Health Coaches Have More Fun

So what happens when you put over 3,500 health coaches together in one room?  There is so much energy and love that you can feel it in the air.  We put on crazy costumes, danced around, learned a lot, shared a lot and I have the video to prove it.

My weekend in New York City at the Integrative Nutrition Fall conference was amazing.  I got to meet so many great health coaches from all over the world and ranging in ages from 18-80.  How about that?  I hope when I’m 80 I’m still learning something new and teaching every day too.

Here is one of the coolest things about this conference; it was totally free.  Yep, I did not pay one penny for this conference.  Well I paid for my hotel room and train ticket but I traveled from home.  There were eight Internationally-Acclaimed speakers who inspired and informed me over the two day conference.

I rode the train up early Saturday morning and arrived at Penn Station which is only a few blocks from the Jacob Javits Center.  You would think having lived there I would have remembered that a NYC block is not the same as a block in other cities.  It’s like twice as long and not a good idea for me in my wedges.  I was really glad I had met up with fellow student Patty and we walked together.  Once we arrived we realized we were at the world’s largest health coach conference.

Both days were jam packed with great speakers.  Joshua Rosenthal, the founder of the school, started the day off with a bang.  He started this school 20 years ago and now there are students from all 50 states and over 80 countries.  It’s the world’s largest nutrition school.  I hope you will take the time to read through all the amazing people I learned from just at this conference and make sure you WATCH the video.

If you find yourself wishing you had been there feel free to contact me or the school for more information.  Mention my name and you’ll find out about a special that ends on September 29th.

by Francesco Sapienza

We then heard from Pierre Dukan who wrote The Dukan Diet: 2 Steps to Lose the Weight, 2 Steps to Keep It Off Forever.  He was interesting to listen to with his thick French accent.  He shared the principles behind his wildly popular diet book.  It became a smash hit after Catherine Middleton, now Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, mentioned it was the secret to her weight loss.

by Francesco Sapienza

Next we heard from Sally Fallon Morell, author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.  Sally shared information on the sad state of most school lunches and the bad information that underlies their policies.  Sally is a big part of the Weston A. Price Foundation.  They offer a lot of free information and when you become a member you receive an amazing quarterly publication which is full of nutritional information.  You can grab their Healthy 4 Life pdf and order their brochures on topics like soy, transfats, cholesterol, raw milk and cod liver oil from their website.

Joe Kraus made an appearance sharing his movie Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.  You can watch the trailer on his site.  He ate nothing but green juice from fruits and vegetables for 60 days to reverse some serious health issues.

Dr. Joel Furhman joined us and talked about Super Immunity: The Essential Nutrition Guide for Boosting Your Body’s Defenses to Live Longer, Stronger, and Disease Free.  He coined the phrase Nutritarian, a person who strives for more micronutrients per calorie.

Diane, Kelly, Sarah

That evening I went out with fellow student and gluten free blogger Kelly Courson from Celiac Chicks to an Italian restaurant she recommended.  Pala Pizza on the Lower East Side has great gluten free options.  I ended up getting both dinner and some lunch for the next day.  The gluten and dairy free pizza was great and so was the pasta dish I had.  I love that they have a dedicated oven just for the gluten-free pizza.

Dr. David Katz kicked off day 2 of the conference.  Dr. Katz has done a lot in the space of educating kids how to read labels and become aware of what they are eating.  His Nutrition Detectives can be obtained for free and other free programs that you can download for your school.  ABC for Fitness helps teachers work physical activity right into the daily lesson giving kids a total of 30 minutes of exercise a day instead of just being stationary.  He is also part of a group that has created NuVal the nutritional scoring system that you can find in many grocery stores.  The closer the score is to 100 the more nutrient dense the food. You can check here to see what stores are using this system and take the quiz on nutrition by the numbers.

Next up was one of my favorites Dr. Mark Hyman, Chairman for the Institute for Functional Medicine, who talked about Diabesity.  Yes that is the combo of Diabetes and Obesity.  He shared lots of data starting with the change in obesity levels in our country.  In 1990 when there was information from almost all of the states, there was less than 10-14% obesity rates among the population.  By the year 2000 there was only one state left with that rate, Colorado.  In the year 2010 the lowest rate was 20-24% of which there were 15 states and Colorado was still one of them.   There were 25 states at the rate of 25-29% and 13 states at 30% and above.  In 20 short years the rate of obesity all across the country is increasing at an alarming rate along with children being diagnosed with diabetes.  You know, what we used to call Adult onset diabetes.  I’ve already pre-ordered his new book coming out next year, The Blood Sugar Solution: The UltraHealthy Program for Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Feeling Great Now!

We then learned from the one and only, Deepak Chopra.  He shared many wonderful things.  He started with leaders and leadership.  He said, “A leader is the symbolic soul of a group consciousness.”  Then he went on to explain that and give us many great tools from his book, Soul of a Leader.  He also shared important questions to ask yourself before you meditate.  Questions like who am I, what do I want, what is a peak experience for me, and many more.  I have pages and pages of amazing notes from his lecture.

We then got to do something really fun, Masala Bhangra with Sarina Jain.  It’s a really fun workout that incorporates the folk dance moves of Bhangra and also Bollywood.  We all had so much fun.  I’ve ordered her videos and can’t wait to get started.  There are classes that can be found around the US but none near me.

Robert Notter, who is a health coach and a coach to health coaches, also spoke sharing more of his wisdom.  I enjoy his lectures on how to run a business and I’m actually part of his group coaching program to learn even more.  I’m headed back to NYC in November to attend his Success From Within live weekend event.

Kathy Freston closed out the guest speakers.  Her latest book is Veganist: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World.

I know this is a much longer post than I usually share but as you can see it was so packed that I wanted to make sure I gave you a taste of the event.  I can’t wait for the next one!

8 Responses to Health Coaches Have More Fun

  1. WordPress › Error

    There has been a critical error on this website.

    Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress.