[00:00:00] Emily Field: Welcome back to the Macros Made Easy podcast. This is episode 54, and today's conversation might surprise you, especially coming from a coach because I'm here to say something you don't often hear in the coaching world. Not everyone needs a coach. Yep. Really. And that might include you. Maybe you've been on this nutrition journey for a while, you've read the blogs, listened to the podcast, downloaded the apps, you picked up some tips here and there.

[00:00:26] Emily Field: Maybe you've even seen some success doing it on your own. You're smart, you're capable, you're committed. So when someone suggests hiring a coach, your gut reaction might be, I should just be able to do this on my own. Or if I just had a little bit more time, more discipline, fewer distractions, I could figure this out.

[00:00:43] Emily Field: And honestly, you're not wrong. You have figured out a lot, you've done hard things. You've built momentum. But here's what I want to gently offer. Just because you can do it on your own doesn't always mean it's the best or fastest way, and it definitely doesn't mean you have to asking for support, especially when you're used to being the one who holds it all together, can feel really vulnerable.

[00:01:06] Emily Field: It can make you feel like you're admitting defeat like you're not. Disciplined enough, smart enough, or committed enough to do it solo. But what if asking for help wasn't a sign of failure? What if it was actually a sign of growth? In this episode, I'm breaking down how to tell if coaching is actually the right next step for you, or if you're better off staying on the DIY path for now.

[00:01:27] Emily Field: We're gonna walk through the most common objections I hear from people who are almost ready, but still holding back. And for each one, I'll offer a new perspective, a client example, and a reflection question to help figure out what's really holding you back. By the end of this episode, you'll have more clarity on whether coaching fits into your next season or whether your next step is something else entirely.

[00:01:48] Emily Field: So let's get into it. Welcome to Macros Made Easy, the podcast that takes the confusion out of tracking macros. I'm your host, Emily Field, a registered dietician that specializes in a macros approach. In each episode, I help you learn how to eat in a way that supports your health, body composition, and athletic performance goals.

[00:02:05] Emily Field: We'll cover the basics of macronutrients, how to track for various goals, the role of macros in your health, and how to make sustainable changes to your habits. I've helped hundreds of people experience more food freedom and flexibility while navigating their nutrition. So whether you've tried macros and it just didn't stick, or you just heard the word macros yesterday, I can't wait to help you too.

[00:02:26] Emily Field: Let's start with this. Coaching isn't for everyone, and that's okay. It's not a magic solution. It's not a shortcut, and it's definitely not about someone doing the work for you. Coaching is a tool, a framework, a relationship designed to help you build the skills you need with guidance, structure, and support so that you can confidently move towards your goals.

[00:02:48] Emily Field: The truth is coaching only works when you're ready to be an active participant. When you're curious, when you're willing to be stretched and supported, when you're ready to trade the all or nothing thinking and the self-criticism for collaboration and progress, if you're just hoping that hiring a coach will fix everything for you, that's not coaching, that's outsourcing responsibility, and that's not what we're here to do.

[00:03:10] Emily Field: Before we dig into the objections, I wanna clear something up because not all coaching is created equal. Maybe you've had a bad experience, maybe you've worked with someone who handed you a cookie cutter meal plan, pushed expensive supplements, or made you feel like a failure when life got messy. That's not coaching, that's control.

[00:03:28] Emily Field: Coaching with me looks different. It's a conversation, not a command. It's about progress, not perfection. I'll help you clarify what you want, give you the tools to get there and walk beside you while you learn to navigate the real life stuff, the travel, the kids, the stress, the shifting schedules, things like that.

[00:03:45] Emily Field: I will challenge you, but I will never shame you. I'll give you structure, but I'll never take away your autonomy, and I'll always remind you, you don't need to be perfect to make progress. So now that we've grounded in what coaching really is, let's look at the most common reasons people tell me they're not ready, and get curious about what's really behind those hesitations.

[00:04:07] Emily Field: I need a perfect 16 weeks with no interruptions. It kind of sounds like this. I just have a lot going on right now. Maybe once things calm down, we're going on vacation in a few weeks and I don't wanna waste the coaching time. I wanna wait until after my kid's season is over and I can really focus. I know I won't be able to give a hundred percent right now, and I don't wanna fail.

[00:04:30] Emily Field: At the root of this objection is a fear of imperfection. It's an all or nothing mindset. It's thinking. Success requires ideal conditions. The reframe here is that if you're waiting for the stars to align, no travel, no holidays, no work stress, no social obligations, you might be waiting forever. Life doesn't pause for your goals, and honestly, it shouldn't because the most powerful coaching happens in the messy middle.

[00:04:56] Emily Field: It's not about getting it perfect, it's about building the skills to navigate real life travel, busy seasons, sick kids, chaotic weekends, and still make progress. That's what actually sets you up for long-term progress. One of my clients is a mom with a daughter in competitive cheer. That means weekends packed with travel, unpredictable schedules, often no fridge, and very little control over the food.

[00:05:20] Emily Field: And guess what? She still made progress in our coaching time together. So here's what she did. During the week, she tracked pretty diligently and stuck to her macro targets on cheer weekends. She let go of perfection and shifted to a more flexible approach, tracking just protein, and letting carbs and fats be more intuitive.

[00:05:38] Emily Field: She packed high protein snacks that didn't need refrigeration, so protein powder jerky, tuna packets. Protein bars, things like that. She didn't beat herself up when things weren't perfect and she didn't throw the whole weekend away either. Her consistency came from showing up over time, not nailing it every single day.

[00:05:56] Emily Field: Her good days far outnumbered her off days, and that added up to real noticeable progress. So I want you to reflect here. Ask yourself this question. Do I want to wait for the perfect moment or learn how to handle real life right now? Because the truth is, if you only know how to eat well and care for yourself when conditions are perfect, you'll be starting over every time life gets bumpy.

[00:06:22] Emily Field: Coaching teaches you how to keep going even when things aren't ideal. Another one I hear fairly often is I've never tracked macro successfully. It feels like too much work. And so what my clients might say is, you know, I've tried MyFitnessPal before and I gave up in like three days. Tracking just seems so tedious.

[00:06:41] Emily Field: I don't have the bandwidth. I'm not a numbers person. I don't wanna obsess over everything I eat. I don't think I could be consistent enough for it to work. And at the root here is a fear of failure, overwhelm, maybe some limiting beliefs around the ability to learn a new skill. And you know, macro tracking gets a reputation for being rigid and over complicated.

[00:07:02] Emily Field: But the truth is, it can be flexible and customizable. You don't have to track all three macros every day forever. You start where you are and build from there. So let me tell you about a client I work with. We'll call her Megan. When Megan first reached out, she said, I've downloaded MyFitness pal at least five times.

[00:07:20] Emily Field: I make it three days max before I quit. It just feels like a second job. She had two kids, worked full-time and most nights was throwing together dinner in a rush between soccer practice and bedtime routines. She didn't have the energy to scan every barcode way out her salad or search for every single ingredient she tossed into the stir fry.

[00:07:38] Emily Field: She tried to track everything perfectly because that's what she thought she had to do, and every time she couldn't keep up, she'd quit. Not because she wasn't smart or capable, but because the method didn't fit her life. So we tried something different. Instead of tracking all three macros, I had her start with just protein.

[00:07:55] Emily Field: Instead of every day. We started with three weekdays that she already had some structure and routine. Instead of weighing every bite, she used her hand as a portion size guide. Like a palm sized portion of chicken or two fingers of cheese. And guess what? That was enough. She started hitting her protein goals.

[00:08:14] Emily Field: She had more energy. She stopped snacking mindlessly at night, and more importantly, she began to trust herself again. She had some proof that she could do this and she could be messy and still be successful. And eventually we built from there. But the big shift didn't come from a perfect spreadsheet. It came from realizing she didn't need to be perfect to start.

[00:08:36] Emily Field: She just needed to start with what felt doable. So my reflection question to you might be, am I willing to learn and experiment to play in the sandbox, if you will, or am I hoping for a quick fix? This next objection that I hear from clients goes something like this. I don't wanna be pushed to buy a bunch of supplements.

[00:08:56] Emily Field: You might say something like, I don't wanna spend a fortune on powders or pills. I've done programs with a coach, just tried to sell me their supplement line. Is this one of those things where I have to take shakes and weird stuff to make it work? I want something real and sustainable, not gimmicky. And at the root here is a fear of being taken advantage of distrust from past experiences and really just a desire for simplicity and integrity.

[00:09:22] Emily Field: So if you've been burned by programs that upsell you into $300 worth of supplements, I definitely get the skepticism. But that's not how we do things here where a food first habit based team supplements are supplemental. Nothing more. And this whole thing really reminds me of one of my clients, Jenna.

[00:09:39] Emily Field: She was a client who almost didn't sign up for coaching because she was worried I was gonna send her a shopping list full of powders, pills, and pricey health hacks. I. She had done a program before where every weekly check-in ended with a push to buy another product. First it was the fat burning supplements, then a pre-workout, then branch chain amino acids.

[00:09:58] Emily Field: Then a very expensive collagen protein that conveniently the coach happened to sell. So when Jenna reached out to me, one of the first things she said was, I'm not interested if I have to buy a bunch of stuff, I wanna learn how to eat better with real food. And I totally got it. So we started with food.

[00:10:14] Emily Field: We looked at what she was already eating and focused on increasing her protein through whole foods. She liked like eggs, Greek yogurt, rotisserie chicken deli, Turkey, frozen meals. When she needed, we worked on balancing meals with carbs and fats in a way that actually fit her routine and gave her more energy.

[00:10:31] Emily Field: As we progressed, she mentioned she was having trouble staying asleep and felt foggy in the mornings. That's when I gently suggested she consider magnesium, not because I had an affiliate code, but because her symptoms lined up with a common nutrient gap that's hard to meet through diet alone. That was it.

[00:10:48] Emily Field: No pressure, no bundles, no. You must take this to see results. Just food smart habits and the optional support where it made sense. Jenna messaged me a few weeks later and said, I can't believe how much better I feel just by eating more intentionally. I was so afraid this was gonna be another gimmick.

[00:11:05] Emily Field: It's actually the opposite. So my reflection question to you might be, do I want a flashy solution or am I actually looking for something much more sustainable? I hear this one a lot. The person who says, I really just need you to tell me what to eat. I need a meal plan. And it might sound like, can you just tell me exactly what to eat?

[00:11:27] Emily Field: I do really well when I have a structured plan to follow. I need someone to just lay it out for me like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I've had success with meal plans before. I just need one that actually works long term and at the root here is some discomfort with autonomy. I. You're craving control.

[00:11:44] Emily Field: Maybe you have a deep rooted fear of making the quote wrong. Choices. Meal plans feel safe because they take out the guesswork, but they also take away your ability to make decisions. What happens when the plan runs out or when life doesn't follow the plan? I. This reminds me of Sarah. Sarah was a former client who came to me after years of bouncing between diet programs.

[00:12:05] Emily Field: She was a planner by nature organized type A, the kind of person who just loved checking boxes. So when she joined Elene, the first thing she asked was, can you just tell me exactly what to eat? She'd followed strict meal plans in the past and actually felt like she thrived on them until life happened. A spontaneous lunch at work, a soccer tournament that threw off the whole weekend prep a night where her kid flat out refused to eat the baked chicken and broccoli.

[00:12:32] Emily Field: I. Anytime her plan got derailed, she felt anxious. She'd either white knuckle her way through it with carrot sticks from the gas station, or she'd say, screw it and end up elbow deep in the snack drawer by 9:00 PM The problem wasn't the plan. It was that she had never learned how to adapt. When she started working with me, I didn't hand her a template.

[00:12:53] Emily Field: Instead, I helped her understand why the meals she had followed in the past worked for her goals, her energy, her preferences, and how to build something similar using foods she actually liked. She learned how to scan a restaurant menu and quickly spot a high protein option. She figured out how to make fast macro balance plates with pantry, staples and leftovers.

[00:13:14] Emily Field: And when she traveled for work, she didn't panic. She grabbed a few go-to snacks and made confident choices without second guessing herself. One day she messaged me and said, it's weird. I used to think I needed someone to tell me what to eat, but now I feel like I can make that call myself and it actually feels easier.

[00:13:30] Emily Field: I. So that's the shift that we're after. My reflection question to you might be, do I want a temporary plan or am I really craving lifelong skills? I can figure this out on my own. This is what it sounds like. It sounds like I've been reading about macros. I think I just need to try a little harder. I already know what to do.

[00:13:51] Emily Field: I just need to do it. I'm not sure if I need coaching. I just need to be more disciplined. Let me give it another shot on my own first, and at the root here is some pride in independence, which is great. Maybe some reluctance to invest or maybe some fear around vulnerability. Maybe you can do it on your own, and if things are working great, but if you're still stuck starting over or endlessly googling macro calculators, it might be time to stop spinning your wheels and get some support.

[00:14:21] Emily Field: Let me tell you about Ashley. She was smart, self-motivated, and had been tracking macros off and on for a couple of years. She came to me a little reluctantly, not because she didn't value support, but because deep down she believed she should be able to figure it out on her own. She told me, I read the blogs, I watched the videos.

[00:14:40] Emily Field: I had my macro targets from an online calculator. I just need to be more consistent. But when we started working together, it became clear that consistency wasn't really the issue. Confusion was. She was hitting her numbers but constantly feeling tired. She was working out hard five days a week, but not seeing the strength gains or the body composition changes she wanted.

[00:15:00] Emily Field: She was trying to eat clean and hit her macros, but felt like she was guessing all the time. And anytime life threw a curve ball, travel, social events, stress, she'd fall back into a cycle of starting over on Monday. What she was actually really needed wasn't more discipline. She needed feedback and context, A trusted partner to say, actually, you're undereating for your activity level.

[00:15:22] Emily Field: Here's how to adjust your macros to match your new goals. Let's work on flexibility so you're not white knuckling it every weekend. Within weeks. Ashley wasn't just more consistent, she was more confident. She knew what adjustments to make and why she wasn't Googling every new plateau. She stopped second guessing and started moving forward.

[00:15:41] Emily Field: So my reflection question for you here might be, am I making the progress I want or am I spinning my wheels? I'm afraid to invest in myself right now. Kind of sounds like this. I just can't justify spending that on myself right now. It's a bad time financially. I'll look into it later. I'm already spending on my kids' activities and other things.

[00:16:03] Emily Field: I feel guilty spending money on something just for me. And at the root of this is self-worth. It's prioritizing others over yourself. Maybe some fear of not getting a return on investment, and that's totally valid, but ask yourself, how much is it costing you to not invest in wasted time? Frustration, missed progress.

[00:16:24] Emily Field: Coaching isn't just a financial investment, it's an investment in your future. Confidence and clarity. This is a story about Lisa, a client who almost didn't sign up for coaching. Not because she wasn't interested, but because the thought of spending money on herself felt selfish. She told me, I'm already paying for my kids' sports school stuff.

[00:16:42] Emily Field: Groceries are expensive. I can't justify spending this on me. In that mindset, it wasn't about dollars and cents, it was about self-worth. Lisa was the kind of woman who kept everyone else's calendar meal plan for the whole family, and rarely missed a workout. Yet she was exhausted, frustrated, and constantly second guessing her own nutrition.

[00:17:04] Emily Field: She had tried free macro calculators, read every blog post she could find, and even followed macro influencers online, but nothing seemed to stick. She thought, if I could just be more disciplined, this would work. But deep down, she knew she was spinning her wheels. Eventually she took the leap to join coaching, not because her financial situation changed, but because she realized she couldn't keep pouring from an empty cup.

[00:17:27] Emily Field: I. And almost immediately things started to shift. We simplified her food strategy, cut through the overwhelm, and focused on what actually moved the needle. She didn't just get clarity. She got her energy back. She stopped obsessing over food. She felt in control again. But here's the part she didn't expect that decision to finally invest in herself, it rippled out into everything else.

[00:17:52] Emily Field: She showed up to work with more focus. She had more patience with her kids. She even told me, she started saying no to things that drained her and yes to things that filled her up. We were Lisa's support system and we helped her remove those blind spots and shed light on some of the things that she was doing and allow her an opportunity to change things up in a very meaningful way.

[00:18:16] Emily Field: So my reflection question to you here might be, am I ready to stop putting my health on the back burner? And if I don't stop, what might be the costs? One of the less common objections, because it's rarely said out loud, but it's definitely underneath the surface, is one that goes like this. I'm terrified of gaining weight even temporarily.

[00:18:39] Emily Field: I don't wanna do anything that could make that number go up. If I start eating more, I just know I'll gain, I've worked hard to lose weight. I don't wanna mess that up. So here is the objection around, I'm worried about the scale going up. And at the root here is scale obsession. It's a mistrust of your own body's signals.

[00:19:00] Emily Field: It's a fear of letting go of control. If the number on the scale is the only thing you're watching, you're missing the full picture. Talked about this in several other episodes, I'll make sure to link them in the show notes for you. Coaching can help you focus on what actually matters, though, the things you say you want.

[00:19:17] Emily Field: Strength, energy, consistency, and confidence. This reminds me of a client named Emily. Yes, another Emily. When she joined Eat Lean, she had already been tracking macros on her own. She was eating clean, exercising regularly and deeply committed to her goals. But she told me in our first conversation, I'm happy to eat more, lift heavier, whatever you recommend, as long as the scale doesn't go up.

[00:19:41] Emily Field: It was an honest moment, and while I don't usually hear it outright, I know that this fear lives underneath the surface because it does come up in many different ways. Through our coaching check-ins, Emily had worked really hard to lose weight in the past. She'd counted points done. Juice cleanses tracked every bite in a color coded spreadsheet.

[00:20:03] Emily Field: And even though she wanted to build muscle feel stronger and fuel her body better, she was terrified of undoing all that work. So for the first few weeks of coaching, she was really laser focused on that number. She weighed herself daily, sometimes two or three times a day. She'd message me after a weekend out with friends, panicked over a two pound jump, but she'd also celebrate every dip and question every bump.

[00:20:28] Emily Field: Even though she was seeing more energy, she was lifting more, her clothes were fitting better, and her cravings had really chilled out. Here's what we did differently. We shifted her data focus. We tracked biofeedback, not just body weight. We paid attention to how she felt during her workouts. We measured progress with pictures, strength, milestones, and how her gene zip.

[00:20:50] Emily Field: Not just the number on the scale, and slowly the number started to matter less. She stopped stepping on the scale daily. She started noticing how she felt on Monday after a weekend of balanced eating. She realized her body composition was changing even when her weight wasn't. One day she said, I'm finally starting to believe what you've been telling me all along.

[00:21:11] Emily Field: I care more about what my body can do than it weighs. That's a huge deal for me. That's the moment coaching really clicked, because until you let go of needing the scale to validate your efforts, you'll always be chasing the wrong metric. So my reflection question to you here would be, am I only focused on scale weight or am I open to a bigger picture of health?

[00:21:35] Emily Field: So how do you know if coaching is the right next step? I. If you're craving clarity around what to eat, how much and why, if you're craving structure, something more stable than random, Googling and hoping you're getting it right. If you're craving accountability, someone who sees your patterns and helps you course correct without shame, if you're craving confidence to feel grounded and in control of your nutrition, then coaching could be the catalyst you've been missing.

[00:22:01] Emily Field: But let me be clear, if you're just hoping that coaching will fix everything for you. It won't. Coaching isn't a rescue mission. It's not about someone swooping in and doing the hard work for you. It's about someone walking beside you while you do the work so that you can build habits and skills that actually last.

[00:22:20] Emily Field: You could think about it like a swim lesson. You could read all the articles about how to swim. You could watch YouTube tutorials, follow swimmers on Instagram, maybe even buy goggles in the fancy suit. But at some point you have to get in the water and when you do, it helps to have someone on deck saying, breathe, kick.

[00:22:38] Emily Field: You've got this. That's what coaching can be for a lot of people. It's not that you can't swim, it's not that you're not capable. It's that you'll swim farther faster and with more confidence when you're not doing it alone. And the best part is eventually you won't need that coach beside you every step of the way because you'll know how to move through the water.

[00:22:58] Emily Field: You'll have the technique, the timing, the strength, and the trust in yourself. That's the kind of coaching I believe in. If you've listened to this episode and found yourself nodding along, recognizing your own thoughts, hesitations, or patterns, then you might be closer to ready than you think. And if you're looking for a place to get clarity, structure, accountability, and confidence that I talked about, that's exactly what we offer inside E Lean.

[00:23:21] Emily Field: My signature coaching program built exclusively for women who are ready to stop spinning their wheels and start fueling a strong, lean, energized body. It's not a crash course or a rigid meal plan. It's coaching that meets you right where you are. Whether you're brand new to macros or you've tracked before, but never felt like it really clicked.

[00:23:39] Emily Field: We onboard new clients every other month, and if you're considering coaching in the future, I highly recommend getting on the wait list because the women who are on that list, they're the first to hear when spots open. They get access to early enrollment and exclusive bonuses, oftentimes tacking on a few weeks to their coaching cycle because they have their custom macro calculation and personalized plan in hand early and honestly, they tend to be the ones who show up the most ready to go because they've already made the decision to prioritize themselves.

[00:24:09] Emily Field: So if you're done trying to figure it out all on your own, if you want a coach who won't shame you, sell to you, or expect you to be perfect. If you want to finally learn how to eat to support your goals in real life, I want you to join the Eat to Lean wait list. I. You'll get all the info you need about the next round, and you'll be first in line when it opens up again.

[00:24:29] Emily Field: And hey, if after all this you're thinking, okay, coaching sounds great, but I'm not quite there yet. That's totally okay too. Like I said at the top of the episode, not everyone needs a coach. What you do need is clarity on what stage you're in and what will move you forward so you can get unstuck if you are.

[00:24:46] Emily Field: That's exactly why I created the Macro Mastery Quiz. It's quick, it's insightful, and it will help you figure out which stage of the macro journey you're in so you're not jumping into strategies that don't match your current needs. Are you just getting started and need help building a tracking habit?

[00:25:02] Emily Field: Are you mid journey and struggling with consistency or are you ready to level up and need support with adjustments and sustainability? This quiz will point you to your personalized next step, whether that's a blog post, a podcast episode, or one of my courses or services. Whatever stage you're in there is a next step that fits.

[00:25:20] Emily Field: So find the Macro Mastery quiz in the show notes today. So here's what I hope you're walking away with today. Not everyone needs a coach, and that's not a flaw. It's just a reflection of where you are in your journey. But if you've been stuck in a loop of, I should be able to figure this out, if you've been holding back because you are waiting for the perfect timing or trying to do it all on your own, if you've been second guessing yourself more than you'd like to admit, it might be time to ask, is this really serving me anymore?

[00:25:49] Emily Field: Throughout this episode, we unpack some of the most common objections I hear things like needing perfect conditions, fearing weight gain, feeling hesitant to invest in yourself or thinking you should just try harder. And we reframed each one with compassion and clarity because those aren't just excuses.

[00:26:06] Emily Field: They're real fears, but they don't have to hold you back. So whether you're thinking maybe I am ready for coaching or I'm not there yet, but I still want support, you've got options. If you wanna explore coaching with me inside of Eat to lean, head to the show notes and join the wait list. So you're the first to know when we open spots again, or if you're still figuring out where you stand.

[00:26:25] Emily Field: Take the Macro Mastery Quiz and get clear on your next best step based on where you actually are right now. No pressure, no judgment, just real support. Either way, thanks for being here and thanks for being honest with yourself, and most of all, thanks for staying open to growth. I'll see you next time.

[00:26:42] Emily Field: Thank you so much for listening to the Macros Made Easy podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the one you're listening to right now to share it on your Instagram stories and tag me at Emily Field Rd so that more people can find this podcast and learn how to use a macros approach in a stress-free way.

[00:26:58] Emily Field: If you love the podcast, head over to iTunes and leave me a rating and a review. Remember, you can always find more free health and nutrition content on Instagram and on my website@emilyfieldrd.com. Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you on the next episode.