Happy National Health Coach Week! To celebrate, we’re featuring inspiring stories of Health Coaches who are doing amazing work in their homes, workplaces, schools, and communities. Today we’re pleased to feature Alice Nicholls, Class of 2013! She’s taking over our Instagram account today – follow along here to see what she’s up to!

If you had to find three words to describe Alice Nicholls, Class of 2013, “authentic,” “funny,” and “honest” would accurately sum up her vivacious spirit.

This Health Coach based in Melbourne, Australia has dedicated her life to helping other people feeling their best. Once a marketing bigwig with body image issues, Alice now has a thriving health coaching practice and popular blog, The Whole Daily. She brings her characteristic sense of humor and optimism to her work spreading awareness about the power of nutrition, self-love, and conscious living.

Read below to learn more about the visiting teacher that changed her life, what she loves about her job, and why Australia needs more Health Coaches!

On finding her passion: I was working full-time for a global social media company in a sales management role. I liked my job, and was earning very good money. But I disliked always being pushed to strive for bigger numbers when the result was more for the company, and not for a better lifestyle for myself.

I was also going through a personal journey to better health. I'd had a disordered relationship with body image and alcohol from when I was a teen and was at a place in my life I really needed to reconnect with who I really was. I had begun studying for a Uni degree in nutrition and health sciences ten years earlier and dropped out because I wasn't in the right place to stick with it.

Integrative Nutrition gave me that window to dip my toe back into health study. I loved the fact that Integrative Nutrition was for one year. It gave me the confidence to sign up for it.

On her favorite visiting teacher: Geneen Roth changed my life. I now have every single book she has ever written and I believe all women who have a relationship with food that goes up and down depending on their moods and emotions needs to read her work.

In general, what I loved about Integrative Nutrition is that whether the lesson was about vegan, vegetarian, or Paleolithic diets, everyone was talking about real food. The message that we can heal ourselves through food that played out through the entire course is so spot-on and it's a game-changer for those who have not immersed themselves in that knowledge before.

On enjoying online learning: I listened to the audios while I was walking or running with my dog, and actually started to go farther than I usually would because I was so immersed in the lectures. There were light-bulbs and “aha” moments occurring for me every day. The lectures ignited my passion again and I began to shift my daily activity based on what I learned in them and then through my own research. It was simply a gentle upward trajectory of wellbeing.

On her health coaching practice: I work as a Health and Life Coach and reach my audience through online programs and social media. My number one goal is that I can support people to feel well and I regularly speak out against big-food marketing that is aimed to make women feel small or to pull the wool over their eyes when it comes to wellbeing.

We all intrinsically know how to be well, but due to so much advertising and media brainwashing, we forget ourselves through the fog. I help to lead my clients back to their true health, which is a mixture of mind, body and spirit. In coaching sessions with one of my clients – which we now laugh about – I did not give her one piece of actual direction. I simply listened and asked her questions about how she felt she could improve her health and life and she had all the answers inside her. She changed her life and is more fulfilled than ever.

On the need for Health Coaches in Australia: Australia has the third highest obesity rate in the world. We are seeing kids with a higher percentage of fatty liver disease as well as attention related disorders than ever before. Health Coaches are desperately needed. We also need to see all modalities of wellbeing working together and complementing each other.

On loving her job: It lights me up. I would work all day every day if it weren’t for my kids and the outdoors. To be able to find something that you are passionate about and that can actually generate a great income is truly a blessing. It takes a lot of hustle, but I am setting my business up to support me, so that I can scale my work to reach global audiences.

Only 5% of the population loves what they do as a career. To be part of that is something I am very grateful for and Integrative Nutrition kick-started that. That this passion can change other people’s lives for the better is the cherry on top.

Connect with Alice

On her website

On Facebook

On Twitter

On Instagram