Trying to make big changes in your life on your own can be difficult. It’s too easy to get distracted, discouraged, or to talk yourself out of things. Accountability is incredibly important when you want to achieve something, which is why working with a health coach is one of the best things you can do if you’re serious about improving your health. Whether you’re relatively healthy or trying to recover from Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome (AFS), talking to an expert may just give you that extra push you need to get your health back on track again.
If you need to make changes to your lifestyle to improve your health, you might think you can do it alone. This is a mistake a lot of people make. But in fact, if you want to make lasting changes that really work, you’re going to need help and support. One of the best ways to get this is by working with a health coach. Here are some of the benefits you’ll experience:
Too often, people who want to make lifestyle changes fail because their goals aren’t suitable for their body, lifestyle, or existing health issues. Fortunately, working with a health coach can help you eliminate this issue. As experts in motivation and health, your coach will encourage you to set achievable goals that suit every aspect of your life, often called SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Based. This approach is a lot more motivating than other methods.
Bonds of trust and friendship are incredibly important but they’re often one of the first things to go when you’re busy or stressed. However, studies show that it’s not money or objects that make people happy over the long term, it’s connections with other people. Working with a health coach will provide a new connection in your life and one that’s based on an in-depth understanding of you and your needs. For a health coach to be effective in their work, this type of connection is essential. And it will give you a psychological boost as well.
Sometimes when you have a goal in mind you can become a bit myopic and focus too much on that goal to the exclusion of everything else in your life. Working with a health coach will help you escape this perspective. They’ll focus on enhancing your health by working with your body, mind, and emotions as a whole rather than just focusing on isolated goals. This means suggesting strategies that fit in with your lifestyle, emotional needs, schedule and nutritional needs. Plus, they’ll help you make changes that actually work and that you can maintain.
A health coach will do more than train your body, they’ll also help you train your mind. You won’t get anywhere if you’re constantly fighting with your mind for control. For most people, this means changing negative narratives and beliefs about yourself, eliminating harmful self-talk, and establishing positive mental habits. Doing this is perhaps the most difficult part of changing your lifestyle, and it’s something a good health coach will focus on during your work together.
No matter what your goals are, there will always be barriers to achieving them. Planning solutions to potential hurdles are essential if you want to succeed, and that’s something that a health coach can help you with. With their help, you’ll learn to predict and understand the barriers that are likely to stand in your way. Then, you’ll develop the problem-solving skills you need to ensure they don’t disrupt your progress. They’ll also give you strategies to help you get back on track as quickly as possible after slip-ups.
If you want lifestyle changes to last, you need to build systems into your life that support your new way of living. This often means changing your environment and getting help and support from the people around you is perhaps the most important part of working with a health coach. Your coach has the experience and understanding to help you set up your life in a way that supports your new lifestyle so you can maintain it on your own.
If your method for trying to lose weight or exercise more doesn’t suit your personality, lifestyle, or schedule, then you will fail. The changes you make need to be lifestyle changes and they need to fit in with every other aspect of your life. A health coach can guide you down the right path to creating these lifestyle changes for yourself. So, by the time you’ve finished the process, your new strategies will be familiar to you and an accepted part of your daily life.
The health and lifestyle benefits will do more than improve your life, they’ll also support you as you recover from AFS.
If you’re suffering from AFS, you probably know just how difficult the road to recovery can be. Adrenal Fatigue is caused by chronic stress, which unfortunately has become an accepted part of modern life. There are many types of stressors in the modern world, from emotional issues to environmental toxins and work pressures. The human body just isn’t equipped to deal with these ongoing pressures. Your body manages stress via the NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) Stress Response System, which is activated to protect your body from the immediate source of stress. However, this built-in stress response is only meant to deal with short-term stress.
In the modern world, stress is something we live with every day. This leads to constant activation of the NEM Stress Response and eventually, your adrenal glands become overworked. The adrenals are responsible for producing essential stress hormones that help you deal with stress. However, fatigued adrenals can result is widespread system imbalances. Your body usually maintains a delicate balance of hormones, and when this balance is disturbed, the results can be catastrophic. As a result, people with AFS usually find themselves battling a combination of confusing and seemingly unrelated symptoms as the various circuits of the body start to malfunction. If you don’t seek out the right kind of help, this situation can quickly worsen leaving you extremely ill or fighting for your life. Some of the symptoms of AFS include insomnia, fatigue, the inability to lose weight, heart palpitations, being “wired and tired”, salt and sugar cravings, and food sensitivities.
Recovering from AFS is not easy. You’ll need to use a combination of strategies designed to decrease your stress levels and give your body everything it needs to heal and rebalance. Changing your diet is a huge part of this process because your body will never be able to heal if it doesn’t have all the nutrients it needs to function at its best. Finding gentle forms of exercise that decrease stress is another important part of recovery. Although these changes are essential, they aren’t always easy, which is why working with a health coach is such a great idea. Having support and expert knowledge on your side during the recovery process can be the key to pushing past your barriers and finding the best approaches to improve your physical, mental, and emotional health. And the best way to improve your AFS as well.
There are many ideas for treating AFS on the internet. If you’re in the early stages of Adrenal Fatigue, you may be able to get away with treating yourself using various supplements and altering your diet. However, oftentimes this backfires and could actually worsen your Adrenal Fatigue. That’s why we recommend seeking out a health coach to help you on your tough yet possible Adrenal Fatigue recovery. Once your health coach puts you on the right track, you can choose to manage the rest of the recovery yourself.
The bioenergetics circuit is responsible for getting enough energy to your organs, cells, and the brain. If this circuit becomes unbalanced as a result of AFS, you’ll be left feeling constantly tired and your brain may not function as efficiently as it should due to the lack of energy. The circuit is comprised of the thyroid, liver and pancreas, all of which perform individual duties. Each organ supplies a particular set of hormones that prompt the chemical reactions that convert food into energy. If this circuit is unbalanced, you may start to experience AFS symptoms such as weight gain, sugar cravings, and general fatigue.
Working with a health coach can help you rebalance your bioenergetics circuit. They’ll assist you in designing a diet full of all the nutrients your body needs to function. This will ensure the Bioenergetics Circuit has all the elements it needs to fuel all the cells in your body. A health coach will also help you make long-term sustainable changes that suit your body and lifestyle so that your Bioenergetics Circuit will always have what it needs to function properly. As experts in the body and energy, a health coach can also help you design an exercise program that doesn’t place additional stress on your body and actually supports your recovery. This is essential if you’re suffering from AFS since exercise can sometimes be overwhelming and even damaging to your body, leading to additional problems that will only hamper your recovery.
Making big changes in your life is never easy, particularly when you’re busy and other things are occupying your mind and your time. But you can make it easier on yourself by working with a health coach. The key is finding someone qualified. Not health coaches are the same. For best results, seek out someone who is knowledgeable in what you’re going through and specializes in AFS. Non-specialized health coaching for normal healthy individuals could make you worse if you suffer from AFS. The weaker your body is, the greater the risk. But the right coach will give you the motivation you need to stay on track and keep working towards better health and a better lifestyle overall. This will not only improve your overall health, but your body will also start to heal from AFS.
© Copyright 2020 Michael Lam, M.D. All Rights Reserved.
Trying to make important lifestyle changes alone can leave you discouraged. But working with a health coach will help you push through those tough times and make real and lasting changes that leave you feeling and looking healthier and happier.
