Health Coaching: Practical and Cost-Effective Care

Hey everyone, this is Dr. Ruscio and I’m excited to introduce you to Aimee Gallo, who is our new health coach. Why am I so excited? You’ve likely heard my spiel about knowing what to do and knowing how to use the tools is more important than having access to the tools. For example, probiotics are so commonly incorrectly used and it’s really unfortunate that patients wait a fair amount of time to be seen at the clinic, and then we finally help them use that one tool the right way and they finally see the results they are looking for. This is why I’m so happy to have Aimee here with us because if you turned me into a health coach, I think you would have Aimee and I don’t say that lightly. We went through a really diligent process of screening and just the skills that Aimee has, and let me start off with a compliment here.

00:56 - She is forward-thinking, really knows her stuff, but also at the same time she’s circumspect and cautious and doesn’t just vacuously follow trends. That’s the exact balance that we want. Someone who’s open-minded and willing to look into new information but is not just going to follow the trends and be unable to identify if this or that doesn’t work. Someone who can really help an individual hone in on what they need to do to get to the bottom line, root cause, and feel better. So, Aimee, I’m really happy to have you on our team. Thank you so much. I’m really excited to be a part of the team as well.

01:32 - Again, there are many areas that we line up on, but before we get into some of the nerdy clinical stuff, I should ask you to tell people a little bit about your background. Because you have great training, including a master’s in nutrition and functional medicine, but tell us a little bit about your backstory. Oh gosh. So I actually became interested in nutrition when I was about 13 years old and I was one of those radical militant vegans in the nineties who was protesting in front of McDonald’s as a child. And I had family members that were legitimately concerned about my health. I knew that avoiding meat wasn’t inherently a problem, but I wanted to have research to back it up.

02:16 - So I went to the library and started studying and that opened up my world to how much every bite we take either empowers our health or causes health decline. That just opened up the rabbit hole for me and nutrition has been my passion since. I received my bachelor’s degree in nutrition from Bastyr University with a minor in exercise science. Then I went on to get my master’s in nutrition and functional medicine, which I completed in 2018. After being a health coach for about 12 years in private practice, I was noticing that people were getting sicker and having more complex health issues and my bachelor’s degree hadn’t prepared me for that level of support.

03:04 - So that’s why I went back to get my master’s degree. Fantastic background. I mean you’ve been “in the game” from a litany of dietary perspectives, as a personal participant, but you’ve also participated in nutrition training, functional medicine training, and also even exercise and personal fitness. So this gives you that really nice breadth to be able to meet people. And again, this is where I feel a kinship because my undergraduate was in exercise science and in college I was quite involved in personal training and so I have that gear I can kind of flip into when people are asking about things like body composition training and such and it kind of gives a broad breadth of experience to pull from. Exactly. The aspect I think is most important is there is this spectrum where on the one hand you can be seen through the clinic via the doctor/patient or consultant/patient relationship.

04:00 - And that’s great, but not everyone needs that. And up until now, there’s kind of been this chasm where the other end is the book Healthy Gut, Healthy you which is definitely helpful, or the website or podcasts. And this gets people I think really on a good track. However, not everyone is able to fully execute on their own and they need a little bit of help. And so this is where you’re occupying this great intermediary space that I think we’ve needed to fill.

04:28 - And why I’m so excited about that is because this can save people time, money, and heartache. The conversations that we’ve had, it’s great when we have a chance to, to kind of ruminate over various case studies because we see the same kind of stuff. People focusing meticulously on a diet when they’re missing another aspect or they’ve read the blog about the miracle supplement and they’re tunnel- visioned on this one thing that they’re totally missing this glaring, obvious low hanging fruit that could really help them. So can you speak to that a little bit? Cause I really think that’s an area where someone might be saying, well you know it’s free to go through this podcast and it costs money to see a health coach. But that will likely, even though it looks like one is free and one has a cost, the lost time and money by not executing appropriately actually makes working with a health coach a much better value from a time and money perspective.

05:23 - I’m curious to hear whatever thoughts you want to share here. It really is such a more efficient way to go about the healing process. When you’re working with a health coach, you’re essentially working with a health detective. Having been in the field for over 25 years at this point, I’ve seen so much. I done so much. I’ve been the person hyperfocused on diet. I’ve been the person who got super excited about the one supplement and found out it didn’t do anything. One research study doesn’t translate into what I need for my body. So I really understand that desire to find the thing that is going to make you feel so better and also being so overwhelmed by all of the options, all of the possibilities out there and even with a book that is as attentive to the individual needs as Healthy Gut, Healthy You is. It’s impossible to find all of the different obstacles and things that get in people’s way. Even if you have the perfect protocol, if you have family that’s resistant to supporting your change, if you have a work schedule that is insane or you’re traveling a lot, implementing the perfect protocol can be extremely challenging.

06:35 - In working with a health coach, you’ve got someone who’s there who has a bunch of tools and resources to help you navigate that protocol and help you be successful. Change is hard. Even small changes can be really challenging and having someone to support you through that can make all of the difference. Obviously, I fully agree. And one of the other scenarios I think will be somewhat common is someone who’s either read the book, listened to our podcast, read a blog, or maybe just stumbled across our immunoglobulin formula and they’re excited about using it. So they are ready. And where I’m really excited to have you on board is to help people at that stage to kind of redirect them into a master plan. To help determine how we funnel that excitement about the immunoglobulins and the potential about those into the master plan, working in concert with all these other healing therapies.

07:33 - And I’m just really excited to be able to offer that to people because again, as I talk about Healthy Gut, Healthy You, and I know this is something that we both agree on, the right tools used in the wrong way will not lead to healing. So is there anything else that you want to touch on? Maybe a couple of things that you’ve found are common stumbling blocks for people or anything else? I think probably one of the common stumbling blocks is just the paralysis by analysis. Having so many choices and so many voices in this space now. With competing ideas and different insights, many of which are valid. But again, how do we discern what is appropriate for us? And having someone available to help you navigate that just takes the burden off of you and relieving that stress alone, having someone to talk to about it, having someone in your camp, brainstorming with you takes so much of the stress off and stress in and of itself can be a barrier to healing.

08:42 - You know, even as a health coach and a nutritionist, I’ve had health coaches myself off and on over the years as I’ve needed an outside eye to come in and take a look at things. Our physicians and our functional medicine practitioners don’t always have the time to be able to do that deep dive and that dialoguing and troubleshooting with us. So utilizing health coaching, it’s quite a bit cheaper, to be frank, and it gives you that time and that attention and that support that often we don’t necessarily have unless we reach out and grab it. I think that’s all really well said. And you know, there’s that level of support that is so important. I’d love to be able to spend more time with patients.

09:28 - Not to say that we don’t spend ample time, but I’m thinking more clinically not so much asking the questions “how does this fit into their lifestyle?” “How do they implement?” How do we answer some of the nuance questions like people have. So that’s a really nice kind of union between the doctor /patient and the health coach. Cause it just, it just gives you this continuation of levels of support. I feel like often our professional providers, like our functional medicine providers, lay out the blueprint and the health coach is the contractor onsite helping you build that house. Well said. So, Aimee, I’m so, so happy to have you on board and for people who have may have read the book or have gone through a podcast or a blog or have came across one of our products and you’re looking for how to better utilize this.

10:18 - I think it’s well, well worth investing in someone who can help guide you along the way. Cause again, these tools only work if they’re applied in the right way and I have the utmost confidence in you, Aimee. Again, in all the conversations we’ve had, the thing that I think I prize the most about you is the fact that you’re really smart and progressive and you know all the stuff but you’re not expecting everything to work and you have a critical eye looking for well what moves the needle and what doesn’t move the needle. And this is such a gift to be able to offer up to patients because now you’ve sifted through all these potential options and can really present them with the things that are going to move the needle the most. So just super appreciative to have you on our team and for those who are floundering, please reach out, make an appointment with Aimee.

11:07 - I think you’ll be really happy with how she can accelerate your healing process. .