Why I Joined The Life Coach School Certification with Brooke Castillo

I’ve completed a lot of training in my lifetime. This is proven by the fact that I earned a Ph.D. in 2013! But even since earning a doctoral degree, you may be surprised to hear that The Life Coach School Certification process is the certificate I’m most proud of. It’s the first one that I earned simply because I wanted to. I didn’t do it for external validation or praise. I did it for me.

Let me take you back to the beginning of the story. In 2016, I was going through a career crisis. I was finishing up my third year as an assistant professor in my dream job, but it had been a difficult year for me. I was struggling with teaching. Our university president had just resigned. And a project I was emotionally invested in came to a screeching halt. 

I was devastated. I found myself searching for what was next. 

Getting Started with Life Coaching

So I dipped my toes into coaching that summer and into the fall. I found Brooke Castillo’s podcast in a random search and started listening. I proceeded to complete a foundational course in an ICF accredited program and then got to work coaching. My first paid coaching client started in January 2017. 

I was thrilled to be doing something that I felt connected to. I started coaching more clients, but then I started to run into a wall. While some of my clients were taking actions and getting results, some of them weren’t and I didn’t know why. I wanted to help them.

As I continued listening to Brooke’s podcast, I absorbed more of her wisdom. (Honestly, I was very suspicious of the fake nails and eyelashes. That’s not how we typically roll in academia! I wanted to see authentic evidence.) As reticent as I was, the more I read the books she recommended, the more I realized she really knew what she was talking about.

In the summer of 2018, I began wondering about my business. I questioned whether I should keep moving forward with it. If I should continue spending my free time coaching. But then it happened, as if by magic: Brooke revealed her first online certification cohort.

Something inside of me screamed YES. You have to do this! You must make this happen. I had heard the siren call when she first opened up Self-Coaching Scholars and ignored it. Now was my time and I wouldn’t let the opportunity pass me by. 

But I was PETRIFIED of spending that kind of money. I had spent less money on my car than this program cost. I had never paid for tuition in school as I was always on scholarship or fully funded in graduate school. (I took out loans for living expenses, for sure.) But this? This was a huge deal. I was on a mission to get out of debt and this felt like moving in the opposite direction.

The Life Coach School Certification

Even so, I took the leap and signed up. That’s also when I had my first experience with quality coaching for myself. I hired someone to help me work on my money beliefs (fortuitously, she’s now my accountant). A Life Coach School certified coach helped me to process through my thoughts and fears as we geared up for the program starting in October 2018. I had so many thoughts to manage but, through that coaching, I overcame my constant worrying.

And then I became unstoppable! 

Learning all of the tools and techniques from Brooke, I knew exactly how to help my clients get results. Now I have the model and I can understand what keeps a person from taking action. It’s because of the feelings that drive them. Circumstances are neutral. But it’s thoughts that create feelings. And the good news? I get to choose my thoughts.

I couldn’t have anticipated the monumental results I got simply from showing up for myself. Just from being coached, I was able to: 

• Become a time ninja as I balanced coaching and being a professor.

• Figure out with my husband how to reconnect after years of him traveling and me “being busy.”

• Become a confident mom when we adopted out of foster care.

• Reconnect with my own mother after years of not talking.

• Earn back all of the money I invested in certification (and more) within 6 months.

• Give myself permission to trust myself and make decisions for myself instead of asking everyone else around me what I should do.

• Stop outrunning myself.

• Deal with my emotions (boredom, worry, overwhelmedness, etc).

• Realize I wasn’t supposed to be happy all of the time. (100% happiness is a myth.)

And then I created an amazing result. Brooke asked me to be on the podcast.

Brooke Castillo’s Life Coach Podcast 

Her podcast is regularly in the top 250 list of all podcasts. This was huge. If you had asked me in 2016, when I started listening to her, “Do you know you’ll be on a future episode?” I would have looked at you quizzically. In 2018, I might have said, “Yeah, maybe in 2025?” 

But here I am, on one of Brooke’s episodes in 2020, sharing my enthusiasm with the world!

Related to that experience, I was also flown out to Dallas for a photo/video shoot to talk about my experience in Coach Certification. It all happened in the same week and I only had about two weeks to prepare. You know your true priorities when an event like this happens - I could have easily said my schedule was full or I was too busy. But I dropped everything!

In order from top left to bottom right - Andrea Scalici, Lauren Cash, Elizabeth Salazar, Lisa Hatlestad, Lindsay Dotzlaf, Janet Archer, myself, and Carrie Marshall

I was privileged to spend the day in Dallas surrounded by other incredible women. The conversations in between videos (and in such a fancy house!) were mind-blowing. I saw the evidence of what it’s like to put yourself in the room with smart people. These women were mirrors for myself and what I had also accomplished. 

As I soaked everything in, I heard earth-shattering statements just casually mentioned on the car ride or at dinner. We all helped each other to shine brighter. That trip gave me so much energy to move forward. 

Although Dallas was magical, I did need to come back home. But after being surrounded by these encouraging women, I am more trusting of myself now. I used this experience to anchor myself, to remember how far I’ve come and where I’m headed.

Is Life Coaching for You?

I want the same kind of energy and motivation for you to accomplish your dreams. I want you to “trust your knowing”, as Glennon Doyle puts it. When an opportunity taps you on the shoulder and you feel pulled to it - you go for it. That’s what certification was about for me. Listening to and acting on something I truly wanted to do, just for myself. 

You probably have things like this too. Are you pushing them away or leaning into them? Even if it’s scary. It’s time to take the leap! 

Why You Need to Stop Trying to Lose Weight

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Many of my clients tell me they want to lose weight. In fact, it’s fairly common language today to say that your goal is to “lose weight”. 

We’re even told by doctors we should lose weight! But most of the time it doesn’t even work. 

Why?

Today I want to talk to you about some of the problems associated with the way we think about weight. Specifically, we’ll look at the research behind Weight-Inclusive vs. Weight-Normative approaches to health.

Admittedly, I’m not a medical doctor, psychologist or nutritionist. I am a certified life coach and weight coach through The Life Coach School and I earned my Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies. I understand the research, have seen it applied with my clients, and I want to share it with you in an accessible way.

As the conversation about health changes, health care professionals are trying to focus more on what works--and we know that simply shedding pounds isn’t enough. Things are shifting away from “weight-loss” and moving more toward “weight-inclusivity”. Toward what is important for health and well-being.

Makes sense, right? 

Let’s go over the weight-normative approach that society has been touting for far too long. I’m summarizing the research articles (see the below for references) to give you an overview: 

1. Our body mass index (BMI) is an outdated tool. A high BMI doesn’t mean we will develop diseases or poor health. Unlike smoking, which we know causes lung cancer because it is backed by empirical research, BMI and poor health have no established causality.

2. Body weight isn’t voluntary. Many factors are at play: genetics, access to healthy food, physical activity and other resources.

3. When people try to lose weight and can’t, learned helplessness can develop. Because they don’t lose weight on the first try, they may give up completely on their health.

4. No weight-loss intervention has worked long-term for the majority of participants. People who have maintained weight loss are the exception, not the rule. I’m an outlier myself as I’ve maintained my weight loss of 20-28 lbs for over a decade. But that’s unusual and most people gain back the weight they lose (sometimes more).

5. Weight cycling is when the weight goes up and down the scale. Weight cycling IS connected to poor health. This yo-yoing is connected to inflammation, cancer, and possibly even premature death. It also negatively influences psychological well-being because we simply don’t feel good about ourselves when we weight cycle.

6. Trying to maintain weight loss puts people at risk for eating disorders. All kinds of unhealthy behaviors can emerge from rigid dieting.

7. The weight-normative approach encourages us all to be thin and constantly striving for that. It encourages stigma against people of different sizes. These stigmas tend to show up across various settings in our lives, including health care professionals. Overweight people are viewed as lazy while thinner people are judged for being able to eat what they want. It’s a vicious cycle with a massive amount of bias. In fact, it is actually this weight stigma that is connected to poor health - not the pounds themselves. 

Wow, so did you know all of that? 

I certainly didn’t realize that this is where the research had taken us in 2020. It’s so easy to fall into the pattern of counting calories and thinking that the way we grew up was correct. We’ve learned a lot, however, and it’s time to re-train our brains. 

Regularly, I see how the weight-normative approach affects my coaching clients on a daily basis. Many of them are consumed with thoughts about tracking food as they think obsessively about losing weight. 

If only this mental energy could be freed up so they would have the time and space to think about other, more important things! To create the work they want to share with the world. Instead, they are focused on the guilt they feel from last night’s dessert. And it’s heart-breaking. 

In the weight-normative approach, my clients beat themselves up for not reaching their goals. They constantly feel shame for not doing the work they “should be doing.” And they over-complicate their lives, thinking there’s one magical answer out there.

All in all, the weight-normative approach that many of us have become accustomed to is a hazardous burden that is harmful to us in the long run. 

Photo by AllGo - An App For Plus Size People on Unsplash

Now, let me introduce you to the weight-inclusive approach.

Are you ready for some good news?

This approach focuses on health--on the positive instead of the negative. Health has many components and can be measured in a variety of ways. Attention is placed on daily actions rather than a targeted end-goal. The vision is for long-term change. 

These clinically significant improvements are associated with weight-inclusive approaches:

• Lower blood pressure

• Increased physical activity

• Decreased binge eating

• Increased self-esteem

• Decreased depression

• No adverse outcomes to this approach (unlike the weight normative approach)

• Higher body appreciation

• Lower habitual appearance monitoring

The weight-inclusive approach also calls for more empirical research about what works and what doesn’t. This approach recognizes it is important to increase access to healthy options.

Models for the Weight-Inclusive Approach:

• Health at Every Size

• Physical Activity at Every Size

• The Body Project

Rather than focusing on the negative, weight-inclusive language uses positive vocabulary, such as “body awareness”, “intuitive eating”, and “health”. 

One of my coaching clients is focused on her health--and that’s the language we use. Not “losing weight”. She recognized the need to drop the “shoulds” around losing weight and to start defining health for herself. Right now, that includes sleep and taking vitamins--not tracking her food or reading more books about weight loss.

Now that you understand a bit more, focusing on the weight inclusive approach is accessible for you. Check out my free training on how to stop overeating today.

References Used to Write this Post:

Thanks to Paula Brochu for directing me to these published articles.

Bacon & Aphramor, 2011 - https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2891-10-9

Logel, Stinson, & Brochu, 2015 - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/spc3.12223

Tylka et al., 2014 - https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jobe/2014/983495/

Hunger, Smith, & Tomiyama, 2020 - https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/sipr.12062

How To Stop Overeating At The Office [A Quick Guide To Resist The Urge]

Photo by Obi Onyeador on Unsplash

From birthdays to a plethora of cafeteria lunch options, it’s no wonder that it’s hard to resist the urge to overeat at the office.

Are you struggling to keep sugar intake at a minimum? Does your office make things even harder? And did you know that even those with amazing office environments feel that it's hard to maintain a healthy routine while at work? 

Have a look at some tips and tricks that will help you out and even inspire others towards a healthy office lifestyle.

Office Food Tips

Now it may seem that the odds are not in your favor, but you can achieve your weight goals—and relatively easily. I know that it is easier to head to the cafeteria with the students and other professors, but you want to live the best life out there, so let’s talk strategies.

Pack a lunch the night before

Preparing lunch and snacks for the whole day is one of the best ways to eat properly while at work. Packing your meal at home allows you to plan your lunches, making sure they fit into your daily parameters.

This works for snacks too, so if you enjoy cake, rather than resisting it, swipe it for a healthier version, and give up the refined sugar for natural sweeteners. Prepare batches so you have a weekly amount to munch on with less effort. I meal prep on Sundays so that I can grab my lunches out of the fridge every morning and go.

Although it might not seem about health, home-cooked meals will save you a considerable amount of money. And we can all use the extra money in our pockets.

Photo by Helena Sollie on Unsplash

Mastering the skill to say “No”

Office peer pressure can be consuming, even when it is unintended, because it is difficult to tell your coworkers that you don’t want to eat with them or that you would rather refuse the cake they brought from home.

However, you can find ways to politely explain that you’re trying to live a healthier life and therefore, are refusing their appetizing goodies and snacks. But this doesn’t imply that you have to become isolated from your work peers.

Instead of sharing fast food and cafeteria food with them, take your own. You can still hang out with them during lunch but enjoy the lunch you’ve prepped at home.

If you notice yourself continuously eating right after lunch, choose to go for a quick walk, even if that walk is simply around campus. Removing yourself from your desk will allow you to objectively measure your hunger level.

And by being fully aware of how you feel, you can adapt your habits accordingly. If you’re still conflicted, invest in a gadget to use at your desk to unwind, stretch or make yourself a cup of tea or coffee instead. Getting involved in a project that will have you engaged for a long period of time can support shifting your focus away from food and onto something better.

Stay Hydrated

Drinking water is vital to healthy living in general. But, did you know that drinking water can help fight those mid-afternoon snacking, flush toxins, and improve your clarity during the day? Water is underestimated and is one of the easiest and most hidden ways to bring healthy living to the workplace.

Once you start drinking proper amounts of water you will observe that you’re less inclined to choose junk food and sugary drinks. You will also probably see that it’s easy for you to control your weight and stay focused all day. I keep a water bottle at my desk that I love. It makes it so much easier to sip throughout the day.

And while office eating is a big part of getting and staying healthy, you can incorporate other healthy habits into your work life as well.

Office Exercise Tips

Exercise at the office!

If you are one of the happy few who enjoys a working place with a gym, you are one of the lucky ones who doesn’t have to understand the struggle to plan a workout session before or after work. However, even if you don't have an office gym at your disposal, you can still plan some quality motion while at the office.

Because academics have jobs that are pretty sedentary, we’re unlikely to get much exercise without any effort. But just like with the necessity to make changes to your office diet, a small alteration in your office routine will help increase movement and you'll start enjoying healthier living.

Exercise will also increase blood flow to your brain, making you more active, and enhancing your productivity. All of these advantages are an addition to burning extra calories and improving muscle tone.

So how will you do it?

To include some movement into your workday at the university, begin by turning your coffee break into a short walk. You can even invite your colleagues for some good conversation and inspire healthy work relationships.  

Choose the stairs over the elevator. Or, if you want to boost your confidence and adrenaline, you could even stop a few blocks before your workstation and walk the rest of the way.

You can also try out deskercise - exercising at your desk. Bring an exercise ball into the office and alternate between sitting on it, and sitting on your chair. Sitting on an exercise ball - the correct size for your height and desk - can improve posture. Try doing a few exercises in your breaks, and you’ll notice how you actually boost your strength, too. I love my standing desk for getting up from my chair.

Pre-plan gym days

Is there someone who opts for gym sessions after a long day at the office? Unless exercise is your hobby, probably not. And you are far from being alone in this situation.

If your intention is to add an extra gym day or two to your schedule, begin by pre-planning the right days for you to be able to attend the gym. If weekends are better suited for you, then plan to hit the gym at least once or twice Friday to Sunday. Commit to one work evening, and be consistent. Or, if you know that Wednesday evenings are the best for you to shine in the gym, be willing and choose a way to hold yourself accountable. 

I love my 5:30 AM CrossFit classes. It’s a great system for me. You have to find the system that works best for you.

Think about the future

You’ll probably always regret that afternoon snack - so try to prevent it. At 3 PM, when your brain tells you that you NEED the snack. Listen to the urge, but don’t give in. Pay attention to why your body wants the snack. I go over how to do this in my free stop overeating training video.

Make sure that your office lifestyle is adjusted to the healthy lifestyle you are trying to live outside the office.

The result? You’ll feel more active on a  daily basis, healthier, more coordinated and productive. 

Let me help you focus on your weight goals and discover how to be ready for the next challenges you'll face when it comes to weight loss and how to succeed. 

How To Stop The Urge To Eat Junk Food [6 Steps To Listen To Your Body]

Everyone has days when they feel off or way too busy, and the last thing on their minds is a healthy meal plan - especially around the holidays.  Not to mention the parties and social gatherings you need to attend that obviously include a buffet of delicious foods for you to indulge in.

So it's understandable that in certain situations it can become difficult not to overeat. You enjoy a healthy meal at home, thinking you’re doing great, and then you go out and are surrounded by junk food. Soon, you get hungry, and almost unconsciously you’re picking up dessert off the platter, and healthy food is forgotten.

Or maybe you really choose the “right” foods, but they’re just so delicious that you can’t have just one portion. We’ve all been there.

Have a look at six strategies that have changed the lives of many, helping them to live a healthy life, enjoy their meals more, and lower their appetite.

1. CONTROL YOUR BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS BY ADDING VINEGAR AND CINNAMON TO YOUR MEALS

Thinking to add some new flavors to your food and non-caloric drinks? Well, the good news is that there are many spices and flavors that can turn your food into both tastier and healthier. 

For instance, vinegar has recently been shown to lower your glycemic index, which means that you'll be able to metabolize the food more slowly. So, try and add acidic flavor to salad dressings, sauces, and roasted veggies.

For sweet-smelling and enjoyable warmth, add a pinch of cinnamon to everything from your daily coffee and morning smoothies to hearty chili. Just like vinegar, cinnamon slows the rate of your food transit from your stomach to your intestine so this will keep you full longer, and helps you prevent that post-meal crash.

2. LEARN THE ART OF EATING WHEN YOU’RE NOT HUNGRY

Often, when you get really hungry, you are inclined to overeat. In every episode of overeating, you will feel full, but then your insulin level spikes, making you feel tired, then really hungry again so you end up overeating again.

Trying to resist hunger is not a great idea, instead, try to nip it in the bud. Consider eating when you’re either not hungry or only slightly hungry, in order to eat less and allowing more time for your meals. When you are eating less during the day, you’ll have more energy which is certainly a nice bonus.

3. CHOOSE TO DRINK WATER, NOT LIQUIFIED CALORIES

In addition to feeling constantly tired and having your brain in a fog, mild dehydration can cause the sensation that’s usually mistaken for hunger. On the other hand, liquid calories like juices and sodas don’t feed your hunger, and their fast digestion causes insulin spikes. So try and give up the sweetened drinks and go for sparkling or still water.  To add some taste, you can also flavor it with lemon slices, strawberries or cucumber slices if you want, but don’t pack your drinks with calories.

Set a daily goal and aim to drink at least three-quarters of a gallon of water a day, using a reusable bottle. Also, make sure to drink a glass of water for about 20 minutes before every meal to reduce your appetite.

4. ENJOY EACH MEAL EATING SLOWLY

In the process of eating each meal, there’s a noticeable delay before you feel that you are full. This delay usually takes between 10–30 minutes. Due to this delay, we are inclined to ingest more food than we really need. And the faster we eat, the more food we are likely to consume at one sitting.

The solution? Try chewing each bite at least 10 times before swallowing. By following this simple rule you will end up adopting slow eating, thus allowing your brain to catch up with your stomach. On the plus side, you’ll also enjoy each meal more when you take your time to savor it.

5. LEARN THE HABIT OF HAVING A SMALL, FLAVORLESS SNACK BETWEEN MEALS

This secret was discovered by the late Seth Roberts. He used to consume a shot of olive oil or a glass of water with a tiny bit of sugar, this being an exception to the general rule on sweetened beverages between meals. Others may prefer a handful of unsalted almonds. Whatever your choice, try doing this once a day and you may see your appetite dramatically reduced. And this approach is especially important if your goal is weight loss.

While this may be one of the weirdest things you would ever try, it can also do wonders for you. The reason why this approach works is that it apparently adjusts the levels of ghrelin, the hunger hormone, by weakening flavor-calorie links. But in order for this to truly work, the snack must be really bland, and you must consume nothing else but water for at least an hour before and after the snack.

6. TRY THE “FRONT DOOR SNACK” METHOD

This will become one of your favorite hacks. Knowing upfront that your willpower is weakened when you’re hungry, and you can find more tempting junk food outside your home, you could choose to simply enjoy a snack of healthy food right before leaving home so you would feel less tempted out there. 

Make a habit of keeping a healthy snack (jerky, almonds, or vegetable chips) stored up at home and simply take a handful before you leave home. This will help you to “force out” the unhealthy food in your diet, and make it much easier for you to give up the unhealthy food.

WORST SCENARIO, BEST OUTCOME

What do you do after you’ve realized that you've indulged in just a little more than you would have expected? What is there to do or avoid doing right after overeating?

Far too many people fall into the same vicious cycle of overeating, restricting their diet, and punishing themselves after such an episode. Some of the worst things you can do after something like a weekend of overindulging is to blame yourself. 

And definitely don't fall into the trap of trying to compensate by skipping your next meals. Another thing you want to avoid is to force yourself to do tons of cardio as a way to 'balance' your episode of overeating.⠀

The best thing you could do is pay attention to your mind and the stories it is telling you. Become the watcher of your thoughts. The thoughts that tell you that “you’re not good enough, you’ll never accomplish this, and you’re a failure.” When you become the watcher of those thoughts, you get distance. You see that you don’t have to believe that voice in your head. Talking back to the voice and comforting it is the real battle.

I help my clients change their thoughts around eating. I go over the basics in my free stop overeating training (you can sign up with the form below). Check it out and see if you can start managing your urges to eat unhealthy food. I’ve done the work myself, so I understand.

Don't allow for one episode of overeating to hijack your meal plan and turn it into a whole week of overeating. You’ve got this!

How Lifestyle Transformation Is An Achievable Goal For Academics

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The use of leadership coaches has become an acknowledged and widespread practice in corporations, non-profit organizations, even governments, and the reasons vary.

When individuals work with leadership or life coaches, they start to experience higher levels of effectiveness at work and at home, with improvements in both their task and relationship orientation. At the same time, organizations discover that they are more productive when they hire life coaches because they experience a higher return on investment.  

As a parallel, employing coaches in academic life or the use of any kind of systematic organizational development is basically uncharted inside the university world.  With the higher demand for notable change that universities are now facing, in economical and technological areas, there are good reasons to believe that things are about to change.  

While universities and colleges accept the fact that changes are enveloping them, individual staff, such as professors, and administrators should consider turning to a personal coach. Why? Because doing so can boost their advance both in their careers and their lives.

Coaching - It’s Not What You Think

Those who are unfamiliar with coaching tend to believe that coaching is a form of consulting, mentoring, or just advice-giving. At its core, coaching is a form of one-on-one analysis and examination in which the client is guided by the coaches. This process consists of closely listening and asking pertinent questions in ways that help the client identify and overcome obstacles and then come up with courses of action and implement them.  

A life coach focuses on supporting only the client’s agenda, starting wherever they are at that point. The right coach enters the engagement without stereotypes or some ideal sense of the right goals for their clients. In this way, the client is able to safely explore their authentic path, style, and career in a safe manner, finding a supportive environment in life coaching.

Photo by Geraldine Lewa on Unsplash

Five Occasions Coaching Can Be Helpful In Your Academic Career

When compared to other kinds of organizational development interventions, such as training and team building, coaching is especially better suited for the highly competitive and individualistic nature of academia. The privacy of the coaching collaboration enables a safe haven for sharing hopes and concerns, successes and breakdowns, as well as possibilities and aspirations, without any judgment.

Let’s have a look at five situations in an academic career when hiring a coach might be beneficial to a scholar:

• You’re thinking about becoming an academic 

Obtaining your Ph.D. or some other terminal graduate degree is a considerable commitment, and academic life is not suitable for everyone. Hiring a life coach at the beginning of the academic journey can both save you from a probably costly and emotionally consuming decision and start with clear, precise, and realistic expectations, intentions, and aspirations.

• You’ve taken your first academic job 

Congratulations are in order if you’re a fresh assistant professor and you’re eager to begin on your teaching and research, but you may have already found out that the long road to tenure is paved with difficult decisions. And even though your dean, department head, and esteemed colleagues will provide you with much advice,  how can you maximize your possibilities of succeeding and still remain authentic to your original aspirations and intentions?  

Hiring a life coach at this stage in your career gives you a prudent method of analyzing your challenges and opportunities with a person who has only your interest at heart. 

• You’ve been promoted or received tenure (or denied promotion or tenure)  

The career path of a professor has three major phases, and each promotion can be a considerable life alteration.  The switch from assistant to associate professor is usually followed by tenure, and the point in career when you get tenure can be confusing.  

You start wondering if you should continue on the same trajectory or whether it's time to think about an administrative role. These are just a few of the questions that demand answers when receiving tenure, and a life coach plays a decisive role in finding those pertinent to your circumstances, helping to find your own answers.  

Denial of tenure is a difficult time, and many universities provide little or no support whatsoever.  But a life coach can guide you to be able to look at the event from a proper perspective and identify the path aligned with where you are now.  Denial of promotion to full professor position is another tough case, and the right coach can be especially helpful in analyzing perspective and figuring out the next steps.

• You’ve taken a new administrative post

Shifting from teaching to an administrative position can be quite demanding in your system, and even going up in the ranks from head of department to  dean position can be challenging as each new post is filled with different tasks from the one vacated.  

Administrative entries and promotions are convenient times to find a life coach to guide you through the challenges of a new posting and to prepare you for consecutive advancement by enhancing the skills and evolving in ways that are according to the new post and the next.

• You’re preparing to leave the university  

Maybe you’ve decided it’s about time to go to the next level, perhaps start a company, become a consultant, take a job in the private sector, or retire.  These progressions are excellent to ask good questions and follow a coach’s guidance to help you draw out the best in what comes next.

These five occasions are great ones to consider finding and using the expertise of a life coach.  The next part lays out a number of open-ended questions to guide you in the quest for your coach.

Finding Your Coach

So perhaps you find yourself in an academic transition when a coach might be useful to you. How do you find the right coach that would be aligned with your needs? 

The following questions will guide you through what to take into consideration when hiring a coach:

• What kind of training and qualifications does this person offer to their coaching?

• In what way does this person have academic experience and understand academic culture?

• How can this potential coach be curious about you, your obstacles, your opportunities and in what way do they appear to have a method or an answer?

• How comfortable do you feel with the potential coach, and how hard is it to share private information with him or her?

• Do you feel that this coach asks questions that engages your reflection and are both compelling and interesting to answer?

• Do you feel that the coach seems to listen to you and understand you through that listening?

While each academic has unique circumstances that lead them to hire a life coach, these are the most common occasions. 

If you find yourself in any of these situations and you are interested in boosting your academic career, don’t hesitate to contact me to discover the next step in reaching your personal and professional goals.

Or, get to know me better (and take the first steps towards achieving your goals) by learning how to stop procrastinating through self-coaching. Use the form below to get access to my tips for reclaiming your time!

9 Situations When Academics Should Or Shouldn't Hire A Life Coach

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Hugely successful public figures, from artists to business people, all have disclosed that they work extensively with life coaches. Experts say there are six aspects that bring high achieving people like academics to life coaching. 

In an interview given to Fortune magazine, Eric Schmidt, chairman of Alphabet, formerly CEO of Google, claimed: “everyone needs a coach.” Evidently some don’t agree with this statement. But while there may be several circumstances that bring academic people to coaching, there are also good motives why certain people should not hire the services of a life coach. Let’s begin with these.

When Not To Hire A Life Coach

1. When you are looking for someone to fix what's wrong with your life

The right life coach will ask bold questions, listen, and reflect upon what they hear. They can challenge you to ponder in new and more resourceful ways, but a life coach will not “fix” anything for you. 

Keeping balance in your life, both personally and professionally requires a huge commitment on your part. A life coach can uncover some great tools and resources for achieving success in the academic area, but this isn't enough. If you’re not ready to commit to doing the most difficult part yourself, even the best life coach can't support you.

2. When you need help with psychological issues

Coaches are not your therapists. A life coach will aim their attention primarily on looking toward your academic future, helping you to find new ways of acting towards achieving academic success, rather than focusing too much on your past actions. If you are struggling with issues such as depression, anxiety, or mental illness, you will need a therapist first.

3. When you would like a wise friend by your side

Family and friends have sometimes the best intentions, but they are not objective. Being too close to your situation can impair their vision to see the aspects where you may need improvements. However, a life coach is not your close friend. If you anticipate only collusion and affirmation for wrong attitudes regarding your academic efforts, life coaching may not be suitable for you.

But if you want to achieve faster your academic goals, these are the factors that bring high achieving academics to life coaching.

When To Hire A Coach

4. When dealing with successful events 

Change, even when positive,  is exciting and challenging, terrifying and disorientating. A decision in the academic area inevitably causes ripples in other areas of your life. New tenure, for instance, could affect your health, personal relationships, location and your spare time.

Academic growth often challenges us to self-awareness and to reconsider the professional capabilities we have overlooked. It can be difficult to renounce to familiar things, especially if you feel you “should” be incredibly enthusiastic and you aren’t, at the moment, feeling overwhelmed. Collaborating with the right life coach can guide you to discover how you can examine the career you already have and how you can encompass this great change into future academic success.

5. When dealing with difficult situations 

Whether you've lost your position, your grant submission was rejected, papers aren’t published, or you're simply feeling that you aren’t connected to your innovative self, don't just try to force your way through these situations. While most of us want to avoid difficulties at all costs, we shouldn't, as we'll only end up experiencing resentment and depression on a deeper level.

Taking the time to accept difficult changes in your life can shorten the amount of time you spend being unproductive. A qualified coach can provide a compassionate and safe place for you to overcome these challenges and set attainable academic goals.

If you are rethinking the structures of your career in your university, a professional coach can help you discover how to learn better from your struggle, to expand and move forward.

Photo by Jungwoo Hong on Unsplash

6. When absolutely nothing is happening 

Perhaps you keep trying to improve your current situation in academia and nothing seems to be working.

To achieve the results you want in the academic community, you will most likely need to change your attitudes towards attaining your goals or your fundamental beliefs regarding your advancement on the academic ladder. The start of the collaboration with a life coach is an ideal time to reconsider accumulated layers of identity.

Fear of failure is the biggest killer of plans and ideas. Lack of knowledge or skills, and missing a clear strategy or action plan, are great obstacles in the way of progress. However, the inertia caused by the fear of failure is the biggest one.

Be one of the few who are willing to knowingly risk failure when reaching for a higher pay grade. Even if you fail to take action, you gain a rich learning opportunity.

If you feel stuck in a loop, a life coach can help you break down self-limiting patterns and principles, renounce at self-defeating assumptions and re-construct the competing causes that keep you stuck.

7. When you want to make things happen 

There is always some goal you may have in your academic life that you desperately want to achieve but its enormity is crushing you. Also, the implications of making such a monumental change can affect your overall development. Often self-restricting behavior proves to be strongest just when you need the boost to take risks for the sake of enhancing your academic career.

Your life coach can offer you support to stay on track, meeting your daily goals and reduce actions that sabotage your plans regarding your career in the scholarly world. A coach can guide you through the doubt, resistance, and confusion that can appear when you are starting something exciting and new, especially when it comes to reinventing your role as a scholar.

8. When you are feeling stuck

Learning how to recognize and ditch wrong beliefs that are running in the background can get you out of weakness and clear up a lot of confusion regarding your next step.

An experienced life coach will help you to become much clearer regarding the achievements in your academic life. Experiencing career fulfillment is about living a scholar’s life that is valued and purposeful. And you can still find balance when you choose a life that is dynamic, aligned with a compelling vision.

9. When you need to figure out what is the next phase of your career

An expert life coach will lead you in the discovery process of your true academic value and guide you in becoming more self-aware as you prepare for a new phase of your scholarly career.

Therefore a life coach, by your side in this exploration, can ask powerful questions that will break your defense. When you learn to be curious about your capabilities, you will become more willing to look in the problematic aspects of your career and take on challenges that once seemed intimidating.

If there's something you’d like to change in your academic life, I can help you discover the motivation you need to get the results you truly want, finding the most effective process and right tools to understand how your brain works, and eventually access your inner power.

In the meantime, take the first step towards achieving your goals by putting an end to procrastination. Get access to my tips for reclaiming your time with the form below!

Reasons to Follow Your Meal Plan During The Day [How To Avoid Cheat Meals At Night]

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

You can make your life easier by planning what you're eating ahead of time.

While meal planning can be considered another thing to add to your long “to-do list,” this is one task that should be a priority. 

Don’t be scared to plan meals for an entire week. 

Make your protocol, or meal plan, as flexible as you want because it’s for you. Take the negativity towards meal plans and turn it into adaptability. A meal plan doesn’t mean only eating salads for lunch every day. Meet yourself where you are in your eating.

Few people like eating the same thing every single day, therefore planning is important in order to help you save time, money, and make healthy choices. 

Don’t give up just because you’re out of ideas. Decide you can figure this out.

Here are 10 reasons why you should begin planning your meals a week in advance:

1. It will improve your nutrition

By planning ahead, your goal is to have nutritionally balanced meals during the week. In the process of planning it's important to make sure that each of your office lunches has a balance.

Also, by planning your daily meals, you'll be able to control your personal nutrition needs. So for instance, if you want to go for a lower sodium diet or to try to eat whole grains and veggies, you can plan ahead, too. 

2. It will help you make healthier choices

Each time you have to come up with something to eat last minute, you'll end up going to the cafeteria. That makes it easier to exceed your daily intake. Also, keep in mind that shopping when hungry will only make you end up with  junk food into your cart. 

3. It will encourage you to choose high-quality foods

Homemade lunches are almost always rich in nutrients and filled with fewer calories, salt, and fat than usual takeout or semi-prep options at your grocery store. Opting to cook your own recipes and use healthier ingredients for a whole week will allow you to make better food choices, such as opting for local meats and organic produce. 

4. You’ll save money in the long-run

Deciding upon a meal plan keeps your forgotten ingredients in the fridge from going bad. You can create your plans using whatever you have in your cupboards or in the freezer.

You can also begin by writing your grocery lists based on your meal plans. Thus, you’ll go to the grocery store with a set goal rather than on a whim. This habit will help you avoid coming out of the store with a bunch of various unhealthy food items, most of which you might not even eat. 

Additionally, a well-organized meal plan will save you money by keeping you from ordering pricey last-minute or cheap low-quality take out food.

5. It will save you valuable time

Set from the start, grocery lists will help you not to wander around the grocery store aimlessly, and weekly meal plans will save you from thinking about what to eat every day.

Being an academic keeps you quite busy during the workweek, so make sure you allocate some time during the weekend to prepare most of your meals. Consider oats and frozen berries with greek yogurt in mason jars as breakfasts for on-the-go. And, already prepared quinoa or pasta salads with green veggies and beans can become an office lunch for multiple days. 

Also, consider cooking one or two larger dinners during the weekend in order for you to have something homecooked for when you arrive home tired and don’t have the energy to cook. Portion and split proper servings for you or your family for quick dinners. Soups, chili, meatballs or marinated chicken breasts are great choices for freezing. You can simply defrost and reheat while you add a quick salad or veggie slices - and you’ll end up having a delicious homemade meal almost instantly. 

6. It will decrease daily stress

The daily “what will I eat for lunch or make for dinner” thought that occupies our minds adds to our stress but can be easily prevented by simply creating a clear meal plan. When in doubt, reuse old meal plans and grocery lists to help you organize things faster and reduce prep time. Within a two-week seasonal meal plan, there will surely be enough variety for your family.

7. Deciding upon menu planning helps you avoid unnecessary waste

When you’ve set your meal plan for dinner, any leftover food can be eaten the next day at work for lunch. It’s a pity to get something from the grocery store on impulse and have to throw it out just days later. Planning ahead is the secret to buying and preparing only what you can eat.

8. Menu planning helps you prepare better meals

When you gather dinner ideas at the beginning of the week or on the weekends, you have plenty of time to be creative and come up with delicious foods. Also, you have enough time to organize a complete menu that includes side dishes, salads, and desserts. Your precise menu plan will help you concentrate on improving cooking skills.

9. Meal planning encourages variety

Menu planning prevents you from serving the same meals again and again. You can research for meal ideas online, turn to your loved ones for family recipes, or try to diversify one of your favorite dishes with new ingredients.

10. A meal plan helps you to think in advance 

When you sit down and really think about the week’s meals, you can organize your time and household in advance and remember your favorite foods as well as the things you don’t like.

Planning ahead can turn your kitchen in a more organized place, and your healthy, home-cooked food will be available both at work and at home.

Photo by Freshh Connection on Unsplash

Conclusion

Try to plan in advance, to organize your meals for several days at a time, including side dishes. Make research part of your meal planning as it will help you come up with new ideas. Also, try to always stick to your list when you go shopping at the grocery store. 

The whole point of this is to not start from zero every day and that's where my guidance comes in handy - I want to help you to follow your protocol. You deserve to overcome your self-sabotages so you can get back to your meaningful work.

How to find the right food tracking method for your life

We all know there are many ways to track your food.

It can feel overwhelming though because of our thoughts about it:

• There are too many options to choose from.

• I don't know where to start.

• I tried tracking once and it was too much.

• I'm not sure tracking my food intake actually helps me.

• I don't know why I should bother tracking my food.

• I should find the best way to track how much I eat somehow.

Those thoughts don't lead to productive action.

They leave us feeling stuck and without the result we want.

If our desired result is to lose 50 pounds and eat health foods, what actions do we need to take to get there?

One of the first actions is to track our food.

We need to feel inspired and motivated to make that actually happen.

That means we need to think helpful thoughts like:

• This post can help guide me in the right direction.

• I want to lose 10 pounds and eat healthier.

• I can take steps to lose weight and eat healthier.

• I know this isn't complicated.

• I want to do the work.

• I'm going to find the right food tracking method for me.

See how those thoughts lead to a positive feeling with true action?

The best news is that you get to choose your thoughts.

You have to find thoughts that motivate and inspire you.

Take a second to write down the thoughts that guided you to open this post. What comes up for you?

The secret to tracking your food isn't in the method itself.

It's actually doing the work of tracking.

You can track your food on paper if it works for you.

You can track your food on your phone if it works for you.

Looking for some helpful top food tracking apps to keep track of the food you eat?

• Lifesum

• Lark

• My Fitness Pal

Let’s be clear - an app or a piece of paper won't actually do the work for you.

You have to do the work and want to do that work.

Once you have a positive cycle of thoughts leading to results, you'll gain momentum.

Here's an intentional example -

Circumstance - Downloaded My Fitness Pal on phone.

Thought - This app is going to be really helpful for tracking my food and activity.

Feeling - Motivated

Actions - Tracking the food, getting mini rewards with the app

Results - The app is really helpful for tracking.

It's easy to have an unintentional model too -

Circumstance - Downloaded My Fitness Pal on phone.

Thought - I don't know how to use this app.

Feeling - Frustrated

Actions - Not tracking food, ignoring the app

Results - Not using the app to work towards ultimate goal of losing weight and eating healthy foods.

See how two people could both download the app, but get completely different results?

It's all in their thoughts. Not the tracking method itself.

Thinking thoughts that food tracking can be helpful is crucial.

I love this article about the 7 biggest benefits of a food diary by Runtastic. Those are the kinds of reasons that lead me to think, "Yeah! I want to track my food! I can do this!"

Don't view tracking your food as something you have to do the rest of your life.

You can commit to a week of tracking at first. See what you learn. See if you have any "aha" moments.

Talk about your food diary with a life coach. See what insights you uncover.

Check in with your reasons for losing weight and how to commit to losing that weight.

How to commit yourself to your weight loss goals

Photo courtesy of Gesina Kunkel https://happyveganfit.de/

You know you want to lose weight and you have your list of "real" reasons that resonate with you. Now it's time to commit. But that feels scary. How do you actually stick to these reasons?

Commitment to losing weight takes planning and using the prefrontal cortex in our brain.

Our prefrontal cortex is the part of our brain in charge of decision making. It's the most advanced part of our brain and the part that takes the most time to develop. Researchers think full development of this part takes until we're about 25 years old.

Remember all those great decisions you made when you were fifteen?

Yeah, me too.

When I was 15 years old, I thought eating a sleeve of Ritz crackers everyday for lunch was a great idea. It saved my lunch money for better purchases - like Diet Coke and cookies. Not a healthy choice, looking back. But at least now I know my prefrontal cortex was still growing.

As adults, we can harness the power of our prefrontal cortex.

We can plan and make decisions in advance. We can say, "Tomorrow, this is what I will eat."

That's what commitment is all about. Making a protocol at least 24 hours in advance and sticking with it.

You know you're using your prefrontal cortex when you make a plan 24 hours in advance. You know you're using the more primitive parts of your brain when you're making a plan 5 minutes in advance. That's not a plan, that's responding to an urge.

How can you tell the difference between your prefrontal cortex and primitive brain?

The primitive brain yells a lot. It's like a toddler, trying to be in charge of all your decisions. It tries to override your prefrontal cortex most of the time.

It says things like, "Hey, let's eat this cookie in a few minutes. It's a great idea."

But what do we do with toddlers? We tell them no.

We have to tell our primitive brains the same thing when it wants that cookie. We have to say, "I hear you. I know you want a cookie. But it's not part of our protocol. It's not on the plan for eating today."

It can become harder as the day goes on not to give into the primitive brain. It tries to wear us down and we get ego depleted. We've all been there. We say, "FINE! I'm tired! Let's eat the cookie!"

And the primitive brain rejoices. It say, "Great, I know exactly what to do next time to get what I want. I'll throw a fit and then I'll get what I want."

Just like a toddler, remember?

The goal in sticking with our commitments isn't to "shut the primitive brain up" or ignore it.

We speak calmly and quietly to it. We say, "It's not in the plan. Not today."

We allow our urges to exist, we allow the voice to scream.

But we don't give in. We let our prefrontal cortex stay in charge, the adult in the room.

We stick to our protocol that we created. We remind ourselves of our bigger commitment and reasons why.

And when we're ready, we take notes and watch the primitive brain talking. We notice when it wants to talk the most. We stay curious about that voice and when it gets upset.

We remove temptations and help it stay calm and collected.

Just like a toddler. We give it rest and restoration time.

We don't try to manipulate it by screaming or crying back. We allow it to be. We recognize it. And then we move on.

Your commitment to losing weight is about managing your thoughts and allowing urges. It isn't about a new fangled technology or special workout clothes. It's about sticking to what you said you were going to do. Following through. And getting in the pattern.

If you're doubting this process, there are thoughts to manage!

You are amazing and you can do this.

Let's talk about it! In the meantime, use the form below to get access to my tips for reclaiming your time!