Hello everyone! Chapter 2 of A Case Study in Weight Loss will focus on the meeting between the case study subject, Peter, and his appointed weight loss team consisting of four graduate students in the Exercise Physiology program.
These students will split up the duties, with two of them focusing on Peter’s exercise prescription, while the other two will work with Peter on his nutritional habits.
I interviewed Peter following his initial meeting with the graduate students, and two things really stuck out to me as important points to mention in this post, as these two points may have major implications when it comes to helping individuals lose weight.
While I had anticipated that the ‘four-on-one’ situation created by Peter’s meeting with all four graduate students at one time would be intimidating to him, he actually reported the opposite. Not only was he unintimidated (something that was aided by point number 2 below), but he actually really liked and appreciated the fact that he had so many individuals focusing on and helping him. This gave him confidence in the process, because it showed that each individual member of the team would be bringing a specific piece of expertise to the table, rather than one person acting as a jack-of-all-trades.
One thing I have learned with age is this- it is impossible to be good at everything, and it is particularly difficult to be an expert in multiple fields. As a younger instructor at the University and fitness trainer I felt like I had to know it all in order to have credibility with the students and my clients. Now, though, I have an appreciation for being part of a team where each member brings a specific skill set to the table. If I do not know something, I will happily refer the student/client to someone who does.
It is the sign of a mature professional to recognize this, and as displayed by Peter, clients recognize and appreciate this as well.
The second important piece of information I pulled from the interview with Peter was that when meeting with the team for the first time, he felt absolutely no judgement emanating from them. I would speculate that a major barrier to individuals wishing to lose weight is the fear of judgement when that individual puts his/herself out there in the public eye.
We set the stage to avoid this from Day 1, as mentioned in the last post, by testing Peter in a semi-private environment and by treating him just as we would any other students/client/professional that we come into contact with. But I think another key to his perceived lack of judgement from the staff was the compassion that we all showed him.
During my fourteen years of experience interacting with students and professionals in this field I have picked up on a common thread- one of the biggest attractions to working in this field is the desire to help other people. Showing compassion is important- displaying this trait will remove judgement from a situation, and acting in this manner is crucial for helping individuals such as Peter begin and continue on a weight loss journey.
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