The other day, I was home in the evening and Dr. Jack was hosting a webinar and I registered to watch. I love Dr. Jack’s seminars and webinars. I sit and listen, feeling a new sense of purpose each time, sitting there thinking, “YES!! That’s why I am doing this!” I took two and a half pages of notes. It was a super webinar! He was rocking it!
Toward the end, he did the part where he talked about components of his program, and why each part was imperative to your success. The last one he mentioned was coaching. I sat and smiled, and I have been thinking about that ever since. Where would I be without that piece of this plan? What would have happened to me? At the first sign of difficulty would I have given up thinking it was like the rest? Would I have lost over a hundred pounds, lol…. never! Would I be living a symptom free happy life? No.
Have you ever worked with a coach in a health program before? I have. Lots and lots and lots of people who might be called health coaches. There are lots of programs that have them. When I tried Spark people, many years ago, there were these expert coaches you could email. And I was struggling with absolutely no success. There was one whose area of expertise was thyroid disease and she and I had this huge email thing going for a few months. She was fun! (I say with as much sarcasm as possible.) I believe her descriptors of me included unmotivated, no willpower, lack of determination…. yeah. I believe she attributed my lack of success to needing to understand that it was completely normal to struggle for months and only lose 0.1 pounds because after all, I had thyroid disease. Needless to say, I moved on.
Then there was another coach, who posted something about working well with stubborn cases. Awesome! That’s who I needed! That began a conversation where I was told that I needed to up the ante on exercise. I nearly killed myself, jumping, twisting, sweating. I could barely walk. Did it do any good? No, it just set me up for criticism that I wasn’t giving it my all and I had to work for results, not expect them overnight. Ughhhhhh….
There were the weight watcher leaders, with their well meaning advice, telling that when THEY lost weight it was because of some factor I missed. There were the nutritionists who told me all about ways to restructure my diet and tally every micronutrient imaginable, so many that I felt I needed a degree to understand this fine balance that always seemed off. I could go on forever. Been down this road so many times I could scream. I have turned down plenty of offers of people who were coaches for every program I can think of. Coaches, coaches everywhere and yet no success. I mean no offense to any of them. I know they were people that believed they were experts. But the truth is that some of them were people like me who had tried a program. Others were people who had some expertise. But I had big problems and I needed a real expert!
When I started with Dr. Jack, he told me that part of my program with him would include some coaching on his part. I was nervous, but interested because I knew what a tough case I was and I needed an expert. Not some guy who had been on a diet, not someone who wanted to sell me stuff I didn’t need. Instead, I needed a, “Top of the line, completely motivating, hold my hand, yet don’t hold back, tell it to you like it is, head of the class, leader of the pack, educated, unafraid of a challenge, good balance of motivating and no nonsense total package coach!”
Is he ALL of those things? YES!! How great is that? When you work with Dr. Jack that is exactly what you get. You get a doctor who has invested hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars in educating himself to help his patients. He has worked with thousands of people in their quest for better health. His network includes countless other doctors. He is all about true holistic health! He is the total definition of functional medicine.
But he is also soooooooooo much more. Are you doing what you are supposed to and nothing is happening? No worries. Dr. Jack can find and make the tiniest tweak and turn the whole thing around. Do you need encouragement? He is always quick to help you see how far you have already come. Praise comes quickly and often. If you forget, he will keep reminding you how awesome you are doing, how much you have already accomplished.
Fall off the wagon? He is right there to say it’s time to regroup and go again. Giving up? No, there will be no giving up. Lost your motivation? He is no slouch when it comes to making you own what’s going on, teaching you why you have to turn it around. He will tell it to like it is, not standing there and letting you wallow in pity. Didn’t go well? Okay, let’s just get things moving in the right direction. Don’t understand why your weight is standing still? He will explain it and what to do about it.
And as great as ALL that is? Above all those things, he is a kind, compassionate, extremely funny, great human being. He makes me laugh, and makes me get excited about what we do. He is absolutely everything a doctor should be, and when you look up doctor? His photo should be the illustration. Dr. Jack has only one plan in mind when you work with him. Helping you.
When I think of him, I often think his life’s work is saving the world….. One person at a time. Who needs that kind of coach?? I do……