May 4/ Ep.5/ The H.E.A.R.T. of Lasting Change
What if the key to feeling better wasn’t about doing more—but doing what matters most?
When you’re juggling work, family, and the endless to-do list, it’s easy to lose touch with your own well-being. You might try to eat better, move more, or sleep longer—but still feel stuck. That’s because real change doesn’t happen from the outside in. It starts with reconnecting to yourself.
That’s where my 12-week 1:1 coaching program—and the H.E.A.R.T. Framework—comes in. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all health plan. It’s a guided, personalized process that helps you uncover what’s been holding you back, define what truly matters, and create change that actually sticks. In this post, I’ll walk you through the five phases of the H.E.A.R.T. Framework and show you how it helped one woman go from exhausted and overwhelmed to energized and empowered.
My 12-week one-on-one health coaching program is guided by the H.E.A.R.T. Framework—a proven process designed to help you reconnect with your health and yourself.
Over the course of our time together, we'll start by exploring your Health History to understand where you’ve been and what’s been holding you back. From there, we’ll Establish meaningful Goals based on what matters most to you, and build an Action Plan that feels realistic and aligned with your lifestyle. With Regular Accountability, you’ll have consistent support to stay on track, and we’ll Track your Achievements along the way so you can see and celebrate your progress. This isn’t about doing everything at once—it’s about focusing on the right changes first, so you can build momentum and create lasting results.
We begin with your Health History because understanding where you’ve been is essential to knowing where to go next. This is a chance for you to tell your story—the patterns you’ve noticed, the struggles you’ve faced, and the habits or health concerns that have followed you over time. Together, we’ll uncover the root causes behind how you're feeling today, whether it's physical symptoms, emotional stress, or lifestyle imbalances. This part of the process creates a strong foundation for everything that follows, giving us a clear picture of what’s been working for you, what hasn’t, and what may need to shift.
Once we’ve explored your history, we’ll move into Establishing Meaningful Goals—the ones that matter most to you, not just what you think you should be doing. Whether your focus is improving energy, reducing stress, sleeping better, or finding time for self-care, we’ll define goals that feel aligned with your values and realistic for your life. These goals become your personal wellness roadmap. Instead of vague resolutions, you'll walk away with clear intentions and the confidence that you’re working toward something truly important—with the support you need to get there.
With your goals in place, we move into creating your Action Plan—a personalized, step-by-step guide that breaks down your big goals into small, doable steps. This isn’t about overhauling your entire life overnight. It’s about building momentum with simple, consistent actions that fit into your real life. Together, we’ll identify what changes need to happen first and how to make them stick. Whether it’s shifting your nutrition, adding movement, improving sleep, or creating boundaries around stress, your plan will reflect your priorities, your lifestyle, and your pace.
Then comes one of the most powerful parts of the process: Regular Accountability. This is where real transformation takes root. Through consistent check-ins, you’ll have the support, encouragement, and honest feedback you need to stay on track—even when life gets busy or obstacles come up. You won’t be doing this alone. I’ll be there to help you navigate challenges, celebrate wins, and adjust the plan as needed. Accountability isn’t about pressure—it’s about having someone in your corner who’s just as committed to your success as you are.
As you move through your plan and show up for yourself week after week, we’ll Track Achievements—both big milestones and small, meaningful wins. This step is all about reflection and celebration. It’s easy to overlook progress when you’re in the middle of change, but when we take time to document what’s working, you’ll start to see just how far you’ve come. Whether it’s feeling more energized, making healthier food choices, setting boundaries, or simply feeling more like yourself again, these wins matter. Tracking your achievements reinforces your success, builds confidence, and gives you proof that lasting change is not only possible—it’s already happening.
H.E.A.R.T. Under a Microscope
1. Health History Before our first session, you’ll complete a detailed Health History Form via Google Forms. This includes questions such as: What symptoms are you currently experiencing? What supplements or medications are you taking? What is your sleep like? What kinds of foods do you eat on a typical day? What is your relationship with food? You’ll also be asked to reflect on your biological parents' health history to help identify any patterns.
This form allows me to understand your whole-person health story—physically, emotionally, and mentally. During our first session, we’ll review your responses together and use this insight to establish your first goal. I’ll help guide the process, but ultimately, the goal will be based on what you feel is creating the biggest challenge in your life right now.
2. Establishing Meaningful Goals & Action Plans Once we’ve identified your priority goal, we’ll collaborate on an action plan to support it. This plan will be simple, measurable, and realistic—something that can easily fit into your current lifestyle. If it’s not doable, it won’t be sustainable.
Your action plan will never include more than two small, focused steps for the upcoming two weeks. For example, if your goal is weight loss, your first action steps might include keeping a food diary to better understand your current habits or swapping a trigger food like chocolate chip cookies for a couple of squares of high-quality dark chocolate. These actions are designed to build awareness, confidence, and consistency.
3. Regular Accountability Our biweekly coaching sessions over phone or video chat are where the real transformation happens. I’m not here to judge you—I’m here to be your mirror, your partner, and your cheerleader. During each session, we’ll review what you accomplished (or didn’t) over the past two weeks, how those actions made you feel, and what changes you noticed in your body, mindset, or habits. We’ll discuss anything that’s going well or not going well for you since our last session.
This ongoing check-in process helps us stay flexible. Sometimes, what you thought was your biggest hurdle turns out not to be the root issue at all. Our coaching allows us to adjust your goals and action plan as your self-awareness deepens. This flexibility ensures you’re always working on what matters most.
4. Tracking Achievements Celebration and reflection are essential parts of the process. During each session, we’ll highlight your progress and what’s going well. These moments of recognition build motivation and remind you that change is happening—even if it doesn’t always feel obvious.
At the end of our 12 weeks together, you’ll receive a personalized write-up that documents your goals, the actions you took, and the progress you made. This becomes a powerful resource for you to revisit whenever you face a new challenge. It’s proof of what you’re capable of and can serve as a roadmap for future self-coaching—or you can always choose to work with me again to keep building on the foundation you've created.
Your journey is uniquely yours. The H.E.A.R.T. Framework simply helps you walk it with more clarity, confidence, and compassion.
H.E.A.R.T. In Action
One client came to me feeling completely drained—her most urgent challenge was a lack of energy. As we reviewed her Health History, we explored everything from her nutrition and sleep to her stress levels and daily routine. She initially believed her energy issues stemmed from poor nutrition and a lack of regular exercise, so her first Goal was to start prepping more nutritious meals.
Through our sessions, we developed an Action Plan to support this goal. But as we continued meeting for Accountability, something deeper emerged: she wasn’t just tired from her habits—she was exhausted from always putting herself last. Between a demanding job and her commitments to her children and grandchildren, there was no time or energy left for herself. She longed to tidy her home, enjoy social time, or exercise—but those desires never made it to the top of her list.
During one coaching session, she had a breakthrough: she realized she didn’t believe her own needs were important. That awareness was a turning point. As she began to shift her mindset and affirm her own worth, everything else began to change. She started to protect time for herself, make intentional choices, and regain her energy—not just physically, but emotionally. By the end of the program, one of her greatest Achievements was not only improved energy, but a renewed sense of self-worth and balance.
In the example above, you can see how important it is to use a flexible framework. Without it, we could have spent our entire coaching program focusing only on nutrition and exercise to solve my client’s energy issues. While those factors are important, they weren’t the root cause of her struggles. By asking the right questions and allowing the client to guide the conversation, we uncovered a crucial insight that completely shifted her perspective.
This revelation helped her realize that her exhaustion wasn’t just physical—it was a result of neglecting her own needs. By allowing the process to unfold naturally, we not only addressed her energy crisis, but we also empowered her to make lasting changes in how she valued and took care of herself.
You may be thinking, but don’t we pay a health coach to tell us what to do?
Some health coaches do take a directive approach—they provide structured programs that tell you exactly what to do and when to do it. And that can be incredibly helpful in certain situations. For example, I recently purchased an 8-week workout program designed for women in perimenopause because I knew exactly what I wanted: to learn how to exercise more effectively during this stage of life that I’m learning to navigate.
But often, we know we want to change something—we just don’t know where to start, what matters most, or how to stay consistent. That’s where Integrative Nutrition Health Coaching comes in. A foundational belief of this approach is that the client already holds the answers within herself. It’s the coach’s role to ask the right questions, offer support, and help her uncover those answers. That’s why I don’t tell you what to do—we figure it out together, based on your life, your values, and your goals.
Live your life with H.E.A.R.T.
My vision for the future is that all women prioritize their well-being and feel good in their bodies, hearts and minds. If that’s what you want for yourself but you’re feeling stuck, let’s change that—together. My 12-week one-on-one coaching program is all about helping you get clear on what matters, take action that feels doable, and build real momentum using the H.E.A.R.T. framework.
If you’re ready to feel better and more like you again, click here to book a free discovery call.
