How to Teach Healthy Eating vs Diets to Your Clients
/Let's talk about DIE-ts and your coaching... (you know, the word with DIE in it?)
There’s a terrible thing happening in our industry, and it’s a renewed move toward teaching or representing DIET PLANS over HEALTHY EATING. I’m not sure what fuels this when we all have more knowledge than ever (not to mention access to resources, due to internet and food availability) and we KNOW that diets cause long-term problems.
Diets encourage a deprivation mentality, they limit and lower energy (mental energy AND physical), and many of them actually cause real harm (like deficiencies, muscle wasting, inflammation) when followed long-term. Just to name a few of the problems they cause.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m a passionate advocate for healthy eating and an outspoken anti-dieter.
I also teach a NO-SCALE weight-loss approach to my precious clients! That little machine has done more damage than good to many of my beautiful clients.
Here’s why I believe we should teach our clients HEALTHY EATING VS DIETS:
1. Not every diet plan works for everyone.
Because we’re all unique, with different circumstances, genes and factors, contributing to WHY we’re in the shape we’re in, we need a UNIQUE plan to heal and live healthier. A diet plan is pretentious, in that it is a one-size-fits-all approach - AND WE’RE NOT ALL ONE SIZE (symbolically or realistically!)
Here’s what to do instead:
Empower our clients to discover their realistic lifestyle change plan in a sustainable way.
First, give them a tracking sheet to use to document their current eating, water drinking and lifestyle habits, then help them formulate a step-by-small-step plan to move into healthier choices - one day, one choice at a time. Here’s a template to use in your coaching business to help your clients do this!
Then, give them this Clean Eating Sheet - you can first customize it to your brand in Canva, then use as a client handout. It will help them get started in knowing what foods are a healthier choice!
Coaches who join us in our Christian Health Coach Academy get access to dozens of templates like this! Get more info and try a free preview here:
On to another reason we should teach healthy eating over diets to our clients…
2. Some diets are actually DANGEROUS to some clients!
Yes, I know, this is a dramatic statement.
I meant it to be.
Because some of the drastic diets out there (ie Keto, Vegan, Extreme Intermittent Fasting, AIP) are actually dangerous for chronic and autoimmune conditions, especially if followed long-term. I discovered this reality through years of coaching many people who had followed drastic diets for more than a few months.
Painfully, they found themselves in serious vitamin and mineral deficiencies (we sometimes had to do several months of coaching together to get them back to optimal levels) as well as dealing with chronic fatigue, muscle wasting, and severe gut damage. I’m passionate about this because I’ve experienced too much sorrow with my precious clients over damage done that could have been prevented with a more balanced approach to their health goals.
“As a health coach, we are to instead, teach our clients to follow their own body signals, intuition and symptoms, and they will then be meeting the nutritional needs of their own bodies.”
EMPOWER them to make the best nutritional decisions for THEM, versus buying into a diet plan that "worked for me before or, worked for so and so."
Yes, there will be plenty of ongoing conversation needed between you and your client about this mindset-shift (especially if they’ve been serial dieters in the past.)
Actively listen to their concerns. Ask them motivational questions, reminding them of the purpose of this journey (ie, it’s more than weight loss, it’s about healthier lives)
Some will be concerned about how “slow the process moves” if they aren’t seeing dramatic weight loss right away, and you may need to remind them of the value of slower weight loss (realistic, healthy weight loss is half pound to 2 pounds weekly.)
Helpful Tip:
I got into the habit of discussing my no-diet approach with my clients at the very beginning of our coach/client relationship - we would verbally agree right up front that the healthy-eating approach would be our target goal and weight loss would be a welcome “side-effect” of the habit changes!
NOTE: These coaching techniques - motivational interviewing & active listening - are powerful ways to help your clients see REAL BREAKTHROUGH in their process! We teach in-depth on these inside our Christian Health Coach Academy! You can find out much more about our next class HERE.
Another important reason we teach healthy eating VS dieting:
3. Food freedom is BY FAR the healthiest plan - for each person. We should only use "diet plans" as a loose template to get a handle on healthy eating as a lifestyle.
So, what is "food freedom?"
According to Melissa Hartwig, co-founder of the Whole 30, “Food freedom happens when I... ask myself what I really wanted and made a conscious, deliberate decision…. Food freedom is realizing I can have anything I want, any time I want it ... and in the moment, simply honoring whether or not I really want it.”
A bit more on this nutritional approach:
So over the years, through experience, both personal and through our followers and clients - we found a common denominator in what healthy eating could mean for the masses...
…and it's FRESH FOOD!
We found that eating as close to a Mediterranean way of life as possible...plenty of FRESH fruits, veggies, whole grains, fish and seafood and lean proteins... was the healthiest for everyone, no matter their individual needs.
Eating Mediterranean includes lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and fatty cold-water fish & seafood like salmon, halibut and cod at least twice a week, as well as lean proteins like poultry, seafood, eggs, avocado, chickpeas and beans and Greek yogurt; trying to limit red meat, sweets and red wine to about once a week.
Many studies have found that a Mediterranean-style diet lowers the risk of both heart disease and diabetes, probably because it’s so high in polyphenols and ‘good’ monounsaturated fats!
It's also because when we follow this way of eating, everything we’re enjoying is whole food, FRESH, balanced and colorful.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
We understand that different ways of eating are sometimes necessary, depending on what the client is dealing with. By helping your clients follow their own "nutrition intuition" you can’t steer them wrong.
Their body and God's whispers will show them the way that's best for them. Empower them to trust their God-given intuition!
Let's talk about this more in our free Facebook Support Group - Health Coaches on a Mission!
What do you think?
What has been your experience in following or teaching diets versus "healthy eating?"
How do you teach your clients to eat healthy and find food freedom?