Why your clients Yo Yo

“Why do I see a dip in my client's commitment, motivation and weight loss part way through their program with me?”

This was a question posed to us by a PT friend Chris in the US when we had a coaching call with him the other day.

Now, first of all, you may just think they are being lazy..that they are not interested….or that they just cannot be bothered.

Well, there may be something else going on…and we wanted to let you in on an answer that may very well help you today if you are in the same boat as our boy Chris.

There are a couple of reasons for this……

1. Identity

2. Sabotage….pain vs pleasure

Let’s do Identity FIRST

We are all used to being a certain way right.

We get comfy with that.

Perhaps you are a big bodybuilder or an uber-fit fitness instructor.

If someone said to you that you would lose all your size or not be able to teach classes you could not see that.

You would go against that cause that is not who you are.

You are the big guy or the fit gal.

So you would do everything NOT to be that person.

It’s the same with our guys and gals we all work with.

They are used to having that identity of being overweight perhaps.

And to see themselves as anything different

A scares them

B opens them up and they are vulnerable

The spotlight may well be on them…..compliments…wow you look great.

AND if they are not comfortable taking those and having that attention its a scary thing.

They have no idea of their new identity…so like you, they will shy away from it.

2. Sabotage…pain vs pleasure

NOW, THIS is a BIG topic and we have a whole module dedicated to this on our course.

Let me cover the basics so you get the gist.

We will do more to escape pain that we will to get pleasure

How does this look then for your clients…few examples

New Identity....

They see that coming 1/2 or part way through their training with you as pain…

something they will lose once they leave you…

so sabotage happens to take them right back to the start when it was all shiny and new…..

the challenge starts again…..

we yo yo

Pain at that Weight...

They have been at that weight before….

and they have then started to put the weight back on…

not because they cannot keep it off…

but because they got relaxed about it and gained the weight cause they were comfortable…

there was not lifestyle management there only how to lose weight…..

so whenever they get close to that weight again they see it as pain cause they felt bad last time when they gained the weight back….

so they sabotage…..

oh no, it’s coming again…i don’t want THAT pain…

so I'll stay where I am.

Now, this is a VERY brief overview of this cause as I say this is a MASSIVE subject and I think I could possibly write a whole book on it.

So when you client takes that dip….ask some questions

What is going on here

Have you been here before

If so what happened

Start to look 4 dimensionally into this and not just 1 dimensionally.

Have a great day guys!

L x