Through my training and personal pursuit of knowledge, I learned a lot about how to live healthy. But like many Americans, I struggled with translating that knowledge into practice. At only 30 years old, I weighed more than 200 pounds and had developed mild sleep apnea. I finally acknowledged to myself that my life was never going to slow down and I couldn’t afford to put off addressing my health. When I made this decision, I met my health coach and began my journey toward my own health coaching business.
Hello, my name is Mandy Young. I have been a nurse for four years. I am working on my master’s degrees in public health and public health nursing at Johns Hopkins University. I am also a Certified Health Coach.
Health Coaching is a role that has emerged within the last 10 years in the health and wellness industry. The term coach is used in a variety of titles: sports coach, life coach, career coach, leadership coach, etc. What these different jobs have in common is helping clients improve performance in a specific area of their life.
A health coach specializes in helping clients to change health behaviors, such as eating habits and exercise. I support clients in the process of going from thinking about losing weight to achieving a new healthy lifestyle. This is a long journey that takes multiple changes. Following my own program, I lost 55 pounds in four months. Months later, the weight has stayed off. In fact, I have actually lost another five pounds.
I will be making regular posts on this blog, contributing tips and ideas on health improvement, and would love to hear from readers about their interests and concerns.
Have you managed to stay healthy while keeping up with all the demands of life and a stressful profession?
December 29th, 2008 at 2:58 am
Go Mandy!
I’m an RN with five years experience and am overweight. I’m 6′2″ at 285 lbs. I have lost substantial weight in the past. I think the main reason I gain it back is that I lost the weight for the wrong reasons.
I have a lot of anxiety when it comes to my job. I’m a nurse who works in a hospital and while I can handle that stress, I have a lot of anxiety about life in general and horribly low self-esteem. I know that losing weight would help me tremendously.
Mandy, hearing your story made me feel proud of you and proud of what I know I can do myself. I will be looking forward to further blog entries from you!
Zach
December 31st, 2008 at 12:07 am
Great Job Mandy,
YOu can tell you are very passionate about staying healthy & keeping the weight of. Glad to hear you will be helpin gother acheive their health goals.
Heidi.. Sis
January 4th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Congratulaions! Great blog posts and nice website.
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Mandy,
Hope you have been able to maintain your weight loss. It’s so hard sometimes to find time to eat right and exercise. I was wondering how you became a certified health coach and if you could give me some advice on companies that hire HC’s.
December 11th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
My comments mirror Charlottes. Please give info on how to become a certified health coach and companies that hire HCs.
August 5th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
I think that to get the credit loans from banks you ought to have a firm reason. However, one time I have received a car loan, because I wanted to buy a car.