Of all the areas that we cover where people need the most help, Nutrition is by far the biggest “elephant in the room”.

This is because many people come with preconceived ideas with regards to optimum nutrition, having tried numerous fad diets over many years that have yielded little success.

Other clients attend with confusing ideas of gluten-free, wheat free, vegetarian, vegan or intermittent fasting as that is what they read to be the best way forward is.

This causes great confusion and makes our job very difficult. We often find ourselves battling against cultural, societal and sometimes media led ideologies when we simply aim to assess clients individual basis to find out what nutritional plan works best for them in line with their own personal goals.

This can cause great confusion, making our job very difficult. We often find ourselves battling against cultural, societal and sometimes media led ideologies when we simply aim to assess clients on an individual basis to find out what nutritional plan work best for them in line with their own personal goals.

So, what nutritional plan or diet truly is best?

Let’s examine the M.A.S.K. methods of nutritional coaching to find out exactly how we assess each client and tailor make nutritional coaching specifically for them.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2NYqESPTMU Hear what our client has to say.

If You’re Not Assessing…You’re Guessing!

Firstly, we always assess our clients via a series of nutritional questionnaires to find out their individual responses to specific food types.  I’m sure we all know someone who can eat sugar all day long and never gain any weight, and yet some of us seemingly put on weight in the form of body fat very easily!  Seems unfair, right?  Why is this?

The most logical and researched explanation for this is due to “somatotypes”, which refer to our genetic predisposed body shapes, combined with what we term “Primal Pattern Eating”.

There are 3 identifiable somatotypes:
– Ectomorphs – usually very lean and slight of frame.
– Mesomorphs – usually quite athletic in physique and able to build muscle tissue quite easily.
– Endomorphs – usually larger, more heavily built individuals who gain body fat very easily.

To confuse things even more, many of us are usually a combination of two types!

Primal Pattern Eating then refers to an individual’s responses and tolerances to varying macronutrient percentages.

Like with somatotypes, there are 3 identifiable Primal Pattern Eating types:
– Polar – a person who requires a large amount of protein and fats within their daily diet.
– Equatorial – a person who requires a large amount of carbohydrates within their daily diet.
– Mixed Variable – a person who requires a balance of all 3 macronutrients within their daily diet.

Once we have assessed over clients somatotype and their Primal Pattern Eating type, we then take a look at their goals.  We look at their current body weight, their body fat percentage, their BMI, we even look at their activity levels and their careers.  By obtaining information across many areas we then do the hard work, making it as simple as possible for the client to follow.

We then advocate and embrace new technologies to help clients to track their daily and weekly nutritional intake.  Our favoured app for this is the MyFitnessPal app which is totally free.  We then coach clients how to download their individual macronutrient percentages and daily calories in order for them to be able to reach their goals and in many cases their ideal target weight and body fat percentage.

Now this may sound very complicated, and we can hear people thinking “how can we then translate nutritional information into food that we eat”?

Well, we also have an answer for that.  Every month we produce our very own PDF recipe books which contain 30 delicious new recipes which cover breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinner. Furthermore, each of our recipes comes with its own unique barcode scanner which when scanned downloads to the my fitness, helping you to keep a very close eye on what you are consuming, quite literally at the click of a button!

These recipes have been formulated in a collaboration with a leading chef and ourselves, with healthy eating in mind.  By following the recipes our clients can ensure that they are easily hitting their daily requirements for micronutrients as well as important targets such as fibre intake, whilst ensuring that they don’t go over in areas such as salt and sugar.

We even coach clients who have chosen a vegetarian or a vegan pathway. Whilst this proves to be slightly more challenging on the outset, there are now a huge array of delicious and healthy recipes and food types for clients with all nutritional requirements and preferences.

Even clients who use FODMAP diets, or other medically recommended diets can benefit greatly from our dedicated methods of nutritional coaching. Our simple aim is that everyone becomes THE very best version of themselves. Behind the scenes we use a whole array of nutritional guides, tools and resources to help clients simplify their eating practices, whilst moving towards their goals in a healthy, happy and positive way.

Part 6 of these emails examines how we approach exercise and movement.

Until next time, stay awesome!