Final Thoughts: An Inside Look at Health Coaching - Joanna's Impressions

Edit of SFH 099: Joanna Wrap up - Jan 21, 2026

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[00:00:00] Final Thoughts On Health Coaching Series

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[00:00:00] Megan McCrory: Hey there, and welcome back to So Freaking Healthy. if you've been following along with our special health coaching series, you'll know that over the last couple of months we've been doing something a little different.

We invited you to listen in on real coaching sessions between Danna and a client that we're calling Joanna. just as a reminder, Joanna's not her real name. She chose to use a pseudonym to protect her privacy, and we're really grateful that she agreed to let us share this process with you. Now, because this is not a polished, like before-and-after story, this was real life, it was real coaching and real questions, the real, "I know what I should do, but I have children and a job and dinner still has to happen," kind of energy, which really honestly was the whole point of this series.

Now, when we started, we wanted to show what health coaching actually looks like, so not this kind of Instagram version, not the, "Hey, I [00:01:00] drank lemon water and became a new woman by Thursday" version. I feel like there's a lot of that out there right now, especially with AI slop. "Start calisthenics today, and in a month you'll be a completely different person."

No, this is the real stuff, the real version where someone comes in with questions, experiments with different tools, and gets actual useful information, actually gets annoyed by food logging, and has birthday cake in their freezer calling their name, but they still keep going. Now, across Joanna's sessions, we heard her work through overwhelm around health information, energy crashes, food choices, her blood sugar responses, food logging, intermittent fasting, family meals, processed foods, perfectionism, and the super real challenge of making healthier choices when life is doing what life does best, and that is being fucking [00:02:00] inconvenient.

And what we loved most about this series is that the progress was not dramatic in this movie montage kind of way. There was no magical fix. There was no throw out everything in your kitchen and become a different person moment because it just doesn't happen that way in real life. Instead, this is much more realistic.

Joanna started noticing patterns, she learned what gave her more stable energy, and she found that with small swaps that actually worked with her life, like adding more protein and vegetables and keeping these easy safety foods around, and remembering that one imperfect meal does not wreck the whole day or week or her health journey is ruined completely.

No. Tiny shifts, real life, less shame, more information, and that is very much our thing here. So today we are closing the loop. [00:03:00] This episode is a wrap-up conversation with Joanna that I had, Megan. You'll remember that Joanna recorded all her six coaching sessions with Danna. So Danna was her coach. And I wanted to ask her about her experience from her side. What surprised her? What helped her? What was she stuck with? And what would she tell someone else who is thinking about working with a health coach?

And because we believe in honesty around here, what did she wish would have been different with her coaching experience? Now, you'll hear Joanna talking about wanting a guide through the absolute flood of health advice out there, and why food logging was deeply annoying and genuinely useful. How the idea of starting fresh the next day really stayed with her, and why finding the right chemistry with a coach matters.

You'll also hear something that I think is really important. Health coaching is not about someone handing you a perfect plan and then grading you on [00:04:00] whether you obeyed it. It's really about support, reflection, experimentation, and figuring out what works for your body and your life. And sometimes your life includes pasta or kids or work or tired afternoons, and hard-boiled eggs becoming wildly popular in your house.

So if you've ever wondered, would health coaching help me? Or what actually happens after months of coaching? This episode gives you the real honest answer. Before we jump in, I just wanna say one more huge thank you to Joanna for trusting Danna and I with this process and for being so open, so thoughtful, and honest about the whole series.

We know a lot of you hear parts of yourselves in this story, so let us know what resonated with you, what clicked for you. Let us know by leaving us a voicemail on [00:05:00] sofreakinhealthy.com or sending us an email. We'd love to hear from you about this whole series. All right. Let's hear how it went

[00:05:09] What convinced you to work with a health coach?

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[00:05:09] Megan J. McCrory: Okay. So my first question,~ um,~ Joanna, is what convinced you to work with a health coach, or most specifically, what convinced you to work with Donna?

[00:05:20] joanna: ~Um. ~Well, I think I just had a lot of unanswered questions and I was feeling lost in this kind of like, flood of health information. ~Um, ~I think I told you during the intake interview, like I work in the health space,~ um,~ and so. I think I'm especially exposed to a lot of things, um, and really the gambit from, you know,~ uh,~ Instagram influencers all the way through to, you know, reading scientific studies and trying to make sense of those.

And,~ um,~ what I was hoping for was just someone, like a guide who knew me, who could give me some kind of personalized feedback,~ um,~ [00:06:00] and. Also some tips and tricks on like how to make things work in real life, because there's no shortage of people on the internet willing to give you advice, but so much of that advice is just useless.

~Um, ~so that's what I was hoping for. Just, uh, someone to take me by the hand and you're like, no, no, this is what you need. Ignore the rest. Uh, so.

[00:06:18] How was your coaching experience different than you expected it to be?

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[00:06:18] Megan J. McCrory: Excellent. so I think also one of the things that we reached out about is that we wanted people who had not. Had a health coaching experience before. So was your coaching experience different than you expected it to be? And if Yes, how was it different than you thought it, it would've like what you were expecting?

[00:06:39] joanna: Yeah. ~Um, ~so. It is my, it was my first health coaching experience, but it was not my first coaching experience. I've done other kinds of coaching before and,~ um,~ those I found to be very structured with, you know, like worksheets. A lot of worksheets. They always have worksheets. Um, and with [00:07:00] Donna it was so much more tailored to my needs or my interests or what I was experiencing at that moment.

Um. I really liked that, although at some points I kind of felt like I need to come up with a topic for this week. What are we gonna talk about? Like, I felt a little bit of stress around that. ~Um, ~not like I wished for a worksheet, but it might have. ~Um, ~maybe like a guide of like, these are the kinds of topics that we could talk about or the ones that I think it's important that we cover.

And then like with pledge of space for you to bring up whatever is on your mind this week or what burning questions you have. ~Um, ~might have been nice, but I really appreciated in, in general the flexibility to come with a topic. ~Um, ~and, and, you know, spend. Hour talking about that.

[00:07:45] Megan J. McCrory: Yeah, that's a, that's a tricky balance to have because as health coaches, we are told that, ~uh, ~, not necessarily lead the client because what we think we might be important to talk about might not be what is important to, for you to [00:08:00] talk about. ~Um, ~but I also understand that some people like some more structure.

That's why it's super important to find someone that fits with you.

~Because~

[00:08:06] joanna: ~Mm-hmm.~

[00:08:06] Megan J. McCrory: ~that, uh, or, and also~ to, ~to work with,~ you know, to give feedback also mid-session or mid, mid,~ uh,~ engagement to say, okay, , I need something else and this is what I need. ~Um, ~but ~typically, yeah, I, so I could see the, um, I ~listening back over the,~ uh,~ the sessions.

~I could hear that you're like, I, ~I told Donna, I was like, I don't think she understands that ~she's suppo. Like we're,~ we're looking for what's mostly important in her life right now. And we don't know that until you tell us.

[00:08:24] joanna: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, also part of it is like, sometimes I just also don't know, you know, it's hard to distill,~ um,~ your life when you're in the moment and. Like taking that step back and, and seeing like, okay, what are the things that I really need to focus on that are gonna make those lasting changes? ~Um, ~it was kind of hard for me, so.

[00:08:42] Megan J. McCrory: Yeah. Well, and normally we would have an hour, right? So we were also under a little bit of a time pressure because of the format that we wanna do this in for our listeners. We're like, okay, is a listener gonna listen to an hour long session? I'm not sure. So, you know, so I think that also played into that.

So it's so good [00:09:00] feedback. Thank you. ~Um,~

[00:09:00] What advice would you give to someone looking to hire a health coach?

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[00:09:00] Megan J. McCrory: ~another question that I had, let me see. Um, I. ~ What would you tell someone else now that you've had this experience with a health coach? What would you tell someone else who's considering hiring a health coach? ~Like what would you,~ what advice would you give them

[00:09:11] joanna: um, I think be open to trying things. ~Um. ~You know, might feel a little uncomfortable or be a little annoying, like the food logging. that was very annoying, but it, I also learned so much,~ uh,~ and it was so useful. ~Uh, ~so that would be the first piece of advice. Just,~ uh,~ be open and, um. I don't know, maybe the second piece, like I didn't really do this, but I felt like,~ um,~ I instantly had good chemistry with Zayna and, ~um, ~I don't know, but I would, I would suggest for someone to, you know, find someone, don't be afraid to try out different health coaches until you find someone that you have good chemistry with.

[00:09:50] Megan J. McCrory: Right,

[00:09:51] joanna: Yeah.

[00:09:52] Megan J. McCrory: Yeah. They almost everybody offers a free. Call ~to,~ you know, 15 minutes, and I think in 15 minutes you can probably figure out if you jive

[00:09:59] joanna: [00:10:00] Yeah.

[00:10:00] Megan J. McCrory: or not. And,~ um,~ I mean, and it goes both ways. A lot of times ~coaching clients or ~a coach is like, ~uh, ~either they're desperate that they need clients, that they want clients and they'll take anybody.

But we've also told people like, don't take clients who you don't think. You work well with because it won't be a good experience. So also from

[00:10:16] joanna: Yeah.

[00:10:17] Megan J. McCrory: perspective, we have the opportunity to say, no, I, I, I can recommend you to x, y, z coaches. So,

[00:10:24] joanna: Yeah.

[00:10:24] Megan J. McCrory: a, that was a good point, thanks. ~Um,~

[00:10:26] What would you have wished would've happened during your coaching time with Danna that didn't actually happen?

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[00:10:26] Megan J. McCrory: what would you have wished would've happened during your coaching time with Donna that didn't actually happen?

[00:10:34] joanna: ~Um, ~I think it would've been meet in person. I don't know. Video sessions are not always, I don't know, maybe like a little less impactful than meeting face-to-face. ~Um, ~so yeah, that's, that's one thing that I would've changed. ~Um,~

I don't know. I don't really have anything else that I would've wished for.

[00:10:50] Megan J. McCrory: No, that's fine. But that's a good one. I like,~ uh,~ yeah. Being in, contact or in the same energy space as someone else, you do feel it's, yeah, it's different. So [00:11:00] that's,~ uh,~ very cool. Very cool. ~Um.~

[00:11:01] joanna: Like, I was gonna say, it might be, it might've been cool to like, go through, you know, like some of the recipes that she had or like this,~ uh,~ I was thinking about,~ um,~ that recipe that you sent for the electrolyte drink. Like, I don't know that that would've been kind of cool to, you know, like go through that, doing it in person together and then,~ uh,~ trying it there and, and, you know.

But, uh, that would've been, you know, like a next level bonus, so,

[00:11:23] Megan J. McCrory: Excellent. ~Um, ~okay. ~And, uh, I think. This is my last question. Uh, no. Two more, two more questions.~

[00:11:25] joanna: ~okay.~ okay.

[00:11:25] What have you been able to achieve since you've worked with Danna?

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[00:11:25] Megan J. McCrory: have you been able to achieve since you've been working with Donna? So, I, it's been now at least a month since you've had your last session with Donna. So what would you say that you've achieved even her or since working with her?

[00:11:41] joanna: ~Um, ~I wouldn't frame it in terms of achievements. I would frame it in terms of like a little bit of a mindset shift. ~Um. ~So, or rather what has stuck, maybe we can, we can say that,~ um,~ what has stuck for me is really this idea that she had around like, you know, you start every day new,~ um,~ and. Even if [00:12:00] you fuck up on one day and whatever you, you know, I always love her example of like, you eat pizza at 10:00 PM because that was just the day that you had and that's your time.

~Um, ~to sit down and breathe for a minute and have dinner. ~Um, ~the next day is a fresh start and that is. Kind of freeing and a nice like reminder that okay, you don't have need to give up on, you know, trying to be healthy because um, you know, one day was just a disaster. ~Um, ~the other thing that has really stuck ~ um,~ for me, when I came in, I was really struggling with this balance around like.

How do I cook healthy meals that my kids will eat that also, or like things that I want to eat. And I remember she said, just have some safety items on the table. ~Um, ~like easy things. And so I, I still do that. That has stuck and like the hard boiled eggs or the cottage cheese or the like extra salad or whatever.

And like, and uh, actually the whole house now is really into hard boiled eggs. ~Um, ~but that's, that's one thing that is just like an easy [00:13:00] sort of tiny shift that makes it so that, you know, like I'm not also reaching for the, the, you know,~ uh, ~white flour pasta because that's all my one kid will eat. Uh, but that I have something else that I can eat,~ uh,~ that makes me feel better the next day.

[00:13:16] Megan J. McCrory: Oh, that's great. That's great. You could even get more granular with the first thing that you said. It's,~ uh,~ each meal is a new opportunity, right? So even if you had. A bad lunch. That doesn't mean you need to have a bad dinner or, you

[00:13:30] joanna: Yeah,

[00:13:30] Megan J. McCrory: we

[00:13:30] joanna: yeah,

[00:13:31] Megan J. McCrory: use the word bad, but

[00:13:32] joanna: yeah. That's true. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:13:33] Megan J. McCrory: something that you didn't feel great about for lunch, you could also have Yeah, yeah.

And yeah, these tiny shifts, I think that's, that's the whole point, right? Because when you're working with a health coach, it's more about habit change, mindset shift, little tiny things, because what you do every day has more impact than what you do once a month. So if you go to yoga once a month, that's great, but if you did yoga every day, that would have more [00:14:00] impact even if you did only three minutes of yoga every day, for example.

Right? So I think that's really always the core message that we try to get across in our show is that you don't have to move mountains, you just have to make these tiny little shifts and those will add up over time. Yeah. ~Um, okay, so then this is my last question.~

[00:14:16] Was there something that you learned about yourself that surprised you?

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[00:14:16] Megan J. McCrory: Was there something that you learned ~that,~ about yourself that surprised you?

[00:14:20] joanna: ~Um,~

I mean, I was surprised how much energy I had when I cut out, sort of like,~ uh,~ processed,~ um,~ carbohydrates and. I was feeling amazing, but I, I was also,~ um,~ less surprised to learn how difficult that is to maintain in the long term.

[00:14:35] Megan J. McCrory: Yeah.

[00:14:35] joanna: ~Uh, ~but you know, like you said, the, the, the tiny shifts,~ uh,~ the like,~ uh,~ switch it out when you can,~ um, ~makes a difference and that helps too.

So it's still, still a balance. ~Uh, ~ultimately I didn't really surprise myself. I know who I am and.

[00:14:47] Megan J. McCrory: Okay. That's good. Yeah.

[00:14:51] joanna: you know, as, as much as I would love to say, like, oh wow, you know, I completely changed my lifestyle and I feel so much better. ~Um, ~you know, I didn't [00:15:00] even think that was realistic going into it. ~Uh, ~I just wanted to know a little bit more

[00:15:04] Megan J. McCrory: yeah.

[00:15:04] joanna: about, you know.

[00:15:05] Megan J. McCrory: you know that. Yeah, no, completely not realistic that you're gonna change your whole life in three months, over six sessions of half an hour. But, ~um. ~Yeah, it's, you know, listening back, you know, and we get the opportunity and you will too. ~Uh, ~you know, by the time this episode airs, all the other episodes will have aired and you can listen to yourself, which I think is also something that normally people don't get in a health coaching environment.

So either you're gonna feel cringe or you're gonna be like, yeah, I did say that. Remind yourself how awesome you are. ~Um, ~so that's something that's unique to this experience. But,~ uh, in general, I think we,~ we really enjoyed,~ uh,~ having you, I mean, we, you worked with Donna. I was only behind the scenes, but I got to hear everything and you can hear. the shift and,~ um,~ it's so nice and to see that arc and that's really what we wanted to show in this series. And I hope that that comes back to you as well when you listen back through the series. ~Um, ~any last words maybe [00:16:00] for,~ uh,~ for Donna?

[00:16:01] joanna: ~Um, ~for Donna, I mean. Yeah, a huge thank you for taking the time and for her honesty,~ um,~ honest feedback and also for sharing, you know, her knowledge and her experience. ~Um, ~I highly recommend anyone who's thinking about doing a health coaching to look both of you up. ~Um, ~but yeah, it was, it was great to work with her.

She is just,~ um,~ very easy and. Friendly and open and, ~uh.~

[00:16:28] Megan J. McCrory: Excellent. Yeah, ~I mean, I love her dearly, so I can also only recommend her, but yeah.~ Alright. Thank you Joanna for all of your. Wonderful. Like,~ uh,~ trust in us and vulnerability and being just so open and honest about everything. And we really appreciate that you have taken all the time to do that with us and that you didn't sugarcoat anything.

~Uh, ~because I think that there's a lot of other women who will see themselves in you and we really appreciate you.

[00:16:54] joanna: Yeah, well thank you for your trust as well and for your time and for the coaching and advice [00:17:00] and yeah, it was fun experience also for me, so,

[00:17:02] Megan J. McCrory: Okay.

[00:17:02] joanna: so win.