The holidays can be a challenging time for people, health-wise. Not only can consistent holiday get-togethers take a toll on your nutrition and exercise, but they can also take a toll on your mental health. Evidence shows us that mental and physical health are connected, and with continual stress throughout the holidays, less light throughout the day, and less time to be active, it’s obvious how people’s best-laid health plans can go off track.
Enter Herbalife Nutrition Clubs. An Herbalife Nutrition Club is meant to be a safe place to learn, explore, and grow in health with other like-minded community members. Independent distributors run Nutrition Clubs year-round, but coaches can be a remarkable resource during the holidays, providing a caring and familiar face to turn to when times get tough.
Focused On Goals 24/7/365
Herbalife Nutrition Clubs are specialty clubs run by Herbalife Nutrition’s independent distributors. These distributors (called coaches) have access to scientifically-backed training materials, nutritional supplements, and a sense of community-building to give to their members. Coaches in charge of Herbalife Nutrition Clubs have critical roles in shaping and becoming part of a community. They are expected to represent the brand as well ashelp the people they work with shift their habits through trust, communication, and habit-building tools.
Unlike many franchise clubs, Herbalife Nutrition Club coaches aren’t married to a particular routine or set of hard rules, though they do have guidelines. Coaches can personalize coaching techniques based on their community’s needs, personalities, and goals. Because they are friendly faces in their communities, helpful reinforcement, honest discussions, and team-building go a long way when it comes to touching the lives of their club members. Herbalife encourages their nutrition club coaches to work in the spirit of observation and understanding during the year and during the holiday seasons.
Many of the coaching tips and goals that nutrition club coacheslayout during the year are applicable during the holidays and vice versa. Typical food tips, like filling up on proteins, fruits, and vegetables and avoiding refined carbs, are constructive during the holidays when tempting processed and refined foods are everywhere. However, as community members, coaches can relate to the daily struggle of indulgence, and the reality is that most of the year, food temptations happen daily.
So, holiday tips are also ones that could be applicable year-round. A recent Herbalife article recommends a few tricks such as avoiding high-calorie drinks at family dinners and allowing yourself to indulge in what you wouldn’t typically, like a sensible piece of gingerbread, while avoiding everyday temptations – like chocolate chip cookies.
By offering their communities sensible swaps that aren’t over-the-top restrictive, coaches are not only setting their community up for year-round success but ensuring they have tools to work with year-round. Another example: a caramel apple at Halloween is a once-a-year indulgence you might opt for instead of candy because candy is available year-round.
A lot of this banks on the SMART changes styling, as well. Coaches try to modify behavior slowly and relatable rather than quickly and all-at-once because those decisions stick. SMART stands for “small, measurable, attainable, and realistic.” A coach might recommend switching out 2 cups of sugar in a cookie recipe for one cup of sugar and one cup of low-calorie sugar alternative during the holidays. This means you still get to indulge in your favorite cookie, but it equates to hundreds of fewer calories. A person being coached by a Herbalife Nutrition Coach can take this swap and practically apply it to several everyday situations, including:
- Taking a brisk walk to the mailbox every morning
- Doing 5 minutes of stretching every day
- Swapping out white pasta for whole-wheat pasta
- Drinking an Herbalife shake instead of eating a sweet snack
Herbalife Nutrition Clubs’ Scientific Backing
Nutrition Club coaches are not dietary experts or certified physical trainers. However, they receive scientifically-researched, written, and reviewed training to best guide their nutrition club leadership approaches. Independent distributors and coaches learn from the best that Herbalife has to offer on subjects including:
- Habit Formation
- Behavioral Change
- Sports Performance
- Nutrition
- Weight Management
- Healthy Holiday Recipes
- Swaps For Less-Healthy Food & Habits
Herbalife Nutrition’s Dietetic, Fitness, Nutrition, and Outer Nutrition advisory boards review articles, resources, and training materials before independent distributors receive them. EachHerbalife advisory board comprises experts in their field worldwide and is backed by the latest scientific research. These materials are designed to promote learning on the coach and community members’ ends and provide materials tailored to a range of people, experiences, customs, and backgrounds.
Some of Herbalife Nutrition’s board members include:
- Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, CSSD, CSOWM, FAND, a registered dietitian with two board certifications from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She is a certified specialist in weight management and holds multiple degrees in the dietary field.
- Samantha Clayton, OLY, ISSA-CPT, a certified personal trainer and former Olympian in the 200m and 4x100m relay events. She specializes in group fitness, senior fitness, youth fitness programming, and athletic conditioning.
- David Heber, MD, Ph.D., FACP, FASN, a Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Public Health at UCLA. He is the chairman of the Herbalife Nutrition Institute.
These are not the only experts working to further Herbalife Nutrition’s global health mission. Advisory boards contain dozens of members. These experts – and all Herbalife members – know that changing a problem like the global nutrition crisis, among other health crises, starts at home. With the knowledge they are given and their desire to give back to local and global communities, Herbalife Nutrition Clubs are at the forefront of changing the world by impacting one person at a time.
A Force Of Good Within Communities
Anyone who has struggled with their weight issues or dietary issues – or anyone who has witnessed these issues firsthand—can see that health problems are highly nuanced. Food deserts, poverty, overworked people, cultural issues, depression, and so many other pre-existing problems are at the forefront of so many Americans’ health issues. Herbalife Nutrition Clubs are where community members can address the underlying issues causing health problems among the people they know. But club usefulness does not stop there. They are also a force for good within their communities.
Nutrition Clubs themselves are designed to bring people together, regardless of where they are in their nutrition and health journeys. In food deserts and underserved communities, Nutrition Clubs provide role models for positive lifestyle changes by presenting a member of their own. Especially around holidays, when financial and health struggles come to a head, being part of a community that supports you can be vital to making changes and sticking with them, contributing to the long-term health of community members.
Nutrition Clubs are encouraged to be a force of good within their local and global communities to better their communities and engage with the problems that may hinder personal and physical health on a larger scale. Many nutrition club members donate money to Casa Herbalife’s global nutrition programs to bring wholesome nutrition to malnourished parts of the world (as well as education). However, many members donate their time locally with other members of their clubs.
Volunteering and giving back is important to us. Together with our Nutrition Club, we host fundraisers and support local charities. We’re grateful for the opportunity to give back and do so with such an incredible community of people.
Nutrition club members, like the one quoted above, make significant impacts in their community, which of course, have ripple effects on national and global scales. Often, the good deeds of small communities encourage more extensive deeds, like independent distributors in North Carolina who gave back to residents hit by Hurricane Florence by opening up their Nutrition Clubs and asking members to help with relief efforts.
Giving back to our community has always been a pillar of our small business. We bring our entire team out and support a nonprofit in our hometown that feeds the homeless. Connecting with those less fortunate brings us all together.
A recent Economic report from the company mentioned that in the wake of climate issues, they are also working toward preserving the planet through ethical ingredient farmers and manufacturing plants around the world.
Additionally, the company started and continually supports its Nutrition for Zero Hunger initiative, working toward eliminating hunger and malnutrition worldwide. Without the help of independent distributors and Herbalife Nutrition Clubs making changes in their community, many of the social responsibility programs offered by Herbalife Nutrition wouldn’t be possible.
The holidays often come down to material things – Making sure all our presents are bought before family comes. Avoiding temptation foods. Making a new year’s resolution. But before the hustle and bustle of modern-day holiday festivities, they were about giving. Herbalife Nutrition Clubs get in the holiday spirit by giving to their community: at the end of the year and year-round.
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