Today, more than ever, wellness is at the forefront of societal discussions. From mental health to physical well-being, women are making significant strides in bringing about change, introducing innovative solutions, and setting new standards. Despite facing unique challenges, they break barriers, inspire communities, and are reshaping the very definition of health and wellness. In this series called women in wellness we are talking to women doctors, nurses, nutritionists, therapists, fitness trainers, researchers, health experts, coaches, and other wellness professionals to share their stories and insights. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Janet Omstead.
With over 20+ years of experience in the health and wellness industry, Janet Omstead is a Board-Certified (NBHWC) health coach, author of "The Play Book: How To Get In The Habit Of Good Health," and play expert. Janet believes that when we create the motivation and desire for regular movement using play as the catalyst for better health regardless of age, we address our body's inherent needs to manage itself effectively and create an environment that promotes wellness, fun, and joy. Whether speaking, coaching, or leading RED January Canada, Janet's strength lies in her playful approach to life!
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
At 24 years old, six weeks before getting married, I almost died from a ruptured ovarian torsion.
It was the night of my bachelorette party, and instead of being on the dance floor with my best friends, I was in an emergency room fighting for my life.
During the days leading up to that horrifying night, my body had been sending me signals that something wasn't right. I chose to ignore it. If my friends hadn't driven me over two hours to the hospital when they did, I wouldn't have lived to see my wedding day.
Luckily, I underwent emergency surgery and recovered to walk down the aisle. I've been married for over 30 years and have two beautiful children.
That moment has stayed with me and inspired my life's work. It was my fitness level that pulled me through and influenced my lifelong commitment to exercise.
Eventually, I became a personal trainer and board-certified behaviour-change health coach to help people experience the same well-being I've enjoyed.
As a behaviour change health coach, I help people do the work to become the best version of themselves by getting their health and wellness back on track so they can live their lives to the fullest.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
When I first started personal training, I was awesome at writing exercise prescriptions for my clients with all sorts of pictures, charts, and schedules — my filing cabinets and shelves were full of programs tailored to each person's abilities.
I came up with all kinds of amazing plans based on what my clients said they wanted. I was proud of my creativity and the time I invested to make each unique. How many of my clients actually did them?
Maybe 10% or less.
Signing up for a gym membership, buying ten sessions with a trainer, or committing to a new way of eating without doing the deep work isn't the sustainable way to lasting change.
I realized that even the best exercise or nutrition program in the world would only work if a person is ready, willing, and able to do the work on their own.
And it definitely wasn't going to work if it wasn't fun! If something is too time-consuming, too restricting, or too challenging, people just won't stick to it.
I discovered that one of the most helpful things I can do for my clients are to help them understand what is realistic for their lifestyle, considering their demands and their abilities.
It's behaviour change at its core.
I now view myself as more of a guide or problem solver, helping people put a puzzle together. My job is to help you find a way to play (please look after yourself) and move more in a way that meets the needs of your life.
To find the solutions that work for YOU. Moving from a transactional business model - quick fix - diet, exercise - help me lose 20 pounds by my wedding...to a transformational approach through habit change.
My goal isn't to tell people how to get fit. I want to motivate them to find the right health solution for themselves.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about a mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I've made many mistakes along the way, but they are all contributors to great life lessons.
Achieving my National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching (NBHWC) certification was one of my career's most challenging yet rewarding milestones.
Even applying to write the NBHWC exam is a rigorous two-year process culminating in a four-and-a-half-hour exam.
I did this while being a full-time caregiver to help my husband, who was going through treatment and a bone marrow transplant for AML cancer.
Despite a setback with my first attempt at the exam (I missed passing by four marks), I was determined to retake the test a few months later. This resilience in the face of adversity is a testament to the power of perseverance.
For me, FAIL is an acronym for
First
Attempt
In
Learning!
Failing ignited a fire, fueling my determination to succeed.
So why did I go after it again? I had to learn to study better and find a system to achieve the desired results.
Like in coaching, I realized the importance of seeking help from an expert. Their guidance was invaluable in my journey to success. What I know for sure is that together, anything is possible.
Receiving the NBHWC certification, recognized as the gold standard in health coaching, is a testament to my dedication, and I am immensely proud to have earned it.
It's about more than just coaching—my life's passion is assisting clients in using their insight, personal strengths and resources, goal setting, action steps, and accountability to achieve healthy lifestyle change.
Failure was simply part of the process, but it made success sweeter and gave me a stronger sense of purpose. The joy of overcoming challenges and achieving success is a feeling like no other.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
My work intertwining play, health, and community drives me to reshape how people approach aging, wellness, and joy with the potential to make a bigger impact on the world.
The global rise of inactivity and chronic diseases motivates me more and more every day to help inspire the world to integrate play and movement into their lives so they can improve their physical, mental, and emotional well-being, potentially extending healthy years of life.
One in three women and one in four men are inactive and at risk of disease from not doing enough physical activity, with no improvement in global fitness levels since 2001.
By blending science-based approaches (like NEAT - Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis - and strength training) with joy and play, I'm making wellness accessible and sustainable. This helps shift the mindset from "exercise as a chore" to "movement as a source of joy," which can inspire lasting change.
My work emphasizes social connection, whether through group play, retreats, or collaborative projects like the RED January. These connections combat isolation and promote mental well-being, essential for thriving communities.
Change isn't easy, but partnering with organizations to promote play as a tool for social, physical, and mental well-being can influence policies, workplace cultures, and community initiatives.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each, if you can.
Let's face it: people are looking for tweaks, but it's more than a tweak to make a difference in long-term sustainable health. Things like drinking more water, eating more protein, and getting more sleep, sure, they all matter. But so much depends on where you are in your life and what you are ready, willing and able to commit to. Everyone's journey is very personal - there is no "one size fits all."
With that in mind, here are some steps I go through with my clients to create the change they seek.
1 . What is your vision?
When it comes to your vision of your future health, do you have a navigation system to get you to where you want to go? When you think about taking a vacation, a lot of preparation is required between organizing things at home, packing, and timing for plane/train/car travel, hotel choice, etc. It is not complicated, but it takes planning. Did you know that the same idea applies to your health? Imagine you get a postcard from the future from yourself. What does it say? What is the picture of?
2 . Make it SMART.
The power lies within you to find workable strategies to take action towards that vision. You can begin listing them using a simple system called SMART goals, an acronym for:
Specific - what specific action or behaviour will you engage in to reach your vision?
Measurable - creating a quantifiable goal helps you know when success is attained.
Actionable - break your vision into actions or behaviours you want to do over three months consistently.
Realistic - If your goal is realistic, success will follow. Make it so simple that if questioned about how it fits into your life, it feels super easy to achieve.
Time-Bound - make sure there is a start date and an end date attached to your action.
3 . Identify your core values
Change is more likely to stick when you choose something consistent with your higher values. Values silently guide our actions. Like my example above, when using a map or a GPS to help get you to your destination, your values drive your motivation to move forward or hold you back in fear.
When you understand who you are and where you are going, it is easier to decide the path you want to take day in and day out. Your values can change over time, but understanding what you value deepens your knowledge of what truly inspires you.
4 . Look at your greatest investment as yourself.
Your future health is like compound interest when you get right down to it. We all make financial investments so we'll be able to retire. That's because we all know what happens if we don't prepare for retirement, right? Even as little as a 1% daily investment will compound over time to a significant return. So why do people not think about their health as an investment?
Investing in your health is like compound interest, so it will also be there when you want to retire.
5 . Make it fun!
While taking care of our health can be serious business, why not make it fun? Today and every day, look after yourself in a way that brings you joy. You don't need a gym. You don't need an hour (that's how trainers get paid, by the hour). Make exercise playful and fun, and do it with someone else, and you'll return to it every day.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I have always dreamed of starting a wellness movement, and a couple of years ago, I discovered a program out of the UK called RED January.
RED stands for Rise Eve y Day because the founder, Hannah Beecham, was worried about her mom, who, in the coldest, darkest month of the year, was depressed, socially isolated and not moving. By showing up at her door every day in January, Hannah noticed a remarkable improvement in her mood, outlook, and overall demeanor.
I thought, oh, my goodness, this is something that I need to know more about.
And the more I dug into it, the more I realized this was an opportunity that I needed to bring to Canadians to start to come together on this idea of moving every day, combining play with the concept of rise every day, RED in January when we are all feeling pretty low.
But that is just the start.
Together with our Canadian Charitable Partner, The GenWell Project, we're creating a way for people to improve their mental, physical and social wellbeing.
RED is a national campaign to inspire yourself, family, friends, and co-workers to be active every day - your way – because there is no one-size-fits all.
Campaigns like RED help reinforce the idea that movement and connection with others can be fun!
Being active just two times a week with another person has shown a 78% increase in exercise level over 18 months.
We are excited to enter our second year in Canada and our 10th year in the UK. For more information and to sign up,
go to www.redjanuary.ca
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? These can be quick 1 sentences.
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There is no such thing as overnight success - that applies to business and people's health journey.
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Join a community - Being an entrepreneur can be challenging to navigate independently. Join a community of like-minded business owners and lean on each other for accountability and support.
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Give - Be part of something greater than yourself because the feeling of contributing to something bigger than you is one of life's greatest gifts. This is why RED is so important to me.
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Keep learning - read and attend courses. We have so much to learn that we don't even know.
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Make room for a time out - take play breaks during the day - to boost your energy, create space for ideas and supercharge your life.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
The cause that is dearest to me is mental health.
The benefits of movement on the body are both physical and psychological. Exercise turns our brains on, and the side effects help our bodies to be healthy.
Physical activity is a head-to-toe solution for managing our mental well-being. That's why I believe so fundamentally in reframing exercise as play and in championing campaigns like RED.
Everyone has mental health, but not everyone has mental illness.
Depression and anxiety, though, can express themselves in many ways, from mild "blues" to the more seriously debilitating "can't get out of bed." When we feel like this, the last thing we want to do is play, exercise, or even move.
Several years ago, a close family member was bedridden from what seemed like a mystery illness. After multiple tests, the doctors concluded it was vertigo. These dizzy spells prohibited them from their favourite form of play — running.
They couldn't even stand for long periods of time. Not being able to move for months contributed to their anxiety, and the anxiety made the dizziness and other physical symptoms even worse. Their mental health deteriorated so much that they ended up in the psychiatric emergency room.
Thankfully, they were able to take medication and work with mental health professionals to improve their health and well-being substantially.
They now have the tools to manage their mental health. And what's the primary tool? Play. They worked their way back to being able to move more every day.
This proves that the mind and body work together — sometimes for the worse, but more often for the better.
What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?
Head to my website - www.janetomstsead.com where you can sign up for:
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The Play Of The Week newsletter - https://janetomstead.com/blog/
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Free 7 Day's Healthy Habits Course - https://janetomstead.com/free-7-day-healthy-habits-course/
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Or if you are looking for coaching support, send me an email to info@janetomstead.com
