Thumbs up, Thumbs down
If you offer any type of group training then keeping track of your client’s nutrition sometimes can become tricky. I have tried food logs, meal plans, nutrition guidelines, incentive plans but none of them ever seemed to be what every one of my clients needed at that particular time in their health and fitness journey. Clients seem to always be at different levels of commitment to their nutrition; some can easily follow a strict meal plan, some need to start out very slowly and change one thing at a time while others have pretty clean eating habits but need to switch up one small part of their plan. How in the world can one trainer possibly keep track of all of their clients? The answer is, we cannot unless we want to be babysitting our clients all day long. At some point they need to be grownups and take on the responsibility for themselves, but we, being their trainer need to know that they are focusing on their nutrition and also need to know when we need to step in and guide them a bit more.
I started a few years ago implementing a Thumbs Up; Thumbs Down method which I do at the end of every session. Every client is to set a nutritional goal for the following 24 hours and when they return in 24 hours they simply give me a Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down. There are no in the middles because a client either hits their goal or they do not, if a client continues to be thumbs down or in the middle then that indicates to me that we need to talk more about nutrition and get them set back on track with easy to implement goals and measurable goals. If a client is Thumbs Up majority of the time and they are not seeing results then that also indicates to me that we need to sit down and talk more in-depth about what they are setting for themselves and why they are not seeing results.
When I am instructing my clients to set a goal I will give them guidelines and ideas that may help them through the next 24 hours. I will also instruct them to get out of their comfort zone, I mean after all it is ONLY 24 hours. Some clients may need to even chunk down their day into “at work goals”, “evening goals”, “going out to eat”, “around the family” or anything else that may come to mind for you or your clients.
Another way that I keep them accountable and give recognition is when we are in our huddle after we have done the Thumbs Up; Thumbs Down I will ask for any tips they have for others that helped them through a tough nutrition situation or strategies that they may have used. I will also give everyone a chance to shout out their successes they have had, those tend to be anywhere from “I have not had pop in 2 weeks” , “I have more energy in the afternoons” to “I have lost a pant size”, any success helps keep the group motivated to stick to their own personal nutritional goals.
All of these tools allow me, the trainer/coach, to keep tabs on my clients and create an easy system of accountability for them. It is low cost to implement and I get great feedback from clients saying how helpful it is and how much they like being able to share their successes.
Stacie Widhelm is a passionate health/wellness coach and speaker who has been empowering clients of all ages and fitness levels for more than a decade. She is the proprietor of Fitness Revolution Hastings offering training in large and small groups as well as individually. Stacie has most recently put her talents into the forthcoming book Uncommon (co-authored with Brian Tracy) .
Contact Stacie through fit4u@widhelm.com
