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#91: My journey so far from teaching to online coaching - and everything in between
770 Plays1 year ago
In this episode, I chat about my path from the classroom to the world of health and fitness coaching!
After over 15 years as a primary school teacher, life took me on a whole new journey, and I share the ups and downs that brought me here. I talk about the challenges I faced along the way - dealing with anxiety, motherhood, and eventually finding my purpose in wellness. I also talk about those “aha” moments that came into focus, especially during the pandemic, and the steps I took to build a supportive community around balanced, sustainable living.
I also share my coaching approach and the KHH Coaching Curriculum, which is all about daily reflection, balanced nutrition, moving your body, and setting real, achievable goals. I discuss why I think flexibility, mobility, and embracing imperfection are key to a lifelong journey of health.
Key Topics Discussed in This Episode:
- Career change: Why I left teaching and the pivotal moments that led me to health and fitness coaching.
- Dealing with anxiety and motherhood: Navigating personal challenges and finding ways to prioritise mental and emotional well-being.
- Discovering my passion for fitness: How fitness and personal development opened the door to my new path.
- The change: How the pandemic provided the clarity I needed to pursue my coaching career.
- Building a community: The importance of genuine connections and creating a space for sustainable habits.
- KHH Coaching Curriculum: A holistic approach that includes nutrition, movement, reflection, and goal-setting.
- Top 10 steps for health and fitness: A roadmap to balanced, long-term wellness.
- Resistance training: Why strength and resilience are key components of physical health.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with friends who might benefit. For more health tips and updates, follow me on Instagram and TikTok @katehamiltonhealth.
Music by LiQWYD Free download: hypeddit.com/link/xxtopb [http://hypeddit.com/link/xxtopb] Promoted by FreeMusicPromo [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbycji-eySnM3WD8mbxPUSQ] / @freemusicpromo1
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Beginnings
00:00:09
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Kate Hamilton health podcast. So today's episode is going to be a solo episode and it's kind of, I suppose, a little bonus episode really, in the sense that I'm going to do a little bit of a recap, a bit about me. Now, anyone who's been following the podcast a long time or who has gone back and started from the start will have already heard my story. So feel free if you've heard my story to skip on. I'll probably repeat myself a good bit in this, but I started this podcast in I think summer 2022.
Personal Background and Teaching Career
00:00:42
Speaker
So as I'm recording this, it is October 2024. So it's two years on. I would like to think I've gotten a little bit more confident on the microphone and more kind of used to talking about myself and my journey and health and fitness compared to how I would have been two years ago. So I also am aware there's a lot more people listening now. So I just thought it made sense to reintroduce myself.
00:01:08
Speaker
So my name is Kate Hamilton, I am 38 years old, I am married and I have three children who are 14, 11 and 7. So busy lifestyle, always something to be doing, somewhere to be going and you know spinning a lot of plates all at once all the time. My background is in primary school teaching so I did an undergraduate degree in education and I worked as a primary school teacher for 15 years. I made a career change in recent years so I am coaching
00:01:43
Speaker
officially since 2021, working as a coach and it's been quite a journey and I'll take you on that journey a little bit of kind of where it all stemmed from and how I made this career change and how I've taken all of my life experiences along the way to lead me to where I am and to what I do. As I said, I worked as a teacher for 15 years. I remember being in school and thinking,
00:02:05
Speaker
I don't know what I wanted to do. I was always a really diligent student. I loved going out with my friends and, you know, getting up to God knows what and really being a teenager. But I also very much wanted to please my parents, wanted to keep my grades up. I was very much told, you are going to college, you get one college degree, pick one, you're going to do it. I'm sure if I challenged that enough, they would have, you know, been happy to just see me happy. But I was very much, yes, okay. So I, I remember being in transition year and doing work experience and I went and did work experience in my mum's school. My mum was a primary school teacher for like 41 years and she was one of these teachers that made it seem really, really easy. She loved her job. I did two work experiences in transition year in
00:02:49
Speaker
the primary school classroom i also was very used to being in a primary school classroom apart from obviously being in school myself but you know whenever we were sick this was back in the 90s we just we brought to my mother's school so i got to help out or you know hand things out i was always very familiar with with the primary school classroom and how teachers were and how schools ran and everything. So that was really quite natural to me and I was quite comfortable in that environment. I also did a work experience, interestingly enough, with a dietitian because that was initially what I wanted to do. I always found food science interesting. I always found biology in general interesting, nutrition, SPHE and just health, the body health, all of that I always found so fascinating. It was something that I thought I wanted to pursue a career in.
00:03:32
Speaker
And turns out I did a little bit, but I didn't know at the time I went on work experience with a dietitian. And I found it really overwhelming just being surrounded by like proper grownups that weren't teachers. And I remember just like doing that week. I'm really enjoying seeing how people work and it was fascinating. But I was like, no, I don't want to do that. That's too uncomfortable for me. Kind of, it was too challenging or something. I was like, I'm just going to be a teacher. I can wear jeans and a hodita school. I remember literally thinking that as a 16 year old being like, if I become a teacher,
00:04:00
Speaker
I can wear jeans and hoodie to school. And I finish at three o'clock every day, every weekend off, ah loads of holidays. And that genuinely, that the lifestyle, it was the lifestyle that sold it to me, I was like, that's the lifestyle I want. I want to be able to have a life within my career.
00:04:17
Speaker
And my mother sold that really well. They never pushed it on me, just sold it by example. She really always had that lovely work-life balance and was full of energy. And I was like, right, that's fine. That's what I'm doing. And to this day, I still think it's really important that work isn't your whole life, that we have a balance, that we're looking after our personal health, that we're looking after our relationships and our friendships. and I believed you know this it's very holistic, you know, but it is important that we enjoy our work as well. So I went into teaching and it was kind of very obvious quite early on. In hindsight, that it probably wasn't right for me. I did well in
Challenges and Transition to Fitness
00:04:50
Speaker
my Leaving Cert. I got ah the points for your teaching. In Ireland, we'd like points and then we'd fill out a CAO form. them and
00:04:55
Speaker
you apply for college and you have to get a certain amount of points based on your grades to get in. So I got in first time and the points were quite high for teaching so that was a lot of study and I i got in there. But I remember never it never feeling right, so like never feeling like I fully belonged there, never feeling like I fully understood what was going on like and interestingly i enough most of our subjects were education-based subjects. We have one academic subject we've done so I did history. So I did education and history and history was the only thing that just flowed for me. You know I got stuck into writing essays and the research and all of that and I you know I flew at history I loved it. The education stuff I struggled with.
00:05:34
Speaker
and really struggle to connect with, really struggle to understand in some ways. But anyway, got through it because of my work ethic is quite strong. So I just kind of trudged on, trudged on, trudged on. And then I got to finishing college and I got my first job, went for an interview. I was so young, I finished college at 21 and I'd only started learning how to drive at 21. I was still not driving when I was interviewing for my first job. My parents, my mom and dad drove me down to the school that I would end up working in for 15 years. And my very first interview went in, sat the interview. My parents waited outside or went to get a coffee or whatever, collected me afterwards. We went to a pub for some food afterwards and I got the phone call right there and then that I had got the job.
00:06:23
Speaker
Like that's how easy that that fell into my path. So at 21 years old, I started working in a school and I worked there for 15 years. It was a very, very exciting moment in my life. I was like, wow, I'm after getting a job. And I just kind of threw myself head first into it and worked really hard and really tried, you know, and my 15 years of teaching, I very much did give it my all. And I think I was a good teacher, but it wasn't in my heart in the same way as what I'm doing now is. You would never catch me doing school related stuff after school hours or at the weekends, whereas, you know, if it's something business related now or, you know, you'd have to stop me working. And the passion was never there. And I remember being surrounded by some amazing teachers over the years that just had such an an eye for things and like, you know, a zest for
00:07:09
Speaker
new ideas and just like really loved it really full of energy and I would come out of school and I would be exhausted to the point that I'd like to be blurry eyed coming out of the classroom and I thought wow I thought that was normal I really did think that was normal now It's also important to note, particularly in the early years of teaching, I started teaching in 2007 and I had my first child in 2010. So my eldest son, Jaden, was born in 2010. I was only 23 at the time. So I was working as a teacher. I was quite young. I had my first child. So there was a lot going on as well. A lot of life changed quite quickly. And, you know, then I had Leila three years later, I had Kai, then another four and a half years later. So most of my teaching career was raising small children.
00:07:51
Speaker
So it was a really, really great career in that sense, where I could, you know, balance life and work quite well. And, you know, out of three fantastic child minders, actually, it made it easy to be a parent and have a career at the same time. And I'm really, really grateful for that time. Also, especially in the early years of my teaching, I was dealing with a lot of mental health issues in relation to anxiety and panic attacks. And that took a long time to get over. you know When Jaden, my eldest was small, I was still dealing with a lot of anxiety issues, although that the worst of it was before he was born from age 21 to 23. I really, really struggled with chronic anxiety. I did an episode on my anxiety story, which is right back near one of the first few episodes.
00:08:32
Speaker
go back and if you're someone who suffered with mental health issues or anxiety or depression go back in this and listen if you like. I won't dive into into that whole experience too much. I had a lot going on, a lot of really not knowing who I was but living very much a reactive life. Obviously we had bought a house, I needed to work, my husband Dave needed to work and we were raising our small family.
00:08:52
Speaker
And life was busy, like it was busy and it was just survival mode. We didn't have a lot of money because our outgoings were so high with a new mortgage and loans and trying to just set up a life together. So that really did consume most of my twenties. And it's only in hindsight that I realized why I didn't feel great, why I suffered with anxiety, why I had mental health issues, why I was quite a regular drinker. You know, I wasn't an alcoholic, but that I did drink. probably Thursday, Friday, Saturday, definitely Friday and Saturday, every weekend for years and like a significant meant, you know, like so I was binge drinking every weekend even with small children and I did this in a very functioning way but it just kept me down. It just kept me from really knowing who I was and exploring who I was but it was I suppose a coping mechanism in a way.
00:09:40
Speaker
and again i've done another episode i think on alcohol as well which you can go back and listen to but i really did think i was in teaching for forever i was just like this yeah this is my life i'll be here till i'm 65 and i'll retire but i it was quite unfulfilled really i really loved the school that i worked in i always enjoyed working with the kids i found that paperwork and the politics of teaching, quite draining. That got worse as the years went on, which just changes in the systems, nothing to do with the people that I was working with, more just kind of, you know, the department of education. For me, I found that side of things difficult. Loved the people that I worked with, inspired by a lot of them, you know, and it's funny looking back, you know, I have a whole life when I look back, filled with wonderful people and wonderful memories, but then COVID hit.
Discovering New Passions and Coaching
00:10:28
Speaker
So 2020, actually before COVID hit,
00:10:31
Speaker
I remember getting into a little bit of yoga, first of all, and a wonderful yoga teacher called Maura at the time, and she was an ex-primary school teacher as well, and she was teaching yoga and wellbeing. It was my first kind of dip into this world of personal development, and I was like, wow. I started listening to things, reading things, learning a lot about personal development. It was my first eye-opening experience to this, apart from the therapy I had done in my early 20s. So instead of you know therapy to make yourself better, this was like,
00:10:59
Speaker
Oh, to expand myself. This yoga had kind of led me down the route of reading more, listening more, starting to think, wow, there actually could be more to me than just going about Groundhog Day, day in, day out. I remember then, you know, writing some goals. And for me, there was always this deep thing within me where I wanted to be fit and strong and healthy okay like so i was healthy i wanted to be fit and strong i wanted to be a fit person basically but i never identified myself as one i wasn't good at sport as a child my confidence was quite low like in relation to sport like the anxious child in me was always afraid of letting a team down i remember like i wasn't a good runner i was slow and my feet stuck out and but like people used to make fun of me for the way i run including my parents by the way which i still don't let them live down
00:11:51
Speaker
So obviously I did run funny if my parents were making fun of me, but I had this deep seat of belief in me that I was like, I'm not a fit person. And I really looked up and thought, people who play sports, people who are fit, people who go to the gym, like, you know, I held them on this pedestal, which is really an interesting kind of insight to look back on now. So I started getting into a little bit of fitness at home. So this would have been after I had my daughter, Leila. So Leila was born in 2013. It was 2015. By the time I kind of started getting into a bit of fitness. At the time, there was a young Australian fitness influencer that was kind of on the rise. Instagram was just starting. And her name was Kayla Itzinas. Some of you will have heard of her. She's made a huge now she and she's built this huge online fitness community. So anyway, I discovered Kayla and I followed her. I read her books and I did her
00:12:41
Speaker
Workout programs at home and they suited me down to the ground at the time, you know two small kids I was working I was able to do workouts on my kitchen floor with just some dumbbells and it really was my first insight into wow I'm getting fit. I started getting out walking. I always hated walking, it always reminded me of like having panic attacks and you know, being out somewhere and having anywhere to sit down and feeling completely out of body. So like walking was a huge issue for me in those early stages because it was a trigger for me for panic attacks. So that was such a hugely empowering thing to overcome.
00:13:13
Speaker
and to really start enjoying getting out walking for health for fitness doing my workouts and I remember ah I had been kind of dabbling a bit in the yoga side of things as well and personal development books and stuff and I'd started you know writing goals and things like that this was the first time I got into goal setting and I remember writing down I'd love to make some friends that are into fitness because at the time I was the only one in my life that was into fitness None of my friends really had any interest in it. And love I didn't want to ditch with my current friends. I still have those friends, but I did want to make some new friends that shared a similar kind of enthusiasm and passion for fitness. and I ah wrote this down and thought no more of it. Then I remember in, it would have been 2019, between 2015 and 2020.
00:14:00
Speaker
19, I had my third child, Kai. He was born in 2017. I put on a lot of weight with Kai. I stopped all the fitness that I had been doing. And after I had him, I was injured. I couldn't walk. I was on crutches in a lot of pain.
00:14:14
Speaker
with a pelvic injury and I had to start from scratch, literally from scratch, building myself back up, getting back into workouts, getting back into walking, losing what ended up being over 50 pounds over a space a long space of time. But you know, it's just slow and steady, kind of losing weight, really starting from scratch. So that that was a real kind of, you know, back to square one, picking myself up off the ground with a very young family. And I found that third child quite difficult to adjust to. Now not him personally, he was quite an easy baby, I was very lucky and my older two children were very good when Kai was born, Jayden was seven and a half, Layla was four and a half, so they were a little bit older but at the time I found it difficult and it's only now looking back I know he was born in September We were heading into the winter. I had two children in primary school and a newborn baby and I was trying to get out the door. I was trying to get him fed, get them out to school doing all of this. My husband was still working in the office at the time. It was really busy, stressful time. The weather was shit and it was just, it was just a difficult time when he was small. And then I was dealing with the injury then on top of it. That year was difficult. My husband's father died suddenly and we were dealing with loss as well on top of that. It was a really difficult year, but fitness.
00:15:30
Speaker
kept me focused through that so that I could be strong to get better myself but also out to support my husband through this time and my children as well my older children in particular so anyway I tipped away started using this as you know really getting to know myself better through health, through fitness. So really these years is when I really built the building blocks of foundations for what my coaching is today. And everything I learned was really through trial and error at the time doing Kayla's workouts and really just kind of researching nutrition. and fitness myself as well at the time and trying loads of things that didn't work, that did work as I went along the way and learning a lot from it. So in relation to those fitness friends, which I really loved how this all tied in, I remember in 2019 being in work in school.
00:16:20
Speaker
my principal who came to into the staff room was like there's this CrossFit guy here he's looking for teachers to sign up to this initiative where they get trained up as CrossFit kids trainers and then we try and implement it into the PE curriculum and I was like yes please so like I literally signed up myself and a few other teachers signed up to this and we got to train at this CrossFit gym. CrossFit gym is very different to a commercial gym you know we're talking barbells and pull ups and jumping around on the floor and all this, you know, Olympic weightlifting. And it was just completely different. And it opened this world for me. I was like, wow, was coach led. So he let us start training in his gym to get familiar with the CrossFit methodology. After a couple of months, we did a course
00:17:02
Speaker
on how to teach this through play for kids and the actual CrossFit headquarters funded this initiative and we were trained up as CrossFit trainers. On a personal level started training at this CrossFit gym, loved it.
00:17:15
Speaker
made so many friends that I am still friends with today through this. And I just love that that little kind of thing that I wrote down in a goal setting exercise years before just came true. And this really helped me understand the idea of manifestation as well. And really what you put your focus into and what you intend, like your intentions, how if you write down what you want, it focuses your brain in that direction. But even subconsciously, and you move in that direction,
00:17:43
Speaker
towards what you want. Anyway, that's a side note. I spent a good few years in this CrossFit gym and this is where I decided that I wanted to become a coach myself. I did the CrossFit Level 1 course, I did a personal training course as well. This all kind of coincided as well with COVID hitting at the same time. So once COVID hit, I could really think straight.
00:18:05
Speaker
And it was the first time I ever reflected on my life. I remember March 2020, when we completely locked down and looking on the TV at all these major cities and landmarks completely empty the whole world. It was like the movie the day after tomorrow, isn't it? You know, when like literally everyone on the planet Earth's dead. It was like, you know, everything was deserted and it was a really scary time and no one knew what was going to happen. And then my dad got COVID and he ended up in hospital for like five weeks he nearly died and it was a really really weird difficult time where we couldn't actually do anything so me and Dave were just training at the back garden and I don't know if anyone remembers anyone from Ireland anyway I'm not sure elsewhere but the weather was really nice that Easter we kind of had Easter holidays tied in with that we really didn't have to do much
00:18:48
Speaker
teaching wise until after the Easter holidays that year. I just really got stuck into my training. I was the one going in and out of the hospital to drop stuff into my dad because my mum and my sister had been living with him so they were isolating so I was doing that and I was focusing on my training. I just got out walking and I just really focused on me and it was the first time I actually reflected on it. I was like when we had to start doing the teaching work, the online teaching work, I was like oh my god I hate this.
00:19:14
Speaker
I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I want to. I started my nutrition course at this stage and I was like just fascinated. I just wanted to study my nutrition course and I wanted to start planning out my my coaching program and I just had this like fire inside me and I just, I spent all my time training, walking and studying and creating.
00:19:36
Speaker
what would end up being my coaching curriculum really and just tipping away at my teaching work because obviously that needed to be done so that got done too but it was a game-changing, I think I was never the same after. Thankfully my dad recovered and then we eventually did get to have family time again and you know there could be a lot of people listening you know that can relate to someone getting COVID and getting really sick in hospital maybe people who lost people through COVID it was a really really difficult time. It was also a really really beneficial time for my personal development.
Building a Coaching Career
00:20:07
Speaker
When we went back to school, I knew that September when we had to go back to school, I knew I was like, I don't want to do this anymore. I still didn't know how I was going to make enough of a living off of it. I just knew so i I was doing it on the side. So this was September 2020. I applied for a job share. which is the wonderful thing about teaching, you can apply for job sharing, you can apply for career breaks. so I applied that like literally that September or October for a job share for the following year. So I knew I was like, this will be my last full year. I just knew it. And I kept up my studies. So I qualified as a precision nutrition, nutrition coach. And then I went on I did a health coaching certificate as well. So it's on top of my personal trainer diploma, and my CrossFit level one as well. And I started working with friends on the side.
00:20:57
Speaker
And then we had more lockdowns in between. I got a job then in a gym in the summer of 2021 when the gyms finally opened back for good. I think that was the last time that they.
00:21:09
Speaker
were closed and they reopened. So I worked in you know a small group personal training gym for a while. Then I worked in a commercial gym for a while. I started doing my own personal training on the side, all while teaching and then job sharing teaching. And then I took a career break the following year and really started to build my online business while working in person. And fast forward a few years, I did a couple of years career break and have now left teaching. I handed in my resignation after 15 years.
00:21:37
Speaker
Well it's more than 15 years now. I jumped at this career change and I honestly have never looked back and I don't mean that in a disrespectful way. if I look back fondly on my teaching time and my memories and it's where I raised particularly my older two children but I have absolutely no regrets on my decision. So when I left teaching, when I was on career break, I worked in a gym And in the gym, I was cleaning toilets, I was cleaning machines, I was teaching classes as well, I was hoovering, I was working at the desk, and I had the best time with the most amazing people working in that gym. like I still miss it. When I was cleaning out my headphones on, I was listening to business podcasts, I'm really educating myself and of building a business. And it was just the most magical time. There wasn't a lot of money there. Some of my in-person clients, I was starting to build a bit of an online business, but, you know, having a mortgage and three kids, one of them in secondary school, like there's a lot of expenses. I was like, I need to be actually be building a business that I can live off and that I can enjoy. So there was a lot of double jobbing and working 24 seven and a lot of grind, which I think I'm only really recovering from now.
00:22:48
Speaker
but it was worth it because I knew I had a vision even at times when I it felt cloudy I was like I know what I want to do here I know I want to build an online business where I can help women experience happiness and fulfillment through health fitness and connection with self and I was like this is what I want to do I needed to do all the things to get to where I've gotten to now and It's clear now and I'm very, very clear on my mission and it's what I try and do through this podcast. It's what I try and do through my content on social media and it's what I try and do through my coaching service. We've built the most amazing community. We're now at about 150 ladies within the Kate Hamilton Health community as I'm recording this.
00:23:34
Speaker
And I just actually have to pinch myself at times. It's absolutely amazing. There are ups, there are downs in this health and fitness journey and we're in it together. We support each other and it's not all about numbers. Yes, we get you towards your goals, but it is not all about numbers. And my whole coaching service is based around my experience as a woman, as a mother, as someone who has had to pick themselves up from square one and learn to become strong, to become fit, to lose weight, to become resilient, to overcome limiting beliefs. These are all things that I did and obviously along with my studies and what I have now learned from working with hundreds of ladies on their journey is what has become the Kate Hamilton health coaching curriculum and what I base all of my teachings around now in social media or on this podcast, you're hearing a little bit here and there within my coaching service, you're getting it much more in a step by step process. But it is all based around me. I use my teaching experience then to I hope communicate things in a nice, clear, easy to understand way. That's my hope. And I just feel so, so, so incredibly lucky.
00:24:49
Speaker
So apologies for the long-winded story but that's where I have come from from a professional level and I suppose a personal fitness level and where I'm at now has been very much focused around you know helping others building my business really trying to reach as many women as I possibly can and in the growth of that then there's been ups and downs of my own health and fitness journey and there's been times where I've been like the fittest strongest I've felt and there's times where I'm trying to claw myself back a little bit and being like, okay, Kate, you've been busy focusing on on your business, focusing on your clients, it's time to focus on you again. You need to get a bit fitter, you need to get a bit healthier, you need to get a little bit stronger. And that's as I'm recording this, that's exactly where I'm at. Anyone who's following me will see that I'm back doing a couch to 5K, getting back into a little bit of running. I'm working with a physio with my strengths to work on particular areas that I need to strengthen to be able to move well and keep injury free.
00:25:45
Speaker
as I'm running, but also to keep strong, keep the muscle that I have built over the years. But I also like very much want to focus on flexibility, on mobility, as well as strength. So that's kind of a priority of mine at the minute. And the reason why I'm sharing this is I want women and men, I want to everybody to know that health and fitness is not a destination. It is a way of being.
00:26:11
Speaker
and it has ups and downs. Just like life has its ups and downs, your health and fitness journey will also have its ups and downs. and that's totally okay. There are times in life where you will be killing it. You'll be able to give yourself as much focus as you need and you'll be like, I am winning at life. I'm winning at health, I'm winning at fitness. And then there'll be other times where shit hits the fan. God forbid someone ends up in hospital or you know you're going on holidays or you've got family coming over from America or you're whatever. You've got you have this stuff going on. Life has really, really good times. Life has really, really shit times.
00:26:46
Speaker
And then life is a load of just, you know, day in, day out, normal times. It's the day in, day out, normal times that matter the most. We deal with the really shit times when they come, or the really stressful times, and we hold tight. And, you know, some habits might slip a little bit, that's okay, but that's what we work on. And then the really good times, you get to celebrate.
00:27:05
Speaker
Because the day in, day out, you've got it down. You've got it controlled. And that's, that's how I live my life. When things get busy, when things get stressful, when, you know, things are not going to be perfect and that's okay. And I don't ever try and portray living a perfect life because I'm sick of seeing fake on social media. I'm sick of it. Or to be honest, I don don't consume much social media anymore. I find it quite harmful to be honest, a lot of us. And we need to all stop trying to be so fucking perfect.
00:27:32
Speaker
end off. It's just ridiculous. We need to stop being so perfect. So that's what I'm trying to communicate. Life is never going to be perfect. You're never going to be perfect. I'm never going to be perfect. But who the fuck wants to be perfect? Perfect's not fun. Perfect's not human. And perfect is not relatable
Coaching Philosophy and Approach
00:27:48
Speaker
to others. You can't help others if you're trying to be fucking perfect all the time. So that's really, really important to remember. So with that in mind, I just wanted to talk a little bit about The coaching curriculum. Okay. What I say to the coaching curriculum and the reason why I call it curriculum, I think it's nice with my, you know, teaching background and all that, but really what I want to say about this. Okay. Most of the women that come to work with me, usually the goal is fat loss. Now it usually ends up becoming so much more. And that's why I say I help women discover happiness and fulfillment through health.
00:28:21
Speaker
fitness and connection with self. And so the health and fitness part is usually where they come to me for. And what I help them with then as well, the the missing piece of the puzzle is the connection with self. Okay. And that's what it comes down to. So fat loss is simple. So most women will come to me for fat loss initially. It's not always, but most women will. It develops into so much more, but in relation to fat loss, fat loss is simple. It's not easy, but it is simple. It's simple habits repeated over time.
00:28:51
Speaker
imperfectly while constantly reflecting and learning and that's just so so important that it it is about repeated over time so that that patience is needed imperfectly we need to get rid of the all-in or nothing mindset we need to give ourselves a little bit of a fucking break like and realize it's going to be imperfectly while constantly reflecting and learning and that's the missing piece that's the connection with self that's the detachment from guilt. I mean like okay I'm not going to be perfect but I reflect and on how things went yesterday or whatever and pick myself up and go again you know and learn from mistakes and sometimes we need to learn from mistakes like 10 fucking times before we actually figure it out. The only way you're never going to get to where you want to go is if you give up on yourself and that's what I say to people when they start coaching with me. The only way you won't reach your goal is if you give up on yourself and I won't let you give up on yourself. So anyway in relation to these
00:29:43
Speaker
Simple habits repeated over time. Let's get into it. Okay. So this is what we focus on with clients, whether it's through content through this podcast or through my coaching. 10 steps. Okay. Number one, I'm not going to go into them in detail. I'll do another solo episode. I'm going into these in detail, but I'll just go through them really quickly. Number one, daily reflection. that You need to get a journal and you need to commit to daily reflection. It's a non-negotiable.
00:30:06
Speaker
you need to be able to and understand yourself. You need to be able to reflect on what works, what doesn't work, what makes me feel good, what doesn't make me feel good. Why am I doing this all the time? Whatever it is that's coming up, you need to actually reflect. Now, it doesn't need to be like setting aside a fucking hour for a wellbeing evening or anything. Five minutes every day, okay? It doesn't need to take more than five minutes, but it does need to be every day. Number two, your why and your goals, okay? And I've done episodes on these before.
00:30:35
Speaker
you need to have a clear why. Why do you want to lose weight? Why do you wanna get healthy? Why do you wanna get fit? And really dig deep. This does take a little bit of digging because that why is what's gonna get you out of bed in the morning when you don't feel like it. Because we're human and we're not gonna fucking feel like it. Your why needs to be stronger than your excuses. That is really, really important. And that can take some time. Again, you're gonna do that with your daily reflection and your journal. So these kind of tie in together and your goals. You need to set some goals.
00:31:03
Speaker
Don't limit yourself by your limiting beliefs. You have limiting beliefs now as you start this journey. If you're working within my coaching, we help you with this. But as you you go further on this journey, you will shed some limiting beliefs. You will discover new beliefs about yourself. You'll build evidence about things that you can do. When you're setting goals, aim high. Like listen to your heart. If your goal is to run a marathon, write it down. It doesn't matter if you're 25 stone and your goal is to run a marathon. Write it down. If your goal is to be a size 10 and you're currently a size 22, write it down. Don't let your logic or your limiting beliefs stop you from what you really want, okay? So your why is very different. Your why is, you know, like for me, for example, my why is I want my body to be as healthy as possible so I can have as many adventures with my loved ones as possible for as long as possible. That's really fucking important to me.
00:31:57
Speaker
So that makes me get up and do what I do. So you need to think about that for you. So like that's very intangible. Like when you think about it, like that why of mine, I want to be as healthy as I can, healthy and strong for as long as I can. I was like, okay, yeah, well like that needs to be broken down. So that's where my goals come in. So then I'll set specific goals. So at the minute, my little mini goal is I want to run a 5k race. I'll set a new goal when I reach that. My other goal at the minute,
00:32:23
Speaker
is to fix, like I have some joint issues at the minute and some imbalances in my body that I want to fix up. That's my focus with my physio at the minute and my strength training. Those are my goals because if I end up injured, I won't be able to train properly. That won't make me happy and it'll affect everything. My running goal, getting my fitness back up to where it was.
00:32:42
Speaker
but I want to get it back up because of my why. So set some goals, like set long-term goals, break them down into short-term goals. Then you can break them down into habits, but I'm going to help you with the habits. So they're the number one and two are really, really important steps that a lot of people skip.
00:32:57
Speaker
and this is why they don't succeed. Then the rest are really just things that need to be done to get you healthy, to get you fit and get you moving towards your goals. Number three, food quality. Base most of your intake around whole foods and minimally processed foods. Basically cutting out as much processed food as possible, basing most of your meals around good quality food. That doesn't mean you can't have bits of what you enjoy, of course you can. But like, think 80-20. 80% whole foods and 20% the rest, okay? Number four, track your food. Tracking is not forever.
00:33:27
Speaker
but it is an important skill and step in educating yourself around what you are consuming and get you moving towards your goals. The habits that you develop over time while tracking will secure your progress in time. okay so If you want to lose body fat, tracking is very useful when you get to maintenance. Tracking is very useful for a while so that you're very, very sure of quantities and having a good routine around food and then you take the tracking away. I don't track anymore. I'll track if I specifically want to tidy up a few pounds, if I've been a little bit too kind to myself over Christmas, I might track for a few weeks in January. You know what I mean? That kind of thing. Or after my holidays in the summer, in I might track for a few weeks in September or October. You know, that's about it. We're not supposed to spend our whole lives tracking, okay? But it is an extremely useful skill to get you to where you want to go initially, okay? Number five, plan ahead. This is so, so, so important.
00:34:17
Speaker
Plan your meals a few days ahead and track your calories the night before. It it really is a non-negotiable. Make it a part of your evening routine and pair it with your daily reflection. So you know the evening time if you're reflecting on how did today go? How did it get on? Why did this happen or whatever? That's a great time after you've done that. Be like right tomorrow, what's the plan for tomorrow? Get tracked ahead.
00:34:36
Speaker
It also helps you make sure you're getting enough protein, getting enough healthy fats, making sure you're getting enough of everything by planning ahead. If you're just going into a day and just tracking as you go, how do you expect to hit a protein target? How do you expect to stay within your calories and feel full and satisfied and energized and to make sure you get enough of everything? It takes a little forward planning. It doesn't take a lot and it gets easier with time. Number six, daily movement. Walk, run, dance, cycle, swim. I don't care. Whatever you enjoy, but your body does need to be moved in some way every day.
00:35:06
Speaker
you do not need a rest day for walking even if you can only squeeze in five minutes it is so so so important if you have a dog you let your dog run around the garden or you bring your dog for a walk every day because it needs movement you need movement every single day and it can be a five minute walk if that's all you can squeeze in become a person that moves their body every day. Number seven, sleep. At least seven hours each night, this is essential for fat loss, for strength, for fitness, and health goals. It's essential for everything, okay? It's how your body heals, it's how your mind heals. And if quantity of sleep is out of your control, you know, with babies or children that don't sleep or you know whatever reason, focus on quality and establish a healthy sleep routine. I've probably done a podcast on this. I'm going to check back if I haven't. I'm going to do one about establishing a healthy sleep routine. If you're like, oh, how do you establish a healthy sleep routine? Stay off your fucking phone for an hour before bed.
00:35:57
Speaker
Just get off the phone. All right. And do not be on your phone in bed. That like, if you did that one thing, it would make such a huge difference. Okay. So no screens in the bedroom, read a little bit before bed, listen to a guided meditation or something like that before sleep. That's going to be hugely helpful. Set yourself a bedtime and stick to it. You cannot think clearly or physically function properly without decent sleep. So seven hours each night, obviously give or take a little bit, you know, but really putting an emphasis on this. It's so, so, so important. Probably should put that as number one. Number eight, at least two liters of water every day. Hydration. It's so, so important. Obviously being hydrated is important for health reasons. You know, we can't survive without water, but it's also important for digestion and for feeling fuller for longer when we're looking to lose weight. So really, really important. Number nine, macronutrient balance. So this is eating three meals a day.
00:36:49
Speaker
And in each meal, you have a protein source, a carbohydrate source, and a fat source. Pay attention to this balance. It's really, really important to like, so think about, you can even think about it. Use your hand. Okay. A palm size portion of protein.
00:37:01
Speaker
a cupped handful of carbohydrates and a thumb portion of healthy fat every meal, three times a day. And if you do that, you know that you're getting a healthy balance of everything and then load the non-starchy vegetables on. have As much of them as you like, you don't need to be tracking or measuring those. see The more color, the better. At number 10, resistance training. At home or in the gym, aim for at least two workouts per week.
00:37:23
Speaker
I say at least, if you're someone who's new to training or you know someone who just doesn't have much time to train, two workouts a week is more than enough. okay You can work with a coach like myself where you're you know you're given workouts and kind of guided on how to do them yourself at home with the you know with the help of an app and the help of an an online coach, or you can go to a gym and get a personal trainer or there's group personal training classes you can get, or there's gym instructors that will give you a program and show you how to do them and then leave you off to the do them yourselves. There's loads of options here. there's loads of like There's never been a better time for resistance training. There is endless coaches out there, in-person, online, information is there. There's so many gyms in every community available. So get out there, explore, find what works for you, two workouts a week, a resistance training. And that's not jumping around the place doing like hit or anything like this. This is working your muscles we're talking about. It's essential for your metabolic health and long-term sustainable progress. So it's really important obviously to stay strong as we age, we lose muscle over time. but it's also just really really important as we're losing weight if you're just losing body fat and getting lighter and lighter and lighter you're just gonna have to eat less unless and less and less we counteract that with resistance training you build a bit of muscle on your frame and the more muscle on your frame the more calories that your body needs to burn to keep you alive so you burn more calories at rest which makes it easier to maintain a healthy body weight
00:38:44
Speaker
as we age. okay So it's really really important for that reason as well as all the other reasons we hear so much about these days. So yeah that's basically it. That is the Kate Hamilton health coaching curriculum. It's what I guide and support you with through my coaching, through this podcast, through my content. It's really important to remember that it is a step-by-step approach. It's not about hitting all those things and being perfect.
00:39:06
Speaker
It's about the long haul and I need you to zoom out and think about the long haul. okay This is for life. These habits take time and you never need to be nailing all of them. at the same time ever. Okay. But over time, some of them will become second nature and you'll never fall off the wagon again because there
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:39:22
Speaker
is no wagon. Sometimes, as I said, when, you know, life gets difficult or stressful or just a little bit shit, some habits might need to take a backseat, you know, like you might not be able to get to the gym or you might not be able to track your calories or, you know, the one or two of them might need to drop, but a lot of them will be second nature through these stressful times and it will keep you going.
00:39:40
Speaker
As I said, some of them might need to take a backseat at different times in your life, but it'll never need to be all or nothing again. And the last thing I want to say, and this is just, this will give you the freedom that you're looking for. So to conclude everything I've been rambling on about if you're still here, well done, you deserve a medal. But I just really wanted to give you an idea of who I am, you know, what my values are, what my journey has been like, what my experience is, what my education is, what my coaching philosophy is.
00:40:08
Speaker
And while I've built everything on, really, I do think that a lot of us are struggling because of the society that we're trying to live in today. I think, you know, at the end of the day, we're all searching for happiness and fulfillment, regardless of what our goals are, happiness and fulfillment. And I think a lot of us are struggling to get a grasp on happiness and fulfillment. And I really, really believe that we achieve that by focusing on ourselves, by focusing on our bodies.
00:40:37
Speaker
focusing on our health, focusing on our fitness and focusing on our connection with ourself, which is going to help our mental health in turn lead to help us with our happiness. I think it's very much a mind-body soul connection that can be achieved and it is simple. It's not easy, but when you're on the right path, it's really simple and the next step just opens itself for you and it's absolutely life-changing.
00:41:03
Speaker
So I hope you enjoyed that episode. I hope it gives you some food for thought. I hope I haven't bored the absolute life out of you and that you've taken something from that. And as always, if anyone has any questions at all, please do DM me on Instagram, Facebook, wherever you listen to me.
00:41:21
Speaker
or if you enjoyed this episode, please do share it on your socials, tag me, put it into your WhatsApp groups with your friends and you could leave a review. And also make sure if you're not subscribed to the podcast to hit the subscribe button because that does make a difference as we try and grow this. And as always, thank you so much for listening and I'll talk to you all next time.