IIN Health Coach Feature: Learning to Cook and Eat Intuitively

Daniela Bohli is an intuitive soul coach, mentor, intuitive chef, and publisher/creator of the new online magazine Sticky Fingers. She inspires her community to live their life according to their own values and rules, believing in themselves and living their dream in a mindful intuitive way.

What were you doing prior to enrolling at Integrative Nutrition?

I led the advertising team of a well-known Swiss cookbook and kitchen tool company.

What led you to explore the Health Coach Training Program?

I had severe digestive issues for years, and there was even a time when I was not able to eat out at restaurants because I reacted to too many ingredients. So I started to learn a lot about food and health and found my passion for cooking. I wanted to learn more about holistic health and how to heal the body.

What modules or topics in the Health Coach Training Program resonated most with you?

I loved the holistic view – to learn about the impact and importance of primary food and get a wide perspective on topics while not just learning about one side of a theme. The lecture from Julia Cameron was very inspiring as well as the lecture from Bernie Siegel. I don’t know why, but both remained in my memory. But I loved all the content. I was binge-watching it every week.

You offer a few different types of coaching services. What do you love most about coaching and what makes your practice unique?

I love to see the transformation of my clients and their successes. It’s so fulfilling to work so close with someone on a deep trustful level. It’s a special and unique relationship between a coach and the person you coach.

I’m an intuitive coach and chef. I like to say that vibes are my second mother tongue! My everything-is-possible mind-set and proving it through Sticky Fingers magazine and many other things in my life encourages and inspires others to believe in themselves and dream big.

You recently launched the online magazine Sticky Fingers, which is a German and English publication that focuses on intuitive cooking, mindfulness, and finding and living your purpose. What inspired you to create this online publication?

It was pure intuition or spiritual guidance if you will. I love content creation. I love to inspire others and dream of a world where everyone sees their talents and value and has the courage to live their dreams. Each person’s dream might look different: Someone might travel around the world; another might want to work part-time instead of full-time; someone might want to learn to sing or dance, and another might want to start their own business.

I love to inspire people to live their life according to their own values and rules, not according to what looks good, what you “should” do, or what others might think. You can have and do everything you want, but you need to claim it. I want to show people that everything is possible if they 1) want to change/reach something and 2) believe it’s possible, even though they don’t know how. The how evolves if you start to walk in the direction of your dream.

Intuitive cooking represents all that: trusting yourself and your senses, letting go of being perfect, not focusing on the outcome, being present in the moment, and going with the flow. It means letting the recipe evolve itself, having fun, enjoying the process, and knowing that there are no mistakes, just learnings.

I felt like an online magazine would be the perfect medium to transport this message in a combination of culinary inspiration and inspiring articles.

From now on, there is going to be an English and a German version of the magazine! Even though the website is still German only, beginning with the next issue, releasing November 15, there will be everything in English as well. If you don’t want to miss it, sign up for the German/English combined issue for free.

How did you get to a place where you felt comfortable believing in yourself and trusting your gut feelings? Was there anything from the Health Coach Training Program that helped you?

It’s a combination of many different things. I gathered a lot of life experience early in my life. Due to some difficulties during birth, the doctors weren’t sure if I’d ever be able to walk or have fine motor skills. When I learned how to walk, I would fall all the time, tripping over my own feet due to a malposition of my left leg. I invented a bounce technique just to stop the consistent falling.

My mom always told me that she thought I would just stay on the ground crying, but I stood up every single time I fell. I learned willpower and positive thinking early on. And from my dad I learned to have an everything-is-possible mind-set. I proved the doctors wrong. I don’t know if this was willpower or a miracle. But for me, it just proves that everything really is possible.

I also learned a lot through the early death of my dad. I dedicated the first issue of my online magazine to him. Without everything I learned through him and his death, I wouldn’t be the person I am today, and I wouldn’t probably have had the guts to do it. So, I launched the magazine on August 15, the eleventh anniversary of his death.

The Health Coach Training Program helped kick-start a huge transformation in my life. Just this personal transformation was enough to make the program worth it! After the program, I really started to get my life together and learned to stop running away from my fears.

I have a coach and work on myself daily. I realized that what I do in the kitchen with my intuitive cooking practice teaches me everything I need in life – to be the person I always wanted to be: trusting myself, letting go of being perfect, not being attached to the outcome, enjoying the process, and going with the flow. For the first time in my entire life, I’m my authentic self. It’s a huge accomplishment for me. And Sticky Fingers is an expression of that.

This month, we are focusing on finding ways to nurture all areas of our mental health, especially throughout stressful situations. How does intuitive cooking help support your mental health?

It’s my happy place. It’s a safe space where I can be myself, expressing myself through recipe creations. It’s a place where no judgment exists, where I can experiment and just be, letting go of all worries and connecting more deeply with my intuition. Ultimately, it’s just so fulfilling to create delicious and healthy meals.

As we enter a new season, how are you using mindfulness to support your mental health?

One of the most important things for me is my morning routine. I do some yoga or a short workout to get out of my head and into my body (this was crucial for me during lockdown!), meditate, journal, and enjoy a cup of raw cacao. I focus on finding joy in everything and doing less to achieve more. This means focusing on feeling good and being okay with what I accomplish each day instead of feeling like I need to cross off a ton of to-dos. I define my success by how much fun I have every single day instead of numbers (clients, money, working hours, etc.).

What is the #1 piece of advice you give coaching clients who want to live their best and happiest life?

Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor – just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it (your reason/purpose) isn’t there.