Our Health Coach Feature series shares the inspiring stories of Integrative Nutrition Health Coaches who are cultivating positive health choices and educating others to live more wholesome lifestyles. Join us twice per month on the IIN Blog to read more about what brought our grads to IIN and what they’re up to now!

Molly Alliman is an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and wellness expert based in San Francisco, CA. She works with clients in one-on-one coaching sessions to help them achieve their health goals. Molly teaches her clients a new way of thinking about food and nutrition to make better choices around eating in a more natural, intuitive way that is free from dieting.

Before launching her health coaching practice, Molly worked in corporate banking and struggled with her own digestive and weight issues. Seeking better health, she discovered the healing ability of whole foods and was able to get off medication, lose weight, and heal her relationship with food and her body. This inspired Molly to start her own nutrition and health coaching practice, Balance by Molly, and develop her own cleanse, The Balance Cleanse.

With a corporate banking background, she understands the demands of a stressful career and works with individuals to help balance healthy eating habits with busy work and travel schedules. Molly also offers corporate wellness programs and retreats to corporations in the Bay Area to encourage happier, healthier, and more effective employees.

Q: What were you doing prior to enrolling at Integrative Nutrition?
A: I was working full-time in corporate banking for a large bank financing technology companies in San Francisco.

Q: What led you to explore the Health Coach Training Program?
A: When I was 24 years old, I hit a dead end with my health. I was sick with IBS and Candida, had my gallbladder removed in surgery, and had chronic stomach pain that all seemed to be never-ending. I had gained 30 pounds and was unhealthy and stuck in old habits. I discovered the healing abilities of whole foods and was able to lose the weight, get off my prescription meds, heal my digestive symptoms, and have more energy and mental clarity than ever! I started to teach my friends and family about whole food nutrition and the healing power of food and then eventually decided to quit my job and start my own practice!

Q: How has your life changed after becoming a Health Coach?
A: My life has changed so drastically in the past three years. Since becoming a Health Coach, I have quit my job in full-time banking, left behind toxic relationships, launched my full-time health coaching practice, and grown my business in just 18 months to become profitable with a wait list of clients. My health continues to improve as I learned so much during the IIN program about areas in my life that still needed to be balanced and I apply what I learned every single day.

Q: Which topics and modules were most beneficial for you?
A: What I loved about IIN is that the curriculum was split between learning about nutritional theories and the tools to start your own business.

Q: What does a typical day look like for you now?
A: A typical days starts with me making a smoothie for breakfast and settling into emails and confirming client sessions for the next day. I typically have clients in the late morning and a break for a few hours for lunch, relaxing, or working on marketing/social media. I then take a few more clients in the late afternoon. I catch up on emails before signing off for the evening. I only take one-on-one clients three days a week, and the other two days are spent giving wellness talks at tech companies and hosting workshops or group coaching sessions. I also use these two days for website updates, fun projects, or cooking and relaxing!

Q: What makes you and your practice unique?
A: What makes me unique is my experience as both a working professional with a high-stress job and someone who suffered from and also recovered from disordered eating. My client base is split between (1) busy working professionals looking for a sustainable eating stress management plan that supports their busy lifestyle, and (2) women who are looking to heal their relationship with food and their body who may be recovering from an eating disorder and also need nutritional support.

Q: How do you help your clients be successful? Is there a recent example that stands out for you?
A: What helps my clients with their success is being READY. Unless you are ready to do the work, you cannot achieve your own success for your health goals. This is the one thing I always ask my clients at the beginning – are you ready? Because your relationship with yourself is your most important investment. You can’t walk away from yourself or trade yourself in. There is only one you and you have to work to love yourself, nourish yourself, and heal yourself.

I was in a session with a client of mine whom I just started working with on healing her relationship with food and self. She made an observation that she is always looking for the next best thing – the next best diet, the next best exercise to lose weight, the next best city to move to… I asked her to apply this statement to loving herself, because with your true self there is no next best thing. You are all that you have, and you are your most important relationship. She had a real breakthrough with this – to realize that she is ready for REAL CHANGE.

Q: What do you love about your work?
A: I love that I am able to create a safe space for both men and women to not only work on their health goals, but to be their true selves. I love that I am making an impact on my clients and reconnecting them to their true selves and the changes they make and obstacles they overcome. Every time someone tells me they have changed their life, it reminds me why I am here carrying out my passion through my practice.

Q: How have you seen the need for Health Coaches change over the years?
A: Yes, definitely. People are starting to see not only beyond the Western medicine approach, but also beyond the alternative medicine approach in that true health is not just about what we put into our bodies but also how we balance everything else in our life – stress, careers, relationships, spirituality, etc.

Q: What’s your tip for balancing your family, work, and personal wellness?
A: My tip is knowing that you can’t do it all. You can’t be perfect or good at everything. And you can’t always make everyone happy. You have to make choices based on what you know to be good and true in the moment and then grow and change based off these choices.

Q: Tell us your favorite way to wake up each day!
A: My favorite way to wake up each day is getting creative with my blender and putting together a smoothie concoction of the day. I’m not much of a caffeine person, so I like to get my energy from blended plants. 

Are you interested in pursing a career as an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach? Click here to learn more today!