19 October 2004 - Nutrition counselling easier with high-tech shopping trolleys

Imagine emailing your client's shopping list direct to a supermarket trolley that gives simple directions of where to find everything you need for a healthy menu and none of the junk you don't need.

The high-tech Shopping Buddy trolley now being trialled in some US supermarkets does this and more. Even though computers are contributing to obesity by encouraging inactivity they might just have a positive use.

9 October 2004 - Makeover works wonders for self-esteem

What do you think would make your clients feel better? Helping them lose weight or helping them get a clue about fashion? The latter can also work wonders.

I just watched the UK program What not to wear with those razor tongue fashion gurus, Trinny & Susannah. They got stuck into a thirty-something bloke who was totally transformed in body and mind. A sleek new suit hid his belly and revealed a new confident strut. I'm not suggesting you help men hide their "patio over the playground" but I think some tips on dressing right for your body would make clients feel like SuperStars sooner.

7 October 2004 - Low-carb / low-energy salads are the way to go

You would have guessed this, but leading appetite researcher Dr. Barbara J. Rolls from BBB has just confirmed that eating a big salad (Seinfield style) before you tuck into the rest of your meal will cut the calories you consume. It appears that the bulk of the salad makes you feel full without loading calories.

This makes the new salad offerings from McDonald's and other fast food resturants and attractive option. Mum was right again - "Eat your greens!" Read the Reuters News Report

6 October 2004 - Report from the UK's FitPro Business Convention

I'm fresh back from the UK's biggest fitness industry event, FitPro Business held in Birmingham two weeks ago and I'd like to share a few take home messages about weight management services from three great sessions I attended and one I presented. The sessions are applied to fitness centres, but you can modify the information here to any weight loss program or one-on-one client situation.

Let's focus on the psychology, not the physiology
Robin Cargrave - Director, YMCA Fitness Industry Training
Did you know that physical activity is a clinically efficacious intervention for the following mental health disorders: depression, anxiety and stress reactivity, negative emotion and mood, low self esteem and poor cognitive function? You may have guessed, but are you using these benefits to get more clients to start and keep exercising?

Robin is an advocate for this cause and presented a very cohesive manifesto for leveraging the many non-tangible, emotional benefits of regular exercise. He states, “Fitness is unimportant, participation is the key” and that if fitness centres keep focusing on prescriptive fitness programs, they will deliver the “feel bad factor” rather than a “feel good factor.”

Robin's take-homes:

• Instructors must understand a psychosocial model of exercise participation
• Make exercise easy & fun
• Tell clients about the physical reactions to exercise to dispel their fear
• Don't obsess about progression in programming. It's participation

Mastering Skills of Selling Health Club Memberships
Casey Conrads - Founder, Healthy Inspirations and master of the fitness sales process.
Is there a sure-fire method to get people to commit to buying a gym membership? According to Casey, there is a carefully constructed system that is crucial to sales success. Although challenging to distill three hours of stirling how-to strategies into a couple of paragraphs, here are some useful pointers and questions:

• Ask pre-qualifying questions that develop rapport, for example, “How did you hear about us?” or “How can I help you?”
• Use the Feature-Benefit-Feedback system. An example could be, “We have a weight loss program, which means you'll also receive a dietary solution here. Is this what you are looking for?”
• Casey's “crescendo questions” for previous exercisers can really boost desire to re-commit to regular exercise. They are;“Why did you stop?”, “What types of differences have you noticed in the way you feel? and “What do you want to accomplish by starting an exercise program again?”
• To uncover an “emotional driver” for behaviour change, ask; “What specifically do you want from a health club membership?” followed up by “Why is that important for you at this time in your life?”

If you'd like to learn how to profile your weight loss clients with sixty-four powerful questions, and receive my Weight Loss Profile copy-ready template to use as many times as you like, attend my Weight Loss Coaching Workshop.

The Leading Retention Strategies & Interventions
Melvyn Hills, Fitness Industry Association (FIA), UK
What's the most important question for which the answer predicts retention of a fitness centre member? Melvyn says it goes along the lines of, “How likely is it that you will still be a member in 6 months?” Results from around 1000 members in four research centres showed that those members who had a high level of certainty of still working out in six months time were over 20 times more likely to be working out six months later when compared to those who had the lowest level of certainty.

Melvyn recommended adding this type of question to member surveys and targeting those members with low ratings for extra attention to assist them in ways that boost their confidence of staying a member.

Melvyn's take-home here is that if you don't know how long your clients expect to stick at their program, ask them this question exactly. If you don't ask you'll never know and only wonder why they keep leaving.

The Five Slimming Hot Spots
Matt O'Neill - Dietitian & Director, SmartShape
If a fitness centre member asked every staff person - reception, sales crew, group fitness instructors and personal trainers -- the same nutrition question, would they get the same answer? For example, how many meals a day should I eat? I'd say the chances of getting a standardized response would be pretty low. I would also argue that the subsequent confusion due to a lack of cohesive education is costing you dearly in terms of retention. People may make more sense from a competitor.

You wouldn't expect to hear a range of conflicting responses to questions you ask airline staff about how much baggage you are permitted, so why would you tolerate the same from a fitness centre with regards to health and fitness information.

My take-home is that all the staff need to provide standardized, actionable answers to weight loss queries. Five top slimming hot spots that commonly attract questions are:

1. Effect of breakfast on metabolism
2. Recommended meal frequency
3. High protein diets for weight loss
4. The value of slimming pills
5. The importance of the carbohydrate curfew

5 October 2004 - Infomercial sabotage?

I'm updating the website at 2am, while doing research watching an extended infomercial for Winsor Pilates. They sell kit of CD's and a rubber sculpting band for their “Power Sculpting Program”. They say pilates at the gym has crowded classes and the instructor can't give you as much attention as you need. I'm sure this can happen, but is this sabotaging desire for the motivational boost you can get from personal instruction and being in a class with other people?

I guess if you are not ready to parade your body in front of a bunch of mirrors and people in the gym, a lounge room workout is a good start. But how many people keep up the habit and get results with the three, 20 minute sessions per week that are pitched as delivering results. The on-screen disclaimer says “Results achieved in combination with a calorie-controlled diet and with regular exercise.” How much extra walking is needed to get the desired results?

If you offer Pilates classes, perhaps you advertisement needs to say, “Tried pilates at home without success? Then come try ours!”

4 October 2004 - Smile: Just do it!

I'm a firm believer in having a positive attitude towards weight management. Smiling regularly in seminars and with clients, one-on-one is part of my positivity program. Here's an experiment you can do to demonstrate the benefits of smiling. Clench a writing pen horizontally between your teeth and make a big smiley grin, noting how it makes you feel. Now hold the pen horizontally between your lips in front of your teeth and attempt the same big grin. How does this feel?

If you replicate the results of a scientific study conducted with this procedure, you'll discover you don't feel as happy with the pen between your lips as with the pen between your teeth. The reason is that you can't activate the facial muscles that make you smile when you grip the pen with your lips. If you can't smile, then you don't get as much of a positive emotional response. This research shows that a facial expression alone can generate an psychological response.

The extension of this is that the more you smile, the better you'll feel. It's not the case that you have to feel happy before you smile. Just smile and enjoy the benefits!

Want to know more? Watch out for Malcolm Gladwell's new booked Blink about the science of face reading and communication with facial expressions, out in 2005. In the meantime, read the article, The Naked Face that the book will be based on. It's where I learned about this neat little experiment.

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