This story goes back 15 years and I will never forget it.
Early in my career I was not as inquisitive with my clients lifestyles as I should have been. It was more about hitting the weights hard and delivering punishing workouts as I believed that’s what they wanted. I now know how backwards that is and my approach is much different.
I had been training Larry for over a year. At the time, he was in his mid fifties, owned a funeral home, and had already had triple bypass surgery. He was under a lot of stress, spent many hours every day at his funeral home and kept a personal refrigerator in the corner stocked ONLY with Diet Coke.
Somehow the conversation came up that he drank several diet cokes a day. I remember him saying this to me as if I should be proud of him… “yeah, it’s DIET coke, not real coke”. He, like many, believed he was choosing the healthy option.
I was FLOORED. I started asking questions about hydration, how much water he drinks, etc… He said he didn’t drink any water. Wow, how have we never had this conversation!?
I thought it could be fun to try something. I offered the suggestion he stop drinking diet coke for a full week and replace it with water. We would test his weight at the beginning of the week and then again at the end. I honestly had no idea how this would go, but he’d been struggling with his weight for so long without any change, that if this showed results, it could motivate him. He agreed.
He did his weigh-in, he replaced his diet coke with water for the full week without any other changes and a week later he weighed back in.
In 1 Week he LOST 10 POUNDS!! I was astonished, he was astonished - it was one of those silent jaw-dropping moments. We just stared at each other. I laughed, and he started to chuckle too.
Beyond the weight loss he noticed how amazing he felt toward the end of the week. He had a new energy come over him. It was the “Ah-Ha” moment he was waiting for. Suffice to say, he quit drinking diet coke and never looked back.
That was the reason why I now talk to EVERY client in deep detail about their lifestyle. It was a great learning moment and proved the point that it does not matter how hard you push yourself in the gym, if you do not address your lifestyle in every way possible, it will be an up-hill battle.
We’ve designed an easy way for clients to do a Lifestyle Self Evaluation to see where some areas need to be addressed. It should take about 10 minutes. It’s important to be thoughtful and honest with yourself. Once you complete the form, we will reach out to offer helpful tips for a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.