Episode 165 | Jan 29, 2026

Keeping It Super Simple in Coaching, With Amber Letz

Can we actually transform our health by doing less instead of more? This week on Health Coach Talk, Dr. Sandi sits down with Amber Letz, an FMCA graduate and board-certified health coach, to discuss the power of simplicity in an often over-complicated wellness industry. Amber shares her “KISS” philosophy and explains how returning to the basics can lead to profound and lasting personal transformation.

“One of the first things I share with clients is working towards their vision for health. I challenge them to create mantras that move them forward: Every second is a second to begin again, and one step at a time gets you there.”

Amber Letz, FMCHC

Amber’s approach is deeply rooted in her own lived experience, as she successfully lost 80 pounds and has maintained that weight loss for over 16 years. Before finding functional medicine, she worked with major weight loss companies where she observed that a one size fits all model rarely worked for everyone. This realization fueled her decade long journey to write her book and develop a coaching style that honors bio-individuality and the slow pace of true healing. In her conversation with Dr. Sandi, Amber explores why the human brain often panics at the prospect of change and how keeping it simple acts as an antidote to that resistance. She highlights the importance of listening as a coach’s primary tool and shares stories of how sessions about supplements can evolve into breakthroughs regarding emotional trauma or sleep. They discuss the value of community, the healing power of positive psychology, and why the most effective health interventions like hydration and movement are often completely free.

The journey Amber shares serves as a powerful reminder for health coaches that we do not need to have all the answers on day one to be effective. She offers a refreshing perspective on how coaches facilitate emotional healing simply by providing a safe space for clients to be heard. By focusing on small and manageable nuggets of change, coaches help their clients avoid overwhelm and build the confidence necessary to sustain a healthy lifestyle. This approach encourages clients to embrace the mantra that every second is a second to begin again.

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Transcript

Dr. Sandi: Welcome to another episode of “Health Coach Talk.” Today, my guest is not only a former student, graduate of FMCA, but she was one of our first course facilitators as well. And in that role, she guided and mentored hundreds of students as a leader of cohort groups, which is how we train our students. And she is now gone on and is really doing wonderful things as a health coach. And she talks about that in this episode. She talks about how she inspires people with sayings like, every second is a second that counts as a second to begin again, for example, and how she is inspiring people based on her own personal journey.

So let me tell you about Amber. She has over 25 years of experience guiding people towards healthier, more vibrant lives. Her journey began with her own family, grew through home education, and deepened through her personal transformation, losing and maintaining an 80-pound weight loss. She is a graduate of FMCA, one of our first graduates. She is also among the first board-certified health and wellness coaches.

She went on to get further training as a metabolic balance coach. She combines her professional expertise with compassion, perspective, and a belief that everyone can create lasting change. Her motto, “keep it super simple,” asks the hard questions and celebrates every win along the way. So without further ado, here is my conversation with Amber. Welcome to the podcast, Amber. It is really a delight to talk with you.

Amber: Thank you.

Dr. Sandi: You were one of our first students and course facilitators, and you have really influenced so many lives by becoming a health coach. So welcome, and let’s just [inaudible 00:02:39] because we’re going to talk about the KISS, which is…

Amber: Absolutely.

Dr. Sandi: Yes, I’ll send you a virtual kiss. Love to hear all about it. And what led you to do this?

Amber: Yeah, absolutely. So I’ve been a health coach for probably 20 years, but I have to be honest, Sandi, my firstborn is going to be 40 this month. And I’m like, I’m pretty sure I’ve been a health coach for 40 years and stuff. But what really led me to write “KISS” is the fact that change is difficult. It is very difficult. Think about it from the simplest things. Like I was thinking about this yesterday, if I wanted to trade my vehicle, immediate panic, like, “No, this one holds my water bottles. I know where my Chapstick is. I know where my purse goes.” You know what I mean? It’s like, whoa. And that’s the same thing that gets evoked with anybody who wants to change.

And so I just wanted so many people to understand that when you keep it super simple, which is what KISS stands for, you can do anything. One step at a time gets you there. And so it’s really about helping people to understand and not necessarily hand them something that they have to do. But oh, my goodness, listen, when we listen as coaches, I believe that’s our number one skill set, is listening, you will hear what they need and you can reflect it back. And that’s where KISS comes in. Just take what’s the next small thing you need to work on and such.

So I worked with a couple of clients yesterday and my last client last night, when she sat down, I said, “What do you want to get out of our session today?” And she said, “I just want to sit here for a minute. I am so tired.” I said, “Okay, let’s just sit here for a minute. Let’s just breathe for a few minutes and think about this.” And her takeaway from our session was she was going to add one more bottle of water to her day. Keep it…

Dr. Sandi: Simple. Yes.

Amber: Simple. Yes.

Dr. Sandi: Yeah. I love that.

Amber: Yeah, me too. And I saw it as a facilitator too, is that so many coaches came in thinking they had to know everything on day one. And it was like, no, if you trust the process, keep it super simple. FMCA has really laid it out. And so we’ve laid it out for you to walk through this step by step. Your facilitators are there to support you along with the rest of the team and stuff. And so that’s really where it came from, was watching so many students come in and out of things and even in my own life and stuff.

I don’t know about you. I like change. I’m a Zumba instructor. I kind of like to shake it up, do a little bit of shimmy, shimmy now and then and stuff, but I really do like some consistency in my life. And so when it comes to changing up things, I have to have time to, okay, yes, I need to make this change. Let me ponder. Let me think about it. Where does it fit in my life? Because my life isn’t your life and stuff. And so where does it fit in my life? Okay. Now, how can I take it and where do I need to go?

And so that’s just how I came to writing a book to help people to understand that we can be simple about it, but it does give a little structure in the fact that when you’re changing into health, pick one thing. Where can it happen? And how can you make it happen? Not trying to give everything away, but I do give some simple hints that are free because so much of what we are doing is just helping people to make these beautiful changes and people need to understand that it doesn’t have to cost a fortune either. It can not only be simple, it could be free.

Dr. Sandi: Oh, absolutely. I think that’s such a good point. And we think about things like sleep and getting outside and people often think, particularly functional medicine, that it has to be complicated, that you have to have all these complicated lab tests, that you have to take a whole ton of supplements, and that can be overwhelming. And people then say, “I can’t do this.” But really, the basics are available and are pretty simple. And so it’s that KISS. So tell me about your experience as a functional medicine certified health coach. What was that process like and how has your work, you’ve mentioned it, but how has your experience influenced your writing this book?

Amber: Yeah, absolutely. So my journey started with why is that? I had worked for some of the biggest weight loss companies. My own personal journey is I’ve lost and kept off 80 pounds for almost 16 years now. So, thank you. I appreciate that and stuff, but it didn’t become easier until I learned about functional medicine, and more importantly, about functional medicine coaching.

One of the things I noticed in the companies I work for is one person could follow and do great and one person couldn’t. They would follow everything and wouldn’t. And I was like, why is that? And so that started my journey into finding out the truth about the human body. And that’s what we really learn about in functional medicine is, every person is so bioindividual and it’s actually quite beautiful. So beautiful, so amazing how every human on the planet, we are all human beings and we all do share some things so easily, but not everything.

And so it’s really about understanding, who is this person? Who do they wanna be? How do they wanna be? How do they want to show up? What is their purpose in this life is not the most important part? How do we want to serve? How do we want to show up for others? I probably started writing the book a good 10 to 12 years ago, keeping notes, keeping notes on what I might want my chapters to be, what I might want to help people to understand. And as we both know, because I think our first interview was 10 years ago, Sandi.

Dr. Sandi: Yes.

Amber: So yeah, I still remember it and are just brilliant conversation. And so coming forward to today, some things have changed, but here’s one thing that has never changed. And I love this, humans. We ourselves personally, human beings, there’s not a lot that’s changed about us, but our environment has changed. And so we need to remember that humans are pretty simple.

And so coming to them with ways to help them in simple terminology, simple verbiage and stuff. That’s why I was led to write the book after facilitating for FMCA for a little over nine years and such, I got to see a lot of changes in medicine, and medicine does change quickly. It really does. And I really believe that what we knew 10 years ago is not what we know today.

And so I think it’s really important to understand, that person that you’re working with, they’re individual. And so we need to get to know them and then help them to make some small decisions for what they want in life. And like you said, the basics always come out. Brand new clients two weeks ago, and what they really thought that they wanted to work on with me was supplements and stuff, how to get them in every day. And then to our conversation, what we realized is that it was her sleep. And as we talked just a little bit more, what really came out was some emotional trauma. And so my big win this week so far, if you don’t mind if I share…,

Dr. Sandi: Oh, please do.

Amber: Yes. So when I spoke with her yesterday, she went on and on about the assignment I had given her to unfold these emotions, you know, and stuff for her. It was a way for her to do it through our conversation. She said, “I was telling my girlfriends that I was meeting with a health coach.” She goes, “I got to be honest, Amber. I thought I was gonna come to you and talk about food and activity. And so you listened to my story and what you heard was I needed to do some emotional work.” She said, “All of my friends high five me and said, you have a good health coach.”

Dr. Sandi: Love that. Yeah.

Amber: Yes. Of course, that’s just so energizing. And I do love the compliments, but more than anything, I love seeing the piece come across her face because she had found the thing that was tripping her up for getting her supplements and it was tripping her up for getting the right foods in and such. But now that she’s started to unfold this, we can gently walk through it. It’s not like it’s gonna be an answer, but KISS, keep it super simple.

Let’s just weave this into our coaching conversation and then let’s see how these other pieces play into this, and where can we perfect it as we continue? Because healing takes time and people don’t recognize that. It’s just like we know with supplements, some people want that. It’s like, no, supplements take a little bit, but they’re worth it. So again, it seems like so much of our life today, we do need to simplify, bring it down a little bit.

Dr. Sandi: I love that. And thank you for sharing that story. And I want to point out that some people, many people think, yeah, like you said, a health coach, they’re going to tell me what to eat. They’re going to give me a meal plan. They’re going to talk about supplements. And really, a coach is not a therapist, but there is a fine line where you are helping people heal emotionally. And it’s not by doing psychotherapy and working through years of trauma. It is simply being there and listening and giving them permission to share. And I see it all the time. It’s so rewarding for you as the coach, and I can see your whole face lit up.

Amber: Yeah. Absolutely.

Dr. Sandi: As you tell… Yeah. That aha moment. And I think every coach has experienced that with a client where they have that aha moment and then the rest they can now initiate, as you said, “Now it’s time to talk about supplements,” for example.

Amber: Yeah, absolutely. And that’s what… And again, we’re always listening and such, and that’s where just tying back to my book, is that the number one thing is I call this, this machine that I am housed in and stuff. If you listen to it, it will tell you everything that you need to know. I may not have a check engine light that comes on my dash and stuff, but intuitively, I can feel and understand what I need and stuff.

So, for me, I’m pretty consistent, pretty self-regulated on how I eat and what I do and such. But, you know, when you have those days where something’s just a little bit off, if you’ll just take a moment and get quiet, your body will tell you. It’s like Sunday, I was just feeling a little bit anxious and my body was like, you haven’t had any good beef lately. So guess what? I went to a local place that cooks high-quality beef and I had some beef and I felt better within a few hours.

Or my body will say like, you’re low on your water, better get some down. And that’s really the KISS book is really a guide for getting your journaling down and stuff. And there is something that happens when you put pen to paper and you think about it and you write it. And I have to thank FMCA for all those lessons in positive psychology to teach me that’s how we get behavior change to happen. And for so many people, it’s just really difficult.

Dr. Sandi: You have a sentence that I think is so impactful and so full of meaning and so simple, but every second is a second to begin again.

Amber: Absolutely.

Dr. Sandi: I love that.

Amber: Yes. That’s been my tagline for almost 15 years. Simply because so many people think I have to wait. I have to wait for Monday. I have to wait for New Year’s. I have to wait till, I have to, have to. It’s like, no, you don’t. Right now. Make the choice. And we all know that when you make that little pivot in a few more minutes, will become another pivot and then it will become another pivot and another pivot. And before you know it, you’ve completely pivoted and you’re on the road to what you truly want.

Because I think you and I both know when you’re doing life happens and stuff, and it’s always the unexpected that kind of kick our feet out from underneath us, right? And that’s okay. Cause in those moments we might need to rest like my client did the other night. We might need to just take a moment, breathe and stuff, but that’s okay. Because every second is a second to begin again. And we can do that right now. We can make that next step to grab our water. We can take that next step to maybe just walk around the inside of our house. And yeah, it’s definitely powerful, and it really gives that person and empowers them to understand that they can take that next step and they can do it right now, right now.

Dr. Sandi: Yeah. And that next step, it can be an action, like getting our water. It can be a thought change where you shift your thinking. It can be an emotional change where you try on a different way of being in that moment to just… And it can be letting go of something you don’t wanna hold onto, an old resentment, for example, that pops up.

Amber: Absolutely. But I’m glad that you brought up the emotional or the mental shift, because I think we all have heard some of the stuff about our digital world and how people are looking for that dopamine hit. And if they don’t get it, it’s like, guess what? You’ve already got it. It’s in your mind. You can change that any moment that you want to. If I’m sitting here and maybe I’m feeling like, oh, maybe nobody likes me. We hear this a lot. But it’s like, wait a minute. I can name three people that I talked to this week that gave me a high five. We can make that switch, like I say, every second to begin again so we can immediately transfer that. And so that’s the most important part to all of this, is that learning these small things.

One of the first things I share with most of my clients is working towards what they want. And we want them to have their vision for their health and wellness. And then I always try to challenge them to come up with three mantras that will help them move forward. So every second is a second to begin again. One step at a time gets you there. And then my all-time favorite is, I am worth it. And I say it like that. It’s on my bathroom mirror still to this day. When I read it, that’s how I say it. I am worth it. And stuff. Because all that inflection and everything changes what you’re thinking and how your heart rate is going and such. It’s like the Superman pose that we hear about.

Dr. Sandi: Yes, exactly. The power pose.

Amber: Exactly. Get that power pose going on…

Dr. Sandi: Body language. Yeah.

Amber: …and take it by storm. And even my background picture, that is my local lake where I go paddleboarding every chance I get when the weather is warm. And I decided to use it because it’s my happy place. So even when it’s cold right now, I was just out there a couple of weeks ago and I just drove through and sat and just looked at the water and got my grounding. So it’s all of these little things that get us to those small steps lead to big results and stuff.

Dr. Sandi: Absolutely.

Amber: Yeah. And it doesn’t have to cost us a ton of money. So it’s so, so important to recognize that so many things you can do for yourself are so, so free.

Dr. Sandi: Absolutely. So I think this ties into your process of writing the book when you said I’m worth it. Like many people have a book idea, but they don’t follow through because, oh, I can’t do it. Tell us about that process of writing.

Amber: Yeah, absolutely. So I’ve been writing since I was a little girl and I can remember, just to give you guys a little bit of a visual. Record players. I was a teenager with the big speakers and stuff because we didn’t have headphones and all the good stuff. And I would lay on my bedroom floor listening to sticks, amphitheater and stuff playing. And I would write, I would journal. And I have all my journals. I have kept them. And so it just really became strong probably just a little over a year ago that it was time because I truly believe everything in timing. Your intuition will lead you. Trust the process.

And so I got a phone call out of the blue, and I don’t normally answer unknown callers on my phone. And I answered this one, and that’s how I met my publisher. So again, trust in my intuition, “Just pick up that phone, Amber.” And sure enough, we had a beautiful conversation and I connected intuitively with him immediately. And that’s where we got started with it. Like I said, I already had all the background work done. I’d been working on this for probably a good 10 years of solidly trying to think about, how can I help people because that’s my soul’s work, is helping individuals?

So I could keep going, and I’m doing fantastic one-on-one and getting ready to launch some groups, but I wanna change the world one human at a time. Then this is where it starts. It starts with this book and we’re also working on workbooks to go with it. So if people can’t necessarily afford to see me one-on-one or come to one of my groups, they’re gonna be able to pick up my workbook in the future too. So that goes with the book and how we can make slow and steady changes that lead to the results that take you into the life that you want. And that’s what it’s all about. It’s all about that person. What do they want and how do they want it? And so being free to make choices is just so empowering. It really is.

Dr. Sandi: Absolutely. And keeping it simple and one step at a time. So that book. It was not, I’m going to sit down and okay, now I’m going to write this book, but it’s a little bit at a time and you put it together step by step.

Amber: Absolutely. And I just want people to know that you can do it. It doesn’t matter what it is that you wanna try it. My gosh, try it. So I’m a Pink fan. I like her music. And one of her songs is “This Life Is Ours to Choose.” And when we really get a hold of that and recognize that, we can change the world. And I truly believe changing my world starts with my neighbors, starts with my city, starts with my county. And then we get that domino, right? Fun stuff.

So by showing up for my neighbors, by showing up in my small town, doing small things like holding a night for seniors in town to get together and play games, I’m changing. That’s one small thing. I can give two hours a week to do that and get them out of their houses and stuff. I live very remotely. For those of you who don’t know, there’s 500 people in my town. You aren’t going to find a coffee shop here. So we have to create our own, but that’s the beauty of it. This life is mine to choose. I wanna touch humans one step, because if you are alive, you are valuable. That’s the bottom line. If you’re alive, you’re valuable and you are important, so come and talk to me.

Dr. Sandi: This is so, so beautiful. And your story about working with seniors in your community and all. So many people are concerned about AI and we work remotely, we’re lonely and disconnected. And what you’re saying is we need to get back to real in-person connection.

Amber: Absolutely. And I’ll tell you, that was my download from meditating early in January. I was like, “Okay, Amber, now you need to build community and you need to build it face to face.” Because I got to tell you, I got a beautiful tribe online, like you, Sandi, and stuff, and people I can reach out to and everything. But yeah, it’s about that community, that face to face, just that interaction, just that listening to the story. Any time I am out and about in a day, my goal is to use character strengths with three people.

And I really love it when I go into the convenience stores, because those people have a story to tell. They really do. And a lot of them, they might have a tattoo or they might color their hair or something like that, just super fun. But I’ll walk up to them, and I’ll say, “Wow, you look incredibly creative. Can you tell me the story behind that?” And for three to five minutes, you can change someone’s life.

And that’s what it’s about. It’s about acknowledging them, letting them know that they’re important, they’re valuable. And so when you leave, something like that, and I always thank them and they’re like, “No, thank you.” And I got to learn something about another human that I can take forward in my own life. So it’s totally valuable.

Dr. Sandi: That is so incredibly valuable. And that’s actually been studied. Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, “Positive Psychology,” does encounters that are, they’re not your friends. They’re not colleagues. They’re not even… They’re strangers, but it’s that little bit of conversation that you have and it creates such connection, and it’s anti-inflammatory and so many benefits from that.

Amber: Absolutely. Yeah. I agree with you 100%. So, yeah, I’m looking forward to doing some more of these things now, face-to-face and really touching lives. And again, it starts in my town.

Dr. Sandi: Absolutely. So what do you hope for the future of the health coaching, for example, of functional medicine health coaching? Because all of the things you are describing really embody functional medicine approach.

Amber: Oh, no, absolutely. Do you mind if I read my mission statement?

Dr. Sandi: Oh, please do.

Amber: Yeah. So this is the mission statement for “Let’s Be Healthy.” “I help people remove the confusion around their health and reconnect with how they truly want to live through simple, sustainable practices and compassionate partnership. My mission is to empower each client to lead themselves with clarity, confidence, and alignment. And it ties into functional medicine because functional medicine looks at whole body health.”

And so it’s just like all of the medical facilities that we all work and deal with. There’s a part of them that’s needed in every piece of our lives, but functional medicine really takes a look at the whole human. And so I do also work for two incredible functional medicine teams. And so they’re doing the same thing. They’re bringing coaching into their practices to touch the lives and help people to feel supported as they move forward. But we all work together for good.

And the bottom line is we just want to help you get better. And so sometimes we might talk about food, but sometimes my clients might come in and be like, “Okay, we need to talk about Zay and they’re grumpy,” and stuff. So maybe something happened and they just need to offload it. And I always tell them, “All right, you got five minutes, say whatever you want to say, use explicatives, whatever you need,” and stuff. And so while I’m working with them, if they mentioned something, I can assure them that, okay, I can reach out to one of the team, one of the doctors for that and stuff.

And the same goes in my business, my private practice and stuff like that. Obviously, as a coach, I’m not prescribing supplements or anything like that, but I can let them know that, hey, if you don’t mind, I do have some access and I can send you some information for you to choose. And that’s what I do and stuff, is that I go and I find information. And again, I think the biggest piece of all of it is educating people. When you give them a new nugget, then they get to decide what they wanna do with it. Just like when I’m chatting with people.

I was somewhere the other day and somebody walked up to me who knew me and said, “I need to get healthy and stuff.” And I said, “Okay, what’s one step that you can do?” And they’re like, “I don’t know.” And I’m like, “How’s your water consumption?” And they just went, “I could start there.” And I’m like, “There you go, water consumption. That’s where we begin and stuff.” And I mean, it’s just that little nugget that stuck with them. And I’m sure the next time I see them, they’re gonna high-five me because they are getting their water in.

Dr. Sandi: Yes.

Amber: So keep it super simple.

Dr. Sandi: Love it. Amber, where can people find you, and where can they find your book?

Amber: My book is on Amazon, and it’s “Keep It Super Simple.” That’s the title, Amber Letz, L-E-T-Z. And you can find me at letzbeehealthy.net, and it’s L-E-T-Z-B-E-E, like the insect, healthy.net. I’m also on Facebook and LinkedIn. So Amber Letz. And so, yeah, definitely. I would love to be able to help anybody that I can help, whether it’s helping them to decide if maybe they wanna go into a career as coaching or if they also want to come to me for simple changes like KISS. I do offer it as a one-on-one and also as a group program. It’s a six-month, 24-week program to get you from wherever you are today to where you wanna be in six months. So we will work together, and we will row that boat.

Dr. Sandi: Well, we wish you all the best. And get her book and check out her social media and her website. Thank you so much for being with us. You have been such a crucial part of FMCA in our community.

Amber: Thank you. Yeah, definitely missing it. So yeah, anything I can do to support you, but right back, let me know. But yeah, it’s just been an incredible journey, and again, trusting the process. And here’s where we’re going.

Dr. Sandi: Absolutely.

Amber: Bye, Sandi. Thank you.