When you embark on a journey to take control of your health and fitness, it’s important to understand your specific goals and find the right health professionals that can help you to achieve them. There is so much out there in the fitness realm that it can get confusing to know where to go or what you need. For starters, understanding the difference between a health coach and a trainer is an important distinction and will help you to choose what’s right for you. Let’s dive in.  

• What is a personal trainer? Personal trainers are specifically focused on your fitness and helping you get the most out of your workouts. They are excellent for individuals who don’t know how to work out on their own or need some personalized attention to meet their fitness goals. 
• What is coaching? Coaching also helps clients with one-on-one fitness attention but takes a deeper dive into the whole you. The goal of coaching is to ignite a full transformation of your fitness, nutrition, and overall lifestyle. Since it is such a personal process, beginning a partnership with a coach takes a level of dedication that clients should be ready to commit to.  

I have served as both a trainer and coach but now focus specifically on coaching. When new clients reach out to me, I like to clarify that they are specifically looking to make changes beyond their physical health and are willing to put the effort into achieving results in all aspects of their life. 

My coaching method: behavior first

Are you ready to discover the best version of yourself but overwhelmed with where to start? Or, maybe you are no longer seeing progress with your current program and think there might be some underlying issues with your overall mindset and habits? If you are seeking long-term, sustainable progress, here's my suggestion: address behavior first. Specifically, start by examining these positive and negative behaviors to identify if you need assistance in areas outside of fitness. 

• Sleep 
• Are you going to bed and waking up at the same time every day? 
• Falling asleep with the tv on? 
• Scrolling social media on your phone before bed? 

• Food intake
• Are you primarily eating whole minimally processed foods?
• Avoiding added sugar?
• Eating at least two servings of veggies every day? 
• Relying on fast food or microwaveable dinners?
• Eating in front of the tv?

• Hydration
• Are you drinking half of your body weight in oz of water per day? 
• Drinking sodas and energy drinks? 

• Movement 
• Are you getting at least 10-20 mins outside every day? 
• Training with intention for each session?
• Utilizing rest and recovery days?
• Training as hard as possible as many times per week as possible just because?

This list is not exhaustive but it begins to paint the picture. Behaviors matter and should be the first priority in setting conditions for your success. If you aren’t sure which behaviors you should be doing and which you shouldn’t from the list above, it might be time to consider coaching. 

The bottom line

Making the choice to improve yourself and focusing on self care is an excellent start so congratulations on being here! There is no “one size fits all” journey when it comes to improving your health and wellbeing. Understanding what your needs are, what you’re ready to commit to, and whether coaching or training is right for you is a personal decision that only you can make. 

If this resonated with you and you want to take a deeper dive into your options, set up a free consultation to discuss if coaching is right for you.