This is the story of one of my wellness coaching clients. She was kind enough to share with me what she gained from our coaching experience and hopes her story will help others. Enjoy!
January 2011 to May 2011 I met with Lisa English as a wellness coach. She was my trainer as well in January and February. I first met her in 2009 where she became my trainer to help me get into shape for my wedding. I felt amazing working with her and I look awesome in my wedding dress as a result. I called her to train in 2011 because I had gained weight since my wedding. In the past I always associated true happiness with how I looked. I would always say to myself “If I lose this much weight I will be happy.” I never thought about other aspects of wellness until I met with her in January. It was just a normal training session when all of a sudden during our initial meeting I poured everything out that made me unhappy. It went way beyond how I looked, but I always just thought stress and unhappiness were due to times I had gained weight. At the time she was working towards being a wellness coach and asked if I would be willing to try wellness coaching. I was willing to try anything because I knew it was time for a change. I needed to find a way to be more confident about myself both on the inside and on the outside.
Wellness coaching truly has made such a big impact on my life. It helped me discover on my own how good my life has been and the good things I have accomplished. Lisa helped me discover all of this on my own. Every session I would bring something up that made me doubt what a good person I am. For example, in the past I compared myself to everyone whether it was in sports, school, or the way I looked. I always felt other people were better than me in everything. Once this was addressed I felt so much better about myself. Through the coaching I was able to list all my accomplishments in sports, academics and professionally. I was able to list everything that I value in life. By making lists I was able to discover on my own what a special, accomplished person I really am. I discovered that by writing down all the positives in my life and all of my accomplishments I was able to get through the negative thoughts that pop into my head. I know that I am able to accomplish anything I put my mind to. Through wellness coaching I also learned to say no. I always said yes to helping people and I never put myself first. This added alot of stress in my life. Now I have much more balance in my life by picking and choosing what I say yes to.
For the longest time I always just tried to fix the physical part of me, but I realized that I needed to improve other parts of my wellness first if I was ever going to be successful with weight loss. I needed to work on my mental, social and professional wellness. By improving these aspects of my life I am now ready to tackle the physcial wellness. I still have challenges I face and negative thoughts that creep in day to day, but I am able to face them by thinking about all the positives in my life. I set goals and I know I can achieve them because I have shown that I can do so in the past.
Currently I am unemployed due to school budget cuts and I gained 10 pounds back from what I lost last year. In the past I would be thinking I was a failure. With the help of wellness coaching I am able to stay positive. I still use the lists I created to remember everything I have accomplished and all the good memories I have and good family and friends. This helps me stay positive so that I can make a plan as to how I am going to lose the weight and what I need to do to find a teaching job again. I don’t let myself get discouraged anymore because I know a lot of good things go on in my life. Whatever challenge comes my way I have been able to discover, through wellness coaching, that I can achieve and overcome these challenges.
LISA ENGLISH - WELLNESS COACH 