New Year’s resolution season is upon us. At this time of year, it’s normal to see a flood of new gym memberships and healthy food purchases, as people pledge to take better care of themselves, only for all those good intentions to fall away within a few short months.
So why do so many people fail to keep their resolutions? Some people set goals that are either too vague or too unrealistic to follow, while others fail to organize themselves to follow through, adopt unsustainable fad diets, or lose heart when they experience setbacks.
Fortunately, professionals with nutrition training can help, by developing sustainable healthy eating plans and helping clients to follow through and achieve their objectives.
How Nutrition and Health Professionals Help Clients Set Realistic Goals
People tend to make broad, sweeping New Year’s resolutions, like ‘exercising more’ or ‘eating healthier,’ that ultimately give them no direction or goals to work towards. The advantage of developing a healthy eating plan with a trained nutritionist is that they will set clear, specific objectives for the client.
Professionals with nutrition and health training also know to keep these targets realistic, so that clients have something achievable to aim for. Nutritionists also focus on ‘positive’ goals. Instead of ‘not eating potato chips’, for example, clients will be asked to focus instead on keeping and preparing healthy snacks.
Nutritionists help clients set realistic goals for eating better.
Nutrition And Health Training Helps Pros Create Personalized Eating Plans
Nutrition plans tend to vary based on a client’s specific needs and objectives. For example, endurance athletes might require more carbohydrates, while those who do resistance training would need more omega 3s and other healthy fats. People who don’t exercise all that often, meanwhile, may need to cut down on calories in order to stay healthy, so students earning their nutritionist certificate have to be mindful of all of these things when developing eating plans.
Nonetheless, some aspects of nutrition plans will be similar no matter who your client is. For example, nutritionists will always aim to add more fruits and vegetables to a client’s diet, and cut down sugar and saturated fat.
How Experts Holding a Nutritionist Certificate Help Clients Make Progress
Nutrition professionals often encourage clients to keep a log or food diary documenting what they eat from day-to-day, as it helps them to keep to their plan. Research has shown that focusing on actions rather than results is more beneficial when attempting to change bad habits, so nutritionists usually don’t focus on tracking weight loss or other physical improvements at the very beginning, waiting until the client has been living with their new diet for a decent amount of time.
Of course, clients are only human and it is normal that they may ‘fall off the wagon’ a few times when starting their plan. Nutritionists are trained to deal with these lapses, encouraging clients to start over and not give up, refining their plans and helping clients to gradually move towards a healthier lifestyle.
Nutritionists encourage clients to keep track of their progress with a food diary.
Are you looking for nutritionist training in Ontario?
Visit AAPS to learn more about our programs or to speak with an advisor.