If You Don’t Understand, You’re Doomed to FAIL

I ran into a scenario while my grandmother was in the hospital that sparked the concept of this article. We (I guess I can only speak for myself as I’m not sure your situation) are in the health and fitness industry. Some of us (like myself) are certified to work with individuals who are looking for exercise and nutrition help. Yet, many “professionals” in the industry are holding onto the goods, so to speak, and not educating their clients on how to properly train and set up workouts along with plan out and understand their nutrition which makes them doomed to fail.

Hospital Setting

As I mentioned, my grandmother was in the hospital. She has been a diabetic for the better part of her life. And I’m not going to sugar-coat the situation, but, she uses her insulin as a crutch. She eats whatever she wants and then balances her blood sugar back out by injecting more insulin – obviously, this is not an ideal situation. Regardless of how much I preach to her about nutrition and the things she should and shouldn’t eat, it’s in one ear and out the other. She’s doomed to fail by her ignorance and unwillingness to change.

Yet, while she was in the hospital, they were doing everything for her. They were managing her blood sugar and insulin injections, along with providing her with a low sodium, low fat, low carb diet. Perfect! Or so I thought. You would think that professionals in the hospital would be extremely knowledgeable and would want their patients to leave their facility and be able to manage their own life.

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I spent every day in the hospital with her during her stay to keep her company and listen to what the doctors had to say. She doesn’t have the best memory, so I knew she needed someone there who could remember what the doctors told her otherwise she was 100% doomed to fail by not understanding what they were telling her and not remembering. When the nurse came around to take her lunch and dinner order for the day, I wanted to know how many carbohydrates they were allowing her, as I thought they were a bit high for a diabetic according to what they were permitting her to order.

This is where things went downhill quickly. Asking how many carbohydrates she is allowed, the lady did some math in her head and told me 15. I must have had a facial expression like someone just crop-dusted me with a protein fart. She asked me why I looked confused. I asked her if they were giving her 15 grams of carbohydrates a day or if the number 15 is based off of a point system. She confirmed a point system. Obviously, my follow up question was what that equates to in terms of grams. She thought for a minute and said she didn’t know, that it was a proprietary formula.

By now, my grandmother’s blood pressure wasn’t the only one elevated in the room. If you know me, you know I don’t sugar coat things and I’m pretty much an open book. I asked her how she expects her patients to understand carbohydrates when their own staff doesn’t understand them? If I were to read facial expressions, her face would be telling me to shut the f*ck up.

I then asked her that if there isn’t a system in place to help the patients understand how to control their carbohydrates (especially as a diabetic) by looking at the nutrition labels on products and tracking them, how were they supposed to go home and be ok on their own? A point system does no good to someone if they don’t understand it, nor can they apply it when doing their own grocery shopping and meal planning. She eventually got frustrated with me and left the room – and I was left without an answer.

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I notice the same thing happen with some nutritionists where they plan out the meals for their client, without them truly understanding what they are looking at. I understand the fact that if they teach their client how to do it on their own, they won’t need the nutritionist anymore, but maybe I’m weird and would just rather help them until they learn it for themselves through my help and move on so I can bring on another new client to help. I don’t want to hold someone’s hand forever. I want them to be able to go on without needing me. Otherwise, they are doomed to fail when they can no longer afford to work with me.

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Matt Weik

Matt Weik, BS, CPT, CSCS, CSN, is the Owner and Head Keyboard Banger of Weik Fitness. He is a well-respected, prolific writer with a global following and a self-proclaimed fitness and supplement nerd. Matt’s content has been featured on thousands of websites, 100+ magazines, and he has authored over a dozen published books.