ARCHIVED – Foundations of Food Coaching

This unit is not about nutrition, it will dispense with discussions on vitamins and minerals, carbohydrates, fats and protein; Cadence Health has a whole course dedicated to that and the assumption is if you are going to be a health or food coach that you have already ticked the nutrition-knowledge box. This unit is specifically about how to food coach in order to effect positive health outcomes, not just theory but practice. Food coaching, as we will see is, more than just pointing out the errors in a clients lifestyle or eating habits and loading them up with information on better choices, this is the easy stuff. In fact, if you stop for a moment and consider that most people seeking help with eating tend to know an awful lot about food, giving them information on things they already know is unlikely to move them to new levels in wellness. Something that has become apparent in regards to community health education, is that education is not enough to amend our behaviours; we need to create behaviour shifts. As a food or health coach this is likely to be one of your greatest challenges; once your client walks out the door or ends a call loaded up with information, feeling motivated and resourced, how do you create a system that supports them to make changes while you are not with them, and stick to them?