Health coaching today has moved far beyond helping people eat right and move more. Effective coaches understand that people’s relationship with food and health is effected by stress, sleep, relationships, and more. To create the transformation our clients really want, coaches need to understand and be prepared to work in all these areas. To that end, I offer my top 5 resources that I am always drawing upon in my coaching practice.
Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program that Works, by Evelyn Tribole, M.S., R.D., and Elyse Resch, M.S., R.D., F.A.D.A., C.E.D.R.D. 1995, 2003, 2012
With its 10 principles of intuitive eating, Tribole and Resch have created a program that coaches can use with clients in guiding them to reconnect with their body wisdom to transform their health. And now there is also a companion workbook, chock full of reflective activities to help anyone on their journey to reawaken their intuitive eater.
The Slow Down Diet: Eating for Pleasure, Energy, & Weight Loss, by Marc David, 2005.
This groundbreaking work has led to the founding of a new field of study of Mind-Body Nutrition and the creation of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. The book shows you how you can optimize your metabolism, no matter what you choose to eat. It is full of wisdom that will hopefully become common knowledge some day. Exercises and key takeaways are included at the end of each chapter.
Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight, by Linda Bacon, Ph.D., 2008
Read the book that launched a movement. It will have you questioning the role of weight as a health measure and help you understand just how harmful dieting and weight stigma is. The Health At Every Size approach advocates tuning in to your body’s expert guidance to achieve health at any size.
The Gift of our Compulsions: A Revolutionary Approach to Self-Acceptance and Healing, Mary O’Malley, 2004
Many people experience compulsive behavior of some sort. In my coaching practice, I work with clients who are challenged by compulsive eating and binge eating. This book offers a very compassionate, gentle approach to this often highly-charged issue. A great resource for health coaches to share with clients.
Empower Your Relationship with Food, Dawn MacLaughlin, Ph.D., 2017.
This online experience, combining self-paced exploration with group support, incorporates the key lessons of all 4 of the previous works. The course leads students through activities designed to help them break free of the diet mindset, connect with their inner body wisdom, practice principles of intuitive eating and mind-body nutrition, and compassionately explore their emotional eating behavior. Students have life-time access to the course, so they can work through at a pace that’s just right for them. To learn more, visit empower.mindbodynutritioncoaching.com.
These are the top resources that I use in my coaching practice. I hope they inspire you to stretch your clients in new ways.
Dr. Dawn MacLaughlin, The Food Freedom Coach, is passionate about helping people of all shapes and sizes free themselves from fighting food, weight, and body so they feel confident, energized, and ALIVE, without dieting and without giving up the things they love. As a former binge eating yo-yo dieter who has released 100 pounds, Dawn is quite familiar with the toll the struggle takes and how liberating it is to finally break free.