They're young and healthy and they work out at the gym several times a week. But Yorktown newlyweds Christa and Alan Riley felt they needed to do better.

The 20-somethings were afraid that their eating habits would catch up with them down the road. Both commute to work at the shipyard in Newport News, where Alan's a supervisor and Christa is in the Apprentice School. They routinely rise before dawn and put in 10-hour work days, punctuated by a brief 30-minute lunch break.

Neither gave much attention to breakfast, they drank sodas constantly, and regularly took the convenience route eating frequently at fast food restaurants and heating up ready-made frozen meals.

"We were eating a lot of chicken nuggets, a lot of processed food," says Christa. "We needed to get away from the 'potato and corn diet'." Alan adds, "We wanted to get fitter. I was bored with the gym." They felt overwhelmed by the pace of their lives and dissatisfied. Something was out of whack.

So they did some research on the Internet and found Rhonda Greene of Body-in-Balance in Newport News, who had just launched a health coaching component as a supplement to her exercise studio. She had all the qualifications they were looking for, says Alan, and the couple signed up for the six-month health coaching program (see sidebar) and once-a-week personal training. The latter has given them both more confidence in the gym they attend. They no longer just do cardio but mix up their workouts with strength training and stretching and have seen improved results already.

NEWPORT NEWS: At the studio

Using the principles of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, Greene works with Christa, while her employee Tirza Rampolla works separately with Alan.

In their second session, the talk of nutrition and eating habits quickly segues into a discussion of other areas of their lives. After following the digressions carefully, each coach deftly steers the duo back to their diets what they're eating, when, and how they feel about it and how that fits with their lives and reflects what's out of balance.

Alan's challenge is to start eating breakfast, to take time to enjoy his lunch instead of wolfing a sandwich for 10 minutes then napping and to select foods for enjoyment in order to gain weight. He's already decreased his soda intake and is drinking orange and apple juice. "It's probably more sugar than anything," he muses.

Christa needs to prioritize all her activities and learn what's important, what's OK to let slide and how to set effective boundaries. Already, in the first two weeks, she has made strides in her diet. "We were really potato people," she says, noting that she hasn't had one since starting the program. At Greene's urging, they're both incorporating more greens and kale specifically into their diet.

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Yorktown couple takes path to better health through life coaching