I’m coming to the end of Precision Nutrition’s Lean Eating for Women coaching program. It ends next week. But they lost me just over a month ago. I blogged about my decision not to go for the professional photo shoot. And Sam blogged about the whole photo thing in her post “Precision Nutrition, Why the Photo Contest?”
This week the photo contest started. See the before and after pics of the 61 women’s finalists here. The women in the pics look happy and confident, which is great. I even know a couple of them from my team, every member of whom I hold in the highest esteem.
But I can’t bring myself to vote.
As Sam said in her open letter to Precision Nutrition:
First, judging results based on appearance is inconsistent with your messaging throughout the program that what matters is health, strength, and physical and emotional wellness.
Second, isn’t it all about habits not results? Or I have missed something?
Third, throughout the program we were coached not to compare ourselves to others. People progress towards their goals at different rates. It’s your own journey. But then it ends with a giant exercise in comparison.
Finally, I thought it was about lifetime lifestyle changes, not end of a year eyeballing. I liked the emphasis on internal versus external transformations and thought PN’s lean eating program was about the former, not the latter.
As a participant in your program the photo shoot felt like a high school beauty pageant and figure competition, neither of which I’ve ever had any interest in participating in.
I echo pretty much all of that. What I loved most about the program was that the messaging was about shifting the focus to internal changes. So judging “the winners” on the basis of photos is just not consistent with that. Would I rather no one get prize money? I’m not sure. Sometimes I think that unless they can reward people for internalizing the healthy habits and learning to shift their attention to more meaningful measures than a photo can reveal then they should just not have a contest at all.
But the contest just started last week. So why did they lose me over a month ago?
The Precision Nutrition Lean Eating program is all about developing healthy habits. Every two weeks, we were given a new habit to work on. They were things like “eat slowly” and “eat to 80% full” and then later “eat lean protein with every meal” and “make smart carb choices.” There were tons of different healthy habits.
Each day, at the end of the day, we had to check of three things. 1. Did I do the workout? 2. Did I read the assignment? and 3. Did I practice the healthy habit?
Back in the summer, one of the assignments was to schedule our final photo shoot, with a professional if possible (because professional “after” pics always look better–see my cynical view of this assignment here). We were to schedule it for Saturday, November 22nd.
So two weeks prior to that, guess what the “healthy habit” was, for two whole weeks? “Prepare for the final photo shoot.” Yep. For two whole weeks the healthy habit we were supposed to focus our attention on (while of course keeping the others in place) was to prepare for the final photo shoot.
Not planning a final photo shoot, I couldn’t really prep for one. I did, however, plan to put together a photo book of my race history since the fittest by 50 challenge began. And planning that was kind of rewarding, but I somehow started to feel detached from the program.
Then November 22nd came and went. Next up: “Recover from final photo shoot week.” Two weeks of that took me into December. I didn’t have a photo shoot, so I had nothing to recover from. Again, I slipped a bit away from PN’s Lean Nutrition program. I focused on my own most challenging habits, eating slowly and to 80% full.
Finally, just recently, we got over our month of focusing on the photo shoot and got to a habit that means something to me: Pay it forward. Here, we are sharing our experience with those who might benefit from it.
I love this idea. It’s much more inspiring than a focus on photos and external appearances. In many ways, paying it forward is what Sam and I try to do on the blog regularly by suggesting that there may be a different way to do this thing. Precision Nutrition’s Lean Eating program gets some of it right. But by making the photo shoot and contest the big finale, it ended on a fizzle for me, not with a bang.
On a positive note: I have already moved on, so the separation won’t be such a big deal.
I have the samen experience with PN. It has been a struggle for me to stay engaged thoughout the year , but the last few weeks I’ve really checked out. Part of me feels like I should let them know, part of me can’t even be bothered to do that…
I’ve had the same ambivalence about letting them know. I will in the final survey. I’ve taken what I can from the program. So much is good. But the focus on the photos for money is a real turn off. Have a great holiday and thanks for your comment.
I think you should let them know. I shared my post with my PN Facebook group. I was surprised at the number of “insiders” who shared my ambivalence….
I agree. I looked at some of the finalists and didn’t like the way they were listed with pounds and inches lost, despite the fact that in some cases the success had more to do with increased health and fitness rather than weight loss. Granted, pounds and inches are an easy metric to display, but it is also a telling choice.
Not sure if you subscribe to this journal or not, but this whole topic (and yes I scrolled through about half of the photos before I was just over it) made me think of this article:
http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/social-media-and-body-image-a-complicated-relationship
PS-Thank you for not posting before and after pics. You’ve inspired me not to do the same with my posting….just different things along the way that are important to staying well and telling my story.
And you’re welcome. I don’t think they help us at all!
Thanks for the article. I will try to get the whole thing — I am not sure my institution subscribes to that journal or perhaps that issue just isn’t in yet.