Health Coach

In April 2011 I was referred to a Nutritionist.  I saw him every couple of weeks and he would occasionally change my menu plans if they needed tweaking.  While I was losing weight at a rapid pace, I was semi-satisfied with him, but we had our problems – he was unresponsive for weeks, he made miscalculations in his meal plans, and most troubling he disagreed with my trainer’s approach.  He never really explained anything – why you eat certain foods at certain times or how much of one type of food is too much or not enough – I never really learned anything.

In December we started really having disagreements, mostly over the fact that he refused to give me a nutritional plan that matched my training, instead insisting that my training change.  This caused a huge problem.  Not to get into the gory details, but after a few arguments and major disappointment on my part, we parted ways … not on amicable terms.

This left me in somewhat of a bind.  I had not learned enough to do the nutritional planning on my own.  The last nutritional plan that I was given by my ex-nutritionist was a disaster, full of errors.  I did not have another nutritionist lined up.  So, I asked for a referral.

A friend from high school started her own personal training business and is currently getting certified in nutrition.  I asked her if she knew of any nutritionists that she could recommend.  She asked if I would consider a health coach.  At first I was hesitant, honestly thinking that “health coach” seemed a bit loose of a term to me, but really, I was willing to try anyone she could recommend, because I needed someone fast!

I set up an appointment with the health coach and met her about 3 weeks ago.  We met at her house and discussed everything from my training to my nutrition to my job to everything that has happened in the past couple of years.  She was very easy to talk to and seem to genuinely care about my life.  Best of all when I told her that there was no way I was going to change my training, she agreed that I should follow my trainer’s advice when it came to training and that she would help me learn how to form my nutrition to match … this is exactly what I was looking for!

I now have a health coach.  We have had 2 meetings and a phone call as well as various email conversations.  So far so good. 

Switching from a nutritionist to a health coach takes gumption!