American College of Lifestyle Medicine Certification

I’m happy to share that I passed the American College of Lifestyle Medicine certification exam!

I have been doing this work for over 15 years. Why get certified now?

When I started, there was no certification for these things. I had to chart my own path. It has not been easy.

The first ACLM exam was held in 2017. The same year the first National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching exam was held; which I sat for and became a board-certified health and wellness coach. It’s also the same year I decided to return to school to become a nurse practitioner.

I had to become a nurse practitioner before I could take the ACLM exam. As with health and wellness, change takes time.

When I first became involved in ACLM, there were several hundred members. Now there’s over 15,000 members, 8,000 of which have become certified since 2017.

I watched ACLM’s strategy for growth over these past 10 years, which was an impressive grass roots effort to mobilize the mission of making lifestyle medicine accessible to all. They leveraged the skills, passion, and positions of their members.

They focused on a single, mostly overlooked line item in most of the major clinical practice guidelines – “support a healthy lifestyle.”

They went to work to define what it meant to “support a healthy lifestyle.” They compiled a body of evidence to support their 6 pillars of lifestyle medicine – nutrition, physical activity, stress management, restorative sleep, connectedness, and avoidance of risky substances.

The results… lifestyle matters. It can have a significant trajectory on your health and wellness.

What does it mean to be a DipACLM - Certified Lifestyle Medicine Practitioner?

I asked ChatGPT…

This approach is especially impactful for many chronic conditions.

A Certified Lifestyle Medicine Practitioner:

·       Focuses on why disease develops—not just symptom control

·       Uses behavior change science and health coaching skills

·       Partners with patients over time (not just brief, episodic visits)

·       Integrates lifestyle strategies with medications when needed

·       Emphasizes sustainable change, not quick fixes

Working with Certified Lifestyle Medicine Practitioner means:

·       You receive credible, science-based guidance (not trends or fads)

·       Care is personalized and collaborative

·       The goal is improved function, vitality, and quality of life—not just normal lab values

What did/does it mean for me to become certified?

It meant studying for many hours to gain an intimate understanding behind the evidence, clinical application, and theories behind lifestyle-based care.

Maybe you saw me walking through my village with my headphones. What was I doing? Listening to the hours of content review on the six pillars of lifestyle medicine:  nutrition, physical activity, stress management, restorative sleep, connectedness, and avoidance of risky substances.

For the short-term, it meant being clear on what I said “no” and “yes” to. And skipping my dance classes. : (

It meant shorting another holiday to study for the exam (my test was the Monday after Thanksgiving).

For me, certification reflects a commitment to ongoing professional growth. Having this understanding I can thoughtfully apply the principles of lifestyle medicine to the needs of the individuals I serve, mostly midlife women.

Simply put, I won’t tell you to “eat less and exercise more.” Not that I would have before. Now, I’m standing on the shoulders of giants to meet you where you’re at and create a sustainable lifestyle plan to support your long term health and wellness.