Posted on March 22, 2017 by Kate Halsall
Have you ever wondered what goes on in a personal trainer’s mind? Are our bodies really a temple? Do we eat cake on our birthdays? Are burpees really our favourite exercise? Do we always make healthy choices. Honestly, we are asked all sorts when we tell people that we’re personal trainers – people seem to forget that we’re not super human, and that we don’t lead two lives – our PT one and our personal one! Just to prove I am human, here’s some truths about myself that you probably shouldn’t know!
I get more nervous about my clients measurements than they do….
It’s not because I doubt my abilities as a personal trainer. It’s because our clients have goals. They’ve made a commitment to us, and we have in return made a commitment to them! We have promised that if they do XY&Z we will get them to AB&C. It’s also because of the bond we have with our clients. Our personal trainer / hairdresser/ doctor / psychotherapist relationships mean that we trust each other implicitly – we don’t want to let each other down. I would feel just as bad as the client if they hadn’t reached their targets, but then I would celebrate with my client if they have -it’s a real roller-coaster of emotions!
I don’t currently train enough…
OMG I know right – we’re hassling you about your training regime and here I am admitting this!! I’m under no illusion that my body is where it should be, and my mission this year is to get back into my beautiful Levis jeans…so make sure you hassle me to train when you see me in the gym! HA! We advise our clients to make sure that they make time for themselves – to prioritise their training, and it’s true! Sometimes I’m so caught up training other people, prepping sessions and classes, studying, writing gym plans and so on (all of which I LOVE doing by the way), that I forget to make time for myself to train. I used to do 23 hours of exercise a week and I’m lucky now if I do half of that, and that’s simply why I’ve lost the body I used to have! I’ve started training again in earnest this week – so be ready for the body transformation!
Breakfast is hard for me….
YIKES! How many times have you heard “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” or “make sure you eat within 30minutes of getting up”? And it’s true – you absolutely should! For me personally, breakfast is the HARDEST meal of the day. I get up at 5am every day (except Sunday) and my body is very reluctant to get up sooner! Also, full “food” at that time in the morning is not first thing on my mind! So I grab a handful of mixed nuts on my way out of the house and eat them on the way to my car. This ensures I at least get some sustenance in me. Then at my earliest opportunity I will grab a “proper” breakfast – porridge (love it with blueberries or peanut butter) or scrambled tofu.
I REALLY dislike cardio…
Unless it’s in a group exercise environment eg Spin, HIIT, Boxing, and classes such as Insanity Step Aerobics, Les Mills Body Combat and Attack, Piloxing & Pound. I sometimes reluctantly get on the treadmill – trust me, it’s not for fun I just don’t enjoy that anymore (but I do have a Total Warrior to get round). I do rowing intervals and like the physical challenge, but honestly, if I’m going to work out in the gym – it’ll be weights based training. P.S. I HATE burpees!!
I sometimes have problems with portion control….
There’s no point denying it – I LOVE food. But portion control is something we speak to our clients about a lot. It’s actually a great thing to cook too much food – as you should then be boxing it up for the next day’s meal, not eating it all in one sitting!! I even get my clients to send me pictures of their food so that I can check the size of their portions. But sometimes, just sometimes, I just quite honestly eat the whole lot. Worst still – I don’t beat myself up about it. Here’s the thing, as I’m vegan and a personal trainer, my food is healthy (although maybe sometimes a little carby because of the nature of my protein sources), so actually it’s not bad food I’m not portion controlling. I’m talking stir fries, lentil curry and vegetable chilli here – not pizza and chips! It’s also around 2 portions not 4 and it’s NOT every day – to be fair it’s generally when I’m tired, have done lots of exercise or on a weekend when I’ve purposely batched cooked (oops!).
Oooooooo I think that’s all I’ll give away for now…….Whatever will I give away next time?!?