Become a Trainer to your family

A trainer is an individual who chooses to teach another a specific skill by drawing on their own education, life experience and genuine desire to see the trainee succeed.

I've trained over 3,000 professional athletes in the past 27 years, and now I want to train YOU to become a trainer to your own family. One of my primary goals in starting this site is to pull together a collection of resources that will help you to do this, and give you a basis for the skills you need to reinvent yourself daily as coach, cheerleader — and player as well.

A successful trainer creates a path to victory by helping the trainee overcome self-doubt, apathy and insecurity by constantly showing them the light at what will be at times a very dark tunnel. As a child, I enjoyed a TV Western with a character whose business card read "Have Gun Will Travel." My card would say "Have Knowledge. Will Apply-and Win." What will your motto be, now that your trainee is your child?

It starts with follow me -- so you need to know where you are going. Read on toward the path to success.

To become a a trainer:

• You must understand the problem. Study and prepare: spend some time on this site and others and learn everything you can about the causes and treatment of obesity in children—and in adults.

• Become a role model. To transform someone else as trainer, be prepared to transform yourself. You can't lose weight for your child, but you can lose weigh with them. When they demonstrate the oxygen masks on airplanes, they always tell you to put your own on first, which then enables you to help others. This is the same principle. You must be prepared to do everything you're asking of your family; you want to get fit together. As many if not more of the resources on this site are aimed at adults for that reason; the key to helping your child is helping yourself.

• Understand your client — in this case, your family. What motivates them? What frightens them? All you have to do is listen. If your child hates participating in Gym class because he dreads being singled out, don't single him out. Instead, focus your family workouts on group exercises you all peform together. If your daughter is shy or embarrassed about her weight or her body, don't conduct your exercises in a room with mirrors everywhere.

• Anticipate roadblocks. Give careful thought to time and place. Everybody has a different schedule. If you're going to spend 30 minutes a day exercising together as a family, commit to finding a time and place that is available to everyone. Consider the weather as well; if it will be too hot for strenuous exercise outdoors, or the weatherman predicts thunderstorms, have an indoors plan B ready.

• Reward them. Set up a rewards system that doesn't include food; instead, plan an outing or activity that involves the whole family. Take them to the movies (hold the popcorn!), or to the park. Spend a day playing tourists together ... go sightseeing in our beautiful city.

• Always tell the truth. If your child hasn't lost any weight this week, don't tell her she's lost three pounds because it's easier and it makes you feel better. It won't help her and it won't help your progress; a successful outcome is based on facts, not hopes.

• Keep track. Progress in your weight-loss program is not just the goal, it's also the motivator. You may not see or feel the loss of a single pound, but knowing you're a pound closer to your goal is very important. To track your progress, use the weight tracker on this site, or keep a written food/exercise/weight-loss journal. Put a poster on the wall of your workout room. Whatever works for you, but keep track religiously; it's your map to victory and it keeps your head in the game.

• Stay motivated. The process you've undertaken is not easy, and there will be times that everyone wants to quit. It's your job as trainer—perhaps the most import part—to be sure that they don't. To do this, you'll have to learn to overcome the obstacles that keep you from getting and staying motivated enough to reach your goals. In my book Maximum Energy for Life I discuss five factors that lead to loss of motivation and performance. Review these obstacles and learn how to overcome them to achieve success.