Nutrition Coaching is becoming the next big thing as the failures of modern industrial food production are brought to light and the negative effects on health become more apparent. Over two thirds of the population are estimated to be actively looking for tailored nutrition plans that break through the confusion of misinformation about nutrition. They want individual recommendations and guidance to support health and fitness goals. By becoming a Nutrition Coach or adding nutrition coaching to your existing practice, you can position yourself to meet the growing demand.
Nutrition is the basis of Nutrition Response Testing® and nutrition coaching is an inherent part of what we do as practitioners. With nutritional products that we can count on, and with Nutrition Response Testing to analyze the patient’s condition and monitor progress, we can identify and program the nutritional support that the body needs. But patient non-compliance can limit the results.
Nutrition education is essential for patient compliance. It’s not a question of whether you will do nutrition coaching, but whether you will take time during the nutrition check to do it, or provide it outside of the clinical setting.
Jackie Furlong began teaching the basics of nutrition to patients at MetroEast Natural Healing Center, the clinic that she opened with her husband in Oakdale, Minnesota in 1986. “The nutrition coaching program was prompted by the fact that our Nutrition Response Testing practitioners just did not have the time during the nutrition checks to educate the patients, and answer all of their questions, and coach them into making the lifestyle changes that we know are so necessary.
“I began teaching the basics of nutrition separately. With that, I decided to create an exact program that we could deliver to every patient, so that we would know there was uniformity in what they were receiving, that was consistent with the philosophy of Nutrition Response Testing. The practitioners have more time to do what they are uniquely trained for, delivering Nutrition Response Testing, and our staff deliver the education and the coaching necessary. Our patients get one-on-one nutrition coaching that is consistent and predictable. All of our coaching sessions are 30 minutes long.
“We know that people today can get education anywhere. There is a lot on the internet. There are a lot of different philosophies. By providing nutrition coaching in-house, the patient gets our nutrition philosophy, and they get one-on-one education. Many patients really appreciate that human contact face-to-face.
“Our nutrition health coaching program has three components to it. Nutrition education is one of the components. Another component is application. Every person is different. Every person needs to apply the nutrition information differently. Nutrition coaching gives us the opportunity to tell each patient how it will work for them individually, and for their program, specific to their findings.
“The third component is accountability. We all need to be held accountable in order to make changes in our lives. If it was easy, we would already be making the changes that we need. Accountability is important to help us through the tough parts. Here’s a success from one of our patients on that count:
“Weekly accountability in nutrition coaching has helped me reduce my Mountain Dew intake from six cans a day to zero. This has helped reduce my headaches with less sugar. I now also have less joint pain.
“Another win:
“Thanks to nutrition coaching I learned how important protein is. My body composition test showed that in the last few months I have gained muscle. At 71 years of age. I’m happy to hear my body can improve.
“And a third one:
“The nutrition coach gave me some practical ways to reduce my sugar intake, which I thought would be impossible. I have now made it 25 days with no sugar.
“We have happier, more compliant patients and they’re getting better and faster results. We know how fabulous the Nutrition Response Testing program is, but it is only as good as a patient is willing to make changes in their lifestyle habits. Ultimately, we have to hold the patients accountable to make these changes. This is what’s most difficult for people and that’s why nutrition coaching is really effective.
“In our practice we put nutrition coaching together in the Nutrition Response Testing package. If they’re going to do Nutrition Response Testing, there are nutrition coaching sessions that are required. It’s non-negotiable. It has been a win-win for the patient, and it’s been a really effective way to get results. They get a nutrition check, and then they go right in to work with the nutrition coach.
“When they start getting nutrition coaching, they love it. One of the most common review comments that we get from our clinic is that ‘they really listen to me. I really feel that they are treating me individually and they listen to what I’m saying.’ A lot of that comes from the nutrition coaching because they get 30 minutes of time with somebody listening to them and helping them.
“It was necessary to create a turnkey system. We created a program that we could train anybody to do. If we had a nuitrition coach who couldn’t make it to work for any reason, someone else could deliver their nutrition coaching sessions so we wouldn’t have to cancel them. And we wanted the sessions to be consistent regardless of who delivered them. The program has been standardized now as the UNS Complete Nutrition Coaching Course.
“There are twelve standard modules, each with a different topic. They all share the same format. and each one has a packet. They’re designed so that anyone can pull the packet and deliver it effectively.
“In fact, my husband put this to the test when he had a patient who could only come over the lunch hour and there was no staff member available to coach the patient. He said he would do it and he pretty much just pulled the packet and delivered the session. He couldn’t believe how easy it was.
“The first twelve modules include the core topics that go hand in hand with Nutrition Response Testing: protein for breakfast, cutting the sugar, how to go gluten free the healthy way, balancing blood sugar. There is a section on label reading while grocery shopping, meal planning, bone health, digestive health, toxin free body care. There is also an open session, which has the same format, in case a patient wants something on a particular subject. The nutrition coach can pull the materials on it and deliver that.
“We also include instruction on nutrition coaching techniques and how to handle patient concerns that are specific for every nutrition coaching session, and in general. There’s a reactivation log and other tools that you will need to run a Nutrition Coaching practice. It’s a complete program that you can ‘plug and play.’
“The modules are designed so that they don’t have to be delivered in any particular order. If a patient is really struggling with parasites, or fungus, and they haven’t had the ‘cut the sugar’ nutrition coaching session yet, the practitioner may recommend that specific area. The coach can pull the specific session packet and deliver it, even if they were planning to do another one. We get people who need to talk about application again, or accountability, or just have questions, so, sometimes, you don’t necessarily go through a particular topic. We’ve also had patients that go through the same topic multiple times. They get something different out of it every time.
“The program includes communication procedures, so the practitioner and the nutrition coach can effectively communicate with each other between sessions. If we have multiple nutrition coaches who don’t necessarily see each other, there’s a communication piece in case they see a patient that someone else has been working with. It’s all documented and flows very, very well.
“I designed this so that you could pull someone off of the street and have them deliver this program. Of course, there is a difference in delivery depending on how much background you have. We have found that nutrition coaches that have teaching backgrounds do a very good job at this, not necessarily with nutrition backgrounds. Any practitioner could deliver this at any level, and we cross-train all of our staff members to be able to deliver it. We never want to be stuck not being able to deliver a nutrition coaching session by only having one specialized person who does it.
“This Nutrition Coaching program has made such a huge difference in our nutrition practice. It’s amazing. It’s been a win-win for everybody and our patients are getting bigger, better results.
“When we started this, six or seven years ago, nutrition coaching was a newer idea. People would ask us, ‘Are you a life coach?’ ‘No, this is nutrition coaching.’ Back then there weren’t a lot of options for that. Now it is becoming very popular. You can go online. There are probably even nutrition coaching apps. More people are using nutrition coaching, and some people are going elsewhere for it. So, you don’t know what kind of support and education they’re getting that might be in conflict with what you’re telling them.
“You want to bring them in to the practice where you have control over the quality of information they’re getting, that coordinates directly with their Nutrition Response Testing program. They get the correct nutrition philosophy and they get the best results.”
From the webinar, A New Service You Can Offer Your Patients: Nutrition Coaching, with Jackie Furlong
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For more information about the UNS Complete Nutrition Coaching Course or on Nutrition Response Testing call 866-418-4801 or email us at info@unsinc.info. You can also download our FREE Nutrition Response Testing E-Book here.
For more information about training to be a Nutrition Response Testing Practitioner visit unsinc.info.
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