How I Work With Clients: The LEAD System and Moderation365.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s actually like to work with me, this post walks you through exactly how I coach.

I’m Megan, a Certified Health Coach, Personal Trainer and Moderation365 Nutrition Consultant based in Squamish, BC. I work with busy, high-achieving women 35 and over who want to build muscle and shed body fat without restrictive dieting or endless cardio. Before coaching, I spent years in corporate sales in the luxury hotel industry, so I know what it’s like to fit your health in around a full schedule.

When you work with me, you’re not getting some nebulous coaching. You’re getting a proven system. Actually, two of them: my Signature LEAD System for training and fueling and Moderation365 for food mindset. I’ve taken women through them in person at Mountain Fitness Centre and online, and many of them have stayed with me for years.

There’s a line from James Clear that sums up how I coach: “We do not rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our systems.”

Your goal doesn’t save you on a hard day. Your system does.

WHY A SYSTEM, NOT JUST A WORKOUT PLAN

You can show up to the gym. You can work hard. But unless you’re following a system, it can all be for naught.

Here’s why. Training in the gym is a catabolic activity. You’re breaking down muscle. The building happens in the other 23 hours of the day, through rest and through fuelling yourself properly. If you’re training hard but not eating enough protein, not recovering and not moving enough outside the gym, you’re missing most of the equation.

That’s why I don’t just hand my clients a training program. I take them through the playbook of exactly what has worked for me as a busy, working mom, and every piece of it works together.

THE LEAD SYSTEM: BUILD IT. SUSTAIN IT.

The LEAD System is how you build muscle and shed fat without endless cardio or restrictive dieting, and then maintain and sustain a strong, lean, athletic body for life. Here are the 4 pillars:

L: Lift Heavy

Strength train at least 3 days a week for 45 to 60 minutes. We use progressive overload, which means keep increasing the challenge over time through variables like weight, reps, sets, tempo, exercise selection. We train to failure or close to it, using reps in reserve (how many reps you have left in the tank, usually 1 to 2) and rate of perceived exertion, or RPE (how hard a set feels on a scale of 1 to 10). This is what builds the strong, sculpted look.

E: Eat Sufficient Protein

Aim for 30 to 50g of protein per meal, and about 1g per pound of your ideal body weight. This is the fuel that rebuilds the muscle you broke down in the gym. Breakfast and lunch are the easiest places to get it done. Think 2 minutes and 50g of protein, I’ll teach you how!

A: Adequate Hydration

2 to 4L of water a day. It’s simple, and most of us are not doing it. Plenty of people end up eating when what their body really wants is water.

And let’s talk about booze. I’m not going to tell anyone not to drink. But as someone who doesn’t drink myself, I help clients on that journey if they’re looking to feel their best, so they’re not robbing from the fresh day the night before. If you want to go alcohol free like me, I’ve got swaps for that too (including emotional fitness i.e managing your emotional state without outside substances).

D: Do Enjoyable Cardio

10,000 to 15,000 steps a day (leisure walks absolutely count!) plus 1 to 2 days a week of getting your heart rate up with a run, sprint, hike or bike etc. That daily walking is NEAT, non-exercise activity thermogenesis, and it’s a bigger part of the equation than most people realize. Cardio you enjoy is cardio you’ll keep doing.

No pillar works on its own. Together they take the guesswork out of it, so you’re not relying on motivation that comes and goes.

I use these same pillars myself, not just to change my body but to maintain it. That’s the difference between a diet you can’t wait to finish and a system that lasts.

MODERATION365: THE MMAD NUTRITION MODEL

Sometimes it’s not what you’re eating, it’s what’s eating you.

If you consider yourself an all or none thinker, you know both ends of the deprivation and indulgence scale well.

On one side is deprivation: “I have to be perfect or else.” On the other side is overconsumption: “Ate shit, might as well go all out.”

They look like opposites, but they’re two sides of the same coin. Both are extremes, and you bounce between them. Moderation lives in the middle.

That’s what I teach inside Moderation365, through the MMAD Nutrition Model. It was developed by my coach and mentor Jill Coleman, who has a master’s in nutrition, was a bodybuilder, and coached bodybuilders. When she was done competing, she was sick and tired of counting everything, weighing everything and being obsessed with food. She wanted to find a way to navigate the middle and find peace with food. Hence Moderation365 was born.

Here’s how the model breaks down:

M: Moderation

Preemptive feeds: eating something satisfying before you’re starving so you don’t get hangry and eat half a bag of chips while making dinner, or heading into a situation where food will be everywhere, 

Satisfaction factor: increasing the satisfaction of your meals so that you never feel so deprived that you go overboard later. 

Richness-volume scale: balancing rich, indulgent foods with higher volume foods so you feel full and satisfied.

M: Mindfulness

Intermittent sampling: Pour yourself a reasonable portion (what you’d give to a friend), of whatever the thing that you want is i.e chips, pretzel crisps, chocolate covered almonds, and enjoying it mindfully. If you want more, no problem, but you have to go and do something for 20 minutes first. It’s not about what you’re eating, but how you’re eating it. We are avoiding brain shut down mode here. 

80% fullness: stopping when you’re satisfied, not stuffed.

Exposure therapy: regularly including foods you used to feel out of control around, so they lose their power over you.

A: Abundance Mindset

Situational eating: learning to tell the difference between eating because you’re hungry and eating because of the situation, like a party, a trip or a plate of snacks in front of you.

Food FOMO: that “I’ll never get to have this again” feeling. When you know you can have it again, the pressure disappears.

D: Daily Nutritional Commitments (my personal favourite)

The 3 E’s: Effortless, Enjoyable, Effective. Every commitment gets judged by those three. If it’s not all three, it won’t last, so we adjust it. These are foods or food behaviours that keep you on track. They keep hunger low, cravings low, energy high and balanced, and they account for 80% of what matters in your food decisions. They help with discernment. If everything is important, then nothing is important. They are the big rocks. ie. daily protein shake, big ass salad (BASS), 7-8 hours of sleep (because otherwise grhelin is high and leptin is low).

Here’s the part I really want you to hear. That which doesn’t satisfy will never be enough.

A lot of the time it’s not food we’re actually looking for. We’re looking to numb out, to reward ourselves, to relax, to escape. And what we really need is rest, relaxation and human connection. No amount of food can fill that black hole. This is an identity problem of the human doing.

So when you reach for something, pause and ask yourself: what do I actually need right now?

You can’t use food to solve an emotional problem. You must get clinical, curious and compassionate about your patterns, so you can get to the root of emotional eating and stop it from controlling your life. Shame and judgment just keep us stuck.

MOD365 is not for everyone, but it’s a life raft for those who struggle with all or none thinking around food.

WHAT WORKING TOGETHER ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE

I work with clients in two ways.

In person: If you’re local to Squamish, we train together at Mountain Fitness Centre. I coach your technique, push you appropriately and make sure you’re lifting with confidence. Many of my in-person clients have trained with me for years.

Online: If you’re not local, or you prefer to train on your own schedule, my online coaching is a six-week program inside my coaching app. You get video demos for every exercise so you always know what you’re doing, plus biweekly coaching calls for support, questions and accountability. 

Prefer to go at your own pace? Both systems are available as DIY video courses, each less than an hour long, so you can start implementing right away. The LEAD System course gives you lifetime access, and Moderation365 pairs perfectly with it if you want the training and nutrition pieces working together. You can also get both bundled in the 6-Week Physique Accelerator.

WHO THIS IS FOR

This approach is a great fit if:

You are a high achieving women 35-55, who wants to build muscle and lose body fat.

You’re already training consistently, but not seeing results commensurate with the effort you’re putting in. 

You are stuck bouncing between “perfect” and “might as well go all out”

You are done with extreme diets and huffy, puffy, sweaty, betty HIIT classes

You want a plan that works around a busy life, career and family, without giving up your favourite foods.

You want a proven system and real coaching, not just another workout template.

READY TO GET STARTED?

If this sounds like what you’ve been looking for, I’d love to chat. Click HERE to learn more about working together, or explore my DIY courses.

Not sure which of the 4 LEAD pillars is your weakest right now? Send me a message and I’ll give you one simple tip.

Megan

Get Fit With Megan | getfitwithmegan.com | Squamish, BC