The one week quitter!

A few weeks ago I had a client quit, after just 6 days. Now it's a rare occurance to have a client quit and especially so early on in the programme. Not because I'm blowing my own trumpet about how great a trainer I am, but because the consultation process usually weeds them out so they don't start in the first place.

Without going into too much detail the consultation process we use here at the studios really gets down to the core of a person's motivation and commitment and if they're not willing to give 100% then we don't accept them as a client.

Anyway, so here was this great client, raring to go and all fired up. I gave her strict advice on the nutrition, training, hydration, sleep cycles and homework that she would have to do for the next 30 days and she was ready to give it her all.

And she did!

For 6 days.

I had a message over the holiday weekend saying she was struggling and when I saw her the following week she told me the programme wasn't working for her and she wanted to quit.

Why?

Well in her mind she had a very good reason. She'd been trying really hard, eating everything she was supposed to, doing her homework and training with me, (we had almost 2 sessions), but she hadn't lost any weight. To add to the distress, she'd put on 1cm.

Now 6 days is no time to be able to assess anything. Detoxing the body can have many different effects and cause varying symptoms in the first 10 days. If you do find you are feeling bloated there are several things that may be causing this.

Possible causes of initial bloating during detox

Bloating due to the initial reaction to toxins being released
Hormonal fluctuations - particularly if there are existing hormonal imbalances or sensitivties
Initial water retention due to release of toxic load into the body's extracellular environment
Hydration levels
Food sensitivity - in particular: raw food, higher fibre foods, new foods
Lack of sleep
Altered glucose sensitivity
Stressor reponse

The list goes on..

So what I'm saying is, with any change in lifestyle you need to give your body time to adjust and settle. The body is a cybernetic organism. That means there are many different systems that work synergistically. If any one, (or all) of these systems undergo a dramatic change it will affect the entire balance of the body. So not only do you need time to clean the body up you also need time for it to rebalance and settle into it's new routine.

This will take a minimum of 10 days to clean up and at least 30 days to adequately assess how the body is responding to different stressors, be they exercise, diet, rest, hydration, hormonal....

So please, don't be too impatient when starting something positive. 6 days of a new lifestyle may seem like an age to you, but think of it in relative terms. If you've been putting rubbish into your body for months/years then even 30 days is a very small comparison.