Today, I am embarking on a year-long integrative nutrition study program, with the end goal of becoming a certified holistic health coach! This is such an exciting step for me because the wellness changes I’ve been making over the last several years have had such big impacts on my health. I can’t wait to learn even more with the hope of eventually helping other people walk their own wellness journey, too.

I truly believe there is a real place for holistic wellness and coaches who mentor people through healthy lifestyle changes. Seeing our bodies as a whole entity instead of treating individual symptoms as they arise makes a lot of sense to me. Interestingly, the word “health” comes from the Old English word “hale,” meaning wholeness or being whole. Today, the WHO defines “health” as a state of physical, mental, and social well-being. It’s not simply the absence of disease, it’s a whole-body state of balance.

Sadly, many of the health concerns in our modern world are completely preventable with healthy nutrition and lifestyle choices. For example, I come from a family with a history of Type II Diabetes. It’s scary, especially when diabetics are at a much higher risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, and a whole host of other health problems. And unfortunately, Type II Diabetes is turning into a serious health crisis in America. Did you know that one in four teenage boys is now affected? Even worse, about one quarter of adults who suffer from Type II don’t even know they have it.

Fortunately, holistic wellness changes can support many lifestyle-related conditions and even help prevent and control them. Of course, it’s crucial that people with diagnosed medical conditions always be under the care of their medical practitioners, but healthy lifestyle changes can really support a journey to wellness in a natural and healthy way.  We simply need some professional guidance to make better choices to change our trajectories. I look forward to a day when all medical practitioners regularly sit down with patients to discuss how to adapt positive changes that prevent lifestyle-related health conditions. Unfortunately with the current health care model, they oftentimes are so overworked and simply don’t have the time to discuss health maintenance and disease prevention.

That’s where professionals like holistic health coaches can partner with medical practitioners to bridge the gap.  By guiding clients through a series of small, attainable, step-by-step changes, health coaches help people create and stick to their individual health goals. Using a gradual introduction of basic changes allows people to experience a larger shift in wellness with only a little effort. Those changes can promote overall wellness throughout the whole body, sometimes even reversing the effects of the lifestyle-related conditions that are way too common today. I believe that focusing on health promotion and disease prevention instead of symptom and disease management is a revolutionary way to change the health of our families.

I invite you to join me on this journey of learning over the next year. Though this new blog will shift to be a place where I share about my wellness journey and what I’m learning at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, I’ll continue to write about homeschool, adoption, hobby farming, and all of our life adventures. In fact, I’ve imported several years worth of posts from the old blog, too.  I’m looking forward to growing and continuing in this life-long journey to holistic health, one small step at a time. I encourage you to stick around so we can learn together! Today is the day!