How Practitioners can support their patients in changing lifestyle habits
Lifestyle and environment are crucial determinants of human health and happiness. However, it isn’t always easy or straightforward to shepherd your patients on the path to healthy lifestyles. Patients need to transition countless individual habits for significant change to occur, and this reality can be overwhelming. Habit categories that must change include cooking, eating, movement, sleep, relationships, thought patterns, spirituality and meaning, and more.
Without a team, practitioners simply don’t have time to bring patients through all the steps of lifestyle change
Purposeful habit change doesn’t just happen. It requires detailed planning. Additionally, the behavior changes that are selected should be pertinent, personalized, and effective in improving the health of the patient.
In other words, the patient needs to 1) pick the right habits, 2) interface those habits with their own unique life circumstances, and 3) remain consistent and able to adapt their habits for lifelong sustainability.
Wellness is a Family Affair
BJ Fogg, a Stanford researcher and specialist in habit change, views the family as the fundamental unit of change. Families change together. Family Health Catalyst focuses on the family unit as the most effective long-term strategy for sustained lifestyle change in individuals. Without mutual support within the family, habit change is an uphill battle. With unification and a coach leader, change is easy. That’s why we focus on the family.
Family Health Catalyst guides your patients in their comprehensive shifts to a healthy lifestyle.
To achieve these three necessary characteristics of habit change, patients need:
- Consulting
- Education
- Coaching
Consulting
Personalizing and Planning Requires Consulting
As a practitioner, you consult patients all day when giving recommendations. Consulting is an indispensable component of what you do as a health practitioner. People need accurate knowledge from an expert so they know what lifestyle changes will help them reach their own personalized health goals.
Nicholas can support your consultation efforts by extending your patients’ understanding of your recommendations. Additionally, he helps patients implement your recommendations. He has extensive knowledge of nutrition and pathophysiology and is able to interpret and interface your recommendations and diet prescription for the benefit of the client.
Education
Picking The Right Habits Requires Education
After consulting, people become aware that their lifestyle needs to change, but they usually don’t know what to do nor how to do it. Implementation is complicated, and patients need knowledge. They need to know what foods and habits support their goals. They need to know what recipes to use and how to meal plan. They need to know how to get their kids to eat healthy and they need to know how to eat healthy foods on the go.
This is where education comes in. Family Health Catalyst provides patients with nutrition education modules that are motivating, enlightening, and empowering. This gives patients the knowledge, tools, and ability to implement lifelong change in the complex setting of modern family life.
Coaching
Sustaining Long-Term Change Requires Coaching
Although knowledge is power, knowledge alone doesn’t transform behavior. Patients need support, cheerleading, accountability, and reminders—they need coaching— if they want to translate knowledge into action. Health coaching is a proven, low cost way to instill lifelong change in family health behaviors that will benefit generations to come.
Motivational interviewing is an integral tool in the process of interfacing client psychology with habit change. Nicholas utilizes motivational interviewing, along with extensive knowledge of how to personalize dietary change so that implementation of changes is as streamlined and as easy as possible.
The synergistic combination of Consulting, Education, and Coaching applied specifically to families provides the powerful effects of Family Health Catalyst.
Your Patient Needs a Team if They’re to Experience Lasting Change
As a practitioner, you provide your patients with education, consulting, and maybe even a little coaching. However, your time is precious and limited. Don’t let this limit your influence. There is an answer. Use Nicholas Hundley as a team member to support your patients in implementing your diet and lifestyle change prescriptions. This will extend your reach and your ability to support your patients through the complicated and time-consuming task of habit change.
Change the health of your patients for generations to come.