Monthly Archives: February 2011

Health Coaching and Your Health

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Everywhere you look these days you see references to “health coaches”.
What exactly IS a health coach and what can they do for your health?
The word coach means “to bring out the best effort or aspect” .  A health coach is someone who facilitates your identifying lifestyle behaviors that bring out your very best health outcomes. 

Coaching enhances your health and wellness by facilitating your focus and awareness on what you want to do and how you want to do it. The coaching process focuses on where are you now and where do you want to go. Your intentions are viewed as the main motivating factor in the choices you make and the behaviors you exhibit.

Because this is a young specialty, it is important to be sure to work with a well-trained and experienced professional. There are many programs that now claim to train health coaches, but unless you are working with a health professional who is licensed or certified in their medical or health specialty and also trained by an accredited health coaching program you could find yourself very dissatisfied with the services you receive.

If you want to utilize a health coach to assist you with your weight loss for instance, you may want to find a nutritionist or a weight loss specialist or counselor who is also trained as a health or wellness coach. The health coach’s role is to assist you in identifying your goals – goals that are realistic and sustainable for you to achieve your desired health outcomes and maintain them.

Health coaching is an exciting addition to the many health and wellness services out there today. As with all health related care, be sure and explore the credentials and reputation of the individuals you work with. It is your time, money and health that’s depending on you working with the right person.

With all good wishes,
Georgianna
Copyright 2011 G. Donadio

Integrative Nutrition

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What exactly is “integrative nutrition”? The word integrative when added to nutrition describes an approach taken to understanding nutrition from a whole person perspective.

The human being is made of of many aspects that come together to determine who they are, how they live and what their quality of life is. The way we think, behave, treat others, lives work and even eat are all inter-connected and are integrative to one another.

For many people they way they eat is compartmentalized from their big picture understanding of themselves. By exploring the various motivational triggers in our lives for both constructive and not so constructive behavior, we can experience an authentic control and understanding of “what makes us tick”.

I am personally a very health conscious individual, exercising 75 minutes a day with the vast majority of my meals consisting of living plant foods. The other afternoon a very close friend announced devastating new that sent me out of my office reeling with distress and I immediately knew I wanted a carbohydrate fix.

Not the kind of carbohydrate that by-passes insulin and is high in fiber, phytonutrients and rich in minerals and vitamin A and C, but the processed kind that had lots of sugar and calories in it that would result in significantly high levels of serotonin being secreted into my blood stream so my brain could take a step back, chill out and process the information I just received.

The idea of “integrative” nutrition or integrative exercise, meditation, yoga, working, lifetyle or any other aspect of our lives is to have a whole picture understanding of how the food or behavior is integrated into our whole self and into the larger perspective of what motivates and directs our behavior choices.

Yes, indeed, I  felt quite sick after pouring the sweet, crunchy snacks into my stomach, but I also was able to give myself some self-medication with the food that lowered my anxiety level and allowed me to emotionally process the news I received in a way that was less distressing and more constructive than if I would have NOT eaten the serotonin provoking foods. 

The most important thing about the choices we make is whether or not we make them consciously. Integrative nutrition is not always pure, living, green and healthy nutrition – but it is about the whole experience of how, why and what we eat.

With all good wishes,
Georgianna
Copyright 2011 G. Donadio

The Good, Bad and Ugly of Gossip

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Gossip is one of the most unconscious addictions many of us suffer from. If you want to do a little experiment, count how many times a day you talk about other people; those you know and even those you don't know like celebrities and politicians.

Not that all gossip is bad. There are basic social functions that gossip serves. The first function is that it creates an informal exchange of information. Very much like the referral services like "Angie's List" that provides feedback from folks who utilize professional services. The "grape vine" gossip can be informative and can serve as a reference service when we are looking to find out if someone is trustworthy or if a doctor or dentist is a good practitioner.

Another purpose gossip serves is to control inappropriate behavior by creating fear and concern of such behavior being broadcast through gossip and reveal information about an individual they would prefer to keep under wraps. Treating others badly, cheating on a spouse or being thought of as a liar are typical behaviors that people will try and curb to avoid being gossiped about.

Gossip can also be part of story telling and an attempt to understand human nature and why people behave as they do. We are often like curious detectives talking about what a person did or said to attempt to understand their motives and how they might be feeling about us. This is one way we try to resolve our realtionship conflicts by talking about the person with friends, family and even therapists.

When gossip is bad or ulgy, we step over the line and maliciously critize and "bad mouth" someone for the purpose of either putting them down or building ourself up. We may critize others in an attempt to deflect our own fears of inadequacy and insecurity.

Gossip can range from insightful story telling, social therapy to destructive behavior that diminshes others and ourselves. An important thing to remember about gossip is well stated in the Spanish proverb: "He who gossips with you will also gossip about you".

With all good wishes,
Georgianna

Copyright 2011 G.Donadio