Good News! you can get health coaching in oregon and New Mexico!

Good News: You CAN get Health Coaching in Oregon and New Mexico! 
​Take a look at this map. Red does not mean Republican!

​All those states in Red mean if you live there, you could NOT get real health coaching. Only Do It Yourself Programs, Group Coaching about “wellness” and absolutely nothing individualized to your needs or especially not tailored meal plans. If you were to find someone good at health coaching, someone who personalizes the coaching, they would likely be shut down and heavily fined in those red states. All those Orange States are also pretty restrictive. If my clinic or home were in those states, well, I could not give you as good of a service as I do and and in this blog I will share why ….

Now, I know about this first hand because I fought this battle back in 2005 in the colon hydrotherapy industry with the state of Washington and the DOH. It was frustrating and sad watching 13 colon therapists be issued “cease and desists” for doing nothing wrong and causing no harm.  I became co-founder of WATCH to change this. We were fortunate to go up against the DOH with an incredible lobbyist and we got a “cease fire”. Not a win.  Currently, it is considered a felony to give colonics in WA if you are not a surgeon. But the DOH is not prosecuting… at this time.  Why is that? Well that is an interesting story for another day. It has nothing to do with public health and safety and was solely political. So the ability for you to get a service is determined NOT by the legislature, but by the Department of Health for the state you live in or want to get services in.  Now you look at the map and you see that Washington is GREEN, which should mean a great state to do colonics. Just keep in mind, this map is for health coaching, not colonics.  Washington is one of the worst states to do colonics in but it was one of the best up until a turn in the DOH which could happen to ANY state at any moment.

And you can see, if you live in Oregon where my clinic is or in New Mexico where I live, that both those states are Yellow, and that is good for you to get health coaching, but not great. Therefore, I have to be very careful with wording… 

Why?

So I don’t step on the “nutritionist” or “dietician”’s toes!

Health Coaches are EATING their lunch!

To be a Registered Nutritionist/Dietician you have to be licensed with the state and you will have gone through their programming. Yes, programming.  The RD’s have been “programmed” / trained to approach food differently with their patients than a health coach does with their clients. RD’s have often been called “the Food Police” and they know it. Until recently, they didn’t have much competition so they did not mind.  RD’s also have been trained by the government, that same group of people that created the very sad “Standard American Diet” and this same group said eating fast food was good for you…Health Coaches get certifications by associations that approach food without the influence of Big Pharma and Big Agriculture. (and that is changing also… it’s too big of business for them to leave the health coaching industry alone).  And you are far more likely to get help with going Whole Food Plant Based or Cleansing from a health coach than from an RD. I have yet to meet an RD that was cool with colonics and cleansing!

Now the RD’s  were ok with health coaches until they realized how many people are seeking the help of health coaches because people are wising up to the propaganda of the Standard American Diet and people have realized the food and way of eating that the RD’s (Dieticians) have shared with them is not working. (Thank you You Tube!)

People also want relationships. People want COACHING. Coaching is where the coach gives education and encouragement and is someone that walks you through a lifestyle change and is there to answer those questions LIKE A FRIEND.   Dieticians and Nutritionists and Naturopaths don’t do this… until now.  What changed? They are losing business to health coaches and that is why we are seeing the best health coaches starting to be shut down. It only takes a complaint by a jealous dietician / nutritionist or naturopath. Even though the Health Coach only coaches…

Such as in the case of this Health Coach in the Orange State of Florida.
Just read this excerpt from the Institute for Justice fighting for her constitutional right to give health coaching and basically the Floridians rights to receive it.

"Do adults have the right to talk to other adults about what to buy at the grocery store? That’s the question raised by a federal lawsuit filed by the “Institute for Justice on behalf of Florida-based health coach Heather Kokesch Del Castillo.  Unfortunately, Heather’s situation is not unique. Occupational licensing boards are increasingly operating as special-interest censors, while licensed practitioners—eager to keep out would-be competitors—often scour advertising spaces in search of people to file complaints against.Heather joined with the Institute for Justice to file a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida to strike down Florida’s unconstitutional restrictions on who can give safe dietary advice that customers want to buy.

In March 2017, Heather received an email from a man named Pat Smith inquiring about her services. Mr. Smith said that he’d seen her website and liked what he saw, and that he’d tried several weight loss programs to no avail. Then he asked what information she would need from him to personalize a weight loss plan and what her program would include.
Heather responded, but heard nothing back until May 2, 2017, when an investigator from the Florida Department of Health arrived at her house to serve her with a cease-and-desist letter ordering her to stop giving dietary advice and fining her $754. It was then that she learned that Pat Smith was an investigator from the Florida Department of Health and that his email to her had been part of a sting operation prompted by a complaint filed by a licensed dietitian.

Under Florida law, offering individualized dietary advice to paying customers requires permission from the government in the form of a dietetics/nutrition license. In order to earn a dietitian license, a person must: earn a bachelor’s degree with a major in nutrition or a related field, complete 900 hours of supervised practice, pass a dietitian exam, and pay fees from $165-$290. The unlicensed practice of dietetics or nutrition is a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and $1,000 in fines per offense. The Department of Health has the separate authority to seek civil fines of up to $5,000 per day for each day that a violation occurs. Heather wasn’t willing to run that risk. And since the only other alternative was to become a fully licensed dietitian/nutritionist—a process that would take years and cost tens of thousands of dollars—Heather had no choice but to close her business.”

In the May 2015 Issue of the “TODAY”S DIETICIAN”, they openly come out and encourage the RD’s to get certified as health coaches … for the “business” which really means, for the money!  “Health coach training also provides an opportunity for dietitians to become more business savvy.….But if a dietitian was able to find a training program for health coaching that also offered some business tools for working with clients, it could be very beneficial to a practice in general.”  

It is interesting which health coaching training associations they refer the RD’s to. It is NOT the good ones like: Colin Campbell the author of the China Study or Dr Mark Hyman, MD INN. 
https://www.ecornell.com/certificates/nutrition/plant-based-nutrition/
https://www.integrativenutrition.com

And the RD’s are worried …

Todays Dietician states: ”People are having a hard time distinguishing among all these people offering nutrition services.” 

I believe it is because people ARE able to differentiate that what the RD’s are offering isn’t working. Just take a look at most RD’s … and compare them to the health coach. Which one LOOKS healthier?  Hmmmmm.. People are smart and they know that if they follow the RD's advice,  they are likely to LOOK like the RD.

The RD’s have noticed that people view them differently than a health coach: More from that article in Today’s Dietician:

”At the heart of health coaching is the fact that it's client focused," Crome says. "It's not as much about telling the person what to do as it's about being there for them—being empathetic to their needs and encouraging them along the way."  

Straight from the horses mouth. Could not say it better as to the difference between an RD and a Health Coach. 

This map is going to change and most states I believe will go "red" in time. So get health coaching while you can from someone who has NOT been programmed by the government  but has been trained to educate, encourage and walk you through your lifestyle changes for optimum health!

AND, since I’m not supposed to “personalize” your meal plans and health changes, if how I help you FEELS PERSONALIZED,  well, isn’t that nice!


Here is the link to that RD article:  Dietitians as Health Coaches By Lindsey Getz
Today's Dietitian. Vol. 17 No. 5 P. 34, May 2015
http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/050515p34.shtml