Why Health Coaching?
As I'm embarking on this new journey of health coaching, I get a LOT of questions about why I became a health coach and why health coaches are needed today. I think I answered my personal why in my About Me section, so I'll cover the why health coaching is needed and how it can benefit YOU here.
We're unhealthy. The United States as a whole has some pretty staggeringly BAD statistics when it comes to health. The stats have been getting worse for some time, and it doesn't look like a sunny outlook on the horizon for our nation's health. Here are some not so fun facts to consider:
- No state has an obesity rate of 15% or less (the national goal). Thirty-three states have an obesity rate of 25% or higher.
- One third of all children today will eventually suffer from diabetes.
- By 2025 it is estimated that half of all Americans will have some type of chronic disease.
- About 1 in 5 adults meet the recommended physical activity guidelines set by the CDC. (About 30 minutes, 5 days/week)
- Less than 3 in 10 high school students get 60 minutes of exercise per day.
Americans are at a higher risk now more than ever of dying from chronic disease. Chronic diseases include diabetes, heart disease, cancer, eating disorders, arthritis, asthma, obesity, cystic fibrosis, and Alzheimer's to name a few. Most chronic diseases can be improved or even cured completely by lifestyle changes, most notably nutrition changes. Health coaches are trained to help anyone looking to make these changes improve their lives just through working together to become aware of current habits and change those that will have the most positive impact for them personally. Less than one in eight regular medical checkups include nutrition advice, an area where health coaches are trained extensively. This is a huge area where health coaches can have a great impact.
We have one of the highest per capita expenditures for health and almost nothing to show for it as the overall health of our country continues to decline. Only 3% of our healthcare dollars are spent on prevention. That means 97% of healthcare dollars are spent on "solutions". Prescriptions, treatments, and tests for specific diseases or conditions are the bulk of our spending whereas nutrition education, preventive testing, physical education don't get the attention they deserve to keep us well.
Children in the United States are obese and clinically malnourished. These two terms seem at odds with one another, but when you examine the Standard American Diet (SAD) and look at what the average American child is eating, it's becomes easier to understand. I'll do multiple blog posts on children and nutrition in the future, but children ARE our future. If we as adults aren't fueling them properly, teaching them how to take care of their body and the earth, then we're setting them up for failure as adults. Again, I'll touch more on this in the coming posts, but my main goal as a health coach is to impact families so that we can work together to change the future of our country and the world.
Health coaches are needed to supplement the health care industry, to give time to individual patients that doctors just don't have during short appointments, to educate, to mentor, to coach, to partner with anyone who needs some extra support on whatever type of health journey they're on. If you've ever felt that you had questions that your doctor didn't answer, that you need some extra support with a nutrition change, or someone to help you sort out your cravings, a health coach may be for you. Go to my homepage and sign up for your free health consultation.
Sources:
The World Health Organization (WHO); Integrative Nutrition; Center for Disease Control (CDC)