While most people know a healthy diet and lifestyle is one of the most powerful strategies to protect physical and mental health, many individuals struggle to achieve recommendations for nutrition, movement, stress management and sleep.
Setting goals is essential to increasing motivation for change. Goals help us focus and direct our efforts. However, behavioral change is notoriously difficult, as demonstrated in an Inc. magazine article reporting that less than 9% of new year’s resolutions are achieved.
While this statistic may seem discouraging, working with a qualified nutrition coach can be a powerful support for change. A nutrition coach possesses the knowledge and skills to help individuals optimize their health through changes to eating habits and lifestyle behaviors. According to a systematic literature review including 11 randomized controlled trials published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, the effects of nutrition and health coaching for clinical biomarkers of weight management, blood pressure, cholesterol and specific eating behaviors reported that 82% of trials showed an improvement in at least one of these outcomes following nutrition coaching.
Five specific ways working with a nutrition coach will help individuals achieve their goals:
- Clarity – Through effective questioning and reflection, a coach can help clients gain clarity about their goals. Clarity plays a crucial role in goal attainment as it provides a clear path forward and drives success. Moreover, by having a clear understanding of why the goal is important and the steps needed to achieve it, clarity increases motivation and confidence.
- Personalized Plan – a nutrition coach partners with clients to create a detailed and actionable plan supporting their specific needs. With an individualized approach, coaches support clients in regularly reviewing and adjusting their goals and plan as needed. Additionally, a coach will help clients identify their personal strengths and resources to overcome challenges and barriers to their success.
- Accountability and Motivation – coaches provide ongoing support, encouragement and accountability, building self-confidence and motivation. By helping clients identify and focus on their underlying values and purpose, coaches motivate them to stay committed to their goals and remain accountable. Accountability is the cornerstone of goal success. It’s about ownership and the ability to take responsibility for actions, decisions and behaviors and recognizing that we each have the power to make choices that impact overall health. By supporting accountability coaches help clients gain trust and confidence in themselves.
- Knowledge and Resources – navigating the world of nutrition can feel overwhelming and often confusing with so much conflicting information circulating from various sources. A qualified nutrition coach can challenge much of this misinformation and provide clients with evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle recommendations. Additionally, a coach can identify areas where a client needs improvement and provide guidance and resources to develop those skills.
- Sustainable Behavior Change – the focus of nutrition coaching is on supporting clients to develop sustainable habits leading to lasting behavioral changes. As opposed to short-term diets or quick fixes, coaching emphasizes creating a lifestyle that supports overall health. By identifying underlying factors contributing to unhealthy habits (both internal influences such as cravings, emotions, preferences and external influences such as marketing, culture and availability/convenience), nutrition coaches help clients recognize patterns and develop strategies to overcome these obstacles and create long-term sustainable behavioral change.
