Hiring A Fitness & Nutrition Coach

There is no shortage of free fitness and nutrition information readily available today via social media or Google. Gathering up all of the information needed to come up with your nutrition and training program, planning out your journey, committing and executing that plan to the absolute best of your ability, and holding yourself accountable through the entire process can be an extremely intimidating and time consuming task. Now, imagine doing all of this work only to get to the end of your program and find out this wasn’t the best plan to help you tone up your glutes. On top of that, because you had no idea how beneficial carbs and protein could be during this process you lost the weight but didn’t add any muscle to help you tone up. This is not only frustrating and discouraging, but EXTREMELY ANNOYING! Having a professional in the industry set you up on the correct program and educate you on your nutrition along the way will not only save a ton of time, but the end results will be much greater. Let’s explore the reasons why you should have a fitness and nutrition coach, and the benefits you will receive when working with one.

Accountability

Accountability with a fitness and nutrition coach starts with the initial payment, once you are invested in something with your hard earned money this in itself usually helps hold you more accountable to the process. Whether you are doing online or in person coaching another accountability aspect comes in the form of weekly check-ins. Weekly check-ins will not only help your coach touch base with you and help them to make necessary changes, but this is also going to give them a chance to hold you accountable on multiple levels, by checking over food logs, workouts, and any habits they have set for you as well. It’s easy to skip workouts or meal prepping when you don’t have anyone checking up on you. Having a paid professional there to remind you of your goals and your “why” will make a huge impact on your journey.

Set Realistic Goals

Setting unrealistic goals early on can sometimes deter you from the journey all together, this is why it is important to have realistic and attainable goals. Whether you are a new to working on your health and fitness or a veteran in the game, a fitness and nutrition coach can help you set these goals. A coach will help you set a long term goal and then break your long term goal down into smaller goals. This is going to help create smaller wins within the process, helping keep you more engaged, motivated, and less likely to fall off track!

Education

Education, in my opinion, is BY FAR the most beneficial part of hiring a fitness and nutrition professional to help you on your journey. Earlier on I mentioned that without a coach you may reach your weight loss goal, but not be happy with the end result because you were not educated on proper nutrition. A fitness and nutrition coach will educate you on nutrition basics (calories and macros), why each macronutrient is important and when to prioritize each, and what foods fall under each macronutrient category. Your fitness and nutrition coach will also be able to correct your form, and make you aware of what to watch for in the future to keep your form in check. They can educate you on high reps versus low reps and when to prioritize each, and how and when to progress your exercises. The education provided by your fitness and nutrition coach is invaluable, it is going to reduce your chance of injury because you actually know what you are doing, and it is going to empower you to make decisions in the future regarding nutrition, you will be confident in the choices you are making because you know the WHY behind the decision!

Create An Individualized Training Program

A well seasoned coach can build a training program that is tailored to meet not only your goals, but can create a program that works around the schedule you have, the equipment you have, any ailments or injuries you may have, and help you make changes when schedule disruptions happen or you go on vacation. When working with a trainer, he/she will be able to make sure your nutritional needs are synced with your training program by increasing or decreasing calories at set periods and changing up your macros split. Workouts will be more effective because every exercise will have a purpose, as will your rest periods. They can create a program that is designed to have dedicated phases to work on specific needs for you like mobility phases, bulking or cutting phases, and to help avoid injury or overtraining, your coach will have scheduled “deloads” or recovery phases. By creating an effective and phased program your coach is ensuring little to no plateau in your progress.

No plateau = continuous progress = no wasted time.

Lifestyle Hacks and Tips

Fitness and nutrition coaches, especially ones who work online, work with clients who are all different in many ways. Working with a diverse client base gives a coach experience in helping and assisting clients through many different life situations. Having a fitness and nutrition coach in your corner that has this diverse client base will give you access to a plethora of lifestyle hacks and tips to get through many of life’s challenges, or just tips to simply make day to day life easier.

Mental Health and Emotional Support

Your coach will not only be there to support your health and fitness related goals, but part of coaching is being able to support the individuals on your team emotionally and mentally. A coach can give you strategies and assign habits to help you get through emotional times. A coach can guide you through emotional or disordered eating and help you discover the route cause. A coach can also simply just relate, whether it be your coach that has had similar experiences or a past client he/she has helped in the past.

Fitness and nutrition related information is not hard to get your hands on, in fact, following any of my pages on social media would give you more than enough to get started. What you can’t get from any fitness or nutrition related posts or articles is tailored nutrition/training programming and application, lifestyle and mental health hacks, tips, and support, education on nutrition/training that is specific for you, and a fast track to results!