Your optimal vocation incorporates your life's true calling, purpose and mission, says life coach and radio host Dan Miller, adding that your vocation gives you a sense of accomplishment, fulfillment and peace. If helping people to reach and maintain their ideal weights is your life's vocation, careers in weight-loss abound for you to realize your destiny.
Registered Dietitian
As a registered dietitian, your main responsibility is to educate your clients about the proper way to eat to achieve their weight-loss goals and enhance their physical health. For example, if you have an overweight client who also suffers from high blood pressure, you might treat the client by developing a low-sugar, low-salt and low-fat diet, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS. You need a bachelor's degree to practice as a registered dietitian in the United States. While in school, you take courses in fields such as culinary arts, nutrition and food sciences, business, communication and sociology to make you a well-rounded nutritional communicator. You must also complete a supervised practice program at a health care facility; pass the national Commission on Dietetic Registration exam and complete yearly continuing education requirements to maintain your registration, says the American Dietetic Association. Once you complete your studies, you might find employment in private physician's offices, hospitals, nursing homes or outpatient services facilities.
Certified Personal Trainer
As a personal trainer, you work side-by-side with private clients in exercise facilities, hospitals, residences, spas, resorts and universities. You can work directly for companies or on your own as a freelance contractor. You teach your clients how to set and reach fitness and weight-loss goals and modify their lifestyles to remain motivated and focused on their healthy-lifestyle ambitions, says the BLS. You also demonstrate exercises and "spot" watch your clients. You become a certified personal trainer by taking classes in subjects such as lifestyle modification, nutrition, fitness assessment, instructional techniques and exercise science, says the American Council on Exercise, or ACE, and taking yearly continuing education credits to maintain your personal trainer certification.
Weight-Management Lifestyle Coach
As a weight-management lifestyle coach candidate, you study how to develop individual weight-loss programs that incorporate positive lifestyle changes and proper nutrition and exercise regimens. You take classes such as lifestyle coaching techniques, exercise programming and the relationship between nutrition and fitness in relation to weight-loss. However, this is not an entry-level position, says ACE. You must already hold a bachelor's degree in exercise science, or currently be a certified personal trainer, advanced health and fitness specialist or group fitness instructor to be considered as a weight-management lifestyle coach applicant. After your certification, you most likely would open your own full- or part-time private practice.
Weight-Loss Writer
You can become an online weight-loss writer documenting your own experiences getting rid of unwanted pounds, says Marci Alboher, a blogger for "The New York Times." Bloggers make money by writing on topics they know well, and earn money by making commissions on products and services they recommend on their websites. You can also become a professional print, broadcast or online writer after a few years of experience in the weight-loss field as a registered dietitian, personal trainer or weight-management lifestyle coach.
References
- EatRight.Org: Becoming a Registered Dietitian
- Bureau of Labor Statistics: Dietitians and Nutritionists
- Bureau of Labor Statistics: Fitness Workers
- Ace Fitness: Personal Trainer Certification
- Ace Fitness: Lifestyle and Weight-Management Coach
- Shifting Careers: New York Times Blog: Weight Loss Shapes a Career
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