Interview with Leia DeSousa
As a functional medicine practice, at Tendwell, we strongly believe that long-term health, the promotion of longevity, and efforts to address dysfunction all benefit most from a whole person approach to treatment. Pharmaceuticals and supplements are important, but deep structural changes in lifestyle, nutrition and activity are just as important, if not more. That is why we integrate health coaching as part of a Tendwell membership. Getting the right plan in place to support health is only the first step; sticking to the plan for the long haul is the next. We are proud to have Leia DeSousa as part of the Tendwell care team. Leia is a highly experienced health coach and personal trainer. In this blog, we talk to Leia about her approach to health coaching and functional medicine. Enjoy!
Q (Tendwell): What led you to be interested in nutrition and personal training?
A (Leia DeSousa): It was a culmination of a couple of factors. First, influences from my childhood finally felt relevant to my adult life. As far back as I can remember my mom was researching ways to support her health through two different breast cancers. She read voraciously and shifted to a primarily plant-based diet. The rest of the family didn’t always appreciate the foods we were trying out, but she was a fantastic model. I learned to be curious and adventurous with food, as well as to really value its role in health. I was teaching public school when I started becoming interested in my own nutrition and fitness. I wanted something else to engage with beyond teaching, so in addition to going to the gym (I read somewhere that muscle mass starts to decline in one’s 30s and thought perhaps I should get more muscle mass in the couple remaining years of my 20s.), I started listening to podcasts and perusing open courseware. The most influential material was from a course entitled, “The Psychology, Biology & Politics of Food,” taught by Kelly Brownell. It really had me thinking about how the most basic components of food & movement affect all of us, but especially my students and their readiness to learn. From there my passion just grew and grew, and I wanted to do more to help people in this arena.
Q: What do you like about coaching clients?
A: I love that it’s a collaboration where I get to help clients see their strengths. In terms of both changing habits and wellness, it’s too easy to focus on what’s not working and feelings of inadequacy. I really enjoy helping clients re-frame those views and find creative solutions. Nothing tops a client feeling successful and proud of themselves.
Q: What are your philosophies for working with clients?
A: One thing I always try to keep in mind and encourage my clients to keep in mind is that all behavior serves a purpose. If we can understand the underlying needs and find other ways to take care of them, it’s much easier to change a particular behavior.
I also believe that each client is the expert on his or her own experiences and motivations. No matter how much knowledge I bring to the table, I can’t tell them what to do or what will work best for them. That’s why it has to be a collaboration. Changing habits is a balance of trusting intuition, being open to new possibilities, and accepting that this work involves experimenting.
Q: How do you incorporate these healthy habits into your own life?
A: Not as perfectly as clients think! As passionate as I am about health, I’m human, and have a lot of the same challenges, cravings, and prior habits. Life isn’t static, so I don’t expect my habits and wellness practices to be either. I have a lot of experience exploring and learning about nutrition and movement in particular, so it’s easy for me to focus on core basics when life gets challenging and add or adjust when I have more time and energy. (For example: I know I feel better when I do some kind of movement practice consistently, but I allow for a lot of leeway based on what my body can recover from. Right now, with a 1-year-old, my workouts are much shorter and lighter than they were before I got pregnant.) When I feel like things aren’t working for me, or I need something more I take time to reflect, come up with ideas about what I want to change, seek inspiration from experts I admire, talk through challenges with my husband (who is a personal trainer and nutrition coach), and get support. I always consider myself a work-in-progress.
Q: What are the most important aspects of helping people to make healthier choices and create healthier habits?
A: First, digging deep and understanding the “why” behind wanting to change. Creating new habits can be extremely hard; it helps to have a strong motivation and to understand one’s values.
Another aspect people overlook once they’ve decided to make a change is taking the time to really imagine any and every obstacle that might come up. Preparing for how to deal with setbacks—even when it doesn’t go exactly as we imagined—makes it so much easier when they inevitably arise.
Once a person is starting to put changes into practice, it’s important to be patient with what feels hard or awkward and eager to revel in any and every small success.
Q: Any thoughts on dieting and diet culture?
A: Ooof. So many, but I’ll try to keep it brief. We all have a lot of learning and unlearning to do. Many ideas that society has taken to be proven, common knowledge about size and health are just wrong. You cannot judge a person’s health based on their size. And weight loss is not a panacea. What’s more, adopting unhealthy behaviors in an attempt to lose weight is usually unsustainable and often creates more damage in the long run.
I think this is one reason why functional medicine has so much to offer: because it doesn’t just look at a person and assume to know what’s going on. Instead, it’s all about getting to know them, digging deep into what they’re feeling and what can be seen from lab work, and from there introducing changes that are targeted to that individual’s needs.
Q: What do you wish you knew when you first started working with clients?
A: How to better ask questions and be more flexible with solutions. When I first started, I took so much of what I read to be gospel and felt like if I just convinced people of the merits of a particular approach, they’d have the success I envisioned for them. But there is no one-size-fits-all to any of this. Getting better at questioning—something I’m still working on—helps both of us to uncover what’s most important and what the best way of getting there is.
Q: Any quick advice for people who want to make lasting changes?
A: The advice is not sexy: go smaller! Break any habit down into super small steps. Smaller habits that you practice consistently will have a bigger impact than the most perfect habit that you don’t practice or practice inconsistently.
