Over the last 30 years, AFPA has licensed over 130,000 well being, diet, and health professionals. We often characteristic distinguished graduates who’re utilizing what they’ve discovered to encourage others and make a distinction.
Meet certainly one of our featured graduates, Claire Simmons, an AFPA Licensed Holistic Well being Coach.
Inform us about your self.
Hello! My identify is Claire Simmons and I’m an AFPA Licensed Holistic Well being Coach. I reside in North Carolina with my husband of eight years and our three boys, ages 6, 4 and a couple of.
I graduated from the College of Miami in 2004 and from there landed my first job as a tv reporter and producer. After spending a number of years within the business, I accepted a job at one of many nation’s largest healthcare organizations, the place I labored as a senior communications director. I really loved my time there because it was a beautiful mix of difficult and thrilling work, however in the end, I wished to spend extra time with my youngsters.
In December of 2022 I made the choice to go away my company job and keep house. Household is extraordinarily essential to me, and I didn’t need to look again and marvel the place the time went. Moreover, my ardour for well being and wellness has at all times been entrance and middle in my life, so I wished to make sure that I used to be creating one of the best life potential for my boys. I wished to be there for them, prepare dinner them wholesome meals, play outdoors with them, and provides them a childhood primarily based in wellness.
How did you initially grow to be taken with well being and wellness?
Ever since I used to be a toddler, my dad and mom inspired my brothers and I to be energetic and play open air. My mother at all times cooked at house and consuming out was a uncommon event. As soon as I left house and went to school, I knew that I wished to keep up a wholesome life-style and never give in to the standard faculty temptations!
I began going to the gymnasium and fell in love with health. That led me to get licensed to show group health, which I did all through my faculty years. I keep in mind devoutly studying girls’s well being magazines the place I discovered about diet and picked up a number of ideas and methods that basically got here in helpful as a younger grownup, navigating life alone for the primary time.
From there, health and diet simply turned ingrained in my on a regular basis life. Ultimately, I began studying about intuitive and aware consuming, psychological energy, emotional maturity, and the entire different parts of well being that we don’t hear as a lot about as exercises and diets. That’s when it actually clicked for me…having that entire bundle in place is what made me really feel and carry out my finest. I couldn’t cease studying about wellness and I wished everybody round me to really feel nearly as good as I did!
I feel I at all times knew that there was a path for me within the wellness business, however I used to be at all times busy with life and put my concentrate on my profession, having infants, and such. However as soon as I gave myself time to consider what course I wished to go in and the way I wished my life to look, I simply couldn’t ignore the decision that wellness was the place I wanted to be!
Which AFPA certifications have you ever earned, and why did you select these certification packages?
I’ve earned the Holistic Well being Coach Certification, which is comprised of the Well being and Wellness Teaching Course in addition to the Holistic Diet Course. I beloved the choice of mixing these two as a result of true wellness is greater than what you eat. True wellness should mix harmoniously with one’s tradition, society, household, work, and household life. The Holistic Well being Coach Certification teaches you the nuts and bolts of diet which is so essential and contains methods on the right way to navigate actual life, even when your food regimen can’t be “good.”
How are you utilizing your certification/planning on utilizing your certification?
At the beginning, my major purpose is to make use of the information gained by way of my certifications to create the healthiest and happiest house atmosphere for my household. My household is my precedence and if we aren’t wholesome, I do know that it’s onerous to reside life to the fullest! Plus, I would like my youngsters to find out about diet and health now when they’re younger to allow them to lean on these instruments all through their whole life. I feel it may very well be one of the best current I may give them! My husband is an entrepreneur and has a really hectic and difficult job, so I would like him to know that when he’s house he’ll at all times get one of the best from me within the type of scrumptious, wholesome meals, an area to relaxation, a clear and orderly atmosphere, and, after all, a number of consideration from the youngsters and me. 😊
Outdoors of my household, I’ve so many concepts to assist others! I need to create a wellness committee at my sons’ college and assist construct up programming to show college students about diet, health, and wellness. I’d like to construct a backyard in school and residential to develop contemporary herbs, fruits, and greens. I need to assist mothers who additionally need one of the best for his or her households however who’re scuffling with how to do this. I need to assist those that are working the company grind and present them that it’s potential to include well being into that busy life-style. I additionally need to create and share extra content material about diet and wholesome residing and publish that on social media, a weblog, and for different web sites which have like-minded content material.
How has turning into licensed with AFPA impacted your life?
I’m so grateful I made the choice to get licensed by AFPA! It gave me the boldness to pursue my ardour and cement my credibility within the wellness house as not simply somebody who loves well being and wellness, however somebody who’s succesful and ready to assist others. AFPA gave me credible and stable data on so many matters and dove deep into the science, analysis and present panorama of the place we’re as a nation with our well being. I additionally really feel as if I’ve a complete group working in the direction of an analogous purpose and a bunch of people who find themselves at all times obtainable to assist me.
What was one factor you discovered in your research that has left an affect on you?
It’s placing to me simply how a lot our nation NEEDS well being coaches. (Whereas earlier than, I although having a coach was a complete luxurious!) So many people don’t understand that we reside in a system that places revenue over well being. It’s as much as the person to do the analysis and resolve what’s finest for them. It’s a tragic fact but when one actually desires to thrive and reside their finest life, it’s a must to go in opposition to the grain. What’s well-liked is normally not wholesome and what’s simple is never wholesome both. I hope that I may be an advocate for individuals who crave well being however don’t have the time or power to search out their path.
How can we discover you on-line?
My Instagram is @Clairehossimmons.
I like to put up ideas and methods there, in addition to my life as a busy boy mother!
The rest we must always know?
I simply need folks to know that in the event that they make the choice to include diet, health, and wellness of their life in a approach that works for them, they are going to really feel so good! There’s a exercise on the market you could love, similar to there’s a approach of consuming that may make you appear and feel your finest. Wellness is a superpower, and our world can be such a greater place if all of us determined to go the wholesome route. Well being coaches can mix the hole between healthcare and actual life, so don’t be shy to succeed in out and ask for assist! We’re right here for you.