The Coaching Process: Level one

Question 1

level 1 clients: Goals

Answer 1

SHAPED

Clients wants:

• Sustainable habits: feel disciplined or on track, get into
  regular sustainable, healthy living habits, better
  relationship with food, manage unwanted eating
  patterns such as emotional eating.
• Health: improve health markers
• Astetics: look better, lose or maintain weight, Get in
  shape or tone up.
• Performance: improve general performance and
  recovery, get stronger, add muscle, Sleep and recover
  better
• Energy: feel better, have more energy and vitality
• Digestion: Work through food intolerances, digestive
  issues

Question 2

level 1 clients: Performance expectation

Answer 2

“healthy normal”

Daily life function

Regular activity: keeping up with workouts < 6 hours/week

Recreational or serious exercise

Question 3

level 1 clients: Body Composition desired

Answer 3

Normal, sustainable, metabolically healthy to lean-healthy

Men: 13% - 20%
Woman: 23 - 30%

Question 4

level 1 clients: Knowledge

Answer 4

None to Expert

Question 5

level 1 clients: Competence and skill

Answer 5

Can do simple tasks when given clear instructions and the coach monitors completions, or may be able to do complex tasks but prefer not to

Question 6

level 1 clients: Consistency

Answer 6

Low to moderate
Can do simple tasks up to 75% of the time
May struggle to sustain habits or “stay on track”

Question 7

level 1 clients: Mindset

Answer 7

Keeping it real:

“I’m looking for something sustainable and realistic”

“this is only one part of who I am. I have a lot of other things going on.”

        Climb the stairs without a heart attack:

“I just want to be healthier, fitter, stronger, leaner, and better at the stuff I do regularly”

                              Back to basics:

“I want to go omewhere with this, but need a solid foundation first”

Question 8

Why do we start clients at level 1? Why do most clients stay there?

Answer 8

?

Question 9

What are the level 1 skills clients need to develop?

Answer 9

1. Plan, prioritize, and prepare
2. Regulate eating behaviours
3. Match energy intake to needs and goals
4. Choose higher quality foods more often
5. Provide adequate nutrients
6. Move often and well
7. Rest and recovery
8. Create a supportive environment
9. Regulate emotions without food and eating

Question 10

Skill: Plan, prioritize, and prepare

Answer 10

Important: You can’t do anything for very long unless you can plan, prioritize and prepare for it. You can’t eat lean protein if you haven’t shopped or prepared for it, and you cant shop or prepare for it if htese activities aren’t priorities you have purposely made time for

Practices and Small daily actions:

• Make time:
• —Practice planning, prioritization and preparation.
• —Adopt a weekly ritual/ daily ritual
• Take small actions toward goals:
• —– take a 5 minute action
• —– 4 circle exercise

Question 11

Skill: Regulate eating behaviour

Answer 11

Important: So that clients can become consistently reasonable and governed by dynamic biological internal cues, rather than rigid, arbritary external rules

Practices and Small daily actions:

• Eat slowly and mindfully
• —–use a meal timer
• —–Do something between bites
• —–“wine taste” your food
• —–Eat withut distractions
• —–Pace yourself to the slowest eater
• —–Notice what affects your eating speed
• —–Use an app

-Learn to recognize your physiological hunger and
fullness cues
——Practice simply noticing hunger and fullness cues
——Amplify the hysiological feedback
——Use an appetite awareness tracker

• Normalize and routinize eating habits
• —–Have scheduled meal times
• —–Schedule appetite check-ins
• —–Plan meals/Stock up on healthy convenient options

Question 12

Skill: Match energy intake to needs and goals

Answer 12

Important: Having appropriate energy balance is important for overall health, body composition, peformance, and recovery

Practices and Small daily actions:

Monitor and adjust energy balance as needed

• identify overall energy balance goals and factors
• Discuss energy balance with your client
• choose the method of adjusting energy balance
• use hand portion templates to build meals and menus
• Use the Pn plate templates
• Use some other method of portion measurement
• Combine portion sizing with appetite awareness

Question 13

Skill: Choose higher quality foods more often

Answer 13

Important: Before making changes to food types, clients can learn to make broad improvements to food quality and choose foods along a general continuum of from “worse” to “better”. This approach helps to get clients out of the all or nothing thinking, and into asking, How could this choice/ meal be just a little better right now?

Practices and Small daily actions:

Establish criteria for better
-collaborate on a continuum

Eat less processed food

• Use dietary displacement
• Make healthy substitutions
• Move along the continuum
• Notice behaviour patterns
• Identify red-yellow-green light foods

Add more whole minimally processed foods

• Try 1 new ____ every _________
• Go to the grocery store
• Take a field trip
• Try cooking/food prep techniques
• Build a food budget
• create a roster of “go to meals”
• Offer extra cooking education
• Make it easy/ Use a continuum

Experiment, upgrade, and explore

• Expand repertoire of food types
• Upgrade food purchasing
• Get involved in the food production process
• further improve preparation and cooking skills

Question 14

Practice: Take a small action towards a goal

Answer 14

Why:

• many people feel stuck
• taking a small action helps to get unstuck
• its a declaration of intent
• action comes before motivation
• taking a small action is manageable

Take a 5 minute action:

• book an appointment
• take a vitamin
• Go to bed 5 minutes earlier
• meditate for 5 minutes

4 circle exercise:

• This month I will
• This week I will
• Today I will

Question 15

Practice: Eat Slowly and Mindfully

Answer 15

Why
-improves digestive function and satiety
-Works best when we combine eating speed with
present moment awareness and attention, purposeful
relaxation, and few distractions

Use a meal timer:
-Client times how much time it takes for them to eat a 
 meal to get a baseline for a few meals
-use this data to discuss improvements
-then use timer to pace themselves

Do something between bites

• setting down utensils
• taking a breat or two
• taking a sip of water
• focusing on table conversation

“Wine taste” your food

• chew slowly
• savour the food, smell, taste, texture, temp, etc

Eat without distractions
-remove distractions. Phone, tv, radio, laptop, work etc

Pace yourself to the slowest eater
-find the slowest person and match their speed

Notice what affects your eating speed

• notice and name
• —who they eat with
• —when they eat
• —what they eat
• —where they eat
• —Why they eat
• make improvements

Use an app
-find and use an app that tracks and enables slow eating

Question 16

Notice and name

Answer 16

The simple process of becoming aware of and naming one’s experience

Question 17

Practice: Learn to recognize your physiological hunger and fullness cues

Answer 17

Why:
appetite awareness is one of the most useful ways to recognize how much food you need.

Most of us eat based on social norms, advertising, what’s around us, and our family/friends/peers/. We eat when:

• its a certain time
• its a certain event
• its a certain emotional situation
• we’re reminded of food

Most adults have no appetite awareness, except for the extremes (they want to binge eat/the are completely stuffed) This means that most adults will eat when they are not hungry or not eat when they are hungry. Few adults eat when they are hungry or stop when they are satisfied.

Practice simply noticing hunger and fullness cues:
-observe what hunger and fullness feel like

Amplify the physiological feedback
-Drink a glass of ice water to notice where the
esophagus and stomach are
-walk around briskly or move vigorously as soon as they
finish a meal. The physical movement feedback will
often let them know if they’ve eaten too much.

Use an appetite awareness tracker
-Use the hunger game
—-how hungry they are when they stared a meal
—-how full/satisfied they were when finished.
—-how food it takes for them to feel satisfied vs full
—-find words/metaphors/images that describe each
sensation eg. stuffed might feel heavy, or lethargic, or
ugh, or bloated etc

Use appetite awareness plus satiety goal:
this method depends on appetite awareness cues and so may not work well when cues are disrupted like during hard athletic training or jet lag
-weight loss: 80% full
-weight maintenance: 90 - 100% full
-weigh gain: 110 - 120% full

Question 18

Appetite awareness

Answer 18

Being intuitively aware of appetite, hunger and satiety cues.

Question 19

practice: normalize and routinize eating habits

Answer 19

Why:

• avoids extreme eating like binge eating
• Regularly spaced, relatively predictable meals that are roughly the same size tend to wrk best for most clients looking to: lose weight, improve performance, gain muscle, create sustainable, healthy habits, normalize many health indicators, and learn body signals and how to reliably self regulate.

Have scheduled eating times:
best for clients who want to improve performance and build muscle
-eat every 3 to 4 hours

scheduled appetite check ins:
best for clients who want to lose weight
- check ins every 3 to 4 hours
- at each check in note how hungry you feel as well as
signs and symptoms they observe in themselves
- if hunger is greater than a 6 or 7 out of 10 (absolutely
starving) thenn its time to eat, if not, check back in after
another half hour or so.

Plan meals/ stock up on healthy and convenient foods:

• plan meals in advance
• make meals easy and convenient to consume

Question 20

practice: monitor and adjust energy balance as needed

Answer 20

Why:
-required by most goals

identify overall energy balance goals and factors
-identify factors such as(sex, age, activity level, goals,
injury, illness, or medication use)

discuss energy balance with yoru client
-how energy balance plays a role in their current
situation and goals
-What changes might have to occur

choose the method of adjusting energy balance
-weight loss: fewer portions more activity
-performance, weight gain: more portions, review
training load.
-track results and adjust

use hand poriton temlate to build meals and menus

• palm for protein
• cupped hand for carbs
• fist for fiber
• thumb for fat

Question 21

Serving of protein

Answer 21

one palm
85 - 115g of cooked meat, fish, shellfish, poultry, or tofu
1 cup of greek yogurt or cottage cheese
2 whole eggs
1 scoop protein powder

Question 22

Serving of vegetables/fiber

Answer 22

one fist

1 cup non-starchy vegetables (leafy greens, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage)

Question 23

Serving of carbs

Answer 23

one cupped hand
100 - 130g
half a cup of cooked grains, legumes (rice, lentils, oats)
1 medium fruit
1 medium tuber

Question 24

Serving of fat

Answer 24

one thumb
1 tablespoon
14 grams of oils, nuts and seeds, nut butter, cheese, etc

Question 25

Serving of protein

Answer 25

one palm
85 - 115g of cooked meat, fish, shellfish, poultry, or tofu
1 cup of greek yogurt or cottage cheese
2 whole eggs
1 scoop protein powder

= 25 grams of protein and 145kcal

Question 26

Serving of vegetables/fiber

Answer 26

one fist
1 cup non-starchy vegetables (leafy greens, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage)

= 25Kcal

Question 27

practice: monitor and adjust energy balance as needed

Answer 27

Why:
-required by most goals

identify overall energy balance goals and factors
-identify factors such as(sex, age, activity level, goals,
injury, illness, or medication use)

discuss energy balance with yoru client
-how energy balance plays a role in their current
situation and goals
-What changes might have to occur

choose the method of adjusting energy balance
-weight loss: fewer portions more activity
-performance, weight gain: more portions, review
training load.
-track results and adjust

use hand portion temlate to build meals and menus

• palm for protein
• cupped hand for carbs
• fist for fiber
• thumb for fat

use PN plate templates

• bigger plate = weight gain
• small plate = weight loss

use some other method of portion measurement:

• plates with compartments
• measuring cups or spoons
• keep it simple

combine portion sizing with appetite awareness
-tuning into hunger and fullness cues while eating
portions

Question 28

Serving of fat

Answer 28

one thumb
1 tablespoon
14 grams of oils, nuts and seeds, nut butter, cheese, etc

= 9g of fat and 100kcal

Question 29

Hand portion template men

Answer 29

6 - 8 portions 
2300 - 3100Kcal
180g - 230g protein
205g - 270g carbs
85g - 115g fat

Question 30

Hand poriton template woman

Answer 30

4 - 6 portions
1400 - 2100Kcal
115g - 170g protien
125 -185g carbs
50g - 80g fats

Question 31

10 Week portion size progression

Answer 31

First 8 weeks:
protein portion
colorful plants
high fber
slow digesting carbs
healthy fats

Last 2 weeks
Meal planning

Question 32

PN Plate

Answer 32

Bigger plate = weight gain
Small plate = weight loss

half = vegetables
quarter = protein
Eigth = starch
Eigth = fat

Question 33

Hand portion template woman

Answer 33

4 - 6 portions
1400 - 2100Kcal
115g - 170g protien
125 -185g carbs
50g - 80g fats

Question 34

Practice: Establish Criteria for Better

Answer 34

Why:
Many clients feel overwhelmed by information of rules about food. They worry about doing things right or even perfectly, following an arbitrary external standard that might not apply to them. Rather than immediately telling clients how to eat better, collaborate with them to develop their own criteria for what counts as better or higher quality. This helps you inform clients without lecturing and empowers clients to choose foods on their own behavl, using their own guidelines. This does not mean that anything goes, but rather that you help clients develop relative standards of better for themselves, based ontheri current abilitites and reality.

Coaching tasks:

collaborate on a continuum:
- Ask client:
—- In situation X, what might be a better choice? What
might be a worse choice?
—- Why would you put food x closr to better and food y
closer to worse?
—- What’s the worst, the best, and pretty good in that
context?
-Explore the decision makin gcriteria that your client
uses to define better or worse and show them that
choices are relative to their abilities and the situation.
—-what is the best, worst, and pretty good choices you
whould make … at the gas station, with only 5
minutes to prepare a meal, if you didn’t have anyway
to refrigerate your lunch at work, to help yoursel feel
more satiated with a given meal?, if you wanted
something sweet?

Question 35

Practice: Establish Criteria for Better

Answer 35

Why:
Many clients feel overwhelmed by information of rules about food. They worry about doing things right or even perfectly, following an arbitrary external standard that might not apply to them. Rather than immediately telling clients how to eat better, collaborate with them to develop their own criteria for what counts as better or higher quality. This helps you inform clients without lecturing and empowers clients to choose foods on their own behavl, using their own guidelines. This does not mean that anything goes, but rather that you help clients develop relative standards of better for themselves, based ontheri current abilitites and reality.

Coaching tasks:

collaborate on a continuum:
- Ask client:
—- In situation X, what might be a better choice? What
might be a worse choice?
—- Why would you put food x closr to better and food y
closer to worse?
—- What’s the worst, the best, and pretty good in that
context?
-Explore the decision makin gcriteria that your client
uses to define better or worse and show them that
choices are relative to their abilities and the situation.
—-what is the best, worst, and pretty good choices you
whould make … at the gas station, with only 5
minutes to prepare a meal, if you didn’t have anyway
to refrigerate your lunch at work, to help yoursel feel
more satiated with a given meal?, if you wanted
something sweet?

Question 36

Practice: Eat less processed food

Answer 36

Why: You won’t feel, look, or perform your best when you eat a lot of processed food.

Coaching tasks

Use dietary displacement:
By filling up on the good stuff their is less space for the bad stuff. Don’t have to stop eating bad stuff, just start eating more of the good stuff
- add more veg to your sub
- before eating a brownie, eat some fruit and if you still
feel like the brownie, then eat that too
- have some veg and salad before main course

Healthy substitutions:
-make a list of potential substitutes for common
processed fooods eg. an orange instead of an orange
juice

Question 37

Practice: Eat less processed food

Answer 37

Why: You won’t feel, look, or perform your best when you eat a lot of processed food.

Coaching tasks

Use dietary displacement:
By filling up on the good stuff their is less space for the bad stuff. Don’t have to stop eating bad stuff, just start eating more of the good stuff
- add more veg to your sub
- before eating a brownie, eat some fruit and if you still
feel like the brownie, then eat that too
- have some veg and salad before main course

Healthy substitutions:
-make a list of potential substitutes for common
processed fooods eg. an orange instead of an orange
juice

Move along the continuum:
use continuum, instead of giving clients a hard rule like “processed ofods are bad”, or asking them to cut out
everything at once. Instead
- ask “what might be just a little better?”
- try one or two of those little better options

Notice behaviour patterns:
identify triggers(times, places) that leads to the consumption of processed food.
- processed food journal
- Identity behavourial patterns and then “break the
chain”

Identify red-yellow-green light foods

• Red: foods that are bad news for the client
• Yellow: foods that are sometimes okay, sometimes not
• Green: foods that make the client feel good.
• Ask client which foods they would like to eat more of
• Discuss how the client will go about doing this

Question 38

Practice: Add more whole, minimally processed food

Answer 38

Why: Along with not eating enough whole foods over all, many people tend to eat a faily limited range of whole foods. eg. only iceberg lettuce instead of radicchio, arugula, endive, etc. Eating more minimally processed foods improves nutrient intake, meal satisfaction, digestion, natural self regulation of energy balance and overall health

Coaching tasks

Try 1 new ___ every ___
-encourage clients to experiment with trying new: foods, types of foods, flavors, recipes, cuisine styles, cooking, food prep.

Go to the grocery store
- go to the grocery store with client. Walk them through
some basic label reading and food choices. Show them
how to create a menu and shop from a list that reflects
their budget and food preferences.

Take a field trip.

• farmers market
• butcher
• fish store
• farm
• anywhere client can learn more about food.

Try cooking/food prep techniques
-Identify simple yet essential cooking or food
preparation techniques for whole foods, then assign
one technique as an action to practice.

build a food budget:
- Educate client about cheaper healthy whole food
options, such as: cheaper cuts of meat, seasonal fruit
and veg, buying and cooking in bulk.

Create a roster of go to meals
- come up with 3 to 5 simple meals made from whole,
less processed foods that client is willing to make
- salads with preprepped protein
- stir fries
- boiled or scrambeld eggs
- stews
- beans/lentils with seasoning
- fruit and cottage chese or greek yogurt
-ask client to practice making these core meals

Offer extra cooking education
-have handy resources on food prep, cooking and shipping handy

Make it easy/Use a continuum

• pre washed veg and salad greeds
• ready to eat vegetables and frozen veg
• fresh easy prep fruit or pre cut fruit
• canned beas or lentils
• whole rotisserie chicken
• boiling pot of eggs or potatoes to have on hand
• whole grains done over night in slow cooker
• grating a fresh tomato for a quick pasta sauce

Question 39

Practice: Experiment, upgrade, and explore

Answer 39

Why:
- for clients who already like cooking, coaches can change the game to broadening clients’ repertoire while also enriching and deepening their command of existing food skills and knowledge

Coaching tasks

expand repertoire fo food types
- Chellenge your client to try new types of food
categories. For instance, experiment with new types of
protein dense food or fruits and vegetables

upgrade food purchasing
- if the client can afford it, encourage them to purchase
higher quality items. This does not mean mindlessly
spending on luxury items, it means they invest in food
quality
- get pastured meat from a local farmer
- get environmentally friendly sustainable sources
- seasonal fruites and vegetables
- learn how to choose the best quality food (testing
ripeness or quality)

get or stay invovled in the food production process
- can include: picking own produce, growing own food,
learning how to butcher, hunting, fishing,

Further improve preparations and cooking skills.
- expanding cooking repetoire
- improving thier ability to shop efficiently and effectively
- improving their foundational cooking skills and trying
new methods of cooking and preperations.
- encourage clients to make things from scratch
(hummus, yogurt, granola etc.)