Transforming Lives with Health Coaching: A Nutrition Coach’s Perspective

For nutrition professionals, seeing clients struggle with implementing lifestyle changes can be frustrating. While you may provide detailed dietary plans and expert advice, clients often face mental and emotional barriers that prevent them from achieving their goals. This is where health coaching becomes invaluable. By integrating health coaching into your practice, you can address these challenges, empower clients to take action, and create meaningful, lasting transformations in their lives.

Hear from Registered Nutritionist & Health Coach, Awele Anne Anyia, on how health coaching has transformed her nutrition practice:

Registered Nutritionist & Health Coach, Awele Anne Anyia

Can you start by sharing a little more about what you do as a Nutrition Coach?

“I practise nutritional therapy and health coaching, specialising in helping women and men to transform their weight and health by focussing on nutrition, coaching, fitness and gut health. My approach is to first focus on their mindset. I believe that the body can only achieve what your mind believes. When clients come in with low confidence, a poor image of themselves, not liking their body or the way they look, then I address that first. I deal with their mindset and that’s where health coaching is so valuable. When their mindset is in the right place, I begin to make changes to their diet and their lifestyle.”

What first attracted you to health coaching?

“I trained to become a Health Coach because I had been struggling to move some of my clients forward. When I gave them recommendations, some of them were not following through with the changes. With health coaching, I found that I could support my clients in a more empowering way. I could work on their mindset, hold them accountable and move them forward."

Health coaching feels like the missing link in my nutrition practice, and for me it has been a game changer.

How do your nutrition clients feel about health coaching?

“I find my clients are much more motivated and compliant. I’m able to get my clients to be clear on their goals, what they want to achieve and why they need to make changes. I get them to see two different futures: what could happen if they do nothing, and what could happen when they do something? We then focus on the benefits of achieving their goals. They come up with a new health and wellness vision and they get excited about the journey. They’re more committed and then I’m able to move them forward.”

What difference does health coaching make to your practice?

“Health coaching feels like the missing link in my nutrition practice, and for me it has been a game changer. I know how to support my clients more and that has given me much more confidence. I have a lot more tools to use when my clients get stuck. 

Through health coaching my clients feel more positive and resourceful, and then they’re able to implement the changes. If someone is feeling rubbish about themselves, and you ask them to introduce a new healthier habit - for example, to drink more water - that’s the last thing they want to do. If they believe that it’s not going to work, they think, “What’s the point?”. You must get them to trust the process, believe in themselves, and become open to adopting healthier habits.”

With health coaching, I found that I could support my clients in a more empowering way. I could work on their mindset, hold them accountable and move them forward.

Can you give an example of how this approach has made a difference to one of your clients?

“I had a male client who was told after a blood test by his GP that he was pre-diabetic. In his first consultation, we were talking about his goals and I asked, “What is important to you?”. He got clear on his personal drivers and became emotional: “You know what? I don’t want to die. I want to see my children’s children. I want to live a long time. I don’t want to have diabetes.”

Exploring his health goals in this way opened his mind to the possibilities of what could happen if he did nothing about it. After that realisation he was so motivated he followed everything I asked him to do; exercising for the first time ever, making sure he was sleeping well and working on his gut health. I had to teach him how to eat so that he could regulate his blood sugars. When he went back to be tested his blood glucose was back in the normal range! He was so excited that he rang me as soon as he left the doctor's surgery, he was so happy!”

Curious about how health coaching could transform your nutrition career? Discover the powerful impact it can have on your clients and your practice. Book a call with a member of our friendly team to learn how you can start your journey into health coaching today.