Sugar

Depicts the evils of sugar and soda

Shamelessly Self-Promoting!

Someone has to do it and here it is!

 

I am now taking appointments for free initial health consultations, with actual coaching services beginning in mid-July. Boost your health and energy, feel and look better, lose weight, de-stress… My service incorporates life-style changes in an easy step-by-step approach based on you, not a one-size-fits-all approach. Appointments may be in person or via phone, Skype or FaceTime. I am also available to speak to groups in the Crawford County, Illinois region. Visit my website and/or contact me at genahowe.health@gmail.com

 

Show less

 

The Importance of Health Coaches

Why we need health coaches

Story Time

It is time to somehow get into all this marketing stuff for business. And time to write my bio and About pages. I’ve been thinking this may be a good place to start with that. I already did an About, but it’s pretty long and boring. You know, kind of like from grade school and “How I Spent My Summer Vacation”.

 

So I think some practice here (this is a personal blog after all!) is in order, and here is what got me moving again. Just yesterday I listened to 2 very inspiring motivational speeches. I didn’t know quite what I was going to be listening to, but there they were, right at a time when I was starting to feel really down, and truthfully like giving up, again.

 

One speaker talked about her story. And so did the other. On the most superficial level, I realized that my About page is like a timeline and really isn’t a story. It has no voice.

 

These people also made me realize I need to keep on going.

 

The second speaker also talked about how we as health coaches need to think of transformation vs information. Our potential clients may or may not know much about nutrition, but they can always look it up. Then they become confused because of all of the conflicting information. And they aren’t getting what they need to look at a lifestyle change, not just another diet.

 

Clients need to see these things, but to tell them they need to see these things and then do something about them, doesn’t usually work. That is too static and I realized that how I was imagining coaching was a bit static also. As health coaches we need to guide and support our clients. That’s a given. But many people will simply have a hard time “believing” so we need examples. Not written examples, but personal ones.

 

We need to tell our story or stories in a truly authentic, from the heart way. Our stories of transformation are what will really drive their need and desire to bring about their own transformation.

 

So thank you Christine Hassler and Michael Ellsburg, for telling your stories of transformation. I learned how to own my story and drop that which doesn’t serve me; and also to find a way to bring those messages forth to my own clients.

 

Christine and Michael* are truly inspirational, so I encourage anyone to look them up and hear their stories. We will all grow together.

 

*At this point I’m not certain you will find Michael’s personal story other than in the lecture modules through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. So if you are an IIN graduate or student, you can hear it; if not, it’s worth some search time to find his story if possible.

What I’ve Been Doing for My Health

Last week I talked a bit about what you can do to help yourself. This week I’ll share some of what I’ve been doing lately and what I’ve done in the past.

As I wrote previously, my husband and I recently did a whole foods cleanse with unexpected and fantastic results. His blood pressure went from on the danger zone line to well within normal and 3 weeks after the cleanse was done, we’ve each lost 15-16 pounds, plus many other benefits, like having more energy, less brain fog, sleeping better, no more snoring, less joint aches, better skin tone, and no migraines so far.

Since I’ve experienced the wonderful results of doing a whole foods cleanse, it will be a normal part of my life. I tried the types of cleanses with supplement kits, but didn’t really see much change.

AND I learned that 2 or even 3 large glasses of water a day just isn’t enough; especially if you still consume caffeine and alcohol, and/or are very active.

Over the course of many years, I’ve had issues I’ve to deal with on my own by necessity or by desire or both. The biggest thing was getting out of plantar fasciitis pain. I suffered tremendously for 5 years. I did research and tried many things. But that one did eventually take outside help as things had gone way too far.

If I had been more on top of it in the beginning, I may have done well enough on my own. But I now know what to do to avoid having the condition again and what to do if I get any little signs of stress in those tissues.

Very recently I’ve learned quite a bit about inflammation, not just localized inflammation as in arthritis, but over-all inflammation with no obvious signs. Knowledge really is power! I want to take care of this to avoid the many life threatening diseases believed to be caused by this. Preventive medicine.

So along with researching everything, water, and cleanses I’m ready to add deep breathing exercises to my repertoire of health tools. Every time I’ve tried it, I’ve felt energized, but it works the other way around too, to calm you and reduce your stress. But I haven’t made it a daily thing. That is changing right now. We don’t breathe properly and as a result don’t get enough oxygen to properly fuel our bodies and keep our hearts strong.

I’ve been unable to ride my bicycle due some sciatic pain lately, so I’ve been looking into that; the possible causes and what type of strengthening/stretching exercises to do for it. Also I just finished reading a book on gait correction in order to correct other structural imbalances. Much, much of this is related to problems such as plantar fasciitis and sciatic pain, among many others. One more easy, and cheap, too for me to have.

This is just a little of what I have done to help myself.

Knowing the problem is half the battle, so they say. I do believe that. I’ve had many tough crossroads in my life and by exploring outside my sphere of ingrained habits and comfort, I learned so many things, including a lot about myself.

Many of our journeys may be long and full of strife, but if we stay on that journey, we *will* come to a better place! I hope all of  you explore and experiment to find health tools to build your own personal health tool kit.

Now, I’ve been feeling guilty because I have recently posted pictures of all but one of my little furry feline babies. So here is Libby, presenting herself as I gift, which she truly is. I’ve also found that a cat’s purr is healing to me!