tips, Always Hungry Personal Training

You’ve been killing it at the gym and you’re seeing some results, but something just isn’t clicking. You’ve looked at sleep habits and stress management and increased your water intake, but there’s just one last hump you CAN’T seem to get over.

The dreaded grocery store!

Like anything we fear, the best way to overcome it is to take it head on and make it our friend. Believe me, it wants to be, but forces greater than us or the grocery are trying to keep us apart! Read on through and let’s address my favorite Healthy Grocery Shopping Tips!

Without getting too deep into the nutritional breakdown of how terrible most food products are now thanks to vegetable and seed oils, over processing, and essentially all boxed or bagged foods being a few science experiments away from being either plastic or dog food, there are a few simple tips you can follow to get your nutrition in check and moving in the right direction of all your other healthy habits as well!

We’ve probably all hear the adage, “Don’t go to the grocery store hungry.” Because if you do, chances are that you’ll purchase with your eyes and taste buds rather than your brain and body in mind (guilty!). Being hungry in a store designed specifically to sell you any food imaginable is a recipe for impulse purchase disaster. One of my favorite things to do that has helped me a TON in curbing impulse/poor food choices has been to simply MAKE A LIST.

There are a bunch of apps, but all you need really is your notes app or a pen/paper and about 2 minutes.

A couple of common misconceptions about eating clean/healthy are that either A) you must eat something extravagant and time consuming to make or B) all you can eat is chicken, broccoli, and brown rice. Well, if you go with option B), your grocery list is going to be SUPER easy and if you go with A, you probably won’t be sticking to the list very long when you have to figure out all the ingredients you’ll need for that breakfast sandwich with poached egg whites, 1/3 avocado, cilantro lime hollandaise, blah, blah, blah that you’ll make once and end up throwing out the rest of the ingredients.

All you need are a few staple items that fall under your protein, carbs, and fats that are your “Go-To” items. They will be the focus of most of your meals with rotations of combinations to keep it varied, but simple. The main idea of going in with a list is to help keep you on track and help avoid the lure of all the things you don’t need, but will inevitably want as you stroll through the aisles.

Not only that, but knowing what you want, you can choose to put items on your list that are typically found along the perimeter of the store, rather than down the dreaded aisles of no return! As mentioned a little earlier, the food products you’ll find in the aisles are heavily filled with processed foods, sugars, fats, and a bunch of other things that your body really doesn’t want, though your taste buds try to say differently. It’s noted that modern grocery stores contain over 40,000 items, all of which want your attention and most being down these aisles.

Grocery stores are mostly set with all their fresh ingredients along the outside perimeter – where all the fresh meats, fruits/veggies, milk, eggs, yogurt, etc… clean items you should focus on are located. These can also be categorized as the food items with limited to no ingredient list. A rule of thumb to help with your food list and grocery picking is that you want to aim for foods with the least amount of ingredients listed as possible. The more ingredients you see on a food label – looking at potato chips and cookies – the more processed and less healthy they will be for you.

If you’ve already mastered shopping the perimeter and thinking, “yeah sure that’s fine for fruits/veggies, but meat (protein) is so dang expensive!” then you’re in luck. Often times if you check the grocery stores website or app, they will showcase deals going on for all sorts of products, including protein and meats, to help you plan your weekly meals and shopping list.

Not only that, but it can help you focus on what types of protein you should buy in bulk! Now, I’m not talking about buying 3 fridges worth of meat because that would be outrageous, but I can’t tell you how great it is to search the Kroger app and see that Beef Tenderloin Roasts are Buy 1 Get 1 Free. They are still pricey – usually around $20-30 per roast, but if you can find them with the B1G1 deal, then you’ve just picked up at least a week or two’s worth of protein in one. Buying groceries at the time can feel expensive because you’re buying a lot of 1 product at once, but when you look at it from above and see that you can get multiple meals out of one product (think a pack of chicken breast that may run you $10, that’s 3-5 dinners for that $10 pack compared to swinging through McD’s where even if you hit the value menu, chances are your meal is going to be at least $5-10 PER MEAL.

Meat freezes well and a quick thaw or throw right into a crock pot can help you get multiple meals for a great deal. The price up front might seem a little high, but averaging versus eating out every meal or even just once per day, the savings is a no-brainer in the long run.

Eating healthy doesn’t have to break the bank, cause anxiety, or be overwhelmingly complex. If you feel overwhelmed, try taking 5-10 minutes before leaving the house and follow these tips to make the grocery store trip quick and painless.

Make a List

Keep to the perimeter as best you can

Check the grocery site/app ahead of time for deals

Buy protein sources (meat) in bulk

Here’s a sample of what one of my Grocery Lists might look like:

Fruit (2-3 seasonal)

Potatoes

Baby Carrots

Frozen Peas

Frozen Broccoli

Meat (check deals – beef tenderloin/rotisserie chicken?)

Yogurt

Milk

Eggs (30pk)

Noodles + Sauce

5lb bag of rice

Sweet Treat (life is about balance)

Happy shopping!

Not everyone is cut out to be a personal trainer, just like everyone is not cut out to be a doctor, or plumber, or desk worker, etc. But if you want to give it a go, it’s a booming industry with a lot of potential for growth and a job position that should be sticking around for a while. People are becoming more sedentary and unhealthy – but many are REALIZING this and seeking help from professionals to get their lives in control to be happy, healthy, and stress free.

Beyond getting certified and deciding if you’re going to work for yourself or for someone else as a trainer, there were a few tips that got passed along to me early on that when taken to heart, helped me grow leaps and bounds for myself and my clients and I’d like to pass them along to you! Here are my 6 tips for new personal trainers that will help any personal trainer new to the game.

Train Everyone

Most literature you will read will tell you to “find your niche” and maybe you’re entering the fitness world with one in mind and that’s great! But when you’re starting out, cast a wide net and try working with anyone and everyone you can. This will help you learn how to work with different types of people; work through problems you might not know you could solve; really confirm or discover your niche community; and just help you gain experience on the fitness floor helping people work toward their goals. When I first started, I thought I would help people work through transformations – turning their bodies from flab to fab, because that’s what I did. I lost the weight and put on muscle and thought I could help them do the same. But as I worked with different people, I found that my best clients are either men/women over the age of 50 who are just trying to stay healthy and active for themselves and their families; and 25-35 men who were seen as “scrawny” and looking to “bulk up”. Though I’m confident to help people outside of those goals, those are where I seem to thrive. I wouldn’t have known that if I tried to only stick with “fat loss” or “transformation” clients. Working with a little bit of everyone helps uncover who you work best with and can set you up for long term success.

Don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know”

Being a personal trainer comes with a lot of bravado and ego. Typically you work out to keep yourself healthy and one of the best non-scale victories of working out is confidence. But it also comes with one of the biggest catches – you THINK you know everything, but if you’re honest… you don’t.

AND THAT’S OKAY.

As a new trainer, you’re going to do your best to help answer every question your client has and you’ll be compelled to maybe even lie when something comes up that you’re not sure about. DON’T. Not only can people smell BS, when it comes out that you’re wrong, it looks terrible on you and you’ve lost trust right then and there. They came to you and chose you because they trust you know what you’re doing and if that trust is lost, good luck finding it again. But when someone asks you a question that stumps you, and you say, “That’s a great question, I’m not really sure….” What that does is allow you to follow up with, “…but let me do some research and let’s discuss further when you come in for your next session.” Which does a couple of cool things…

It establishes that you’re human and you can set aside your ego. Being open and honest and showing some of our own flaws like that can help solidify trust and the bond between you and the client.
It gives you the privilege of doing some research to learn more – which is one of the best things about this profession. I’m still relatively new at only about 2+ years as a trainer, but I feel like I learn something new every day. And learning something new means not only being able to discuss with the client who asked but sharing with others who might have the same questions!

Saying, “I don’t know” can be a huge benefit to help you establish trust and learn something new to expand you, your client, and your communities’ horizons.

Other trainers are NOT your competition

You should not be afraid to watch what other trainers do or ask them for advice or help. We are all in the industry of helping people better themselves through training and nutrition. Helping people is our number one priority and helping each other is a very close second. If I can help you learn a new exercise variation or discuss ways we help clients work toward similar goals, and you can apply them to your clients, then that’s a big win for them, you, me, and everyone around. There are 7+ billion people on this planet… there are plenty of clients for all of us – let’s learn from each other and help them all become the best version of themselves possible!

Don’t chase dollars, chase change

Money is cool and allows you a lot of freedom to do cool things. But if you’re new and start charging top dollar… good luck. There are a number who can succeed at this, but the best are those who focus on helping clients reach their goals.

“If you build it, they will come.”

Put in the reps of helping those around you that will work with you at a fair price get results and as you grow, build on your systems and PROVE you know what you’re doing… and the cash will follow.

Helping people become their best should be your top priority. If you can do that, the cost to them won’t matter.

Don’t fret about name, branding, logo, etc.

Piggybacking number 4 above here, don’t fret about branding and logo and image. Get results! It doesn’t matter if you’re name is Eric Does Training – as long as your name is Eric and you train people, not only is it spot on, but it will avoid any sort of confusion about who you are and what you do. What’s more important is the helping people. Like I mentioned, without tangible evidence that what you know and apply to help people actually works, the flashiest logo, brand name, content, etc. will be found out and left behind.

As you grow and find who you are, what you believe and stand for, and what kind of person you want to work with, the rest of that will follow.

Be Yourself and have fun!

Like it or not, you’re not just selling a service to help people. You’re selling yourself. If people don’t think you’re being genuine or see that you’re putting up a front, they’ll avoid it like the plague. Be true to who you are and know who you want to work with, and you will attract the clienteles that are the right fit. As Jonathan Goodman of The PTDC once said, “People don’t buy training, they buy the trainer.” If they don’t trust or like who you are and what you bring to the table, it’ll never work. Who you are is just right for someone and if you put it out there, you will find each other.

On top of that – have fun! You are helping people change their lives for the better. They have taken the time to look in the mirror and say to themselves, ‘Fuck whatever is happening right now – I am ready to become my best damn self!” and they came to you and chose you to help them do that. There is nothing cooler (to me) than having someone come to you who has no idea what their doing, and being able to help them not only learn what to do physically, but watch that internal lightbulb click on in THEM when they reach a goal they thought might never happen.

Being a personal trainer is hard and it’s not for everyone. It’s grueling hours and can be frustrating with clients who push back or don’t give their all like you wish they would… but it should rank in the list of most rewarding jobs you can do. We get the opportunity to help people become their best selves and share knowledge that we continue to learn.

If you’re just starting out, know that you have what it takes and you can be wildly successful, and it starts with following these few simple tips.

If you’re a new trainer, what are some tips you’ve been given outside of these that have helped you grow into the best you around? Drop them in the comments and let’s spread the good word across the industry to help others.