How I Coach
Less than 20% of my job is talking about nutrition or telling people what to eat. The other 80% is helping them do it. For that I lean on three simple tools: the 2 R’s, the 2 H’s, and the Synergistic Health Model.
I don’t do macros or meal plans. The nutrition part is fairly simple. The human part is complex, because so many things influence the decisions we make around food, and most of them have nothing to do with knowledge.
I’m also a dad of two, so I get more than ever that it’s never as easy as knowing what to do and doing it. There are so many things pulling on your decisions beyond a plan. That gap is my whole job.
These three tools are the through-line in everything Fortitude does — from how a first call runs, to the weekly check-ins, to the small changes we agree on between them.
Some people need their reasons made clearer first. Some need the resistance removed. Some need to see that food is about more than their body. The order doesn’t matter. Doing the work eventually does.
Let’s break each one down — starting with the 2 R’s.
The 2 R’s
Reason and Resistance. For a change to happen, your reason needs to be greater than the resistance. That’s it. Willpower isn’t the problem, and neither is information. When people don’t follow through, it’s almost always because the reason wasn’t big or clear enough, or the resistance was bigger than it looked.
When we work on your reason, we look at how making this change can impact your life, not just your body — how it’ll help you think, act and feel differently. We look at how it’ll impact the areas of your life that are most important to you, whether that’s your family, your career or your hobbies. And we get clear on the kind of person you want to be, and what that kind of person does or doesn’t do.
We go through a deep goal-setting process to increase your reason, while we reduce or overcome the resistance that’s getting in the way. Reason greater than resistance, and change happens. Resistance greater than reason, and it doesn’t, no matter how good the plan is.
The 2 H’s
Helpers and Hinderers. Think of it as a behavioural audit of your week. Most people already do plenty of things that help: the walk after dinner, the meal prep on Sunday, the friend who keeps them honest. And most people have a handful of things that quietly hinder them: the 4pm slump, the pantry snack, the all-or-nothing Monday.
We find what’s already helping and work out how to do it more consistently. Then we look at the hinderers and decide, for each one, whether to reduce it, change it or remove it. No forbidden foods list. Just an honest look at what’s actually running your week.
Do more of what helps. Do less of what hinders. Repeat. It sounds simple because it is. The hard part is doing it honestly and consistently, and that’s what the weekly check-ins are for.
The Synergistic Health Model
Health is more than your physical health. It’s social, emotional, mental, existential, economic and environmental too, and it runs in both directions. Every one of those areas influences your decisions around food, and your decisions around food influence every one of those areas. Sleep affects what you eat. What you eat affects your mood. Your mood affects how you show up for the people you love. So we get clear on what matters most to you and the kind of person you want to be, and we make changes that improve your life, not just your body.
If a change to your eating makes your body better and your life worse, it won’t last, and it shouldn’t. The model keeps us honest about that. The goal is a way of eating that fits inside the life you actually want to live.
None of this happens overnight. It’s the direction. It’s what we point at on every call, in every check-in, and in every small change we agree on between them.
Bigger reasons. Less resistance.
More of what helps, less of what hinders.
Ready to close the gap between knowing and doing?
Make an enquiry and let’s see if working together is the right fit. No sales call, no pressure.
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