What Does Online Coaching Look Like?

Today I wanted to talk about what online coaching, well at THENATTHOUR anyways, looks like. 

Online coaching is still very new to a lot of people and to be honest probably looks very different for each coach. But today I wanted to spend some time answering some common questions that I often get that will hopefully clear up some confusion when it comes to online coaching. As well too, it may also shed some light as to how online coaching can be beneficial for you as an athlete, depending on your experience and goals.

Firstly, let’s talk about how I onboard clients. I don’t just work with just anybody. At the end of the day, I am not going to be the right fit for everybody, just like everybody isn’t going to be the right for me and my coaching methods. 

So, I have potential clients complete an application form. This allows me to assess the athlete’s experience, goals and needs when it comes to having a coach. I want to work with athlete’s who have the end goal of being successful on their own. As much as I love my clients, I don’t want them to have to rely on me as their coach forever. That’s not to say that everyone should feel independent and ready to move on after 12 weeks. I have had athletes I’ve worked with for 5+ years and that’s simply because their goals evolve as they evolve as an athlete. So regardless of if we work together for 6 months for 4 years, the end goal is still to get the athlete to feel independent to eventually sustain their results on their own. 

The athletes who have that same vision are the athletes I want to work with. I am not here to tell you what to eat, how to train, to do what I say and never ask questions. Some athletes like that and while there’s a time and place for that, it may not be the best fit if athlete’s never want to take the time to learn and be self-efficient with their nutrition and training habits. It’s a team effort and I want my athletes to communicate with me what their preferences are and to ask questions so eventually they feel confident enough to go off on their own.

After we establish whether it’s a good fit or not, that’s when the fun really begins! A registration form is then sent out so I can get to know the athlete a bit better and then their programs are customized and it’s time to get to work. 

So how does the training and nutrition look when it comes to online coaching?

Let’s start with training!

Building training programs is one of my favourite parts of online coaching. Everyone’s needs, schedules and preferences are so different and it’s like writing a song for that individual. When the program is built to fit their preferences, it’s like a work of art. 

So, because of that, no two programs are ever the same. Yea there may be some similarities if two athletes have the same goals. But customization of the program for that individual is always the primary goal. 

For example, if you can only train 4 days a week. Your program will be 4 days a week. If back squats hurt your knee, then we will work together to find an alternative.

Now some people are completely new to training and that is often a concern when hiring an online coach. So, what I have done is built a video demonstration library that my athletes have access to. Each exercise explains what to do and what not to do when performing a prescribed exercise. I also encourage all my athletes to send over their own videos of them performing exercises so I can provide feedback as needed. Also, if I work with any local athletes, I am more than happy to workout with them in person to go over specific movements they aren’t sure about or even setup a zoom call for my out-of-town athletes.

What if you don’t have access to a gym?

I too will provide at home workout programs for my athletes who prefer to workout at home. Some equipment is recommended so we can ensure progress is still being made. But lots of my athletes are still able to make progress with an at home workout program.  

Now what about nutrition? How does this work when it comes to online coaching?

The nutrition side of things will require the most attention!

My goal is to teach my athletes flexible dieting principles. This is where you will learn how to track your macronutrients so you can still eat the foods that you love within moderation. After coaching for over 7 years, I have found this to be the most sustainable method for my clients.

I have a step-by-step process to teach my athletes this new lifestyle. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but my athletes are in constant contact with me to help make the learning process easier. 

I do provide what I like to call a “sample meal plan.” This is provided in the beginning to teach my athletes the process of tracking their macronutrients. They also will receive a bunch of recipes and resources as part of the process. My athletes also receive weekly videos to help them learn and progress through the program. 

So why flexible dieting and tracking macronutrients? Isn’t it easier to just give out a meal plan?

Well, there are a few reasons as to why I can’t but more importantly won’t give out meal plans to my athletes. 

I am a nutritionist. I obtained my sports nutrition certification in 2014 and have many years of experience on the nutrition side of things. However, I am not a registered dietician. While I am qualified to give out nutrition advice, there’s a big difference between nutritionists and registered dieticians. One of the main differences being that I can’t legally prescribe diets, supplements or meal plans that treat a medical condition. 

So, if someone came to me wanting to work with me to treat their diabetes, that would be outside of my scope of practice and that individual would need to seek out professional help from a registered dietician. The same scenario exists for those who are technically obese. Nutritionists are not allowed to prescribe a meal plan to treat their obesity. You can see how there’s a bit of a grey area here.

Make sure you check out episode 63 to learn more about the difference between nutritionists and registered dieticians.

Now it’s important to note that there’s nothing wrong with coaches who choose to give out meal plans. For me though, the liability risk of this grey area is just not worth it.

When I first started coaching in 2014, I used to give out meal plans to my clients. I would spend hours upon hours creating what I thought to be the perfect meal plan for the week. I would put countless hours into creating yummy recipes and giving my clients variety – unlike the cookie cutter boring chicken and rice meal plan I received from my previous coach at the time.

I knew how boring and unsatisfying it was and I wanted my clients to enjoy what they were eating and not feel the same way I felt. I also developed a really bad relationship with food after eating the same thing each day that I didn’t even like, and I thought by giving my clients yummy variety while they were able to see results it would help them still eat what they liked while seeing results. 

I thought it was a full proof plan. 

Boy did I have a lot to learn

Each day I had someone asking me if they could swap out the banana for strawberries. “But I don’t like pasta for dinner, can I have something else? What about cashews instead of almonds, is that allowed?”

It was a nightmare, and I was beyond frustrated. Not with my clients but with the fact that I felt like they weren’t learning anything. We were spending more time swapping out meals every single day than focusing on building healthy lifestyle habits that would help them achieve their long-term goals.

The biggest thing that I didn’t like with giving out meal plans was that my clients had to constantly ask me for permission if they could eat something. And the whole time knowing that they can eat whatever the hell they want. Me telling my athletes what to eat is no different than me telling them what car to buy. I may like Porsches and you may like Ferraris. Both great cars but both are going to get you from A to B when you are driving. Not one is wrong and the other is right. It comes down simply to preference. You should be entitled to make these decisions on your own.

The meal plan option within my coaching program ended quickly. 

I couldn’t help but ask myself, how is me spoon feeding my clients like they are children, telling them to “eat this, not that” every single day ever going to set them up for success? I knew that I would never be able to make my client the perfect meal plan and if I did, it wouldn’t last long because their preferences would change – and why shouldn’t they change? Heck, mine change all the time.

Now some people prefer to have a meal plan and some coaches do just fine with giving out meal plans. I am not saying my way is the right way, but after coaching for 7 years I can say that my clients have way more success and have the skills to maintain their results after our time together. And that right there is my biggest goal.

This is when I started teaching my athletes how to implement flexible dieting principles and it has been the most sustainable method for all my athletes ever since. 

Now there are often reservations with flexible dieting because it does involve the process of counting your macronutrients. 

 Often the same individuals wonder why not just follow a meal plan. 

“It’s less work.” 

But a meal plan doesn’t teach you how to make adaptable decisions when it comes to your food choices and preferences. 

For example, say the meal plan allows you to have a banana, 2 rice cakes and 30g of peanut butter for lunch but your work brings in pizza and it smells so good that you are dying for a slice. You limit yourself to one slice but feel awful afterwards, when the calorie profile for 1 slice of pizza may have been like your lunch on your meal plan. People often see it as “I’m on the meal plan” or “I’m off the meal plan” It causes us to create a black and white mentality that we followed the meal plan, therefore I did go or I didn’t follow the meal plan, therefore I did bad. Which often isn’t the cause at all. 

I have yet to see this scenario play out for those practicing flexible dieting. 

With flexible dieting, we want to focus on having an inclusion mindset. This is where we are still intentional with having high quality nutrient dense foods each day. We still have micronutrient and fiber targets each day. If we just filled up on donuts and cookies, there would be no room left for us to fit our micronutrient targets.

Overall, flexible dieting isn’t an excuse to eat like an asshole if you don’t go over your macronutrients. The priority still needs to be the inclusion of high-quality nutrient dense foods with some of your treats sprinkled into the day.

By extensively teaching my athletes these principles it allows them to discover foods that used to like or foods they didn’t even know that they liked. It allows them to include more variety versus being limited to the same boring foods each day.

But most importantly, it has increased their adherence to the program. You can only restrict yourself from foods you enjoy for so long until your willpower runs out. It doesn’t refill at the start of each day. The more you restrict something from yourself, the more you want it. And we all only have so much willpower until it’s all gone. And what happens when it’s all gone? We cave and have an entire box of cookies when if we just had that one cookie 5 days ago when we first craved it maybe we wouldn’t have ended up having 12. Increasing adherence helps reduce those weekend binges that often happen when you are doing nothing but restricting all week and eating 100% of foods you don’t enjoy.

Overall, I want you to know that it’s so important to find a program or plan that works best for you. If following a meal plan works, then ignore everything I am saying. I am just sharing my experience as an athlete and a coach. But if you find when you follow a meal plan that it creates some of these misconceptions I am talking about and you see your fear of food go up and your relationship with food suffer, I encourage you to take another look into a different approach. Because food is our fuel and it’s also how we socialize. You don’t need to have one without the other. You can have both. You deserve to be able to go out, enjoy yourself in a guilt free manner, while still achieving your fitness goals. So, find a plan that allows you to easily accomplish this.

Now that you understand how the training and nutrition side of online coaching works at THENATTYHOUR, how does the communication work between the athlete and the coach?

I require my athletes to complete a weekly check-in. This is a questionnaire that I send out to all my athletes for them to complete each week. The questionnaire involves looking at the athlete’s body composition, so weigh-ins, measurements, photos, what they see, compliments they’ve received and how their clothes are fitting. 

Then I move onto asking them questions about their training. How is their training going, strength gains, and video analysis?

After that we receive their dietary adherence, where we analyze how their nutrition is going, any wins or setbacks and then adjust their protocol on an as needed basis. 

Finally, we review everything else that is relevant to them achieving their short term and long-term goals. Such things include, where the athlete is at in her menstrual cycle, how much water are they consuming, what are their stress levels at and how many hours of sleep on average are they getting. 

Keeping an eye on these things plans a huge role when it comes to helping my athletes achieve their goals. We then will work on implementing strategies if it is needed to manage sleep and stress and how to effectively drink more water during a busy day. 

My coaching relationship with my athletes goes far beyond just giving them a training and nutrition protocol to follow and them being thrown into the lake to see if they sink or swim. We work closely together to ensure all aspects of their live allow them to follow the program in a realistic manner. And how this looks is so different for everyone. There’s not a one size fits all and I think that right there is what makes potential clients so hesitant at times to try online coaching.

So having said that, if you still are on the fence, I really recommend you interview not only your potential coach, but their athlete’s as well. I have had lots of clients interview my athletes just so they can get that added reassurance that the coaching relationship is going to be right for them. 

Don’t think you need to take this decision lightly because you shouldn’t. Some of my best clients are the ones who took the time to do their homework. 

Hope this was helpful! 

Coach Krysten