Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Steve Pavlina has a great entry about mentoring. When you are trying to change your life drastically, it helps to have someone who has been there before to answer your questions personally. I’m not talking about websites like mine; I’m talking about a real live person who you can talk to face to face (or cry on their shoulder, as the case may be).

• Steve Pavlina’s Personal Development Blog – Mentoring

He doesn’t have too many ideas on how to find a mentor and it’s even harder when you’re looking for someone who has lost a lot of weight. Most of us don’t want to announce to the world our past. Those before pictures don’t even feel like they are part of us anymore because we had to change so much to get where we are today.

Here are some ideas on how to find a mentor:

• Weight Watchers – This is the method I have used. I have a Weight Watchers Leader that I adore. When I am having trouble, I talk to her before or after class. I really feel like I’m paying for her time, not for the weighing or the program.

• Personal Trainers – This is another option to pay for mentoring. A good trainer will be certified and able to help you past exercise roadblocks.

• Nutritionists – If you need someone to analyze your eating habits and give you an idea of how to optimize your diet, these folks have been highly trained.

All of these people work for a living, so they are unlikely to mentor for free or in exchange for your skills (like Steve suggested). Additionally, I personally have a hard time trusting personal trainers and nutritionists because I assume that they are tiny little things that have eaten healthy all their lives. They’ve never eaten a whole box of almost stale Twinkies from the Day-Old Bread Store.

The final option for finding a mentor is more risky. It’s risky emotionally and it’s risky to your health, but it also has the option for the greatest payoff. For some people, just mentioning this idea makes them cringe and shake their heads and move on to the next entry. That’s ok. This idea isn’t for everyone, but it has the chance of working better than paying someone to help you would.

• Talk to Strangers – When you are in the health food store (or the gym or the park or the regular grocery store or work or anywhere) and you see a person who looks like you want to look, you go up to them and talk to them. Ask them questions. Pick their brains. Ask them if you can have their phone number so that you can ask them more questions.

The kind of people that want to be left alone will look at you like you’re insane. That’s ok. They probably wouldn’t make a very good mentors. The kind of people that might make a good mentors will answer your questions and let you have their phone numbers. Eventually you’ll find someone who is willing to give you good advice. Maybe there is something you can offer them in return.

The risk is that they’ll give you bad advice. They might suggest something that worked for them, but isn’t healthy for you (or anyone, for that matter). They might work you too hard at the gym. You might not even like them. That’s the danger that you have to watch out for, but the benefits far outweigh the risks.

I’ve found mentoring to be extremely helpful to me, but I have to pay for it. I gladly pay the seven bucks a week for the mentoring that I receive, but I realize that Weight Watchers isn’t for everyone. Here is another option that may work for you and help provide support for you.