Episode 124 | Apr 3, 2025

Health Coaching After Retirement, With Charlette Plinneke

Is it ever too late to embark on a new, purpose-driven career? This week on Health Coach Talk, Dr. Sandi welcomes Charlette Plinneke, a former middle school science teacher who, at 64, transitioned into the field of health coaching. Now a nationally board-certified Functional Medicine Health Coach with a Master of Science degree in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine, Charlette shares how this career shift has revitalized her life and enabled her to guide others toward improved health and well-being.

“I was 64, retired, and wondering what was next. I had all these limiting beliefs—‘Am I too old for this? Can I really start over?’ But health coaching gave me purpose again. It reminded me I wasn’t done, and that I still had something meaningful to offer.”

Charlette Plinneke

Charlette’s journey is a testament to the power of personal transformation and the profound impact of health coaching. Despite her extensive academic background, she chooses to identify primarily as a health coach, emphasizing the importance of building trust and creating a safe space for clients to feel truly heard. In her conversation with Dr. Sandi, Charlette discusses how these elements are crucial for facilitating meaningful health improvements, especially in today’s fast-paced healthcare environment.

Before embracing health coaching, Charlette dedicated nearly two decades to teaching science. However, she found herself burned out and seeking a more fulfilling path. After a period of self-reflection and personal health challenges, she discovered the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy (FMCA). This decision marked the beginning of a new chapter, allowing her to combine her passion for science and education with a holistic approach to health. Today, through her practice at Salt Doll Health, Charlette supports clients of all ages, helping them uncover the root causes of their health issues and empowering them to take control of their wellness journeys.

For health coaches, this episode offers valuable insights into the versatility and significance of their role within the broader healthcare system. Charlette’s experience underscores the importance of client-centered care and the transformative potential of health coaching. Her reflections on overcoming limiting beliefs, fostering client relationships, and the continuous journey of learning serve as inspiration for both new and seasoned health coaches.

Watch The Episode

Listen Now

Transcript

Dr. Sandi: One of the ways that I think I can best promote the field of health coaching is to share the personal stories of people who are health coaches. And that means bringing them on as guests to “Health Coach Talk” because how they came to health coaching varies from one individual to the next, but they share a common trait. I have found after educating—we now have 5,000 graduates around the world and growing—that they share a calling. They have a higher purpose. Often they come from different professions.

The person I am interviewing today started her career in education. She was a science teacher in middle school, and they find that they really will be fulfilling a purpose by becoming a health coach. It is a profession that brings great joy. Let me tell you about my guest today, and her name is Charlette Pinneke. She is an FMCA graduate, and she’s a board-certified health and wellness coach. She recently received her master’s degree in nutrition and functional medicine as well as started her own coaching business, Salt Doll Health. Even more amazing though, she began this journey at the young age of 64. Witnessing her clients’ incredible health outcomes through diet and lifestyle changes inspires her daily. So, I know you are going to enjoy my interview with Charlette. Welcome, Charlette.

Charlette: Oh, thank you, Sandi. It’s such a pleasure to be here.

Dr. Sandi: Let’s start off by talking about your educational path. So, you have a master’s degree in nutrition and functional medicine, yet you really refer to yourself as a functional medicine certified health coach. Can you explain why you chose to represent the work you do first and foremost as a health coach?

Charlette: Yeah, that’s interesting because I went through FMCA and then I got nationally board-certified. And the fire was burning, so I went on and got my master’s and I started a business. I started working with clients. And when it came down to, “What do you want to put on your business card? What do you want to put on your website?” I realize I may know a lot after getting a master’s but the way I help the most people is through my coaching. The coaching part of it is the bread and butter of why they’re able to make progress, and it just felt so aligned. I thought I needed this degree, I thought I needed that certification, and it helps certainly. And it’s exciting because I’m definitely a learner. But when it comes right down to it, the health coaching is what moves the needle, and that’s what I like, moving the needle for people.

Dr. Sandi: I really could not agree more because I had a master’s degree, I have a PhD in clinical psychology, but that’s just gathering information and having knowledge. But we’re talking about interactions with people where there are these heart-centered communications that take place, and it’s about listening and it’s about helping that individual feel heard and understood. And as you said, it moves the needle. All of the information is out there. And when I was in school getting my doctorate, you had to go to the library and you had to go to books and journals, physical copies of them and so that took hours and hours. And then we had search engines and so now it was easier. But today we have the growing use of AI where everything in the world is available. In a second, you could type in a prompt and you can get all of this information. And I’m not discounting the value of higher education, but when it comes to how do people really transform their lives, it’s having that relationship with a coach.

Charlette: It really is and I personally love AI and the possibilities. And in my world, being able to put a study in from PubMed and find out all the limitations right upfront saves me hours. So, in that way, it’s so useful. But when it comes down to somebody learning about their own body and what I have found in coaching, they can have the best plan in the world that tells them exactly how to heal their body, but the truth is if they don’t feel safe in their own body, if they haven’t worked through the limiting beliefs about how they got there, it’s hard to heal. So, the coaching, the rapport, the connection, that kind of allows the vulnerability to be front and center in a safe place is where healing takes off. And I have not had a client yet… It could happen but I have not had a client yet that wasn’t surprised at how much they could heal. And I’m not healing them. My knowledge isn’t healing them. It’s that we have worked together, and they are in a place now to heal themselves.

And the other thing I love about it is when we are finished with my program, I offer a 5 week and a 12 week and some people double up on those, but whenever we are done, they take those skills with them and they can use them to address a lot of other issues. I just had a client that I had more than a year ago. And when we had our final call, she said, “Where should I work next?” And it’s like I would go here and I would use all the same skills that you’ve developed. And so a year later, she sends me a message telling me about her lipid panel, and I was thrilled because she was able to think through not only her habits… And now I’m thinking of… Was it BJ Fogg that we had an FMCA where you break down your habit into the trigger, the behavior, and the reward, and you learn how to manipulate those and how to have it stack to really push yourself forward. So, here’s a client that learned how to do that. And in a year all by herself, she was able to move forward. For me, that is total success because there’s never going to be a shortage of people that need to learn how to do that.

Dr. Sandi: You’re so right. Yeah, Charlette, how did you make that decision to become a health coach?

Charlette: It’s interesting. I thought I was all finished working. I had been teaching middle school science for 19 years, and I was just burned out like down to the nubbins. I had nothing left. And you can’t really work with kids if you can’t give 100% every day, so I knew I had to quit teaching. And that’s an interesting dilemma because they reward you for staying in that profession longer. So, I knew I was leaving a bunch of money on the table, but it just felt unaligned. It wasn’t right inside of me so I retired early, made some giant life changes. I sold the house in the Bay Area. I moved to… I’m one block from the beach and it took me an entire year to find my footing. And as I started to get interested in healing my own body, my gosh, the list of ailments I had, gigantic. From migraines to joint pain to pre-diabetes, my list was long. So, as I started to work on myself, I realized I was really interested in the science.

And here it might have even been you and on Instagram with FMCA and it just really struck me. So, I followed you and followed the whole account for a while and then I made an appointment. And I wish I could remember who I spoke with because she was really instrumental in helping me to see what I could gain from becoming a health coach. And she was exactly right. You learn how to coach others but you learn so much about yourself. And it’s just not all doing your homework. It’s interactive coaching with other people in the class. I made some lifelong friends in my cohort. We still have a group chat, the three of us, where we share our different paths and what we’re doing now. But the whole foundation was FMCA. We learned how to stretch ourselves.

It’s so much bigger than a coaching certificate and yet I have to say what I learned in FMCA made getting nationally board-certified so easy. I don’t want to say easy. There’s nothing easy about it, but I went in completely prepared. As I did all my prep work. I realized we had touched on so much of it. It was like review. I wasn’t learning anything new, I was reviewing. So, FMCA has a really, kind of, meaty program that has served me well getting my masters, too, because like I said, you can have all the functional medicine and nutrition expertise, but if you haven’t learned how to relay that in a format that can truly be heard, which for me, that’s the definition of health coaching is you’re listening and then you’re relaying what you know in a way that can be heard. So, that’s how I got started, and I was 64. So, for me, you have been such an inspiration because all the limiting beliefs, they just come forward. I’m already retired. I’m too old to be doing this. Can I really take advanced biochem? You start to question things and yet I have your example. You can do anything you want.

Dr. Sandi: Absolutely. At the time that this is being recorded, I’m about to turn 75, and this is… When you have work that’s meaningful, that’s mission-driven, this is so strongly tied to longevity, to having purpose to get up every morning, and you just exude that. Can you tell us about the clients you see? Do you have a specialty? How do you work with people? And how do those sessions go?

Charlette: Yeah. What do my clients look like. If you’ve had asked me a year ago, I would say they were mostly women over the age of 50. My most recent four clients are all under the age of 35. So, I’m seeing this shift that is exciting, because they are coming in looking to optimize their health. It’s starting to sink in a little bit that you have agency over your health. And the truth is and I realize when I work with clients, it always comes down to this. You heal your body. It frees up your mind. And all of a sudden, the possibilities that you can do with that spirit that has been covered up in chronic health issues and brain fog just comes forward. That’s exciting for me too to watch what clients do when they feel good. When you feel good, you have so many options.

So, a client comes in. My intake I try to keep it to 90 minutes. It’s always about two hours because we’re going all the way back to their childhood and prior. And we’re collecting pieces of their health puzzle. So, I’m really diving deep into not just what their current state issues and state of mind are today but putting together the pieces that have transpired over their lifetime. And sometimes that’s a very emotional two hours because sometimes a client will piece together a connection they had not made. So, we start there and then put everything into the functional medicine matrix, into the seven body systems. One usually sticks out. We start there. And sometimes once you address the biggest issue, whether it’s detoxification or movement of hormones in the body, some of the others fall in line. So, we go for the biggest, we work down to the smallest. And it’s exciting work. The reason it works, and this is why I have functional medicine health coach on my business card, is because I really feel like I work hard. I’m creating that rapport, that feeling of safety. They feel safe enough to be vulnerable and then they are open to healing their bodies. I couldn’t think of a better job.

Dr. Sandi: And you are not alone in saying that. This is a career that brings true joy, and it is a deeper level of satisfaction because you know that it is so tied to having a higher purpose. But I also wanted… As you were talking, you have a background as a teacher as I do as well, and I don’t think anything ever goes to waste. All of your past experiences, all the wisdom you’ve gained by being an educator and helping all those kids through the years, and you were teaching science so it’s very similar and that it was really that… I bet it was the connection that you formed with those kids and got them to love learning or love science, so you can use that in terms of your current work. Let’s turn to the current healthcare system because your two-hour intake, I mean, that would be for today’s practitioner, somebody seeing a primary care doctor for an intake, they’re lucky if they get 15 minutes with that individual. They may have to fill out tons of forms and release forms, but I heard somebody say that they couldn’t get into a primary care doctor for six months. And sometimes they’re even told the practice is closed and it’s a year out for a specialist. So, this is something that is increasingly problematic in our healthcare system on top of so many other things that are problematic. So how do you see health coaching fitting in to the healthcare system and how do you see it in terms of being the true healthcare instead of sick care which is what we have now?

Charlette: You are just so right. It’s so crazy trying to get… Well, then once you wait the six months and you get in for your appointment, it usually then turns to, “Here’s a prescription to address your symptoms,” but it hasn’t healed at a root cause level. So, you’ve delayed things, but have you really helped? Questionable. And I love our healthcare system for acute problems. If you’ve broken your leg on the ski slopes, you don’t want to call me first. But I think health coaching quite honestly, if I could just wave a magic wand and have it appear the way I want it, they should see me first because we can unravel a lot of these symptoms that they’re going to see the doctor for when truly there might be a way to unravel it for good.

So, having people learn how to heal themselves, it just seems like health coaching should come first. My very first clients were using my services as a last resort. In other words, they were coming to me literally on 10, 15 different medications. They felt terrible. They were at the end of their rope. So, that’s the way it started for me, “I’ve tried everything else. How about you?” And I think that is starting to change. And they used to come to me saying things like, “I feel like my body has betrayed me.” And once they find out their body works hard for them every single day, you just have to take away some of those things it doesn’t need and add in a few of the things that it does, whether it’s dealing with stress, whether it’s dealing with difficulty losing weight. But they used to feel like their bodies had betrayed them, and that’s one of the biggest mind shifts that I make. And once they realize their body is working for them every single day, it becomes a partnership really where they can leave my practice and go out on their own and feel really good about understanding what their body needs.

And I think, too, if you do have a chronic illness and there are so many right now, right? The metabolic crisis has just skyrocketed, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, go down the list of chronic illnesses huge. And if you’re already suffering, that too can be addressed with health coaching because if a doctor says, “Here’s a diet that’ll work for you,” what are you going to do with that? Everybody knows what they should be eating or most people do. That’s not where the healing happens. And as people start to heal and feel better, making better choices gets easier. So, whether you’re at the end of your rope or you’re just sensing something might be off with your health, health coaching fits in everywhere.

But people really don’t understand and I struggle with this. They don’t really know what health coaching is, and it’s a little intimidating because, I mean, we have this system. You go to the doctor, you get your 15 minutes, you get a prescription or you take some Tylenol. Done. So, this is a different way of looking at things. So, the other part of my business is really getting the message out there about what health coaching can do for you. You might need three sessions sessions. You might need 30. I mean, everybody’s different. That was one of my big lessons for all of the current students, which my very first client is in your current cohort.

Dr. Sandi: That’s wonderful.

Charlette: I love that. So, health coaching, I think it fits everywhere. I think I really want to spread the word that it’s for everybody. There is no one size fits all. And that’s what I was saying. When I first opened my business, I had in my mind there were going to be these patterns. So, once I got through the first 20 clients and I’d start seeing repeats… And it’s not like that. Every single client is different. Every approach to healing is different. And for me, it’s totally exciting. It’s a lot of detective work. It’s a lot of safety work. But I don’t think there’s anybody that wouldn’t benefit from health coaching. So, I couldn’t thank you more for this brainchild that you came up with to start this coaching academy, because it’s just quality stuff and timely. I mean, talk about purpose. Obviously, you must have felt into this purpose because you were way ahead of the curve that I feel like now it really is becoming more the norm.

Dr. Sandi: Absolutely. The field has exploded because it is so necessary. And you’re so right. There’s no one person that couldn’t benefit because… And it is not the extreme. Not everybody needs psychotherapy. Not everybody needs to be saddled with a mental health diagnosis. Coaches because they’re addressing the whole person can help people who may be diagnosed with depression, well, encouraging them for example to walk or walking during those sessions. There are so many ways that people can be helped even if they have a condition that would be considered psychiatric in nature. And unless it’s severe, even then health coaches can be instrumental. I have a new book that’ll be released… And there’s chapters on research and doing this prep work for the book. I mean, there’s not one condition that hasn’t been shown. Conditions like COPD, for example. You wouldn’t think how a health coach would… But, yes, they were really helpful in helping people feel better. Cancer, there’s a lot of work there where you’re helping people, just quality of life, become resilient. And it is just because of the process is this heart-centered communication as you so well described. Well, Charlette, it has been a pleasure to get to know you, to have you on “Health Coach Talk.” Where can people find you? What are you up to next? —

Charlette: You can find me on Instagram, Salt Doll Health is the name. Website is saltdollhealth.com. Same on Facebook. So, Instagram, Facebook, through my website. Yeah, I love it when people see me on podcasts, and then they book a 20-minute call. I even enjoy those discovery calls. But, yes, it’s exciting. I am thrilled to hear you’ve written that book, because I’ll tell you, getting my master’s, just what you said, it’s like almost every single condition as we’re researching on PubMed and going deep into how we can help, it was always in my mind. It’s like, “They need a health coach,” because there truly are things you can do before you resort to prescriptions or surgery or whatever therapy you might need. But that’s going to further the cause so much more seeing your book. I cannot wait to get it.

Dr. Sandi: Well, it’s called “Your Health Coach Will See You Now.”

Charlette: Oh, that is perfect. Again, spot on in your timing.

Dr. Sandi: Health coaches are the new primary care. You’re not replacing the doctor. As you said, you break your leg, you have an acute condition. Those are times when you see a coach. But what happens when you need to heal from that injury, for example? That’s when a health coach can help.

Charlette: That’s exciting.

Dr. Sandi: Well, thank you for the wonderful work that you are doing. You are helping so many people lead happier, healthier lives, making a real difference.

Charlette: I hope so.

Dr. Sandi: It’s been a pleasure to connect with you today.

Charlette: Yeah. Same, same.