From Out of Shape, To Personal Trainer
success stories
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One of the best ways to learn and get motivated is to learn from other’s success. No, I’m not talking about a testimonial on how a supplement made someone lose 200 lbs of fat and gain 50 lbs of muscle (those are paid for by the supplement companies). I’m talking about real people that go from being out of shape, to living a fit and healthy lifestyle. Tami Racaniello, currently a personal trainer in Long Island, is one of those people you can learn from.
On average, I read about 20 fitness blogs a day, looking for advice, entertainment, and success stories. I came across some posts from Tami mentioning how she used to be overweight and out of shape. While I’ve heard of many succeeding at losing weight by seeking the help of a personal trainer, it’s rare to find one that lost weight and became a personal trainer. I figured I’d do a mini interview regarding how one goes from needing a personal trainer to BEING a personal trainer.
I got a little background info and found out she’s from Long Island and keeps herself busy with reading, training (obviously), teaching, and music. The best compliment she gets from her clients is that she makes the exercises look so easy, which she accredits to the fact that working out wasn’t always real easy for her, so she can relate exercises to her clients. After all, she used to be in their shoes. Would you feel better taking financial advice from someone who went rags to riches or someone born into wealth? Same goes for fitness advice.
So what inspired Tami to change her lifestyle? She says, she realized that she was getting older and stated “I was not in the best shape physically, and I wanted to feel and look better! I had gone from a tight 16 (I was putting rubber bands on my pants to keep them closed) down to a 12, and thought I looked good.” But after a fan (she plays guitar too) sent her a picture of how she looked up on stage, she decided she still wasn’t happy with her figure.
I’m always curious what people do on day 1 of slimming down. So I asked her, did she go to the gym for 5 hours? Sit down and plan it all out? Stop eating for a whole day? How did it all start?
“I asked people questions, approached trainers, and became more confused, as everyone had a different answer. I also started reading whatever books and magazines I could find, for information on diet and exercise. The written information was conflicting as well, but I did find similarities, and I worked with those.” Her basic knowledge of anatomy from her days as an EMT helped her process of figuring out what advice was useful and what was a waste. She also became a vegetarian, but made sure that she was still getting a good balance of nutrients and supplementing as needed.
She also “experimented with exercise, taking all kinds of classes, using different machines and free weights. I found I really liked working with weights, and started seeing a huge change in my body, and so did everyone else.” People actually started asking her how she got her body into such great shape, and she found her calling in life. “I decided to become a trainer, with the goal of becoming as educated and knowledgeable as possible, so I could help others with their fitness goals.”
Today, she is a personal trainer and has a website regarding her services, http://www.itstimetogetfit.com which highlights her unique approach for fitness and helps others learn from her success. As for her own battle to stay in shape, she states “Those fat cells were around for a long time, and they don’t give up easily, but neither do I. I plan out meals, workouts, and log in a journal when I need to re-evaluate my program.”
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on 3/11/2008
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