Nutrition Coaching: Part 1

Doing something new for the first time is kinda scary, isn't it?

You don't know if you'll fail or succeed, but you never know until you go for it,

This past February, I was a part of revamping the nutrition program at DEUCE Gym with Logan (it's weird he my boss now). In short, we offer a 101 program which had a weekly call with students and coaching them through their nutrition journey and reaching their goals. We also offer a 202 program, which all-digital based where everything is done via SEISMIC, the digital partner the gym has formed with to use for the nutrition program. Both those programs is a 3-month commitment to make sure that they can be time for room to learn and grow knowledge. As I was a fresh and new nutrition coach, for my first program, 5 clients signed up for DEUCE Nutrition 101 to be coached by me. I was nervous and scared, but also excited all at the same time.

I'm not going to lie, those first 3 months was really tough for me. I would wake up early for calls and either some students wouldn't show up to the calls or had to cancel the call minutes before we were supposed to have our check-in. In the end, 1 of those 5 clients decided to continue on with DEUCE Nutrition 202 as they kept up with their goals, which was to have a healthy relationship with food and increase their health & well-being, then eventually got to tracking macro, and an added bonus was that this student lost 10 pounds without even realizing!

I was a bit discouraged when 4 of the 5 clients didn't want to continue (one wanted to but was making a life-changing move and didn't have the capacity). I thought to myself, "Am I really cut out for this?" But I did have one client who trusted me in the process and they were extremely excited to still continue on with their journey with food.

I did get 5 more clients for my second program with DEUCE Nutrition 101 but I felt down on myself because of my success rate of my students continuing was at the Mendoza line. With my Nutrition 101 clients, if time allows and stars align, I try to schedule a "Get-To-Know-You" call to talk to them about goals and their background. It gave me more confidence that they had the "All-In" mentality with their nutrition journey with their specific goals they wanted to meet.

As I went through the 3-months with the group of my second Nutrition 101 students (and my one 202 student), I gain more confidence and leading them to closer to their goals every week and I couldn't be more proud of those students reaching goals they had told me at the beginning of the program, whether if it was to have a healthier relationship with food, lose weight, increase in performance at the gym. Shoot, two students even lost weight for the first time in a long time, one was about 17 years! At the end of the second program, 3 are now enrolled in 202 and 1 wanted to do the 101 program again.

As I started my first week of my third DEUCE Nutrition 101 stint, I have 7 students who are enrolled in the program and I couldn't be more excited to see their progressions and helping the reach their goals!

It's only been a short 8 months of being a nutrition coach, but it all goes back to one of my first students I had in my DEUCE Nutrition 101 program that stuck it out, continued onto 202 and writes me the most, detailed summary of their week as we call it the TED Talk. I cannot thank this student enough for keeping me going throughout my nutrition coaching journey and making it worth while from the start. The day this student graduates from the program and goes off on their own, it'll be a bittersweet day for me, selfishly.

If you are reading this, you know who you are...Thank YOU!

Keep going.

Jun