The Year's End

This is probably the most difficult time of the year as a trainer. I find myself always searching for ways to keep my clients motivated through the holidays. This morning my good old ACE newsletter popped into my email inbox. The subject line for a particular article that caught my attention, "How to keep your clients on track this holiday season." Immediately I opened it and began studying it's every word. I wanted to share part of it because it's exactly what I've been thinking about this whole week.

The New Year

Finally, with many clients splurging in the next few weeks with the good intentions of making it their New Year’s resolution to start eating and living healthier, a little early intervention is often warranted, Durkin said.

“Often clients get frustrated and say they will start exercising after the first of the year,” he found. “That’s too bad, because if they could just chip away between Thanksgiving and the New Year, they wouldn’t have to fight so hard to lose the extra weight.”

A little introspection may also serve trainers well in the coming year, according to Geiser. “If trainers take a step back and identify their ‘ideal’ client by looking into themselves and writing it down on paper, they find out what makes them unique and draw the people they really want to work with and want to work with them.”

So… how will you keep your clients motivated?

My initial reaction to this article was simple, I already have a plan, Holiday Meltdown, a program that runs from December 2nd-the end of January.

However I think it might take more than just that program to get people past the thought of "oh I'll just start in January." For some reason we all think that changing how we live needs to be done on a Monday, at the beginning of the year or on some other significant date. Although, every person I know that actually change their life, lose the weight and make a huge positive change for themselves will say they made the change on a random day. A day when they just felt like it needed to be done. See if we start doing rather saying we'll actually get to the place we want to be. Anyone can say they are going to lose weight but actually doing it is another thing. And anyway, why can't losing weight, eating better and exercising start today? What better way to change your life than to have a different Thanksgiving than last years by not eating yourself miserable?

My challenge: Set eating right and exercising regularly (maybe even join a class or hire a trainer) your first priority this holiday season.