Fundamentals of Nutrition + Wellness
About Heather
For almost 20 years I was a preschool teacher and loved it! A shift began to happen for me after I lost my dad in 2013. His passing brought new awareness to life, longevity, and health in a whole new light. I began to make changes in how I ate and moved and became more intentional about learning and applying healthier practices. After experiencing changes in my mind and body and witnessing changes in my family's health, I knew I was onto something! Aches and pains were easing up, anxieties and panic attacks were lifting and sleep was beginning to feel restorative. Making those changes wasn't super easy to navigate in a world of fancy packaging, trendy diets, funky new workouts, and media outlets distorting reality. Inspired by overcoming those challenges, I wanted to provide the hand to hold for those afraid to start, unsure of what to do next, or feel overwhelmed by all the things.
I became certified through Precision Nutrition, which gave me the opportunity to dig deep into nutritional health & wellness. It was the research-based, structured, and systematic learning approach that I was searching for.
In September of 2021, I completed a 200 hour Yoga Teacher Certification which also includes Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Facilitator through Breath 4 Change. I have great appreciation for yoga, meditation & mindfulness and am so happy to be able to share beautiful practices that have positively shifted my journey.
I will stay a student for life... curious and excited about the body and how to support it with nutrition, movement, therapies and self-love. I celebrate that we are beautifully unique and have individual needs and preferences. This is what keeps my work with others challenging and exciting!
Wishing you peace & health
Deep Health
A WHOLISTIC APPROACH WITH DEEP HEALTH AWARENESS
I want to talk about what “wholistic” and “deep health” means to me in the nutrition and wellness coaching space. Deep health aligns beautifully with a wholistic approach which I find great value in. A wholistic practice means to consider mind, body, and spirit. I believe that the mind is a powerful tool. We can manifest pains but also successful breakthroughs in the body. I believe it's important to strengthen consciousness and mindset. The mind and body are absolutely intertwined.
This quote resonates and I come back to it often...
“The body achieves what the mind believes”
- Napoleon Hill
Deep health gets into the more refined details of being a unique individual and the importance of awareness when working cooperatively with individuals to address their needs and goals. I believe these details have a pretty big impact on our health. These things can help or hinder our journey depending on how we position ourselves and our mindset around them. If we are aware of each point here I believe we can develop a realistic plan and be set up to succeed at moving forward on your wholistic health journey.
Here are the “deep health” points I find quite important:
Environment - what is supportive around you?
Physical - how does your body currently function?
Emotional - how is your current mindset?
Existential - do you feel a sense of belonging?
Social - are you connected to others...who and how?
I look at how supportive and strong these points are and meet you where you’re at to respectfully guide and support a journey that addresses dialing in nutrition, healthy routines and mindset. I am not a medical professional and will absolutely include and/or refer clients to appropriate professionals as they need and wish. I am also ready and willing to cooperate with these professionals for your best interest.
I find so much truth to the proverb, “It takes a village.”
What does nutrition + wellness coaching look like?
First things first
When a client signs on with me the first thing that happens is I will send an initial assessment form. This is a detailed form that gives me a first look at where you are at and what you are looking to accomplish. We are just scratching the surface here!
Moving forward
My services are structured so that we commit to the, Foundation Month to assess and begin. After that month you have some options for how to commit to your supported journey. To make sustainable changes to nutrition and habits takes time. We often have a good idea for what we want and need but a more clear picture develops when we take time to assess and begin practicing.
Immediately we will schedule weekly consults, which I like to call “Strength Training.” These sessions are approximately an hour and can be scheduled in person or virtually!
During these Strength Training sessions we will review your past week and set new or fine tune current goals for the next week. We will begin to build and strengthen foundational skills, practices and daily actions. These foundations are key to your successful health journey (I will define them more later).
This process will look and feel different for each person, season and goal. The work can vary from quick and simple to quite complex. I have plenty of tools and practices that will help assess, understand, create a plan, choose action steps, monitor and decide what’s next. This work will create and support forward motion! No matter the pace, forward is the direction we are aiming for and at any pace will produce benefits in your nutrition and wellness practice.
Strength Training? But you’re a nutrition coach!
This is a fun play on words because we will work to strengthen your foundational wellness practices, mindset around wellness, knowledge of nutrition and a supportive environment. In reality the people with the best nutrition and wellness practices are most consistent with the foundational practices. So let's make them strong!
What are foundational practices?
Foundational practices make everything else possible. If we can get strong in these practices our bodies will be set up for the vitality and longevity we long for. Here are the foundational practices I find very important…
Plan, prioritize and prepare
Regulate eating behaviors
Match energy Intake to needs and goals
Choose higher quality foods
Provide adequate nutrients
Move often and well
Rest and recover
Create a supportive environment
Regulate emotions without food and eating