Welcome to The Work IN!

3 Soft skills for hardcore coaching success in and out of the gym

The fitness industry is set up like a snake eating its tail. It gives certification and requires cecs to keep that certification and then offers limited sources of those approved credits. New trainers and educators in the wellness space are conditioned to believe that if it doesn’t give us some external validation through approved CEC’s or the magic of letters after your name then it’s not worth the time to study. So we look for more and more of what to teach clients instead of developing the skills to better communicate what we know.

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Coaching cult of mediocrity

Today I’m talking about coaching. When I say coach I’m talking about anyone who educates others about anything. From preschool to post doc, little league to pro athlete, boutique studios to big box gyms, school counselors to corporate consultants. Coaching of any kind is a business of change making and you can make it big or you can make it small and everything in between. But without courage, creativity and collaboration you can get lost in that cult of mediocrity filled with all the weight loss gurus, self love sisters and money making motivators out there.

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Fitness Industry, Nutrition, Food as medicine Ericka Thomas Fitness Industry, Nutrition, Food as medicine Ericka Thomas

A different look at supplements: Optimal health in and out of the bottle

Ideally we would all get everything our body needs to function optimally from real, whole food. Theoretically if we did that then we wouldn’t need to count calories. Or even watch portion sizes because the body has built in on and off switches for our appetite and is brilliantly designed to find the perfect energy balance. Sadly I think we can all agree that the standard American diet is deficient on many levels.

Our modern life of convenient hyper palatable food consumption has disrupted that delicate balance and led to food addiction, gut dysfunction and metabolic disease. Today, the lack of nutrition awareness and just basic general activity in modern life and you see most people deficient in many micro nutrients, using food as therapy on some level and desperate for a quick fix to fill in the gaps. That’s where supplements come in.

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How to filter the click bait fads out of your diet

The fitness industry is notorious for fads. Fad equipment, Fad formats and especially fad diets and supplements. Each one with claims that this will finally be the thing that will give you the results you have been searching for. Even if nothing you’ve tried has worked before, THIS will. Every few years there’s new science, new understanding, new technology, new supplements and it can be as overwhelming for fitness professionals as it is for our clients. So how do we filter and curate that information in meaningful ways and stay within our scope of practice.

That’s our Work IN today. And we’re going to start with the diet piece.

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Reclaiming your health and resilience: Part 3 - Nutrition

Today is part 3 of our reclaim your health and resilience series …

You reap the benefits and consequences of everything you do. So that could be work, food, exercise, entertainment, relationships. That’s what this series is all about. Reclaiming your health and resilience is within your control. Everything we do can be a lever. Nutrition is a very powerful lever. Everything you consume becomes a part of you and that makes what you eat a very intimate relationship. But unlike relationships with other people you have complete control of this one.

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Reclaiming your health and resilience: Part 2 - Movement

Today is part 2 of our reclaim your health and resilience series …

Movement of all kinds is a powerful influencer on all aspects of our health including of course our mighty nervous system. The reason of course is because all movement is accepted by the nervous system as a kind of challenge. And practice rising to that challenge in relative safety like with purposeful movement or exercise builds resilience across all bio-psycho-social-spiritual connections.

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