Back in October, I began the first of five modules of my Future Fit Advanced Nutrition and Weight Management online course. After running the Chicago Marathon, I had a few days with my feet up recovering so I started chipping away at it.
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| Studying in my office with help from my personal assistant |
I started off with the longest module, Nutrition and Weight Management. I figured it would give me a good review of nutrition topics I had covered in my personal training course with more detail. There were 16 lessons all together in this module, each of which took 20-30 minutes to complete. For this course, I had to be online to play each lesson, which features an audio track of the text. There are knowledge checks periodically within the lesson to see if you retained key bits of information or to see if you have prior knowledge about the next topic. The information delivered so far is simply put and broken down into little chunks that were easy to digest. If I didn’t finish a lesson, it would save my place and offer me an option to resume where I had finished or to start at the beginning of the module. Before passing each lesson, you must complete a five question quiz and score 100%. You can repeat the test immediately of you missed one or two questions but if you take too long to pass, you will have to log out and back in to restart.
Each lesson also has a resource folder which includes a transcript, relevant forms, and sometimes a glossary. Any time I had a question, I could either email my tutor or submit a question through the website. Most of my questions were around the technology side of things, rather than the course material, because computers are not my forte. The Future Fit Training team were always quick to respond and very helpful.
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| No joke, this cookie is as big as my head. And when I get stressed, I eat the whole thing. |
Part of the course is a case study working with a client to help them learn more about their food habits and emotional links to eating. It was actually hard to find a volunteer that was willing to work with me for eight weeks. Through Twitter, I found two competitive male cyclists who wanted to drop some weight to improve their cycling performance. One of them was travelling a lot of work and was unable to check in with me on a regular basis. I am happy to say the other client was able to check in regularly and found the accountability very helpful. He tracked his food three to four days a week for me and started choosing fruits and vegetables over convenient processed foods. He didn’t loose any weight but he was sleeping better and feeling more energized during the day.
My tips for online study success? Give yourself deadlines to complete each lesson or modules by writing them in your diary. Think of them as exam dates that you cannot change. Set aside studying time in your diary each week too. I prefer to have the same slot every week (although that hasn’t be possible with marathon training the last two months) and keep plugging along but your schedule might be better to spend one day every other week. Set up a place to study that is free from distractions- no TV, no music, no kids (or dogs) interrupting you. You are taking this course to improve your health and knowledge, as well as to help your clients. Make it a priority. Have a notepad to take notes or print out the resource info to annotate as you go along.
Most of all, enjoy it! All of the information will help you fuel your body properly, feel energized and maintain a healthy weight that is appropriate for you. As they say, “health is wealth”.
Thanks to Future Fit Training for their support of furthering my nutritional education. All opinions are honest and my own.
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