Health Coaching & Pregnancy: Adapting Goals for Long-Term Success

Jess meets her health coach.

Jess met with her HealthSource Solutions Health Coach Laura in June 2018 for the first time. She was a new employee at her company and was very excited to hear they had a fitness center! In 2016-2017 Jess had lost about 35 pounds through healthy eating and exercise. She managed to keep most of it off for almost a year but had slowly stopped consistently working out and eating healthy. By the time she started her new job and met with Laura the first time, she had gained back around 13 pounds. She was very interested in utilizing the fitness center to get back on track.

Goal Setting.

Laura discussed goals with Jess and how she might achieve them. They talked about being realistic with those goals due to work, work travel and family life. They were able to put together a good plan for the next 6 weeks with the incentive of Jess giving herself a reward at the conclusion.  Laura checked in with Jess while she was on travel for work as well as in the office. They adjusted her activity goal of just moving more to adding strength training.

A curveball!

About 6 weeks after the initial coaching session Jess found out she was pregnant. Since she had already been active, she was determined to not allow this to derail her fitness goals (not entirely). Jess spoke with Laura again to create a realistic plan to keep moving in a safe and healthy way.  With less than two weeks away from her due date Jess is at a healthy 25-pound weight gain. She had to slow down but still manages to get over 10,000 steps each day.

Jess said, “If I had not had the resources available from Laura as my fitness coach, the fitness center and my manager, I am not sure I would have been as successful in this 10-month journey.” She believes this experience has set her up for long-term success!

(Laura is an onsite Wellness Program Manager who also provides health coaching to our client.)