Looking for a way to improve your life, your health and your state of mind is something that wellness consultant Rohan Watson understands first hand.
New to Williams Lake, he offers information, guidance and support in the areas of nutrition, lifestyle and fitness.
A soccer player for more than 25 years, he became certified in 2012 as a wellness consultant after working extensively in the fitness and nutrition fields. He brought his three areas of interest together in order to offer the best coaching options possible to his clients.
He is a recent ‘transplant’ from Vancouver Island and states that he loves his new home in the Cariboo - enjoying all the beautiful sunshine.
He said that as a wellness consultant, he puts people on a ‘lifestyle’ program. “Something in your lifestyle may be interfering with your health; I help you set goals and keep you motivated to achieve them, and help you get back to a healthy lifestyle,” he explained. “I want to find out what caused your condition - people need to have options and resources at their disposal.”
New clients are connected Rohan Watson Wellness Consultant either by direct contact or by referral from a health professional.
He noted that when contacted by a client for the first time, he sets up a consultation. “I like to do an evaluation to see where they are – I want an assessment,” he continued. “I find out where they are, where they want to go and what they’re willing to do to get there.”
He said that the information he offers his clients is up-to-date and science-based. “Lifestyle choices is where most people are lacking. Certain items in our homes may be contributing to a problem; I always want to find the cause,” he added.
“You can’t do anything about genetics, but you can change your lifestyle and that is my focus. I don’t focus on the medical – I want to coach people back to health.”
He explained that because his programs are based on science, he has seen many people who have turned their lives around. “This is about more than nutrition. For example, you can have high blood pressure and your doctor puts you on medication, but what’s causing it isn’t food, or genetics. It’s stress,” he said.
“Stress can deposit blood fat into the bloodstream, and now it’s mental as well as physical. What you need to do now is analyze the situation and go to work intelligently.
“An analogy I like to use is that your house is flooded because someone left the tap on. You come home and your house is full of water. You can run around with towels and mops all you want, but until you turn off the water you haven’t solved anything at all.”
He said that it’s so important to look at both the mental and the physical. “You need to look at multiple areas and not skip any. Mental disease, such as depression, is on the rise and research shows that 90 per cent of our population suffers from some kind of mental illness or another,” he continued.
“When it’s physical you can see stuff; when it’s mental you don’t. You can hide it and hold it in and it eats us up alive.”
He said that what he does compliments what physicians do, adding that he takes it to the ‘next level.’
“Follow up is critical,” he stated. “It’s so beneficial when you have a coach who can guide you step by step.”
There is no health without the spiritual component, according to Watson, who said that if your spirit isn’t content it leads to mental and physical unrest. “The soul craves to be well, and if it doesn’t get that ‘nutrient’, our immune system eventually breaks down. Once that defense is broken down, all foreign elements come in,” he said.
“Wellness starts with a clear mind and clear thoughts: I believe that thought becomes habit, habit becomes action and action becomes lifestyle.”
He added that people don’t realize that their frontal lobe is key to making good decisions. “If that part is not being fed, we’re going to have stress. We know this for a fact. When our mood is down we don’t want to get up in the morning,” he explained.
“I had a consultation once with a client who was diabetic. He carried some extra weight, which I call ‘extra blessings’. I put him on a program and in three-and-a-half weeks he started feeling dizzy. He went to his doctor and found that the program was working so well, and his sugar was so balanced, that his doctor had to take him off his diabetic medication.
“That’s how it’s supposed to work,” he said. “I will never ‘take’ someone off their medications. I want their doctor to.”
Watson said that he will offer a general seminar this fall to introduce people to what he offers and what is available to them. He will follow up with presentations on high blood pressure, diabetes, stress management and nutrition.
For more information about the lifestyle programs and support offered by Rohan Watson Wellness Consultant, phone 250-240-0696 or email rohwatson@hotmail.com