Video Transcript

Welcome to day 5 of the Precision Nutrition 5-day Exercise and Sport Nutrition Coaching course.

You might remember yesterday, I mentioned that coaching is an iterative process.

This means you try something, monitor the results, measure if things are working or not, and then — based on the results of your measures — decide what to do next.

Today, we’ll look more at that last step in the process; adjusting a client’s plan based on what they’re doing and how it’s going.

But first, I want to do some adjustment of my own — I want to adjust your mindset on what to look for.

As coaches, we often look at what our clients are doing “wrong”. Or what their “limiting factors” are.

And that’s not bad; analyzing a client’s limiting factors and helping remove them is pretty important.

It’s just that if we focus too much on that, we lose sight of where our clients are succeeding.

So I want to challenge you to look primarily for what your clients are doing well.

See if you can find where they’re moving towards their goals, even in small ways. Or doing some key behaviors consistently. Or showing a lot of resilience.

Look for anything that’s a positive.

Now, this isn’t just about making clients — or ourselves — feel good.

There are three important reasons why we look for what’s already working well.

First, looking at where our clients are already succeeding, or moving towards their goals, gives us clues about our next actions.

Often, it’s just a matter of keeping them going in the right direction, or giving them a little boost to keep that existing momentum up.

For instance, let’s say you have a client who has a really limited range of healthy foods that they’ll eat. But they’re really consistent with those foods.

As a coach, you can call that out as a good thing:

“Hey, I notice that you’ve got a lot of structure here, and you’re really good with being consistent. I can see from your food journal that every day you make sure to get that protein at every meal.”

So, instead of being too worried because your client is a bit of a picky eater, you can celebrate them for being so organized, for being so consistent, and for building a really solid routine.

Over time, you can use that structure and routine to your advantage.

Or maybe your picky eater actually tried something new this week. That’s cause for celebration.

Find out what made them try that new food — for instance, maybe they watched a video about how to prepare it, which gave them confidence to try cooking it themselves — and see if you can reproduce those conditions so they’ll try something else new.

Second, calling out what your clients are already doing well is very motivating for clients.

Nobody wants to focus on what they’re screwing up. So the more you can focus on replicating the good things they’re already doing, the better.

For instance, let’s say you have a client who eats too much for their goal of losing weight, but they’re a really great cook.

They like making food taste delicious, and making it look beautiful and appetizing.

So first, you praise them for being such a skilled cook.

“Hey, good for you, your food journal looks like it’s full of amazing meals. And you’re really creative with the variety.”

Now, after you’ve pointed out their strengths, your client might be more willing and ready to have a conversation about shrinking the portion sizes, or adjusting the meal types to match their goals.

Or they may welcome the challenge of preparing particular types of meals — such as meals with more lean protein but fewer calories, or more salads with all kinds of colorful vegetables.

There’s a third reason to focus on what’s going well: Most clients struggle to be consistent.

Even elite athletes — often especially elite athletes — struggle with consistency. Just like everyone else, they’re busy, they’re juggling a lot of stuff, they might be traveling, and stressed out, or whatever.

Getting angry with your clients or thinking they all suck because they can’t be consistent isn’t the right mindset.

Because the truth is: 99% of clients will find it hard to be consistent. Even if they see you for 3 hours a week, which is quite a lot, there are still 165 hours left in the week where they have to deal with other things.

Keeping clients in the game means focusing on helping them be — and feel — successful, confident and competent.

You can do this by giving them the right kinds of tasks, adjusting those tasks so they can actually do them, and pointing out any progress towards their goals, especially in terms of behaviors.

So what you’re looking to do is this:

• Find the right level of difficulty that a client is ready, willing, and able to do.
• Give that client one task at a time.
• Focus on making sure they can be consistent with that task.
• Monitor what happens…while making sure you and your client both have realistic expectations based on their nutritional level and how fast they’re ready, willing, and able to go.
• Look especially for how consistently your clients are doing key behaviors. Help them with the logistics and execution, and with removing limiting factors.
• Then adjust, focusing mostly on what’s going well and trying to do more of that.

Now, you might have questions about specific types of clients.

After all, many clients have similar challenges, like being busy or trying to be consistent.

Yet each client will have their own unique goals, mindset, physical limitations or real advantages.

For instance:

• You might be wondering what to do if your client is an athlete and has only a short time to prepare for competition.
• Or what if your client is pregnant or breastfeeding, or considering getting pregnant?
• What if your client is an older woman going through menopause, or an older man going through the related process of andropause?
• What if your client has some dietary restrictions or food sensitivities, or what if they’re a plant-based eater?
• What if you’re working with an entire family, all of whom have different needs, and wants, and preferences, and routines?
• What if you’re working with a client who has a physical limitation or is on medications that might affect their appetite, gastrointestinal health, energy levels, recovery, and/or body composition?

Obviously there are all kinds of scenarios that you might see as a nutrition coach.

And you may be wondering:

• What are realistic expectations?
• What kind of progress can my clients and I reasonably see in a given time?
• When do I know it’s time to change or fix things?
• How do I choose what to change or fix first?

Well, we address these kinds of scenarios and questions, and lots more in our Precision Nutrition Certification program, with detailed instructions about how to adapt your programming to each client’s individual needs and situation.

For now, though, I want to leave you with a few simple ideas you can use today.

First, you’ll have to adjust clients’ nutritional programs as you go along.

That’s just part of the process. Making adjustments doesn’t mean you did anything wrong; it means that coaching is about iterating.

Make sure that any adjustments you make are at the right level for your clients.

Usually, Level 1 clients don’t need any fancy stuff like supplementation or nutrient timing — they need to focus on doing the basics better.

Make sure they have all the key priorities in place — eating the right foods in the right amounts, consistently, and supporting that with other lifestyle factors like reducing stress and getting enough sleep.

Save the more detailed or complicated adjustments for your Level 2 and Level 3 clients.

Second, use the data you gather to look especially for what’s going well, even just a little bit.

For instance: Maybe your client didn’t get as strong as you wanted them to get over the last several weeks, but they did get stronger.

Maybe your client didn’t do all their workouts, but they did 75% of them.

Maybe your client is still taking medications for pain, but day to day their pain is much less and they’re taking less of that medication.

Maybe your client still isn’t eating enough to gain much muscle mass, but they’re at least eating breakfast, which they never did before.

Recognize it, praise them, and use that success to help them tackle eating lunch.

Third, decide what to do next based on that data.

Maybe it’s been six weeks and your fat loss client hasn’t lost any weight, inches or millimeters on the skinfold calipers.

It’s probably time to explore adjusting their energy intake, adding more physical activity, or looking for places where extra calories might be sneaking in unintentionally.

Or you may have to address the fact that your client is doing some emotional eating.

Maybe you have a client who really wants to go low-carb because they’ve heard that it’s “healthy”, and they’re really trying to do it, but all their indicators — their mood, their energy, their hormone levels, recovery, appetite, everything — show it’s not working for them.

It’s probably a good time to revisit the question of their carb intake, using the data you’ve collected to show how the outcomes they’re getting are related to their nutritional choices.

And by the way, maybe you think that a low-carb diet — or some other type of diet — is “better”… but if your client data shows otherwise, you have to pay attention to the facts and adjust your plan accordingly.

Even if a certain kind of diet works for 95% of your clients, there’s still that 5% for whom it won’t work. And you have to work with reality.

Think like a scientist: Always make your decisions based on the data.

In the end, below this video, you’ll see two downloadable worksheets that you can use to capture your clients’ limiting factors, advantages, skills, and goals.

Use these to help put together a program that can evolve as they evolve.

Over time, as you learn more about your client, you can fill them in more and more to build a comprehensive strategy and action plan.

OK, that’s it for today.

At this point in the coaching process you will have:

• assessed your client,
• made recommendations based on what you’ve learned about them,
• measured what they’re doing and how it’s going, and
• made adjustments based on their superpowers and limiting factors.

This model is highly effective but leaves out two important components of coaching: Education and Support. Which is why I’ll be back tomorrow with a special bonus day.

In Step 5: Educate and Support I’ll share some really useful resources for creating long-term coaching relationships with your clients.

See you then!