Health Coaching (Practical Ideas) by Francis Bills

Here are a few practical ideas to get you going or to keep you going with your healthy lifestyle.

Each individual is unique and each of us knows what is best for us.

You are the expert on you.

Therefore, take the best and discard the rest.

Do what works for you.

The ideas that follow are things that have helped me immensely and I truly believe that they’ll help you as well, if implemented consistently.  

Tip #1: Embody a health mindset. A health consciousness.

What does this mean?

It means consciously thinking about being healthy and living a healthy lifestyle.

It means thinking about the essence or the feeling in which you want to have throughout the day.  

It means thinking about your motive or reason for having an improved level of health and keeping this motive in the forefront of your mind when making decisions throughout the day.

Tip #2: Exercise self-control and discipline

Ask yourself, “Which one is more important, the instant gratification or my long-term health, energy and overall well-being?”

Discipline is actually a good thing and by exercising it you start to enjoy strengthening it.

It feels good to have self-control and this feeling will spill over and affect other areas of your life.    

Tip #3: Take an inventory and document everything you eat and drink for at least one week.

As always I recommend writing things down on paper, but feel free to document it using whatever method works for you.  

Identify and document how each food item and drink makes you feel.

Some examples could be; energetic, refreshed, relaxed, and focused, or sluggish, dehydrated, bloated, tense or unable to concentrate.  

Be sure to identify the correct food with the correct feeling.

Sometimes the foods we eat have a delayed effect on us, so be sure to correctly identify which ones make you feel good and which ones don’t.

After doing this for at least a week, you’ll have a very good understanding about the foods and drinks that are helping your body and which ones aren’t.

Eliminate any foods that hinder your ability to feel your best and replace them with more of and different varieties of the foods that affect your physical well-being positively.

Tip #4: Take actions that make it easier for you to succeed.

For example, keep fresh fruit and healthy snacks available and keep unhealthy foods out of your house.

Don’t go long periods of time without eating anything. Our bodies tend to crave fatty foods when we do this.

Keep healthy snacks on-hand and eat them in-between meals.

Prepare your meals ahead of time and bring them to work with you.  

Recognize when you engage in the habit of eating unhealthy and replace the identified activity with a healthier alternative.

For example, engage in physical activity instead of watching TV or scrolling through your phone.

Surround yourself as much as possible with encouraging, positive and supportive people who believe in living a healthy lifestyle.

Pay attention to your body and know when it needs to rest.

Tip #5: Please take your health seriously.

Don’t wait until you’re forced to eat healthy or exercise more.

Please don’t take these suggestions lightly due to their simplicity.

It’s the simple things, done repetitively and consistently over time which bring us the greatest results.

Don’t let yourself get discouraged. It takes time to build discipline but I promise you that the benefits are well worth your effort.

Over time, these healthy habits become an automatic part of our lives and it actually becomes hard to do what’s unhealthy.

Tip #6: Last and most importantly, be sure to IMPLEMENT these ideas into your life.

The value of this information doesn’t come from reading about it, it comes from taking action.

It’s what you DO that gets results.