Joshua showed up at the end of the module with a few presentations on cooking with love and experimenting in the kitchen.

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This week's lesson focused on food politics and cooking.

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Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

00:00 Hello, hello and welcome to the podcast all about becoming a health coach. I'm Megan McCrory, an aspiring health coach and an expat living in Switzerland. If you are just joining me for the first time, welcome. I am so glad that you found me. You might want to go back and start from the beginning so you can hear the whole story, just a suggestion. If you are in a health coaching program currently and please contact me, let me know and let's see if we can get you onto the podcast so we can do an episode where we can compare and contrast the different schools. I think that would be a really awesome thing to do if you are not in school yet, but you want to be just drop me a line at becomingahealthcoach@gmail.com and let me know and see if you have any questions.

00:54 Let me ask the questions because if you have questions I can answer them in the next week's podcast. I don't know much yet or let's say I'm only in week two, so let's see. Okay, so let's dive into week two, module two. Module two was a little bit slower for me even then module one, as I mentioned in the last episode, I was kind of a little disappointed. We didn't like hop right into some coaching stuff, but okay, we have a whole year and I did know beforehand, some people had said that there's probably some stuff that they could have been skipped and maybe they could have condensed this. The class I'm a little bit more so I was expecting it, but I know the syllabus now for at least the ten first 10 modules. So I know some, some other good stuff is coming.

01:48 So what did we do? So in the first module, or sorry, in module two, I'm our objectives. We went through the Integrative Nutrition's unique theories. So I'm in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, IIN, we went through their unique theories on Primary Food of bioindividuality, a geographic proximity and fitting out. So we talked about that. There's also a tool that they use called the Circle of Life, and this is 10 different areas of your life and you kind of go through and analyze how you're doing in each of these areas and see, okay, is it balanced or is there something that needs to be worked on. We also went through and did it. They talked about the effect that food has on health. And this is for me, after reading several books, a very interesting topic to talk about considering most medical doctors do not have any kinds of nutrition training, which when a layperson hears that, you're like, no, no, no.

02:58 They knew everything about the body, not so much with nutrition. Nutrition is not really part of the main medical fields curriculum. So we talked about that. Then there was a little bit on modern versus postmodern nutrition. And again, this is the, IIN’s take on this or Joshua Rosenthal was take on, on what that means. And then, also they have a, I mentioned it just briefly, the Primary Food. So Primary Food and how that works. And I'll, I'll get into what primary food is in just a minute. Um, how primary food affects our health and happiness. And whatnot, and then also really, you know, my journey as I mentioned in the first two podcasts, and I'll probably keep mentioning it, um, this is not just about me learning how to be a health coach, but also, uh, you know, a year of self discovery for me, a year of learning and, and, you know, it's, it's all about me.

04:01 No, it's not, but I mean this is a good, good thing for me. And, and, and I liked that the program incorporates that you learn more about yourself and then, and how dietary and lifestyles can shift and, and, you know, giving yourself self care. So I do appreciate that about this school. So let's dive in a little bit more about each of these topics and just to note that there was no guest speakers in module two. These were all from Joshua or from the, what they call the education department. So other people in iin talking. Um, but no, um, let's say highlighted guest speakers this week. So the integrative nutrition theory, they have a lot of good theories. Um, I think they're great. I think some of them are better than others, but I think they're all pretty good. So one of the things that they do is they do teach all the different dietary theories is a library that you have access to that kind of just gives you a very quick summary Snapshot of about, they say over 100 different dietary theories, everything from Atkins to breatharian where you just breathe.

05:14 So yeah, so that's really cool. Um, and they say that there was the only school in the world that really does that. So that's really cool. Um, they also, their theory is the primary food override secondary food. And so what primary food is, is all the things in your life that are not what you put in your body through food. So secondary food is really food. Primary food is your relationships, your career, your spirituality, and your exercise or your movement. So, um, if you are not good in any of those areas, it doesn't really matter what you're putting in your body. It's not going to health, uh, the full level of healthy that you could feel. So again, I think that that's a good way to look at things because the, some, somebody could be a having a personal trainer and eating all the right foods, but be completely stressed out at work or be in a horrible relationship and they're not going to feel 100 percent.

06:20 So, um, you know, I think that's a good theory. Um, the next theory was how the Diet should be based really on the individual. So this is this bioindividuality which they get into a little bit more and I agree with also with this, because I was reading a couple of these books by Gary Taubes, uh, why we get fat, which is a really great book to understand why, why we get fat and the case against sugar, which is also by Gary Taubes. And he goes into really, you know, each person and the hormone levels and their genetics and all of these things are so complicated. It's, it's really interesting how anybody could think that any that, you know, all, all one type of food could work for everybody. You know, dairy for example. It's not there, you know, some people are gonna handle dairy better than other people.

07:16 Some people are gonna be, you know, I mean it's just like a food allergy, right? But it's not as hard as the food allergy, so really understanding each person and that you really need to know more about that person and Taylor for this person and that's it. You can only ever have like a steady case of one because there's only one you. So that's interesting as well. Um, another good theory actually I really like all there is to tell you the truth. Another good theory is called crowding out. So this is where you add good things in that eventually crowd out the bad things or let's just say in the way, if they're deficient in something, let's add it in before. Let's before trying to actually remove something that's bad and so crowding out. Um, another theory they have, it's called a basically given, given half a chance, the body will heal itself by itself.

08:14 So I think that's an interesting theory as well. Um, I think you see this mostly when people don't slow down when they get sick and then they're sick for three weeks, um, whereas if they just took two or three days to bed and just really let their body have that time, they would be over at much faster. Um, I see it in myself personally and I know through trial and error, what works for me when I get a sinus infection, what do I need to do? I have a routine. Um, if you get sick in general, what can I do to allow my body to heal? I think that's really, really great. And a lot of people don't allow themselves enough time, uh, when they get sick, but also they don't allow themselves enough time to heal by, by not sleeping enough, by not resting enough.

09:11 So there's a lot of different ways that the body can heal itself if you let it. So, um, the next theory that the integrative nutrition, um, school has, is to listen to your body's messages about cravings. So if you're craving something, why? So I'm hoping that they do a lot more on this later because when they say just like deconstructed cravings because I don't really understand how to do that yet. So I'm very, very curious how they will teach us to understand if you're craving a doughnut, what are you actually, what is your body actually deficient in that you're craving a doughnut other than the sugar, like, you know, so how to, how to say, you know, is it a sugar addiction that we're looking at or is it we're. The body is deficient in some mineral somewhere. So I'm curious about this one. Um, I don't understand really.

10:17 I see, uh, the d evolution is natural. What goes up must come down. I think I might have to go back and look at the video again because I can't really remember what this was about. And then the last one was the same diet and lifestyle changes will help everyone, which seems counterintuitive to the first two. The one of their theories based on individuality. But I see how they're saying is basically if all you do is move more and eat more whole foods, it will help everyone, not what exercise and which whole foods depends on the person. So not every person's going gonna have that same thing going on. So, but their point is, is that if you incorporate certain things into your lifestyle, those certain things will help everybody regardless. So I think that's also interesting. So after they reviewed the, the theory, which I would be very interested in, anybody who's listening or watching, if you have any thoughts on those theories, please let me know.

11:23 You can email me at becoming a health coach at Gmail Dot Com and let me know what you think or I think you can even put some comments at my website where the, the podcast is hosted. It's, I'm my best self.fit. And leave me a comment there about the theories if you have any, uh, I'd like to hear your thoughts. So, um, some of the other things I just touched on was the bio individuality. So one person's food is another person's poison. And you know, we do, we don't eat the same all the time, you eat lighter in the summer, you eat heavier in the winter, you eat different foods when you're older versus when you're young. And, and if you're sitting at a desk all day, you eat different than when, if you're working in a factory all day. So it's, you eat differently all the time depending on, on your own, what's going on.

12:18 So I'm one of the big things that I've learned in the past year, you know, probably more than that is really how to listen to my body. And so that's where the bioindividuality thing comes in, is if you're working with someone as a health coach, you know, teaching them how to listen to their bodies. So I ate this food and now I have, I have later in the evening I have a headache. So how do we make the connection between the food and what you're feeling in your body and, and really understanding what's going on. And, and you know, you know, my hair seems shiny or okay, did I change him? Him, my diet for example, I just, I quit caffeine two weeks ago for as an experiment for my myself and I didn't have any cramps in my period this week. Are they connected? I think so because I typically have cramps, so it's one of those things is like, okay, maybe I would have to do a little bit more studying or maybe you know, let's see next month if this, if this was a fluke, but that's exactly what I think people should be doing with their, with their own body is to do these little mini experiments and then that will help them listen to their body.

13:36 If they're actively thinking about what's going on it, what are they putting in their mouths, what are they, you know, how is their work life? Are they stressed out at work, you know? Or did you have a stressful day at work? So if you had a day stressful day at work and two days later you get sick. Could it be that the amount of stress that you had that one day just lowered your immune system enough that something floating around got you sick. You know, so there's a lot of, a lot of ways that you can look at that. So I think that's really interesting. Another thing that we're learning is really about food, and I'm hearing this from a lot of different angles, not just the school, but really the connection between food and your mood and how your food affects your brain and your body chemistry and everything else and how everything is tied together. So I'm really hoping we get more on that um, soon. That would be good.

14:43 So the next thing that they talked about, are they in Joshua's doing? Most of these is the modern versus postmodern nutrition and I wasn't really. Yeah, okay. I get it. It's basically modern modern nutrition is the sad diet standard American diet or modern American diet or whatever and, and what you hear and he's talking about postmodern nutrition, which is really like, I'm like, let's get past that to the point where we're talking about the bio individuality and how not all, you know, it's really hard for like a, like a American health association to put out something that's a blanket statement for everyone. I think that's the point, you know, I think these big places want to say yes, nobody should be eating red meat. Well, okay, that's not necessarily true. Um, some people, you know or, or whatnot, but maybe maybe that's not a good example at any rate.

15:47 So I'm a little curious of more about modern versus postmodern nutrition, but um, or let's just say I'm curious to see what else he has to offer for that. Um, he talked a little bit about the law of geographic proximity, which is again, something like, you know, you might have a tendency like all your ailments are in one part of your body or one side of your body. It didn't really. He talked about Shakara and I know that this is something Indian forgive me for my ignorance because I don't know, but I do have a note in my notes that I need to research more about Chakras. So I know it has something to do with energy flow in the body. Um, but again, I'm not very familiar with that. So I did point out to, I should look at that and he talked about fitting out.

16:44 This is another part of their theory fitting out basically. I mean, I guess that's basically be yourself, be authentic, be true. Um, don't try to fit in because trying to fit in is going to take more energy than just accepting who you are and shining like the bright little unique star that you are because everyone is a bright, unique star and um, yeah, so just don't, don't make yourself crazy trying to fit into something that you're not supposed to fit into it. Just a fit out. Apparently. The last one is primary food and we talked specifically about health and self care and what is self care and what does it mean to me and you know, how am I, am I satisfied with my, with my version of self care. I think I'm about 50 percent. I have some self care. I take care of myself in a way that I allow myself time and.

17:48 But I think I could probably do a little bit more, you know, it's one of those things, maybe I just tried to do something a little bit more like, you know, a massage once a month. That would be nice. Uh, I did look at, I thought about looking into Thai massages on the German side of the border, but I haven't done that yet. Maybe that's something I should put on my list. So those were all the topics that we talked about in the course or that were presented in the course. And as always, there is some assignments at the end. Um, the assignments this week, we're about the circle of life. I mentioned that in the podcast already, which is kind of looks like a little pie chart where there's a different parts of, um, 10 different areas of the circle of life and you want to put where you are in those areas.

18:39 Now we did that already in the pre course material, but now they want you to create a vision board inspired by your circle of life. I have yet to do that. Um, that might be something I do tomorrow. Again, it's one of those things, it's like, no, I like the circle of life. I'm not sure if I really need a vision board a, I do have it on my monthly things to do. So every month go to the circle of life and you know, do a fresh one without looking at my previous one to see, okay, how do I feel about each areas of this life and, and, and then I can compare it to the previous month and see, did I grow somewhere, did I fall somewhere? So that's how I'm going to reflect on the circle of life. I think it's a really great tool.

19:30 Um, so that's going to be a monthly thing for me. The next assignment was really to explore our own bio individuality, which, you know, basically what do you need. All right. So they want you to take a couple minutes and write down how I could adjust what my primary and secondary foods are to support what I need. I'm a little struggling with this because I'm, I think I'm, I think I'm pretty clean. I could be more clean, you know, every once in a while I, I buy a bag of tortilla chips and I just devoured the whole bag and I'm not talking to use US size bag. It's like a US size small bag, which is a European large bag, so it's not like the end of the world. Um, but like for example, they said like if you drink several cups of coffee each day, maybe you should feel better with less caffeine.

20:23 Well, yeah. So let's see. Um, but I do like the idea of thinking outside the box. Um, they talked about like if you do a certain exercises all the time, maybe try doing a new exercise. So I think I will, again, I will do this in my journal, uh, and, and, and try new things every, every week. Uh, the last assignment that we had was observed how food changes everything. So, um, you know, what you eat, you are what you eat, right? Really, literally. Um, so basically they want you to track and journal what you're doing. So like when you eat, how much you eat, what you ate, how do you feel right after eating it, how did you feel? A couple of hours after eating it. So I'm, I'm already tracking my food with my APP, lose it, love it. I love the APP, lose it.

21:21 Um, and then they want you after three days to answer, you know, how did you sleep, what were your energy levels? So I think this is actually a really great exercise to do and I will do this next week. So starting on Monday. And so during week three or module three, I will be doing a this exercise on a much more detailed about mealtimes and I need to set something up in my journal so I can track this. And I'm really actually excited about this assignment to see what comes out of it. Um, so yeah, excited about that one. I will let you know how it works and module three or four depending on when I get done with that and when I do a, the next, a podcast when I record. So that's about it for this week. Those are the things that we learned. I'm personally, again, I was, I still had to, was still watching the broken brain series by Dr Mark Hyman this week and also, uh, still watching the essential oils by Dr Eric z as Dr Eric Zielinski.

22:34 Um, so watching those two things on the side. Yeah, I still had too much to do in the evenings this week and next weekend I already have too much to do in the evening. So I am trying hard to structure and be way more structured about when I do things. I mean typically I would just come home and do it because I don't have very many obligations in the evenings. Um, but now I think, you know, for next week I really did a lot of blocking out in my calendar to prepare like, okay, I really have to sit down and do it there. Um, I do use a, yeah, a kind of a bullet journal, uh, for my personal stuff, but I do have a passion planner as well. Um, which I purchased for this project for the year. And um, my passion planner is, you know, it's not pretty like everybody else's, but, you know, blocking some time out and next week I have some better blocks here.

23:43 So that's, um, yeah, that's how I'm doing it. Blocking really blocking so I can get my exercise in and I'm also the side hustle school. Um, so those are the courses that I'm taking right now. So in the Iin for health coaching and a side hustle school society by Chris Guillebeau. Again, another podcast if you're listening to podcasts and you want to see about a side hustle, I love it. And one of the other favorite podcasts that I listen to is happier by Gretchen Rubin and her sister Elizabeth Craft. So those are some of the places that I go, uh, to get information. And uh, I think I'm doing a pretty good job of gleaning information. The one thing this week that I should say the last two weeks that I learned most about myself is I just need to, uh, the, the, the phrase production over perfection and you know, just to do it like, like the Pod, this podcast.

24:46 So I had another podcast and I had lots of production value. I did, you know, did lots of editing and it was really good. I love it, but it took so long to make one podcast, I would get kind of bogged down with it. So now for these I'm far less, I'm editing a lot less and, and hopefully keeping them a little shorter, although so far I was hoping to 10 minute podcasts so far there are always about 25 minutes. So, um, yeah. Let's see. Maybe it is, maybe it is a longer one but I'm not going to edit it so I apologize for any editing mistakes and whatnot, but I need to get this out. I need to record and get it out. So with that said, um, thank you for listening today. If you have any questions, please email me@becomingahealthcoachatGmail.com. Give me some questions. If you have questions I'd love to answer some during the podcast. Um, if you are, like I said, interested and becoming a health coach, please email me. Or if you are a health coach training specifically right now, I would really love to have you on the show so we could compare and contrast the different styles of the schools. Yeah. Okay. So until next week a thank you and live a healthy life.

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IIN Unique Theories, Bio-Individuality, Circle of Life

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Hello everyone and welcome to the launch of my newest podcast. This year, 2018, I have committed to a one-year course to become a certified Health Coach. The podcast covers the material we are learning, my own personal growth, and hopefully some other students on as guests.

Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

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Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

If you are interested in learning more about the Broken Brain docuseries, here is the link: https://brokenbrain.com/trailer/

If you are interested in learning more about the Essential Oils for Abundant Living course, here is the link: https://members.drericz.com/essential-oils-for-abundant-living-course-launch-quick-start/

TranscriptHello, hello. This podcast is all about becoming a health coach and I am your host Megan McCrory. Each week I will highlight what I'm learning and from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and share with you my journey and to become a health coach. So if you're just joining me this week, welcome. I'm glad you found me. You might want to go back and start from the beginning to hear the whole story. If you are also becoming a health coach or you're interested in becoming a health coach, please email me at becomingahealthcoach@gmail.com. I'd love to feature you on the show, especially if you're coming from a different health coaching school. I'd like to compare and contrast the different health coaching schools. So I think I have one lady on deck who's doing the health coach institute, so I'm looking forward to having her on the podcast at some point.

So let's dive into week one, module one. The first week started out a bit slow for me, so I was hoping to get right into the meat of coaching, however, the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, IIN, they do a lot more than just coaching, I have to admit that's one of the things that brought me or helped me choose this program because it's not just about coaching, it's not just about business, but it's also about your self-discovery. I liked that about the program. However, I'm like, okay, let's go, let's go, let's go. I'm getting a little like, you know, antsy. I just want to get into it. The first week we basically went over their mission. Their mission is to

Play a crucial role in improving health and happiness and throughout, through that process create a ripple effect that transforms the world.

I liked the mission. It's basically saying everybody should have health and happiness and let's make sure that that's catching a little firestorm. Let's make sure each person is affecting their neighbor, their friend. I think it's true. I see it in my own life, if I do something and I talk about it with my friends, they try it and who knows, they talk about it with their friends. This part of the curriculum, this week one really focused on the mission statement, and then we talked about the role of health coaches in healthcare. We also learned how being a health coach can also really facilitate your own healing as well. You'll find that what you're saying to your client is exactly what you should be saying to yourself or you're in a situation that you were in (otherwise known as mirroring).

I don't really think that it's a great big secret that the healthcare industry is really not working very well. And, and where health coaches lie in the health industry is something where, you know, the approach, as I talked about in the introduction episode, you know, kind of that glue where the doctor has prescribed you to do something or diagnosis you with something that basically says you need to do x, y, and z and the health coach is there to help you get it, to do it and to really integrate it into your life to make it most effective for you.

And so that it sticks, right? So instead of just like kind of giving the students kind of rote memory you review and you know, I'm memorizing, they do a lot of activities. So I'm, one of the activities that they had us do in the first week was to set our intentions. So, um, they, there was a worksheet with some questions and kind of like drill down, what's your intention for the year? And you're supposed to keep that. Then in your focus so that throughout the year, throughout the course you can keep coming back to that intention, especially if you kind of lose focus because there's a lot of information and it's a year, which is a long time. So I like that to start right off with what do you want to get out of this course? And really the courses, what you make of it. Now I've heard some people say it's not so technical.

Other people love it. It's changed their life. I really believe that whatever you do in life, you only get out of it what you put into it. So I'm trying to do this course. I will do the chorus 100 percent, but um, yeah, so that's fine for me. I'm okay with that approach of goal setting and intention and whatnot because I think it's also valuable skills that once I learn how to do that for myself, I can then give those tools to my clients in the future. So my intention, my statement. So I made a statement. Yes, I did. Because, you know, we're supposed to, um, so my intention for the year or what I want to get out of the end of this year is I will change my life and my future by learning how to holistically coach people to become their best self and to make a world a better place because come on who doesn't like to make the world a better place?

That's my intention. I'm improving myself, I'm improving my friends and family if they, you know, let me. And um, that's my, that's my goal. So that was one of the activities that we did this week. Another one was um, uh, something kind of like a goal. They call it the golden path and it's um, yeah, it kind of looks like the wizard of Oz kind of a golden path through the forest. And uh, each, every couple of weeks they're going to give you more information about the golden path and what, what's, you know, like your, your way forward essentially. So we did the first week of the golden path. So I did that activity as well. They had one guest speaker, only one guest speaker. So Joshua Rosenthal is the one who's doing most of the courses, he's the one who's founded the school, but we had one guest speaker in this module which is Dr. Mehmet Oz from the Dr. Oz show, which I had never actually watched.

I'd never really seen him talking or maybe I saw like a clip here they are on Facebook, but I never really watched his show. No, I take that back. I did watch one Dr. Oz or at least a rather long clip and I remember and I don't know and I hope it doesn't gross people out because it was on national TV, so I guess it shouldn't gross you out, but he had a whole episode or segment on how you can be too rough to your butt essentially is how, how fragile the lining of your intestines and then, therefore, your anus. It was funny because they had somebody coming out of like an opening acting like the people were the poo. Okay. It stuck in my brain. If I find it, I will post it somewhere, but it was basically like, don't be so hard on your, but it's gentle.

You need to be gentle with your butt. So. Okay. Anyway, tangent over. He talked about living the good life, which, okay, that's what we all want. Um, so some of the things that he's. Well, he said a lot of good points actually. He's a very good speaker. I can see why he has a TV show. I don't know anything about his skills as a doctor, but he had two points that really stuck out to me. One was that people don't change what they do in life based on what they know they change based on how they feel. And I can totally see this, you know, I mean that's one of the first things that they're telling us in Ian is that people know what to do, right? I mean they know that they should exercise, they know that they should eat what you know, so it's not doing what people know.

It's doing what they feel. So if they start to feel bad, they're going to want to change something and the problem I see or that kind of discussed in the new functional medicine area is basically a lot of people don't know how bad they feel because they've been feeling this bad for a long time. Or conversely, you could say they don't know how good they could feel because they're, because of their, their nutrition and diet habits have been the same for such a long time. So. But I liked the point because you know, they, people really will start to feel bad before they do something and, and you know what, it really only takes a little bit of good to start to feel good. Do you know what I mean? It's like a snowball effect. Just get off the couch and do a 20-minute walk.

Right? You will start to feel better. I know this, I've been through it so many times. I just did here the other day, a very good quote because I'm a, I'm an exercise stop and starter. I'm a, I'm a, I'm a boomerang exerciser. Cause you know, sometimes life gets in the way and I will stop exercising, but I think I've got a good way forward now. My gym is very, very close. It's very hard to say I can't walk five minutes to the gym and do a 20-minute workout. So I'm getting there. But even this week I didn't work out because my schedule was too busy. So I'm one of the quotes that I heard from this app that I use is called active. I'm going to do a whole thing on active. I love it. It's like the best personal trainer you've had this.

So this personal trainer. I'll have to figure out who said it. She said, if you hate starting over, stop quitting. I was like, oh, that's a good one. That's a really good quote. If you hate starting over, stop quitting because every time you stop, you know, every time you quit exercising for a period of time, you lose what you've done for such a long time and you have to gain yourself back. So anyway, that all ties into this Dr. Mehmet, you know, people don't change based on what they know, but based on how they feel. So I think that's one of the underlying things I'm going to focus on is, is how do you feel like, what do you, what's I'm not what do you want to do, but you know, are you feeling, are you feeling tired, do you feel foggy in the head and that kind of stuff.

So I'm hopefully in my practice, I'll try to, to, to get those things out. The second point that Dr. Mehmet Oz made in the lecture this week was that you have to make it easy to do the right thing with the fewest decisions and the easiest path. And again, couldn't agree more. Especially in my own personal life. If it's easy, if I have good food on hand, I eat it. If, like I said, like I just said, the gym, I changed my gym to the five, the gym that's five minutes away from my home, not five minutes away from my work and it's easy. I don't have to make the decision. I just go, I, it's just so easy. Even if all I go do is go and walk on the treadmill for 20 minutes, I am happy with myself, I can tell you for sure. So this point about making the easy thing, making it easy to do the right thing, and also the fewest amount of decisions touch on habits and how to create healthy habits.

Every time you make a decision, your brain is like, okay, that's one less decision I can make today. Right? So you want to keep your brainpower for the decisions that make a lot the more important decisions then do I go to the gym or not? Right? Because there are more important to important decisions in your life. So if you can figure out how you best adapt to a new habit, once you make something a habit, then you don't have to think about it anymore. It's like brushing your teeth or wiping your ass. I mean, you're just doing it. You do it because you always do it because, you know, if you don't do it, bad things will be there. So, um, if you can create the, your, your individual path and your individual habits to make, doing the right thing, the easiest thing to do, not only will you succeed in doing that right thing consistently because that's actually the most important thing is to do it consistently, but you're also going to have more mental ability and mental bandwidth for all the other decisions in your life that are not habit-forming that you can't form into habits.

So, um, I really, uh, one of the things I want to do in my practice is to incorporate habits and how people form habits and the best way forward with that. So I really think that that's a major part of health coaching is his habits and I'm really excited about that. So, um, yeah, so those are the good points I found, from Dr. Oz. I'm in addition to those things. So we have some video modules, we have some kind of activities during the module and after the modules are done, we have assignments. The first assignment that we had, uh, is a learn through reflection. So they really want you to come up with a process that works for you for reflection because reflection unlocks our ability to process and for new information and to solve problems more effectively. Now, I don't know if that's true, but I do know that self-reflection is great because you're like, wait, why haven't I done this?

Or I keep doing that. And if you don't write it down or record it or do something, you're going to miss those things and you're not going to find, let's say you're not going to notice that you've done that thing five times in the consequences you know you don't like. So if you write it down and reflect on it and you don't have to write, you can do what I'm doing here. And honestly, this podcast is really one of my, is my, my reflection methods for this, for this year. Um, I do. I think I do a pretty good job. I keep a journal. I know things down, I do a lot of self-reflection, goal setting, kind of getting ideas out of my brain. I do a review, I should review more, but I do a review. Some people asked me and they look at my journal and they see it's kind of elaborate, but they said, well, do you go back and look at it?

I'm like, yes, I do actually. Um, maybe not as much as I should, but I do go back and look through it to make sure I haven't missed anything. Um, so that was really cool. Um, basically pushing people, to learn how to reflect on themselves and that's something everyone should do. I think our second assignment was to explore our intentions now. Okay. The attention exercise I think was great, but now they wanted me to sit for 10 minutes and think about that and then come up with a list of descriptive words or phrases that represent the feelings that I want to invoke by the end of the program. And then we were supposed to use this list throughout the year to help us kind of filter the opportunities and decisions that we have. Now. Honestly, I didn't do this because I thought, okay, there's a, I have a limit.

I mean, time is precious and I think this is the idea. Okay. I actually, I really loved the idea of the attention, but I didn't really see how these descriptive words or phrases were going to help align what I'm doing later on. And maybe I missed it, but I decided, okay, I have a pretty good, you know, I, I drew the line there that. So the last assignment was basically based on the lecture from Dr. Oz. And this was again another thing that I decided that I would do, but in a different way than they asked. So they said get it like a physical jar. Take physical pieces of paper and for the following activities or areas of your life, you should write down examples of how you can do that. So they experience the good things in life. So food, fun, beauty, sleep, love, growth, and connection.

So those are the things that they said. Okay, so pick something for each of those things and put it in this jar, and fill the jar up with these things. And then every week, like kind of pull out a thing and try to do that thing. So for example, connection, the connection word would be one could be like visit your neighbor and have a cup of coffee, right? So you're making a connection and that would be a little slip of paper in there or food could be a make your favorite dish, something like that, or cook with friends and then you get food and connection. So that's awesome. Uh, I liked the idea, but I didn't really like the whole idea of having a jar with a bunch of paper in it. I'm much more of a, like I just said, journal person. So what I have decided to do is make a collection in my journal and do that thing, which, you know, writing down a bunch of things.

Or You could also do it like a vendor list, for example, if you're a digital person. And Yeah, just make a list of everything around food. Which if I did it, it would basically bring me more joy to life, you know, so I'm going to do that, uh, in my own way. Um, so overall, you know, okay, it's going a little long so I'm hoping to make these 10 minutes, not 20 minutes overall. The week was not hard, but what I did learn about this week was that, um, I need to organize my tell. I'm still, I'm still doing too much in the evening, so I need to organize my time. Now. Granted, I had a few extra things this week that I had signed up for. So one of the things was this broken series by Dr. Mark Hyman. Absolutely amazing. Absolutely love it. Let me know, uh, becoming a health coach.com at Gmail.com.

If you have watched that episode, the series really amazing series. I'm not sure if I would pay to get the digital material, um, be, but it is a lot of information curated into a very nice package. So I had to watch those within 24 hours because they were only open every 24 hours. And then I also started an essential oils class, which is also 10 days, but only every day it shows up. Um, so those things, and I had some extra things in the evening, so what I learned about myself this week is that I need to say no to evening activities and really structure myself. Um, I need to work for the first three days of my class. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, so Monday I watched the videos, Tuesday I do the assignments and the reflection part and Wednesday I would record the podcast, and then Thursday and Friday I would actually work on a different course that I'm working on, which is the side Hustle Society from Chris Guillebeau, who's an author and podcaster that I've been listening to.

And I chose to do this extra course at the same time, um, because this is a side hustle for me. And so I thought it would be good to learn and independently from the health coach or health world. I'm a side hustle. So, um, this is a community and uh, they have lessons and stuff. So I need to structure this better and that's what I'm going to do for a week, a three. So because I'm already recording this at the end of week two because I'm a little late, so with that said, I just wanted to let you know in case you're interested in becoming a health coach, how much time this is taking me a, not, not like the podcasting part or blogging or anything, but just the part for the classes. Um, I spent a total of one hour and five minutes watching the videos and about another hour, maybe more or less.

Yeah. Plus or minus an on the assignments and stuff. I've been trying to keep my time so I could give you an accurate representation of how much time I'm taking. Um, originally they said it was going to be like eight to 10 hours a week, maybe eight to 10 hours a week will come later on. So let's see how that works. And um, yeah, that's all I have for today. If you for this week, this is week one. Uh, I have 40 weeks to go. Let's see how it works. Or let's say it's 40 modules and four tests and some weeks off. So it's a, it's a whole year. Um, I'm glad you found me. Thanks for sticking around. I hope this is interesting for you. Again, if you're interested in becoming a health coach or you are in health coach training right now, please reach out to me at becoming a health coach at Gmail Dot com and let me know if you're interested in coming on the podcast so I'm really would love to expand. So it's more of a conversation between two people rather than myself just talking the whole time. Although you can see I can fill 20 minutes very quickly and if you have any questions about the school or what I'm doing or why I made this decision or what the broken brain series is, or the essential oils class that I'm watching, any of that stuff, if you have any questions at all about anything, um, you can email me at becomingahealthcoach@Gmail.com or you can head over to my blog at mybestself.fit. That's it. So thanks and I'll see you next week. Bye.

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This year, 2018, I have committed to a one-year course to become certified as a Health Coach. The podcast covers the material we are learning, my own personal growth, and hopefully some other students on as guests.

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Hello and welcome to the podcast all about becoming a health coach. I'm Megan McCrory, a Health Coach in training at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition!

Each week I review what we’ve learned and how I’m applying those lessons in my life.

Please let me know what you think of the podcast or if you are also interested in becoming a Health Coach!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, thanks for finding me. My name's Megan McCrory and I am an aspiring health coach and this is my story. I'm starting a podcast series for the whole year to follow me along my journey of becoming a health coach. I just want to tell you a little bit about how I got to this point and a little bit about Health Coaching.

So I have had a very good life. I have had a very, very good life. I have a good family, I have good friends. I've never really had anything bad happen to me. Now a long time ago I had some financial issues that kind of gave me some direction in my life, but otherwise, I didn't really have that drive or a burning desire to do something in my life.

I realized that a lot of things came very easy to me and I think that was part of it. If you have to push yourself to do something, then somehow, it gives you a little bit more drive. Other people may say, “Oh, but you have lots of drive, you're always doing something”. Well, I'm doing a lot of things, but I never finished a lot of things.

Through my self-discovery over my almost 39 years, I realized that it was only when I hit 30 that I stopped and looked at my life, and then I said, I really only have one regret. 30 is a big one and I didn't think it was going to be so impressed upon me, but 30 was big for me and I realized that I had really only wanted to do one thing at that point in my adult life and that was hiking the Appalachian trail and I did not do that in the what, nine years that I had decided that I wanted to do it.

I had made absolutely no strides to that goal. And it was that point when I said, okay, I have got to get my act together. I have got to take these dreams and get them down onto paper, make a goal. Make some milestones, plan it out or it's never going to happen.

I think there's a quote somewhere like a dream is only a dream unless you make a plan and then it's a goal or something like that. But all I remember is having that sinking feeling that, oh my God, I have done nothing in the last nine years of my adult life after university. I'm kind of just floating around.

At that point that I had no debt, which was really I was super proud of considering it had previous financial issues and I decided, okay, I am going to work really hard for the next couple of years. I'm going to save all my money and then I'm going to quit my job and I'm going to go work in the Peace Corps and I'm just going to do the first Peace Corps rotation. If I like it, maybe I do a second one and a third one and maybe that's my career. I'm going to be a career Peace Corps person and I was really jealous actually because there was somebody I knew who had done it, and I was thinking, God, look at that person, you know, they're really going for it there. So I had made that, that was my goal. That was my plan. I had two years, money quit a job, Peace Corps done. Six months after I turned 30 I found that there was an opportunity for me and by the time I turned 31, I had moved to Switzerland. Yeah, never saw that one coming.

That was a complete surprise for me. I was never thinking about really living abroad. I had no idea where Basel was, it's in Switzerland. I don't think I was so naive to think Switzerland was the same thing as Sweden but I certainly didn't know where Basel list. And so on my 31st birthday, I found myself alone, and I've lived one week in this new country, all by myself.

Now, the next couple of years I met my future husband. I had lots of travel. I have lots of friends here. Everything was going quite well. However, I kinda came back to this feeling of, you know, am I just kind of floating through my life am I just kind of taking what's coming and not really thinking about it or planning it. And a couple of years ago I started, okay, let's do some more goals.

Like I mentioned, you know, I do a lot of projects, I have a lot of things, a lot of ideas and none of them really, you know, I know I don't see things all the way through all the time. Let's just face it. But what I did do is I started to think about my job and really what was fulfilling me in my job and I found that I wasn't, what I was missing was really the part where I was actually affecting change in someone's life and supporting someone or helping someone. And for your job to take up one-third of your day every day. I think you should get enjoyment from it.

It's not that my job was bad. It's not that the people I work with were bad and they were all fine. But I guess fine wasn't good enough anymore for me. I needed to find something that would fulfill that missing piece in my life. So I turned after lots of research, I had my way to a nutritionist and I thought, what can I do? Can I go back to school to be a Nutritionist or what does it take to be a Nutritionist or a Dietician?

Especially, since I'm living in Switzerland. I don't really know what the systems are here and I want to make sure I'm doing everything on the up and up. And that's when I found Health Coaching and honestly I'd never heard of it before. I think it's fairly new. Maybe if I had been on the East Coast, I might've heard about it, maybe if I'd been in California, but I grew up in the midwest and we don't have Health Coaches in the Midwest now there are, but not when I was living there.

So after doing some research and figuring out what this Health Coaching thing was and really sitting on it for a couple of days. And that's long for me because I'm very much an impulse person. I'm sitting on it thinking about it, I'm thinking about it again and I thought, you know what, I'm going to sign up for this Health Coaching course and I'm going to get my certification because even if I never actually use it to have a client or you know, make it into a side hustle or something, I'm going to really appreciate all that information just for myself because I'm a fanatic not, well, maybe not a fanatic.

I love this stuff. And so I made the decision then. Okay, Megan, this is a big project. It's a one-year project. I'm going to be going to school, I have to organize my time and get stuff done at home. So I'm going to do that and I'm going to do it for a couple of reasons. One, because it's a big project and I want to start it and I want to finish it and I think that's a really good goal to have. Number two, learning all that stuff for me. So the nutritional part, the coaching part and also the business part because they do give you some business training in this, in this, in this program. So all of those things wrapped up. I looked at the cost, I said, okay, yeah, that's a pretty reasonable cost for the amount of work that's going into it and for the length of time and I hope the content agrees now, I didn't find too many people that were so poo-pooing the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, which is where I'm going, which is called IIN for short.

I hear mostly good things about IIN and I really liked their approach, a really holistic, treating the whole person and that kind of thing. So anyway, this podcast, what we're doing right now is my way of structuring my time and I also want to do this journey with my family and friends and for anybody else who doesn't know me and that'd be great. I'm going to do this. It's kind of a podcast web series thing where I'll have the audio for the podcast, but I'll also have the video version so people can choose whichever medium they would like and then also some coordinating blog posts.

So you can kind of follow along with my journey because you may be interested in being a Health Coach. You may be like, what the heck is this Health Coach thing anyway? You may just have heard Health Coaches are bullshit. Yeah, let's just see how much bullshit it is. So I will hope, I hope it's not because honestly, besides the Health Coaching thing, if you have not heard of Health Coaching or Integrative Medicine or Functional Medicine, please look it up because I think, you know, our healthcare system is really broken and I think anything that we can do to be on the preventative side of our own health and our own wellbeing is a positive.

A little bit about what a Health Coach is. A Health Coach is not a doctor. They're not a Dietitian they're not going to prescribe or diagnose anybody, but what it does a Health Coach does, is a support system. When a doctor says, hey buddy, your blood work isn't looking so good, you need to change your food, you need to change your exercise, or yeah, we're going to have to put you on some medicine, x, y, z. then they're just pushing you out the door saying, okay, do it. And you're like, okay, yeah, I know all these things, but how do I get it done?

That's where a Health Coach comes in to give you tools, they're going to be your support system and they're going to be your advocate. They are going to be your accountability partner and they're really going to help you try to figure out all that stuff that you know is the right thing to do, how to actually do it and how to make it stick. Like it's really all about habits and habit change. And that's another passionate area of mine. So that's what a health coach does kind of in a nutshell. And again, I'm super excited about this journey that I'm on because it is a journey for about a year, this whole learning aspect, but it's also, I'm hoping, a life-changing moment for me.

I mean, I already can tell you that just by taking the step forward and making this decision, I've changed so and I think that's great. I think that's a great thing and I really hope that you'll come back and you'll listen to me every week and you'll learn about what I'm learning that week.

It's fine if this is a yearlong me session, okay. But otherwise, I really would like to help you, I’d like to help my friends and family the most and see how that goes. So please come back and, and, and catch me on social media and I will be back every week. I promise and I have to do it now because I've promised that I'm going to do it. So I'll do it.

Becoming a Health Coach - Megan J. McCrory: Recent Episodes

Megan J. McCrory