This is why I love helping clients with nutrition. My favorite part of being a holistic health coach and fitness professional is helping women with nutrition. Nutrition is so complex and plays a role in everything we do.
Fat loss – nutrition.
Muscle gains – nutrition.
Energy – nutrition.
Hormones – nutrition.
Mood – nutrition.
Emotional coping – nutrition.
Self worth – nutrition.
During my 12 week 1:1 coaching program, #Commit2Fit, we go deep into nutrition. My goal over those 12 weeks are to help you get closer to your goals while teaching you how to make choices that will fuel your body to achieve those goals. I always want to leave my clients better off than when they started so working to improve their relationship with food and get to know themselves and their needs is really important.
Here are my four big reasons why I love helping clients with nutrition:
1. I love teaching and educating people about our body’s needs and what happens when we eat foods.
Our bodies are complex. To put things VERY simply, we need energy (calories) to function. However what that energy is made of is important. We have macro nutrients (carbs, protein and fat) that are valuable to our bodies’ functions. Those macronutrients are made up of micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, acids, enzymes, antioxidants, etc) that are vital to our bodies as well.
There’s also stuff in our food that can be harmful as well. There are food additives for taste, anti-caking and preservation, for example. Excess sugar can be bad. There are pesticides on our produce and hormones in our protein. These things can cause damage to our organs and becomes stressful to our digestive system and metabolism.
I could spend years teaching people about these things, so I try to teach as much as I can in 12 weeks.
During #commit2fit I aim to teach my clients:
- How much energy their body uses each day
- What purpose each macronutrient serves
- What our micronutrients do for us
- How to get as many micronutrients as possible
- How to get as little of the harmful stuff as possible
When we are educated and understand, we are more likely to make better choices. Better choices over a prolonged period of time will equate to results!
2. I love helping clients figure out the plan that works for them based on their needs.
Every human has incredibly different nutritional needs. Some things that can impact your nutritional needs are:
- Your hormonal needs (menopause including peri or post, PCOS, thyroid, adrenal fatigue, menstrual cycle, postpartum, etc)
- Your metabolic needs (impacted by age, hormones, muscle: fat ratio, lifestyle, diabetes, etc)
- Digestive needs (food allergies or intolerances, autoimmunity, histamine levels, digestive dysfunction, etc)
- Schedule (when you can eat, time you have to prep, etc)
- Things you like/ don’t like
- Availability (seasonality, financial or geographical accessibility, etc)
- Your goals
When I get a new client they fill out a five page document of questions so I can truly get to know them. As I guide them with a plan of how to eat, all of these things are considered.
No two people eat the same. I also encourage my clients to make their own choices. I do not tell you exactly what to eat. That choice should be made by you so you feel empowered and in charge. I simply educate and guide you to make the best decisions you can make for yourself.
3. I understand what it’s like to have a strained relationship with food and I enjoy helping clients improve theirs.
When I began my weight loss journey in my 20’s my understanding of food was to consume less calories than I expended. When I chose to get lean enough to compete in bikini shows I had to really manipulate my macros and eat even less though food quality and how I felt didn’t matter.
After getting so lean and having what I considered an amazing physique, it’s hard to not want to maintain that. I stopped seeing food for what it is- energy and medicine, and began viewing it as something I could manipulate to feel a sense of control, happiness and a way to make myself more desirable to others.
As a fitness professional, getting that lean made people hire me because they thought if I could get myself to look that way, I could do the same for them. I got compliments left and right. I associated that physique with so many benefits, so I associated food as what I could control to get me there.
Not to mention when other things aren’t going my way, hey, I could at least control food!
I also work with so many clients who use food to escape their emotions.
Have you ever eaten out of boredom?
Have you ever eaten because you’re actually sleepy and need to just go to bed?
Is it possible you want to dissociate from your lack of satisfaction in life so you eat instead of feel? You give yourself whole cheat days or view your diet as on or off?
If any of these resonate with you, working to improve your relationship with food may help you, and it’s something we can do in #commit2fit.
4. Helping a client get results is an even better feeling than when I get them on my own.
Some results clients achieve while working with me include:
- Learning to listening to their body’s signals/ trusting themselves
- Losing body fat
- Building muscle tone
- Regular poops
- Improved sleep
- More energy
- Better mood
- Decreased bloat
- Strength gains
The list goes on!
Through education, helping clients create awareness around their goals and what’s important, creating and maintaining healthy habits, setting and upholding boundaries and prioritizing the things that will help them achieve their goals, my clients have success.
Working with each individual to help them overcome adversity and ultimately have success is all I want and I’ll do whatever it takes to help my clients achieve this.
If you want to work with a coach that will do this with you, join #commit2fit online personal training now at commit2fitcoaching.com
Your Coach,
Kyra