The Year I Became a Health Coach

It was the piece missing.

When we moved to Singapore, I thought I was simply changing countries. I didn’t realize I was changing professions.

After years of navigating specialists, unexplained symptoms, burnout, mindfulness, and the gut–brain connection, I finally had something I hadn’t had in a long time: time.

Time to think.

Time to reassess.

Time to ask myself what I actually wanted to build next.

I had a PhD. A research career. Years in biomedical engineering. But there was no clear pathway to continue that work in Singapore.

And honestly, something in me had already shifted.

The Question That Wouldn’t Leave Me Alone

Throughout my health journey, I kept hearing similar advice:

“Manage your stress.”

“Sleep more.”

“Eat anti-inflammatory.”

“Do therapy.”

“Exercise.”

All good advice. But no one showed me how.

No one helped me translate those instructions into daily life.

No one helped me design a path between an appointment and real-world behavior change.

That gap fascinated me. Who helps people implement what medicine recommends? That’s when I discovered health coaching.

Another Rabbit Hole

As usual, I did not approach it casually.

I researched.

I compared programs.

I evaluated accreditation bodies.

I studied the science behind behavior change.

At first, I took smaller courses. Then I committed fully.

I trained in board-certified health coaching with a program that integrated mindfulness, nervous system regulation, and yoga-based practices. I studied with Dr. Susan Carmack and deepened my understanding of wellbeing science and physiology.

And during that training, I encountered another term that would shape my future: Lifestyle Medicine.

Another concept I had never heard during my engineering career.

Another field trying to connect the dots.

Choosing Rigor

Because health coaching was still largely unregulated in Asia, I wanted the strongest credential available.

I pursued board certification through the National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching (NBHWC) in the United States — developed in collaboration with the National Board of Medical Examiners.

If I was going to do this, I wanted it to sit alongside medicine, not outside it.

The training required real client hours. Real conversations. Real application.

And that’s when something shifted again. For the first time, I wasn’t just applying these concepts to myself.

I was watching them work in other people’s lives.

The Missing Link

Health coaching, at its best, is not fitness instruction.

It’s not cheerleading.

It’s not vague positivity.

It is structured behavior change.

It is motivational interviewing.

It is accountability.

It is helping someone build a plan that actually fits their life.

It is adjusting when the plan fails.

It is listening deeply.

It is understanding the nervous system.

It is translating science into sustainable routines.

It is the bridge between knowledge and action.

And yet, even today, it is still widely misunderstood.

Why It Still Matters

Five or six years later, I still often have to explain what a health coach does.

In many places, it gets confused with personal training or yoga instruction.

In others, it is dismissed as “soft.”

But the truth is: behavior change is not soft.

It is the hardest part of healthcare.

Medication is often easier than transformation.

Information is easier than implementation.

Health coaching is where implementation lives.

And that realization marked the beginning of my transition from engineer… to something more integrative.

(I’ll leave the next chapter for another post.)