Lifestyle Improvement
“Coaching for a Lifetime of Wellness: Five Keys to Sustainable Behavioral Change”
The theme of the 41st Annual National Wellness Conference was “Spotlight On Sustainability”. While we often think about sustainability and our environmental practices, as a wellness coach and psychologist I immediately thought of sustainable behavioral change. As I prepared for my presentation on this topic my research revealed that we actually know very little about how effective our…
“Well-being” Is Whole-Person Wellness
The term “Well-being” may have come along at just the right time. Public speakers and marketers are re-branding wellness as wellbeing by saying that well-being is more complete, more holistic. Well-being, they say, incorporates the whole person, their environment, their financial picture, their career, etc. On the one hand it’s too bad that we have to invent a new term…
A More Sociological View Of Wellness
Who has time to exercise and eat well when life is on overload? We are often urged by wellness professionals to exercise more and improve our diets, but isn’t that just adding more to the “to do” list? Without addressing the stressors in our lives, how can we fit the “demands” of being healthy into our lifestyle?
Of course…
A Thousand Pots of Brown Rice: A Mindful Way To Be Well
We all want to be as healthy as we can be, and are usually anxious to get there quickly, like it was a destination we could actually arrive at. Mastering a wellness lifestyle is rather like mastering any art, craft or skill. It’s more of a journey than a destination. Lifestyle means a way of living, and doing it well…
Access Excess: Always Wired Makes Us Tired and Less Productive
Paradox, double-edged sword, blessing and curse combined, mobile devices have made our lives easier and more stressful at the same time. I remember the feeling of relief the day I finally got my calendar synched on my work/home computer, my laptop and my smartphone. Now I could be in a conversation with someone at a conference and set an appointment…
Astonishing Non-compliance – Understanding Grief and Readiness for Change in the Health Challenged Client
Medical noncompliance is a vast and complex issue that results in widespread human suffering and immense healthcare costs. Of the 3.8 billion pharmaceutical prescriptions written each year (USA) it is estimated that more than 50% of them are taken incorrectly or not at all. Medical noncompliance also includes failure to do medical self-care, self-testing and attend follow up appointments with…
Being the Behavioral Change Expert: The WELCOA Wellness Coaching Interviews
Wellness coaching is about setting aside your expert hat when it comes to wellness content and becoming the true ally your client needs for lasting lifestyle change. Yet, where our expertise shines through is in helping our client to actually succeed at making those behavioral changes that will improve their life and health. We need to be the behavioral change…
Cancer and Lifestyle Improvement
We’ve often viewed getting cancer as luck of the draw. Other than eating enough fiber and avoiding smoking and too much sun exposure we haven’t really seen it as having much relationship to lifestyle. Now we’re finding that the way we live our lives has a significant effect on both the prevention of cancer and the course of the illness…
Celebrity Chefs And Wellness
The rise of the food networks and the plethora of cooking shows reflect lots of genuine interest in diversifying our diets and real enthusiasm for the great skill of food preparation. More people are cooking cuisines they never grew up with and are fascinated by mastering gourmet recipes. This may, in part, be an upside to the vast popularity of…
Change: The Paradox of Fear and Attraction Eight Thoughts for Success at Lifestyle Improvement.
“Change”is such a powerful and loaded term. The very word brings out any number of wildly disparate responses: fear, anticipation, longing, uncertainty, attraction, loss and excitement. Change in attitude, and belief yielding change in behavior, or more specifically health and wellness behavior is what we’re after. Yet if the very idea of change is at all scary, isn’t that…
China Embraces Real Balance Wellness Coaching
Faced with the same lifestyle-based health crisis many other countries are experiencing, China has been searching for a way to help people truly succeed at lasting lifestyle change. Over half of the men in China smoke. The diabetes rate is now higher than the United States, with heart disease, COPD and other “lifestyle diseases” on the rise. Health information…
Client-Centered Directiveness: An Oxymoron That Works – Part One
At its very foundation, coaching is client-centered. The work of Carl Rogers profoundly influenced the founders of the life coaching profession. Yet, among the thousands of health and wellness coaches we have trained at Real Balance (http://www.realbalance.com), the question of how directive or non-directive to be remains an area of unsureness and anxiety.
As time marches on…
Client-Centered Directiveness: An Oxymoron That Works – Part Two: Adapting To Your Client
Effective wellness and health coaching adapts in many ways to the client we are working with. As we assist a person in finding ways to live a healthier life there are many adjustments that need to be made to deliver a customized experience that will work best for that individual.
In this post we will examine how to take…
Coaching a Client Through To A Mental Health Referral Using The Stages of Change
Times arise when it becomes apparent to a wellness coach that their client would benefit from working with a mental health professional. The need for referral may be urgent and involve client safety as when there is a threat of harm to self or others. That rare situation is usually more clearly recognized, referral is made and coaching is usually…
Coaching The “Boomer Generation” for Aging Well
Every seven seconds a “Boomer” turns fifty. The American post-war “Boomer Generation” spends more on health care than their parents did.
They visit the doctor more, they consume more services, and aren’t afraid to use their $7 trillion in collective wealth to improve their quality of life. From physical therapy, to cosmetic surgery, to the latest in life-saving technology…
Crafting A Wellness Lifestyle With A World Of Choices
How trapped are we in the limitations of the culture we have experienced most of our lives? Greater travel and today’s technologically shrunken world has immensely increased our awareness of alternative ways of living. We do, in fact, have a world of lifestyle choices to draw upon. Let’s look at some cultural concepts and practices we might draw upon and…
Creating Allies For A Healthy World
Its a ten and a half hour plane flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Chicago, and then two and a half more to Denver. Home for two days I’m finally catching up on some real rest, and also catching up with perspective. Our dream of taking wellness worldwide continues to happen.
Wellness & Health Coach Intensive, Sao Paulo, Brazil
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Delivering The Behavioral Side Of Lifestyle Medicine Through Wellness Coaching
“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.”
Hippocrates 420 B.C – 370 B.C.
Healthcare providers have been prescribing lifestyle improvement for thousands of years. The evidence has been built from the observations of Hippocrates all the way…
Downshifting To The Speed Of Life: Coaching Slowness
“Summertime and the livin’ is easy.” How long has it been since the words of that old song rang true? In response to the accelerated pace of life a conscious movement has emerged to help us slow down and reclaim our quality of life again.
In my last post I shared about Time Affluence (http://wp.me/pUi2y-hV) and how…
Emotions, Feelings and Healthy Choices: Coaching for Greater Wellness
One of the first things we learn about in the fields of Wellness & Health Promotion and Health & Wellness Coaching, is that our lifestyle choices are a primary determinant of our health and wellbeing. It seems straightforward that making the right or healthy choice is a rational process based upon having the best information. We often then address…
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