Navigating Nutrition: Why Your Body Needs a Dynamic Approach

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Transcript: Navigating Nutrition: Why Your Body Needs a Dynamic Approach

Season 12, Episode 32  | May 19, 2026

Jamie Martin

Hey everyone, we’re back with another episode and I’m really excited for you to hear from this guest you’ve heard from her a time or two. We have coach Anika with us. She is back to talk with us about Dynamic Nutrition. We know that the internet is flooded with conflicting nutrition advice, everything from 30 day quick fixes and supplement regimens to who knows what else is out there. There’s a lot of info.

 

But these often leave people feeling really paralyzed about what to do and what’s right for them. So nutrition coaching cuts through that noise by offering personalized science-backed guidance and help understanding what a nutrition coach does and why having an expert in your corner can be a game changer. So with that, Anika, nice to see you again.

 

Anika Christ

Nice to see you.

 

Jamie Martin

We always love having you on. So Anika, many of you might recognize her as Coach Anika. She is an RD and certified personal trainer and the senior director of nutrition and weight loss at Life Time She’s been with us for more than 15 years, creating nutrition programs and solutions for both members and personal training clients. One of the programs that you might recognize is the detox as well as lean in tone. And she leads that again as Coach Anika.

 

So yeah, you’ve got a lot of stuff. You’ve been to 15 plus years. Like are the years just keep adding up so quickly, don’t you think?

 

Anika Christ

Yeah, I think it’s 18 this fall. And I was like, my goodness. It goes fast, but we’re having fun.

 

Jamie Martin

The days fly by here. I don’t know. That’s how I feel. There’s never a dull moment.

 

Well, let’s dive right in here because we know when it comes to nutrition, there are some foundational strategies that are recommended for most everyone. We talk about them all the time from protein to getting enough fiber and all those pieces. But nutrition is still a very personalized thing and something we need to be thinking about. So why is that? It’s not one size fits all.

 

Anika Christ

Yeah. And I feel like that’s kind of been the test of time. There’s been a lot of focus on nutrition last few years. I know I’ve been doing it at Life Time for a long time, but I feel like just in the last couple, like my schedule, my intakes from clients, past clients has gone through the rough. So I feel like there’s this, there’s an abundance of content out there that causes a lot of confusion.

 

But I think when I think of nutrition, and especially when we talk about it as Dynamic Nutrition at Life Time there’s different life cycles where your nutrition does need to change. A lot of things that worked in your 20s don’t work in your 30s and 40s. And sometimes that’s underlying metabolism and hormone shifts and things that can become barriers on how much you actually are burn or utilizing when it comes to your eating. But then I just think of life stages, changes in career, changes in becoming a parent. Like there’s different things that make it super personal. So you and I talk about protein and water and the basics.

 

I will still have that approach with most people is you have to be good at the basics. Those are the things that are tried and true. They’re not fringe. They’re not, just like trends happening with nutrition. There’s all sorts of those too, but I think for a lot of people, we are a collection of our habits and choices and preferences. And so no two clients are alike for me.

 

And I always think that comes back to being a really good coach is you ask a lot of questions. You want to understand what makes people tick and what makes people choose what they choose. And so I think of it as very personalized, one of the most personalizing possibilities for coaching, honestly.

 

Jamie Martin

Absolutely. And how do you help people kind of wade through all the information they’re seeing? I mean, we’re living in the age of social media, the TikTok influence that’s out there right now, for instance. I mean, it’s making it harder for people to actually make positive changes for themselves. Like, where are you seeing people really getting stuck at this point?

 

Anika Christ

Yeah. So I would say when I think of just like some recent and personal clients, like it is like, it depends on who you’re following, right? Cause whoever you’re following, lot of your algorithm starts to put the same thing. So then you start to think like, my gosh, it’s not just me. So many people are dealing with this and I need to be doing these things. I always tell people like quit following and start asking your own questions.

 

Because I think for a lot of us, we either, and I think of back when I was in the club and I would talk about certain subjects and topics people were so good at right away recognizing and be like, yeah, that’s not an issue for me. Or I don’t, you know, binge eat or I don’t have those sugar cravings. But I think for others, they look at people that either they want to be like, or look like on the internet specifically, and maybe they’re influencers or even fitness influencers. And so they will start to follow and think, okay, well that works for that person. It’s supposed to work for me.

 

And so I always think I do go back to the basics a lot with people. Again, I get a lot of supplement questions with nutrition too of like, should I take this? Should I take this? And I usually am really good at like, well, are you taking your multi and fish oil? And they’re like, no. And I’m like, okay, let’s start there. Because you could have these benefits that you’re seeing. And I think marketing in general has just gotten so much smarter. And so for a lot of us, we fall pretty quickly.

 

So I always, again, I just bring it back to them. ask, how are you doing? Let’s talk about what choices you are making and what do you feel like you’re doing really good at? Although there is a lot of confusion still, I will say most people that by the time they get to me, they usually have knowledge of what’s healthy. I’ll say there’s not usually a lack there. And I always say that’s not what a nutrition coach is there for. We’re not there to like just tell you what to do. It’s how to do it. What’s right for you. Where are you going to have the biggest return on your investment based off your own personal metabolism?

 

And so I always, the main thing, you know, lot of this falls under something we just call it a good assessment, which is really good questions. Looking at measurements that are personal to you, whether it’s just the InBody at Life Time inside the club, offer complimentary to everybody, or if we can really get to know you and do blood testing, metabolic testing, and understand where you’re at right there. That’s where I like to start people. Like, let’s stop listening and start listening to yourself. And then we can make a better plan.

 

Jamie Martin

Yeah, tune in versus being so tuned out, right? Like get the info about what’s actually physiologically happening with your body and what it’s telling you, right? And there’s also just a self-awareness too of knowing like how food and things, different things make you feel too, right? Like there’s that intuitive nature. Like if you pay attention, you know, an hour or two after a meal, how are you actually feeling? Do feel good? Do I not? Those types of things as well.

 

Anika Christ

Slowing down sometimes.

 

Jamie Martin

Exactly. I mean, we so often hear about people hiring personal trainers, you know, for one-on-one and all of that. We’re seeing this shift though, like with more and more people wanting to do, you know, more of the nutrition coaching. Why do you think so many more people are willing to step away from kind of a DIY approach when it comes to nutrition and turn to professionals? I mean, is it all the confusion that’s out there? Or all the info?

 

Anika Christ

I think AI has kind of helped and harmed a little bit there too, because again, again, I just think of just the clients in the last year that I’ve had and they’ve come with really good uses of AI or their own investigation. But then, you know, I have to like say, okay, well actually like, let me like dig deeper for you. Let’s talk about you personally, because not everybody has kind of that information or that intuitiveness or I would even just think tenure.

 

And I love that you brought personal trainers because personal trainers, yes, and a lot of them end up being really great nutrition coaches too, just by proxy, because they’re kind of living that lifestyle and they’ve had to make their own changes to perform the way that they have to perform all day, which is like face-to-face, in-person, 100% there. They don’t multitask. Like a lot of us corporate or corporate America employees, we’re doing multiple things. They’re there for that person. And so they don’t have a lot of extra time.

 

So I think for people, that is the best place to look is look for someone that actually has had the tenure and they’ve worked with multiple different types of people. And I think what happens a lot of times online is you might find someone creating authority of what they’ve done for themselves, but they actually haven’t helped other people with different types of metabolism, different nutrition approaches, going back to like, hey, there’s these core fundamentals. There’s a lot of coaches that talk about that macro coaching and this is all you need to do.

 

The number of people I’ve had in front of me this year that are like, hired a macro coach and like all they gave me was macros and then tweaked my macros every week. And they’re like, I felt like I was like failing at school. I was just being told what to do, but I didn’t know how to do it.

 

And that’s difficult, right? That’s where the in-person asking more questions, if someone isn’t hitting whatever plan I have them on, that’s a failure of the plan, not the person. And I think that’s why people in this DIY world are going back to the expert because they feel like they’re failing. And it’s really just the failure of whatever plan and really not following the right instructions for them. The instructions weren’t identified correctly for them.

 

So I have seen a huge shift there and that’s where it’s exciting for me because Life Time’s had this offering for over 20 years. I was in the club doing this 18 years ago. So, and there was many before me doing it. And I think for a lot of our members, they’re like, I didn’t realize there was coaches like that. And maybe they’ve worked with their personal trainer and they got so far at a girl earlier this week who needed to do a resting metabolism and wanted to do it with a dietitian. And she’s talking about all these autoimmune issues she’s having and I’m like, yep, okay, yep, this is where that, she’s like, you know this stuff? And I’m like, yeah, the best coaches do know this stuff. That’s expertise, that’s tenure, that’s understanding the human body. So I think that people, again, they don’t need more information. They don’t need to be told what’s healthy, what’s not. It’s help me right now and put me on a plan that’s doable so that nothing is too easy, but it shouldn’t be ridiculous. And that’s why I feel like I find a lot of the time with a lot of people.

 

Jamie Martin

Well, it gets so complicated. It’s like all of these things, or it becomes it’s subtracting versus being additive, which can also make a huge difference within somebody’s approach. OK, so you’re alluding to kind of what we’re doing at Life Time these days. You we’ve had this idea of Dynamic Personal Training for a while, Dynamic Stretch We’re now kind of applying that idea to Dynamic Nutrition. And that really is about kind of working closely, being accessible to members, having, I think more of our personal trainers are gonna have opportunities to do, tell me if I’m wrong, but like to have, offer this nutrition coaching aspect and bring the two together. I mean, tell us like, what can, what is the dynamic approach and then why is bringing these worlds together, Dynamic Nutrition, Dynamic Personal Training, Dynamic Stretch so important in the bigger picture for people?

 

Anika Christ

Yeah. Okay. So I would say like when I first, kind of talked about a little bit of just defining dynamic at Life Time, but when it comes to nutrition, it is making sure like what we recognize is every individual is different.

 

It is based off their lifestyle is based off of their underlying metabolism. So just like putting that out there that it’s not a cookie cutter plan that everyone goes through. There is fundamentals like we keep talking about, but everyone’s a little bit unique. And that’s what we’ve always recognized at Life Time. Even 20 years ago, was very much people were coming to better their health, better their appearance. And we know that exercise is not enough for a lot of that stuff. We know it kind of comes down to that lifestyle and nutrition piece.

 

Why I think we are so the best to be positioned there is because we have this membership that is coming into our clubs and destinations every day moving their body. And so when Dynamic Personal Training came out, that was an evolution of personal training at Life Time. And sometimes when people see it and hear it, they’re like, okay, so it’s just like a really good personal trainer. And I go, that is who we hire as professionals at Life Time, but it is making sure that knowing that you’re human, you’re gonna change, your program’s gonna change.

 

Most people aren’t willing to put themselves through a periodized program that gets harder and more intense. Like that’s what a coach and a professional can be so good at and in person recognize it and make it so it’s more effective. So when you position nutrition with stretch and personal training, it’s kind of bringing everybody together.

 

And that’s where, again, we’ve always offered nutrition for that piece because we want to be that full solution for everybody. But our coaches recognize how nutrition changes when you’re someone that works out on a regular basis. That’s very different than other nutrition companies out there that kind of have this single laying focus. Even if they are looking at metabolism, they don’t understand a lot of the exercise. And I would say the members at our club, are they doing Alpha? Are they doing CTR or Pilates or group fitness?

 

That all changes what you would do nutritionally for your success. So again, trainers over time, I recognize that even as a dietitian and coach in the club, I was like, wow, these trainers know a lot of information and they have been able to be really great coaches by proxy. Now the best ones would say, Hey, we’re having these conversations already in our personal training sessions. Maybe we’re talking about workout, nutrition and recovery, but when it comes to what I’m putting on my plate, what I’m eating throughout the day, my sleep, my stress.

 

A lot of people need to have those conversations and planning outside of the workout session. And so we recognize that, that some might just need a little bit in their training session, but most maybe need a separate session to sit down and actually talk about that. And we have a lot of trainers that have been doing that for years, which is really cool.

 

But I think of it, I have high clinical background. So when I was in the hospital, I had nurses, doctors, care unit coordinators. We’re all talking about that, not client, patient in that setting. And hey, what’s everyone’s piece of the puzzle? At Life Time, this is our version of that. When it comes to holistic living and health and preventative health as your nutrition, your recovery, your training and exercise, how does that come together? So you have a 360 plan.

 

Jamie Martin

Absolutely. It really is more like you keep using the word holistic, like, right? We’re not just thinking about one element because we know that I think I’ve said this to you, probably you on this podcast. It’s like pulling, it’s a web, right? And if you pull one string, they’re all connected. You can’t separate them from one another. They all influence one another for good or bad, right? So how can we bring it together for good and help people, truly help people? Walk us through what that Dynamic Nutrition Coaching experience would be like for somebody who’s just getting started. So let’s say I’m a member, I’ve been coming to Life Time, I’ve been doing personal training, but now I’m pursuing nutrition coaching, Dynamic Nutrition Coaching. What would that look like in sitting down with a coach or trainer?

 

Anika Christ

Yeah, so there’s some fundamentals that I would say every new client is going to actually go through an experience. So the first one is a really great assessment. So again, there’s going to a lot of questions. I am famous for asking a lot of questions for my clients because I obsess over it. I want to know every little thing so I can build like the best plan for them. And again, a dynamic plan that eventually evolves changes kind of depending on their situation.

 

But there is gonna be an InBody scale. So we have those at Life Time. So we’re gonna measure, hey, not just your weight, but what is your body composition? How much muscle do you have? How much inflammation is happening in the body? There’s so much information that we can use from that simple assessment that most people have never been exposed to before. Especially I think of my clientele, I deal with a lot of inflammation and I put them on anti-inflammatory eating plans and stuff and support.

 

Again, if you’re weighing yourself at home and you’ve seen fluctuations, frustration, having the information of why is that happening and what are things that actually can help solution that is really empowering for people. They feel like, my gosh, okay, someone like gets this and actually like tell me what this information is. I also am a big fan of lab testing.

 

So again, based off their questionnaire, based off their history. I’m gonna probably give some sort of recommendation of, what type of blood chemistry or salivary information is gonna be great for that person. Someone is in front of me and they’ve attempted a ton of different diets. And not just yo-yo dieting from the past, sometimes they have customers that fall into there, but maybe over the last couple of years, they’ve attempted a lot of things and nothing has changed. I’m gonna wanna dig deeper. I wanna see like, hey, if you have done high protein or a calorie counted or tracked before, what does that look like?

 

Speaking of that too, like food journaling can be part of that assessment as well too. And again, it depends on the person, depends on the situation. I always say that is for us to learn. That is not your measurement for success for the long-term. The idea is to understand and then become and create plans. So that’s not something you have to do. But it helps me understand kind of their food identity, their personal preferences, what makes them tick, why they make choices. And so that is going to be like session one plus because I’m going to dig as far as I can, but I want to get the best understanding.

 

Then throughout that, I would say for most people, they’re going to kick off with meeting with a nutrition coach at least once a week. That is their time to continue to assess to create plans and then see, okay, how did the accountability go to the plan? And that’s where, again, we’ve had those deep conversations where people, I’ve had clients in the past that have said like, my gosh, they want to like score themselves or something. Like, I’m a, and I’m like, okay, hold on, that’s a failure of the plan. That’s not you. You didn’t fail this week. Like, that’s not what we’re doing here. Like the goal is to create certain skills.

 

And that’s kind of the assessment is a nutrition coach’s understanding, like what skill deficits do we actually have here? I’ve taught people how to cook, right? And I’ve had really great cooks that love to eat, love recipes. They’re like, how do I modify? There’s so much uniqueness and when people come and see me and that’s where the best coaches, we’re going to serve you no matter where you’re at, at that scale. You don’t have to check boxes before you get to see a nutrition coach.

 

It’s really like, you’re going to come in, we’re going to assess, we’re going to give you a program for right now. We’re going to continue to evolve it as we build those skills. And so some people, their plan is all about slowing down and eating, ironically. And then knowing, Hey, here’s like five strategies. When things happen that make me deviate from the plan that I have in my back pocket.

 

We were talking about spring break before we got on started recording. Hey, when most people come back from a vacation, they kind of go right into their work. So it’s like, what’s the meal prep plan for that? If I don’t have my normal day that I usually have all my food and stuff. so the more that they know, the better the coach can serve, honestly. And that’s where that’s what we do. Honestly, that’s best part.

 

Jamie Martin

I’ve heard you talk so often. It comes down, I mean, love how you’re talking about teaching people how to modify. It comes down to even teaching people how to shop sometimes, like what to put on their grocery lists or things like that. It’s like maybe even, I mean, I could imagine that for me it would be helpful to say, here’s what I typically buy. Take a look at this. What insights, based on what you know about me, based on the conversations we’ve had so far, where are some tweaks I could make here potentially or additions I can make type of thing.

 

Anika Christ

if you’re an out to eat person, I have clients that travel for work. They’re like, I have to dine out. And I’m like, that’s cool. Let’s make a plan. are you going? Let’s figure it out. And then they start to learn those tricks of the trade that are like, Hey, when I am put in this situation randomly and not planfully, I know what to do. I know how to do that. So it’s super helpful. And again, that all goes back down to their goal.

 

Everyone’s got different goals. I deal with a lot of different goals. Some people are weight gainers. Some people want to lose body fat. Some people are in it just to feel healthy or have symptom remedy, right? Like I have a lot of clients that are like, they just don’t feel right. And that goes back to their metabolism, how their body’s functioning. But that’s where food is such a powerful signal. It is such a thing that we have to assess.

 

I love throwing that dynamic word on there too, because it’s like what works right now doesn’t have to be the long-term play. And you and I have had so many conversations about like food sensitivity testing and that I have a love-hate relationship for tests like that. offer one at Life Time. I have a lot of clients that do it, but the identity is not to do a result and be like, I just can’t have this the rest of my life. I’m like, no, no, no, no. Why are you reacting to that food? And then what do we do so you don’t react to that.

 

And that is so much more positive, it’s powerful. And again, I’m just really big at building those skills for people and understanding. And I had a gal last week and we were talking about gluten and dairy. And she’s like, when I used to give those up in my 20s, no problem. And she was now it doesn’t work. I’m like, well, it’s not. It’s working. Yeah, we need to look at other parts of the metabolism. right. It’s lot of fun.

 

Jamie Martin

Well, even in that case, you’re talking, I you’re talking like this was someone in their 20s, this worked, maybe now they’re in their late 30s, early 40s. Hello, we’re talking perimenopause, menopause, all these phases, which we finally have like are having more conversations around this. And that’s such an important part of this, like understanding how that phase of life can really make a huge difference. It’s something I’m personally navigating right now. And it’s different than what I’ve been used to.

 

Anika Christ

There’s a reason for it. Yeah. I love, again, just growing up in this profession too. Like I’ve changed every decade that I’m coaching and I think of that too. I think it was last year, I was like, my gosh, I’ve saw my clients that I used to help when I was 20 and they’re in their 40s and I was helping them. it’s cool, but I feel like it helps people understand it better and at least have a little bit of relief to be like, it’s not in my head. It’s not me just not doing the things that’s again, either a skill deficit, a metabolic barrier. There’s all sorts of things that nutrition can help support. That’s the best.

 

Jamie Martin

Well, you just said something, it’s not in their head, but there is a role, probably a little bit of psychology here. So how does that get, how does that play into nutrition coaching at Life Time? Because so often it is a, there are mindsets or there are thoughts like I can’t do this or I can do that. You know I mean? Like so many rules or things we think we know that we have to change our mindset and shift our psychology a little bit. What’s your take on that?

 

Anika Christ

Yeah, I deal with it all the time. I used to have clients that would come in say, I’m an emotional eater. I already identify that way. They already knew themselves that way. I do think what I try to put in people’s mindset too is we’re all like, we’re a collection of our habits. We’re all a collection of the five people around us too. So I think sometimes it’s looking at who are your influences? Who are you around?

 

This is why I will tell everybody you will never regret spending money on a coach because I think putting a trainer or coach in your circle of influence can just, it is life changing for a lot of people. And we see that every day at Life Time. have to read the success stories. We meet these people. So I will always be an advocate of that. If you feel like you don’t have that healthy influence or friend or someone that can kind of bring you through this life change or lifestyle change, like hire a coach for sure.

 

I do think sometimes that, that thought process too can go back to metabolism, ironically. So I will say I’ve had several clients in the food sensitivity case, or they have anxiety that goes back to like permeable gut, stress, lack of sleep. So sometimes I again, it comes down to all those questions. And so like, I will assess that outside circle first to say, is there any other influences that might be like, making kind of those negative thought process? Or does that come from past programs that you felt like you just didn’t stick to or didn’t work for you?

 

So I’m to dig more to see what’s like the root cause of that thinking. Is it chemical? it metabolic? Is it just best practice from the past that caused them to think like that? And then I always think I deal with a lot of just like where they have a partner that either doesn’t have to do anything different and it doesn’t metabolically change them, which is really hard.

 

Sometimes it’s hard to change these lifestyle factors if the people at home aren’t on the same page as you. I deal with that all the time, honestly. And usually what’s good is we’ll have an individual that’s like, super supportive though, but it’s also reframing like why what works for them isn’t working for the person in front of me too and why that can happen and how, you sometimes especially I deal with a lot of body composition goals. I always say weight and body composition are reflection of your underlying health, but they’re not always a symptom for some people. So it’s not always shown in that way. And it doesn’t mean like it’s just that there’s usually a reason for that.

 

So again, I think our approach at Life Time has always been so unique and holistic and full body approach that hopefully that helps people rest a little bit to be like, okay, this is gonna feel a little bit different. And, know, when I started, we were really into like writing out food logs. And I remember we had programs where people would bring in their journals. And I was always like, I just loved it because it got me to get to know them and you could give me any journal and I’d be like, this is Becky’s. Like I would just know because of the food. But I remember the individuals are like, you’re not going to like red pen it. I’m like, no, like who does, like that’s not right. It’s like, that’s not the whole point of that.

 

So I do think historically, maybe in the nutrition world, we were doing things that maybe created a lot of negative mindset, honestly. So sometimes I am undoing some of that too, but there is, think emotional eating is a very real thing.

 

A lot of us tie back to, think of just like the rituals of eating. We all have our own. There’s certain foods that maybe you can remember from a childhood. Maybe there’s foods you don’t even keep in your home. So you’re like, if that’s in there, I’m going to eat that and overeat that. Everyone has those things too. So it is very real. It is very metabolic. It is very much food choices sometimes too.

 

And again, balancing out things can really have an impact on that. So that’s probably my favorite part of being a book coach is people saying, I don’t feel like that anymore. You know, there’s that live to eat or eat to live. And I want people to be kind of in between. It’s a balance, not one or the other.

 

Jamie Martin

Right. Well, and there’s so many things that often happen. Like you’ve mentioned, you know, there’s a weight or a body composition thing that will often happen when somebody starts, you know, balancing out these different factors. But there’s a lot of other things that they start to feel differently. What are some of the other, like maybe unexpected changes that people will talk about with you once they’ve worked with a coach or a nutrition coach?

 

Anika Christ

Yeah, brain fog is a big one for me. I work with a high female demographic and you don’t even realize how many people experience symptoms and they’ve got so used to their symptoms that they didn’t even realize they were symptoms anymore.

 

That’s probably the first thing. And my favorite thing with nutrition is I think you always see it in the face with people. see a lightness, a brightness. You see it in the eyes instantly. People always think I’m weird because I’m looking at their tongue and their nails and things like that to be like, hey, these are symptoms we should track too. But people, that is probably one of the biggest unexpected things, but I would say the brain fog that people don’t realize exists because they get so used to it. And that’s the feeling of that is kind of like working through sludge and they just, it’s just become their normal.

 

Energy, another big one too. So different than brain fog, energy is just like low energy. And they’re thinking like, I’m just tired. I’ve just aged. I sit all day, which can have an impact, but most people when they’re hydrated and digesting and absorbing food appropriately and good food. I’ll use food as like real food, right? Like that’s what we’re all trying to get better at. I would say in the USA, that is huge for people. And so just feeling like full energy and they don’t have to crash on the couch at night. That’s a big one for people.

 

Digestion, probably number three. used to, people are used to it now. And I think people have come around a lot, but I even think of like 10 years ago asking people about bowel movements and stuff. They’re like, why do you want to know that? I was like, I want to know everything. They’d be like, what? What is this 20 something asking me these questions for. But bowel movements.

 

Sleep is huge. And again, we have a ton of sleep support supplements. My best case studies don’t even need them. They’re like, I’m just sleeping better because I’ve changed my stress. I’ve changed my eating. I’m recovered. Those are my best case studies, honestly. But they all have an impact on your eating, your eating can have an impact on all of them. It kind of goes both ways like a highway.

 

Jamie Martin

Yeah, absolutely. There’s so many interesting little intersections, like you said, like on the highway of all these different pieces. And even just you saying like, yes, maybe you’re going to see the body composition change, but you might also notice these other things if you’re paying attention. Like maybe your clothes do start to fit better, but then there’s also these other. I know for me, when I am really dialed in with my nutrition, there’s like a different level of functioning that I have almost, right? Like I’m firing on all cylinders better, that type of thing. anyway, little personal anecdote there. Okay. So if somebody wants to hire a nutrition coach, we want to talk a little bit about credentials. What should they be looking for in someone who is a nutrition coach at Life Time too?

 

Anika Christ

At Life Time, so the good news is, so we do hire a lot of dietitians. We do hire a lot of four-year degree nutrition coaches at Life Time. Most of them are doing personal training mode too. So that’s what I would say. Like it kind of goes both ways for me where it’s like, I obviously I’m a registered dietitian. That is my degree. My medical background is in that. But I feel like I’m a better dietician because I’m a personal trainer too, if that makes sense. So I like both. We do have an internal certification.

 

So if someone is a trainer for us. We do require them, most of them either have precision nutrition as a background, maybe they have the nutrition coach through NASM. So they usually have some sort of external credential in addition to what they’re doing for personal training. And then we certify them through our approach as well too. So a lot of that has to do with metabolism education, different food choices. What are the fundamentals of eating? What’s the best way to help someone kind of, cause everyone’s a little bit different on what can you do to get your clients more compliant to the program and stuff too. But I would say most of them will either have precision nutrition or NASM or a four year degree in nutrition.

 

And I would say for most people, You want to, you kind of want to look for both. You want, if you’re hiring a nutrition coach outside of Life Time, I would say, especially if you’re a fitness person and you’re exercising, make sure they have the exercise background too. It matters. It really does. There’s a lot of different insurance based offerings with nutrition. The unfortunate part is I always feel like I get everybody that’s in front of me. I’m kind of like the complex dietitian. Like they’ve tried all these things and the number of people that have come to me, they’re like, well, I had a dietitian like you at my insurance covered it. And I don’t think people realize a lot of times like what is covered is what is educated on a lot of the time, unfortunately. And I think that’s what, you we are, you pay for cash out of pocket at Life Time to hire a coach. But I feel like when you have skin in the game, you’re so much more likely to succeed. You’re going to get a better recommendation kind of based off what you need, not what’s covered.

 

And that just the last five years, I’ve had a surge of customers that are in front of me. They’re like, I did this, this is how they did it. And again, we talk about blood testing all the time. I’m really picky. I want to see everything. So again, just having someone that’s really knowledgeable on using blood markers of how does that influence your nutrition? That matters. It really does. not everybody gets that. And so I feel like when I’m talking to our Life Time customers, they are so educated. They really do care and they’re in it for the lifestyle.

 

So to have so many of those folks be in front of me and being like, well, I didn’t even know there was an approach this way. It’s opened their eyes to even help people that maybe are their friends and family not at Life Time to say, you know, when you’re hiring a coach, like they should be talking that stuff. They should be asking about your sleep. You should be asking about your stress. They should absolutely be asking where you’re eating, how you’re sitting down. If someone is just throwing macros at you, that is not a qualified coach in my opinion. That is not the right way. We know that.

 

Jamie Martin

Right, and that really gets to the second part of my question is like, are there any red flags to look for with this? I mean, I think even especially in the age of social media, like what should we be watching for is like, hmm, this person may not have the credentials or the actual background that they need.

 

Anika Christ

Yeah, I would say you got to be careful with certain fit influencers for sure. I know a number of them. A lot of them are showing what they’ve done for themselves. And I would say that’s great. always think, especially being female, like I think of my friend group, we all are asking, what are you doing? What’s your mascara? Like we tend to do that.

 

For good reason usually, but sometimes that is what a fit influencer is online. You want to know, do they actually work with people? Where do they work? And a lot of them self-work, which there’s nothing wrong about that. But again, is it just what has worked for them? Have they done body recomposition, fitness shows, certain things like that? And I think that’s where maybe five years ago, it was all about the macro. I just remember seeing macro coaches everywhere.

 

And then people would come to me like, are you a macro coach? And I was like, well, kind of, but what does that mean? And so I think red flags like that, like, again, people pop up overnight online. How old are they? I don’t judge by age, but again, the more tenured, the more likely they’ve worked with multiple different people, understanding what their niche actually is to who do they work with in general. And so, I watch for that all the time. get people sending me stuff all the time and I like online for like, recipe, you know, that is influential, I think, for a lot of people, recipe ideas, certain things like that. I can’t say I found a lot of experts that I would say, yes, I would go hire this person because A, I don’t really know them. I haven’t seen them in real life.

 

And then B, like, you don’t actually know what you’re going to get. And from what I’ve seen through customers that I’ve seen, it’s like, I paid a hundred bucks and I got this PDF and it’s like, we give our PDFs for free at Life Time. There’s so many programs. I’m like, these are free. If you just want something to start with, take it. Content should be free, in my opinion. anything that’s like cookie cutter like that, if you’re paying for, that’s a red flag to me. That doesn’t make sense. Your paying should be for personalized approach.

 

Jamie Martin

Well, and to your point, again, that’s a one size fits all cookie cutter. again, it goes beyond, it’s why we’re doing what we’re doing at Life Time to make this more personal, to have like understanding the individual, but also providing that accountability in a way that can’t happen when you purchase a PDF like that, right?

 

Anika Christ (36:08)

Correct. So I like the hub of trainers in each of our clubs because all the trainers aren’t alike either. Some are really specific. Some are like corrective exercise specialists. And I think as a consumer, that should feel really good to be like, you know, you want to coach, but you’re like, here’s what I’m looking for or based off your assessment, we can properly place you with the right person. Like everyone has their own identity. have the things we do that are core and fundamental, but then there’s different niches too, for a reason.

 

So I, that’s my, to me, my opinion, especially with nutrition is like, I like, have niche clients too, but the array of customers I’ve done and most of them do not do what I do every day. It’s different for what I’ve even recommended. Like what is recommended is not universal most of the time. So I think that’s super helpful too, to understand.

 

Jamie Martin

Yeah, really important. Okay, so for people who, know, before they book a consultation, is there one foundational nutrition habit that you think everyone should be implementing today?

 

Anika Christ

It’s like a loaded question. will say, here’s what I’ll still say. We talk about protein all the time. I think people are sick of hearing about protein. I’m like, protein does matter. If you’re going to follow a macro, follow protein for sure, because it is life changing for most people. I have always been an advocate of real food. My oldest articles on experience life are about eating real food, getting people back. There was this period of time, I will say since the pandemic, that I feel like we went way more processed again, but it’s like clean process. So we’re confused again.

 

Jamie Martin

Like what does that really mean? That feels like there’s some paradox there.

 

Anika Christ (37:50)

There is a lot. And again, I’ve been guilty of it too. Sometimes we are creatures of habits. Sometimes you just steer off track. But I would tell people, look at your day, how much of it is in a package? Even if it’s a protein bar. Again, I sell protein shakes for a living. That is still a processed food in my, but to me, that’s a healthy one as well. But I always think of like, what is in a bag? What is in a box? Can you get fresh produce in your day? Can you get raw or cooked veggies, like really looking for those again. I think the closer you can get to real eating, the more powerful it is for a lot of people.

 

And again, if real eating makes you feel worse, you need to come see me and I’m gonna assess your gut health, your metabolism. There’s reasons why that happens. But naturally, if we’re all in homeostasis, we should be able to eat real meats, eggs, fruits, veggies, fiber and feel great. So if that’s not happening, you’ve got to, need to come talk to me or I’ll help you there. But I do think we need a little bit of the swing back the other direction there, I would say.

 

Jamie Martin

I’m with you. Okay. Did we miss anything? I mean, we’ve talked about a lot. We covered a lot of ground with nutrition. Anything else you want to add? Otherwise, I’m going to do the mic drop moment today and I am not good at this.

 

Anika Christ

We’ll do it together. I would just say, if you’re, if, again, if you’re listening and you’re like, watch, I didn’t even know we had that, like, go in that Life Time app. So under Dynamic Personal Training, we have nutrition coaching within that too. have a nutrition tile in our app. We have coaches at every club. So if you’re like, you know what, like, I do want to just talk to somebody that consultation is available so that they can talk with you, assess you, figure out what’s the right plan for you. What’s the right budget as well.

 

So if people are wondering like, how do I actually get started? You can go through our app and book a complimentary consult with a nutrition coach. If you know the Dynamic Personal Training team at your Life Time, that person would sit on that team. Happy to just go talk to somebody on the floor too, to say, how do I get connected? There’s also assessments you can just jump into. So we have the Resting Metabolic Assessment, which assesses your resting calorie expenditure.

 

We didn’t get into that. That’s a whole other discussion, but most of you that go through that is eye-opening because they’re either under eating or nowhere near kind of where they’re supposed to be. But that at least gets you the ball moving in the direction to know more about yourself. And if that information could lead you to either, that enough for me to stay accountable and have enough information, or do I want a coach to kind of help me lead towards a plan for that too?

 

Jamie Martin

I’m just so excited. I mean, you’ve mentioned that the Resting Metabolic Assessment, the Active Metabolic Assessment, just how all of those pieces are part of this too. Like there some of those assessments you can do. I’m so excited. Like they’re kind of being a coming up bigger thing again at Life Time. So it’s great.

 

Anika Christ

I love data. I love science.

 

Jamie Martin

I know you do. I know. That’s why we love having you on because you’ve got it all. You’ve got it all right there. All right. So, you know, we’ve been talking a lot about, you know, nutrition coaching, obviously, but also we taught, you mentioned pleasure in food. So my mic drop moment for you today is what is one of your guilty pleasures when it comes to food? And it doesn’t even, it’s just, maybe it’s just a pleasure. Let’s get rid of the word guilty because like we don’t need that in the mind, right? Like what’s a food pleasure that you’re like, oh, this just makes me happy. I feel good. I enjoy it.

 

Anika Christ

Yeah, I’m like one of those nerds. I love to bake. That is a thing for me. I also have it. I am such a snood about like cookies and stuff like that. Like I won’t eat it out of a box. I think I can make it better. Like that’s my indulgence, I would say. But there’s something about I really do believe in you can put love in food when you’re like baking and happy and excited. I do think there’s a little woo woo there. But I do think it’s a thing. So like a brownie or a cookie.

 

But it has to be made at my house. Like I’m not buying it out of a box because I’m like, that’s not real. That’s not as good. It’s so much better with real butter, real food. If I’m like, I would say what my friends would say if they’re like, she thinks she’s healthy, she like chips and queso. That’s like my love language. I can’t eat it all the time because I can’t have dairy all the time, but like chips and queso, I could go down eating. That would be my thing. So. That’s also in there.

 

Jamie Martin

Yep. It’s not a guilty pleasure anymore, people. This is just something like, let’s take the joy in our food. It’s also, I mean, there’s that kind of piece about moderation, right? If you’re not doing it all the time, there’s a place for it. All right, Anika. Well, we always love having you on. I just want to remind our listeners that you can book a session with a Dynamic Nutrition coach in the Life Time app. Anika mentioned that.

 

And you can always hear more from Anika. She’s at Coach Anika on Instagram. She has tons of articles and podcasts at Experience Life that you can check out. And she’s going to be back on again. We’re going to be recording some more episode not too long from now. So you’ll be hearing more from her here too. So thanks Anika. All right, come back soon.

 

Anika Christ

Thanks for having me.