How Is THAT Working For You?
During the past 28 months, I’ve often found myself F2F — or, camera to camera! – – with people who were trying to make sense of what they had heard regarding the pandemic in America.
Given the changes taking place over the months as the evolving scientific data rolled in, I could completely understand why those without a science background found themselves unsure and hesitant over what to do, how to protect themselves from illness, and whether the sacrificial actions they took would make any difference. There was so much information, and even more misinformation.
Before I say more, a note:
Transparency:
- I am a Registered Nurse, and I have agreed with and signed an attestation that I will not participate in any vaccine misinformation.
- I support the science that shows that wearing masks protects the wearer from transmitting and receiving airborne and communicable virus particles, and healthcare workers have been using them well before this pandemic to protect patients in clinical and hospital settings for a century.
- Vaccination has been used in the past to prevent the spread of disease and early death from a variety of illnesses, including measles, mumps, rubella, polio, chickenpox, Diphtheria, pertussis, and others. I have supported vaccination in a variety of formats across decades.
Last year, I took some time to think about the kinds of health and mental health problems our world faces. These are ones, while existing before the pandemic, were intensified because of how COVID-19 drove us away from one another, diminished our access to timely care, and left us to manage much of our care by ourselves.
Over and over, people kept asking me how they could reduce their risk of getting sick. And besides wearing a mask when in public, putting distance between people, increasing air flow by being outside or using a proper air filtration system, and getting vaccinated against COVID-19, there were several other items I put on repeat:
- Get enough sleep and try to keep stress under control
- Reduce or eliminate intake of excess sugar, including alcoholic beverages
- Reduce any of your risk factors of which you have control, such as lowering cholesterol, reducing weight if you are obese, and eating a more whole food, minimally processed diet
- Do your best to get some socializing with others in the safest ways possible
Most people did not argue with me. These pieces of advice do not need defense; meaning, no one said these weren’t good things to do to improve their health. Instead, the conversations shifted to reasons why each person found these changes to be overly challenging, even if I asked them to consider trying to make small changes.
In the face of push back, I gently put this before you. If you knew you needed to change something that would absolutely benefit your physical and mental health, would you also consider the cost of NOT changing? In other words, if you kept all your actions the same and just hoped you’d feel better, would you think differently a couple of weeks later if I asked, “How is [not changing] working for you?”
Why Precision Nutrition Level 1 Coaching Is My Next Offering
Behavior change around deeply habituated actions is one of the most complex challenges regarding our health. We are complex systems, made of multiple biopsychosocial worlds that influence how we think, feel, and act. Our choices are a lot more than the facts we are presented. A LOT more!
While I have always wanted to help more people find peace with food while learning how to make better choices about what they eat and how they treat their bodies, I’ve always noticed that to do so was to go to the heart of the challenge: behavior change.
Just like with how people have been trying to find ways to reduce their risk of illness during this pandemic, they are also considering their ability to change how they think about food if they want to make a change to improve their health.
When it came time to choose a coaching program to expand my ability to help others with this behavior change, I chose Precision Nutrition Level 1 Coaching. Its central premise is that small and incremental changes that are sustainable create more lasting improvements in people’s health. Of the three units of learning, the majority of the content is the application of knowledge about nutrition through behavior change — that is, when we change how we think and feel, we can take a different action towards the goals that we want. Even if the actions are small, if they are sustained, they make a difference. If we experience those changes in a positive way, we’re more likely to keep them up.
While many of us could use some help understanding how much and what kinds of food we need to eat to repair our bodies, promote good sleep, and give us energy, not all of us are wired to dive into the science of food and energy transfer. Even if we were, it is no guarantee we would be able to easily apply that knowledge into our every day actions.
The good news is that I’ll be completing this program in May 2022 (edit: I completed the program on May 9 2022 and have received my certificate of completion) and offering it to my current clients and prospective clients, and I am happy to do the deep dive into the science of nutrition to help more people make food fun again — my mantra here at My Allergy Advocate.
For myself, I’m always open to discovering more about eating for a lifetime of health. Our health changes over seasons, years, and ageing processes. What I ate as a child is very different from what makes me feel energetic in the middle chapters of my life with autoimmune disease and food allergies. Hormones have changed. Micronutrient needs have changed.
I am so thrilled to be offering this service along with AIP Wellness Coaching. Look for it in June and July 2022.
Have questions? Contact me using the contact page. Comments have been suspended for this site in order to eliminate spam messages.
