School Nutrition: Satisfied?

I have a young client at a private school in the Hampton Roads area who came to me for help losing weight. He is doing all of the right things by being vigourously active each day of the week, whether it's training with me, playing basketball for the school, or even pickup football games on the weekends.

From a training perspective, I typically don't address a client's nutrition plan until they bring up the conversation to me, or enough time has gone by that they would be comfortable with another major change in their life (counting vigorous training multiple times a week as the initial major change). Such huge changes such as nutrition and exercise in regular people's lives (excluding the particpants on the various weight loss TV shows) usually causes a higher chance of failure in one or usually both programs. Feeling overwhelmed by too much change can easily lead to a person simply shutting down all types of change in their life.

In this case, when nutrition was brought up sooner than usual, I had my young, positive-minded client provide me with 3 straight days of typical eating habits offered by the school (he eats 3 meals per day on location). The results were astounding. Most of the food in the journal revolved around high fat content, low protein food, and almost zero vegetables or fruit. I immediately asked if there were other options to what he was choosing, in which his response was "No".

By the year 2012, with all of the obvious information plastered across magazines, TV shows, and other media outlets, I find it hard to believe that a school (and its parents) aren't being held to a higher standard. I understand that schools like this exist across the country, but I'm trying to imagine the mindset of the school board when approving the menus offered to our next generations year after year.

So, question is, are you satisfied with your school's nutrition?

Changing Lives Everyday,

Bill Meyer

Bill Meyer is considered the best personal trainer and strength coach in Norfolk, Virginia. For questions and comments, please call 757-222-0344 or email at bill@meyer-fitness.com.

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