As a certified wellness coach, you likely have a few tricks up your sleeve to help your clients enhance their outcomes. With the World Series kicking off this week, we thought it might be a good time to pull out our favorite “Fall Classic.”
While clearly not true of everyone, mornings provide the solution to many of the struggles that we face in our health and wellness. From exercise to packing a healthy lunch, making good use of the early morning hours is often the difference between success and failure when it comes to achieving our health and wellness goals. However, there’s another pattern tied to mornings – and that’s the response you’re likely to receive if you – as a wellness coach – dare to suggest the positive impact of a morning action plan:
“I can’t get up early” (or it’s cousin: “I’m not a morning person”).
You’ve heard that just a few times, right? Well – the good news is that the solution is now just 2 weeks away! On November 2nd, everyone in the country (except Hawaii and most Arizona residents) will move their clocks backward. Suddenly, 5:30 AM will feel like 6:30 AM! And 6 AM will feel like 7 AM! And here’s the cool thing – IF we take advantage of this change, our bodies are ALREADY adjusted to the earlier morning so it won’t even be difficult. Well… kind of.
We will need to remind our wellness coaching clients that it’s a two-part shift. 10 PM will feel like 11 PM, so the key is to go to sleep at the “old” time rather than transitioning the body over to the new time thanks with the help of that glowing screen (TV or computer). But if you can help your clients to ignore this temptation, stick with the old time, then you suddenly have a solution to many of the struggles that brought them to you as a wellness coach in the first place!
- Stress: Closely related to sleep. Maybe your client doesn’t need to get up early, but this shift provides the perfect opportunity to go to bed 30-60 minutes earlier, while the body is expecting it.
- Exercise: The morning workout is powerful because it isn’t pushed aside by meetings, phone calls, or other unexpected events throughout the day. Suddenly now there’s an extra 30-60 minutes available each morning (maybe more if the shift in routine is combined with a exercise plan near the office that allows your client to cut out some traffic too).
- Healthy eating: Going to bed a little earlier may eliminate some snacking, but getting up just 15 minutes early allows time to both pack a healthy lunch AND enjoy a healthy breakfast. You can help them design the plan for each of these, but now they have the time to implement the plan.
- Poor sleep patterns or caffeine overload: See above Stress section.
This is an immense opportunity for you as a wellness coach to provide practical guidance that can help your client take positive steps heading into the holiday season. In fact, I’m convinced that if we were to establish “New Year’s Resolutions” in October and kick them off (together – as a society) on the day of the time change in November, the success rate would climb dramatically. However, it’s a VERY brief window of opportunity. If the individual doesn’t plan to act on it Nov 1st (Saturday) through Nov 3rd (Monday), then the window closes and won’t open again for an entire year.
This is one Fall Classic you won’t want to miss!
