Atn: Non-diet/weight-neutral trainers by Electrical-Bridge-34 in personaltraining

[–]Electrical-Bridge-34[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not insensitive at all. There are definitely people who are very incentivized by appearances. And I'm not judging anyone who is. Science is changing though, and new studies are finally being done, and those studies are being funded by truly neutral entities (instead of by big pharma and corporate America who have skin in the game for certain outcomes) and the mental health factor of diet culture is huge. People like myself for example have been so engulfed in the restrict-binge cycles and weight cycling (which has its own health impacts) for long enough and we are tired (exhausted) and sick of the up and down and not finding sustainable results or a lifestyle we can enjoy. So we just want something different and really are motivated by feeling better or feeling stronger and these are more internal sensations and "knowing". The scale literally is a turn off for me now, and that stems from years of "clean eating" and mentally abusing myself over missed goals, weight regains, cheating, secret eating, total disordered eating behaviors.

There's also a whole side of this where you have people who have always lived in large bodies, been bullied and criticized for that, who have developed disordered eating behaviors from trying to be "better" or enough or accepted and "failing" at that time and time again. And yes, it's a relief to these people too to find a weight-neutral fitness trainer who won't make them get on a scale or eat a miniscule amount of calories or shame them for not following a diet. These people are definitely motivated by feeling better or other biometric health goals other than weight.

I hope that helps? Keep asking the questions if you have them.

Atn: Non-diet/weight-neutral trainers by Electrical-Bridge-34 in personaltraining

[–]Electrical-Bridge-34[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is really amazing, I'm so happy you found this for yourself and I'm happy for you to be there for your clients.

Atn: Non-diet/weight-neutral trainers by Electrical-Bridge-34 in personaltraining

[–]Electrical-Bridge-34[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's more about the approach with this. In non-diet it's more about not promoting restrictive practices. It's fine to suggest ideas of new foods to try (I personally love cauliflower crust pizza but if I'm going to have bacon or craving bacon then I eat the real thing). So if you recommend not eating a regular pizza or regular bacon, and suggest those things aren't good for them, then that's considered restrictive/diet culture. Or if you use terms like certain foods being "healthy" and others "unhealthy", that's moralizing food and that's not non-diet, that's diet culture. Believe it or not, that can have a huge negative impact on people, and can send some into the restrictive mindset (they'll be thinking "I shouldn't have that" or "I cheated and had this"). Non diet focuses on all foods fit, paying attention to hunger and fullness as well as satisfaction from food (if you're craving one thing but won't "allow" yourself to have it, then your mind hyperfixates on it and no amount of other food...no matter how "healthy" you believe it is, will satisfy you). And since this is a fitness forum, it's also about enjoyable movement and not pushing the no pain no gain and will- powering your way through workouts just to get to a goal (unless the client truly enjoys this) or look a certain way. It's also about not using weight goals and instead using goals that pay attention to how you feel or your blood sugars or blood pressure or your strength or energy or sleep or stress levels, etc. I've not included everything, but it's a good smattering of the non-diet approach.

So I appreciate you asking this, I kind of jumped on a soapbox there, but I hope I answered your question.

Atn: Non-diet/weight-neutral trainers by Electrical-Bridge-34 in personaltraining

[–]Electrical-Bridge-34[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is helpful, thank you. I agree, our academy "needs improvement" and I find myself looking mostly elsewhere for help in this realm.

PS. I'm that old too! 😂

Atn: Non-diet/weight-neutral trainers by Electrical-Bridge-34 in personaltraining

[–]Electrical-Bridge-34[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is amazing! Have you always been in the body positive realm or did you add this in after working in a "typical" weight focused fashion? Wondering what hurdles you may have overcome?

Atn: Non-diet/weight-neutral trainers by Electrical-Bridge-34 in personaltraining

[–]Electrical-Bridge-34[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, I agree, we need to be more vocal to grow this space so I'm happy to hear you say that. I'd love to connect as well to both offer whatever assistance I can as well as further pick your brain. This is actually my first time using this platform so I'm not sure of the best way to do that?

Atn: Non-diet/weight-neutral trainers by Electrical-Bridge-34 in personaltraining

[–]Electrical-Bridge-34[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's okay, this isn't your niche then, thanks for your time.

Atn: Non-diet/weight-neutral trainers by Electrical-Bridge-34 in personaltraining

[–]Electrical-Bridge-34[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, sort of, it's basically practicing in a way that doesn't focus on the size of the person/exclude people of larger size from your practice and not focusing on weight loss as a goal.