Keeping it real, no fluff approach to wellness with Coach Renae Napolion

I love our "Your Unique Life Coach" Blog series this month! What a powerful way to start the year celebrating and getting to know some of my fellow Beautiful You Life Coaches who are shinning their light and sharing their life in such a unique way.

One of the many coaches i have the pleasure to collaborate with this year is Coach Renae Napolion! Renae is a Holistic Health and Life Coach with a keep it real, no fluff approach to wellness! She helps lovely ladies create a life that lights them up from the inside out. Renae is wildly passionate about holistic health and empowering women to make choices that support them to be the best version of themselves. whist she is equally as passionate about all things food including coffee, pasta, red wine and dark chocolate (yum). Renae believes that true health is not about deprivation but about discovering a balance that works for both your body and mind!

and i say AMEN to that! Absolutely love Renae's work and i'm so proud to be introducing her to you today + you have got to check out all the yummy goodies she comes up with on her blog! www.ohsowellness.com

Read our interview and get to know more about Renae and her passion for Holistic health and wellness + check out our unique coaching package we have created just for you!

Why do you think it's important to find your unique Life Coach?

Because we are all different! As individuals, we all have our own unique set of personality traits, hobbies, interests, beliefs and values. Coaches are the same! We all have our own styles of coaching and niches. It is definitely not a one size fits all approach. Coaching can be such an intimate and personal experience so it's really important that you find someone you click with. Your coach should make you feel comfortable and hold space for you to share - the good, the bad and the ugly! You and your coach are a team, you're in it together, so you want to make sure you are the right fit! Tell us about your personal experiences that caused you to love health and wellness coaching even more?

I haven't always made looking after myself a priority, that's for sure! When I was younger, It was not unusual to find me out at bars and clubs 4-5 nights a week. I would party 'til sunrise, sleep it off then do it all over again.

While I had fun, it was always short lived. On the outside it looked like I was having the time of my life, but on the inside I was feeling pretty lost and unhappy. I had no direction, no purpose and absolutely no sense of self. I fell in and out of depression and anxiety as well as a whole host of other health issues such as itchy eczema all over my body and irritable bowel syndrome and my immune system was pretty much non existent.

I was exhausted and my body was screaming at me to slow down but I didn't listen. I just kept doing what I was doing until I ended up in hospital years later. That's when it really hit home that something had to change. Landing myself in the emergency department of hospital really kick stared my passion for all things holistic health and wellness. I started to make small changes which led to big changes and I felt like a whole new person. My eczema improved, my IBS cleared up and my anxiety and depression started to fade away. This new found passion for all things health and wellness lead me to study Health Coaching and the Institute of Integrative Nutrition and then Life Coaching at the Beautiful You Coaching Academy – they both changed my life in ways I could never have imagined. I healed my tortured relationship with food and let go of the deprivation diet mindset. I learnt to love my amazing body instead of hating on it all the time. All of this self-love stuff everyone was talking about started to actually make sense. Taking care of myself became a priority and I started living a life led by my intuition instead of my fear and it was a freakin' game changer. I have been there - wanting a better life for myself but not knowing how to change or where to start, knowing I need to look after my body but being so confused by all the conflicting health and wellness information out there, knowing I needed to love myself more but having absolutely no idea what that meant let alone how to do it.

It can be hard when you have no support. You can feel alone and overwhelmed but it doesn't have to be that way.

That is why I wanted to start coaching. To help women create a life that lights them up from the inside out and live that life as the best version of themselves! I want women to know that we don’t have to conform to this ‘all or nothing’ approach to health and wellness. It doesn’t have to be about deprivation and restriction. It doesn’t have to feel so damn hard.

How does your one on one coaching session look like and what topics usually come up in your sessions?

My one on one sessions can vary greatly depending on the clients goals, where they're at in their own personal health and wellness journey and what they want to get out of the session. As mentioned above, we are all so unique and different and I like to think I honour that in my sessions by allowing the client to set the tone and pace with some gentle guidance from me (and some occasional tough love when necessary). We love your website! Full of healthy living inspirations and of course healthy recipes specially made by you! How do you go about creating these recipes and what inspires you in creating them?

Well, I'm certainly no chef, but I do have a passion for delicious food. I like to think of myself as a simple home cook who likes to reinvent recipes to make them a little healthier! I like to create what I call 'real people recipes' using real ingredients with the occasional indulgence.

Healthy food doesn’t need to be boring and it certainly doesn’t need to be about deprivation. Life is too short to waste it dieting and counting calories! I don’t fit into any category or style of eating rather I try to focus on eating real, wholesome, and nourishing food.

I avoid gluten, refined sugars and dairy most of the time however I still enjoy a pizza, some chocolate or cheese and crackers with a glass of red (guilt free) because I really believe it is all about balance and finding out what works best for you! Lastly, what's your ultimate message to the world when it comes to health and wellness?

My message would simply be this - We are what we do most of the time, not some of the time so drop the guilt and do more of what makes you happy!

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Check out Renae Napolion's Website at: