Clients and nutrition

[Jordy1993]

Hi, im studying to become a personal trainer in Belguim.

The problem is the lack of a good course, i got one too study at home and its pretty bad. Ofcourse because of this i need to get some information elsewhere. So the question is..

How do i get clients to eat healthy ? I can imagine ppl not willing to give up on there oh so delicious unhealthy food and Soda drinks. So is there a special way of dealing with this ? i was thinking of doing it step by step, get them to drink more water and less soda and let them eat a couple healthy meals until they get used too it. then elimenate it out of there diet completely with maybe 1 cheat meal a week.

[SFT]

Hi, im studying to become a personal trainer in Belguim.

The problem is the lack of a good course, i got one too study at home and its pretty bad. Ofcourse because of this i need to get some information elsewhere. So the question is..

How do i get clients to eat healthy ? I can imagine ppl not willing to give up on there oh so delicious unhealthy food and Soda drinks. So is there a special way of dealing with this ? i was thinking of doing it step by step, get them to drink more water and less soda and let them eat a couple healthy meals until they get used too it. then elimenate it out of there diet completely with maybe 1 cheat meal a week.

People will either be ready to change, or not. I have clients that refuse to stop drinking alcohol excessively on the weekends. They aren't ready to change and there is nothing I can do for them. That is more of a psychological problem, or environmental - they need to hang around different types of people who don't sabotage their goals. I'm not saying drinking here and there is bad, but if you put down 1000+ Calories of drinks and eat a pizza, you aren't going to make progress. If your friends encourage you to do so right along with them, then they are part of the problem.

Soda and other non-alcohol liquid Calories are generally easier to stop. Let them know how many Calories this would save them per week and what that means in a month, or even a year. Also, provide alternatives and set an adherence goal. I told a client to switch to water and lime/lemon juice, and we set a goal of no more than 3 sodas per week (as opposed to 2 per day) and that he will continue this for a month. He actually hasn't had any soda after 4-5 weeks now.

Now that he has that habit down, I will move onto the next one. I like to approach it meal by meal. If I can get him to eat a consistently healthy lunch next, then that will be another win. His breakfast isn't terrible, so that isn't my first priority. I might have him switch to "light" bread slices that have half of the Calories. This is another 100 Calories/day he is cutting, or about 0.2 pound per week. If I have him control his serving size of potato chips, I might be able to make him cut another 150 Calories/day, so we'd be up to ~0.5 pounds per week of weight loss from two simple changes.

This approach can take 3-4 months before their diet really approaches anything that will look somewhat clean, but I believe that the long-term success will be much higher than if you change their diet completely on day one.

[JoeCannonMSCSCS]

In that case you can only do what you can do. Exercise alone is not enough to counter a bad diet as you know. Here is something I wrote about nutrition and fitness trainers that may help also http://helpforpersonaltrainers.com/p...rition-advice/

joe

[Ronin4help]

Hi, im studying to become a personal trainer in Belguim.

The problem is the lack of a good course, i got one too study at home and its pretty bad. Ofcourse because of this i need to get some information elsewhere. So the question is..

How do i get clients to eat healthy ? I can imagine ppl not willing to give up on there oh so deliciousI unhealthy food and Soda drinks. So is there a special way of dealing with this ? i was thinking of doing it step by step, get them to drink more water and less soda and let them eat a couple healthy meals until they get used too it. then elimenate it out of there diet completely with maybe 1 cheat meal a week.

The decision to eat healthy is an individual choice that cannot be forced onto someone. It's the same problem doctors have trying to get their patients to eat healthier or quit smoking.

[RevolutionFF]

It's a tough area. And it all boils down to habits.

Telling someone to do this and that, oh and that will all fail miserably. Most clients will be of low to medium motivation - that's why they are seeing a trainer in the first place.

You have to break habits down and start them off with habits that are challenging and productive.

For instance:

1) Eat 5 portions of vegetables a day.

If they cannot action that after two weeks you may want to make the habit simpler. If that does not work you may then try a new habit.

Generally the only people who will action multiple challenging habits at once are those who want results for a real reason, or in a short time. And in general once the special occasion has passed they will return back to square one. And throwing multiple habits at a low motivation client will almost certainly result in 100% failure.

You then come onto adherence. You need to keep the raised habit fresh in the front of their mind. This is where you need to discuss methods that are going to remind them to adhere. Adherence sheets, post it notes, alarms on phones, rubber band around wrist, fines etc. Whatever it is that is going to produce positive action. If something is actioned for long enough, it becomes a habit. If it isn't it doesn't.

[RevolutionFF]

Oh, and give a reason. By telling the client why they should do something, they are more likely to adhere.

For example:

I want you to eat 5 portions of vegetables a day BECAUSE the vitamins and minerals in the vegetables will improve your energy and health, that proteins/fats/carbs will not alone.

[Ronin4help]

Oh, and give a reason. By telling the client why they should do something, they are more likely to adhere.

For example:

I want you to eat 5 portions of vegetables a day BECAUSE the vitamins and minerals in the vegetables will improve your energy and health, that proteins/fats/carbs will not alone.

People don't eat poorly because they don't know better, they eat poorly because they're human beings with stressful lives.

[RevolutionFF]

People don't eat poorly because they don't know better, they eat poorly because they're human beings with stressful lives.

Yes, that is a reason. But research has shown that by giving a reason to do something gives a client more chance of adhering. Saying that they eat poorly because of stress is a cop out - client's would never get results if that was the case. If all your client's are stressed what are you going to do?

It is our jobs as trainers to give our clients bite size chunks towards a better lifestyle - as most are not ready for the big picture.

[Jordy1993]

People will either be ready to change, or not. I have clients that refuse to stop drinking alcohol excessively on the weekends. They aren't ready to change and there is nothing I can do for them. That is more of a psychological problem, or environmental - they need to hang around different types of people who don't sabotage their goals. I'm not saying drinking here and there is bad, but if you put down 1000+ Calories of drinks and eat a pizza, you aren't going to make progress. If your friends encourage you to do so right along with them, then they are part of the problem.

Soda and other non-alcohol liquid Calories are generally easier to stop. Let them know how many Calories this would save them per week and what that means in a month, or even a year. Also, provide alternatives and set an adherence goal. I told a client to switch to water and lime/lemon juice, and we set a goal of no more than 3 sodas per week (as opposed to 2 per day) and that he will continue this for a month. He actually hasn't had any soda after 4-5 weeks now.

Now that he has that habit down, I will move onto the next one. I like to approach it meal by meal. If I can get him to eat a consistently healthy lunch next, then that will be another win. His breakfast isn't terrible, so that isn't my first priority. I might have him switch to "light" bread slices that have half of the Calories. This is another 100 Calories/day he is cutting, or about 0.2 pound per week. If I have him control his serving size of potato chips, I might be able to make him cut another 150 Calories/day, so we'd be up to ~0.5 pounds per week of weight loss from two simple changes.

This approach can take 3-4 months before their diet really approaches anything that will look somewhat clean, but I believe that the long-term success will be much higher than if you change their diet completely on day one.

Thanks for the information, as i thought step by step is the way too go. I will probably get a better idea of the problem once i start training clients. But atleast i know how to get started now for sure.

[Ronin4help]

Hi, im studying to become a personal trainer in Belguim.

The problem is the lack of a good course, i got one too study at home and its pretty bad. Ofcourse because of this i need to get some information elsewhere. So the question is..

How do i get clients to eat healthy ? I can imagine ppl not willing to give up on there oh so delicious unhealthy food and Soda drinks. So is there a special way of dealing with this ? i was thinking of doing it step by step, get them to drink more water and less soda and let them eat a couple healthy meals until they get used too it. then elimenate it out of there diet completely with maybe 1 cheat meal a week.

What's the name of the course? I'd be interested in researching it.

[Jordy1993]

What's the name of the course? I'd be interested in researching it.

well its a belgium course so the language its written in is dutch. and the course is from a homeschool site. Though it has alot of information its kinda misses out on ways of training your clients and help them with nutrition. the only exercise chapter in it is called "functional training" featuring just medicine balls, BOSU balls and swiss balls and mini dumbells. Needles to say it kinda sucks, but i know alot about training and nutrition from reading articels and bieng on bodybuilding forums . Still im looking for a course or book about it but i have no idea where to find it.