You are a personal trainer. You are an expert in your field, trained to design customized exercise programs for your clients using evidence-based strategies for evaluating their health, fitness level, and performance goals. However, your ability to help clients achieve their goals and support their training along the way depends not only on their exercise plan, but also on many other behavioral factors. One of the most critical behavioral factors is nutrition.

The role of diet in disease prevention and treatment, and health promotion, is clear. Diets high in processed sugars, starches, and saturated fats increase the risk of inflammation in the body. Chronic systemic inflammation is strongly linked to the increased risks of all the conditions and diseases listed above, and then some. Too many calories, too little protein, too much fried foods, sugary foods, and highly processed foods lead to fat gain, another step down the road to illness and disease. On the other hand, diets abundant in plant foods, rich in antioxidant and anti-inflammatory factors, with optimal levels of proteins, high-performance fats, and water, support health, halt inflammation, and prevent disease. These diets not only fuel health, they fuel mental and physical performance. Well-fed clients feel better and accomplish more at work and at play. They are happier, more satisfied clients.

You are an exercise specialist, but are you a nutrition expert?

All of this is wonderful, except for the fact that you are an exercise specialist—but are you a nutrition specialist? Even if you are personally interested in nutrition and actively seek out information, that’s much different than being professionally educated in nutrition. Because something works well for you, or even some of your clients, you cannot assume it will work for everyone.

If you rely only on personal experience and conventional wisdom about nutrition to counsel clients, you run the risk of passing on poor, or even harmful information. While you may be well-intentioned, counseling clients in an area outside of your professional training will not provide them the best support. Everyone eats, so we all may think that we are nutrition experts. Without the appropriate training and tools, however, we don’t have what we need to evaluate the validity of popular diet information versus the consensus of modern nutrition science.

A tool that delivers that enables you be a nutrition expert for your clients

So as a working professional, how do you merge the best of both worlds: the expertise of a nutrition professional who specializes in sports nutrition to design customized performance nutrition plans, with the exercise expertise you deliver to your clients? Evolution Nutrition (www.evolutionnutrition.com) is a powerful solution that helps you plan, coach, and support your clients every step of the way. You can be confident in the plans you deliver to your clients because the formulas and menu planning behind the detailed calculations and comprehensive database of Foods, Recipes, Meal Plans, and Exchange Lists are built by Registered Dietitians and adhere to the consensus of modern sports nutrition science. You no longer have to guess or spend valuable time trying to evaluate how to address diet-programming needs on your own.

Now that you have access to this powerful tool, I will be working with you on how best to create successful programs for your clients, and grow your business doing it. Look for my article on nutrition on the first and third Thursday of every month. I’ll be covering topics like:

• Building Sound Nutrition Strategies through Organization
• The 4-Letter Words of Nutrition
• Power Eating Strategies
• DIET is Not Always a Verb
• Be the Guide, Not the Guilt
• Weight Loss is an Outcome, Not a Goal

Would you like to be the source of nutrition information for your clients? Would they value your help in navigating a landscape of quick-fix solutions, poor food choices, and a multi-billion dollar diet industry? Do you want to enable them to create real, lasting results? Ultimately, Evolution Nutrition empowers you to be more effective at what you do best: create health, fitness, and performance changes for your clients.

Healthy eating, and I’ll talk to you soon.

Susan M. Kleiner

Susan M. Kleiner, whose long list of credentials begins with a Ph.D. in Nutrition, maintains one foot in the academic world and one foot in the business world. After her doctoral research on the Influence of Dietary Fats and Cholesterol, and Anabolic Steroids, on the Lipoprotein Profiles and Body Composition of Competitive Male Bodybuilders, she continued to research and publish her seminal work on male and female bodybuilders. Dr. Kleiner has continued to research and publish in the field of sports nutrition and supplements, and has also established herself through research and publications as an expert in hydration and health. Dr. Kleiner has consulted with professional teams, including the Seattle Seahawks and Supersonics, the Cleveland Browns and Cavaliers, the Miami Heat, Olympians and elite athletes in countless sports. Dr. Kleiner is the owner of High Performance Nutrition, LLC, a consulting firm in Mercer Island, Washington. She is a scientific advisor to numerous businesses in the industry, and is the author of seven popular books, including POWER EATING®, The Oxygen Diet Solution, The Good Mood Diet®, and The POWERFOOD Nutrition Plan.