Is a personal trainer worth it?
Updated: Feb 6, 2019
I had always been an athletic person, but going to gym is a challenge, especially since I became a MOM (in 2013). You probably know this "guilty" feeling of missing the gym sessions, being lazy and finding excuses of how to avoid the weekly WORKOUTS. It happens to me, as well. Number one thing that helps me keep going to the GYM constantly, is SHE- Steph.
Stephanie is my personal trainer, my coach, my ABS-maker =) for over two years now. When I had created this Blog, I thought how great would it be to interview Steph, and share it with you, Mommies of the World! Hope, this amazing article will motivate you to start a healthier life, and exercise more! At the bottom, I have some Bonuses for You! Let's start it:
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself- who are you, what are your achievements, your story, and your job.
- My name Is Stephanie McNally. I have been involved in fitness for my entire life. I chose to make a career of it, because I love what I do. I'm excited to share my knowledge, experience, and passion with others. I grew up being heavily involved in athletics and in my adulthood I carried that over into becoming a strong competitor in the National Physique Committee. I currently focus more on my clients and their individual goals. I have been with Lifetime Fitness Romeoville over the past 3 years. I recently became the nutrition program coordinator here and, love my new role. We offer incredible science based assessments and programs to help members reach and maintain goals in a smart and efficient way. I also head an incredible nutrition team that can help you with your daily habits to see long term success or build you the proper personalized Nutrition plan. We even offer lab work to tackle and help with more underlying issues!
2. What are your clients most common scope: Loosing weight; toning; getting ready for the beach season etc.?
- I would say with obesity being at such a high and scary rate I do have a lot of weight loss clients. I got into the industry to help people get healthier and live a longer fulfilled life. It is extremely rewarding to have clients who have lost over 100 lbs, clients who are now off medication and clients that are able to have a better quality life. My primary focus is nutrition these days. Nutrition has a huge role in everything from how you feel, perform, and look. Success is 80% from nutrition. Unfortunately there is a lot of fad dieting and marketing to misinform people and steer them in the wrong direction.
3. What would you call women biggest mistake, or misconception, when coming to sports, exercise and diet?
- This question goes right off the fad diets and sickening marketing. DO NOT jump on a yo-yo diet, cleanse, or anything that is just cutting calories drastically. Anything that suggests or promotes losing a lot of weight fast is a HUGE red flag. You will not succeed long term and in the processes you will do damage to your metabolism. In my coaching sessions we spend lots of time discussing metabolism and fat loss vs. just weight loss. The biggest trend I see in woman wanting to lose weight is they restrict calorie intake too much and do excessive cardio. You have to fuel your body with the proper macronutrients. So the percentage of Protein, fats, and carbohydrates that make up your calorie intake is extremely important. Highly recommend tracking and watching your body fat, not just lbs. As much as you might want to see the weight gone fast ,remember it’s the fat, not the weight you want gone. Habit changes will get you to your goal and keep you there.
4. What do you personally think about hiring a personal trainer? Is this something that really helps achieve goals, or YouTube and Google have it all our days?
- You can find plenty of work outs online even nutrition plans. The first problem here is these are not built and customized for your specific body and goals, they are generic. The second problem is they offer no real progression in most cases. If you are looking to achieve any significant goal and/or improve in any areas of your health and fitness I would highly recommend finding Fitness professional. I would also recommend researching and interviewing several different fitness professionals to find a well educated and best fit for you. Having a movement screen done before you go and exercise is essential to your health and safety. Just because one specific exercise is good for someone doesn’t mean it is for you or safe for you. A good coach does more than just put clients through work outs. How many people do I meet that sign up and pay for a membership in hopes of reaching their goals, yet to never come in. Making it harder for them to feel motivated and committed. That’s exactly where a good coach helps. Saying I want to lose 20lbs, for example, is just an outcome based goal. What goals will you set to reach this? If you are tired of yo-yoing with your weight or failing at your goals, I would highly recommend finding an educated professional to help you.
5. Do you prefer eating home or going out, and why?
- I personally prefer eating in. Every week I prep a majority of my meals for the week. This may sound hard to some but, it is extremely simple once you get a hang of it, and great financially. I see a complete correlation between my clients who just do personal training, to the ones who also participate in nutrition coaching. So I prefer to eat at home a majority of the time just because I enjoy my meals, and I can customize them to be what I need. Now you can eat out and make great decisions. I personally save eating out for special occasions with my loved ones.
6. Bonus 1: as a “Free Bonus” to our readers, would you share a healthy and delicious recipe to try?
- I love to cook. I feel food prep vs cooking are very different things. Some date nights I will find a new recipe of something I have never made and we will cook and stay in. I honestly prefer this to going out to eat. I have tons of recipes but what I will share is a prep breakfast recipe. I find a majority of people fail at eating a proper breakfast. You should eat with in the first hour of waking up. I either find people skip breakfast or their breakfast is very carbohydrate heavy. So egg muffins are easy to make, you can batch make them for the week, change the variety of ingredients, so you don’t get bored, and have a good source of protein and veggies. My personal favorite is mushroom, spinach, and onion. I will typically have 2-3 in the morning alongside some avocado for healthy fats. Find the recipe here: https://tasty.co/recipe/egg-breakfast-cups
Stephanie McNally | PT-Nutritional Coach
Bonus 2: One Free Session with Stephenie McNally!!! Steph can help you with either Nutrition, and/or Training. Or, better do both, for the Quick and Long-Term Results!
In person or Online-Coaching is available. Just Contact Stephanie - Cell: (630) 730-7508 - and mention Karina Grati Offer! Her Instagram - @stephanie_mcnally.