During the final 30 years, AFPA has licensed over 130,000 well being, diet, and health professionals. We commonly function distinguished graduates who’re utilizing what they’ve discovered to encourage others and make a distinction.
Meet one among our featured graduates, Claire Simmons, an AFPA Certified Holistic Health Coach.
Tell us about your self.
Hi! My title is Claire Simmons and I’m an AFPA Certified Holistic Health Coach. I dwell in North Carolina with my husband of eight years and our three boys, ages 6, 4 and a pair of.
I graduated from the University of Miami in 2004 and from there landed my first job as a tv reporter and producer. After spending a number of years within the business, I accepted a job at one of many nation’s largest healthcare organizations, the place I labored as a senior communications director. I really loved my time there because it was an exquisite mix of difficult and thrilling work, however finally, I wished to spend extra time with my youngsters.
In December of 2022 I made the choice to go away my company job and keep dwelling. Family is extraordinarily necessary to me, and I didn’t need to look again and surprise the place the time went. Additionally, my ardour for well being and wellness has at all times been entrance and heart in my life, so I wished to make sure that I used to be creating the most effective life doable for my boys. I wished to be there for them, cook dinner them wholesome meals, play exterior with them, and provides them a childhood primarily based in wellness.
How did you initially turn out to be keen on well being and wellness?
Ever since I used to be a toddler, my dad and mom inspired my brothers and I to be energetic and play outdoor. My mother at all times cooked at dwelling and consuming out was a uncommon event. Once I left dwelling and went to varsity, I knew that I wished to keep up a wholesome life-style and never give in to the same old faculty temptations!
I began going to the health club and fell in love with health. That led me to get licensed to show group health, which I did all through my faculty years. I bear in mind devoutly studying girls’s well being magazines the place I discovered about diet and picked up a number of ideas and methods that actually got here in useful as a younger grownup, navigating life alone for the primary time.
From there, health and diet simply turned ingrained in my on a regular basis life. Eventually, I began studying about intuitive and aware consuming, psychological energy, emotional maturity, and the entire different elements of well being that we don’t hear as a lot about as exercises and diets. That’s when it actually clicked for me…having that complete package deal in place is what made me really feel and carry out my greatest. I couldn’t cease studying about wellness and I wished everybody round me to really feel pretty much as good as I did!
I feel I at all times knew that there was a path for me within the wellness business, however I used to be at all times busy with life and put my concentrate on my profession, having infants, and such. But as soon as I gave myself time to consider what course I wished to go in and the way I wished my life to look, I simply couldn’t ignore the decision that wellness was the place I wanted to be!
Which AFPA certifications have you ever earned, and why did you select these certification packages?
I’ve earned the Holistic Health Coach Certification, which is comprised of the Health and Wellness Coaching Course in addition to the Holistic Nutrition Course. I beloved the choice of mixing these two as a result of true wellness is greater than what you eat. True wellness should mix harmoniously with one’s tradition, society, household, work, and household life. The Holistic Health Coach Certification teaches you the nuts and bolts of diet which is so necessary and consists of methods on methods to navigate actual life, even when your weight-reduction plan can’t be “perfect.”
How are you utilizing your certification/planning on utilizing your certification?
First and foremost, my major objective is to make use of the data gained by means of my certifications to create the healthiest and happiest dwelling surroundings for my household. My household is my precedence and if we aren’t wholesome, I do know that it’s onerous to dwell life to the fullest! Plus, I would like my youngsters to find out about diet and health now when they’re younger to allow them to lean on these instruments all through their total life. I feel it might be the most effective current I may give them! My husband is an entrepreneur and has a really disturbing and difficult job, so I would like him to know that when he’s dwelling he’ll at all times get the most effective from me within the type of scrumptious, wholesome meals, an area to relaxation, a clear and orderly surroundings, and, in fact, plenty of consideration from the children and me. 😊
Outside of my household, I’ve so many concepts to assist others! I need to create a wellness committee at my sons’ college and assist construct up programming to educate college students about diet, health, and wellness. I’d like to construct a backyard at college and residential to develop contemporary herbs, fruits, and greens. I need to assist mothers who additionally need the most effective for his or her households however who’re battling how to try this. I need to assist those that are working the company grind and present them that it’s doable to include well being into that busy life-style. I additionally need to create and share extra content material about diet and wholesome dwelling and publish that on social media, a weblog, and for different web sites which have like-minded content material.
How has changing into licensed with AFPA impacted your life?
I’m so grateful I made the choice to get licensed by AFPA! It gave me the arrogance to pursue my ardour and cement my credibility within the wellness house as not simply somebody who loves well being and wellness, however somebody who’s succesful and ready to assist others. AFPA gave me credible and stable data on so many subjects and dove deep into the science, analysis and present panorama of the place we’re as a nation with our well being. I additionally really feel as if I’ve a whole group working in the direction of an identical objective and a bunch of people who find themselves at all times accessible to assist me.
What was one factor you discovered in your research that has left an affect on you?
It’s putting to me simply how a lot our nation NEEDS well being coaches. (Whereas earlier than, I although having a coach was a complete luxurious!) So many people don’t notice that we dwell in a system that places revenue over well being. It is as much as the person to do the analysis and resolve what’s greatest for them. It’s a tragic fact but when one actually desires to thrive and dwell their greatest life, you must go in opposition to the grain. What is fashionable is often not wholesome and what’s straightforward isn’t wholesome both. I hope that I could be an advocate for individuals who crave well being however don’t have the time or vitality to search out their path.
How can we discover you on-line?
My Instagram is @Clairehossimmons.
I like to publish ideas and methods there, in addition to my life as a busy boy mother!
Anything else we must always know?
I simply need folks to know that in the event that they make the choice to include diet, health, and wellness of their life in a approach that works for them, they may really feel so good! There is a exercise on the market you can love, similar to there’s a approach of consuming that may make you look and feel your greatest. Wellness is a superpower, and our world can be such a greater place if all of us determined to go the wholesome route. Health coaches can mix the hole between healthcare and actual life, so don’t be shy to achieve out and ask for assist! We are right here for you.