Gut Health

Recently I did an interview with my dear friend, business coach, and Holistic Health Coach Paula Roelands. Read below to find out more about her, her coaching practice and her tips for a healthy lifestyle.

Introduce yourself.

Hey, I’m Paula Roelands! A transplant from Michigan to the Wild West in the desert of Colorado. I’m on a journey of recreating my world; focusing on health not only for myself but many others.

What led you to be a health coach?

I looked at the areas in my life that I loved the most, bundled the best of them together and viola, created a way to bring that into the world to empower and support people, and brings a wonderful ripple effect toward a healthier world that speaks to me deeply.  While I have lived a fairly healthy life, I’ve had setbacks of my own which created the desire to support others in getting to the other side of them.. The terrain that you come across, expected or not, whether it’s your health or something else that changes your world upside down, building confidence and gaining tools that you will be able to handle whatever it is, is a pretty cool story to be able to develop.

Explain what being a health coach means to you and to your clients.

From my understanding of a health coach, it is someone who can walk alongside a person who wants to improve their health in general, in the holistic aspect being more than just the diet part of your life and help guide the individual to a better situation for their individual needs.

For me personally, I see it as individual empowerment for myself creating a very intentional conversation with my body and my life and creating what kind of live experience you want to have. And inviting your body along for the ride, cause you’re going to get one. Why not help our body be the best that it can be to get the best experience we can have?

Describe a typical coaching day in your practice.

When I wake up I have an agenda that I have set the day before; that includes self-care, family time, work time and individual coaching sessions.  My self-care routine includes dry brushing, breathing, lemon water, then a walk with a friend. After that I have a veggie & protein filled breakfast and kick off my working day by about 8:30 or 9:00 depending on clients. I  work on my programs/marketing for a couple of hours before my first clients session. I schedule my client session for an hour, with time right after to do follow-up notes before my next client. On a given coaching day I may have 2-3 clients. One of which will probably be in person and 2 will be by phone or Skype. By 3:00 I’m winding down and setting up for the next day, returning phone calls and doing up follow-up with my strategy sessions. Then chillax  🙂

Can you explain a little more in detail about your strategy sessions that you mentioned?

Because coaching is very much a trust kind of situation, I don’t actually start coaching someone until we’ve had an initial strategy session together.  During that session, I spend an hour with them just figuring out what kind of support I can offer them, how interested they are in having that support and seeing what health things they are motivated to work on and really transform. We come up with a couple of action steps for them to implement in the next 2 weeks. This gives us both a chance to learn just how serious they are about making these changes. If they don’t follow up with me, most likely it’s that they are just not ready.  And that’s totally ok, and good to know before either of us invest in the work. Where there’s follow through and small successes, that gives great clarity of the immense potential for a success and transformation in a coaching experience together.

Is there a certain area  that you specialize in or tend to gravitate towards in your practice?

I have had great success working with clients who are dealing with time management and stress issues. That seems to be an area where we make a lot of progress quickly with sustainable results results that also ripple into shifts in dietary health as well. I also tend to attract people with autoimmune diseases, where I’ve had success in helping folks increase their body healing, reduce medications by shifting toward a whole foods type of diet.  I’ve had success working with them to go off prescriptions and incorporating a whole foods type of diet. Thyroid issues, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia are the most common issues I have worked with.

What 3 tips do you have for someone who is wanting to start making healthy changes to their lifestyle?

*Hydrate. Drink more water.  The standard I recommend ½ oz per lb of body weight.  People notice a big increase of ability to focus and the amount of energy they have in a day. If you have trouble drinking straight water, you can squirt some fruit juice in it to create some flavor. The cleaner the better though. Tea works too, herbal is better than caffeinated.

*Get enough sleep. It sounds easy but this is very difficult for people. it is so important as that it is when your body does its repair work. I do have an article on sleep hygiene that I am sharing here>>>click here for those details.

*Move your body 30 minutes a day. If you have a desk job or sit down a lot, make sure to get up and move for 5 minutes every hour.  Not only does it help your circulation, your brain and though patterns clear and re-energize for more effective, efficient work.  Taking 5 will give you at least twice as much back.

Paula Roelands is a Holistic Health Coach who guides individuals nationwide to a vibrant, confident, fulfilled life. She also hosts popular hands-on workshops on fermented foods and digestive health as well as engaging presentations on thyroid health, stress management, and fatigue relief. Known as the family “granola girl,” Paula is humored in her culinary experimentation by her patient husband Peter and her children – budding chefs Anika, Pagiel, and Tyan. They enjoy hiking, camping, and skiing – living la vida healthy in the desert on the Colorado Western Slope. Find her on Facebook and check out more info on her website!