What to do if you’re fed up with your advertising job working for Coca Cola? You examine what would make you happy and retrain in that area, regardless of how well your career is going. Rebecca Hirst, now a nutritional and health coach under her Glorious Wellness brand, did an about-turn on her life and now works as a health coach, specialising in eating for energy and glowing skin and healthy nails.
At 34 weeks pregnant, I sat down to a Skype call with Rebecca for an initial 50 minute consultation. Whilst I don’t think my lifestyle is too bad, there are certainly elements which I am keen to get under control, especially before Hungry Bear arrives. I’ve found through coaching my own start-up clients that there’s a big difference in knowing what you could be doing to make improvements and having someone else voice them.
Rebecca looks a little like a pixie – she has closely cropped hair and flawless skin that Galadriel from Lord of the Rings would harbour ambitions for. Apparently it wasn’t always like that – her journey from high-flying adwoman to health coach was triggered by a frustration with skin which was constantly aggravated. She is also enthusiastic and warm and, most importantly, non judgemental and empathetic.
The consultation was roughly broken up into two elements – an exploratory section followed by an analysis and advice. During the exploratory section, Rebecca asked select questions about my lifestyle, including finding out more about my energy levels, when I go to bed, what a typical day is like for activity and food etc. I had recently completed an 8-week diet & lifestyle programme which had helped me a great deal with regaining control over my sleep habits most importantly, so with regards to energy levels and sleep, I felt like these were actually a lot better than they had been in many years. Personally, I know that I’ve lapsed on the sugar front, using pregnancy as an excuse to indulge in Magnums (my current ice cream of choice) and jelly of all things! I also know that sugar and me don’t go well together, aggravating my skin (I am currently battling with eczema).
Having shared all my bad habits (and some not to bad habits) with Rebecca, I was keen to see what she thought. For many of my complaints, I knew what I could be doing but I was also keen to see if Rebecca had solutions which I hadn’t thought of.
Rebecca’s recommendations were based around a process she uses which involves Clean Up, Crowd Out and Rest & Restore. And it’s smart; trying to overhaul your whole lifestyle in one go can be rather daunting and leave you feeling too overwhelmed to even get started but by tackling it in 3 sections over a period of time, you can instill habits and make long-lasting progress. Normally, Rebecca works with clients over a period of time, normally between 3 and 6 months, with a progress call every 2 weeks, but she kindly gave me a brief heads-up of where she would start with for me.
For the Clean Up part of her program, it’s all about making smart switches. So with regards to my jelly desire, was there anything I could do to swap my normal Rowntree’s jelly for a jelly which was healthier? Apparently there’s a slightly healthier recipe for jelly flying around. Rebecca also recommended slowly incorporating less harsh but just as effective cleaning products into our household – it’s something which I started doing but this consultation gave me the push to finish it! Most of Rebecca’s recommendations were focused on Clean Up, as it’s hard to make progress onto the next aspect before a foundation is laid. However, as Rebecca explained, the Crowd Out phase includes incorporating more beneficial foods into your diet and she reminded me to make sure I got an adequate amount of essential fatty acids into my diet (skin-nourishing foods) which I did later that day with sweet potato chips and smashed avocado with ground flaxseed stirred in.
Getting more essential fatty acids into my diet!
Rest & Restore for me, mainly included taking stock of my stress levels and keeping them under control as much as I could; for example, what activities did I enjoy and how could I fit them into my week? How could I ensure I got to bed at a good hour every evening? What were the triggers which threw this off kilter?
By sharing the minutiae of my emotional level and activities in a typical day and week, it enabled me to see for myself where I was going wrong and for Rebecca to take stock of my current lifestyle as a whole and provide recommendations objectively. It’s so easy to come up with excuses for not being able to make changes you know you need, so talking potential solutions with Rebecca made me realise that a) you can always make changes and b) if I wanted improvement badly enough I’d implement these changes.
After the consultation, I received an email from Rebecca touching on some recommendations she had mentioned, including a couple of links around how you eat and the effect it can have on your skin, as well as the sugar / skin relationship which is a main theme of the workshops she runs. I was also invited to keep in touch to let her know how my Magnum-intake was going.
Final Verdict
There’s a big difference between knowing you want to make changes and actually making changes. The benefits of working with a health coach such as Rebecca allows you to firstly review your lifestyle and have someone you don’t know, give a non-judgemental analysis of where you can improve. Secondly, you’re provided with support and someone to check-in with regularly to discuss and analyse progress, helping you tweak your action-plan, understand why some things slipped off the radar and where you did well. I can absolutely see the benefit in this and for those who really want to make long-lasting changes to their health and wellness, Glorious Wellness is someone who has the knowledge and human understanding to kickstart and guide you towards your goals.
More Information
Rebecca is Glorious Wellness, a health coach who works with those looking to improve their health and wellness. She often gives talks and runs workshops at Neal’s Yard and is especially interested in helping people improve their energy levels and get glowing skin. Book a free 30 minute consultation with her here >
Leave a Reply