Is there someone in particular who has a big influence on you? Who do you look up to? During my lifetime my answer has varied depending on where I was in my life and what I was seeking.

Last year while reading “Lose Weight Like Crazy Even if You Have a Crazy Life” by Autumn Calabrese for my book club with my community, an idea was sparked within me. Autumn spoke about how her dream of becoming a professional dancer changed in an instant. Her doctors advised her to stop dancing due to her physical injuries of her back and hips. She left college one semester shy of graduation closing the door on her dream. Like they say, when one door closes, another opens. While her friend was helping Autumn explore ways to apply her experience and knowledge, she decided to become a Certified Personal Trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). After reading this, I decided “Why Not?” I called NASM for more information and by the time the phone call ended, I was signed up for Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) & Certified Nutrition Coach (CNC).

I embraced every step of the way of earning my CPT. I was so nervous at first, but after my first homework assignment and chapter quiz, my nerves subsided and week after week I continued to crush it.

BONUS: Being a part of the Beachbody community definitely had its perks, since it felt like I was studying while working out. These super trainers are straight out of the NASM textbook. Paying attention to their lead of direction, helped me remember muscles and the hows/whys of many functions of our amazing human body.

I remember being stuck on eccentric and concentric contractions. I was struggling to remember the difference between the two, no matter how hard I tried. The next day I decided to do a random workout (outside of the current program I was doing) and chose AAA (arms, abs & a* 😝) from Autumns’ 80 Day Obsession. Autumn begins the workout by saying “today we are going to start with the eccentric contraction…….and proceeds to explain it” YEP!!! Thank you Autumn for not only an excellent workout but the study session as well 👏🏼 I also had similar cases with Joel Freeman’s 10 Rounds program.

On December 29th, I took my big exam and passed!!! Not too bad for someone who has been out of school since 1985 🤓

Next up was my CNC. This was definitely more of a challenge. Textbook was online and there was no structured outline to the course – it was self-paced as opposed to the CPT having structured weekly assignments with deadlines. Initially it was a stop & go process, which definitely wasn’t good for retention purposes. I also feel like it was like a pebble in my shoe – I just wanted to get it over with. It was hard.

I finally put myself on my own schedule and gave myself a deadline of April 30th. Game on!!! I changed my mindset and embraced it to have fun with this learning experience. Plus the chapters became more interesting 🥰. Encouraged to take a practice test prior to completing the course by my wonderful mentor, Kelli, I surprised myself with a score of 81!!! This did wonders for my confidence and pushed my determination even further. I’m proud to say that on Friday, April 16th, I finished the course and did Mel Robbins 5 Second Rule, and just plunged into the final exam.

What did I learn? What I’ve been practicing and preaching all along – balance & moderation of macronutrients, focusing on eating whole foods (organic when possible), minimizing/eliminating processed foods and sugar. Exactly what Autumn’s Ultimate Portion Fix is all about.

Of course the program went deeper into the ins and outs of it all covering everything from nutritional science to behavior change. Overwhelming – yes. Even though I passed the course, the education is ongoing. Always learning, always growing

BB aligns with NASM on every level of health & fitness. My passion and respect for BB is even deeper.

How does Autumn continue to influence me? Now I’m doing Andy Frisella’s 75 Hard Program and I’m currently on Day 26. Stay tuned. More about that later 🙌🏼

Imagine with all your mind ~ Believe with all your heart ~ Achieve with all your might

Life With Lisa