THE PRINCIPLES OF GREAT COACHING

Nutrition coaching is not just about nutrition. In fact, the more you work with people as a nutrition coach, the more you realize: Helping people change food behaviour and choices is almost never just about food.

For me coaching is about people. About how they think. How they live. Why they act the way they do. Effective nutrition coaching has a lot more to do with psychology and interpersonal skills than just knowing the specifics of macronutrients.

To be able to coach people, as coaches, we also need to know how to:

· Teach

· Communicate

· Analyse

· Motivate

· Help

· Plan

· Solve problems

· Brainstorm

· Guide

Some of what coaches do is cognitive, like planning and reasoning. Some of it is emotional, like emphasizing or building relationships. Some is plain old "gut feeling” and instinct. It is a harmonious blend of science art. Coaches give clients information, perspective, tools, and strategies. Coaches can push when a client has become too comfortable or pull back when the client has been pushing too hard.

The principles of great coaching:

Unconditional positive regard

This is a fancy way of saying you trat all clients with respect and compassion. You see their potential and value.

Client centeredness and humility

Helping the client meet their goals, not ours. Looking for what is important and meaningful for them.

Observation

Looking, listening, and learning.

Assessment and information gathering

Learning as much about your clients as possible and trying to get a big picture.

Understanding

As much as possible comprehending what makes your client tick. Grasping their motivations and limiting factors.

Skill building

Teaching clients how to do things they need to do consistently. Breaking complex tasks down into smaller, simpler pieces so clients can learn and practice without getting overwhelmed.

Communication

Being able to communicate effectively in various formats, whether in writing or in conversation.

Rewarding behaviours not only outcomes

Improving client’s mastery of process, skills, and consistency. The results will take care of themselves. Success come from what we do over and over and over. As you can see becoming a good coach requires many skills. Then it is all about creating our own identity, our brand. It is defining who we want to be and how we want others to see us as.

My own mission

When I qualified as a Nutrition Coach, I was very excited about the prospect of helping people and I could not wait to start getting clients. As in any jobs, if you want to be successful and deliver results, you need to think about your strategy and methodology. First, I asked myself about what mattered the most to me and what would be my mission on this journey. As a Nutrition Coach, you can choose many paths and work with specific demographics.

I started to scribble ideas and day after day it became clearer to me that as a Personal Trainer, I had seen first-hand the heart-breaking struggles and pain so many people deal with regarding their weight-related issues. I could sense their own unhappiness when they were telling me their stories, how each day was a battle they thought they could never win, how they felt in this society where appearances are scrutinized in magazines, social media, TV shows, etc.

This was it, I had found my answer and I wanted to focus all my time and energy on helping people with weight issues, people who could not see the light at the end of the tunnel, for whom nutrition would always be an issue. I always wondered why so many people struggle with their nutrition because it seems we have access to all the information we need via blogs, videos, books or TV documentaries.

My answer to that is: people are confused and too much information kills the information. I have noticed it millions of times during the initial consultation I offer. People know all sorts of diets, every nutrition app, the latest trends, the type of training they should do, but in the end, they still can’t reach their goals.

So now you might wonder what makes me different and why my clients succeed. The answer is because I simplify nutrition, I go back to the basics. So, I am not going to elaborate here, but if you wish to know more about my methodology, I would be thrilled to discuss it further with you.