A Inside Look at Health Coaching - Special Series

Megan J. McCrory00:00:17

Hey there. We've got something very special for you. We're doing something we've never done before on so Freaking Healthy.We're taking you inside real health coaching sessions. In this series of six episodes, you'll hear actual coaching conversations between Donna and a client.We're not editing out any of the messy parts, just real coaching in action. But you might ask, why are we doing this? Well, we know so many of you are curious about what health coaching actually looks like.What happens in these sessions, and how does the process actually work? What kind of shifts can happen when you have someone in your corner helping you figure out your health?Here's what we hope you get by listening to this coaching series. We want you to see how coaching helps someone work through real health challenges.We want you to learn tools and strategies you can apply to your own health journey. We want you to understand what it's like to work with a health coach. And maybe, just maybe, you'll recognize yourself in some of these conversations.Let's meet Joanna. That's not her real name, of course. She's chosen to use a pseudonym to protect her privacy.And we're so grateful she's letting us share her journey with you. Joanna is a woman in her early 40s navigating the kind of health challenges so many of you tell us about.Let's hear from her what she wants to work on. Here are a few clips from Joanna's health history.

Joanna00:01:50

Yeah, I struggle with that. I think I wrote it in my form, right?I want to be able to have the kind of concentration capacity and memory capacity that I used to have before my attention was pulled in 10 directions all the time at work.I can still focus, but I do see that, you know, I used to be able to just dive into a topic and just get lost in that deep work flow zone and be there for hours. And then I'd look up, oh, it's three o' clock already.And now I put the phone away, close all the tabs and I still struggle like I need to chew or like have a fidget toy to get through like a long document or something. I am trying to eat, I guess you could say a climate conscious diet. So that's why I am drawn to the more vegan diet.I think also it's shown to be healthy if you can manage to get the right macronutrients and stuff. It's not always feasible. And then I also had this problem with all of my joints kind of all at once being very inflamed. I had a Frozen shoulder.And then I had, like, plantar fasciitis and knee pain and tennis elbow and carpal tunnels, like really just systemic. And no doctor could tell me what was going on. And I also just saw my weight kind of start to creep up when I started to have those problems.And I tell you, Donna, there was a year when I just thought my scale was broken because I was like, my clothes still fit the same, but the number just keeps going up. And then I was like, I just don't believe it. Like, I have to get a gym membership again so I can go see a neutral scale. Number is.And then I bought a new scale and I calibrated it and everything, and I was like, oh, crap, this is the actual number.So it's, you know, I've been diagnosed with pcos and my hormone levels were always just, like, way out of the norm for what they should be until a couple years ago. And then now, you know, they said the first step to check if you're in perimenopauses office to check your hormones.And they're like, no, no, your hormones are exactly where they should be. And I'm like, well, they were never in the case for the rest of my life. So there has been a change, right?And now I'm getting these, like, regular cycles, a little bit long, but, like, fairly regular. And I've only missed like one period in the past two. Two years. But it's not perimenopause. Okay.

Megan J. McCrory00:04:23

So here's how this works. This is a six episode series. You'll hear Joanna's coaching journey unfold across six sessions.We appreciate her vulnerability in sharing her story and being so open about her health struggles. Make sure you're subscribed to so freaking Healthy in your favorite podcast app, Super. You don't miss any of these sessions.Or you could head over to our website, so freakinhealthy.com and sign up for our email list to get notified when each new episode drops. One more thing.If you want to hear Megan and Donna debrief after each session and talk about the coaching strategies that were being used, check out our other podcast called Becoming a Health Coach. We'll be breaking down each session over there. All right, let's get into it.