If you don't know what this is, that's a good thing! (Chicken-fried steak)

The rise of celebrity chefs and food programs has been phenomenal. True, there are some excellent shows that feature healthy cuisines, and more wellness-oriented content. However the alarming trend has been for more and more shows to do what television shows have learned works for ratings: to shock and to “give the public what they want.” I’m talking gluttony and foods that have been scientifically linked over and over again to the obesity and health crisis we see in America and ever-increasingly, worldwide.

Americans watch an average of Four Hours of Television Per Day. (http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html) This media-saturated culture allows television celebrities easy access to our awareness and affects our lifestyle decisions more than we think.

We see food programs, often posing as travel shows, glorify over-eating to a degree that is all about shock value. We tune in to programs that seem to inevitably feature consuming the most disgusting substances the host can find. Far too many programs show the host seeking out and gorging on huge quantities of the fattiest red-meat items available. Or, we indulge in a convenient fantasy that “good old home cooking” with all the butter and gravy possible won’t really hurt us. Cholesterol, calories, salt and fat content be damned! Full speed ahead!

We WANT to believe that we can eat like those folks on television and get away with it. The identification with some of these television chefs has been astonishing. What we forget is that they often become more of a corporate “brand” than a person. They represent the tip of a business iceberg that at times becomes a juggernaut of capitalistic power. When that happens it’s not about your health, it’s about making money.

Paula Deen, the television chef who made millions pushing traditional Southern cooking with a style of over-indulgent exaggeration, became “The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest” recently when she announced that she has come down with Type Two Diabetes. While deserving of all the compassion we would give anyone who encounters this challenge in their life, Paula lost much of such potential support by only revealing her affliction three years after her diagnosis. In the meantime she had continued to push her “brand” and all of the diabetes-engendering recipes that went with it. She also never revealed her diabetes until she had a mult-million dollar contract in place to be a spokesperson for a diabetes drug company. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/paula-deen-diabetes-announcement-celebrity-chefs-support_n_1224454.html)

When we give our power away to entertainers who may or may not have our health and best interests at heart, we lose. We often feel betrayed when some truth finally comes to the surface, whether it’s about them, or when we suffer consequences in our own health.

It’s really like reading labels. What is the real content of this product? I loved hearing Marion Nestle (no relation to the food company) (http://www.foodpolitics.com/) talk about nutrition and the food industry at The National Wellness Conference (http://www.nationalwellness.org/index.php?id_tier=90) one year. She made it clear that the big food companies are not evil, they’re not out to get us. They simply are out to make money and are really very neutral about our health. If we purchase junk, they will make and market more junk. If we purchase more healthy food, they will, as we have seen, make and market more healthy food. The same is true for TV.

I’m not out to change TV. I’m out to help people reclaim their own lives. Read the label, so to speak, on what you watch on television. Remember that your favorite celebrity may simply be putting on an infomercial and calling it a TV show. Watch consciously and be conscious of how much you watch. We can’t always trust the intention behind a show. It’s like finding a good looking website on nutrition and then digging deeper and finding out that it’s just a propaganda voice for a coalition of food industry vested interests. The charge of all of these shows is to entertain first and foremost. That’s why we find them fun and interesting. What’s wonderful is when they share recipes that are actually heart-healthy, cancer-preventing, and diabetes-preventing.

We would love to feel like celebrities are our “friends”. We all want to be connected to others. We enjoy their entertainment and we sometimes aspire to be more like them, for better or for worse. Celebrities are real people and the few I’ve met personally, like John Denver and Dennis Weaver, were as sincere and genuine as it gets. However, let’s not make them lifestyle beacons for us or give them authority they don’t deserve. It’s like a time way back in the late 1960’s when I noticed a friend of mine hanging on every word of a rock band for philosophical and political guidance. No wonder The Moody Blues put out a tune at that time entitled “I’m Just A Singer In A Rock n’ Roll Band.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqOSzkqPhbA)

Wellness Self-Quiz:
1. Have you found television food shows that emphasize wellness and healthy eating? Please share.
2. Have you found yourself recently shifting your eating habits to include more (not less) red meat dishes, more fried foods, more higher-fat content items after seeing such trends on show you watch?
3. What is one thing you can do to be a more conscious consumer of food programs on television?

Half FULL! Right?

Considering how happy most folks are to see 2011 fading in the rear-view mirror, it’s amazing what a collective sense of optimism there is about 2012. An Associated Press-GfK survey found that 62 percent of those surveyed are optimistic about what 2012 will bring America, and 78 percent were personally optimistic about the new year. (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70925.html) This validated my experience at a big New Year’s Eve party where there wasn’t much talk about resolutions, but there was a surprisingly positive and hopeful view of the coming year.

We all know that New Year’s Resolutions often fade away quicker than losing teams in the football playoffs. Optimism, however, works! When it comes to being successful at changing behavior, especially health behavior, the optimists have an upper hand.

In a huge study of 100,000 women (reported on a BBC website http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8193180.stm) American researchers found results that mirrored those of an earlier Dutch study on men. Published in the prestigious medical journal Circulation, the study showed that “optimistic women had a 9% lower chance of developing heart disease and a 14% lower chance of dying from any cause after more than eight years of follow up. In comparison cynical women who harboured hostile thoughts about others or were generally mistrusting of others were 16% more likely to die over the same time-scale.” Another study in The Archives of General Psychiatry (Nov 2004) states that major depression is a known risk factor in cardiovascular death – this isn’t new news. Optimists have a 55% lower risk of death from all causes and a 23% lower risk of cardiovascular death than pessimists. (http://l-pawlik-kienlen.suite101.com/personality-changes-everything-a12402#ixzz1jNWQda4E) A study in the February 27, 2006 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, found that the most optimistic elderly men had a 50% lower risk of cardiovascular death over 15 years when compared with the least optimistic. These are only a few of the studies out there, but we’d have to say that being optimistic is a significant advantage. (http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/optimism-associated-with-lower-cardiovascular-risk)

Mildred Norman walked over 25,000 miles spreading peace.

“If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.”– Peace Pilgrim

When social scientists study optimism though, as usual, the simplistic becomes more complex than we thought. In the comprehensive book Health Behavior Change and Treatment Adherence: Evidence-based Guidelines, authors Leslie Martin, et. al. (http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/?view=usa&view=usa&ci=9780195380408&cp=24297) find optimism to be an advantage for healthy behavior, but not without it’s contradictions.

When Optimism Becomes Too Rosy

One downside can be when optimists consider health risks. The overly optimistic person wants to assume that their casual sexual partner is certainly free of any STD’s. They may forego their annual medical check-up for years and years because they are so positive that they are completely healthy.

Optimists expect positive outcomes, but don’t always realize that they may need to take action to change their own behavior in order to affect those outcomes. This is where wellness coaching can help a client get the results they want by implementing a real plan to get there.

Optimism doesn't guarantee success, but it helps!

Optimism is no “free pass” to success at behavioral change. Martin, et.al., found that optimistic self-beliefs don’t operate equally across all type of change. Some people might feel very optimistic about starting a change process in some areas and not in others, or “competent to start a new behavior but frustrated and pessimistic when facing the inevitable difficulties and barriers in its long-term maintenance.”
They also found that “Optimism may help when meeting primary prevention goals such as eating a healthful diet or when initially faced with a health crisis. Optimism may be less helpful when dealing with the ongoing challenges of treatment for a chronic illness or when making assessments about risks…”

Martin and crew do conclude though, that “Optimism… appears to be a major determinant of goal-directed behavior and tenacity. Optimistic people persevere and keep trying despite difficulties!”

Coaching is an intrinsically optimistic process and profession. It believes, and coaches themselves believe, in the potential of the human spirit. I love to say that coaching was grounded in Positive Psychology twenty years before Martin Seligman and others started using that term. Their research has done a great job of validating the coach approach.

Wellness coaches will forever encounter less than optimistic, even flat-out pessimistic clients. Many times we are working with people whose hope and optimism has been dashed by one failure experience after another. Lifestyle change goals like weight-loss, stress management and smoking cessation are frequently attempted and met with disappointment. Such a client needs to have what Albert Bandura calls “Mastery Experiences”. It’s the old coaching maxim of “nothing succeeds like success”. Call them baby steps, or whatever you like, but success does build on small, high-probability successes. We can enhance that success probability with good coaching. As self-efficacy rises once again, hope and optimism is generated, re-kindled. The fire of change is ignited once again!

“No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.” – Helen Keller

What are your thoughts on optimism and behavior change? Please add your comments here.

Naughty, Nice, and TOO MUCH TO DO!

Despite our best efforts to avoid “holiday stress” it always seems to arrive as reliably as Santa himself. The “to do list” seems impossible and we pay the price physically and emotionally when the stress is too much.

The way to tackle a “to-do list” is not to whittle away at it, it’s more like running it through a filter or processor and determining priorities and what really needs to be done and what just doesn’t. That filter is the Urgent/Important Matrix made famous by former president Eisenhower and Dr. Stephen Covey. When we squeeze everything on our to-do list through this matrix it comes out in one of four quadrants: 1)Urgent/Not Important; 2)Urgent and Important; 3)Not Urgent/Not important; and 4)Not Urgent/Important. Sounds easy enough but this simple matrix requires a lot of clarity about our values, priorities and beliefs.

A simple tools that brings up larger questions!

Today’s information driven world can push us to believe that everything on our list is Urgent and Important. This can drive you to the edge of your “stress cliff”, feeling overwhelmed and out of control. There truly is more on your to-do list than one can possibly do.

Try running your to-do list through this filter and you suddenly realize that you are requiring yourself to get very clear about your values and priorities. You realize that some of what you thought was urgent actually isn’t, and that “importance” requires some serious self-reflection.

Coaching Questions for The Matrix

Question your to-do list. Here are some great coaching questions to have your client ask themselves that can help them prioritize each item on their to-do list. The result will be less stress and more wellness.

Important: “Does completing this lead towards the achievement of my goals?” “How does this serve me, others and the world around me?” “Is this an expression of who I am?” “Am I being true to myself?” “Does this affect my family, employment or health?” “Does this add joy to my life?” We may choose at times to put our own needs aside, but we must do so consciously not habitually.

Urgent: “Will failing to complete this task in a timely manner result in: anyone getting hurt; a loss of business/profit; a performance penalty?” “Is the urgency more about my own anxiety than reality?” “Is my anxiety exacerbated by poor wellness practices, e.g. not enough sleep, to much caffeine?” “Am I clear about what other people expect?” “Have I set myself up by “over promising” and thereby increasing my chances of “under-delivering” ?” “Am I personalizing something that is not personal?” “Am I trying to “please” others?” “Who is setting the dead line and can it wait?” ”Can someone else do the task?”

For more ideas on how to coach with this matrix take a good look at this MindTools article (http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_91.htm).

What drives urgency?

As you coach your client through this process you may find that the coaching becomes about values clarification, operating on true priorities, even meaning and purpose in life! However, what you also may encounter is more in the realm of the Urgent dimension. An exploration of this area was initiated for me by a coaching colleague who asked what an example of Not Urgent and Not Important could be. The quick answer was items on your list that are the kind of time-wasting distractions that keep us from getting the more important items done. Are we crowding our to-do list with items that have very little to do with our real goals? Are we deceiving ourselves into believing it really is important to rearrange our sock drawer?

Then the question got me thinking: In today’s world with it’s heightened expectations in workplaces, families and in society, it is important to be more conscious about what you value and to become a savvy list manager. It’s more important than ever not let your “to do list” rule your life. Does everything really have to feel urgent?

We often refer to this as “a sense of urgency”. That very phrase attributes the urgency to inside of us. Sure, we have demands from others, but what’s new about that? Whether you were a 11th Century peasant or a 1950’s steel mill worker there have always been systems and bosses making demands that were excessive. Yet today’s technology pushes the illusion that we can perform beyond human capacity and emulate machine capacity. The external pressure is, in fact, greater, but it is the internal pressure that we can readily do something about. This is what Stephen Covey referred to as “responding” instead of “reacting” to external demands.

A coach’s job is to remind people that they do have choices. All of our technological devices have a built-in stress management device. It’s called the off-on switch. How “accessible” do we really need to be? How driven by fear is that need for accessibility? As a coach you can help your client distinguish what is a realistic fear or concern, and what is an irrational, unrealistic fear.

Coaches can also help people with their stress management by helping them live according to their own values, their own vision of living the good life. This is in contrast to living a life of continual striving to meet the expectations of others. How can we help our clients find within themselves the courage to set boundaries and take charge of their own lives? What ends up on the to-do list are items that enhance one’s life instead of just stressing it out.

Please add your comments about how this topic affects your own life and/or your coaching with others.

Run towards the healthiest life possible!

We’ve often viewed getting cancer as luck of the draw. Other than eating enough fiber and avoiding smoking and too much sun exposure we haven’t really seen it as having much relationship to lifestyle. Now we’re finding that the way we live our lives has a significant effect on both the prevention of cancer and the course of the illness once it is diagnosed. In previous posts we looked at lifestyle connections to heart disease and diabetes. Now let’s look at lifestyle and cancer.

With the increased treatment success rates we are seeing for many forms of cancer, people are living longer and healthier lives through early detection and more effective treatments. Yet the American Cancer Society (http://www.cancer.org/) estimated that for 2010 there would be over one and half million new cases of cancer in the United States and over 21,000 in my home state of Colorado alone. There are several lifestyle-cancer connections we are becoming more acutely aware of.

The lifestyle-breast cancer connection is becoming better known.

The American Cancer Society tells us that roughly one third of all cancers are diet and activity related. The standard call for thirty minutes a day of activity is important as so many of our jobs are increasingly sedentary. We also know that eating more fruits and vegetables, whole grains and healthier fats, and less processed meats reduces cancer risks. Recent news articles and Breastcancer.org (http://www.breastcancer.org/) have raised awareness that overweight woman, especially after menopause have a greater risk of breast cancer. Being overweight also can increase the risk of the recurrence of breast cancer. The same risk applies to men and women for increasing the chance of cancers of the colon, endometrium, esophagus, kidney, and other organs.

A wellness lifestyle can mean a better quality of life!

Prostate cancer, the second leading cause of male cancer deaths behind lung cancer, is also showing a lifestyle connection. “Genetics certainly play an important role, but heredity cannot explain most cases. Lifestyle factors have also been implicated; the leading candidate is diet. A high consumption of saturated fat from animal sources is linked to an increased risk of prostate cancer, while whole grains, tomatoes, some vegetables, fish, and soy appear protective. Other lifestyle elements that have been linked to the disease include obesity, lack of exercise, and heavy smoking and drinking.” (http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/updates/Lifestyle-therapy-for-prostate-cancer.shtml)

Moderation is, once again, key.

New research is finding that the correlation between alcohol consumption and cancer is greater than we once thought. Two articles published this month in prestigious medical journals suggested that moderation is the key. (http://community.breastcancer.org/livegreen/alcohol-and-cancer-you-cant-drink-to-your-health/)  While only 3.5% of deaths from cancer worldwide are because of alcohol, “experts estimate that 90% of the male deaths from cancer worldwide caused by alcohol consumption could be avoided if they limited themselves to only two drinks a day and 50% of the deaths in women could be avoided if they had only one drink a day.”

“Where there are things we can do about cancer, and we don’t tell people what they are, we are giving them false hopelessness.” David Servan-Schreiber

Anticancer– A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber (http://www.anticancerbook.com/book.html) outlines the role of diet, exercise, stress management and the environment in reducing your chances for cancer. Avoiding certain chemicals found in household cleaning products and perfumes is one way you can control your environment. Healthy changes to everyday life can reduce cancer risks by stopping the growth of cancer cells, which he calls “outlaws.” These changes, even if they are small, strengthen the immune system. “All in all, anything that boosts our immune system fights cancer,” Servan-Schreiber says. “And, certain food items or behaviors that have anti-inflammatory properties can help stop cancer from spreading.”

More “Good” News!

During the recent (Oct. 2011) United Nations Summit on Non-communicable Diseases (NCD’s) the World Cancer Research Fund reported that 2.8 million lives per year could be saved through better lifestyles and healthier diets. “Global health experts say many deaths from NCDs, including around a third of all common cancers, could be prevented by curbing excessive alcohol intake, improving diets, discouraging smoking and promoting more physical activity.” (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/07/us-cancer-preventable-idUSTRE7864S720110907)

The expression of genes in the body can actually be affected by lifestyle improvement. In the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, led by Dr. Dean Ornish, head of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Ornish contends that stress management, changes in diet and exercise can actually result in dramatic changes on a genetic level. “After three months of lifestyle changes, [diet, exercise, etc.] the report notes that the activity of disease-preventing genes increased while a number of disease-promoting genes, including those involved in prostate cancer and breast cancer, shut down.” (http://www.breakingchristiannews.com/articles/display_art.html?ID=5466)

In a WebMD article “10 Lifestyle Tips for Cancer Prevention” are shared and recommended for post-cancer treatment as well. (http://www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20081028/10-lifestyle-tips-for-cancer-prevention)

Because there is a lifestyle connection where living a wellness lifestyle as much as possible is most advisable some Oncology clinics are actually hiring wellness coaches to be the behavioral change allies for their patients. Coaches can help people with the weight loss, smoking cessation, self-efficacy, and medical compliance that are all so important in prevention, prevention of reoccurrence, and the course of the illness itself.  Once again, wellness and health coaching can help people live their best life possible.

IN MEMORIAL

David Servan-Schreiber 1961-2011

On July 24th of this year David Servan-Schreiber, who had survived two deadly encounters with cancer since being diagnosed at age 31, finally succumbed to an even more aggressive third bout with brain cancer at age 50. During those 19 years he not only inspired people with cancer with his own battle, but championed the concept of self-efficacy for people with cancer. This N.Y. Times article highlights his story and efforts to help us all. He will be missed. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/30/world/europe/30servan.html?_r=1

To get a real feel for the sincerity of this man, and his dedication to helping others, check out his video “Anticancer – A New Way of Life”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lwiQm5QaTs

The "New Year" is here already! Photo by M. Arloski

The ancient Celtic Calendar rings in the New Year at the very end of October with the holiday of Samhain. Looking at a Northern European year’s climate through largely agricultural eyes this makes perfect sense. The last of the harvest is done and it’s time to prepare for winter and a long rest for the land.

For the self-reflective person this is a good time to review the old year and prepare for the new. Don’t wait until the new year has already arrived! From a coaching perspective it’s a perfect time to look at what our “wins” were, to seriously acknowledge our accomplishments on all levels, personal and professional. It’s a time to give ourselves credit first, boost our self-esteem and celebrate. Let’s practice some Positive Psychology on ourselves!

We also will take a sober look at what we wanted to see happen that didn’t. Here it’s time to leave our Inner Critic or Gremlin (http://www.tamingyourgremlin.com/) out of the process, and instead get in touch with that part of ourselves that truly cares about us and tells the truth (not the lies of the Inner Critic). Did we live the year in harmony with our values, with our true priorities? Are we still spinning our wheels in a lifestyle improvement effort, or job/career, or relationship? What will it take to get some “traction” in the new year?

2012 is coming at us fast and New Year’s Day is really too late a time to begin planning for what we want in the new year. We always find truth in the old saw “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Having a plan is much different than setting the famously ineffective “New Year’s Resolutions” or just having a “bunch of goals”. A plan, whether a wellness plan for lifestyle improvement, or a plan for your career development, personal growth, or whatever needs to be an integrated plan that is based upon your values and your true priorities in your life. It needs to be entirely congruent with who you are and based upon attained clarity about what you want.

In the Northern Hemisphere the seasons right now lend themselves to this process, if we let them. We might consciously want to engage less in the franticness of “The Holidays” and instead practice both our relevant faith reflected in these holidays, and also practice a time of reflection, replenishment and personal renewal. In fact, if you are a person of faith, how better to celebrate and acknowledge these holidays than to dedicate some time to your own spiritual renewal?

Sit, sip, relax and reflect.

This is a great time for hot cups of tea and journaling. This is also an excellent time for taking stock of our selves in a mindful and conscious way. My best shorthand definition of Wellness is that it is living our lives consciously in ways that enhance our health. Perhaps this is the perfect time to take a day dedicated to no “work” and to no work around the house. Solo time allows us to look within uninterrupted. In today’s high-speed world we may actually have to work hard initially to extract ourselves from the distractions that surround us. Take a day with no cell phones, iPods or Pads, where we can get re-acquainted with an old best friend called our own souls. Have a technological Sabbath.

This can also be a wonderful time to get together with friends, not just by putting on a way-too-much-work party, but spending time together one-on-one. Our children (even adult children) thrive on this one-on-one time with us, and so do our friends. Reconnecting with these people helps us reweave the net of community that supports us, and lets us contribute to that web of support as well.

Create your own personal retreat.

Retreat, Review, Renew and Rewrite

Retreat

Take time for yourself however you can. Give yourself permission to. Set aside not just a couple of hours, or just one day, but instead mark your calendar for some self-reflective, get-away time more than once. Pull back from everyday obligations, asking for help to do so if need be. You may find that you even need a complete change of scenery, whether it is a local park, a coffee shop or a weekend or two in a cabin “away from it all.” Stretch, unwind, get a massage, hike in nature, breath deep. Don’t permit your “gremlin” to accompany you.

Review

Bring your old calendar, your laptop, your journal, pen and paper, or whatever works for you to look back over the old year. Be kind and compassionate with yourself. Allow yourself to feel your feelings, but don’t let irrational guilt get a foothold and grow in this quiet time. Be honest with yourself and look for the SDB’s (self-defeating behaviors) that slowed you down or held you back. Look for the missed opportunities and the overlooked resources that you did not make use of. Hindsight really is 20/20, unless you let your “gremlin” do the looking for you.

Renew

Give yourself permission to recover from stress.

This can be a time for replenishment, for re-charging your worn-down batteries and resupplying your energy. In the bestseller The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-schwartz/the-way-were-working-isnt_b_574039.html) the point is continually made (and hard evidence cited to back it up) that our biggest mistake is not experiencing stress in our lives, but not allowing ourselves adequate “volume and intensity” of recovery from it! We function best with rest and renewal. This means not only adequate sleep, but also reconnecting with what renews our own spirit and sense of self. One of the greatest ways to improve self-esteem is through creative self-expression. This can be a time to reconnect with hobbies long neglected. It can also be a time for our renewal through contact with the natural world, where we are merely another creature in the ecosystem, instead of an asset pursued by a busy world.

Rewrite

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.” Henry David Thoreau

The time to rewrite your script is right now. Plan & coach for the new year now, not in January! Realize all the choices you truly do have. Envision the year as you would like it to unfold. Determine what has to change about the way you are living your life currently in order to actualize that vision. From that create a real plan to move forward with it.

Select areas of your life you’d like to improve, where you’d like to grow. Look at the year coming and list the opportunities that it contains. How can you make the best use of them? Look at the barriers you can already anticipate and begin looking at strategies and resources to help you find your way through them.

Avoid simply creating a gigantic “To Do” list. Building a huge list of things to accomplish is like creating an overhang of stress ready to crash down on you like an avalanche. Your tendency will be to simply stay off the mountain! In other words, when you create a daunting “list” the safest route is to avoid working on it at all. As an old friend, and stand-up comedian, once said about priorities, “If they’re priorities, there can’t be very many of them. Otherwise they’re not priorities!”

We can’t anticipate everything in the year ahead, but we can consciously plan (see “conscious calendarizing” in my book Wellness Coaching For Lasting Lifestyle Change (http://www.amazon.com/Wellness-Coaching-Lasting-Lifestyle-Change/dp/1570252211/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321300279&sr=8-1) to include the downtime we need. Plan to take those vacation days. Plan on days for rest and renewal, replenishment and relaxation. Include that in your list of “accomplishments” at the end of this next year, and be well!

Please add your comments, ideas, here to enhance the experience of all readers. Thank you!

79 Million Americans are on the road, not to wellness, but to diabetes.

There is an opportunity for wellness and wellness coaching to impact the lives of millions of people in a life-saving way. 79 million Americans are estimated to have a condition called pre-diabetes. Usually symptom free, without intervention they will develop full-fledged Type II diabetes within ten years and possibly endure physical damage to their heart and circulatory system along the way. Yet, according to the American Diabetes Association, if a person is successful at lifestyle improvement they can completely avoid the onset of diabetes 70% of the time. (http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/prevention/pre-diabetes/)

Our culture drives diabetes in many ways. Remember when 16 oz. was huge?

A 2010 study on pre-diabetes in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine shows shocking news. They found that in 2005-2006 almost 30% of the U.S. adult population had pre-diabetes, yet only 7.3% of the pre-diabetic people were aware of it! About half of those with pre-diabetes reported engaging in some kind of risk-reduction behavior, but only about one-third of those with pre-diabetes had received advice from their healthcare provider about the lifestyle behaviors they could change. Researchers found adults with pre-diabetes were more likely to be male, older, and have lower educational status than those without the condition. They were also more likely to have an immediate family member with diabetes.
(http://diabetes.webmd.com/news/20100302/prediabetes-precautions-often-ignored)

Reaching this population of vulnerable people will take a multi-layered effort across society and the healthcare system. The first step in this preventative approach is to increase awareness through accurate diagnosis. There is no substitute for the annual medical exam. Physicians can determine if one has pre-diabetes by testing your blood glucose levels. However there needs to be follow through on the physician’s part (or their clinic/office) to both advise and, ideally, connect their patients with lifestyle improvement/behavioral change resources that can help them be part of that 70% possibility of success.

We can encourage clients, friends, people we know to take charge of their own health starting with awareness of what is going on inside of their own body. A very successful approach to wellness is called “Know Your Numbers” and makes good sense for all of us. It urges us to know our scores (and what they mean) on five indicators: blood sugar levels, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and body mass index. Checking these numbers regularly, even if you don’t feel sick can help you avoid these silent killers.

The lifestyle improvements required to avoid pre-diabetes developing into diabetes are actually quite basic.
• Improve one’s diet,
• lose weight
• and become more active.
Adding thirty minutes a day of moderate exercise, like walking, can have astounding results. Combined with a 5-10% weight loss studies found that such lifestyle changes yielded a 58% reduction in diabetes. (NDIC -http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/DM/pubs/insulinresistance/)

From the awareness that one may be pre-diabetic to achieving lasting lifestyle improvement can be a challenging journey. It is a journey best taken in the company of others, not alone. Success at lifestyle change works best with a wellness plan that identifies the specific health behaviors you want to improve, keeping an objective record of your progress, and consciously developing the connections with others who can help support your journey. Wellness coaches can be the professional ally that is often lacking to help people succeed in lasting lifestyle change.

Group and individual wellness coaching for people who share this challenge should be promoted through workshops, seminars, and simple brown-bag wellness talks. Wellness coaches who want a niche within the field of health and wellness would do well to explore helping people with diabetes, pre-diabetes and those who would benefit from learning if they are, indeed, pre-diabetic. Diabetes educators who become trained in effective behavioral change methodologies (wellness/health coach training) can increase their effectiveness tremendously.

In many communities healthy resources can be found for help identifying and educating around pre-diabetes, most offering screenings and educational classes on a sliding scale basis.  Hospital’s Diabetes Education departments offer classes on pre-diabetes and more.

Most professional articles on diabetes, and pre-diabetes, focus on science and statistics. We all need to remember the human element here. While people with well-managed diabetes can live lives of thriving, not just surviving, the disease can inflict some of the worst suffering imaginable. We’re not just holding down healthcare costs with our wellness work, we’re doing our best to help people avoid the pain and misery of diseases like diabetes and live the healthiest lives possible.

Please add your comments to enrich a discussion about what we can do to help people be successful at preventing diabetes.

To reach more folks in the wellness community we’ve relocated our blog “Real Balance Wellness: Wellness Wisdom and Wanderings” to a new address at IDWellness.org.

Please visit us and subscribe to http://realbalancewellness.idwellness.org/

Enjoy the latest blog post:
MOVING BEYOND BURNOUT TO SELF-CARE AND SELF-LOVE with Guest Blogger Gina Orlando.

Be well, and see you at our new address!
Michael Arloski

Shedding more light on heart disease solutions.

Each year over one million Americans experience a heart attack, about one every thirty seconds. CNN produced a program recently about this that has everyone talking: “Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports: The Last Heart Attack.” (http://sanjayguptamd.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/29/sanjay-gupta-reports-the-last-heart-attack/) (watch the entire program while it’s archived here)

Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Following the odyssey of former President Bill Clinton and two more every-day Americans, Dr. Gupta introduces us to the work of Dr. Arthur Agatston (http://www.southbeachdiet.com/sbd/publicsite/about-dr-agatston.aspx) whose method of screening for coronary calcium is considered one of the best predictors of heart disease. We’re also exposed to the work of Dr. Dean Ornish (http://www.pmri.org/) and Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn (http://www.heartattackproof.com/) whose diet and lifestyle-based programs have shown recognized medical effectiveness at preventing and even reversing heart disease.

Cardiologist Dean Ornish

“Heart disease could be as rare as Malaria in our country if we put into practice what we already know,” says Ornish. Gupta asks “Could we see the last heart attack in America?” The program brings us excellent information about what we need to do, but hangs on the gigantic “if” in the middle of Ornish’s statement.

What we know is that medical check ups using the best testing methods available must be combined with successful lifestyle improvement. We know the formula. “Although people with a family history of heart disease are at higher risk, you can take steps to dramatically reduce your risk. Create an action plan to keep your heart healthy by tackling these to-dos: get active; control cholesterol; eat better; manage blood pressure; maintain a healthy weight; control blood sugar; and stop smoking.” The American Heart Association. (http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/) What they are recommending, is all about behavioral change.

The work of Dean Ornish has been widely accepted as medically legitimate for years, yet always qualified by mentioning that the probability of Americans adopting the lifestyle recommended is remote. Becoming a complete vegetarian, exercising regularly, practicing stress management skills and increasing social and emotional support is a tall order to say the least. Yet it works!Gupta’s report is telling us that change is possible, now we have to discover how.

Here are some suggestions for the behavioral side of preventing that potential heart attack.

1. Know about your current state of health, in detail. Don’t put off that check-up or blood-work, make a commitment to yourself to get it done.
2. Envision what you want your health to be like.
3. Ask yourself, “What has to change in my life for me to live that vision?” This creates a solid foundation for you to create the plan that you will follow to make your vision a reality.
4. Develop a wellness plan that has a series of small steps. Small steps overtime lead to large lifestyle changes.
5. Gather support for your plan. Share your vision and plan with the people you know who will be positive and encouraging.
6. Track your behavior. Avoid self-deception by writing down or entering on a phone app your progress.
7. Acknowledge and celebrate every success along the way to a better life.

For the person who has already had that first heart attack all of this information and the contents of “The Last Heart Attack” are especially important. Like David Servan-Schrieber (http://www.anticancerbook.com/) says about cancer, there is a lot we can do about heart disease, and when we don’t let people know about the legitimate resources and information out there, we are giving them “false hopelessness.” Wellness and health coaches need to know about this information as they help their clients explore their way forward towards a wellness way of living. Coaches need to insist that any client they are working with on health issues be under active medical care. Lifestyle improvement is no substitute for medical treatment. Taking on the more behaviorally demanding protocols of lifestyle improvement that Ornish and Esselstyn require may be incredibly easier and more effective with an active alliance with a wellness coach.

We know that people can be successful at improving their health if they can be successful at lifestyle change. Wellness coaching may be the bridge to span the huge gap created by the word “if”.

Please add your comments!

Self-awareness may be the best antidote to collusion.

Whenever I’m training wellness coaches and use the term “collusion” a definition is required. The term can have a variety of meanings and a search done on “coaching and collusion” will yield an array of articles that seem to add to the confusion. While murder mysteries love to portray collusion as two of the bad guys conspiring to evil ends, the collusion we’re talking about in coaching is more subconscious, more unintended, than conscious or deliberate.

Collusion occurs when a coach somehow merges with their client’s view of themselves and the world instead of helping their client explore it. Let’s examine what appearance collusion takes on, what results from it, what can be motivating it in the coach, and most importantly, how to avoid it.

Appearance: What Collusion Looks Like

While coaching is a client-centered process the colluding coach may allow the client to meander rather than explore. The client’s wanderings may not be productive or hold much focus, but the coach gives them totally free reign and never challenges or helps with focus. The coach is going far beyond a client-centered approach. This lack of challenging may be on more specific issues. There is a reluctance to give honest feedback, a lack of what we call in coaching “truth telling”.

There may be a “softening of accountability” regarding coaching commitments. “Oh, that’s okay. I know it’s hard to keep track of all of this.” At it’s worst, the colluding coach’s unique perspective meshes with the client’s and a valuable coaching tool is lost. The client no longer benefits from the point of view of someone other than themselves. The coach buys the client’s story about themselves and fails to help the client discover how they no longer need to be a prisoner of that story. Coaching is no longer about possibility thinking.

Live out of your imagination, not your history.
Stephen Covey

Results Of Collusion

When a coach colludes with their client the biggest result is a lack of progress by that client. They are stuck and the coach’s interaction with them is aiding the stuckness instead of spurring “forward momentum”. The coach and client go round and round in a combination of story telling, commiserating and endless attempts to “fix the problem”.

The hopeful and growing part of that client, who would have appreciated being challenged more, gets discouraged and usually drops out of coaching. In wellness coaching, the lifestyle behavior doesn’t change and the health consequences mount.

Motivation For Collusion

So how does a coach slip into collusion with their client? There are a number of motivations that can play into a coach’s own self-deception. (See my previous post on this: “Self-deception and Living Well” http://realbalancewellness.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=396&action=edit)

Collusion happens outside the coach’s awareness. Often it is motivated by a desire to “protect” the client. There is a confusion between empathy and sympathy. The coach feels sorry for the client and their plight and may extend great caring and kindness, but also wants to shelter their client from how tough life can be. A client capable of so much more, but doubting themselves, proposes taking an action step that is far below their capacity and the coach accepts it without question or challenge. A client begins to become emotional talking about their body image and the coach “rescues” them by talking about how most people their age and sex have issues with body image. The client is whisked away from processing their feelings and encouraged to get intellectual about the subject of their emotion.

“We collude with a client’s illness, not their wellness.”
Michael Arloski

Be empathic, but don't "rescue".

Collusion can also occur when the coach over-identifies with their client and their experience. This is the classic error in the human-helping professions of failing to get your self out of the way! The middle-aged male coach with the mid-riff bulge is quick to discount the importance of their client’s desire to loose their belly fat. The single-mom coach is quick to agree with their client that their parenting stresses make self-care almost impossible. The coach may become quite tolerant of their client’s resistance to change because they resist similar changes in their own life.

Even more serious collusion may occur when the coach shares a wound similar to their client and it has become a “blindspot”. The coach may have not done their own emotional healing work in this area and blindly colludes with any client who has experienced something similar to them.

How To Avoid Collusion

Like the definition of self-deception, sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know! In our Wellness Mapping 360°™ Wellness Coaching Methodology (www.realbalance.com) , “Ongoing Evaluation” is a key component. We encourage the coach to work with their client to be evaluating how coaching is going throughout the course of coaching, not just at the end. Have coaching conversations with your client about the coaching’s effectiveness as well as the client’s progress. Get and give feedback.

Here are some quick tips for how to increase coaching awareness and avoid collusion.

1. Listen to your gut. If it doesn’t “feel” right it probably isn’t.
2. Supervision. Engage it this at least occasionally.
3. Work on your own stuff! Gather your courage and face your own demons through counseling or whatever works for you.
4. Self-examination. Listen to recordings of your sessions.
5. Look carefully at client progress/stuckness.
6. Stick to the coaching process. Stay professional, remain a coach.
7. Be aware of clear professional boundaries.
8. Don’t be afraid to challenge your client. Examine your own reluctance to do this.
9. Be very clear about the distinction between sympathy and empathy.
10. Look for patterns in your coaching process with this particular client. Collusive behavior repeats.
11. Have clear agreements, not expectations. Your client is not here to live up to your expectations.
12. Be real. Be authentic, genuine, true to yourself.

Please feel free to comment and add your thoughts to this very important topic.

Wellness Coaches Need To Be "The Real Deal"

The field of wellness coaching is growing and more job opportunities are unfolding for people with the right training and expertise. More and more a qualification for those wellness and health coaching positions is a certification in wellness coaching. At the same time there is concern and confusion about just what a wellness coach certification is and means. Licensure, certification, accreditation, credentials…it’s all very confusing in this young profession that is in the midst of forming itself. Let’s help sort things out.

Currently the field of wellness coaching is much like the entire life coaching field was in it’s early years when managers were dubbed “coaches” overnight and consultants jumped on the coaching bandwagon with no training in coaching. Anyone can call himself or herself a coach, and anyone can call themselves a “wellness coach”. Doing so without getting good training in wellness coaching is like knighting yourself with your own sword. There also has been an explosion of wellness coach training programs. The quality of which ranges from very high to the lowest of the low. The consumer and the person who wants to become a wellness coach must examine the offerings very carefully. Here’s an orientation to this confusing territory, and, if you don’t mind, some “shameless self-promotion” of our own quality program.

Licensure means legal authorization, a government or business permit to provide specified services. The government side of it is usually handled on a state by state basis. Whenever people are providing “treatment”, licensure seems to be legally required. Because coaching is not a form of treatment, but technically is considered education/consultation, it is not regulated by licensure. Business licenses give one legal rights to provide a protected service or product under the terms of that license.

Certification means evidence or guarantee of successful completion of specific training or education. Certifications are of two types. Certification by in independent body: such as a certification by the American College of Sports Medicine that a fitness trainer has successfully completed a training program in a particular specialty from a program that ACSM approves. Or, certification can be done by the organization that provides the training, such as a wellness coach certification received by someone successfully completing all requirements from a training program offered by The Wellness Coach Training Institute or any of the many other training programs out there.

Accreditation means an official approval, recognition, authorization or endorsement of one’s training or of an organization’s training program. Accreditation is usually done by in independent accrediting body, such as the ICF (International Coaching Federation). The ICF accredits programs that meet their requirements for a full coach education with the title ACTP (Accredited Coach Training Program). They also accredit partial programs by approving “coach specific training hours” or ACSTH. ACSTH approval for the curriculum of The Wellness Coach Training Institute is now pending.

Companies hiring wellness coaches and those seeking training in this field are doing their best to determine the quality of different programs. Currently standards and credentialing for the profession is under development. The National Credentialing Team For Professional Coaches In Healthcare has been formed and I am a member of the Leadership Team of this group and will be keeping you informed of our progress.

Great training programs are memorable!

In the meantime, here are the top six features to look for in a wellness coaching training program:
• 1. Approval for the training as continuing education credits for high-level professions (especially in healthcare fields). The Wellness Coach Training Institute’s training has the approval of ACSM (Am. College of Sports Medicine), AHNA (Am. Holistic Nurses Assoc.), and NCHEC (The National Commission for Health Education Credentialing) for CHES (Certified Health Education Specialist) credits. Approval of our curriculum for Coach Specific Training Hours by The ICF is pending.
• 2. The training is wellness and health coaching specific and incorporates content from the fields of health promotion and wellness. A program consisting of life/business/executive coaching skills only is insufficient for the work you will be doing as a wellness/health coach. The Wellness Coach Training Institute’s curriculum was developed by Dr. Michael Arloski who has been contributing professionally to the wellness field for over thirty years.
• 3. At the same time, the coaching skills and methodology needs to be rooted in legitimate life coaching training literature and training. The life coach training competencies were developed from theory and research grounded in humanistic principles that have later been recognized as positive psychology. Dr. Arloski’s background includes in-depth training from The Coaches Training Institute, one of the founding organizations of the life coaching field.
• 4. The training provides you with a real methodology of behavioral change, which allows you to help your client move through the process of lifestyle improvement with structure and guidance. The program should not just be a grab-bag of skills and techniques, but rather a way of working with your client that progresses from assessment and exploration through developing a clear wellness plan with accountability and support to clear measurable outcomes. The Wellness Mapping 360°™ Wellness Coaching Methodology does just that.
• 5. The training provides you with tools, forms and support resources that are constantly being updated and developed. The Wellness Coach Training Institute’s CD Digital Tool Kit and other support materials are provided in all trainings and the institute maintains additional support services on a continual basis.
• 6. The training is offered in your choice of live in-person, or live and fully interactive webinar or telephonic formats. Coaching is an interpersonal way of working with people and therefore requires fully interactive training. All of The Wellness Coach Training Institute’s trainings are delivered either live and in-person or via live and fully interactive webinar.

Quality wellness coach training certifications help our clients and help the profession as a whole. Being able to assure your client, or your prospective employer that you are certified in a well-regarded wellness coach training program builds your integrity and credibility and opens doors. Do your research and choose a training program that is a good fit for you.

You can check out The Wellness Coach Training Institute’s offerings at www.realbalance.com