Lets use our imaginations for this - its a fun exercise! You go to the Dr because you have felt sick for a couple weeks and you just can’t seem to shake it. You make it to the surgery, sit in the waiting room until you see an angry looking Dr come out and bark your name without even looking up at you. You quickly jump out of your seat and follow them, rushing into their clinic room. Before you even have sat down, they say without even glancing from their computer:

“Why are you here?”

You reply that you have been feeling under the weather for a number of weeks and you can’t seem to get better. You feel uneasy, unsure if the Dr  has even looked at you.

The Dr keeps their head down. “ Do you know your white blood cell count? What is your sodium to potassium ratio? Are your leukocytes elevated?”

You don’t know the answer to these questions. You haven’t had a blood test in a long time and don’t know what these things even are.

“Doesn’t matter” the Dr says. "Its clearly Addison’s disease, your adrenals are probably suffering from adrenoleukodystrophy. You have cancer somewhere, you will need chemotherapy, radiation therapy and a list of these drugs. You can google the side effects but it won’t be pretty. You will receive your appointment schedule in the mail in a week or maybe two”.

Just like that, the Dr gets up and leaves for their next appointment. You sit there, frozen and stunned at what transpired. You are scared and alone.

Now this is a little exaggeration but what it does do is capture some of the emotions our clients feel when they come to see us. Our clients are often timid and self conscious - they are intimidated by us and feel like they won’t measure up to our standards. They don’t know exactly what they want to achieve, they just have a general idea. They will feel overwhelmed by the recommendation of macros or nutrition timing regimens and don’t understand the technical jargon we sometimes use when we are trying to impress clients. The end result of all this is they probably won’t feel motivated to follow the instructions and recommendations you have worked so hard to give. 

This is the behaviour so many trainers exhibit when dealing with their clients. I call it the Coach-Centred approach to coaching. It involves:

• Diagnosing issues and problems based on biases and dogma - “you eat too many carbs at night”
• There is no thoughtful assessment - it is often rushed and unpersonalised.
• Clients are overwhelmed with precise and numerous instructions.
• Clients are blamed for being lazy and unmotivated. 
• The recommendations may be too big of a change or far too complex. 

I once saw an example of this on social media that absolutely blew my mind. A well known personal trainer mentor had a video where a client did not eat meat and nuts for breakfast. It was apparently the clients fault for not being dedicated enough. For a number of reasons this is asinine, but the main thing that struck me was the absolute lack of care about what the client actually thought about the process.

We know by now that all nutrition plans can work in the presence of a calorie deficit. This is undeniable with all the evidence we have supporting it, so the inclusion of eating meat and nuts for breakfast is simply a pre-existing dogma that will make very little impact on that clients results. In fact, it would more than likely set people back in most cases, as they are both calorically dense foods and easy to overeat.

From a practical standpoint, most people do not have the time or the capability to actually cook a steak at breakfast time. This may be for a number of reasons, but the most important thing for any advice is to ensure it actually fits the client you are working with. This advice most certainly did not. 

A better approach for trainers to use with their clients is called the Client-Centred approach. In this approach towards coaching, we actively involve the client in the decision making process. It simply means respecting and helping to build the client’s dignity, autonomy, self-determination, self-efficacy, and self-expertise — they’re the authority about their own lives, not you.

And in fact, client-centered coaching makes clients more accountable and responsible, not less. This is analogous to setting your own goals - it feels awesome when you achieve them as opposed to achieving someones else. Here are some of the key things to do when coaching clients to ensure they feel good about what you do in each and every session:

• Involve the client in all decision making processes: They are the ones who are in charge, our job is to provide guidance and accountability.
• Share the highs but do not take the lows personally: Everyone will get better at different rates and sometimes clients don’t get results. This is ok. It is an opportunity for both of you to learn what works  for them and what doesn’t. Don’t beat yourself or your clients up if there are issues.
• Meet them where they are: Do not give macro tracking strategies to someone who has never followed a diet. Respect where they are at (we all started somewhere) and show them that they will not be judged. The Client Levels are a great tool here. 
• Focus on process, not outcomes: If a client can successfully implement a new habit, that is a win regardless of whether there is an immediate result on the scale. Celebrate that!

What we need as coaches is a tool to be able to do all this. We need to be able to see what people are doing and eating each day. Something that would be even more effective would be a tool to help us figure out the why behind when they eat and what they eat. That particular tool would be a real game changer for coaches.

Luckily for us that tool already exists. You have probably used it before. In fact, it has been around for decades. Are you ready to find out what it is?

The best tool for client centred coaching is a food journal.

A simple written, paper based food journal is one of the best coaching tools we can use for client centred decision making. When used correctly, a food journal can tell us:

• If any foods don’t work particularly well for that client. For example, they felt bloated after a certain food.
• Whether they eat when they are physically hungry or eat out of boredom, or another unmet emotional need.
• They don’t stop eating when satisfied or full.
• What effect different foods have on energy or mood.
• How certain foods and amounts of food affect their performance at work and in the gym.
• If they eat or not eat when under stress
• Much, much more. You are only limited by your ability to ask questions!

Now some clients may like to use some digital tools, or calorie and macronutrient tracking apps. These are fantastic tools which we can definitely use, but they may scare off some less tech savvy clients or people who aren’t yet ready to look at the numbers of nutrition. 

One benefit that everyone experiences when they first start a food journal is an increased degree of awareness of what they are actually consuming. This is in addition to the awareness that you know that if you eat something, you have to jot it down for the coach to see. This will lead to fat loss in nearly every case without having to worry about calories, just the simple development of food and portion awareness.

Habit Based and Client Centred Coaching is an amazing tool for helping your clients succeed. It is also an essential tool for people to learn for long term body compotiion. However, as the late, great Kobe Bryant said:

"Jobs not finished"

See you next week. 

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