What is Health Coaching? (And How You Can Benefit)

This blog is about what health coaching is and how you can benefit from it.

I used my coaching techniques with clients from around the world, as well as myself.

As a result, clients tell me that they experience less stress and act with more confidence when making health decisions.

Not only that, but they also have a better understanding of their motivations.

In the meantime, I used the same behavioral strategies to make something I didn’t like – training my legs to prevent further knee injuries – into something I did without thinking. Additionally, I went from meditating 0 minutes to 1 hour each morning.

How did I do this?

I told myself that I needed to do only 1 set of 1 leg exercise and to meditate only 5 minutes each morning. After 30 days this became a habit that expanded by itself.

Are you curious about what health coaching can do for you?

Let’s dive in.

1. What is Health Coaching?
2. How to Make Health Decisions
3. How to Improve Your Health
4. Health Coaching Shows You the Way – But You Have to Walk it
5. What Types of Health Coaching Are There?
6. Behavioral Health Coaching: What are Habits?
7. Benefits of Health Coaching
8. Conclusion
9. General FAQ

1. What is Health Coaching?

Health coaching is a way to take control of your health. To improve your performance and achieve your goals through trial and error. Getting up early might not work for you, but meditating before bedtime might. Intermittent fasting can be difficult, but not eating before bedtime might be easy. And training for a competition motivates to stay healthy, while “staying healthy for health itself” doesn’t.

Every person is unique, and so are you.

As a result, the way your health coaching develops will be different than that of your friend. You have different drives, motivations, and habits to begin with. And your goals are different as well. You want to focus better, run faster, or weigh less.

Each aspect of you and what you want to achieve influence the coaching process.

The better you imagine your goals the easier it is to change your habits. As things go, your vision stimulates helps clarify what needs to change.

Nevertheless, this is not mandatory.

The sense that you could, or should change your health is enough.

When it comes to health coaching with me, the only thing you need is the motivation to start.

Are you motivated to start health coaching?

2. How to Make Health Decisions

How do you make your health decisions? Do you weigh all the pros and cons of eating good or bad food? And do you consider the effects in 30 years when you sit all day?

To always be at your best to make the right decisions is hard. Don’t you think?

Still, health is a long game. It’s an ultra-ultra-ultra-ultra-marathon. Or a climb 100 times higher than Mount Everest. Nevertheless, step by step, you win this challenge.

One small decision at the time.

3. How to Improve Your Health: The Mountain Metaphor

In front of the mountain stands Frederick. He’s a 35-year-old businessman motivated and knowledgeable in his area of work. When it comes to his health though, he’s still finding his way.

There’s a path for Frederick on that mountain, and by making the right decisions he will be able to climb it to the top. However, at the bottom of the mountain, there’s a tunnel that takes you to the other side. The tunnel is dark, broken, and evermore deteriorating.

But it’s quick and easy.

Frederick finds it difficult to find the way up. Sometimes he tries a couple of steps, but then gets lost. It’s strange because it seems everyone around him just walks up without effort. At least, that’s the impression he gets from watching films, YouTube, and advertisements. Everybody seems to know how to climb the health-mountain.

The thing is though, do the people around Frederick really know? Or did they also take the tunnel but got out better? For now, at least…

You rarely see someone climb the mountain step by step. Even though, you know it’s the only way that’ll give you real sustainable results like:

• Prevent disease
• Increase energy levels
• Be fitter
• Focus better
• Resist stress
• Sleep better

Do you, like Frederick, want to know how you can make sustainable decisions for your health?

To feel and perform better?

4. Health Coaching Shows You the Way – But You Have to Walk It

Did you see me? Yes, that’s me, your health coach, standing next to the path up the mountain.

I show you which step to take and help you trace your steps back when a route doesn’t fit your profile. For some, it’s easier to take the longer but flatter route, and for others, it’s easier to take the steep but riskier route.

Along the way, you gain confidence, learn how to make better health decisions, and build strength. To climb the mountain faster.

Until you reach the top.

Well done!

Even if you take the tunnel by accident, you will know the way back and up. Because you have walked the path before. Even more so, now you can enjoy the spectacular view of what lies after. You not only see it but feel it. The strength of your body, the flexibility of your mind, and the energy vibrating throughout.

Which challenge do you choose next?

Different mountains, different routes. This doesn’t affect you like before. After winning your health challenge once, you now have the skills and experience to do it again.

Do you see how you can climb the health-mountain?

If you find it hard to do alone, ask help!

5. What Types of Health Coaching Are There?

Each health coach has an approach to health coaching. Below I explain the different ways that a health coach can support you to achieve your goals.

• Motivational Coaching

Motivational Coaching is something that is part of each coaching process. A good health coach learns how to motivate you and does this at the moment it’s necessary.

Support at the right moment allows you to learn better. And to overcome obstacles that would otherwise have been a reason to give up. As a result, you gain the confidence to make decisions by yourself which will make you independent.

Nevertheless, too much stimulation can be counterproductive. Thus, to make the most of your coach, tell him how you like to be motivated.

• Data-Driven Coaching

Data-Driven Coaching is a form of coaching where your health coach uses data like your:

• body weight
• fat percentage
• muscle mass
• caloric necessity

To make diet and exercise plans. With these plans, she helps you to implement them in your daily life. Also, your coach helps you to finetune the plans so they suit your goals.

• Group Coaching

Group Coaching can be attractive if you like interaction fellow coachees. Besides that, you often pay less for these types of consultations. Still, the coaching is less personalized and you have less quality time with your coach.

• Habit-Based Health Coaching

Habits are at the core of my health coaching. I choose to coach in this manner because I believe it’s the most effective one. By addressing your habits and behavior, we work on the building blocks of health, not the building itself.

6. Behavioral Health Coaching: What are Habits?

Habits are behaviors like:

• Eating sweets when you’re stressed
• Responding agitated when you’re confronted
• Brushing your teeth after dinner
• Getting up at 06:00 in the morning

There might have been a time that you found it hard to do these things. Or these habits slipped into your lifestyle unconsciously. Regardless, now they’re part of your behavior and you execute them automatically.

Do you see how your habits result in your lifestyle, which in turn results in your state of health?

That’s why we address your health by working on your habits first.

How Does Habit Based Health Coaching Work?

This is what behavioral health coaching looks like:

• We don’t make a diet plan to lose weight, we address the habits that maintain or make you gain weight
• We don’t make an exercise plan to get you into the gym, we look at the habits that stop you from going there in the first place
• We don’t force you to move, we find a strategy to make moving a pleasant experience
• We don’t force you to sleep 8 hours, we find the smallest step we can take to start the process of going to bed.

Remember the health mountain that Frederick climbed with the help of a health coach?

He did so by climbing the base first:

1. Beliefs
2. Motivations
3. Habits

That’s why habit-based health coaching shows you how to climb the whole mountain.

To master every aspect of health. Step by step.

As a result, you become independent with your health. You know how to change your habits, behavior, and performance. This helps you to get healthy and stay healthy.

7. Benefits of Health Coaching

Below are 6 benefits of health coaching:

1. Sustainable. Once you have effective habits, they reinforce themselves
2. Personalized. You’re unique, as is your goal and thus you require habits and support that fit you
3. Empowering. Gaining control over your behavior opens doors to high performance.
4. Energizing. Working focused towards a goal you let go of all the unnecessary habits. This energy you can now use to achieve your goals
5. Educational. In the process of health coaching, you learn to understand your body and mind in your life situation
6. Better Decisions: with a better understanding of your health, your body and mind, and your life situation, you make better decisions

Conclusion

Use behavioral strategies to make long-lasting changes to your health.

No glitter, no glamour. No quick-fix and no promises.

Take control of your health step by step.

Besides that, you can use health coaching to improve your performance in sports, work or your private life.

It’s up to you how you define the coaching process, but in any case, I’m here to help you.

Are you curious? Do you want to know what health coaching can do for you?

Plan your free introductory call now.

General FAQ