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becoming a health coach/personal trainer



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i have no idea if this is okay to post here, but i could use a little feedback as i am overwhelmed and having trouble getting focused (nothing new there! lol)

i am in the middle of becoming a certified personal trainer. i am saving money to become a certified health coach. i have a background in counseling (chemical dependency counselor for 7 years, family counselor and private therapist for 6 years), natural health and healing (managed health food stores for 3 years, among lots of other things i did/learned), and cooking for health (taught classes and did private consultations for special diets).

i want to focus on helping people get prepared for surgery (or just lose weight) and adjust after surgery. what do you think would be most helpful for me to offer? currently i am working with 2 people on anxiety/emotional eating/autoimmune diets. we meet 1:1 and we plan ways to practice dealing with anxiety without food. i also help them plan meals to deal with autoimmune disorders and help one of them cook. they are friends and i do this to help them out and practice what i know.

i want to figure out how to monetize my services, but am not sure what A.) would be most important for people and B.) what people would actually pay for. C.) or how to present myself to people.

any feedback would be important for me to hear to help me with moving forward.

thanks.

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Search the internet and see what the going rate is. You may want to start a little lower tho get more clients..and they may want their friends to you. I see a psychologist who specializes in this same services that you will provide as far as rmotional eating ....she charges $142.00 for a 50 minutes session. That is great that you are embarking on this journey to help others. Good luck coming your way.

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I have a friend who was just certified to be a life coach (or health coach -- I don't remember which). But she specialized in weight loss. I had thought about going to her to help me out before I decided on WLS. Now, I think if I seek out that type of service I would go with someone who specialized in working with WLS clients.

I would be willing to pay $100 or so for an hour's consultation maybe once a week for 3-4 weeks. I would want to talk about fitness, nutrition and the emotions I'm going through. Talk about the food challenges I'm having and some strategies to overcome that. Talk about what I'm doing for fitness, how that's working and if I need to change anything up. Talk about struggles I'm having emotionally -- emotional eating, boredom eating, strategies for eating healthier while running around, etc.

I would be less interested in cooking classes or recipes, etc., because I feel like I can get enough general information from books and such.

If you're considering doing this in person (not over the phone or over the internet counseling) I would expect to get local recommendations -- like maybe local cooking classes or nutrition seminars, maybe bike/walking groups in the area, some things like that.

I hope this gives you some of the info you're looking for.

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i would welcome any thoughts anyone has about this.

so far good feedback! would love to hear more. thanks.

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I am a life coach/executive coach and graduated from an ICF accredited program. If you are still interested in becoming a coach I am happy to speak to you about it. The world needs as much help and healing it can get and I'm all for coaching. I am just a few weeks away from VSG and am considering adding WLS services to my practice but I really enjoy working with folks on their entire lives/career so I don't know yet. Anyway, I very much believe in the power of coaching and that we need more coaches -

so anyone who would like info on how to become

a Coach, please feel free to PM me.

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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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      1. LeighaTR

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

    • CaseyP1011

      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
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