Health and Fitness Connector Podcast Interview

I'm so excited to share another podcast interview with you! Kelly Duggan of the Health and Fitness Connector Podcast and I spoke all about why loving your work matters and what to do if you don't. We pivoted to talking even more in depth about wellness with a specific focus on the toxins/chemicals in our personal care products. 

Here is the episode: You Are What Your SKIN Eats

Want more in depth information on this topic? My other blog post digs deep into the connection between our personal care products and our health. 

What was most surprising to you when you learned more about what's in our products? What's been the hardest thing for you to transition to a "cleaner" version? 

What Can You Do With a Health Coaching Certification?

Photo by Pure Style Photography

Do you have a passion for health and wellness? Find yourself consumed reading all of the latest research about a superfood or health hack? Are you thinking about bringing some of this into your professional life and wondering how to boost your credentials?

If so, read on.

I get a lot of questions about how I chose my nutrition program and integrated it into my business. I’m sharing my experience in hopes that it helps you on your own journey! If you want to discuss this potential program/path or ask questions about anything that I don’t cover here, feel free to reach out and we can set up a one-on-one conversation.  

I’ve shared a bit about my wellness story before, but in a nutshell, I went from not taking great care of myself to rabbit-hole-ing on any and all information I could find. I wanted to learn more about the theories and science behind all of the conflicting information out there and to understand how there seemed to be so many dissimilar paths towards healthier and happier ways of living. I knew, though, that I didn’t want an experience that only focused on the hard science -  so, right there I knew I wasn’t going to pursue Nutritionist or Registered Dietician studies.

Here are a few of the reasons I chose the Institute for Integrative Nutrition:

• They cover over 100 different dietary theories in the curriculum, and some of the speakers are experts in the field including: Deepak Chopra, MD, leader in the field of mind-body medicine, Andrew Weil, director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, Dr. David Katz, MD, MPH, director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center, Dr. Walter Willett, MD, DrPH, chair of nutrition at Harvard University, Mark Hyman, MD, founder of The UltraWellness Center, Geneen Roth, bestselling author and expert on emotional eating, David Wolfe, raw food leader and nutrition expert, Marion Nestle, PhD, MPH, professor at New York University’s Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, and WAY more! You can get a taste of the syllabus here, or sample a class here.

• More than just western medicine principles, they also go in depth about wellness beyond what’s on your plate. For example, they discuss the idea of primary foods vs secondary foods. Your primary foods are things like your career, relationships, spirituality, and other non-food forms of nourishment which can all impact your wellness greatly. For me, this was a huge piece of what attracted me to IIN because many people know what foods and lifestyle habits are good for them, yet they still fail to incorporate them or feel unwell. I wanted to learn more about this concept and this program has an immense focus on it.

• They provide a plethora of coaching resources. If you do want to work as a health coach, they give you countless guides and handouts to use with clients, 6-month coaching program forms and resources, outlines and ideas for wellness workshops, and more. They also have mandatory coaching calls before you graduate to make you practice some of the skills in advance, ask questions, and learn from others in the program too.

• The format is flexible to fit into a busy life. I was working full-time, just launching Aspire with Aileen and doing coaching on the side, completing a 200-hour yoga teacher training… and had a new puppy :) While I don’t recommend having that much on your plate at the same time in general, let alone when doing a program like this, it worked. A new module is released each week, but you have a grace period to complete the work if your life is extra hectic that given week.

• Though it’s mostly online, you still build a community. The IIN network is HUGE, for better or worse, and the name is incredibly well known in the health world. I assumed since it’s a global program that I wouldn’t make many connections in Boston, but I’ve met people both during my time in the program as well as afterwards who have become good friends, and/or collaborators for wellness workshops! Most of the coaches I looked up to, followed, and learned from studied at IIN as well, so I knew that was a good sign.

What can you do with this certification?

Before investing in a program like this, you’re likely curious about career opportunities and how people use this training… and if not, this question will likely arise during your studies!

Some people do this program solely for their own learning and development. If you’re just curious about these topics or want to improve your own wellness, simply soaking up the knowledge for your own sake is certainly one option.

Many people begin that way, and then become inspired to incorporate what they’ve learned into their professional lives too. Here are some of the many paths you can take:

Become an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach.

This is the most “traditional” path that’s discussed throughout the program and where much of the training incorporated throughout the modules focuses. Some notable full-time coaches include Robyn Youkilis, Andrea Beaman, and Maria Marlowe.

Be on the wellness committee (or create one!) at your current place of employment.

American businesses lose $300 billion annually to lowered productivity, absenteeism, health-care, and related costs stemming from stress. Stress is the root cause of the majority of chronic illness. Offering workshops and programs that address these health concerns and reduce stress benefits both the employer and employee, and this is becoming more of a common practice these days. You can influence decisions around wellness programming, or offer to run sessions yourself!   

Integrate this coaching into other areas of a business.

Many graduates combine health coaching with yoga, acupuncture, life coaching, (or career coaching like me!), business coaching, or other services instead of having it be the focus of all of their attention. You can find tons of examples (I'd say the majority!) of graduates doing this.

Create products.

You may already know this, but if not, you’ll soon learn that what we put on our bodies also has a big influence on our health. IIN Grad Adina Grigore created a super successful product line S.W. Basics.

Elizabeth Stein wrote “start a natural foods company” on her notebook while at IIN and now is Founder and CEO of Purely Elizabeth, which is the #1 selling granola in the natural food space. These are just two examples of how graduates used their education to create something innovative.

Create change.   

Some graduates go on to work to create change in our food systems. For example, Amy Kalafa created a movie and a movement to create healthy and sustainable food options in schools.

Do an advanced search on LinkedIn to see others!

There are so many potential paths, and what may sound appealing to you is dependent on your own values, interests, background/skills and more. I recommend doing an advanced search on LinkedIn to see what others have done and explore other ideas/people to speak with to inform your decision.

Additional paths/options:

• Finding a career in nutrition

• What health coach jobs are there on the market

• 9 professional paths you can pursue as a health coach

• Superstar Graduates

What next?

I hope this post has given you some insight into what the Institute for Integrative Nutrition program entails, some of the related career options, and how to learn more before making a decision. In summary, I’d recommend reviewing the certification (perhaps looking at the curriculum), doing some self-reflection/exploration on what your goals are/what you’re hoping to get out of the program, and if everything sounds good, then sign up*!

If you do enroll and mention you were referred by me Aileen Axtmayer, I’m an Ambassador of the school so you’ll receive significant savings! Let me know when you’ve done so and I’ll gift you four free 30-minute coaching / mentorship calls to support you throughout the program and while you explore ways to integrate this into your career. These sessions can be used at any point in your program and up to 6 months post-graduation.

I’d be happy to be a sounding board for you and to point you to additional coaching resources to help you get wherever it is you’d like to go.

*If you do enroll and use my name, be sure to email me to get you set up with the free coaching!*

Additional Resources

In addition to what IIN provides, and my mentoring if you do enroll, there are many other resources available to support you both throughout and after completing the program. Two examples include:

• Healthy Profit University: Michelle graduated from IIN and not only has a successful health coaching practice, but also a business coaching program to help other health coaches get their businesses off of the ground. I completed her program and found it incredibly helpful for everything from refining my target market to managing the nitty gritty technological components of setting up lists, programs, and offerings.

• Melissa Danielle has a podcast "Grow Yourself, Grow Your Health Coaching Business" which provides a lot of information to aspiring or current health coaches. We did an episode together about the business side of coaching, but we also got to speak again about why loving your work matters!

Good luck with this exciting decision!

4 Essential Steps to Find Work You Love (+ exciting announcement!)

If you get my newsletter, this isn't new information for you (Want to hear news first and get access to freebies? The form is at the bottom of the page!). For the rest of the world, I have an exciting announcement. Last week, I ran a webinar "4 Essential Steps to Find Work You Love" and officially opened registration for something big! 

I've just launched a new online course "A Holistic and Strategic Approach to Finding Work You Love"

It's comprised of five modules (delivered over four weeks) of videos, assessments, workbooks, expert guides, and activities. The self-paced model lets people fit this process into their busy lives when it works for them, while still having access to one-on-one support from me. I have over 10 years of career coaching experience and compiled the most critical tools and skills I’ve used during this decade into this program.

The content covers everything from clarifying what you want to pursue in your career to the tactical side of getting there. One module focuses on how to take care of yourself, so you can have the energy and mindset needed to manage any additional stress that can come with this work. Full details and a program schedule can be found through the webinar.

Registration closes on Halloween (10.31.17). If you'd like to get a sense of my style and this topic, listen to the webinar while it's still available or reach out for a free consultation to decide if it’s the right fit for you.

I hope to see you there! 

Flow + All About Aspire

I'm working on something REALLY exciting that I'm planning to launch this fall, and because of that I'll be doing a few blog posts per month instead of a weekly edition.

When I started to put pen to paper on this new idea for Aspire with Aileen, I found I was completely enthralled and in a total state of flow (and I'm not talking about a "yoga flow" in this case!).

If you've never heard of this concept, here are two great articles to get you up to speed:

• Your Ideal Career is the Intersection Between Flow and Meaning

• Find Your Flow and Success Will Follow

Do you experience this in your career? In your personal life? How can you make changes, personally or professionally, if not?

Photo from article linked above

Finally, I recently realized I never shared an interview I did with Just Us Gals Boston. If you're new to this page or want to better understand why I focus on helping clients with both personal and professional goals, click here to read the full article. And if you already know you're going to be working on a career goal, here are 4 ways to work towards it without sacrificing your physical or mental health. 

Want to stay informed about this upcoming announcement? Members of my monthly newsletter will be the first to know and you can sign up here! 

Aspire with Aileen Manifesto

In case you're new to my website, my manifesto is one of the best ways I know how to introduce myself. It encapsulates the three areas of my business (career counseling, health coaching, and yoga) and hopefully helps you get a sense of what perspective I bring to my work with my clients. 

I believe life is short, but the days are long if you’re not happy with what you’re doing or if you’re uncomfortable in your own skin.

I believe we hold more power over our paths than we typically imagine. Our original circumstances are certainly out of our control, but if we ask the right questions of ourselves, we often find that opportunities to ignite change are plentiful.  

I believe laughter and food are both medicine.

I believe that our breathing can be an amazing instrument of change.

When I wake up in the morning, my very first thought is how grateful I am for my health and how excited I am to be spending my day doing what I love. It breaks my heart knowing some people feel nothing but dread from the moment their alarm goes off until their head hits the pillow again.

I believe we often get in our own way, unintentionally, and that the power of human connection can be a magnificent force in helping us shift our perspective.

I believe in my mantra “To know even one life has breathed easier because you’ve lived- this is to have succeeded” (Ralph Waldo Emerson) and hope to help you breathe easier. 

Photo by Pure Style Photography

I couldn't find a way to incorporate my assistant, Buster, into my manifesto so I'm sharing a photo of him with me to make my introduction complete! (It may not look like it in this photo but I swear he loves me too.)

More on Analysis Paralysis

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about what I do. When I describe it, some people seem surprised to see a passion for both career and health coaching while others realize how interrelated the two are.

One commonality I've noticed is that in both areas, I see “analysis paralysis” because of a tendency to rely a lot on other people and sources for making decisions instead of turning inward.

I see this in career coaching when people ask everyone (including Google) to tell them what to do with their lives. They’re left with a million opinions that are all based on the values of the people giving the advice. Every person has a different perspective because of their differing values and that, coupled with using the interwebs to get advice, leads to lots of conflicting information and overwhelm. 

In health coaching, this shows up when my clients try to follow all of the latest diet and fitness trends. The recommendations from one source are typically the opposite from another (For example: Fat is your friend! Fat is the devil!) and can lead to instant confusion and frustration. While there's a lot of good information out there, a lot of it assumes that what worked for one person will work identically for another and ignores the important concept of bio-individuality. 

This makes sense when you think about how we’re typically taught about wellness –  we often eat the way our families or the government has told us to, based on their traditions or definitions of healthy. With exercise, many people stick with the sports that were required in school or the general guidelines given by medical providers or social media.

So, what do I recommend people do differently?

The answer in both cases is essentially the same:

Stop. Slow Down. Breathe. Turn Inward. 

In career coaching, I always advocate for people to make decisions based on their internal drivers. Specifically, using their VIPS (values, interests, personality, and skills) to guide them can increase their likelihood of being satisfied with their jobs. Many people come to me when they’re finally ready to do this. They admit that they've had a nagging feeling in their gut all along that something was off, but they just followed the advice or expectations others put upon them.

In health coaching, I help people learn how to quiet the noise and chaos of the wellness world. I share ways to pay attention to not only what they eat, but also the way they eat it, and how they feel afterwards. I also encourage them to find the type of movement they actually enjoy.

When people change things up and eat the foods they feel nourished by, and exercise in the ways that their individual body craves, they're much more likely to continue than when they just go through the motions of following what they've been told they're "supposed” to do.

This may sound so obvious, but can you think back on a time when you behaved differently than this? Maybe it’s still going on in some areas of your life today? 

These are just two examples of how I see people tune out what their intuition has to say about the career move that will make them happiest or the foods that actually make them feel good. By solely looking externally, people get so much more overwhelmed by all of the options available and that’s often what makes them too afraid to make changes or take any action.

I didn't know what graphic to use for this post, so this my best attempt at an "I'm thinking" photo. Image by Pure Style Photography

Though career and health coaching are indeed very different, in both areas I help people slow down, cut through all of the information overload, and see that it really can be as simple as turning inward to find the answers. It all comes back to asking the right questions and taking the time to do the work.

If you’re interested in learning more about either of these areas of coaching, reach out here for a free 30-minute consultation!

You Can Talk Yourself Into or Out of Anything

When I was deciding whether or not to quit my job to scale up my business full-time, my friend and fellow coach Stephanie said something so beautiful and incredibly helpful:

For a decision like this you’ll be able to talk yourself into it or out of it a million times over. So, you want to get out of your own way. Give it up and ask for guidance. Set the intention to be guided to the right decision and then commit to actually listening to your intuition and not second guessing it.

Fear isn’t a sign that it’s the wrong decision. Fear is healthy.

The answer is already inside of you and you just need to slow down, let go, and listen for it. Then act on it.

The reminder that my gut already knew what to do, and the comforting insight that fear is not a bad thing, were exactly what I needed to finally get out of my own way and move forward with Aspire with Aileen.

When I work with both my career and health coaching clients, I truly believe that they too have the answers inside of them, they just need some space and guidance to find them.

On the career side, clients will come to me with the hope that I will just tell them which careers to go for (I don’t blame them, when I decided my SENIOR year of college that I didn’t want to pursue what I’d studied for 4 years, I wanted someone to do the same!). On the surface that doesn’t seem too outrageous, but when you think about the fact that you would trust a stranger over yourself for your life’s direction, that’s a pretty big deal!

For health coaching, clients want meal plans handed to them and to know which foods are “good” and “bad,” but ultimately even something as healthy as broccoli can be nourishing for one person and harmful for another. We instinctively know what foods and habits will serve us best, but don’t always take the time to slow down and listen or make changes.

There are a variety of reasons why we avoid taking action. At times, it’s because there aren’t obvious answers to these decisions/challenges. In these situations, how can you take action?

Similar to what Stephanie said, start by turning inward.

When it comes to career exploration, I encourage clients to explore their VIPS: Values, Interests, Personality, and Skills (more on this later when I release my self-assessment guide- stay tuned!). Use this framework to get clarity on what your drivers are, and how realistic the paths you’re exploring are as well. There are TONS of free online questionnaires and assessments to prompt you into delving deeper into these, but here’s one site that touches on a handful.

As for the healthy foods and habits exploration, start by taking stock of what you already do.

Try keeping a food journal for even just a few days – you’d be amazed by how much that can illuminate for you especially if you track how you feel physically after each meal. You may even notice you only drink one glass of water per day, a habit that is definitely important to change. When I have my initial consult with clients, I ask about everything from that water intake to how many times a day they check their email.  From there, we build awareness of what foods and habits may be interfering with their wellbeing and create a plan to make lasting change. Sounds much better than just being told to eat kale, right?

Another thing you can do is poll the audience*

This has an * because in the end, you know yourself best. If you really want something, don’t rely on validation from others to feel you have the permission to go for it. Sometimes, however, we’re so immersed in our own ways of thinking that it can be helpful when others give us their perspective. Talking with friends and family may bring up insights like “You haven’t sounded excited about your work in months…” or “Every time you talk about xyz your face just lights up!”

Notice your reaction to any input from others.

Even more telling than what they say can be how you react. That’s because you know deep down in your gut what’s best for you and your gut will chime in if you’re being steered in a different direction.

If you’re dissatisfied in your work and thinking of making a change and someone were to say “No way, you’re crazy for even thinking of leaving that job” – Do you feel disappointed? Does your stomach sink? You may find clues to what you really want by looking at how you feel when someone tells you that you can or can’t have it. 

Ask for help

One other option is continuing to have conversations, but with an unbiased party (like a therapist, health or career coach!). This can provide a safe space to really be heard without expectations or judgment. By the end of some of our sessions, I’ve had clients say “After talking through things a bit more and thinking out loud with you, I think I may have just answered my own question.”

These conversations, no matter who you decide to have them with (including with just yourself!), provide you with the space to step back, slow down, and evaluate your options to get to a place of confidence and clarity.

What decisions have you been grappling with and which of these tools can you implement to move forward?

In the image above, the words are an excerpt from a quote by Victoria Erickson. Full quote and link to her work here.