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Recalculate goals through observation; observe through doing....it's the best way to discern where you have been,where you are going, and how best to get there. Healthy Eating Should be on the Tip of Every Trainer's TongueWhether online or in the flesh, "personal" training needs to be about the total person. To be physically fit, a person must be healthy both inside as well as out. Bodily fitness requires healthy eating, as well as exercise, to improve physical, cognitive and emotional functioning and to avoid behavioral compulsions around food and exercise that can lead to onset of eating disorders and/or activity disorders. Healthy eating is about moderation and balance. Eating disorders, as well as the exercise that typically accompanies them, are too frequently excessive. Eating disorders and complications thereof, kill and maim. These hidden diseases are more likely to show up in health clubs and gyms than in doctor's offices. With eating disorders, as difficult to identify as they are, coaches and trainers are often the best diagnosticians. The coach who is attentive to eating lifestyle and behaviors, through dietary counsel and possible referral to health professionals, may save a life and will certainly improve life quality. Look for these signs in your trainees:
The trainer who is self-aware and knowledgeable about his or her own personal body image issues or excesses in eating and exercise Putting Your Body Where Your Mouth IsHow does one put knowledge into practice around eating and exercise? Here is the process I have watched and encouraged in my clients over the decades. First, familiarize oneself with what the knowledge is; Understand that eating healthfully takes more than knowledge about how and what to eat. You have heard the expression that as people live, so they die. Similarly, I believe that as people live, so they eat and exercise.
Second, empowerment is the ability to act on one's knowledge;
Vegetarianism: A Sign of Health or Dysfunction?With “meat” becoming the new four letter word in our vernacular, and the “degree of chic” corresponding to the extent of meat/dairy/fat restriction amongst out teenagers, our kids need some parental vigilance in making such pivotal and potentially life-altering lifestyle decisions. Parents beware the child’s use of restrictive eating as a forerunner to, or mask covering up, the onset of an eating disorder. Beware the child who turns to vegetarianism as a convenient and acceptable way to lose or control weight, to establish a sense of control over life, or independence and separateness from parents and family. On the other hand, vegetarianism can represent a very healthy lifestyle when taken on in a thoughtful, respectful manner. Sometimes, “A cigar is just a cigar.” Parents must look to the child’s motives for taking on the responsibility of this commitment. Indeed, to maintain a balanced vegetarian diet with all of the food groups represented is not an easy task at any life stage. Kids who do not understand the full impact of what healthy eating is and how to attain it would benefit from purposeful educational input from parents. An Unconventional Look at "Conventional" Healthy EatingConventional wisdom about what "healthy eating" is has clearly gotten away from most of us...so much so that in our society today, "normal" eating is no longer healthy eating, and in too many cases falls into the category of disordered eating. 40 to 50 percent of women on college campuses today are reported to be disordered eaters. Most unfortunately, only 50% of American families eat dinner together, and skipping meals has become an acceptable norm. Only 25% of us eat breakfast in the morning. With ever greater numbers of parents in the workplace, and at the gym, and with increasing numbers of people misguided in their belief that fat free eating and other forms of restrictive eating is healthy eating, kids are left to fend for themselves for food and meals. At the same time, fast foods are becoming increasingly accessible and affordable. It is not surprising that in our society today, the average age of eating disorder onset has slipped from 13 to 9, and that obesity in both kids and adults is on the rise. Five million kids in the U.S. today are obese, with another six million on the cusp. To counter this phenomenon, it is time to rethink the myths we live by, and return to some familiar and age-old conventions about eating that used work and that still would, if people would take another look!
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All Contents © Copyright 2000-2003 Abigail H. Natenshon |
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