5 Reasons to Hire a Health Coach in 2020
by Leigh Saner
It’s January, which means that the word around town is resolutions, specifically, New Year’s Resolutions. The most popular New Year’s resolutions involve weight loss, eating healthier and exercising more. Of those people who made a health-based resolution, only 9.2 percent said they felt successful in achieving their goals. In any given year, by the second week of February, 80 percent of people report having entirely given up on their New Year’s Resolutions.
You may have seen these statistics before; they are not meant to make New Year’s resolutions seem worthless or unimportant. These statistics indicate that there is a missing component to resolution-making which prevents many people from realizing their goals.
Every year, millions of people make New Year’s Resolutions. Some people have the same goals year after year, while others don’t bother to make them because they believe they will fail before they ever even start. If you are tired of setting goals only to feel overwhelmed or lost trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B, hiring a health coach can help.
HOW CAN A HEALTH COACH HELP ME?
1. Accountability. If you are the only one who knows about a goal you’ve set, no one will know if you get off track which makes it easier to say ‘heck with it’ if you aren’t seeing the results or progress you want to see. Having a health coach is a way to ensure there is someone else to hold you accountable to your goal. When things get tough, a coach can give you that extra push or motivation to keep going or modify your approach. Knowing that your coach will ask you about your workouts or if you’ve been waking up 15 minutes earlier to feel less rushed in the mornings will help keep your goals in the forefront of your mind.
2. Actionable Steps. A coach help you turn your thoughts into a workable game-plan. You may want to feel less stressed at work, more energized or are ready to lose the 15 pounds that are literally weighing you down, but don’t know how make those things happen. A health coach can help you gain a better understanding of why you’re feeling the way you are, and work with you to define clear strategies you can implement to live a healthier lifestyle.
3. Personalized Goal Setting. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to address your health goals. Each of us are different and what works for one person may not work for another and that is OK! A health coach will personalize your plan to work for you and your unique needs.
4. Support System. A health coach provides judgment-free support and encouragement based on a partnership in which you are the expert of your life and the coach helps to develop a plan that will work with your lifestyle. A health coach is able to be objective in their approach to helping you reach you goals; they are not your friend, sister, parent or loved one telling you what they think you should do or what works for them. While (usually) well-intentioned, input from friends and family is less effective than guidance coming from an unbiased, trained coach.
5. Investing in Health. Our own health needs tend to be low on the totem-pole of priorities in relation to other components of our life. We pour time, energy, money, and work into everything else, and at the end of the day, there isn’t much left in the cup to pour into ourselves. If you aren’t focusing on your health, it will negatively impact every area of your life; by prioritizing your health, you will find that it positively impacts your life. Hiring a health coach makes it more likely that you will continue to see the value in taking care of yourself because you will see progress toward the goals you set. A health coach is not an expense on the list of bills for the month, but an investment toward bettering your health and your life.
Pro-Tip: When you’re ready to hire a health coach, make sure they are adequately trained and the advice they give is within their scope of practice (through their education, background and training).
Leigh Saner is founder of Define YOU, LLC, a health and wellness business dedicated to helping people define individual goals and strategies that will help them live a healthy, balanced and sustainable lifestyle. Leigh obtained her Master’s Degree in Public Health from the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. She is an Integrative Health Coach, trained at Duke Integrative Medicine and a Certified Personal Trainer with a strong passion for inspiring others to prioritize their health. As an Integrative Health Coach, Leigh’s mission is to support others in putting their best foot forward in their own lives. To learn more about Define YOU, LLC and to schedule a free health coaching consultation, visit DefineYOULLC.com or call 443.480.2123.