I have been asked many times what is it exactly that I am doing, what is integrative nutrition health coaching. So I thought I'll bring more clarity around this to a wider audience.
Photo by Portraits by Katery
What does an integrative nutrition health coach do?
I am a wellness guide and a supportive mentor for people looking to improve their health or wanting to achieve specific health goals. I empower clients to choose health-promoting behaviours that work for them. I am guiding people through the too many dietary guidelines and diets in the world, help them to discover the way of healthy eating that works for them and also that works with their lifestyle. It's very much a bio-individual approach towards every person as we all have different backgrounds where we come from, how we were brought up, how was our diet and how is our diet today, health challenges in the past and present, physical movement practices we engage in on a regular basis, our emotional needs etc. Health coaching is definitely NOT about one diet or one way of living. I raise awareness and offer support as clients move in their own bio-individual ways- I help to make connections, identify patterns, shift limiting beliefs using a growth mindset. I coach clients to be experts on themselves and find their own answers.
Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) where I studied for a year, emphasises that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to health and wellness. I am helping my clients to discover how to fuel their bodies, live a healthy lifestyle, and how to become the happiest, healthiest versions of themselves by discovering exactly what works for them. I consult clients all around the world, in English or in Estonian.
What IIN also taught me to discover both about myself and my clients, was that there are things that feed us on the plate (which is what we eat and drink and what IIN calls secondary food) and off the plate (relationships, physical activity, social life, spirituality, career, finances, joy, home environment, home cooking, and what IIN calls primary food). And it's in many cases where the primary food is much more important to focus on and improve in order to heal.
How do I work with clients?
When a potential client reaches out to me, first I get the client to fill in a registration form, that gives me an overview of the current and past health challenges, the habits related to health (stress, sleep, exercise, alcohol, cigarettes), briefly the daily schedule and reasons the client contacted me. I also request the client to keep a food diary for 3-5 days so I get a better understanding of the current nutrition. Then we schedule a first session together either online (Zoom, Google Meet) or face to face. The first session takes anything from 60 minutes to 90 minutes. I will provide feedback to the client about their current nutrition based on their current energy needs, which is influenced by weight, exercise, age, goals etc. We focus in that session also on the goal the client has and what are the one to two activities the client can do around nutrition and health to get closer to that goal. If the client has multiple aspects in the nutrition and health they want to improve and they know they need support and guidances, they can choose to sign up for my 3-month or 6 month nutrition and health coaching program.
In the 3-month and 6-month program I would meet virtually or physically twice a month with a client for 45 minutes, where the client tells me what they want to focus on around their nutrition, health and goals, what has been going well and in every session client chooses after our session 1-2 new healthy habits from our discussion to implement during the upcoming 2 weeks. I also provide supporting materials, recipes, links to read further, what's needed to support the client. Client can definitely extend the program after 3 or 6 months to another 3 or 6 month program if they feel they need further support and guidance.
With the majority of my clients, they come to me with a goal to improve their nutrition, loose weight, heal their relationship with food, heal their digestion issues or hormonal issues, improve their sleep, improve their skin etc.
I often recommend the client also to go and get their most important blood markers tested through their primary healthcare practitioner, family doctor or go directly to the laboratory (like Synlab in Estonia), so client knows where their current health is at and then retest after several months when they have implemented healthier eating and lifestyle habits.
Depending on the client, I'll also bring in after couple of sessions the primary food areas and I get the client to evaluate where they are at in the areas of relationships, physical activity, home environment, home cooking, career, finances, social life, joy, spirituality and we'll see together how to bring more balance into these areas.
If a client wants to make healthier food choices in the grocery store and wants advice on what to buy in the store, what not to buy, how to read the ingredients and nutritional information on the packages, we can make a trip to the store or the market together, where I can advise on what is important to focus on when buying food and how to make healthy choices in the grocery store.
As an nutrition councelor and integrative nutrition health coach, my passion is really to be there for the client, to actively listen, to look at my client holistically, to support and to guide my client towards the best and healthiest version of themselves.
If the above is something that raises interest in you, whether you want to improve nutrition, have health goals you want to reach (or know someone who could benefit from a nutrition councelor and health coach), don't hesitate to reach out to me. You can contact me via e-mail at info@katrinpeo.com or reach out to me via Facebook Messenger or Instagram.
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