Health Coaching

So I became a body worker, a massage practitioner, when I was in my late 20s at Esalen Institute. And I loved doing that work. And then I heard about Chinese medicine which is a very holistic approach to human health. It sees humans as part of nature. And it’s very strongly into preventative medicine. I love that. So I became an acupuncturist–a Chinese medicine practitioner. It’s been 24 years that I’ve been in private practice. About 10 years ago I heard about wellness coaching. I had been frustrated with a lot of my acupuncture clients because I felt like what they needed was preventive medicine, specifically self-care, and that they weren’t getting support for that. And I could only support them a little bit in their acupuncture treatments with me and I wanted to do more. So I decided to study coaching and learn how to work with people to help them grow healthier lifestyle habits.

K: You’ve alluded a little bit to areas of health that are most important to you. Health coaching is such a very broad field. So curious to hear more about what your particular focus or specialty within coaching is?

M: I coach mostly people who want to eat a plant-based diet. I made a transition in 2007 to plant -based (that’s a whole other story). I’m not perfectionistic about telling people how to eat. I think that our bodies are highly adaptable. People can eat some animal products and be healthy. I want people to find the way to eat that supports their health.

And of course, every aspect of self-care matters: how we move our bodies, how we work with ourselves around our emotions and our thoughts, the relationships we have with other people. So we’re very integrated systems. There’s nothing that isn’t part of lifestyle in a way, you know, that isn’t part of our well -being. So I like to work wherever somebody is at and help them improve their self-care.

K: And most of the people you’re working with are eating primarily a plant-based diet, and then you also guide them to have a healthy lifestyle overall.

M: Yes, exactly. So I work, I would say, with two different types of people: those who just want to eat more plants, get more plants on their plate for whatever reason, and then people who may be pretty happy with their predominantly plant-based diet but they want to get healthier by eating more wholesome foods or also upleveling their other lifestyle habits.

K: Oh, fantastic. So there’s both, like the group of people who want to focus maybe a little bit more on nutrition and eating more plants, and then people who are already eating a plant -based diet and want to have that broader look at their overall health.

So how do you work with these people? Do you give them meal plans and recipes? What can someone expect if they work with you?

M: The most important part is, sometimes people think of health coaching as pushing themselves. And what’s really important to me is that you feel gently challenged. You feel like you’re growing at a level that feels good to you. So it’s not about me pushing you and it’s not about you pushing you. I get people more grounded in what’s important to them, in their whole lives, and then cultivate the conditions so that they can express more of that in their lives. And usually they have a particular outcome they’re looking for, like they’re trying to lower their hemoglobin A1C or their cholesterol or something like that or lose a little belly fat.

And then there’s a process of experimenting. They try out different behaviors for a week and see how it goes. And we always reflect and learn from those experiments. That’s an important part that people often don’t give themselves if they’re just on their own and they don’t have a coach.

There’s so much we can learn when we reflect on what’s happening, what’s really happening, and what does that tell me about how I want to move forward? So things like meal plans or recipes–I share resources as they’re relevant. But there’s so much of that online. I don’t feel like I need to provide that as well. I focus more on helping people do what it is that they want to do.

K: How do you help people identify and express what’s really important to them? And then relate that to having a healthy lifestyle?

M: Really good question. (laughs) So, I’m basically helping them bridge between the things that are important to them and how they take care of themselves. And there are many ways that they can apply what’s important to them to how they’re taking care of themselves. So I’m going to give you just a little bit of my methodology.

As I see it, we all contain inner resources, I like to call them our Inner Natural Resources because they are natural to being human. And these are your values, your passions, your purpose in life, if you feel like you have one, and your strengths, the things you’re good at, even your skills. To varying degrees, we’re living those things, or we’re not so much living them. And so, the upper level view of this is that I help you grow those–grow your awareness of those, and apply them and engage them more in your life for your own benefit. And, it turns out, the benefit of the people around you who you care about.

As I see it, our consumer culture is distracting us with media, tempting us with too much food. And it takes us away from our true needs and these values that we all hold. It’s like a David and Goliath story that the culture is the Goliath, and we need to be clever and draw upon our resources in order to basically subdue the culture.

I would say we want to shift the culture ultimately to truly benefit us, and our children. Life is this incredible opportunity to live our values, engage with the world, and give our gifts to the world. And this opportunity isn’t going to last forever. So self-care is like the foundation of our capacity to engage with the world and give our gifts and take care of our children.

Self -care allows us to, allows me, you know, to live strong and long, stronger and longer, to avoid chronic lifestyle diseases that cause us so much pain and suffering and also the suffering of our loved ones because they don’t want to see us suffer, right? It’s all about extending our health span. And, you know, I’m a bit of a health nerd, but not everybody needs to get self -care perfect. It’s just about doing enough so that you feel vibrant–so that you feel you’ve done your best to create a long life for yourself. And as I look around, I see so many people who would benefit from more self-care. My work is to inspire and support them to really get on their own side–to turn away from consumer culture enough that it doesn’t depress them and deplete them.

K: It sounds like the work that you’ve done in aligning your values and finding this path for living longer and stronger is bringing purpose for you to also help people do the same thing, right? To turn inward and use their inner resources and values to live a more meaningful and fulfilled life.

M: Exactly, so while my values around, say, plant-based are mine, people may have different values, different reasons they wanna be plant-based than my reasons, and that’s fine. I want to help others develop their purpose and passions and values and live them.

K: Yeah, so helping people eat a more plant-based diet, you know, be healthier, and then also aligning with nature inside and out.

M: Exactly, because I see all these Inner Natural Resources as nature and so we’re like gardeners of our own little gardens and and it’s important that we tend to them. There is an aspect of duty here. I think that’s kind of a heavy word but I think of it as both a privilege to be alive, and to honor nature inside us can be seen as a duty. I would even say it’s a sacred duty. And I appreciate those two sides–I’m grateful that this is both my job and it’s my privilege.

When I was growing up, I remember the Geritol commercials. This is in the 60s. And there would be, you know, some attractive cowgirl saying something like: “When you’ve got your health, you’ve got just about everything.” Well, she said it a lot better. Maybe I heard too many of those commercials, because I agree that health really helps.

K: Yeah, and as you said, it’s not something that has to be where we’re constantly pushing ourselves or feeling like there’s this level of resistance. With your guidance people can achieve the health that they want in a fulfilling and enjoyable way.

M: Yeah, that’s the idea. That’s what inspires me: to help people do it in a way that feels like they’re just becoming more of who they are. You know, it’s like being a bud that’s blooming. My last name just happens to be Blum, so I used that for my business name: Bluming Wellness, because it really feels like that to me. It feels like when I see people, I see what wants to bloom in them, and I want to nurture that. And then I want to help them realize that they can nurture it and feel their own power to do that. With all the global crises that we’re experiencing now, I really feel like that’s something that’s really important to me. I feel urged into action. I’m kind of a shy person, and I feel like I’ve had all these desires to be of service and I’ve kind of sat on them and not fully expressed them. But I feel like this coaching that I love is my gift. It’s my duty and privilege to get out there. When I get out of bed in the morning…if I can inspire somebody today to cherish their body and honor this brief time that they have on this absolutely extraordinary planet, that really fulfills me. So, yeah, and if enough of us do this, take on this duty and privilege of caring for our bodies better, then we’re going to cultivate a healthier culture and a more sustainable way of life, more aligned with nature, and we can feel good at the end of our lives that we did what we could and that we’re passing along the best chances of survival to our children.

K: Absolutely. And as someone who’s had the wonderful opportunity to work with you as a coach, I can say that you’ve helped me tremendously in, you know, tuning in to my values and to my inner strengths. And then, one of the beauties of health coaching is that there’s this great ripple effect, right? Like how you helped me find my purpose and my passion, it then allows me to help other people do the same. So thank you for what you helped me find within myself and I just wanna say that I know there are so many others who will appreciate and grow with your support–your wisdom and guidance and support.

M: Well, thank you, Karen. I wasn’t expecting you to say that. Yeah, it was beautiful to work with you as a fellow coach. I really enjoyed that and I’m glad that it was good for you too, and we can feel those ripple effects in our clients as well. Thanks.

K: So you work with people who want to eat more plants and get healthy and really align with nature inside and out.

M: Yes, exactly. And mostly I’m working with people who are middle-aged and they’re seeing their blood markers going up like their blood sugar or their cholesterol and they maybe saw what happened with their parents or other loved ones with chronic lifestyle disease and they don’t want to go there. Their doctor might be saying hey maybe time for meds soon  so this is the best time to intervene. It’s fantastic because you realize, sometimes the younger people don’t realize the risks that are ahead so they’re not willing to make any changes but if you’re at that point where you’re realizing your body isn’t going to just keep going on whatever you’re feeding it, that you need to do a better job, that’s a great time to intervene. You can still do so much to extend your healthspan. So that’s generally the group I work the most with. I try to make it a fulfilling journey for them and challenge them at that Goldilocks level, where it’s just not too soft and not too hard, and they feel alive and happy to do the work.

K: Finding that sweet spot of it being just right.

M: Yes, exactly. Of course, we err on the side of, “Oh, that was a little too much” It’s like sailing. You go, up and down and back and forth and you find your groove really.

K: yeah coaching involves some degree of helping people course correct and and being okay with that. It’s all about learning from those corrections and knowing that they are part of the journey.

M: Totally. We’re not supposed to be perfect. Do you see anything in nature that is perfect?

K: Oh, and that’s the beauty of it.