Have you ever wanted to follow a weight loss program but held back because it was delivered online?
Maybe you thought that an online program wasn’t for you. Perhaps you felt that online coaching was going to be too complicated or the online system would be too hard to learn how to use.
Maybe you even found a PT who you resonated with who didn’t live near you, but you didn’t bother signing up because their program was online. How you wished you lived closer!
Or perhaps, you didn’t think you had the time to do an online program.
So you didn’t sign up. Instead you sat back and waited for another program to come along, that would suit your needs better. One that didn’t involve an online component, where you could do all the things you needed to do, face-to-face.
Because you just don’t do online.
But we know you do, and you’ve been doing online for quite some time.
You already do online
If you use a computer, conduct Google searches or use email, you’re already online.
If you use Facebook and use it to watch what other people are doing, share memes, share photos of your kids, or as a platform to voice your political opinions, you do online.
If you use Instagram, follow other people’s stories and post your own, you do online.
If you buy things on the internet and get them delivered to your house, or book holidays on the internet, you’re already doing online.
You’ve also learned how to use multiple online systems without any problems at all, AND you’ve found the time to do it!
So if you’re already doing online, when you say that online isn’t for you, what’s the real reason you won’t do an online coaching program?
It’s not because you don’t know how to do online stuff — you already do.
It’s not because you don’t have time to spend going online — you already do.
The real reasons you’re not embracing online are because you don’t want your results badly enough — and if this is the case, that’s okay.
Or because you’re scared.
How fear is holding you back
All of us experience fear. It’s a normal human emotion. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being afraid. However, many people run away from their fears, and use excuses as reasons why they can’t do things. In the case of online coaching, many people say “I don’t do online” or “online is not for me” or “i really love what you guys do, i just wished that you were closer” or “it’s too complicated” or “I don’t have time to log in all the time”.
But the real reason you won’t do something is because you’re scared.
You’re either afraid of being judged, or afraid of failing — or both!
Fear of judgement
One of the deepest human needs is to be loved and accepted which is why we’re so afraid for others to see us as we really are. People who are afraid of being judged by others will do anything to fit in or appear as if they’re part of the mainstream. If you’re desperate to be loved and accepted, you’ll always be afraid to do something that’s ‘out of the norm’ or makes you feel vulnerable. This explains why so many people stick with the majority and focus on the things that are totally out of their control — politics, world events and what other people are doing — and then spend their time sharing or commenting on these posts on social media. Yet they never share anything about their weight loss journey, or anything personal about themselves.
Doing online coaching and trying to change your life is ‘out of the norm’ because so many people are living lives of complacency. It also requires you to be vulnerable, honest and show up as you are — faults and all. It means that you have to finally admit that you don’t have it all together and that you need help. Maybe, you’re terrified of what you’ll uncover and discover about yourself when you start delving deeper into your habits and mindset. And you may be scared about other people continuing to accept and love you, especially if you discover something terrible about yourself.
So what a lot of people do is sit back and wait for an opportunity that doesn’t scare them so much, or doesn’t make them feel so vulnerable. One where you can continue to hide and not be seen for who you are.
Fear of failure
The other common fear people have is fear of failure.
What if I put in all that work and don’t succeed? What if I spend time and money and still can’t lose weight?
But what if you do put in the work and succeed?
The truth is that you’ve already failed at many things before. And it’s not so much the failure that is the problem, it’s your response to that failure.
If you’re a perfectionist who believes you should get everything right, or someone who places their worth in doing things right, then you’ll see failure as a negative thing, and you’ll let it drain your confidence.
Most people don’t understand that failure only occurs when they give up. As long as you keep going, you can’t fail. Any ‘failures’ you have along the way are really just incredible learning experiences. Every time you fail at something is a lesson in what doesn’t work, or what you still need to learn so you don’t ‘fail’ at the same thing again.
Don’t wait until an easier option comes along
If you’re waiting for things to get easier before you make the commitment to start your weight loss journey, you could be waiting forever. Are you really willing to stay overweight for that long?
The truth is there will always be challenges ahead of you. Now may not be the ‘right time’, but when will be? You may not want to do ‘online’ but what if that’s your only option?
Technology and systems change all the time which means that what is ‘normal’ now, may be obsolete in the future. Just think about all the online processes that have made your life easier, which never used to exist — online shopping, online banking and paying your bills. Would you go back to the old way of doing things?
The truth is that doing things online makes life easier. You can get more done in shorter amounts of time. For example, how long would it take you to make a bank transaction if you had to drive to the bank, park the car, fill out all the paperwork, line up in the queue, attend the counter, and then drive home again? But you can now do that same transaction online in less than a minute.
If you’re not embracing change, and not embracing online coaching, then you’re actually going backwards. Life changes all the time and if you’re not working on becoming better than you were yesterday, last week or even last year, you’re going backwards. If you wake up in 6 months, or 12 months’ time and everything is still the same, you’ve gone backwards. If your health and your weight is worse than it is today, you’ve really gone backwards.
Embrace change while you’re in charge
As a result of coronavirus, millions of people were thrown into the deep end and had to learn how to do things online, almost overnight.
Kids attended school from home, and parents needed to help them log-in to online classrooms. Parents were trying to juggle home-schooling and working from home while trying to set up wi-fi, printers, laptops etc.
Businesses that relied on retail had to ‘pivot’ and turn their bricks and mortar businesses into online ones, in an attempt to survive. Those who relied on face-to-face networking had to quickly learn how to market themselves online, and were all of a sudden, competing against all the other businesses that had been doing it for years.
These people were forced to change a lot of things quickly, which was overwhelming, panic-inducing and extremely stressful.
However, there were also those who took everything in their stride, who calmly went about their days, adjusting to the new normal and thriving despite it all.
These were the people who already embraced change and continue to do so on a daily basis. These were the ones who had already been proactive, learning how to use social media for their marketing, or learning how to be flexible in a changing environment, instead of sitting in their comfort zone, and needing to react to it when it occurred.
And you can bet your life, that these are the kinds of people who will get to the end of the year, having made progress towards their weight loss goals. Because they are willing to continually adjust their course, embrace technology and online coaching.
Embrace change to lose weight
The truth is that to lose weight and keep it off, you need to continue to embrace change and do the things you’re uncomfortable with, even if it means moving to an online program. To show you why let’s look at two examples.
Sharon is a business owner who wants to lose weight. She’s recently started working with an online coach and has been making steady progress. In the beginning, there were a few hiccups, and it took Sharon a few weeks to get the hang of everything and learn how the online portal worked. But after a while, she became quite familiar with it and was surprised at how easy it was to use. Through her online portal, Sharon’s coach gives her an exercise program, advice around nutrition, and tasks to work on which are designed to help her become more aware of her habits and how they impact her. Sharon commits to the process because she understands that in order to progress, she has to do something different to what she’s always done. While she finds it challenging and confronting, Sharon can see how her habits have been impacting her behaviours and how they have contributed to her weight. Through her increased awareness, she’s been able to see how much time she was wasting in face-to-face networking events and how that was impacting her weight. One of the strategies she used was to start leveraging the power of social media to market herself. When she first started the online coaching, Sharon would not have had the confidence to do this, but now she has no problems about being seen for who she is. As a result, she’s attracting more of the right kind of clients and her business is growing.
As Sharon continues to use her online program, she is able to work through any hurdles with the guidance of her coach. She finds that having access to the online program 24/7 means she can communicate with her coach as soon as she experiences a challenge, and her coach gets back to her in a timely manner, with an answer or solution for her to implement. While most of Sharon’s friends were stressed, frustrated and angry about the coronavirus and the need to home-school their kids, Sharon took it all in her stride, and was able to help her kids set up their laptops from home and log in to all the online classes. Her business didn’t suffer either, as she had already implemented many online systems and she was still able to do all the things she needed to, from her own home. She continued to keep up with her training program from home, with a few modifications. But because Sharon is used to training on her own, it’s not much of an adjustment to her. She was also able to stay on track with her nutrition, without falling into the trap of emotionally eating.
After consistently using her online program for 12 months, Sharon is delighted to realise that she has finally dropped her habits of people-pleasing, changed her mindset considerably, has lost 2 dress sizes and can now wear her favourite jeans again.
From this example, it’s clear to see that doing an online coaching program has not only helped Sharon lose weight, but it helped her to change her habits and mindset, has led her to make changes in her business, and equipped her well when world events that were beyond her control disrupted daily life.
Now let’s look at an example where someone doesn’t embrace online coaching.
Isla is also a business owner who wants to lose weight. She has been working with a PT for the past 12 months and has been making some progress. But when her coach announces that he is moving his business to an online portal, Isla is concerned. She doesn’t know if online coaching will suit her or whether she even has time for it, given the large amount of business networking meetings she has to attend each week. After some consideration, Isla tells her PT she won’t be continuing because online just isn’t for her. Instead, she makes plans to have a bit of a break from training, and then look for another PT who offers just face-to-face training.
For the first couple of weeks, Isla enjoys the extra ‘freedom’ she has, and finds herself eating more treat foods, enjoying more lunches out with business colleagues after networking events, and drinking more alcohol. She tells herself it’s just for a short time, until she finds another PT and then she’ll get back on the wagon. But then COVID-19 hits and all her plans are up in the air. Isla is forced to work from home, and has to quickly make adjustments to her business now that she can only do business online. She has no idea on how to use social media to her advantage or how to set up her business for online trading. To make matters worse, her two children are now being home-schooled and she is having difficulty setting their laptops up, and negotiating the ins and outs of online learning. On several days, her kids missed their classes because they couldn’t connect to the school’s online portal. With every passing day, Isla feels increasingly frustrated. She has arguments with her kids and her husband on most days. This is made worse by her inability to get to a face-to-face PT class, which she used to find helped her deal with stress. Instead, Isla turns to drinking, binge-eating and emotional eating to try to manage her stress. She’s not sleeping well and wakes up extremely irritable every morning.
In the months following the coronavirus pandemic, Isla spends the majority of her time trying to get her business back up and running. She spends countless hours networking with other people, because her online-efforts during the pandemic came to nothing, so she figures it’s best to stick with what she knows. She is horrified to realise that her weight has sky-rocketed due to her excessive eating, drinking and high levels of stress. And while she promised herself that she’d find another PT, she’s so ashamed about where she’s at, that she decides to crash diet for a bit and lose some of the weight, before she looks for another one. She tells herself it’s because she doesn’t have time right now, but underneath she knows it’s because she’s so embarrassed about letting herself go.
In the two examples, you can see the difference that online coaching made to both women. For Sharon, she was able to navigate the upheavals of life and still continue to make progress, because her online program and her coach were able to give her the tools, skills and knowledge she needed. For Isla however, she was left to her own devices and ended up relying on drinking and eating to ease the stress. In Sharon’s case, she continued to make progress, built her business and lost weight. Isla on the other hand lost business, increased her stress levels, gained weight and ended up feeling terrible about herself.
It’s obvious that the traditional PT model of turning up to training several times a week just doesn’t equip you to change habits and mindset in order to help you through the ups and downs of life. Once these PT sessions are over, you’re left to your own devices to muddle through life as best as you can.
However, online coaching not only provides you with direction on nutrition and exercise, but it helps you change your habits and your mindset, in order to overcome the things that make life difficult for you. And even in the midst of a global pandemic, online coaching can help you, no matter where you are in the world.
Benefits of online coaching
If the above examples haven’t convinced you of the benefits of online coaching, then maybe this list will.
Flexibility
Online coaching provides you with a lot of flexibility. Instead of being locked into a session with a PT each week, you can access your online coach anytime, anywhere. This means that if something happens with work, or your kids get sick, you can still access your coach without having to wait for your next session.
Increases communication and accountability
Having access to online coaching increases the communication between you and your coach and the level of accountability. When you focus on face-to-face training, you’re only accountable to your PT during the time you’re exercising. You also don’t have the opportunity to ask for guidance or help on anything, other than exercise. With online coaching however, you have access to your coach 24/7 and can ask them anything about your weight loss journey — not just about exercise.
Cost-effective
Paying for a PT can be quite expensive. For three sessions a week, you can be paying around $300, by the time you factor in gym membership and the PT fee. Over the course of a year this adds up to over $15,000. But remember, exercise only makes up 3% of the weight loss equation. So that’s over $15,000 for just 3% of the solution. But online coaching offers you 100% of the puzzle for a fraction of the cost, because you get advice on exercise, nutrition, habit and mindset change. Many people exercise for years without any results, because they’re focusing only on exercise, which means that over 12 months, they’re $15,000 out of pocket, but haven’t made any progress on their weight loss journey. Online coaching allows you to work on the things that have been holding you back from losing weight, which means that over 12 months, you’re further down the track, at a fraction of the cost of regular PT sessions
Immediacy
Online coaching means you can contact your coach anytime of the day or night. That means that if something happens that you need help with, you can send your coach a message straight away, instead of having to wait until your next PT session, and then try to quickly and quietly discuss it while no one else is around. This immediacy means that whatever you’re struggling with can be dealt with immediately, thereby limiting any sabotaging behaviour that may occur, and helping you work through it effectively.
Efficient and confidential
An online coaching program is not only confidential (no overhead conversations between you and your PT), but it keeps all your data in one place. This data can be anything about your habits, mindset, eating patterns, training workouts, goals, measurements and more. Imagine for a moment that your PT has asked you to keep a record of what you have eaten during the week. You hand it to him at your next session, he takes it away and then you have to wait until you see him next, to get any feedback on it. Don’t forget, that feedback will often be rushed because your PT session is focused on exercise. With an online program, there is no need to wait until you see your coach in person. You can simply upload this information and your coach can give you feedback immediately, which means better, quicker results.
Full access to a wider range of expertise
PTs know how to run exercise sessions for you. They don’t necessarily know about nutrition, body transformation, mind and habit change, or coaching. With the Imani Tribe Transformations online coaching program, you get access to two body and lifestyle transformation coaches plus our team. And you get full, unlimited access to us at any time of the day and night. With a PT, you get access only when you pay for your session.
Gym-less
One barrier to losing weight for some people is that it can be intimidating going to a gym. You may also waste time there, waiting for machines or weights to become available. However, you can do online coaching in the comfort and privacy of your own home, so there is no need to feel intimidated. You also get time to work on your habits — as much time as you need. So there is no one standing over you, hurrying you up, or pressuring you to get a result quickly.
Personalised and customised
Online coaching is personalised and customised because it’s all about you. An online portal, allows your program to be designed to fit your goals and needs. As these change, so will your program. This means you’ll always have correct action steps and the advice you need, to keep you moving forward, no matter what stage of the journey you’re on. PTs on the other hand, tend to take a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach with their clients, which we know doesn’t work.
Teaches your skills for life
When you attend face-to-face sessions with a PT, you’re reliant on them to tell you what to do and how to do it. However, an online coaching program teaches you the skills and tools you need to learn how to train on your own. This is empowering because it means you can be anywhere in the world, and you’ll know how to manage your habits, how to train effectively, how to food prep and how to stay on track with your goals. It’s the difference between giving a man a fish, and teaching him how to fish.
Quite simply, online training gives you more options than just settling for face-to-face training, because it’s the easiest, and least scary option.
What if you don’t do online?
Obviously, the decision is up to you. However, choosing not to do online coaching because you’re scared and you’re choosing to stay in your comfort zone will not serve you in the end.
It’s like being diagnosed with a brain condition and being told that you need to see a specialist. However, the only specialist is in another city. Do you just settle with your local GP? Or do you learn how to use Zoom or Skype to access your brain specialist?
If you refuse to do online coaching, you’ll continue to go in circles, looking for the next quick-fix, the next trainer, the next face-to-face program that you think will solve your problems. However, unless you’re willing to get uncomfortable and deal with your habits, you’ll never lose weight and keep it off for the long-term. Online coaching allows you to do this.
If you don’t embrace online coaching, you’ll always be living from a place of fear. Unless you learn to embrace your fears, and look for ways you can make online coaching work for you, instead of insisting you ‘don’t do online’, you’ll never reach your potential, and you’ll continue to make excuses as to why you can’t do things, that are either related to your weight or something else.
You’ll also keep wasting money for the privilege of going backwards. Remember, just focusing on exercise will not help you lose weight. Paying for PT sessions might seem easier than committing to an online coaching program, but it won’t get you the results you’re looking for.
Online coaching — a proven and cost-effective solution
If you’re telling yourself that you ‘don’t do online’, not only are you running from your fears, but you’re really putting all your faith in the ability of exercise to change your body shape. But science tells us that this doesn’t work.
Our online Diet Antidote Transformation System (DATSTM Program) The Not-Diet-diet for people who are sick of diets and want more than a good body bridges the gap between exercise and results. It helps you address the reasons why you became overweight in the first place, and helps you develop habits, mindset, skills and tools that you can use for life. And the great thing is that these skills can be applied in all areas of your life, making online coaching a great investment in your future.
Our online coaching system is so effective, it’s what we use with our face-to-face clients as well. The only face-to-face components of our program are our training, and our 6-weekly consults. Everything else is online because it gives us the best results for our clients — and it will for you too.
