Nutrition coaches love recommending their clients spend more time in the kitchen.
The old expression “abs are made in the kitchen” may come to mind when they make that recommendation, but would it surprise you to know growing defined abdominal muscles is low on their priority list?
There are more sustainable and impactful benefits to turning your clients kitchen into the most popular room of your house.
Here are the top 4 side effects of clients spending more time in the kitchen:
Developing healthy habits:
Just being in the kitchen is a healthy habit in itself, but if they are looking to add more, then be realistic. Cleaning it regularly will make them want to be in the space more often, organizing appliances, tools and ingredients will save them time during meal prep and rotating 3-5 staple recipes will help create routine.
The more time clients spend in the kitchen creating, the less time they will spend at fast food drive-thru’s.
That in itself is an incredible habit to adopt!
Generating a positive mindset:
You know that feeling you get when you just finished a hard workout?
You feel accomplished, satisfied and proud – the last hour was productive! The same can be felt through routine meal prepping.
For clients, knowing that they have prepared their meals and/or snacks for the upcoming week OR just simply tried a new recipe will give them an added boost of accomplishment and pride.
Picking one day per week and making that routine can help ward off the busyness of the week to come and all the negative emotions that tag along. We can’t control what will happen in the week, but we can be happy and confident that our nutrition clients have already planned and packed!
Creating happy memories:
If your clients are in the kitchen more and their loved ones prefer spending time with them, they have no choice but to join! What a bonus!
If your clients have little ones, having them help out and assigning the child-safe chores and tasks will help build confidence in the kitchen AND will surely lead to epic fails that will entertain family dinners for years to come (ever watch Nailed It?).
Cementing the kitchen as a safe, fun and welcoming part of the family dynamic and ingraining those memories in their childhood means they’ll be more likely to include their own family at prep time down the road.
Fostering a positive relationship with food:
Being in the kitchen doesn’t mean clients have to meal prep like an Instagram Influencer.
It doesn’t mean they have to spend hundreds of dollars on expensive ingredients and fancy prep ware.
It simply means being in the kitchen more than they normally would be – and perhaps making just one meal in a week where they wouldn’t normally make any.
Start with an easy recipe! It doesn’t have to be dietitian approved or come from a fancy cookbook.
It just needs to be something that looks good to your client and their family, with ingredients that inspire them. Prepping, cooking and eating should be enjoyable activities from start to finish and the fewer restrictions you attach to what’s on the menu, the healthier your client’s (and their families) relationship will be with food.
For these reasons and more, the kitchen should be where you want your clients to be. I’ll defer to another popular expression “the kitchen is the heart of the home” and add that the more quality time spent in the kitchen as a family helps to keep that heart happy and healthy.
FREE Help Related To
Building A Nutrition Program In A Gym
READ: How To Recoup Cost Of Your Initial Investment With HSN Mentoring In Under 30-Days HERE
LISTEN: How To Build A Nutrition Program Into A CrossFit Gym HERE
LISTEN: Nutrition Made Simple Podcast – CrossFit, Nutrition & Your Health HERE
HSN Mentoring Gym Owner Highlight: Meet Barry & Jocelyn, Owners Of CrossFit Generation, a 14-year affiliate owner HERE
