By Dani Stone
Coach Yourself Thin: Five Steps to Retrain Your Mind, Reclaim Your Power, And Lose The Weight For Good is a weight management guide from authors Greg Hottinger, MPH, RD, and Michael Scholtz, MA, who created popular online weight loss programs like Biggest Loser Club and Prevention’s Flat Belly Diet. Their goal? To change your eating and exercise habits and help you avoid quick-fix mistakes by encouraging you to look at the root of your weight problem and diet challenges, then help you overcome your personal barriers. The book is part guide, part pep-talk and focuses on that inner voice inside all of us.
This may be their first collaboration on a book, but Hottinger, a registered dietitian and Scholtz, a professional weight loss coach, are not newcomers to the diet and fitness world. After meeting 15 years ago at Duke University Diet and Fitness Center, the two went on to create the health and wellness consulting firm NOVO Wellness, as well as the website.
In the opening chapters of Coach Yourself Thin, they explain, “We have observed that our most successful clients use a similar set of behavioral skills and strategies that empower them to make consistently healthy choices. We want to share these important and powerful tools with you so you can shift your thinking.”
The authors of Coach Yourself Thin have been in this business a long time. They know the obstacles people face when trying to lose weight and get fit so they address these straight-away including Weight Fixation, Resisting Responsibility and Feelings of Unworthiness, to name a few. Each chapter on obstacles has a quiz you can take to see how you relate. Then they describe how destructive these behaviors can be.
In regard to the obstacle of the Willpower Myth they explain, “Relying on willpower as a cornerstone of your weight loss program is a critical mistake. And popular diets that tempt you with amazing before and after pictures while serving up extremely rigid rules only feed the Willpower Myth.”
So how does the coaching aspect fit in to this weight management plan? According to Hottinger and Scholtz, “Coaching is the most powerful concept we have encountered in the field of lifestyle change. It is based on the idea that the answers you need to live a healthy life are found within you, not externally.”
If you’ve ever watched NBC’s The Biggest Loser, you know what an important component coaching is to the show. Trainers Dolvett Quince and Bob Harper push the contestants to work hard, step outside their comfort zones and even dole out a little tough love when needed. Coach Yourself Thin does encourage the aid of a professional fitness/wellness coach if it is financially feasible. If not, they promise to help you, “Develop your own internal coaching voice. . . the single most important weapon you can have in your weight-loss arsenal.”
While Coach Yourself Thin appears to have the best intentions, the book is definitely geared toward individuals who have the time and patience to carefully craft a well-rounded healthy lifestyle based on personal triggers and preset mantras for success. While the book does offer an eating plan structure and several meal plans with calorie counts based on a weight/exercise calculation, the bulk of the information is about looking deep within oneself. Coach Yourself Thin is for individuals willing to put in the time to discover their personal diet demons, hone in on their strengths and create a plan for success.