Who Am I to Coach People with Weight Loss & Eating Issues?

This is a question that has crossed my mind many times, and especially recently…
“Who are you to coach people to lose weight and/or help with eating issues?” 
I was having some coaching recently from a business coach called Ankush Jain, and this question arose. I explained that because I have never had big weight loss challenges in my life, I sometimes feel that I’m an imposter… His answer, and the subsequent chat that followed, was both enlightening and eye-opening. My personal journey of self-discovery had another chapter to be written.

We began chatting about how I had become a Nutritional Therapist and then subsequently a Coach. After many trials throughout my life there finally came the realisation that things needed to change. Self-teaching and healing followed and then an epiphany that I could help others to do the same. This became my passion and I have not looked back.
 
I divulged that whilst I have not really had weight issues, I have had life struggles like so many of us. We discussed that I was a binge eater in my early 20’s.  Up until that point last week with Ankush, I had never told anyone about this, not even my parents knew. I had kept it a secret at the time. I tried on numerous occasions to make myself sick but failed (thankfully) and so resorted to a binge and starve cycle to manage it. It went on for a few years and always happened when I was stressed or unhappy. Eventually I managed to break the habit. If I had been blessed with the knowledge that I now hold, the truth of the human experience of life, about how the mind and our thoughts really work, I most likely wouldn’t have gone through the bingeing episode. I also may not have discovered my passion for helping people in this way, so absolutely no regrets… 
 
The realisation was crystal clear to me, I don’t need to have had a weight problem. I don’t actually need to have had a food problem either (though it definitely helps me to understand how it feels to be out of control with food). I just have to have had an experience of being a human being with struggles and general tough times to deal with and to know and share what I can see now… And, of course, to want to share it with people, which I absolutely do. 
 
Despite hardly mentioning the fact that I am a Coach in my marketing to date (and especially on social media), I have still managed to work with lots of people over the last year.  To help them to overcome everything from emotional eating/ binge eating, relationship problems, grief, issues with work and in their jobs, and of course lots of different health issues. My approach is holistic, meaning that I always take the whole person, their whole life, what’s going on for them. Consider how they currently see their life because it makes the most sense to me. If I help someone with just nutrition but ignore the fact that they hardly sleep, or that they are extremely stressed because of their work, family, money, relationships, or whatever it might be, then they are never going to be truly ‘well’ in the true sense of the word. 
 
So there it is. I am a Transformation Coach who continues to learn, grow and share. As well as working with people to help them to lose weight, and overcome eating issues, more importantly I work with people to help them to see the real truth about themselves, to see who they really truly are. I am able to help them to discover their inherent, innate, fundamental health and wellbeing, and to be, do or have whatever they truly want in this life time.