In July 2015, about six months after I finished what was then called Precision Nutrition’s “Lean Eating Program” and is now called “Coaching for Women,” I wrote a post entitled “Why I Don’t Want to Be a Precision Nutrition VIP (But the Temptation Is There Anyway).” At the time, I and many of my cohort were struggling to find our footing, to go it alone after a year of daily coaching.
As is to be expected, PN has a lot of repeat customers. It’s easier to stay on track when you’re paying a lot of money and getting regular input from a coach. This we all know. You wander from the program and suddenly the healthy habits start to slide. But the question I always want to ask is: Am I really willing to pay PN for the rest of my life so I can “stay on track”? The answer to that question, for me anyway, is always: No.
But they try. Every six months, when a new round of coaching starts up, they try. Yesterday I got a message about how this was my “last chance” to register for the VIP price of $97 US per month for a year. That’s 54% less than the regular price. For what you get (assuming that what you get is at least what I got, and probably a bit better now since I would assume they are always making it better), it’s not a bad price. You do get lots of info and some coaching and support.
The pitch is always the same, about how they have many repeat clients. You might wonder how you can turn this into a pitch. I mean, to me, having to keep repeating it might be an indication that it’s not really a successful program. But they promote coming back as “a great way to keep the results you’ve achieved.” And they are quite open about how they’ve got clients who come back two, three or even four times.
They even do the “use your name” thing to make it sound personal and intimate, like it’s an offer especially for me:
Tracy, if you could use help staying in shape, getting back in
shape, or reaching new heights……then we’re ready to give you additional coaching, support, and
accountability. We’d love to have you back!
Now, when I wrote about this back in 2015, six months after I finished, I was tempted even though I didn’t actually sign up. As the woman quoted in the testimonial in the email they sent me said, maintaining “results” is uncharted territory. It’s “scary.” And it should be scary, because all the research points to how difficult it is to achieve lasting change.
But this time I’m not even tempted. I’m not scared. And I don’t worry about keeping the results of my PN efforts. In fact, I’ve done far better in every area since I left PN behind, fully adopted intuitive eating, implemented a regular running routine with a coach to help me develop smart training plans, and started using a personal trainer for my weight training.
This is consistent with the thought behind PN that coaching helps us stay on track. I fully admit that when I have personal training booked and a running coach to be accountable to, I am much less likely to skip out on workouts. But neither of my people focus on weight loss as a primary goal. I mean, if that’s what I wanted, I’m sure they would. But the thing with PN is that they are fixated on weight loss, right down to the before and after pictures. Indeed, they have that blasted contest every year, where people vote on contestants for the “best transformation.”
They say it’s all about healthy habits. But in the end it’s about weight loss and looking a certain way. And they will never convince me otherwise. Given their focus, it’s not a program I can get behind because it’s inconsistent with my values. The over-emphasis on the visible transformation doesn’t work for me at all. Nor does the focus on tracking and on weight loss.
I consider it immense progress that I don’t even feel the slightest allure. That’s not to say that there is nothing redeeming about the program. In fact, I wrote a balanced review of it, talking about what I liked and disliked. The thing I disliked the most and continue to find offensive is the photo contest. I wrote about that here. I’m not alone in this. Sam has also objected to the photo contest. Sam also wrote a helpful review of PN after her year of coaching. She loved lots about it (more than I loved, that’s for sure).
But as someone who has finally grasped intuitive eating and has landed on a workout routine that I love and can manage, the idea of being given new rules about eating and of having someone else tell me what my workouts should look like (okay, someone other than Paul, my trainer), just feels like a set-back to me.
So no, I’m not interested in being a VIP even if the price is right.
If you’ve ever done PN or any other sort of online coaching, what was your experience and did you feel the need to repeat the program in order to keep the results (if you had good results)?
