These Plans Don’t Work
Recently, I received an email with the subject line: We killed our best-selling product. It’s an email for runners. I’ve been on this list for quite some time because I get training tips and exercises that will help my running. In this email, they shared the following:
We stopped selling our most popular training plans.
Not because they weren’t selling. They were our top revenue driver.
We stopped because we tracked the results, and the results were bad.
We surveyed our email list to examine what type of training plan runners were using and what happened on race day. We measured percentage improvement, injury rate, goal achievement, and adherence.
The data was clear: basic, non-customized plans had a success rate under 45%.
Basic, non-customized plans don’t work. They don’t work to get you running results, and they don’t work when it comes to weight loss. That’s why diets don’t work. That’s why women try and fail and try and fail again. But here’s the thing about the diet industry — they won’t do these studies. They aren’t that invested in the women who are spending their money. They just happily keep taking in the money and pick out random success stories (or make them up if they can’t find them) and keep going. They’ll let you sign up and start over as many times as you’d like to.
The founder of this community went on to write, “We could keep selling plans that fail more than half the time because they bring in revenue. Or we could pull them off the shelf and accept the hit.” They pulled them and started developing customized training plans. What they found is that 74% of those on a custom plan reached their goals or set a personal record.
There is no one-size fits all approach to health and wellness whether you want to lose weight, get stronger, hit a pace goal, etc. You must take an individualized approach.
When I coach women, I use my Faith and Fitness Framework. There are four parts: Faith, Food, Exercise, Water. Faith is the foundation. Think of it like you’re building a house. You must set a firm foundation first, then you start building up walls, adding windows, and eventually put a roof on it. Everyone starts by building the foundation. I’m clear on what that needs to be. Then each woman gets to decide what her walls are. What’s the part she’ll work on next? And how will she work on them? Nobody wants a house that looks exactly like their neighbor’s house. The siding might be a different shade or the brick size might be different. And so on with the windows and the roof.
It’s only when each woman takes an individualized approach to her own health and wellness that she learns how to live happily in that life she’s building. The firm foundation of faith has given her the ability to build that healthy life that is sustainable and therefore allows her to embrace her age and stage of life.
How’s your house coming along? If you need some help, let me know. No one ever built a house on their own, and you don’t have to either.
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