Holistic Health Coach

Holistic Health Coach

Liz Bane is best known as the Salad for Breakfast girl and is the Founder ofLIZ BANE LIFE IN BALANCE. LBLIB provides Holistic Health Coaching services that teach individuals to understand that optimal health is more than kale and push-ups; its about 360 degrees of wellness.Following a 20-year career as an executive in the non-profit world, in 2018 Liz graduated as a Certified Holistic Health Coach from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition (IIN), and in 2020 she earned a second nutrition degree graduating from the impressive mindbodygreen Functional Nutrition Coaching program.

Image by BRAT CO / Stocksy

November 2, 2023

Like so many people, I struggled with my weight for years. Ever since I was a teenager, I was constantly thinking about food and how it affected my appearance. My weight would yo-yo as I went through periods of restrictive dieting and then binging. I always wanted to be "thin"but I didn't have a roadmap for changing my relationship with food.

Finally, at the age of 49, I decided to invest in my nutrition education. I signed up to take the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) 12-month holistic health coaching program. This program exposed me to lots of new ideas and visionaries in the health space, from doctors Will Cole and Mark Hyman to Robin Berzin and Frank Lipman. It provided an overview of how to use food to improve your healthbut I felt it really just scratched the surface, and I wanted to go deeper.

That's when I came across mindbodygreen's Functional Nutrition Training (formerly Functional Nutrition Coaching) program. It seemed like this flexible course explored how to use food as medicine in greater depth, with more access to leading health experts. I enrolled, and I'm so happy I did.

This program went on to be like a graduate degree for my functional food education; it brought my understanding of nutrition to a whole new level.

mindbodygreen's FNT program is a comprehensive overview of how to use food as medicinetaught by world-class experts in holistic well-being.

I found FNT to be much more rigorous than IIN. I used to listen to IIN modules while I was doing other things, like driving to and from work. I found all the program quizzes easy, and I got around 97% on the final exam. mindbodygreen's program was a different story: I would have to sit down in front of my computer in the evenings and on weekends to really focus on the material, which touched on everything from the best foods for mental health to the keys to a healthy gut. I would print everything out and spend hours studying for exams. All in all, it took me about six months to complete the program.

My favorite modules included the seven pillars of functional medicine taught by Robin Berzin, M.D. and a deep dive into the autoimmune spectrum with William Cole, IFMCP, DNM, D.C.

The program went deep and provided so much information that I hadn't learned elsewhere. I'd consider IIN my undergraduate degree, and FNT my graduate degreeI got a ton of really specific, helpful information out of it.

I've been a health coach for going on six years now, and I focus on teaching people how to shop, cook, and eat clean in order to achieve their health goals. mindbodygreen's FNT program has given me more credibility and confidence when working with clients.

I now feel like I can answer any questions clients throw my way. And if I don't have the information they need, I know where to find it. I also appreciate that when you enroll in FNT, you get lifetime access to all 660+ pages of the program's in-depth study materials. For me, these packets are golden. I printed them out and saved them on my computer so I can go back and reference them at any time to get really great, specific information.

Even more importantly, this course helped my lifetime struggle with food and eating. Since gaining such a rich understanding of functional nutrition, I've been able to lose weight without dieting; I no longer have a nagging sweet tooth, and I feel really energized and healthy. I've developed a passion for using food as medicine that I love to share with others.

I'm semi-retired, and I appreciate that as a health coach with a focus on functional nutrition, there are so many directions I can take my career. For the past few years, I've chosen to work one-on-one with clients, as well as taught webinars and live cooking demos for people and teams working to take control of their health. This work has been really rewarding, but looking ahead, I'm excited to expand my offerings a bit.

For starters, I'm hoping to create a new community for health and well-being conversations in the new year. I'm still figuring out exactly what this will look like, but it will be similar to a book club. Instead of discussing a novel, though, women will gather to talk about a health-focused book, podcast, trend, or idea in a safe and nurturing environment. I'm also in the process of writing a cookbook that is a collection of my favorite recipes from the last 30 years of my life and what they mean to me. My relationship with food has evolved so much over the decades, and I'm excited to get it down on paper. My goal is to create the compilation as a gift to my daughtersbut if it ends up attracting a wider audience, that's great too.

I love that my nutrition education has allowed me to craft a flexible, creative, authentic career that's completely my own.

I would recommend the mindbodygreen Functional Nutrition Training program to anyone who is looking to take a deep dive into how food impacts health. After taking other health and nutrition courses, this is the one that really solidified my understanding of how to use food as medicine, and I look forward to putting it into practice in my professional and personal life for years to come.

Read more:
How mbg's FNT Program Took My Health & Career To The Next ... - mindbodygreen