Should I see a nutritionist? I mean, shouldn’t I be able to do this on my own?

Our waiting room

Recently, I received an email from a longtime client, who I hadn’t seen in a few months.
She was emailing for an appointment but expressed frustration at not being able to manage things (food things) on her own. This is a legit question but one that’s not asked of other experts. We don’t try to do therapy on our own. We see trainers for years at a time. It’s understood that our minds and bodies are long-term projects. Why do we pressure ourselves to be "done" with nutrition?

At the same time, we do try to build a degree of independence in our clients. Most Foodtrainers’ clients start out coming weekly, move to every other week and then to once a month. Clients, who tweak their nutrition continuously, tend to fare better than those who come in intensely, disappear and then resurface with the common refrain, “I should have come back sooner.”

After all these years, it’s not a matter of being sell-y”.  I know what works. If we start to see nutrition the way we do personal training, gym going, therapy, hair coloring (I was trying to think of repetitive appointments), waxing etc. we’ll mitigate feelings of guilt and really feel better.

Trainers gonna train, train, train, train

A little background. Last week (has mercury unretrograded? hope so) Carolyn and I received more than a few emails from clients saying, “my trainer told me to buy”. We dutifully checked out said product and found nasty ingredients or something super processed. Thus this post. We totally get that that there is an overlap with fitness and nutrition but…I’ll get Carolyn take it away.

When in doubt we refer out to doctors, acupuncturists, yogis, and even stylists and organizationalists. We also love trainers and fitness instructors, for so many Foodtrainers’ clients they’re the other piece of the fit puzzle. But when some start dropping nutrition instructions when they should be teaching how to lift weights, I have some issues. Would you ask your therapist for workout tips? OK, ok once my old therapist “prescribed” me yoga (followed soon after by Xanax if we’re being honest) but for the most part, professionals should stick to their field, right?  

Lauren and I always preface our (very minimal) exercise recommendations with “we’re not trainers” because we think expertise is essential. We love reaching out to our favorite exercise professionals when we need fitness facts for our newsletters or posts. We went to school for a loooooong time to get to the nutrition expert level. We learned how meds can interact with nutrients, gained an understanding of blood work and lab values etc.  So when instructors make weird food or supplement or, maybe worst of all, cleanse recommendations in the middle of a Soul Cycle class, it makes us a little grouchy. The same can be said for doctors who get on average a week, maybe two of nutrition education tops.

There are the examples of trainers who do it right though the badass Holly Rilinger was writing a post on her experience with juicing but she asked for my nutrition input. YES!  And another trainer-friend of Foodtrainers gave us one of my favorite exercise quotes “you cant out train a bad diet”. Hallelujah!

But whether it’s coming from a trainer, a chiropractor, a fit friend or an insta-crush:

• If a product looks sketchy it probably is
• If your diet is on track you don’t need to be loading up on countless, expensive supplements
• Just because it worked for someone else doesn’t mean it will work or last for you
• If you have any health condition, take meds or even other vitamins all of these things have to be evaluated when you make dietary changes

Listen, in the world of insta and twitter there are lots of health enthusiasts that can easily be mistaken for experts. So look for credentials, ask for research, and then you can always ask us on twitter @onesmartbrownie @Foodtrainers

What do you think? Should trainers provide nutrition information or not? Where is the line? Perhaps encouraging hydration or breakfast eating is ok but what about specifics? And what about RDs, where should we curb our exercise advice?