What Is Nutrition Coaching?

“Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.” – John Whitmore, Coaching for Performance 

By Nyanda Dennison

This is what I believe about coaching: 

• Everyone has the solutions to their own problems, but they may need help to find them.  
• Coaching builds awareness, empowers choice and leads to change. 
• Coaching supports you make today better, which by default makes the future better. 

These are applicable to any type of coaching but especially so for Nutrition Coaching. Everybody has the power to improve their own health and I believe building awareness around your habits and empowering yourself to make healthy choices is key to making positive and lasting change.  

My job as a Nutritional Coach is to support you to do this. 

What Are Healthy Habits?

Having a goal is great, it gives you something to look forward to, but it can be easy to get distracted and lose sight of the goal, especially if it seems far away.  

Making small daily changes is more manageable and will by default lead to that goal or outcome. This is especially true for the desire to be healthy because having good health is not an end state, it’s a way of living. 

Our daily habits shape each day and, over time, who we are. Think of the habits you do every day, the ones you like and the ones you don’t. Someone who smokes every day calls themselves a smoker, someone who runs every day would call themselves a runner. I cook every day, so I call myself a cook! These daily habits become who we are. 

I believe that minor changes can lead to significant results, but we are all susceptible to the desire to change too much too quickly. With healthy habits that improve today, and the next day, and the next day, these habits will become your new way of life.  

To change the way you look at your habits, I recommend that all my clients read ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear. 

What Can Nutrition Coaching Do To Support You? 

As a Nutrition Coach I will ask questions to understand your current situation and what you want to change about it. I believe it is important to get very clear on this:

• How do you see yourself now? 
• What habits do you do every day? the ones you like and the ones you don’t like. 
• How do these habits make you feel?  
• Why do you want to change your habits? 

You can’t know who you want to be if you aren’t honest with yourself about where you are now. 

Once we understand that, I will ask questions to help you find the ways to change. 

• Where are your healthy living limitations? Budget, time, skills, access, culture. 
• What have you tried in the past that has worked? Or not? 
• What support do you need to make these healthier changes? 

Once you’re clear on both these things then we decide together how best I can support you. That will look different for every person, but more often than not it will include helping to focus on why you want to change and to manage limitations and road blocks – for when you get discouraged, distracted or when life gets in the way! 

Book an appointment with me and let me show you how nutrition coaching can help you embed healthier habits to help you achieve optimal wellness in 2023.