I have been mulling this one around in my mind lately. I have been asked if I would do it.
When I started my weight-loss journey in 2008, I did it for
me. I did blog the event, not live as I
am now, but I wrote it later, kind of as a retrospective. My thought was that it could benefit
countless others as it had me. It also
gave a funny but serious perspective of the liquid diet program using
Optifast. I had no idea that one day I
would be getting eMail from as far away as New Zealand and Australia, asking me
about the diet. I have always responded
to these people in the most positive and encouraging way…it takes courage to
reach out so it’s the least I can do. I
also feel that, by blogging about it, I kind of obligate myself from a social
media perspective to respond.
My weight came off successfully, but I have never considered
that my success. Many have taken the
weight off only to go back to their old lifestyle. They then get depressed when the weight comes
back on, often being actually MORE weight than they lost. The reason here is that they simply didn’t
take the whole program in. They didn’t
absorb the parts about nutrition and exercise.
That was the real gift of the program for me. That got me reading and thinking a lot about
my condition. My self imposed
condition. I have always considered my
greatest success the fact that I have kept the weight off.
Many times after the program, people with serious weight
issues would ask me about the program. I
would always take as much time as that person needed to answer all the
questions. I spent a lot of time just
listening to people. People were
actually silently asking me to coach them through this process. Without intending to do it, I was coaching
them.
As I blog on P90X, many have asked me privately about their
fitness routines and discussed how they are doing it. I always respond there too. The blog itself is meant to be not only a
record of how the P90X is going for me, but to be an inspiration to people
trying to make a permanent life change for themselves. That is coaching too.
So I have to ask myself, “Can you actually be a coach? A weight-loss and fitness coach.” What is a coach? Someone with expertise in the activity who
can also lead by example. Okay, I think
I do that. Someone with the ability to
communicate effectively. I am
comfortable with that. Someone with the
knowledge of the field being taught. That
may be the area that makes me the most nervous…the potential of giving poor
guidance based on a lack of or incomplete knowledge. I pride myself on my honesty so I really
think that if I didn’t know something, I would help that person find the right
expertise. I still worry about what I
think I know that might be wrong. A
coach is also a facilitator. So they can
help you figure out the ‘how’ around achieving your goal. I would do fine there.
I’ve often thought that a coach needs to be able to motivate
and inspire. That one becomes
tricky. Mainly because I believe that a
lot of the motivation has to be in the one being taught. The key to coaching through this, in my
opinion, is being able to discover what your student’s motivation is and to
expose and cultivate it at the times when they bury it. I think I can do that.
I don’t know. I am
still tossing this one around. As a
student, I can commit for a period of time.
If something or someone keeps me from completing the learning, I am the
only one affected. Coaching something
this specific requires a commitment on the coach’s side that requires you to be
there for others when they need it. I
know it can be worked and scheduled. I
guess certain times could be set and managed as if you had your own business. But it is a commitment to another, versus the
one made just to yourself when you are a student.
Maybe the commitment to it is what I am still working
with. As I write this, that’s what it
feels like.
As my Fitness Coach(es) keep telling me, “You are already
really doing it!” They are right in a
way. But I am doing it as a hobby. Do I want to do this as something that
becomes a part of me?
Every day that I do this program, I think more and more that
I would like to be a coach. The things I
have learned have such a need to be fully mainstreamed and, while it is getting
there, it is still a big mountain with a huge need for teachers. Every day I see more and more kids and teens
turning very bad eating and activity behavior into a lifestyle. A lifestyle they will have a hard time
undoing someday. If kids learned more
about this, and if they learned better, they would be so much better off. They are also the perfect target audience
because no audience you get is SO dedicated to looking good. It is a huge part of their social being. They are also very conscious about being ‘green’
and their health. They also have less
restrictions around doing activities…they can find the time. It is also at a time when they need it most.
Then there are the adults that really need to learn this
stuff and apply it. They have the
challenges of work, kids, aging parents…not easy either. They also are the ones entrenched in the problem.
Okay, the train is pulling in. Time to go to the job I am committed to for
income. I will keep thinking about it.
Time for you all to coach me perhaps. Should I do this?
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