I conclude this excellent 4-part series with Dr. Stuart Phillips with this week’s episode. This time, we discuss how protein is potentially associated with the acid-ash hypothesis, kidney failure, correlations with cancer and the potential roles it can and has played with COVID-19. A very special thanks again to Dr. Stuart for partaking in the series with me. Stay tuned next week for an all new 4-part series.
Before I get too far into this week’s post, let me get the simplified answer to this question out first: Calories are king. They determine if your weight is trending up, trending flat or trending down.
There is nuance to that statement, as minor deviations in how we eat can cause the scale to respond in somewhat unpredictable ways.
You may have heard that fat loss is not linear and even if you feel like you’re doing the right things to cause fat loss to occur, it can be helpful to track your scale weight via spreadsheet or a handy health app on your phone to see those numbers as data points. Remember that you’re mostly looking for trends over time.
For instance, let’s say you’ve chosen to weigh yourself once a week. One strategy would be to pick a mid-week weigh in, first thing in the morning after you pee and in your birthday suit. If you chart this number over several weeks, you may see that the weight is gradually moving down with the occasional small spikes up. This is normal (assuming that you are eating relative to your goals and are staying active).
In this week’s post, I wanted to highlight a host of factors relating to both quantity and quality of food intake that can help you succeed with fat loss. Every individual trying to lose fat mass is bringing a different set of social, psychological and physical obstacles to the table which is why there is no one-size-fits-all method for success.
Let’s attack quantity first:
Measurements
If you want the most accurate methods of determining how much you’re eating, the skill that matters most is how you’re measuring food intake. This can be done in a variety of ways. You can work with the labels and serving sizes on the foods you eat and calculate your totals. In other words, if you’re eating a single serving of Greek yogurt, you might find that the label says 150 calories per serving. If one container is one serving, this can be an accurate way of adding up your calories in a given day. Be aware that food labels do NOT have to be 100% accurate and small discrepancies can occur. However, let’s assume you’re trying to hit a calorie goal of 1800 calories a day to lose weight. You can use your phone to take pictures of what you eat in a day or simply notate what each label says and add up your daily totals. This is where pre-packaged foods can be helpful because the numbers should at least be close if listed on the labels and the food manufacturer has done some of the work for you.
You can also elect to use measuring spoons and cups. Again, this is not a perfect estimation of calories. Depending on the food, a serving size by cup or spoon may not equate to the weight of a given food and you may find yourself over or under in calories because the weight of a food has not been determined. Foods that are easy to overeat like nut butters or added oils can be closer to accurately tracked when they’re leveled and measured against a measuring spoon. Too many dieters slip themselves up with calorie control when they opt to eyeball their food intake.
The most accurate (and the most time-consuming) method for measuring is weighing your food. Digital food scales should suffice and are not expensive. Be aware that, when consuming meats, you’ll want to weigh your food raw and not cooked, as the weight will change after a meat has been cooked.
As any degree of measurement is going to arguably be the most time consuming effort, many dieters won’t take the steps to do so OR they may not be mentally ready to try or stay consistent with it.
What else can work?
Food Tracking
I touched on this in the previous point but due to the wonders of technology, you have several different ways to track your food intake. You can use pen and paper, a tracking app (MyFitnessPal, Lose It, MyPlate, etc.) or you can just take pictures of everything you eat and drink (except water). Caution should be given to not track at the end of the day. You are more likely to forget what you consumed especially if you have a tendency to graze or snack frequently. Approach this tactic with candor, as many dieters will not track things they believe “don’t count”. However, every bite, nibble, and handful counts and while it may not matter as much to the individuals who have more calories to play with, it can be the death knell to those who have lower calorie totals to shoot for.
I also need to state that food tracking apps, while helpful, can also be fraught with errors. To minimize those errors, you will have closer to accurate numbers with “verified” options. Be aware that, in many cases, knowing the measured size of a food may still be necessary. For instance, you could go through a McDonald’s drive-thru and order a Big Mac which is made the exact same way in every location in the continental U.S. When you try to track that Big Mac in the tracking app, you should find that the option is identical to what the McDonald’s menu says. However, if you were to construct a similar burger with your own food at home, the size/type of the bun, type of cheese, condiments, and the size of the burger patty could differ dramatically and end up with a much higher or lower calorie total. This is where measuring can be very eye-opening (and equally frustrating if your eyes betrayed you).
While not perfect (nothing is), food tracking can provide some insight to help you reduce what you eat in the span of the day by helping you be more mindful of intake.
Feeding Frequency
I love this tactic, even though, like anything, it can be problematic. Let’s say you want to track your food but you’re not entirely sure how to reduce intake without counting calories. One of my newer clients has been seeing success with this strategy. I had him take a picture of everything he ate in the span of one day. To his benefit, he did so accurately and, due to the nature of his busy job, he ate pre-packaged foods and drinks. This allowed us to see how many calories and macronutrients were in each of his food selections. While we could certainly argue whether he was making “healthy” choices, it appeared he was having far too many “feedings” in one day.
To clarify, I use the term “feeding” for any time you’re consuming a meal or snack that has calories in it.
In his case, he had 9 feedings in one day. This was all meals, all snacks, and all drinks that had calories in them. I told him to reduce his feedings from 9 to 6 and see what the scale said after a week’s worth of efforts.
The downside to this, is that you can reduce the frequency of feedings BUT you could increase the size of the remaining feedings. If you’re trying to stay in an intake deficit, the other feedings have to remain basically the same size if fat loss is the goal.
Portion Distortion
Many of us have a very skewed idea of what an appropriate serving of food looks like. We can thank the restaurants we frequent for part of this problem. While many chain restaurants have started to post the calorie totals of their food options, this is less likely to be available for mom-and-pop restaurants. As a result, we really have no idea how many calories are in the lasagna from the local Italian place versus a chain like Olive Garden (sadly, both options are still going to be too much food for the average person trying to lose weight).
If you’d like a sobering look at what an appropriate size of say, pasta, might be, try checking out the frozen dinner section of your grocery store. Pick up a 500 calorie (or so) TV dinner and compare that size against what Olive Garden might give you. Restaurants frequently serve 2-3x an appropriate portion for a fat loss individual. While I would love to give you a blanket recommendation like: just eat at home instead of from restaurants and you’re guaranteed to lose weight! The pandemic was a glaring snapshot of how inaccurate that advice might be. Even when many of us were eating at home and preparing our own meals, we were still finding ways to overconsume (as evidenced by what many called, gaining the “COVID-19 pounds!”)
With fat loss as the goal, look at portion sizes of your typical servings and try dialing them down, this could include eating on smaller plates than normal, not having seconds or simply reducing the size of what you would “normally” eat.
Carb Manipulation
My last point on quantity control is one that is a bit more divisive of a topic. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that both carbs and fat have been under fire for the rise in obesity. Low carb dieting has been around for eons and, there is still nothing really new under the sun when it comes to diet strategies. However, carbs hold water and they contribute to what many experience when they go from their “standard way of eating” which likely led to their weight gain to begin with, and flip to a low carb style of dieting.
Assume you’re currently consuming a diet that is 60% carbohydrate intake (which is not uncommon in the U.S.) and you feel that carbs are to blame for your weight gain. You elect to drop your carb intake significantly which (at least in the short term) A) reduces your calorie intake B) removes the macronutrient that holds the most water.
This tactic contributes to short term weight loss that might be upwards of 5, 10 or more pounds of scale weight that you see. Much of this is what people call “water weight” and that rate of loss will not continue indefinitely. Ultimately, the body will stabilize with this new norm of carb intake and calories may streamline to a new normal as well. Unless you significantly increase calories from fat or protein, your weight of loss will be slower than it was initially when you made that dramatic carb shift.
Reducing carbohydrates is certainly one way to reduce total calories assuming you don’t make up that deficit with any other food options. Remember that the body still has to be in an energy deficit to continue with fat loss. If you wildly swing carb intake on a daily or weekly basis, you can get a false read on the scale that may make you think you’ve “gained fat” when actually you’ve “gained water weight”. To minimize the effects of this, try and keep carbohydrate intake roughly the same when dieting. You may want to have slightly higher intake on more active days and slightly less on more sedentary days.
While not exhaustive, the points you read above all contribute to how we view and react to the quantity of food that we eat. Any of those points can be utilized for fat loss success but what if quantity is not where you feel you can place your direct focus.
Does food quality matter?
Food Intolerances/Thresholds
Part of what I’m writing here is evidence-based and part is anecdotal. Please consider the observational mentions and take them with a grain of salt (pun intended). We live in a day and age where many people have legitimate, diagnosed food allergies. As such, a person with celiac disease (for instance) may not be able to consume gluten without becoming ill. Their diet has to reflect no consumption of gluten but caution should also be given that some “gluten-free” products can be higher in calorie than the options with gluten in them.
My wife has been lactose intolerant all of her life, however, when we started dating about twelve years ago, she could consume cheese with no ill effect, small, infrequent servings of ice cream or yogurt, cottage cheese and butter. This was likely due to the fact that those dairy options were manufactured in ways that the enzymes presented little negative effect in her body. Over the last several months, she has noticed more severe reactions to dairy. We have had to remove butter, ice cream, cheese, milk, etc. completely or she is bent over in pain within an hour of consuming those foods. She can have very small servings of Greek yogurt and some whey proteins but that’s it. She not only had to consider food intolerance of lactose containing foods but also the consideration that anything beyond a certain serving size could also make her ill. As a result, removing those foods from her diet has contributed to a reduction in total caloric intake for her.
It stands to reason that if you are (or develop) an allergic/adverse reaction to a food, paying attention to food selection can stand to benefit you with goals of fat loss. Touching on a point I made above, if you remove a food or food group from the diet, replacing it with more of something else runs the potential of taking you out of an energy deficit which will stall your fat loss progress.
A last point I’ll mention is a personal one on this note. Several years ago, I went to the grocery store and bought a regular loaf of whole wheat bread. I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich the next day and within an hour or so of eating it, I felt unusually tired. I wasn’t entirely sure why. The next day, I made another PB&J sandwich with the same ingredients and had the same effects. I had never had an issue consuming breads before and was not sure what the issue was. Rather than assuming I had developed a gluten intolerance, I decided to purchase a sprouted grain bread (like Ezekiel) and tried that for my PB&J sandwich. The problem did not occur. Since then, I have tried to focus on sprouted grain or organic breads for sandwiches. I don’t want to give any more weight to that than what is necessary. Only that I’m glad I didn’t throw the “baby out with the bathwater” by making a hasty assumption that all gluten would make me tired.
Emotional Attachment
This is a tricky one. After well over a decade of coaching the diets of my clients, I feel we’re never going to get away from the concept that the determining factor of fat loss success comes from our emotions regarding food.
For example, one person may have been raised to associate sweet, hyper-palatable foods with love. They were raised in a family where someone would make cookies, pies, and cakes as a showing of love in the household. As a result, when the same person grows up, they indulge in cookies, pies and cakes to “feel loved”. However, these foods are tremendously difficult to moderate and control in reasonable portions. It stands to reason, that if we’re easily stressed, feeling over-worked, otherwise neglected in life, in the shoes of this individual we would turn to sweets to fill the void. Can you see where this would be problematic with fat loss?
Learning how to show love or create feelings of self-love for ourselves that aren’t reflected in food choice can be a huge win. Determine what other areas of your life can make you feel good that don’t have a calorie attached to them. Maybe it’s a bubble bath, a pedicure, a massage or a hike.
Also related would be the feelings surrounding food virtues and shoving food into categories of “good” vs. “bad” and “healthy” vs. “unhealthy”. When we give food these definitions, we encourage self-shaming and self-sabotage around them. I’ve seen just as many clients screw themselves by (over)eating healthy nuts and organic foods as I have clients who have done the same kind of damage by (over)eating “junk” foods like pizza, French fries and ice cream. The “poison is in the dose” as they say, and too much is still too much.
When we can remove the negative or counterproductive emotions from our food choices, we can learn to incorporate the foods and the sizes that work most appropriately for our lives and our dietary preferences.
Food Feelings
This is another subjective measurement of how to consider food relative to fat loss goals and make better decisions accordingly.
Take note of how certain foods make you feel. As I noted in my personal anecdote above, a certain type of bread made me feel lethargic and bloated. Most people don’t go out of their way to have those feelings.
When you look at how certain foods make you feel: groggy, bloated, cranky, or otherwise unsatisfying, make a list and start to remove or significantly reduce the occurrence of those foods in the diet. For one person, this might be pizza and for another person, it might be alcohol. Pay attention to the signals your body gives you when you consume certain foods and drinks and learn to reduce those options because they don’t make you feel better after you eat them.
Not every person will associate with these feelings and this is okay as well. Some people are just more sensitive to certain foods and combinations of foods than others and by learning and adhering to this process of elimination, they can also see fat loss success.
The Case Against Processed Foods?
I wish it wasn’t this way but certain foods are “custom built” for overconsumption. Think about foods like chips, crackers, dips, condiments, sweets and any other savory combinations. There’s a reason why these types of foods can be eaten easily, quickly, and in large amounts without our bodies ever really registering a sense of fullness and satiety. This is why you’ll frequently hear coaches and dietitians advocate for whole, minimally processed foods where applicable.
Consuming a baked potato with a little bit of salt and pepper for seasoning is going to have a much different effect than a container of French fries which were also seasoned with salt and pepper. Of course, let’s assume that calories have been matched for both: you have a measured baked potato that comes out to 300 calories and 300 calories worth of French fries. Which do you believe would be more satisfying and which one would leave you more hungry?
While it would be unrealistic to assume that you’ll never eat processed foods again, you may have to develop more self-awareness of what foods you easily overeat in comparison with foods you don’t overdo it with. This is another area where the focus on food quality can be helpful in moderating overall food consumption.
Other Determining Factors
Taking all of these concepts of food quantity and food quality into consideration, I’d be remiss by not mentioning other areas of your life which can directly influence how much you eat and your choice of foods.
–Sleep: There’s a strong correlation between lack of sleep and poor food choices the day after. We might be more inclined to increase sugary caffeinated drinks, high sugar/high salt foods, and an increase in portion sizes because we’re too tired to self-regulate what we’re eating. If you focus on better sleep hygiene, predictable sleep patterns, and more restful sleep, your food intake may improve by default.
–Stress: If you identify as someone who reacts to stress (of any nature) by turning to food, it can be helpful to explore new coping mechanisms. If every week of your life is associated with high stress and you’re not succeeding with fat loss, chances are, food is the only (or major) solution for handling that stress. As a result, you have the stress of your current lifestyle factors PLUS the stress of not succeeding at fat loss compounding each other. I don’t know about you but this sounds like a recipe for disaster. Recognize other areas of your life that bring you happiness or reduce stress that aren’t associated with food intake to disrupt this behavioral pattern.
–Chronic, Intense Exercise: For all the amazing benefits of exercise for the body, I have to mention that while “some is good”, “more” is not necessarily better. The more exercise we do OR the more intensely we train, the greater potential we have of driving up our hunger signals. We also run the risk of rewarding ourselves with extra food because we worked hard and we feel like we deserve the extra calories. This is frequently a losing proposition. Do exercise that makes you feel good, refreshed and leaves you with something in the tank. If you find that exercise makes you ravenous you may actually be doing more harm than good when it comes to aligning with your fat loss goals.
When people say that losing weight is “simple, not easy”, you have a lot of areas in your life to consider that make that statement ring true. It’s never as “simple” as calories in, calories out even though the math (done appropriately) works out over time. Use this article as a reference when you feel that not everything is as dialed in as it could be and revisit areas that may need closer attention.
Pictured below: Twinkies and Bananas. Do you focus on quality or quantity (or both)?
Dr. Stuart Phillips is back this week as we continue with Part 3 in a 4-Part series. This week, we tackle the role of protein and resistance training with regard to the aging individual. We discuss why protein needs differ as we age, considerations between genders and gender related differences with aging, why resistance training remains so important as we get older and diet philosophies which can help us live our best lives beyond youth.
There was a certain amount of independence that came from us being opposites.
You had your life, your passions and your career that were so different than mine, that it didn’t matter if we didn’t have a lot in common.
We loved each other and that got us through a lot.
We took each struggle that came our way, and they were numerous, and they came early and we just kept pushing forward.
As time passed, that independence, that same thing that seemed almost a benefit to each of us because it allowed us to operate in our own little spheres of the world began to put distance between us.
It wasn’t a conscious thing. It was…you’re over there thriving and I’m over here thriving and, although we didn’t really know how to understand what the other was going through, we were supportive, if not simply distant…until that chasm opened.
It almost felt as if a force we weren’t totally aware of was starting to work against us. When you adapt to a certain life of obstacles and overcoming them, you develop a resistance that can be equally empowering and destructive.
And it became both for us.
You look back and you start to ask yourself…in hindsight, how exactly did we function?
We had a marriage, we had a child, we had our jobs, and the marriage became just that thing we were attached by, not completely involved in.
And when that hole opened up and damn near swallowed us both, we each had to step back and ask: what’s left?
The answer became clear…although not immediately…we are what’s left.
So, we started to pull that gap closer and it took time and it took tears and it took trust and it took being able to look at each other and say: I know we’ve changed over these years, but there’s something good here and we need to find that again.
We are still opposites. You have your life that is very different than what it was when we met. Mine is, very similar, but amplified exponentially and we took that chasm and narrowed it, sealing it closed.
Our life, when together, has turned into something of shared experience. We find the few things we know we enjoy together, that we enjoy doing as “us” instead of as one coming along for the ride, and we do them as often as possible.
I never wanted to change you. I loved you as you were, I just didn’t know how to relate to you beyond loving you.
However, the chasm taught us a lot.
While the life we have lived through these years has served to push and pull us in equal measure, we’re still here holding the same hands, looking through the same sets of eyes, sharing something that I think surpasses what either of us thought we were capable of. Well, maybe you knew we were capable of it…I sometimes miss those details.
Today, and each day forward, remains about the memories we’re creating, many of which we are making with just the two of us and many of which with the children who have been a part of our story.
I am back with Part 2 of this 4-part series with Dr. Stuart Phillips. We continue our conversation on protein after last week’s primer episode with the roles protein can play in exercise. In this episode, we talk about nutrient timing, considerations for smaller or larger doses of protein at one time, how and if the type of exercise you do is affected by protein intake, considerations for whole food sources versus supplementation, and how the type of training you do correlates with muscle protein synthesis.
I recently brought on an intern to our coaching roster and, similar to many of my hires over the last few years, Nick came from the Exercise Physiology program at Kent State University.
To date, I’ve had some really great experiences with all of the students who have come over to help me and, thus far, all of them have become paid coaches beyond their intern experience.
Nick and I were having breakfast the other day and I was asking him about his studies. He plans to graduate later this year and, in addition to interning with us, he’s working at a box gym in the area where he has the ability to build clientele of his own.
As part of that onboarding process, I was curious what type of training they had given him to help him grow that clientele. He said that there was little to no training in that regard. As a result, he was basically winging it when it came to building his roster.
I thought back to what client consultations have looked like for me over the years and how things have evolved. Much of what I’m sharing with you today (as fellow coaches) I was also discussing with Nick in efforts to help him be successful with client consults too.
While I am certain there are always things I could improve on, I’ve found a general system that has worked well for me in not only “closing sales” but developing rapport and helping to forge a path for client success should the client elect to get started with us.
Most of this will apply to in-person trainers but my fellow online coaches may find some insight they could swipe for their own uses.
I’ll refer to the client as PC (potential client) moving forward since, for the purposes of this article, there is no guarantee they will join as members.
Pre-Consultation Expectations
Depending on how a PC has found me (Facebook, Instagram, Website, Email, Client Word Of Mouth), I am normally contacted first by them. They could be inquiring about prices, the layout of the sessions and possibly their own scheduling concerns. Once we’ve covered those items, I will ask if they have time to come in for a formal consultation. I remind them that most of my consultations last approximately an hour and are free of charge. If the PC is coming to me primarily for fat loss, these sessions can run an hour or longer. If they are coming to me for general strength training, they are likely much faster consults because we’re not spending as much time covering nutrition.
Some PCs ask if they need to bring any particular clothing (with the assumption that they will be working out in addition to the consult). I don’t do this often but if we were to go directly from consult to a training session, it could be due to timing constraints and how quickly the PC wants to get started.
The Environment
Nearly all of my business as a trainer happens face-to-face. While I do have online clients, it is not the demographic I aggressively market towards. If an in-person PC has scheduled a consult with me, that’s typically happening at RevFit.
When the PC comes in the door, we typically have music playing (house music, rock, etc) and there may or may not be other training sessions happening at that time.
I introduce myself, welcome the PC into the studio, introduce them to anyone else who may be in the studio and ask if they’d like a cup of water before we begin.
My office sits off of the training floor so if there are no other sessions happening, we can keep the door to the office open. If training is in session, I’ll close the door so we’re less likely to be interrupted.
I’ve always appreciated a less formal approach to consultations but I do like the warmth of a well-lit room and open space between the PC and myself. I used to have a desk set-up which allowed that openness by default. However, I recently changed my desk position and it closes off part of the room. Now, when I handle consults, I bring a separate chair in front of my desk so that nothing is standing between myself and the PC.
I have a questionnaire that is already printed and waiting on a clipboard in the office. I’ll typically ask the PC to spend a few moments filling those pages out. I’ll discuss more detail about the questionnaire shortly.
In addition to the clipboard with the questionnaire, I’ll have another clipboard handy with a blank sheet in case they would like to take notes during the consult.
Depending on the person, some PCs are already actively engaged in some small talk while they’re filling out the questionnaire. I try my best to remember anything pertinent that might apply to who they are and what they currently have on their plate (life stressors, work/life balance, scheduling around kids/family, etc). If something sticks out to me, I’ll take some notes on the questionnaire once they’ve finished it.
The Questionnaire
I have opted to go a particular route with my questionnaire. There are many questions I prefer for the PC to answer on their own which may or may not need a great deal of background. There are other questions I save to ask that are not on the questionnaire. I’ll break these down accordingly.
On the questionnaire
Date
Name
Address
Phone Number
Birthdate
Email Address (if they would like to be on our weekly newsletter)
Do you have any current ailments or injuries that should be taken into account before exercising?
Have you had any injuries in the past which required surgery? If so, what happened?
Have you ever been a member of a gym? If so, which gyms and how did you like your experience there?
Have you ever had a personal trainer before? If so, what did you like/dislike about their approach and methods of training?
Are you currently on any medications? If so, which medications and what conditions are they used to treat?
Do you drink alcohol? If so, what do you drink (beer, wine, hard liquor) and how often?
Do you use any recreational drugs? If so, which do you use and how often?
Do you smoke cigarettes? If so, how many and how often?
I also have a checklist of items which may be of interest to the PC that they can select if it’s part of their goals. These include:
-fat loss
-lean muscle gain
-dietary advice
-better endurance
-proper form when exercising
-more agility
-stress relief
-lifestyle change
-improved social life
-higher self-esteem/self-worth
It’s not uncommon for some clients to select all of these options.
On the last page of the questionnaire is where we have a breakdown of our pricing, how we accept payment, other services we offer such as: on the go workouts, grocery store tours, pantry/kitchen interventions, and continued nutrition coaching (beyond the consult)
The last section asks that should the PC not elect to join today, if they could list any pertinent reasons why.
Off the questionnaire
These are the questions I will ask that are not listed. I feel this allows me to develop better rapport and understanding of who the PC is and what makes them tick.
Verification of age
Height
Current weight
If there is any family history (maternal/paternal) of high blood pressure, high cholesterol or Type II diabetes. If so, what side and what conditions?
If it’s a female PC: are you currently peri-menopausal or menopausal?
How are you sleeping? (If sleep is not adequate) Is there anything contributing to the current sleep patterns?
On a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being not noticeable and 10 being intolerable, where is stress for you?
If the PC is coming in for fat loss, I’ll ask for a 24-hour recall of the diet (everything they’ve had to eat or drink in the last approximate 24 hours).
These are the questions which I believe open up the most dialogue. If a PC is not coming to me for fat loss, we generally do not cover nutrition in depth and I may only be answering more in-depth questions about how and when we train and what they could expect if they join.
If the PC is coming in for fat loss, I describe a handful of different options we can use to help them reach their fat loss goals. Prior to COVID, I would use a tape measure and a handheld BIA monitor to submit into our client tracking software. I currently use BodyEvolver PT Pro and it’s worked very well for my needs. I know there are a host of different software offerings out there but this one does what I need it to. This software allows me to calculate caloric estimates and macronutrient goals so that the more data-conscious PCs have more detailed information to work with.
However, because of COVID, not every PC has wanted me in close quarters doing tape measures, so we have been focusing more on behavioral changes and diet tweaks to still get to the same end goal of fat loss. This is where the 24-hour recall can be helpful.
Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover
I’ve heard horror stories of trainers who incorrectly assumed a PC was coming to them for fat loss and treated them accordingly. Not every person who “appears” to need fat loss is coming in for that goal. Many PCs are perfectly happy at their current weight, and unless specified in the pre-consultation stage or in the questionnaire, I’d suggest you only service the goals they’re asking specifically for.
Problem Solving Trumps Sales Hacks
I have been in some aspect of sales since I was 16 years old. I will be 46 this year which gives me three decades of learning a great deal of brilliant and not-so-savory sales practices. I try my best to not “sell” our services. It’s my goal when a PC is talking to me to simply help them solve their health related problems (assuming they are within my scope of practice).
I also do what I can to overdeliver with information.
With fat loss, my goal is to give someone enough information and wisdom that even if they decided not to join, they could still see success with. Fat loss works most efficiently through dietary changes and, it’s my belief, that the average fat loss seeking PC needs better eating skills.
Regardless of what obstacle a client is trying to overcome, it’s my job to come up with a solution (sometimes several of them). When appropriate, I might also reference other client scenarios which might be similar as a way of showing that:
A) We’ve worked with that type of scenario
B) The PC is not alone in going through it.
For instance, if a PC has a history of shoulder pain, I’ll ask what type of movements aggravate that joint. As the PC is describing those movements, I will make note of movements I believe will be a lower risk of injury for them and discuss some options I think we can utilize to help them train more effectively. I might also use another client as a reference point who also struggles with shoulder pain and how we were able to help them.
When I first started in this industry, I took every single client I could possibly take on. Over the last several years, I’ve found my comfort zone with who I like to work with and who I believe I can do the best job for. If I don’t feel I’m the right fit, I will refer to someone who I think can do a better job than I can.
I’ve found that as long as I can continue to offer reasonable solutions to what a PC is struggling with, I don’t have to “sell” anything. The service, at that point, basically sells itself. I should add that if the PC has been referred in from an existing client, this is one less obstacle to overcome in the selling process.
There are a lot of books out there about how to sell and I would never say they don’t have effective tools. What I will say is that I know how I feel as a consumer and if I were the PC, I would want the person providing the service to listen to my concerns and provide realistic solutions. It’s simple…it’s not easy (kind of like dieting).
Be Painfully Honest
If you’ve been in this industry for any amount of time, you’ll know that some clients have unrealistic expectations of what their bodies can and can’t do. You might answer questions such as: “Do you think I can get down to “X” weight?” or “How quickly can I lose twenty pounds?” You might also answer questions like: “Will I be able to run like I did in my twenties?” or “Do you think I can bench press what I did in college?”
I’ve become really accustomed to responding with: “I don’t know”, “I’m not sure”, and the industry favorite “It depends”. However, more detail has to be given to help a client understand why there is no black-and-white, one-size-fits-all solution to those questions.
What I do know is that human behavior is messy, unpredictable and goals can change on a dime. The more you know about your PC, the better answers you can provide by helping them understand if the goals are realistic and achievable and how you might be able to get them closer to reaching said goals.
I don’t blow any smoke in consultations. If a PC wants to know how I feel about the keto diet, I’ll tell them. I’ll give them pros and cons based on what I’ve learned to date and what I’ve seen happen in real life within the four walls of RevFit. The more accurate and honest I can be, the better we can have a mutual understanding. If a PC is very closely aligned with a dietary philosophy (for instance, veganism), I try to show them how to keep that diet in line with their physique goals. I never suggest a PC to eat like I do so they can look like I do. For the record, most PCs don’t want to look like me. I’m a skinny bastard!
What If They Don’t Immediately Sign Up?
Years ago, I worked for a computer company, who, at the time, only sold their computers via phone. I worked in one of their call centers and it was one of the most stressful jobs I’ve ever had. However, I heard a term back then that still applies today: close rate.
Your close rate is essentially how many leads you sign compared to how many come in for consultations. In my case, I average an 85-90% close rate. Using simple math, let’s just say that I’ll sign 9 out of every 10 people who come through my door.
Sometimes, a PC will appear to be interested in the services but they will need to verify the expense with a spouse or family member. I encourage them to do so. Some coaches might do an immediate follow-up within the next 24-48 hours but I typically do not. If I have done my job during the consultation and answered their questions to the best of my ability, even if the PC does not sign up on the day of the consult, they will usually circle back to do so later.
Every so often, I’ll have a PC who simply does not sign up.
I don’t worry too much over this. While I know that I could take it on the chin that someone truly does not want to join in, I make the assumption that something I said was not the solution they wanted, perhaps the cost of joining was not financially feasible for them, or they found another facility that was a better fit. If my close rate was significantly lower, I would start to dissect how I handle my consultations. I might also look for a mentor to help me understand where I could improve my consultation skills. It might also be beneficial to record consultations (with the approval of the PC) so that you can listen back and see how you might have answered some questions better or provided more appropriate solutions.
If a PC does not sign immediately, it is not a direct indication of anything you did wrong. There may be other factors at play which are out of your control that affected their decision or delay in joining. One thing that has been helpful for me goes back to something in the questionnaire. Since you’ve asked for their permission of email use, you can put the PC on your mailing list and they can see your correspondence. When a better time comes for the PC to join, you would be the top of mind selection.
In Closing
If a PC signs up, explain to them the process for getting on the schedule for their first session. Thank them for the opportunity to work together and let them know anything else you believe they’ll need to know before officially starting. Before they leave, ask them if there is anything else they need from you in between the conclusion of the consult and the next session together.
If a PC does not sign up, thank them for taking the time to meet. Ask them if there are any other questions you could help with. Let them know that you are available when/if they need and you look forward to any opportunity to help.
Much like crafting the ideal workout regimen or meal template, consultations can go a host of different directions and still have positive outcomes. Continue learning how to provide a warm environment, a glimpse of who you are as the coach so the PC knows who they will be investing their time and money with, and offer solutions that make sense for that person and what they bring to the table. The process will never be perfect and there will routinely be things that you think of outside of the consultation that could have been explained or expressed better. Use those opportunities to improve your skills so that the next PC can benefit from the service you have to provide.
Below you see me with my longtime client and friend, Randy. Randy was one of my first clients around 11 years ago. He and his partner moved out of state and we remained in contact all those years. When they moved back to the area, Randy came back into the fold with us and it’s been a really amazing experience having him back here.
The goal with any consultation is to not only help your PC live a healthier life but, in the case of Randy and myself, hopefully forge a lifelong friendship of camaraderie and support (even outside of gym walls).
I begin the next 4-part series of the show with a guest who needs little introduction within the fitness/nutrition industry: Dr. Stuart Phillips from McMaster University. Dr. Stuart has arguably done more research on protein and the intersection of exercise with its use than anyone else I know. We kick off the series with a primer of sorts and start building the foundation for the following three episodes together. In this episode we discuss why protein is important, considerations for dosages, the potential downsides to protein use, how animal and plant based proteins differ, amino acid profiles, leucine thresholds and why protein works for dieting. You won’t want to miss any of these!
Over the past week, two people have reached out to me on the topic of addiction. I won’t get into a lot of specifics with that because it’s a different aspect of addiction for each of them and how it’s currently affecting their families.
When people ask me about my past with addiction, more specifically, how I overcame it, there are always a few of places I feel I have to offer with a disclaimer.
–My story is my own and what got my life turned around won’t be the same for another
–I am still an addict although my addictions are “safer” by comparison
–No one changes until they’re ready
The last part is more important than the first two.
I know, throughout the time I’ve had this blog, that I’ve covered a lot about addiction, abuse, rehab, etc. Every time I write about these things, I have to dig deep and re-open some wounds to flesh out details that sometimes I wish didn’t exist. Not because I live in regret, mind you. I don’t regret the things that have happened to me, I do regret the people who I’ve hurt along the way because of those things.
To tell a story in a slightly different way, I’ll start here:
I was raised by two parents who did absolutely everything in their God-given power to give me a good, loving, healthy, supportive life. They were not perfect parents (that doesn’t exist) but there was not a day in my life where I felt unloved or uncared for by my parents.
Nevertheless, traumatic and damaging things have happened to me and I’ve caused my fair share of damage (to myself and others) on my own.
I write these words mid-way through the 4th decade of my life. Much of what I’ve come to understand about my life, has only happened in the last few years. In other words, there was a narrative I crafted along the way that wasn’t always accurate. A narrative which, incorrectly, made me think: You’re like this because of that.
I was wrong.
What I’ve come to discover is that nearly every bad event in my life (save for a few) has been a conscious or unconscious reaction to being sexually abused when I was around the age of 5 or 6.
I did a fantastic job of blocking that event in my mind through most of my adolescence, never telling my parents until I was near the end of high school.
We also moved around a lot. My father was a lifelong Goodyear employee and we were transferred to different states and one different country through all of my childhood. As a result, my parents were often my closest friends, as each move would cause me to uproot, leave friends behind, make new friends and then move again and repeat the process.
One upside was a greater exposure to different cultures, experiences and lifestyles that most people could never appreciate. I’m always fascinated by people who spend the first 18, 25, 35 years of their life in basically the same town. By time I had graduated high school, I had lived in 4 different states (Tennessee, Oklahoma, Ohio and Texas) and one other country (Brasil).
A downside to all of that moving around was the feeling that I never really “fit in” anywhere. I wasn’t the smartest, I wasn’t the most athletic, and I wasn’t the best looking. I was chronically the new kid until I got settled and then it was back to being the new kid again.
When I came to terms with the whole sexual abuse situation, I was in my junior or senior year of high school and I had my eye on college in a different state (graduating high school in Ohio and looking to go back to Tennessee for college).
College was, for me, much like it is for a lot of young adults; a chance at liberation and starting a new life without being under the roof of my parents. I didn’t really stir up a lot of trouble in college initially, I was too busy with girlfriends and making music that I didn’t really have time to get into mischief.
That all came to a grinding halt in 1996. I went through a rough breakup, was tossed out of band I started because I wasn’t “Christian” enough and that’s where things started to go haywire for me.
In 1996, I was hospitalized 4 times for suicide threats and suicidal ideation. I was misdiagnosed by the doctors who treated me and continued to suffer negative side effects of prescription medications that I never should have been on to begin with.
I should state, for clarity, that some people legitimately need medication as that will provide them their best life. To those individuals: stay the course, trust your doctor unless you believe you are not living an improved life and, if that’s the case, find a doctor you can trust. This make take time, patience and a great degree of trial and error.
After my third hospitalization that year, I started turning to street drugs. I was forced to drop out of college because I couldn’t function on the prescriptions I was given. Some say that weed is a gateway drug and that might not be the case for others, but it was for me.
Couple that with the fact that the “rave” scene was picking up steam in Ohio and it was a perfect storm of events for me: an imbalanced mental state, prescription drugs, street drugs and a plethora of people to mingle with at these parties. I was having a blast (relatively speaking) at 20 years of age (just shy of my 21st birthday).
I call my 20’s the “lost decade” because I would remain addicted to street drugs right up until I turned 30 years old. That wasn’t planned, it’s just the way it happened.
Early on, my drug use compounded so quickly and my tolerance level grew so fast that I had to start dealing drugs to afford my habit. I almost always had a full time job so there was at least a cover for my less than savory behavior outside of work. And, early on, I knew how to separate work from pleasure. I’d go to work clean and sober and engage in all the other behavior after my shifts and on the weekends. Later in the decade, I would be on drugs from the time I woke up until the time I went to bed.
There’s an adage that goes something like this: No one makes a significant change in their life until they’re tired of their own bullshit. That, in a nutshell, is as succinct as you can make it. I spent 10 years as an addict because I convinced myself that life was better under the influence than otherwise. I didn’t care who I hurt, how I hurt them or what collateral damage was in the way. All I cared about was numbing the pain and staying numb.
I quit drugs for a handful of reasons but the primary one being that my drug use and the money I was spending on drugs was causing me to skip out on paying my bills. I made enough money to pay them, but drugs were the priority. This came to a standstill when one of those bills was my mortgage payment on a house that my father co-signed on. That delinquent payment affected his credit record and when we discovered that reality, I knew things had gone too far.
I had also reached a point where most of my drug use was in isolation. I wasn’t doing drugs with friends as much and, at least for me, getting fucked up by myself was no longer enjoyable. I got tired of my own bullshit.
This year will mark 15 years clean. I still drink alcohol but I have a vastly different relationship with alcohol than I did with drugs. For some reason, on a chemical level, I could have massive amounts of drugs in me and still feel “in control”, save for a handful of extenuating circumstances. Alcohol is a wholly different monster. I don’t like the feeling of being drunk so I don’t drink for that feeling. I drink to have some bonding time with my wife in the evening and I rarely over do it. Come to think of it, in the 11 years Marissa and I have been together, I think she’s only seen me drunk less than 5 times. I’ve come to realize I’m too much of a control freak to do that…
The downside to writing about these things is that people turn to me for a solution and I don’t have it. I really wish I did. I wish I had that “one thing” that I could say that could flip a switch and get people to make a complete 180 in their lives.
It’s at this point that I need to repeat the phrase I said at the beginning: No one changes until they’re ready (and some people never change and that becomes fatal).
I’ll also add this, and not for dramatic flair, every great and important thing in my life has come at the cost of immense suffering. My business was built out of the loss of my job, the dissolution of my marriage (to Jackson’s mom), and the death of my Grandfather and Uncle on my mother’s side. Great suffering and loss had to occur for me to open my doors and that’s not an easy place to build a foundation from.
My life has been a series of struggles and suffering at nearly every decade’s turn. I’ve bled for this life, I’ve cried for this life, I’ve nearly died over half a dozen times for this life.
And every day that I wake up, I have to remind myself: You are a lucky son of a bitch. Don’t fuck this up.
Not every bad thing that happens to us has to remain in the forefront of our minds. The bad that’s happened that I had no choice in has shaped who I’ve become. Whether I like it or not, it’s informed a great deal of my life’s decisions.
It’s difficult sometimes being in the position I am with this business: as a coach, a mentor, and inspiration (of sorts) to a variety of different people. It’s easy to feel like a fraud because my life has had such spectacular failures to bounce back from.
However, I guess that’s the whole point, right? You have to bounce back. You can’t stay down.
To those who read my work, and digest my podcast and who know someone who is struggling with addiction or struggling with their health I’ll say these things I think (I hope) I’ve earned the authority to say:
–Get a therapist who you trust. Maybe you need medication, maybe you don’t, but at the very least, get someone to talk to who can break you out of your head. Sometimes, your head is a dangerous place to stay until you learn how to live there. It would take me (and my family) seven months, four therapists and around fifteen different medications to get anywhere near close to a solution for me.
–You’ll need tremendous support. I am where I am today because my father (before he passed), my mother and my wife at different periods of my life have sacrificed a great deal of time, effort and energy to keep me on a given path, a safer path, a healthier path. I would not be alive today without them.
–Suffering is unavoidable. I said it before and I’ll say it again, albeit differently: You will have to suffer to a significant degree to have the life you want: emotionally, physically, mentally. Prepare for that. I don’t believe you can have the life you want or deserve without it. It stands to reason, the severity of suffering is different for every individual.
–You have to do the work. Beyond the traumatic things in my life that have happened outside of my power, it has been 100% my responsibility to change who I am and how I react to the world around me. I am not a victim, I am a survivor and no one can take that from me. All the good that I want to come from this world and this life has to be initiated, nurtured and maintained by me. It helps to have a support system that can lift me when I need it but I still have to do the work.
I have a very good life and I am extremely fortunate to wake up to it every day. I am not sure how I’m alive to be here and write these words but I am.
If you are struggling to find some light at the end of the tunnel, please get help. The world needs you.
If you know someone who is struggling to find that light, be the light.
I wrap up the final episode in this 4-part series with Mike Howard of Lean Minded this week. We touch on what Mike calls The 4 P’s Of Progress: Practice, Patience, Persistence and Presence. Mike talks about these factors when it comes to food and I took a leaning towards exercise and strength training. A big shout out to Mike for being my guinea pig on this new venture as I hope you, as the listener, enjoyed what we were striving for.
Shortly after I first got certified as a personal trainer (circa 2007), I knew that the weight loss demographic would be the clientele I most wanted to work with (an attitude that has only slightly changed over time). However, as many of my fellow coaches know, you really don’t learn as much as you need to about nutrition to help this demographic with a base level certification.
My initial certification was done through ISSA and shortly after I passed the exam, I furthered my base with certifications in fitness therapy and nutrition. Somewhat interestingly, the nutrition certification was written by one, John Berardi, who would go on to start Precision Nutrition (PN for short).
As more certification options became available to me, and certainly after I started RevFit, I began to spend even more of my time learning what I could about nutrition. I attended seminars, found some specialty courses and picked up some other continuing education options to further what I knew.
As PN began to make waves, I picked up that certification as well (Level 1) and kept trying to expand my base. I constantly felt like I was behind the ball in the industry because my degree was neither in Exercise Physiology nor Nutrition. My degree was in Business Management and I kept pushing myself to learn more about the field in which I started this business.
Over the last several years, I started to hear more about Mac-Nutrition UNI, a UK based nutrition organization, and I saw that several of the coaches and health professionals I’d held in such high regard since I started this business were singing it’s praises. People like: James Krieger, Dr. Spencer Nadolsky and Danny Lennon, to name a few, all spoke so highly of the work that MNU was doing, namely the creator, Martin MacDonald and his staff.
Martin was even kind enough to join me on my podcast a few years ago and I thought we had a wonderful conversation. To date, the episode we did together remains in my Top 10 most downloaded.
Like a lot of niche areas within health and wellness, starting MNU was not a low-cost endeavor. I knew it would be something that would not only challenge my skillsets as a coach but would comparatively be the most expensive continuing education course I would have taken on since I started this career.
In late 2019, after releasing my book, “A Revolution A Day”, I was ready to sink my teeth into the MNU course.
Classes began in Spring 2020. Little did any of us know what was going to happen in the world with the pandemic and initially, the time we spent in lockdown allowed me to put more focus into the course.
To paraphrase Martin, MNU was designed to not only further the education of coaches like myself but it also served to help doctors, dietitians and the like from across the globe. I knew then, that any course which would have to provide value and substance to the individuals in the upper echelon of health and wellness would indeed prove challenging for me.
I wasn’t wrong.
Coming out of lockdowns, RevFit became busier than we were heading into lockdowns. We were already having a great year but the remainder of 2020 would continue to put a damper on my schedule as business continued to grow almost month over month.
For those who don’t know the layout of MNU, imagine something like a college course. You tackle a lecture per week, approximately 90 minutes in length (some shorter, some longer), complete a quiz, and you often have additional homework to complete as well.
It was advised that students spend 3-4 hours per week on the course and, admittedly, due to everything else I had on my plate, I did well enough to just not fall behind in coursework.
The support was excellent, the lectures also excellent. There were so many things, so many little details that I felt fortunate to learn, even if much of it was above my head.
In many ways, I was grateful because much of what I had been coaching my clients to do was on point and correct in execution and theory. The course itself gave me more insight into how and why that was the case. There was far more discussion about the evidence behind why we coach the things we do with our clients and where fad diets and misguided trends tend to get things wrong.
There were subsets of information, like the lectures on PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), diabetes and eating disorders which were absolutely fascinating to learn more about. As with many areas of nutrition, understanding nuance, causation versus correlation, and working with your clients where “they” are can be the most helpful tools in a coach’s toolbox.
The test itself, I can’t lie about it. It was the hardest test I’ve taken in my adult life. Maybe other coaches might disagree but I was not confident I had absorbed, retained and could express what I had learned as easily as others might.
However, as of yesterday, I received the news that I did, indeed, pass the course.
The experience was exceptional. The depth of information, I only hope I can utilize to its best effect.
While the recognition may not mean as much to my clients, those who have succeeded in the course probably know as I do, that the time, effort, and expense was worth it.
To Martin MacDonald, Sarah Duffield and the staff of MNU, thank you for your support and guidance.
I aim to make you proud over here in Stow, Ohio.
To my fellow coaches who may be considering the course and who already have insight similar to mine heading in, make sure you carve out the necessary time to study each week’s course load. In hindsight, I should have done more but I felt that under the circumstances of running a business that has been kicking my skinny little ass, I am genuinely thrilled that I can now call myself: MNU Certified.
Jason Leenaarts 