Not everyone interested in getting healthier always feels comfortable reaching out for help from a professional. It can be daunting to ask for help from a stranger, let alone one who does not seem to have much in common with you. It can be just as daunting to sift through hordes of articles on the internet without knowing which ones to trust. These realities escape many health and wellness companies trying to sell health fixes to the masses. However, this was not the focus of Herbalife Nutrition when they began to endorse Nutrition Clubs back in the early 2000s.

Herbalife Nutrition has always understood that its customers have unique needs and individual health goals which cannot be met with a one-size-fits-all approach. This knowledge has shaped the way they create and market their products. It also helped them reshape how they distributed their products, allowing Nutrition Clubs to hand out individual product samples to better meet customer needs. However, it has also wholly informed the approach to Herbalife Nutrition’s coaching program, helping coaches become better informed and more available to their customers.

What Is The Goal Of Nutrition Clubs?

Nutrition clubs are a lot more popular than one might think. If you have a Starbucks location near you, it’s just as likely you have a Herbalife Nutrition Club nearby. There are more Nutrition Clubs worldwide than there are branches of the famous coffee shop, all being headed up by ambitious Independent Distributors. Being as the first nutrition club only started in the early 2000s and wasn’t even a company-wide institution when it started, it’s amazing how popular they’ve become.

Nutrition Clubs were the brainchild of two independent distributors from Mexico who addressed the problems of cost and convenience for many of their customers. While many customers do not have a hard time paying for full-size canisters of Herbalife products, it isn’t always in the budget, and they don’t always have the time to prepare them. Finding that they had a hard time selling the full-size packages of Herbalife Nutritional Shakes in their area due to their pricing, the independent distributors addressed the root of the problem. It wasn’t that community members didn’t want to get healthy – it was that they had budgets to stick to, and nutritional supplements didn’t always fit into their budgets or schedules.

However, the original Herbalife Nutrition Club founders understood that many potential customers lived in food deserts or areas without reliable access to healthy food and groceries. So, helping people in their regions gain adequate nutrition was a huge motivator. The two independent distributors started a club that allowed people to sign up for a membership that allowed them access to single-servings of healthy shakes and Herbalife Nutrition products, and Nutrition Clubs grew from there.

Nutrition Clubs have morphed into so much more than just a place to drink shakes since their foundation. Members of Herbalife Nutrition Clubs have access to both products and health and wellness activities, including group workouts and health challenges. Most importantly, Herbalife Nutrition Clubs have become a place where anyone at any stage of their health and wellness journey can meet up, gain friendships and mentorships, and work together on nutritional goals. Fortunately, they still have access to a wealth of knowledge in the form of their Herbalife Independent Distributor and scientifically backed nutritional information. 

What Is The Role Of A Herbalife Independent Distributor?

Herbalife Independent Distributors are not just salespeople, nor are they simply Nutrition Club facilitators and organizers. Herbalife Nutrition has always asked Independent Distributors to step up to a role as coaches, helping their mutual customers learn about nutrition and meet health goals together. This fits in with Herbalife’s overall goal of ending worldwide hunger and nutrition issues. When Independent Distributors sign up for this role, Herbalife Nutrition provides them with what they need to educate and inform customers about health goals.

Some of the topics Independent Distributors continually learn about and get trained by the company include:

• How to train & eat for optimal sports performance
• What a nutritionally balanced diet looks like
• What behavioral changes need to happen for long-term weight loss
• How their body can benefit from personal dietary changes

Uniquely, Independent Distributors also form one-on-one relationships with their customers, which blossoms at places like Nutrition Clubs. Developing a personal relationship with their members helps them make better personal plans for their customers, steering them toward customized health goals rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach.

How Does Herbalife Back Its Commitments To Quality Education?

Nutrition club talking points aren’t just on-the-fly, random topics created by Independent Distributors. They’re carefully curated topics hand-selected by in-house nutrition and exercise experts. Herbalife encourages its independent distributors to create meetings based on their wealth of training and educational material created by experts in their field. 

Herbalife Nutrition employs doctors, nutritionists, dieticians, and professional trainers, among others, to create scientifically sound informational material for Nutrition Club discussions and Herbalife Nutrition customer goals. Their content serves as resources for Independent Distributors and Coaches to discuss sports nutrition, fitness, health and wellness, and healthy eating with their customers. This, in turn, allows Herbalife Nutrition Customers to make more informed decisions about their health when they leave their Nutrition Clubs at the end of the day.

Some common topics Nutrition Club members and Independent Distributors might read about include:

• Carbohydrate information, including healthy consumption of carbohydrates and when is best to consume them
• Fiber information, including its role in a healthy diet and what food sources contain fiber
• Hydration information, including how to properly hydrate and how to consume water for daily maximum hydration levels
• Information about fats, including the differences between healthy fats and unhealthy fats and when it might be beneficial to consume fats
• Protein information, including what protein is good for (and what it isn’t suitable for)
• Why dietary supplements help achieve health goals and common misconceptions about dietary supplements

The company has received multiple awards for its efforts to educate its customers and coaches alike. This includes three Brandon Hall Group awards, including Best Advance in Coaching & Mentoring, Best Use of a Blended Learning Program, and Best Advance in Creating an Extended Enterprise Learning Program. 

The latter award was won after the creation and institution of a mobile-first learning/training program. This application not only supplies training materials for Herbalife Independent Distributors, but it also allows Herbalife coaches access to accurate nutritional and health information whenever they need it. This is done through their mobile app, accessible to all Herbalife Nutrition coaches and Independent Distributors.

What Does A Nutrition Club Look Like?

Nutrition Clubs are highly successful in the fact that many members are engaged in the club and inspired to make lifestyle changes. Distributors and club members alike share testimonials and before and after stories to help newcomers stay motivated. In return for ongoing, scientifically sound training, Herbalife Coaches put their all into creating the experience for Nutrition Club members. They’re encouraged to create short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals for their clubs and engage members in meeting those goals.

To do so, they make club meetings about the personal successes of their members and the group’s overall successes. Members are encouraged to stick to and achieve their goals, and the more goals members meet, the more rewards they get. They’re consistently encouraged to talk about their health struggles and successes amongst one another, creating a sense of community. Essentially, clubs are a place to learn and get support from other people on health journeys themselves.

A typical Nutrition Club operates in a comfortable, welcoming setting. Sometimes, they are held at coaches’ houses. Other times they are held within the community at places of business. When members arrive at a Nutrition Club, they can consume the drink of their choice. Popular options include Herbal Aloe, Instant Herbal Teas, or the best-selling Formula 1 shake, which comes in many flavors. Club members can chat with other members about their goals and their coaches about their successes and failures. Although each club is different, many Nutrition Clubs may offer weekly classes, lectures, or activities for members.

What Other Ways Can Herbalife Nutrition Clubs Help Uphold Health Goals?

Nutrition Clubs are not just about consuming Herbalife products, losing weight, or forming good exercise habits. They even go beyond meeting basic health goals. The fundamental goal for Herbalife Nutrition Clubs is to create a strong sense of community that can help its members meet and surpass their health goals because of the strong support network.

One of the most prevalent issues that those with health goals face is their own limitations. It can be hard to meet health goals without outside encouragement and help establish healthy habits. However, science backs the idea that having a group of people you can turn to for encouragement to pursue health goals can lead to long-term success. It’s easy to see how when Herbalife Nutrition Club members have access to a health-oriented community, a personal coach, nutritional supplements, and proper education, they can better meet their goals.

But one thing that’s often overlooked in terms of health goals is mental health and feeling part of a community goes a long way toward maintaining personal mental health. If the past two years have taught us anything, it should be this – it’s hard to thrive without contact with others.

Human contact, personal relationships, and support build the framework for good mental health. Since mental health is integral to personal well-being and health goals, it would only make sense to be a necessary part of Herbalife Nutrition clubs and the greater goals of the organization.