NASM CNC Chapter 20: Helping Clients Navigate the Real World

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Chapter Goals:

• Discuss the main factors for promoting healthy choices while you are shopping for groceries.
• Find the Techniques for making decisions regarding successful and helpful navigation of different environments.
• Discuss the methods and techniques for circumventing the roadblocks to successful nutrition.
• Find the practices for food prepping healthy foods and using healthy delivery services.
• Find the easy strategies to use for making healthy habits of eating.

The Real-World Challenge

Navigating the real world can be difficult and overwhelming for many people. This is because of our many food options, our busy lifestyles, our crazy schedules, various types of social settings, and the promotions from the media that influence our decisions. With some planning and prep on our part, we can make the whole process of eating healthy a much simpler task. We need to look out for and plan for things like the grocery store, eating at restaurants, going to parties or other social events, traveling, and snack times. 

Planning and preparing yourself can help you stay on your goals even when these situations pop up. Here are some of those scenarios and some ways we can help them by planning ahead:

Grocery shopping

Write out your list of needs at the store before going

Select recipes and meals in advance 

Avoid the busiest times of the grocery store

Avoid going when you are hungry

Restaurants

Look at the menu online before going

Call in advance if you have any accommodation you need

Request a substitute 

Know what you will order before you go

Parties

Talk to the host before the party regarding some dietary restrictions

Offer a healthy dish alternative of your own for the party

Have a light snack before you go

Set a limit on the number of drinks you can have

Travel

Pack healthy items that are non-perishable

Research the area, the grocery stores, and the restaurants to know before going.

Write out healthy meals you can find at those places

Snacking

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Have a list of your favorite healthy snacks

Prepare your snack in advance for the week

Keep a few healthy snacks around your desk in emergency hunger situations

Grocery shopping

Making healthy food choices can be very hard to do in today’s age of the food mecca grocery stores. The two best strategies to ensure you stick to healthy eating are planning ahead of time and recognizing and avoiding the major pitfalls most people are trapped in. 

Planning ahead is as simple as taking time beforehand, making a shopping list, and then scheduling a time to go. It is a good idea not to go when you are hungry, as this can lead to you making some impulse buys that you will regret later. 

Grocery Store Navigation

The grocery stores tend to put things in their groups like meat with meat and produce with produce, and so on. Sometimes we can eliminate bad decisions by actually leaving out whole aisles and focusing on others that are healthier. 

The shopping trip should usually be focused on sticking to the store’s perimeter, as this is where the more whole, unprocessed foods will be. The bad snack will usually be located in the center aisles of the store. 

Shopping List by Recipe

This is another way we can break down our shopping. This is a 2 step process in which we select meals that we would like to make throughout the week, and then we break those meals down by what we will need. This can be done by just knowing the ingredients you will need or by researching online or in a cookbook for the things you will need to make those meals. Remember that the list should also be organized, as a bad list can lead to you needing to go back and forth many times to find what you need, thus wasting time. 

Recognize and Avoid the Pitfalls of the Grocery Store

One factor that befalls many when they are shopping is the influence of hunger. You should always avoid going into the grocery store when you are hungry. This can lead to buying things you want but do not need. The high calorie foods are often bought at times like this. If you have to shop when hungry, make sure to ask yourself if you really need this item.

Nutrition Labels and Ingredient Lists

Reading the labels and understanding the things on them is very high on the list of wise decisions that help consumers make the right choices at grocery stores. Some of the questions that we should look at regarding these labels are:

• What ingredients are present in this?
• What is the first thing on the list of ingredients?
• What is the nutrient value of this product?
• What is the serving size, and how many calories are present?
• How many grams of fat, saturated fat, carbs, fiber, added sugar and protein are in a serving?
• Does the product have a lot of sodium and added sugar?
• Does this product align with my fitness and health goal?

Product Placement at the Grocery

One major pitfall is that people are influenced by the strategic placement of products at the store. This means that you need to be looking at what is in the products and not so much at what is conveniently right in front of your face, as that is part of the planning by the stores. 

Shopping in Bulk at Warehouse Stores

This is a good way to save money. Buying in bulk makes things more easily accessible and available in your home. 

Dining Out

This offers many challenges as people navigate these situations.

Dining Frequency and Occasion

The restaurant portions are usually excessive and the meals contain many extra calories. Because of this, we face a big challenge staying in our diets when eating out.  

Dining at Restaurants

You should make it a goal to look up the menu ahead of time when you know where you will be eating out. This cuts down on surprises and allows you to look up and know about the food you will have. Like the grocery, it is smart not to arrive hungry at the place.

Look for the keywords on the menu so you know the preparation method of the food. These words include braised, creamed, baked, poached, sautéed, fried, and crispy. These words give away important information regarding what you will be putting in your body. 

Ask for your sauces on the side of your dish. This is due to these being some of the biggest forms of hidden calories. 

Use plates for appetizers. This allows you to portion and see how much you eat instead of guessing. 

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Avoid the breadbasket or set a goal of one piece only.

Balance your calories from drinks and desserts. 

Limit your alcohol to a certain number of drinks.

Enjoy your company. Focus on the people you are with rather than the food that you are having. 

Meeting friends at the Bar

Set a limit on your drinks.

Start your drinking with a glass of water or some other drink without alcohol.

Avoid drinking when you have not eaten recently.

Choose an appetizer from the bar that has protein and vegetables. 

Choosing Healthy Lunch Options

Preparing food in advance for lunch is usually going to be easier to follow the nutrition plan you have than buying food out. You should also pay attention to the nutrient density of your food choices and make a meal that matches the MyPlate recommendations. 

Social Eating

This includes family events, holidays, and other social parties we gather for. This is important for your overall health and happiness, and we should have some things to look out for to stay in our healthy nutrition plans. 

Holidays and Parties

You should try to talk to the event host and inform them of dietary restrictions you may have or allergies. 

It is a good idea to offer to bring a dish you make for the party to ensure you have an option that fits you.

You should eat light on the day you have the party, as eating a lot at some big events is common. Have some ideas for light meals you can have the day of. 

Like with most situations, limit the number of drinks you will have so that you can control those empty calories from alcohol. 

Monitor the size of your portions just like you do with most other meals and eating times. 

Prioritize the foods that are best for you instead of everything.

Travel

Before travel

Make lists of the healthy foods that you can pack and keep as snacks for traveling. It is always better to have options with you since you do not know what the place you’re going will have. When you arrive, you should get an idea of the things available at the restaurants and the grocery store nearby. This can be done in advance also. 

Dining at Home

This includes cooking at home, ordering takeout food for yourself, and using meal prep. 

Meal Prep

This is overwhelming for many people that try to get this started. This is not near as intensive as it sounds. Some benefits of meal prep are going to be not worrying if you have food ready, having more time to do things other than cook, and just having meals already ready for you. 

Meal prepping isn’t done daily unless that person wants to do it that way. It is usually done for the whole week in some form. 

Meal Prep Guidelines

You should decide the type of meal prep that is best for you and your lifestyle.

Budgeting and scheduling time for meal prep work best to relieve stress.

Invest in the proper equipment and tools to make the prepping of meals a fun and easy process.

Stock your food pantry with the staples of cooking.

Choose a menu for the week or other time frame that you will be prepping for. 

Deciding What to Prepare

This is one of the hardest parts of meal prepping, as choosing something you will eat multiple times is intimidating.

You should use new recipes and try different things when starting out.

Find the sources of the macronutrients you want to focus on and that meet your goals.

Food Safety Guidelines

Improperly handling food and storing food increases your risk for illnesses. You should know all of the basic guidelines in this chapter under this part. 

Meal Delivery Services

Using meal prep and delivery services has streamlined the process of prepping meals and trying new recipes. These services give us the ingredients and instructions in the proper amounts. 

This is a great option for people who are busy and unable to find the time to do all of the other meal prep processes. Or maybe if it was too daunting of a task, this works to help simplify and make it easier in the future for someone that is starting. 

Healthy Snacking

Snacking and Weight

Some studies show snacking as a part of weight gain, and others show that it does not necessarily equal weight gain. 

The Pros and the Cons of Snacks

Many people use snacks as a form of buffer between big meals to control hunger. But it is important to know that we can optimize these to help us meet our nutrient needs when done right. People can see weight gain if they snack on very high energy dense foods, mindlessly snack on things due to boredom, or when practicing late night snacking of high calorie things. These three things will see weight gain occur. 

Snacks should be planned out so that they do not lead to weight gain and are accounted for in our diet plans. 

Healthy Snacks

The ideal snack combines both high fiber carbs and some lean protein sources for the proper promotion of satiety. This gives the most benefits for being healthy and preventing useless calories. Nuts are one of the more popular options that are associated with weight reduction due to meeting those requirements.

Mindless Eating

This is the act of eating without even really thinking. It usually happens when someone eats when they are busy, which is attributed to gaining weight. Here are the common situations in which someone mindlessly eats:

• When the tv is on in the afternoon or evening.
• When they are driving
• While at the computer or playing games
• Watching a movie in the theatre
• At social events or parties

Creating Healthy Habits

BJ Fogg’s Behavior Model

People must first be motivated to make changes; coaches should increase their motivation by discussing the benefits of it. These usual benefits include increased energy, body comp and weight improvements, nutrition status, and health profile changes. Then clients should be put toward cooking resources when they do not know how or need ideas and help with it. Third, the model says a trigger or cue will set off the behavior if those other two factors exist. So, if a client is motivated and can cook, they will have the call to action set off by some trigger. 

Small Steps to Success

Simple and easy changes slowly accumulating will lead to more success in the long run and is the way to make actual change.