Health and Wellness: Designing a Sustainable Nutrition Plan

  • Executive Education
Fruits and vegetables on a black table.

Registration is now closed.

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The demand for accurate nutrition guidance from experienced coaches is increasing as populations age and our understanding of healthy living and eating grows.

  • Online; Self-Paced

Self-paced learning complemented by live sessions with faculty and weekly office hours conducted by program leaders.

$3,050

Flexible payment and team-based learning options are available.

Upon completion of this program, you will receive a digital certificate from Harvard Medical School.

8 Weeks, 4-6 Hours/Week

Each week you will engage with recorded video lectures from faculty, attend webinars and office hours, complete quizzes and required activities, engage in moderated discussion groups with, and work on your final project, if required.

On This Page

Overview

The demand for accurate nutrition guidance from experienced coaches is increasing as populations age and our understanding of healthy living and eating grows. Lifestyle medicine—the evidence-based practice of helping people adopt and sustain healthy behaviors, such as improving diet, increasing activity, managing stress, and sleeping well—drives the need for comprehensive patient support as both a preventative measure and treatment option. Health coaches, nutritionists, and lifestyle trainers have a bright opportunity to improve their credentials and confidence and coach clients and patients with uniquely personalized plans. Learn lifestyle coaching methods that influence behavioral change and support healthy choices. Examine the six pillars of lifestyle medicine to develop evidence-based nutrition plans and motivate lifestyle changes.

Learning Objectives

  • Examine the connection between a healthy lifestyle and its impact on disease and chronic conditions
  • Apply the five-step collaborative cycle to motivate and empower clients to adopt and sustain healthy behavioral patterns
  • Identify evidence-based guidelines for healthy eating patterns and explain why certain foods are health-promoting
  • Understand the six pillars of lifestyle medicine and explain their dependencies on one another to achieve sustained wellness
  • Create a plan for behavioral change that begins a joyful journey to adopt and sustain healthy practices through all life stages
  • Apply a growth mindset, self-compassion and internal motivators to implement a plan for sustained behavioral change

Participant Types

Wellness professionals, clinical care providers, fitness instructors, and health enthusiasts who want to deepen their evidence-based understanding of nutrition, lifestyle medicine, and behavior change.

Curriculum

This program covers the design of personalized plans for nutrition and sustained lifestyle changes. Learn to adapt frameworks to create customized behavior health plans for yourself and others. With real-world insights into nutrition science across life stages, this program will guide you in strategies and motivations for behavioral change to use in your personal and professional life.

This Harvard Medical School Executive Education program is taught by HMS faculty and is promoted by Emeritus. Emeritus is responsible for advertising, marketing, registration, and collecting payment.

This program does not grant academic credit or professional certifications from Harvard Medical School. 

Questions?

Contact one of our program advisors at learner.success@emeritus.org.

Modules

Understand the inter-complexities of lifestyle, nutrition and wellness by learning the concepts of evidence-based lifestyle medicine and the six pillars of lifestyle medicine.

Identify strategies for empowering and motivating clients to adopt and sustain healthy lifestyle behaviors while learning the components of an effective plan.

Identify the components of healthy food and understand the role of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals in body function.

Discuss the components of the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate, dietary patterns and the connection between diet and the environment with guest speaker Walter C. Willett, MD, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Discuss the relation of diet and lifestyle to health, wellness and chronic health conditions, especially concerning sodium, trans and saturated fats and sugar.

Discuss changing physiological needs across stages for children, elderly adults, athletes and women.

Identify nutritional needs, realities and strategies for individuals. Look at key considerations for nutritional diagnostics and motivational strategies for sustained commitment.

Understand the considerations and components of a lifestyle medicine plan and develop sample plans for individuals.

Teaching Team

Meghan Ariagno, MBA, RD, LDN
Program Director, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Walter C. Willett, MD, DRPH
Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

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