EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!
Hey friends! I am so excited to share that I just passed the exam to become an ACE Certified Personal Trainer! What does this mean? I will now be adding personal training services along with the group fitness classes I already offer. I am working to develop these packages, and would be interested to hear any specific requests of what people might be interested in. For example, do you prefer to have a plan you can just follow on your own time, or prefer virtual training sessions where I watch your workout and can provide real time feedback? For locals, do you want in person training? I know it is still a bit scary to do in person things here in New Jersey! Please drop me a comment, whether here or on social media to let me know your thoughts!
I also wanted to speak about my decision to pursue a personal training certification. To be very honest, it was hard for me to dive into this certification. As a woman in a larger body, I struggled with self doubt: who would want to hire a personal trainer who looks like I do? Among personal trainers, people often say that your body is your business card. This is pretty cringe-worthy, but we can dive deeper into that another day. I also struggled with the idea that I was starting over in a new career path despite being at the pinnacle of credentials in my current field in mental health. It felt a bit silly. Like, why start over when I already worked so hard to come so far?
Despite struggling with all that self doubt, I signed up for the ACE CPT course. It took me about nine months to work through. Prior to this, I didn't have a very strong background in anatomy, so that took me a while to learn. If anyone reading this is looking for tips on how to learn anatomy, I can recommend a few great YouTube channels that helped me a lot!
How and why did I overcome all those doubts and dive into this certification? To be honest, I didn't overcome them per se; I just did it anyway. I have been passionate about fitness for a lot of years, and I am passionate about creating fitness spaces focused on inclusion, diversity, and with an emphasis on body positivity. To me, body positive fitness spaces don't focus on weight loss, and instead focus on moving your body in ways that feel challenging, but good and functional for your body. My longer term goal is to be able to offer intuitive eating coaching together with workout plans and training. By connecting to my values and what is important to me, I was able to "feel the fear and do it anyway."
If you're struggling with making a change, or filled with self doubt, I encourage you to connect back to your values: why are you even doing this? Once you've connected to your values, it becomes easier to do the important thing and just bring the nagging voice along for the ride. That voice might still pipe up from time to time, but once it knows you're not listening to it, it tends to quiet down quite a bit.
Thank you for following along on this journey with me! I am grateful to be a part of your journey, too. <3