How an Eating Habit Coach Helps

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Want to know how exactly an eating habit coach helps you?

In this 50th episode, I’m sharing the unique way that as an Eating Habit Coach, I help you break bad eating habits and lose weight with more than just actions.

If you’re unsure of what coaching is in general, don’t worry because I explain that too.

You’ll want to give this one a listen, because I’m positive you’ll learn some new and fascinating things.

*To read the full episode transcript, scroll all the way down.

How an Eating Habit Coach Helps

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Full Episode Transcript:

How an Eating Habit Coach Helps

Hi there, welcome to the podcast. Today is the 50th episode, so fun. I can’t believe I have been podcasting for almost a year now. I publish an episode every week, so that means that episode 52 will be the one-year mark.

The reason why I say I can’t believe that I have been podcasting for almost a year now is because I hated public speaking when I was in school. In fact, I dreaded it. Probably a lot more than the normal human being.

And now, I guess this isn’t exactly standing up on a stage and talking in front of thousands of people, because it’s in the comfort of my own home, but I’ve come a long way. And that’s just a result of growth and doing things that I had some fear around but deciding to just do them anyway.

If you want the result enough, then you find out that you’re willing to experience some fear initially. Because after the initial decision and step forward, it’s not so scary anymore. In fact, it’s like “oh, I’m so glad I made this decision.” You realize that the reward is so much greater than the risk.

And once you start doing actions that you know will help you create the results you want, despite any sort of discomfort like self-doubt or fear, you are unstoppable. You realize that you can do anything that you want.

There’s basically no such thing as failure. Because if you’re willing to keep getting up and trying, and if you’re willing to do the thing despite the discomfort, you will succeed. It’s only things like discomfort, doubt, fear that cause us to give up and when we give up, that’s when we truly fail. We fail ourselves.

So, when you continue despite some discomfort, you learn how to just commit to what you want and go for it. You become a great decision maker. That brings me to the topic for this 50th podcast episode which is how an eating habit coach helps. You’ll see what I mean.

Now, there are all kinds of coaches, right? You have your athletic coaches, Life coaches, weight loss coaches, relationship coaches, finance coaches, all the coaches.

Many of these coaches are under the category, life coaches. So, when I use the general term “coach” in this podcast episode I’m referring to any coach besides athletic coaches.

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So, to sum up what a coach does in the simplest terms is a coach helps you become a better decision maker. This can be any area of life. It can be a better decision-maker with finances, food, fashion even.

What do I mean by becoming a better decision maker? So, if you think about it, your actions or inactions occur because of decisions that you’re making. And your actions will always determine your results.

So, if you want certain results in your life, in any area of your life, you will have to become a better decision maker so that your actions are aligned with the results you want. Better decisions mean actions more aligned with results you want.

For example, as it relates to eating habits, if you find yourself choosing the 3 doughnuts over the oatmeal for breakfast most mornings and you’re trying to lose weight and improve your energy levels throughout the day, the decision to eat the doughnuts over the oatmeal is probably not going to help you get the results you want.

So, an Eating Habit Coach helps you choose the healthier option that’s going to move you closer to your goals.

An Eating Habit Coach also helps you to see what is going into your decision-making process in that moment. What’s triggering you to decide on the doughnuts even though you want the weight loss results and the increased energy levels.

Now, another thing with eating habits is that sometimes that habit is a true habit that is very automatic, and you feel like there’s no decision making going on at all. You feel like it’s just completely out of your control.

I was trained to help you break that automaticity though, even if that is the case where you feel like there’s not even a thought that occurs. You just do the action automatically out of habit. That’s what my habit coach certification provided me with education and tool-wise to assist you with that.

Okay, so let’s take a little bit deeper look at how an Eating Habit Coach helps. So, as I mentioned, actions are just results of decisions you’re making. Decisions that are made using your thoughts and how you feel. Usually your conscious thoughts. Thoughts that you’re aware of.

Sometimes you’re not aware of the thoughts, but you’re aware of your feelings. Your feelings are Your feelings will drive your actions or inactions.

For example, emotional eating is a big one here. You may be feeling crummy, maybe you can even identify the feeling or emotion as stress or annoyance. And then you may decide to eat based upon that feeling. So, there’s still a decision-making process here.

Or the emotional eating habit may be so strong that you feel like you aren’t even deliberately deciding to eat, you just are.

Even if you feel like you are not really in control, there are ways to get in control in situations like this. And that’s how an Eating Habit Coach helps.

So, I would help you to look at the thoughts and the feelings that are affecting your actions, and if there’s not much control with the thoughts and feelings, we get that control, along with getting control in other ways with other techniques.

And I keep saying actions, but also inaction is included in this. So, a better term would be to use the word behavior. Behavior includes actions, inactions, and reactions. If you think about emotional eating, eating would be a reaction to the emotion.

Now, there are also circumstances that play a part in behaviors as well.  Also that play a part in our actions, inactions, and reactions. Circumstances can be other people, the weather outside, work schedule, a medical diagnosis, a social event.

For example, you may have a birthday party coming up and there could be lots of tempting food there like birthday cake, cookies, ice cream, hot dogs, chips, etc. These things can be triggers for your eating behaviors.

How circumstances end up playing a part in actions is that we have thoughts and feelings about these circumstances which then play a part in that decision making process.

So, an Eating Habit Coach also helps you with those circumstances. Navigating those circumstances and helping you to see that you at least have control in your thoughts and feelings about those circumstances, which makes it way easier to control your behaviors. Because remember, your actions, inactions or reactions are determined by your thoughts and feelings.

A common misunderstanding that I see a lot, is that because we don’t have control over circumstances like other people, the weather, etcetera, we just sort of succumb to this and are a victim to our circumstances.

Basically, not realizing that there are lots of things that you can control in yourself, regardless of the circumstance, that affect your actions and results.

And, just a note, sometimes with certain circumstances, you can control some aspects of the circumstance. You can’t control a person or the weather, but you can control some other things surrounding the circumstances sometimes.

You can also control how you communicate with someone else. For example, you can control if someone offers you another slice of birthday cake and puts it right in front of your face. However, you CAN have some control by having a response prepped ahead of time that feels good to you.

Another example is your work schedule. If you feel like you don’t get a lunch break, there are ways around this. You could talk to your boss and communicate clearly how you should be getting a lunch break and how that lunch break will help you to produce better work throughout the day.

Or, if your boss is not very kind, you could maybe talk to one of your colleagues and strike a deal with the colleague that you cover the colleague while they take a short lunch break and vice versa. So, there’s always lots of creative ways to problem solve.

And of course, like I mentioned, you can always create the results you want, by deciding how you want to think and feel about the circumstance, which then will affect how you act or behave, which will of course affect your results.

I help you with all of this. So the title, Eating Habit Coach really encompasses a much larger picture than just the actions of eating or how much you’re eating or what you’re eating.

I’m also a weight loss coach, using all these same approaches, but also adding in some things habits that are specific to weight loss.

For example, sleep and hydration habits. Stress relief because chronic stress will cause weight gain.

Also, thought habits. What you’re thinking about your body. That has a huge effect on how you feel and then how you show up. The actions or inactions you take.

Also, even just your thoughts and feelings about the number on the scale. How you think about it will affect your actions going forward, which of course further affect your weight loss results.

One of the fun parts that I also want to mention is how an Eating Habit Coach helps is to make sure that you’re celebrating your wins. Even the tiny wins. Your brain needs positive reinforcement or reward to keep doing the things you’re doing that are creating the results that you want.

So, I keep you on track with that. I also keep you on track with your thoughts, feelings, and actions every single week, so that you don’t fall backwards. You’re always making progress forwards.

Because as soon as you start to fall backwards, it’s very tempting to give up. Or at least very tempting to say, “Screw it.” “This is too uncomfortable.” “I can’t do this.”

In that way, an Eating Habit Coach is similar to an athletics or sports team coach. When the team starts to feel a little bit down because they’re losing, the coach helps to build them back up again.

A coach can turn the game around by what he or she says to the teammates to get them to think and feel differently. Those teammates can be amazing as far as their skill level is concerned, but sometimes their hearts just aren’t in it for whatever reason.

Or circumstances occur that start getting them down about things. Maybe they give up several points in a row.

Therefore, it’s a matter of stepping in as a coach, identifying what the issue is and helping the teammates, or helping you the client, see something differently so that you feel something differently and then you do something differently just naturally.

Again, you become a better decision maker for your actions, because you’re changing how you think and feel. Until it becomes habit to just do this naturally. Until it becomes habit to think, feel, and do like the person who has the results.

In fact, I even help you to think like the person who already has the results before you even have the results, so you can start to feel and do like the person who already has the results. Ha, I’ll repeat that. That was a lot.

I help you to think like the person who already has the results before you even have those results. That way, you can start to feel and do like the person who already has the results. You step into that new identity.

This assists you in getting those results, because the more your thoughts, feelings and actions are aligned with the results you want, the better. Also, the SOONER your thoughts, feelings and actions are aligned with the results you want, the better.

Okay, so in a broad overview kind of a way, that’s how an Eating Habit Coach helps you break bad eating habits and even lose weight.

I must say, it’s more than just breaking eating habits and losing weight too. It’s so many other things, because you become a better decision maker, you think and feel differently, and you learn the skill so that it becomes a habit. Which benefits so many other areas of your life.

That’s why it’s not just the results of breaking the bad eating habits or the weight loss that are life changing, but also learning how to think and feel differently about things if you want to, if it serves you to think and feel differently.

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Alright, so I did want to just answer one question, which is “can you help me even if I’ve failed other things?”

The answer is yes, of course. Many times, these other things don’t include all of what I just mentioned throughout this podcast episode. Mainly the thoughts and feelings part of it. And, the actual habit part of it.

You may have found that you got results with something temporarily, and unfortunately all or some of it returned. Either the eating habits or the weight.

That’s usually because the actual habit part of it wasn’t addressed and the thoughts and feelings were addressed. Or they weren’t addressed fully, so that you were able to easily able to maintain despite life’s circumstances being thrown at you.

I will even go on to say that if you did try and fail other things, I’d consider that a good thing, because then I know more about what worked and didn’t work for you, and we can even figure out why. It’s just used as more data which helps. That’s how I look at a lot of things. It’s just data that can be helpful moving forward.

Alright, so without getting too lengthy in this 50th podcast episode on how an Eating Habit Coach helps, that’s what I have for you to give you a broad overview of how coaching works. Plus, how it can help you with your eating habits and even weight loss goals.

And if you’re thinking about getting my help, just keep in mind that the longer you wait with habits, the stronger the habit gets.

This is fine, nothing that I can’t handle, and nothing that you can’t handle, but you will have an easier time if you don’t wait another couple of months. And who doesn’t want to have an easier time? And if you can have the results sooner rather than later, why wait?

I used to take forever with decisions. I’d waste time and miss out. That was something that I decided to change about myself and now when I know what I want, I collect some information, don’t deliberate too long, and I go after it. The longer you take to think about things, the more your brain will talk you out of it based on fear. True fact.

So, base your decisions on what you truly desire and the possibility of what you can have. The possibility of what your future can really look like. It feels so much better that way. When you know what you want, and you go and get it. So go get it, my career woman.

Thanks for listening, take care and I’ll talk with you soon.

change your eating habits for life
Kate Johnston, Certified Habit Coach, Physician Assistant

KATE JOHNSTON

Eating Habits & Weight Loss Coach, PA-C

Helping career women, including women in healthcare lose weight sustainably, by breaking bad eating habits.

Start your transformation with clarity, insight, and direction by booking a free consultation with me below.