Congratulations to our Leadership in Health Coaching Award recipients for the HCTP September 2017 class! Integrative Nutrition believes in, supports, and celebrates all our outstanding graduates for spreading the ripple effect of health and happiness in the world. The Leadership in Health Coaching Award was created to recognize the amazing accomplishments of our graduates, specifically those doing outstanding work that aligns with Integrative Nutrition’s core mission. Learn more about the winners below.

Nicole Bailey
Simi Valley, California

What led you to explore the Health Coach Training Program?
I have had a passion for health and fitness for a long time, and it's evolved over the past eight years. I started as a part-time Pilates teacher while working for my dad’s air filtration company. As time went on, I started adding more certifications, and last year, I was teaching 10-plus classes per week and assisting in yoga teacher trainings. My dad was ready to retire and sell the business, and I decided I was ready to take my passion and turn it into a career. I chose IIN because it was in line with what I truly believe in, and it completes my circle of education in healthy living. My father was amazing and offered to help me financially to be able to transition from working for him and making this into a full-time career.

How did your life change after enrolling?
After enrolling, I realized this is what I was looking for to complete my education and take me to the next level. I was able to have more confidence and understanding about living a healthy lifestyle and being able to talk about nutrition as well as fitness. Six months after enrollment, The YMCA Simi Valley director asked me to lead a one-year pre-diabetes program with 15 participants. The first session was [in September], and I am very excited for the next 26! Also, before I graduated, I was able to sign up two clients that I am currently health coaching. It's been a very exciting year. For the first time, after all my certifications, I feel like I really learned how to make this a career.

Sakinah Bunch
Fort Knox, Kentucky

What led you to explore the Health Coach Training Program?
My daughter had a host of allergies and health issues and conventional medicine only medicated without getting to the root cause of the problem. I wanted to be educated on how to heal her naturally.

How did your life change after enrolling?
I learned how to properly conduct an elimination diet to heal my daughter's gut. Since then, she has been healed from the allergies, and the severity of her asthma has been downgraded. I have learned how to properly feed my husband, who has a food-related chromosome deficiency. I have learned how to construct wellness programs that benefit the masses as well as how to coach people on how to create healing and wellness within themselves.

Eloise Thomas
Brooklyn, New York

What led you to explore the Health Coach Training Program?
After having lost my job and trying my best to not only cope with my situation but also understand it, I kept feeling the need to become a life coach. However, being in the world of fitness, and seeing many individuals around me go through this constant emotional struggle with their weight, and having witnessed the effectiveness of proper nutrition at play in the life of a young boy with delayed milestones, I felt the compelling need to invest resources in a health coaching program instead.

How did your life change after enrolling?
Oh my – purpose! This is my purpose, joining the many voices in gifting myself, others – the world with holistic options toward healing and practicing prevention.

Rebecca Quackenbush
Chester, New York

What led you to explore the Health Coach Training Program?
I want to easily say it’s pure kismet that led me to IIN, although more thoughtfully I imagine I have been making my way toward this training and this profession for quite some time now, ultimately guided by my life experiences.

I have faith in food as medicine and noticed an advertisement for a free webinar to learn about the IIN program. I signed up for the webinar out of sincere curiosity, and enrolled quickly after. Usually such a pensive decision maker when it comes to "big" decisions (such as returning to a full year of school while working full-time), this choice just seemed right.

How did your life change after enrolling?
More than change, I felt a sense of affirmation. I quickly learned and was embraced by the fact that I am not alone in the way I feel about food and health. I gained a strong sense that I was becoming a part of something so much bigger than myself.

Zoe Gameau
Byron Bay, Austrailia

What led you to explore the Health Coach Training Program?
I was at a crossroads with my work life. I had just become a parent to our young baby girl and was helping my husband behind the scenes with his first film and book, That Sugar Film and That Sugar Book. This was a turning point for me as it was my first step away from solely acting and becoming more involved in writing and creating. Also it was my first experience of using art to create social impact and change. People’s response to our work was not mere enjoyment; it was literally transforming their lives for the better. 

I felt so buoyed by this; it reinvigorated my quest to find more meaningful work. This led me to be interested in IIN's program as I knew I needed support in turning my burgeoning hopes and visions into reality. 

How did your life change after enrolling?
It was a huge year for me undertaking IIN's Health Coach Training Program. Although I already knew a lot of the health information I was learning, it was good to have it reiterated and really challenge myself to make sure I was consistently applying what I knew. 

For me, the biggest transformation came from the business component of the course. Parts of my past work life, which I felt I was going to have to leave behind, suddenly were becoming relevant again, and more than that I perceived them as my point of difference and my strengths. I felt myself navigating a new course for myself that drew together all these aspects into something meaningful and enjoyable to me. I felt myself connected to a greater sense of purpose.

Yeiny Fabiola Huamaní Camargo
Lima, Perú

What led you to explore the Health Coach Training Program?
Some years ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. At the beginning, I was scared, but I learned that I should be strong because you need to face cancer with [bravery], so I took the decision to fight for my health, for my happiness, and for my life.

My surgery was successful. Life gave me a second chance to live, and I decided to live it with responsibility and happiness, every day. 

Since my experience, I had the opportunity to help my friend’s uncle who had cerebral cancer. That situation marked my life, because I could notice that I was capable to help others through my experience. That day I confirmed my true purpose in life: “I wanted more people to have the possibility to live life with fulfillment.” HCTP from IIN had the same vision.

How did your life change after enrolling?
Before IIN, I was fighting against secondary effects of my cancer surgery, such as [being] overweight and [having] hormonal imbalances. I tried many diets to recover my ideal weight, believing that in that way I would be happier, but nothing is further from the truth. 

After IIN, I understood that I needed to be more compassionate with myself; I learned to be aware of my nourishment. I started to apply everything that I was learning in the program for being healthier and an example for my clients. I learned to nourish my body, my mind, and my spirit with great primary and secondary food. Currently, I have lost more than 30 pounds because when you are working on your own balance and happiness, everything starts working well.

Rachel Kurtz
Saratoga Springs, New York

What led you to explore the Health Coach Training Program?
I liked the idea of working with clients one-on-one as a coach, someone on their side, providing guidance, support, and accountability. IIN’s emphasis on nutrition, bio-individuality, and the full range of lifestyle habits that contribute to overall health and well-being particularly appealed to me.

How did your life change after enrolling?
After enrolling, I gained the courage to share my knowledge of nutrition and well-being with others in free lectures. I also began helping clients change their own lives. Personally, I realized that only my self-limiting beliefs were holding me back from a rewarding career helping others.

Michael Czimbalmos
Athens, Greece

What led you to explore the Health Coach Training Program?
I first heard of the program through a medical doctor who is a good friend of mine and whom I really trust. He told me that IIN is the best school of its kind, and it immediately piqued my interest. I have always had an interest in nutrition and healthy living and a desire since I was a child to live to a hundred and beyond. The training also completely aligned with the health products business that I run and with my life coaching activity as well. Just like the missing piece of the puzzle, I felt that IIN would tie my coaching activity, my business, and my personal goals together, which it did!

How did your life change after enrolling?
I learned so many things during the course of the training and had so many personal transformations – it is hard to remember them all! From the very beginning, I started implementing what I learned, which brought about many changes in my own personal life, from spending time in the kitchen preparing my own nutritious meals to experimenting with breath work and morning pages. My enthusiasm for what I was learning and the changes I was able to effect in my own life rapidly spread to the people around me, and many of them reached out to me and became clients. From the start, I integrated what I learned through the training into my coaching activity, and now I'm doing health coaching exclusively.

Shadi Nassiri
Irvine, California

What led you to explore the Health Coach Training Program?
My vision loss, other health challenges, and insecurity of not having any credential to have a career in the field I love.

How did your life change after enrolling?
More confidence and credential of becoming more independent financially, emotionally, and mentally. Practicing more self care. Time and goal management. Finding great friends as my classmates who are like-minded and are great supports.

Nadene Richter
Charleston, South Carolina

How did your life change after enrolling?
I've had a passion for health and nutrition for many years. About 10 years ago, my digestive issues and eczema became unmanageable, along with frequent bouts of flu and bronchitis. I'd been to several doctors, who all just kept on pushing medications onto me, but nothing resolved the problem. I decided to launch my own investigation and what I found changed my life forever. I did a complete diet and lifestyle overhaul, and within 3-4 weeks, my eczema had cleared completely, and my digestive system was almost normal for the first time in my life. My family became healthier, and my kids were no longer getting sick every year. I knew I had to share my passion with others, and the Health Coach Training Program was just the tool I needed to do that!

What led you to explore the Health Coach Training Program?
Like an onion, healing comes in layers. We tend to deal with the most prevalent or uncomfortable conditions first and later pay attention to less significant niggles, aches, and pains. Although my diet was great and I was taking care of myself, the Health Coach Training Program took my healing journey to a whole new level. I started experimenting with foods I'd avoided and noticed my body's reactions. I started making more informed choices. Self-love and self-care became a non-negotiable part of my day. I started practicing mindfulness and being fully present, and the quality of my life and relationships improved. My spiritual awareness deepened. I now know who I am and why I'm here. I'm living a life I love and helping others do the same.

Are you interested in becoming an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach? Get our free info kit  today!