If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I’m a goal-setter and a planner. My New Year’s resolutions for this year are actually coming to fruition and this past weekend, one of my largest goals — to become a certified personal trainer.
I passed the National Academy of Science Medicine’s Certified Personal Training exam Aug. 24, officially launching me into a new side hustle — fitness. For the past three years, I’ve been working out regularly and learning all I can about fitness and nutrition to meet my personal goals. I’ve come to realize that all this learning could also help others. While I historically didn’t have the bandwidth to study with NASM, a few months ago, I serendipitously found myself with the time after learning I wouldn’t be on the adjunct teaching schedule this fall at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. With time freeing up and a need for me to find another source of income to replace the teaching, I realized there was no good reason not to pursue the NASM-CPT.
From the end of May through this past weekend, I studied during every free minute I had — during cheer practice, on the couch at night, lunch hour at work and more. A lot of the material was a challenge for me since I never was great at science! All the hard work paid off in a pass on the exam. Now that I have the CPT designation, I am working on the certification as a nutrition coach, also through NASM. It was important to me to not only have personal training but also nutrition, because in my view, you can’t have one without the other. Plus, the coaching will help extend my CPT for a few more years before renewal.
Now that I am achieving these goals, you might wonder, what’s next? Well, for now, I’m going to build my reputation online as an expert, particularly in “hard gainers” and women over 40, both of whom struggle to put on muscle. I also plan to address the issue of lack of time for fitness and nutrition, the number one reason cited for why people are unable to stick to an exercise and meal planning regimen.
In fact, this blog will likely take on a different feel in the weeks and months to come. This focus on health has me drinking less for one thing, but also this gives me a venue to share my expertise on the subject of training and nutrition. As such, I’m brainstorming a new name for my blog that encompasses what I’ll be writing more about in the future. I hope you’ll continue to join me on this journey, which will include the topic of wine every once in a while! Cheers!