Becoming a Certified Health Coach

My Health Goal for 2010
It was a strange coincidence or synchronicity that happened to bring me to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I had decided that 2010 was the year for me to transform my health and my life. 2010 is the year for me to finally create true work/life balance and live a healthy life without overworking myself. It is the year to take care of me to become my healthiest and happiest self. No excuses.

Healthy Cooking Classes
On this mission, I started looking into cooking classes so that I can create healthy meal plans for myself. What started off as just an idea to cook healthy meals evolved into enrolling in a professional program to become a healthy chef. I had no plans to work as a chef, but the professional program at the Natural Gourmet Institute could be completed in four months. It seemed so doable, so why not? Why not actually get trained to become a gourmet natural chef? I was trying to decide when I wanted to do this program. Possibly in the summer during my summer break, or possibly in the fall when my course load would be much lighter for fashion design. I explored the idea and started really liking the idea that I could not only cook but cook healthy gourmet meals for my family and friends. It's the kind of thing people dream about but don't have time to actually accomplish. It had been in my list of things to do sometime in my life... so why not now?

Institute for Integrative Nutrition
I was pleasantly surprised to see an email come into my inbox that advertised a webinar to learn more about the program. I attended this call and quickly realized that the program I was listening to was not about cooking, but rather a program about holistic nutrition and how to become a holistic health counselor. It was intriguing, but not what I was expecting. It was then that I realized that I am listening to a webinar about a different program. This was not the Natural Gourmet Institute, but instead the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN).

As I listened to the webinar, I heard the story of a former student who had come to this school after working as a IT consultant. I was fascinated since this is precisely the same background that I had. She now has her own health coaching business and is happy with what she is doing and can create a flexible schedule around her kids. It sounded eerily similar to what I was looking for.

I went to their website and was greeted by the smiling face of Dr. Weil and Deepak Chopra, two of my favorite teachers. It was as if I was guided here through some unusual circumstances to listen to this webinar. I then realized that this was the nutrition program that I had almost signed up for a few years ago when I was living in Chicago. I decided to postpone it at that time because I was too busy and would have to fly back and forth to attend. There would be time later to attend, I thought. Well, I guess that time is now. I was pretty busy with fashion design school, but I had this strange premonition during my winter break that guided me to make time in my schedule. Make time for what? I didn't know, but I had a strong sense that I needed to make space and time for myself. So, I did, well, kind of. Enough so that I could sleep every night and try to stick to my plan of leading a balanced life.

When something feels right, you just know. And after that webinar and listening to what the program was all about, it felt right. It was in line with all of my values. The program not only talked about nutrition, but took a very holistic approach to health, including relationships, career, and spirituality. Isn't this what everyone wants in life? And maybe this was the way that I can pursue both of my loves...design and health. How would I pay? I wasn't sure, but there's always a way to find a way if you want something. The good news was that many students make back their tuition by the time they graduate since a lot of the homework assignments are to go out and find clients! How exciting. A program that also teaches you how to build a business along with teaching you all the skills you need to know in this field. As you can imagine by now, I did register.

My First Weekend at IIN
After weeks of preparing for the course by doing online and audio warm-up classes and even meeting some people before the first class, I attended my first live all weekend session last weekend. It exceeded my expectations at all levels. Not only was the program informative, inspirational, and innovative, but there was also a palpable energy in the room that I had never experienced before. There is nothing like being in a room full of passionate people whose mission is to make the world a better place. It was like being in a room full of lightworkers or earth angels...inspired people from all walks of life that are passionate about health and wellness. Wow, what energy.

And to make it even more amazing, the speakers were absolutely wonderful and inspiring. I had never been to a talk so inspiring in my life. There was also the most innovative and user friendly cooking demonstration that I had ever seen. I along with all the others and an overwhelming sense that we were in the right place at the right time. And I sure was. I found out later that this was the last live class for the school, and after this year everything was going to be online. You can imagine how happy I was that I followed my intuition to register now and not wait until next year.

I met so many amazing people over this weekend that I am excited about all the possibilities that lie ahead. I knew there was a reason for me meeting the people that I did, and I know I will meet many more people as time goes on.

Health Coaching
I have officially begun my training to become a health coach and am offering free initial consultations where I sit down with you live or over the phone or skype to conduct a health history. A health history looks at your health and lifestyle and will give you insight into the overall picture of your health and highlight areas you might like to focus on improving. I am not taking any clients at this time, but if you are interested in getting a free health history session with me, you can email me. Or, if you are interested in becoming a health coach yourself, you can also contact me with any questions about the program. I am so happy that I found this program and I have met so many people whose lives have been transformed from it.

Event with the USDA
One more synchronicity that I'd like to mention. I am slowly finding that food and fashion are both related in the area of sustainability. Both food and fiber (for clothes) are grown as crops. The way we farm these crops have significant environmental impacts as well as impacts to our health. The textile industry and has many processes such as dyeing and finishing that often creates contaminated waste water that pollutes our waterways. Creating sustainable practices is a passion of mine. I studied sustainable enterprises as part of my MBA, and am now finding that all of my interests are coming together.

To confirm that I am heading in the right direction, the universe provided me with an opportunity to see others that are working towards the same goals. I found a flyer at my fashion design school about a presentation from the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, USDA, about our food systems. I was interested, but was not sure if this presentation was going to be real, healthy and fresh food, or if it was going to be about our conventional and traditional approaches to food systems. I went anyways because I always want to see what all sides are thinking.

I was so pleasantly surprised to find a packed room of people working in the food industry and the topic of discussion was about improving the nutrition of school lunches. Wow. This is something I am also very passionate about and it was great to see people who in the government who had access to big budgets doing something about this. They were promoting fresh local foods and talking about the Know Your Farmer initiative. There were so many innovative ideas and plans in place that I really felt like this was a huge movement with people from all aspects of the food industries, even outside of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, participating to create a better future for everyone. It was refreshing to see, very eye-opening to hear about all the wonderful programs in place, and truly inspiring to see motivated people that are taking action to do something to participate.

If you're interested in learning more about it, you can visit www.usda.gov/knowyourfarmer.