Food Coaching

Food coaching is an emerging profession. It combines coaching skills with knowledge of nutrition to help clients choose better ways of eating and diets which are healthier for them. 

While dieticians may be experts at telling people what to eat, food coaches are experts at motivating people and helping them to develop better strategies to improve their eating habits

Coaching is concerned with helping clients to define their goals, and then work out ways to achieve them.  Coaches encourage clients to look at their lifestyle and how it might influence their diets and goals. 

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction and the Healthy Diet
   • Introduction.
   • What is Food Coaching?
   • Why is Food Coaching necessary?
   • Meeting with Clients: The Initial Interview.
   • Building Rapport.
   • The Consulting Room.
   • Information Gathering.
   • Goal Setting.
   • Taking Baseline Measurements.
   • Assessing Current Diet And Lifestyle.
   • Healthy Diet.
   • Food Pyramids.
   • Food Plates.
   • Benefits of a Healthy Diet.
   • Frequency of Eating.
   • Serving Sizes.
   • Use of Supplements.
2. Professional Standards for Food Coaching
   • Introduction.
   • A Code of Ethics.
   • Ethics in Food Coaching.
   • Confidentiality.
   • Informed Consent.
   • Making Ethical Decisions.
   • A Guideline to Making Ethical Decisions.
   • Legal Concerns.
   • What you Can and Cannot Do.
   • Keeping Records.
   • Ethics When Working as a Food Coach in a Larger Business.
   • Health and Safety.
   • Occupational Health and Safety Responsibilities.
3. Specialist Diets - Chronic Conditions
   • Introduction.
   • Benefits of Special Diets.
   • Dietary Considerations for Some Chronic Conditions.
   • Understanding Different Types of Special Diet.
   • Dairy Free Diet.
   • Vegetarian Diets.
4. Specialist Diets - Overeating
   • Introduction.
   • What do we mean by being overweight?
   • Measuring Body Fat.
   • Body Fat Percentage.
   • Measurement Techniques.
   • Health Risks of Overeating.
   • Treatment for Obesity.
   • Psychological Theories of Overeating.
   • Physiological Reasons Why People Overeat.
   • Weight Loss Plans.
5. Specialist Diets - Poor Nutritional Diets
   • Introduction.
   • Not Eating Enough.
6. Food Coaching Adults and Seniors
   • Introduction.
   • General Dietary Requirements for Adults.
   • Case Study.
   • Pregnant Women.
   • Seniors.
   • Age-Related Illnesses and Nutrition.
   • General Nutritional Plans for Adults.
7. Food Coaching for Children
   • Introduction.
   • Law & Ethics and Children's Food Coaching.
   • Involvement of the Parents or Caregivers.
   • Family and Friends.
   • General Nutritional Requirements of Children.
   • Food Groups - What Children Need.
   • Developing a Nutrition Plan for Children.
   • Nutritional Disorders in Children.
   • Obesity in Children.
   • Underweight Children.
8. Lifestyle Changes
   • Introduction.
   • Ways to Encourage Lifestyle Change.
   • Motivational Interviewing.
   • Strategies to Elicit Change.
   • Stages of MI Interview Session.
   • Lifestyle Diary.
9. Moving on
   • Introduction.
   • Before Moving On.
   • Assessing Client Progress.
   • Regular Meetings/Reviews (How Often).
   • Changing Plans as the Person Changes.
   • Evaluation of the Plan.
   • When Ready to Move On.
   • Ongoing Support.
10. Managing Your Food Coaching Service
    • Managing Your Food Coaching Business.
    • Meeting Clients.
    • Where to Meet Clients.
    • Own Safety.
    • Importance of Marketing.
    • Setting Fees.

Aims

• Explain the scope and nature of food coaching and what is meant by a healthy diet.
• Explain why food coaches should abide by a professional code, and what the legal and ethical standards are.
• Understand different types of special diet for chronic conditions and their benefits to clients, as well as a range of other special diets and their impact on health.
• Discuss what is meant by overeating, its health implications, and how to develop plans to control or reduce weight.
• Describe what diets are considered unhealthy for a range of different body types.
• Understand general nutrition requirements of adults and seniors, and to discuss possible coaching strategies for working with adults, seniors and carers
• Understand general nutrition requirements of children, and to discuss possible coaching strategies for working with children and their parents or other caregivers
• Explain the importance of changes in lifestyle to improve the benefit of food coaching.
• Explain how the client will move on after food coaching has ended.
• Explain how to organise, market and manage a food coaching service

Food coaching combines coaching skills with knowledge of nutrition to help clients choose better ways of eating and diets which are healthier for them.  Coaching is concerned with helping clients to define their goals, and then work out ways to achieve them.  Coaches encourage clients to look at their lifestyle and how it might influence their diets and goals. 

Food coaches might also sometimes be called nutrition coaches. However food coaches are not nutritionists. Nutritionists are able to administer specific tests and prescribe specific diets to clients to help them overcome deficiencies.

Food coaches dieticians. A dietician can diagnose diseases and prescribe diets to help treat or manage medical conditions. 

Nutritionists and dieticians are by definition more clinical. Their focus is on telling people what they need to eat; and less on encouraging a change in eating habits. Food coaches are focused on encouraging changes in what is eaten and nurturing the process of making that change.

Why is Food Coaching Necessary?

Food coaching fills a void. Whilst there are practitioners in nutrition and diet, most don't offer coaching. Also, many of the government funded health initiatives are based on educating the public about diet and food choices. However, these often don't have great success rates because people lack the personal motivation and direction to commit to changes even when they are well educated.   

There are many people who lack both motivation and knowledge, or who struggle with fad diets or other poor eating choices, who can benefit from having someone work with them to help them make worthwhile changes. Many of these people just don't realise how their diet is affecting their wellbeing, whether it's feeling sluggish or bloated or contributing to other health issues.   

Food coaching is needed to help motivate clients to make better choices. People often don't succeed with dieting or making healthier changes to their diets because they stop trying. Perhaps because they don't fully understand the benefits of what they are doing, or maybe they receive little encouragement. As a food coach, you are there to keep them on track, and offer support and feedback. 

Also, through your knowledge and understanding you can help people to make sense of all the information they receive about eating habits and different foods. When they have a clear picture of what they are doing and why, it's a lot easier for them to set goals and stick to them.  If your clients have bad eating habits you might be able to help them determine what is underlying those habits, and to address those issues.