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I Worked With A Personal Trainer Virtually For 2 Month Here’s What I Got Out of It

Before the spring of 2020 I had never worked with a personal trainer. It was something I had thought about but I thought it was just something for celebs and people with money. I am neither.

As some of you know I’m a bit of a sweepstakes junkie. I like to enter sweeps as one of my hobbies. I had entered a sweepstakes through Forever Fitness F2 for 2 months of personal training and nutrition coaching. I never expected to win.

You can probably guess, I did end up being one of the winners. I was both excited and nervous. I had some many questions and concerns. Things like: Am I going to have to work around the trainers schedule or will they be accommodating? What if I just can’t do it? How will virtual personal training work and why is it different than me just taking live online classes? What if I start and I just don’t like it? I’m gonna feel bad and I’m gonna feel like a quitter. What if they hand me a menu and I don’t like half the things on it? I hate mushrooms!

I wondered how to become a personal trainer, like, what all is involved?

Dwayne from Forever Fitness F2 contacted me via email (that’s how I’m most comfortable) and had me fill out my profile. Choosing foods I liked and was willing to eat and putting foods in a category I did not want to eat. Bye bye mushrooms! I was asked what days and times are better for me to work out. He got a feel for where I was at related to my fitness level. I filled out a form letting him know what equipment I had access to which, at that time was an old treadmill, a few hand weights, and one kettlebell lol

My schedule was set up that I had a half hour 1:1 personal training sessions on Monday evening (I’m an evening workout person. I hate mornings and they accommodated me). I was scheduled for 2 virtual live workout classes a week. Bootcamp on Tuesday evenings and Cardio kickboxing on Thursdays (this was my favorite class). If I had something come up I could let them know and reschedule or jump in on a different class. They were always flexible.

So what benefits did I get out of working with a personal trainer for 2 months? More than I thought actually.

#1 When I started with the trainer I had been in a weight-loss plateau for about 2 months. The trainer helped me break that plateau and I lost another 5 lbs. This was huge for me because I don’t lose a lot of weight at one time with any program.

#2 While working with the trainer I had also won a Nossk trainer. Which is a body weight suspension trainer. He noticed it in one of our training session and told me he was going to incorporate it so I can learn how to use it. It was super helpful. Turns out I was trying to do some of the exercises from the booklet wrong! But he straightened me out.

#3 For years I had been doing squats. Never once did I think I was doing them wrong. Never once did anyone teach me proper form. Thanks to my trainer, I found out I was doing squats wrong my entire life! Again he straightened me out and my knees are thankful.

#4 I don’t often lack motivation to start working out, it’s just, I tend to not push myself as much as I probably should. The trainer helped me learn that I can do more than I thought I could.

#5 I was able to ask fitness and nutrition questions that would pop up in my journey. He always answered them without making me feel stupid. I felt like if I had a concern, question, or what-if question it would be answered professionally.

So how is working with a trainer different than taking live fitness classes? Listen I’ve done live classes. If I sign up and pay for a class and don’t show up they usually just take my money and run or sometimes offer me to reschedule. If I didn’t show up I got texts lol. One time I mixed up the time for a class. I thought it started at 7 pm but it actually started at 6 pm. at 6:05 I got a text “I don’t see you in class” lol Sometimes i need someone to help me stay on track and hold me accountable.

I think most people get the idea that they have to have a personal trainer for months until they reach a goal or to get the benefit. But, I really got a lot out of the 2 months working with Dwayne. I’d recommend it to anyone thinking about it, even if it’s just a month or two like me to get on the right rack. You might even learn a few things! Being able to do my training sessions virtually was a huge convenience for me too. No worrying about finding a sitter, driving there and back, forgetting something, the usuals of going to a gym.

This post is brought to you by Diamond Bloggers. Any opinions expressed are my own.

GoodRx Gold 30 Day Free Trial

You may have seen the commercials. GoodRx Gold is a monthly membership plan that offers even more discounts on prescription drugs and healthcare services for individuals and families.

So what is GoodRx Gold? Think of it as an Amazon Prime or Sam’s Club members. It might not be for everyone but if you or your family purchase multiple generic prescriptions, you’ll probably find that it saves you a lot more money with the savings far exceeding your membership fee.

So how much is membership? It’s only $5.99/mo for individuals or $9.99/mo for families. You can include up to 6 people on your membership including pets. So if you have pets that take generic prescriptions, you can save on that too!

Still not sure if GoodRX Gold is for you? That’s ok, they’re offering a free 30 day trial for new members only. GoodRX gold is accepted at thousands of pharmacies including CVS, Costco, Krogers, Albertsons, and many more.

You can use GoodRX Gold whether you have insurance or not. If you’re looking for something to help with the cost of your generic prescription costs, why not try it for the 30 day?

This post does contain affiliate links. I will earn a commission for anyone that stays on after the 30 day free trial.

I’m Trying the Most Recommended Hemp CBD

It turns out I’ve become somewhat of a CBD oil connoisseur, self proclaimed. I’ve tried so many different brands of CBD oil. Some of them were really good, some of them were, meh. I’ve tried flavor and unflavored tinctures, CBD rubs/ointments, and sprays.

I take CBD to help with my anxiety, ulcerative colitis symptoms, and IBS. This is not medical advice, I just feel it helps me get some relief of some of my symptoms and helps with sleep.

I was contacted by Calm by Wellness to try their CBD. My favorite way to take CBD is via tincture with a few drops under the tongue. Flavored or unflavored it really doesn’t matter to me. I received a bottle of their tincture to try in strawberry lemon-aid flavor.

Before I accepted I had to do a little research. One thing I always worry about is any amount of THC. I’m a healthcare worker and mom of 4. I have no desire to be high or fail a drug test. Calm by Wellness products are 100% THC free.

Calm by Wellness grows their own hemp which is non-GMO certified, organic, and uses USDA certified seeds. They also have the highest level of food grade certification possible with ISO9001 and CGMP certification. There’s a lot more info on the Calm by Wellness About Us page.

They also advertise about features on different sites. Perhaps the most interesting to me was the article on the American Sleep Association site that included Calm by Wellness.

I took my first dose last night and again this morning. The strawberry lemon-aid flavor (I’m not misspelling it, that’s their flavor name) is pleasant. It’s not tart or overwhelming. It’s more of a subtle hint of flavor that made it pleasant to hold under my ton for a few seconds as you should with tinctures.

I’m gonna do an update post in about a week and let you know my continued feeling on Calm by Wellness CBD tincture. Until then, I encourage you to check out their site to learn more about them and a little more about CBD in general and decide for yourself if it’s for you.

CBD Oil Tinctures from Calm by Wellness provide all-day relief with delicious natural flavors

I received the sample at no cost in order to complete a review. Any opinions expressed are my own. This post is in no way providing medical advice, simply my opinions. I encourage you to do your own research and talk with a medical professional if you have questions or concerns. This post also contains affiliate links. I will earn a commission from sales made through my links

Everybody Walk Across Pennsylvania: A Virtual Walking Program

Penn State Extension has done it again with another fun program to help you stay fit. As a Pennsylvania native myself, this is particularly interesting to me. Do I have any Pennsylvania readers here?

Everybody Walk Across Pennsylvania is a free virtual walking program designed to help participants meet their health goals this spring. The eight-week, semi-structured program encourages participants to increase their physical activity and develop healthy eating habits. The program will run from April 5 to May 24.

Participants can join individually or form teams of five with family, friends, coworkers or even the family dog. Since it is a virtual program, locations and times of walking can be customized completely: mornings at the local park, lunchtime at home or around the neighborhood in the evenings. The program also includes an exercise conversion chart to convert many activities into reportable miles.

Each team member will try to walk an average of 10 miles per week. Team captains will be asked to report the total number of miles walked, and all participants will receive weekly emails with motivators to keep walking and strategies for healthy eating.

The weekly emails are related to the program’s themes. This year, Penn State Extension is collaborating with the Penn State Cancer Institute to provide more information about health and wellness, heathy eating, chronic illness and cancer prevention resources and tips.

Of course, Penn State Extension encourages you to follow all CDC and local guidelines during the pandemic. They even offer helpful tips. Maybe instead of walking as a group consider calling a teammate on your cell while you walk and talk.

I would personally add that, if you’re going to be in an area around other people don’t forget your mask. I also keep hand sanitizer in my car just in case. If it’s too cold to walk, I’ll be logging the miles on my treadmill.

The last time that Penn State Extension did this they had 471 participants that logged over 62,000 miles in all. That’s an awesome job!

If you’re interested in participating, registration deadline is March 29. You can find out more info, and register here: https://extension.psu.edu/everybody-walk-across-pa

Oh I forgot to mention, it’s also a free program. What a fun way to kick up your fitness or add to your fitness goals. I’ll be participating for sure!

Dancing & Life: Positive Quote for Today

Whatever affected you the most last year — your health, your job, where you live, whatever — you can use it to change for the better.
Thanks for sharing what you’re going to be doing this year. Can you share how you felt when you were making that decision?

As a healthcare worker, I have to see people that are dealing with the pandemic. Seeing how sick people can get. I made changes at home from creating a changing are for my husband and I, stocking up on hand soap and hand sanitizer, being more diligent with cleaning, and putting more effort into my health in hopes of strengthening mine and my kids immune systems. I will continue this not just because of the pandemic but for our health.

What was hard for you this last year? What will you do to help yourself with the issue?

Check out Dancing & Life for more positive ways to deal with stressors and positive ways to help improve.

This post contains sponsored content through Blog Meet Brand and Dancing & Life.