Optimal Aging

How to Use Psychology to Drive Health and Fitness Coaching, with Alex McBrairty

• Jay Croft

Share episode

In this episode of The Optimal Aging Podcast, Jay Croft sits down with Alex McBrairty, a fitness coach whose personal transformation—losing nearly 100 pounds as a teen—launched a lifelong journey into behavior change, motivation, and the psychology of fitness.

Alex shares how his struggle with self-esteem and identity led him to pursue a degree in psychology, which now underpins his coaching philosophy. You'll learn how he uses personality testing to meet clients where they are, especially those over 50 who may feel intimidated by change or doubt their ability to improve.

Whether you're a fitness or wellness professional or someone navigating your own health journey later in life, this episode is filled with actionable insights. Alex explains how to help clients rewrite their internal stories, embrace behavior change at any age, and take manageable steps toward better health—without falling into the all-or-nothing trap.

👤 Guest: Alex McBrairty

Bio: Alex McBrairty is a personal trainer and psychology enthusiast who specializes in helping clients achieve lasting health transformations by combining mindset work with fitness strategy. His own journey of losing 100 pounds as a teenager deeply informs his coaching approach.

Links:

  • Substack Newsletter: https://ateamfit.substack.com

🧠 Topics Covered

Rewriting Your Health Story

  • How Alex transformed from an overweight teen to a fitness coach
  • The role of self-perception in sustaining behavior change

The Psychology of Motivation

  • Why external motivators can be powerful starting points
  • Understanding the deeper "why" behind lasting change

Using the Big Five Personality Traits

  • How to tailor coaching using the OCEAN model
  • Adapting communication styles for different personality types

Coaching Over-50 Clients

  • Why older adults often have more urgency—and more doubts
  • Strategies for simplifying nutrition and encouraging progress

🎤 Host: Jay Croft
Helping fitness professionals connect with people over 50 who want to stay healthy and engaged.

🌐 Podcast Website: https://primefitcontent.com
📬 Contact: jay@primefitcontent.com

📢 Calls to Action:

👍 Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts
 📬 Subscribe to the email list – https://primefitcontent.com
📱 Follow on Instagram – @primefitcontent

🫶 Loved this episode? Share it with a friend or tag us on socials using #OptimalAgingPodcast.

Speaker 1:

so it's interesting because for years I struggled with that identity shift and now, like I'm fully embraced this version of me, like there's very, there's sort of very little really, if any, remnant of that old version of me, which is what I was kind of alluding to earlier, where I don't even recognize or remember what it was like to be that person in a lot of ways a lot of people talk about the idea of making a big transformation.

Speaker 2:

Well, my guest today actually made a big transformation way back when he was just 17 years old, and from that profound and lasting change he's built a career in fitness and nutrition. He shares his experiences with others and the expertise that he's acquired since then and helps them live better, healthier lives as well, using psychology and fitness to help us clients make these important changes. You know, we often wonder why is it so hard for people to change the way they eat or to start exercising regularly, or to just stop doing the things that are bad for them and start doing the things that are good for them, right? How much time do we all spend thinking about this, talking about it with our clients or our friends or in family, or even with ourselves? There's a lot of psychology behind all of that.

Speaker 2:

It's fascinating, and Alex McBreaty, who's now in his early 30s, helps me unpack a lot of that and shares his super compelling story of how he lost a hundred pounds. Let me say that again, he lost 100 pounds. That was more than 15 years ago and the changes have been permanent and profound. Alex, in this conversation, shares a lot of practical insight to help you, help your clients and to inform your communications and shape your story, how you present yourself to really stand out in this ever-increasing lose weight now universe. I enjoyed Alex's insights and his energy and I know you will, too, enjoy the conversation. All right, alex Hi, how are you? Nice to see you.

Speaker 1:

I'm doing fantastic. It's amazing, jay. I appreciate you will, too, enjoy the conversation. All right, alex, hi, how are you Nice to see you? I'm doing fantastic. It's amazing, jay. I appreciate you having me.

Speaker 2:

Well, I appreciate you being here. It's nice to meet you.

Speaker 1:

We were introduced by a mutual friend and I'm glad he made that acquaintance Absolutely, and we've started off great so far, so I'm looking forward to the rest of this conversation.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, me too. I wanted to have you on because I like to talk about nutrition for my audience of gym owners and fitness professionals and hear about how you approach that and how you can help people, how we all can help people open their minds a little, take one little step in the right direction and maybe just stop eating those hostess products. Maybe that could be just one thing. If one person stops eating Twinkies today, then we'll be in good shape. Alex, before we dive into all of that, please tell us your story and your background and how you got here to be with us today.

Speaker 1:

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2:

In 25 words or less Go.

Speaker 1:

In 25 words or less. It was totally accidental, stemming from a personal transformation where I lost nearly 100 pounds as a teenager. That led to my personal love of fitness. Went to university college, got my bachelor's in psychology, specifically in mindset and motivation, which gave me a lot of cool experiences with research and the behind the scenes of behavior change. Graduated with no plan for what to do with my future, stumbled into personal training and fitness coaching as an accident, at the suggestion of a friend who saw that I spent all my time in the gym anyways, might as well get paid for it. Tried it, fell in love, started my business a year later and 12 years later, here we are.

Speaker 2:

Here we are. I love it. I want to go back a little bit, if we can, to that, that transformation of yours. Yeah absolutely, because it's. It's a showstopper, it's a headline, it's major. You lost 100 pounds, yeah, okay, and, and you did that in adolescence.

Speaker 1:

Yep, I was about 17.

Speaker 2:

That's a lot of behavior change, that's a lot of psychology going in there. So, without getting too much into your private business, what sparked that? What made you, at such a young age, make such a huge, long lasting, positive change?

Speaker 1:

positive change.

Speaker 1:

You know, I think it was, at least in part, just reaching a maturity level where, you know, all of my friends were starting to apply and get accepted into colleges and I didn't have any college plans.

Speaker 1:

I was sort of a mediocre student, talented and smart, but didn't really commit myself to much, didn't try very hard, didn't have the self-esteem to sort of put myself out there. And so I saw all of my friends getting ready to sort of step into their future as adults. And I remember having this epiphany, you know, being unhappy, having low self-esteem with, with my health, just realizing that if I didn't make a change then as I entered my adult life it would only be more of the same. As I entered my adult life it would only be more of the same. And that terrified me and I think that's what ultimately cause I had tried, you know, throughout my childhood I was overweight pretty much my entire memorable life tried various diets and, you know, with the help of doctors and programs and whatever, and variable degrees of success, always short-lived, and something about again that epiphany of not wanting the rest of my life to be just getting worse and worse and more into that sort of deep hole of low self-esteem sparked something in me that we just got after it.

Speaker 2:

How did you do it? We just got after it.

Speaker 1:

How did you do it? So one of the things we have to recognize is, as a 17-year-old graduating high school was a lot of privilege, of time and lack of responsibility. So at the time I had school, my responsibilities were school. I had a part-time job that I did afterwards, and the gym. Those were the only things that I dedicated my time to. So it was, admittedly, a little bit of extreme. I would again.

Speaker 1:

Something you can get away with with the body of a 17 year old and the joints of a teenager is I would go to school. I'd get out early because I got credit for my job, so I could leave a few hours early. If I had work, I'd go to work in the evenings. If not, I'd go straight to the gym. I'd run, you know, two or three miles around an indoor track, come home, do homework. If I didn't go off to work, I would actually go, and I was involved in a little bit of judo at the time, a form of martial arts. So I would go training there for one or two hours in the evenings and then occasionally, I would go back to the gym and lift for another hour thereafter.

Speaker 1:

So two or three times a day pretty much every day. I was just hammering, working out. The interesting thing was the first three months of that. Doing that every day, I think I lost a total of five pounds over those three months, which, for that level of effort, is atrocious return on time and effort, because I wasn't paying attention to what I was eating. I still ate the same and I thought that the working out would solve all the problems. Once I realized that and I started to change my nutrition around and improve it a little bit, that's when the serious change started happening. And then, 15 months later, I was down 100 pounds.

Speaker 2:

Okay. So let's unpack that from the psychological point of view, because it's probably not an accident that you went ahead and majored in psychology, right? So? So not at all. Something led you to say, hey, man, I'm doing something that's not working. What the heck is wrong here? How can I fix this process? Then you found the answer and you did it, which is amazing. So how did you find this, the key psychologically to do all of that?

Speaker 1:

You know it's. This leads into another aspect of my journey which I think is really important and sort of now with talk of motivation and mindset and stuff a little bit overlooked which is external motivation, and I'll talk about what I'm alluding to here in a moment. But you know all the various programs that I did, because I did doctor led programs as a kid trying to lose weight, I did doctor led programs. I worked with various trainers. My parents were always sort of supportive for me trying to get healthy, as one might imagine, and so I did have the understanding that there were two pieces to this equation there was exercise and there was nutrition.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1:

The nutrition changes were just the not fun ones.

Speaker 2:

I didn't want to make those changes.

Speaker 1:

So that's why I started with the exercise and, you know, sort of as a as a still uninformed teenager, I assumed that if I worked out enough, that would solve the problem, that would do it. And so it wasn't until I had to go through that process of putting in so much effort and doing so much work and sacrificing so much and not getting the results that I wanted that sort of the reality set in that, okay, you can't just cheat this equation by just focusing on one part right, anything multiplied by zero is still zero. We got to do some changes to the, to the nutrition side, and so that's when I just sort of grit my teeth and, and you know, succumb to the reality that all right, we gotta we gotta stop going out to the fast food so often.

Speaker 1:

We got to stop just eating whatever we want whenever we want, which was the other problem. Because I had a part-time job as a teenager, I had a lot of expendable income for that age and so I could spend it on food whenever I wanted. I could go and, you know, have access to those things as many adults do now, and so it was. It was that sort of realization. But to the point about the external motivation is one of my motivating factors for getting in shape, which has sort of been true my entire life is. At the time I had gotten my first girlfriend as a 17-year-old and I remember thinking expressly that when I got into that relationship that I wanted to be the person that she could show off to her friends.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

And be proud of, and internally I didn't think I was that person. So I think that is a key element of I wasn't just doing it because I wanted to be happier and healthier, I was doing it for her too. And so when I did all this exercise, didn't focus on the nutrition, didn't see the results results whereas a lot of times in the past I would be like, well, this doesn't work, I'm just gonna stop, I'm gonna get discouraged and do it. That no longer became an option, because then it would have also been letting somebody else down. You know we are master rationalizers. We can justify anything in our brains if we try hard enough.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And so that external motivation, that external factor prevented me from being able to rationalize it away, gotcha and that sort of, led me down the path of okay, this isn't working, so what will work?

Speaker 2:

Okay, I'm so impressed that a 17-year year old had the awareness courage to do all of that. You know I could barely do laundry, you know, when I was 17. So good for you. Listen, jay.

Speaker 1:

I got. I got to preface it by saying this is all. You know the words I'm using and the way I'm describing. It's in hindsight of 17 years of experience, so I'm sure it wasn't this glorious at the time.

Speaker 2:

Well, but you got a hell of a story out of it that.

Speaker 2:

I did that's important and I'm being a smartass when I say that, but it's also serious. It's also true because your story has helped you, help other people in your business, helped you, helped other people in your business. So I'm always telling, telling my folks how important it is to know their own story and the value of it. We often think that, oh, it's just my story, it's nobody cares who you know. Or we have the opposite approach and think that every that the wrong things about us are fascinating how many certifications I have and you know what my personal best is on bench or whatever and like nobody cares. You have to relate your story so that they can see something in themselves. Right? So how, how? How did you discover that yourself? Obviously you have discovered it and you have used that story. Maybe you're tired of it. Maybe you go away from it and come back to it. Tell me about your relationship with that story.

Speaker 2:

Hey, are you a fitness professional trying to grow your business with people over 50? If you are, then you need to know how to communicate with them, how to market to them and how to get them to trust you with their fitness, well-being and money. We're talking about millions of people who are a little older than the typical market that the fitness industry usually pursues. They have more money, more time and better motivation to make the best long-term fitness consumers you'll find anywhere. If you're not focusing on them, you should be. Prime Fit Content is the only content marketing company designed specifically to help you engage people in this group and to help you distinguish yourself from competitors in your community. It's effective, affordable and super easy to use. Check it out at primefitcontentcom. That's prime like prime of your life fitcontentcom. Back to the show.

Speaker 1:

You know that's a great question and because you're right, when I first became a trainer, shortly after college, I leveraged that story heavily in all of my marketing because I was passionate about it.

Speaker 1:

And I was passionate, you know, the life that I had then, the life that I have now, is outside of the realm of what I ever thought was possible in terms of the things I've been able to do and experience and who I am today.

Speaker 1:

And that's only become more true as time has gone on. And that's only become more true as time has gone on. And so feeling that shift in the trajectory of my life was so powerful that I wanted to share it with everyone. That's where I got into coaching. I wanted to be able to create that experience in others, no matter when they started. And over time, as my identity got further away the sort of after Alex became further and further distanced from the before Alex I stopped talking about that story because it didn't seem as relevant for me anymore. Those parts of me that stuck around were becoming more and more muted and I just didn't see myself as that person and it felt almost disingenuine to leverage that story, because I didn't see myself as that person and it felt almost disingenuine to leverage that story because it just I didn't recognize the person in those photos anymore.

Speaker 1:

It'd be like using some random persons before photos for your program and it's interesting because I had, you know I've since started to sort of reconnect with that transformation story, but it came at the tail end of an epiphany, which is a moment of self-reflection that I had a couple of years ago, which is the person that I am today, and sort of the person that I continue to strive to become in my personal life, is the exact person that I would have given anything to trade places with when I was the old Alex.

Speaker 1:

So sort of the entire thesis of my adulthood has been becoming the person that I would have wanted to be back then, because I remember as that overweight, low self-esteem, struggling teenager literally having moments where I would have given anything to trade places with certain people that I thought had everything that I wanted Right, and that realization that I am in a process of becoming that version that younger me would have admired and would have wanted to strive to be like is sort of shifted. The framework with which I view the work that I do with all of the clients that I work with Again, whatever age they're starting at of, how do we help them embrace the version of them that they know is inside that they want to be?

Speaker 2:

Yes, and that segues beautifully to what I want to talk about, which is how we?

Speaker 2:

The reason I wanted you to get into your story in so much detail is not just because it's a great story, but because it's kind of at the heart of what we do.

Speaker 2:

What health and fitness professionals try to do for their clients is help them become the person that they want to be. Clients is help them become the person that they want to be, whatever that might mean for that person. And so how do you use all of that your experiences, and then also your experiences of watching people react to you as these two sort of two different people almost? How do you apply all of that to your clients to help them understand what's going on in their head that they might not even be aware of, that's driving their behavior? How do you encourage them to be open to change, and then not just being open to it, but how to do it? How do you actually make change? I mean, it's a big, loaded question. Unpack it as you as you see fit, but basically I want to make a connection between the life story you just told us and the work that we do.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So I'm going to start with this in the beginning by sharing another interesting realization I had as I got maybe a few years into my coaching career career, as you might imagine, you know, my now entire life revolving around fitness, professionally and personally, continuing to, you know, run races and do these athletic events and get in better shape and get stronger and get more PRs the people that I was trying to connect to before Alex's, because I was so far removed from that. I realized that the way that I was sharing my story and who I was then almost made it feel impossible for people right, this is one of the core concepts when we talk about developing self-confidence and a belief in ourselves to be successful Self-efficacy. There's four components, one of which is vicarious experience, which is being able to see people who we can relate to accomplish the things that we want to accomplish, because that instills a belief in us that we can do it too. And I failed at leveraging that because I was no longer relatable to the people that I was talking to, and so the help I was trying to give, the advice I was providing, the motivation I wanted to instill in people, was falling flat because I was written off as the anomaly, the exception. I'm never going to be that person, I'm never going to achieve those type of goals.

Speaker 1:

And so I had to get very clear on and this plays into sort of the behavior change process is, I think, a lot of times because I made the mistake of jumping right to the optimal changes, the things that are going to get the best results, and what we fail to realize is all of the behaviors that have led a person to be where they are, in their health are years in the making, habitually designed routines that are often being performed unconsciously, and we're asking them to change all of it overnight.

Speaker 1:

And not only is there resistance mentally because now we're asking them to change their identity overnight as well as a part of that but we're asking them to change things they don't even know they're having a problem with, necessarily. And so a big part to start is trying to figure out where they are, so we can meet them there and then take them on the journey gradually to make these changes in a way that is not overwhelming, in a way that seems reasonable, that seems realistic for them, they can be confident in, to stand the best chance of actually making those changes.

Speaker 2:

I like that. We're done. That was great. No, I'm kidding, of course. You were telling me earlier about the big five inventory. Does that relate to what you were just describing? A?

Speaker 1:

hundred percent. So that's the process we use to figure out where people are and meet them there.

Speaker 2:

Okay, tell us about that.

Speaker 1:

So the big five inventory is a personality test that measures five. It measures on a spectrum, each of these five variables of the continuum. It measures where they fall on five different attributes and you can remember it easily by the acronym OCEAN. And before I explain what each of those five are, the thing about the big five and why we've chosen that one, is there are a number of different personality assessments out there. One of the challenges, of course, is very few of them have great predictive power, which basically means whatever results you get are actually accurately predicting how you're going to behave, means whatever results you get are actually accurately predicting how you're going to behave. And that's a problem because if it doesn't actually predict behavior accurately, it's not really useful for us to leverage in behavior change. The big five inventory has a much higher predictive power, so it's much more accurate in predicting that behavior, which is why we leverage it.

Speaker 1:

But it measures your level on five different attributes. But it measures your level on five different attributes Acronym OCEAN the first being openness. How open and receptive are we to new experiences? Are we adventurous? Do we like to try new things, new restaurants, new activities? Do we just like to explore? Or are we low in openness? Do we prefer the things that we're comfortable with? Do we like to do the same activities, the same hobbies, talk to the same people, go to the same restaurants? Stay within our bubble of comfort? So that's the first. The second is conscientiousness, which a good way to think about this is how much do we like routine? We're high in conscientiousness. We really like our routines. We like everything laid out and planned ahead of time Right. Another way to think about this more colloquially is like type a, type B personality.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

Low consciousness they're going to be prefer more spontaneity. Someone that measures low in this attribute is likely going to be a little bit resistant to like a super rigid, structured plan, because they feel like structure robs them of their freedom.

Speaker 2:

Gotcha.

Speaker 1:

And when we know that there's ways we can work around it, which we'll talk about here in a moment. The third attribute is extroversion, the opposite of which is introversion. So low extroversion and being introverted and this is not necessarily a product of shyness or not, which I think is often confused, but more so how we get our energy. What fills up our cup? Extroverted individuals, people who are high in extroversion get their energy being around people. My girlfriend and I laughed often about this because whenever we're in the car, just the two of us I'm introverted, she's extroverted. I'm totally fine sitting in silence. I can drive an hour and not say a word with someone else in the car with me. She needs to talk the whole time. That there's silence. It's no good, right. So we have to compromise on that. But this is a good example of the difference between these. But as related to that in the coaching context is the communication preferences of someone. So in our program, how often we're you know whether it's in person or online we do a lot of online coaching how frequently we're communicating with people. If someone's extroverted, it's easier for us to connect with them more often throughout the week to make sure everything's going well. They're always happy to receive those. They'll always respond timely. Someone who's introverted, which we learn the hard way. If we overwhelm them with too frequent of communication, they shut down and they feel overwhelmed. So that plays a big role.

Speaker 1:

The fourth attribute is agreeableness. So this is sort of how conflict-avoidant are people, how skeptical are people. Someone who's high in agreeableness who might sign on for your program are just going to listen to everything you say. They're going to agree to everything. They're just going to soak it all in. They're going to be a sponge. Someone who's low on agreeableness is going to be a little bit more skeptical. They might ask more questions why are we doing certain things? Why are you giving me this advice? Why do I need to follow this nutrition advice? None of those are bad, but can influence how we approach those questions. And then the last of the five attributes neuroticism, is essentially just how likely are they to worry about things internally?

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Right. Someone who is low neuroticism say their goal is to lose 10 pounds and gain a little bit of strength. If they're low neurotic and they do a progress check and they realize they've lost half a pound that week, but oh sweet, all right, let's. What tweaks do I need to make to expedite that? Or that's pretty good, I'm still making progress. No, no worries. Someone who's high in neuroticism and they see they've only lost half a pound? I can be like Alex. Why is this not more I'm doing?

Speaker 2:

everything.

Speaker 1:

What are we going to do? Right, right. And so when we understand where people fall on these attributes high, low or somewhere in between we can tailor not just the advice that we give and how we structure the program, but how we deliver it to them in a way that meets them where they are now, because there are certain combinations of these attributes that can prove a little bit more challenging. A good example of this someone who is low extroversion, so they're introverted. High in agreeableness, so they're not very conflict avoidant, and high in neuroticism, is the person who, when you check on them, is going to tell you everything's okay.

Speaker 1:

They're not going to communicate very often and they're going to be worried the entire time, and so when we measure these which we do by creating a expedited intake process, a survey that we include in our questionnaires when people join us we know to watch out for that. We know to approach that in a very particular way that elicits feedback from them, that makes them feel more comfortable to share how they're feeling, so that they're not silently suffering behind the scenes.

Speaker 2:

Got it. Now I want to ask you how does all this apply differently If it is different at all, I don't know. Maybe it's not, or how can people in nutrition and fitness help their clients who are a little bit older, who are 50, 60, 70 and above, who maybe have their own particular issues with nutrition? They don't get enough protein, or they eat too much crap, or they go through the drive-through at the fast food too often, or whatever. I mean, it's just like everyone. They've got their own issues with nutrition, although of course, there are some that are more pronounced with people who are older. I don't want to put a definition on something if it's not there, but are there some particular lessons here for the listeners who work primarily with older people or who are trying to communicate primarily with older people?

Speaker 1:

So the way the Big Five inventory influence how you can deal with the program doesn't change very much for the older population of people, but what does change, as you well know, is how some of these things manifest themselves and the stories that these people might be telling themselves. So I'll share from my personal experience. The thing I love about the population of people over 50 is they are some of the most motivated individuals when it comes to their health that I've worked with, because oftentimes they are seeing their elderly parents starting to suffer medically and they want to avoid that. In themselves, they see the real urgency of it. Sometimes they're starting to struggle with their own health, depending on where they're at in their fitness journey, and so, unlike younger populations of people who know theoretically that they're going to be better off if they focus on their health now, are not really paying the price of that to the same degree. Yet they're still able to put off that pain into the future.

Speaker 1:

This older population, they might already be dealing with it.

Speaker 1:

Those problems are at their gate, at their front door, and so there's a real urgency to make these changes and, as a result, are likely to feel the benefits faster and more profoundly because they can see the difference, and so that is something that I love about this population, is something that I love about this population how we sort of meet them where they are is really the difference is the stories they're telling themselves.

Speaker 1:

Because, again, from my personal experience in working with these populations, I've heard stories of skepticism in their own ability to succeed because of their age, because of maybe they've never, maybe I have working with a client who's 65 and has never been involved in a fitness, a structured fitness program her entire life and thinks it's too late to start, and so those are challenges to be overcome. But in applying these personality traits and how we deliver it to match their personality type, what that allows us to do, do again, all of this comes back to the theme of meeting people where they are in their journey, both physically and mentally, so that we can build the confidence and the competency so that they can start to shift some of those stories shift.

Speaker 2:

Some of those stories sounds a lot like reverse behavior change and personality traits in the rear view mirror, right Like well, this happened when I was such and such age, and now I'm going to look at it a little bit differently in a way that serves me now. Is that what we're getting at? Or maybe not, but it still sounds like a good idea if you can manage it.

Speaker 1:

Well, so our I mean, you're absolutely right and you're stumbling on something important which is our entire reality is dictated by stories.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So you know, you know this when we're going through the world, we are experiencing various stimulus sight, sounds, taste, smells, touch. That's just raw data. That's like looking at an Excel spreadsheet with a bunch of numbers and we have no context for what the numbers mean. It doesn't mean anything to us, and so, as we're going through the world, these sensations and the stimulus doesn't actually mean anything until we interpret that data, we give it context, and the way our brain does that is by telling stories. I touched a hot stove and it hurts. What stories? I touch the hot stove and it hurts. What does that mean? It means things that are hot cause pain. I shouldn't do that again. Right, and so one of the unique challenges of this older population when it comes to health behavior change is oftentimes the stories they're writing about their identity around fitness. Whether they've been active or not, overcoming some of the very real health and medical issues they might be starting to deal with or have been dealing with, is they've had a story that they've been writing about themselves and their world for however long, and so every change that we're trying to make as a health practitioner, trying to improve their nutrition, trying to get them to move more. Whatever the case is is, we are essentially, fundamentally, trying to inspire them to write a different story, which is what I meant when I said that it's not. Oh, I'm 65 and I've never exercised. I'm not going to be good at it to. Okay, what can I do? What am I capable of? What skills can I build around movement? And so the personality traits and how we deliver it again is part of that story transformation, but in a way that allows it to feel more manageable to start making the changes. So that because, again, the stories are from a product of our experience If we believe that we're not going to be successful at a nutrition change program, I'm not going to be able to change my eating, I'm not going to be able to eat more protein, I don't like these foods. X, y, z.

Speaker 1:

If we can approach those changes in a way that agrees with them not ask someone who's low openness. We're picking foods they already love, so we're not asking them to try anything new, someone who prefers their spontaneity. We're not giving them a rigid meal plan. We're just suggesting some changes and giving them the freedom to decide how they make those changes, when we do this in a way that's more agreeable for them to start implementing, more realistic for them and they start to see themselves succeed. They start to see themselves make the changes.

Speaker 1:

Suddenly that story that they're not going to be able to change their eating is being challenged. Not by what we're telling them because we can tell people they can do this all day long doesn't mean they don't believe it but through their own actions and their own experiences. They're seeing that they're eating differently in these ways when previously they never thought they could. And and now that causes them to question well, was I correct that I'm no good at this? And then that plants the seed to eventually being good at it and making the changes and getting the benefits.

Speaker 2:

Without being too simplistic about it, can we break all this down to maybe three points? That your average nutritionist or fitness provider out there trying to help his clients eat better, lacking your experience or your expertise, how can they approach this in a way that they can manage? I own a gym. I have some nutrition counseling for my clients. I want to help them succeed, but I don't have your wealth of knowledge. What can I do to help them?

Speaker 1:

If I were going to simplify it in the most way possible, it would be identify what their fears are. Fears are, have them figure out what small changes feel manageable so we're not dictating what that is they are and then, when they start succeeding at those changes, asking them whether the original fears are still true, okay, basically asking them to rewrite.

Speaker 2:

Still true, okay.

Speaker 1:

Basically asking them to rewrite their story.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I like that. That's something that a layman I can understand. I got you, I'm with you on that. I can see how that would be helpful to someone, okay. So anything else about this particularly slightly older demographic that is relevant regarding your work in nutrition or also perhaps in fitness, and how you do outreach to them, how you communicate with them that you find oh, I noticed that people this tends to work better, or I won't make that mistake again Any kind of practical lesson you've learned, or I won't make that mistake again Any kind of practical lesson you've learned.

Speaker 1:

I think you know it's easy. I think, about the younger populations that I work with adjacent to this and when it comes to nutrition changes and tracking, we're food logs and apps and all these other tools that we use, and I find, with a lot of my older population individuals, some of them are very tech savvy more so than me in many ways but, by and large, keeping things as simple as possible, just as fundamental, doing less of like get out your food scale and weigh this and weigh that and do all that to. Okay, let's just what are you doing now and how can we, you know, add a little bit of extra protein, or how can we make this portion size a little smaller, or how can we? As you said earlier, simplifying things as much as possible is, by and large, incredibly beneficial.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I like that. I think that so many times it's overwhelming to people of any age to say, oh, I can't ever have fun again. I can never drink a beer again, I can never eat a slice of pizza again. I have to live at the gym Like no, you don't just stop eating so much garbage and get off the couch a few times a week. That's all you got to do to start right. Exactly, it's like we have this all or nothing idea in our heads about everything and it's just not useful.

Speaker 1:

Right, you're absolutely right. The all or nothing mindset that you alluded to is if we're not perfect, it's not worth it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

It's completely wrong.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, all right. Well, we've got to change some minds here. We've got our work cut out for us, alex, and I want you to tell the folks listening how they can reach you, where they can go to find out more, to be in touch if they'd like to be.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely Well, the best place to find me. You know I have a newsletter that I've published multiple times a week where I talk about this intersection of fitness and psychology. So if you're interested in the mindset stuff and how to leverage that a little bit more, both for yourself, for your clients or whatever the case is, you can find that that's on my sub stack. A team fit a t e a mI-T dot subsec dot com. Free to subscribe. Again, I publish multiple times a week. It's probably the best place to get in touch and get some additional resources.

Speaker 2:

I want you to spell that again, please.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, a-t. As in Tom, e-a-m. As in Mike. I-t. As in Tom Dot subsec dot com. Okay, got it. I T as in Tom that subseccom. Okay, got it. 18 fit. Oh, I spelled that wrong. F as in Frank, 18 fit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, a team fit a team like Mr T.

Speaker 1:

Yes A team like Mr T.

Speaker 2:

All right, alex, it's been a pleasure. My my mind has been open in some some very fresh and helpful ways, and helpful is the key here. Because it's been a pleasure, my mind has been opened in some very fresh and helpful ways, and helpful is the key here, because it's so easy to get lost in the weeds when we're talking about this stuff, and it's not always the most helpful. So I want to thank you for joining me today.

Speaker 1:

Jay, it's been amazing. I appreciate you.

Speaker 2:

All right, have a good one.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Jay Croft

Host