Ask a Trainer: Your 'heart' earned body

Did you just celebrate the day of chocolate, red velvet cake and heart-shaped candies? The day when we focus on the proverbial heart? That seems like a good segue into talking about how to love your body. After all, you should take care of it, since it is the only place you have to live! So what are some simple things that you can do to show your body how much you love it and that you want to stick around for a long time?

Ask for help: Here’s the good news: There are a lot of people that can help you with getting started into a healthy lifestyle, whether it’s a good friend, your physician or a personal trainer. One thing that separates the personal training profession from many others is that people don’t typically fall into becoming a personal trainer. Most personal trainers are passionate about fitness, so they’re constantly doing research on new advancements in the fitness world and learning about new ways to push and motivate people to reach their goals. Many people think of personal trainers as the muscle-bound meatheads yelling at your for “one more rep.” Those days seem to be gone. Personal trainers care about your health and have even become the bartender when you need to vent. Reach out to one of our personal trainers to help you get started.

Garbage in, garbage out: My high school algebra teacher would always tell me this when my calculator gave me the wrong answer: Garbage in, garbage out! The results you get with your workouts and your body’s changes are a direct result of what you’re eating. Have you thought about talking with a dietician or a health coach to be sure what you’re putting in your body will give you the results you want? I’m not talking about the latest fad kale diet or a 500-calorie a day restriction that leaves you in a bad mood and craving chocolate cake at 10 p.m. I’m talking about someone who can help guide what you’re eating in a manageable and productive way. We have a health coach at Anytime Fitness, Winter Park who helps people identify hiccups with their food intake and helps them adjust it to help them reach their goals. I know that she can help you, too!

K.I.S.S.: Keep it Simply, Silly! Many times we go into our fitness journey with goals without thinking about the process it takes to get there. It’s going to take some work and discipline. You will have to get off the couch or rearrange your schedule, so think through how you’re going to do that. However, don’t set yourself up for failure by completely rearranging everything. Start small and build on your small wins. Think of it as a snowball rolling downhill and picking up momentum as it goes. What small change can you make today that will give you the win and confidence that you need in order to build on it tomorrow? Take the stairs, instead of the elevator. Order grilled chicken, instead of crispy chicken. Take a walk at lunch or after work, before driving home. Maybe you can take bigger first steps than these. Surround yourself with people who are on the same journey as you.

Loving your body so it sticks around for years to come is easy and it’s become easier with all of the new technology and resources. In our Winter Park and Maitland area, there are seemingly countless resources. At Anytime Fitness, Winter Park, we have the Get Fit Winter Park program where we provide anyone — member or not — with a complimentary fitness assessment, health coach consultation and personal training session to help our residents reach their health goals and fall in love with their body again. Reach out to us, so we can help you achieve your heart-earned body!

Patrick McGaha Jr., member experience manager at Anytime Fitness, Winter Park, is dedicated to building a welcoming environment in the club, conducive to helping members and clients reach their health fitness goals. To get your fitness and nutrition related questions answered by a certified personal trainer, or for a free personal training session, call us at 321-972-5833 or email [email protected].