02.12.15
Health & Wellbeing

Stop the excuses: How to help your clients live healthily for less

Vegetables in a basket

One of the most common excuses you’ll hear for not leading a healthy lifestyle is that it is “too expensive”, yet it is possible for everyone to keep fit and eat a nutritional diet without breaking the bank.

Being healthy doesn't mean that you have to be a member of an exclusive gym, or be dressed head-to-toe in the latest fitness technology, you don’t even have to eat quinoa! While these luxuries may help someone to lead a more comfortable life, they certainly won’t make them any healthier than someone who works just as hard with the bare minimum.

"I can’t afford to eat healthily.”

In the current economy the majority of consumers are looking to eat well for less, but supermarkets will try every trick in the book to convince us to spend more money with captivating offers that leave people with cupboards full of junk food they don’t need.

Unfortunately convenience foods pumped with sugar are still cheaper than the majority of fresh produce and natural ingredients. Parliament recently proposed to increase VAT on unhealthy items such as fizzy drinks, sweets and cakes, otherwise known as the sugar tax, but as the policy won’t be reviewed until early next year it appears that low priced junk food is set to stay.

It is estimated that almost two million tonnes of fresh salad and vegetables is wasted annually by households in the UK, according to research by WRAP. When you consider how quickly fresh food goes out of date, with some items rarely lasting more than three days, you can understand why many people are discouraged from spending more.

However in spite of these factors it is still incredibly easy to help your clients eat fresh, varied and healthy foods for very little money. Here are a few tips to help your client’s budget go further.

  • Recommend cooking all meals from scratch and buying multiple boxes of plastic Tupperware. There is a huge variety of online tutorials and blogs that you can share with clients to get them started in the kitchen.
  • Comparison sites such as MySuperMarket will help people find the best deals when shopping online.
  • Only buy items on a pre-planned list with details of meal times and portion sizes. For example ‘buy chicken for five lunches’. Many clients would also benefit from a personalised meal plan.
  • Advise people to spend one day a week cooking the majority of their meals, such as cooking meat and fish, making stocks and sauces, and preparing vegetables. Separate into individual portions, freeze and microwave when needed.
  • Order fish and meat in bulk, visit a butcher’s shop if possible or buy online from websites such as Muscle Foods where you save money for buying in bulk.
  • Separate meat into individual portions and freeze them, take out and defrost when needed.
  • Frozen veg is full of nutrients and vitamins that are locked in, it will last for longer and clients will get more value for money.
  • Preserve the freshness of celery, broccoli and lettuce in tin foil before storing it in the fridge.

“Personal trainers are too expensive”

I bet you’ve heard this phrase a lot, or something along the same lines. The truth is that paying for a personal trainer is still considered a luxury by many people. They would rather waste their time in the gym completing the wrong exercises and putting themselves at risk of injury than pay to work with an experienced personal trainer.

With this in mind, use your sessions to provide greater value to your customers, so they can see how worthwhile your training is. Enlighten them with expert tips and advice, treat every client individually and let them know that you are always there for them. Amaven’s online platform allows you to easily communicate with multiple clients at the same time, so you will always be there to support them.

We believe that a client's progress depends on the trainer that they work with. There are a number of ways that you can make your sessions more accessible to people who are worried about going over budget.

  • Instead of charging for individual sessions, charge clients a fixed subscription rate. You can change this depending on an individual's goals and arrange the number of monthly sessions in a way that suits both parties.
  • Take your training out of the gym - some of the most effective exercises can be done without any equipment at all. If your client can’t afford to pay for a gym membership and your services then hold your sessions in a different location, whether it's outside or even at your own home. This will highlight how committed you are to individual clients and provide a unique experience every time.
  • Hold group sessions with two or three people at a time, this allows people to split the price of your session making it more affordable, however it may be challenging if you are working with clients with completely different goals from each other.

Sign up for Amaven now and revolutionise the way that you handle your personal training business. With personalised training programmes, improved client communications and a cost effective way to bill customers, our system will improve your business and make your life easier.