With the continued rise in chronic disease, Americans are realizing they have no choice but to adopt healthier diets and lifestyle changes. As changing unhealthy habits can be a challenge, more people are hiring health coaches to help them find manageable ways to improve their quality of life with lasting results.

Marina Shevel, a health coach with Inspired’n Healthy in NYC, works one-on-one with clients to create a vision and then design a strategy to achieve that goal. “As a certified integrative nutrition health coach, I guide and support clients with making the necessary changes to improve their well-being in the easiest possible way,” she says.

The key to successful health coaching is giving people the confidence that they can set a goal and achieve it, says Kate Lorig, professor and director of the Patient Education Research Center at the Stanford school of Medicine. Having a health coach to guide them through the journey and steer them in the right direction helps them stay on track with what they set out to conquer, she says.

And good results can be self-perpetuating, notes Kristin Vickers Douglas, medical director of wellness coaching at the Mayo clinic. “As behavior changes, attitude changes, and as attitude changes, behavior changes,” she says.

For a 15-minute complimentary phone consultation, call Shevel at 917.750.0142. For more info, visit InspirednHealthy.com.