Owner James and Nutrition Coach Shannon of the Three Danes CrossFit Team have done an amazing job launching their program and first challenge this January.

In a short 2 months from post-lauch, their program is already expanding to working with various private groups in offering nutrition services to them.

Read more about how adding HSN Mentoring has brought a presence, focus, plan and direction to their nutrition program.

James, what is your secret for engaging so many members of your gym in your first nutrition challenge?

I don’t think that there is a “secret”… for us it was putting a sign up sheet on the counter and Nikki made up an awesome white board that said “These people have someone to do it with, do YOU?!?” (lol) as a way to draw attention for our 6 week partner challenge. After that I think the real trick or secret was just mentioning it… at every class, every day, or every other day. Just saying hey guys this is what we are doing, any questions let us know… and slowly every day we would share more information and people would ask questions. So I think the real key was to put it out there early enough for people to be able to see it, hear it, ask questions… they need time to process the whole thing and learn the how and what of exactly WHY they will benefit from doing a nutrition challenge.

(We also had the extra challenge of signing up for the course on November 22nd and planning to launch our challenge January 20th. So we had to get through Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years while getting through the training and the mentor calls AND scheduling, planning, and launching our challenge. It was insane!)

At first people signed up because they love us and want to support us and they figured a nutrition challenge would be a good thing to do. But then after we had the kickoff seminar and people learned what is was all about and we set their goals and action steps, they started to get really excited about what they were doing. And then once we had their mid point check-in and they saw the progress they were all in. Great stuff!

You’ve gotten some attention from some area businesses since launching your nutrition program. Tell us about how excited you are with being able to help change so many people’s lives and make such a positive impact on your community

I can’t tell you how awesome it is… we have the chance to help people establish life habits of wellness that will set them up for moving well and feeling good for their entire life; thats an amazing feeling. Even made better because of the opportunity to work with older high school kids and college students. The earlier we can start working with people the easier it is for them to make these habits of living healthy and eating well a daily part of their regular routine.

 

How has adding nutrition coaching to your facility affected your gym?

It has literally breathed new life into the gym. Nutrition and wellness has always been a focus and a priority, and I have always told my athletes the same things (in regards to nutrition) for years. However, now there is a presence,  a focus, a direction, and a plan that we can use to guide and direct people. It has been fantastic having a program with structure to use to guide people. People are seeing results and feeling better, and that is the absolute best advertising for our gym that we can have. It had definitely brought an increased awareness to nutrition and the importance to overall health and wellness.

If you could give advice to a gym owner or nutrition coach running a nutrition program what would it be?

The best suggestions I could tell gym owners would be:

1) Make sure to take advantage of the awesome/amazing mentors available and utilize their knowledge and experience as much as possible…I literally have a separate piece of paper that I carry around labelled “Questions for Jen” that I write any and all nutrition coaching related questions on, so that I make sure to remember to ask them at my next call.

2) Use every opportunity to mention nutrition when talking to people – people alway have questions and food/ nutrition topics are ALWAYS of interest.

3) Make sure to highlight not only the numerical achievements and progress (weight loss, decrease in % body fat, increase in skeletal muscle mass) but also the “lifestyle/ wellness” victories (sleeping better, more energy throughout the day, feeling less bloated, fitting into favorite clothes that used to be too tight, feeling better overall, more mindful eating).

4) Get an InBody. I know it’s really expensive…we really struggled with the decision, but if you are doing nutrition coaching and don’t have a way to monitor and track biometrics, then you are selling yourself short. Being able to show people exactly how their exercise and nutrition is affecting their body composition and how has been an invaluable tool in helping make our nutrition program successful.

Where do you see the program in 3 months?

I’m very excited about moving forward with the program. We are currently working with a volleyball club that has over 400 members ages 12-17. We are looking to establish a wellness program for their athletes that includes some cross training with a nutrition component built in. The coaches are in the process of learning our programs and what we can do from them and we will be initiating nutrition coaching or a challenge with them soon. Additionally we have a meeting set up with a local university to create a wellness class that will become part of their curriculum. New people that come in are exposed to nutrition and wellness from the very first moment they come in…I expect all of this to do nothing but increase our exposure and create more positive buzz in the community around us. I’m looking forward to the process!

Are you looking to add nutrition services to your offerings? We want to help!