u/TallCryptographer106

I have considered becoming a personal trainer. All of my friends and family think this is a good path for me.

I have not yet gotten the certification, but I intend to within the next couple of months. I already have a pretty good understanding of (very) basic exercise science, programming, and have been lifting for 5 years and running for two.

Already people come to me often for advice on things such as “what’s a good at home workout” “how can I get stronger arms” “how can I increase my protein intake” ”how do I improve my flexibility” etc. And I do mean often. Just today I was asked 3 of those.

So I know that people in my life do see me as someone who is well aligned with a healthy and active lifestyle. I am also a teacher by profession so I love working with, helping, and educating people and seeing them succeed. Of course working with one adult is the same as 25 preteens. Also I go back and forth on if trainer weekends only is even worth it.

However, I feel very self conscious and a sense of imposter syndrome when I think about becoming a personal trainer. This mostly comes from the fact that my body composition is not how I’d like it to ideally be. I worry that if I don’t “look the part” I won’t be trustworthy as a trainer, and maybe I don’t even have any business training at all.

I know this is irrational, but I cant help but thinking people don’t want a personal trainer who doesn’t have a bodybuilder look.

Am I overthinking this? Is it worth doing?

I got rid of my food scale today. I didn’t track or even attempt to track anything. Got breakfast with my friends. Even got a snack after because I was still hungry. I threw away food when I was done and didn’t want anymore. I used protein powder without measuring it even with the scoop.

However… I had to cut coffee with my friends short because they all had pasta and I had to go home to eat my cottage cheese. I did 1.5 hours on the stairmaster.

I think this is still progress though?

My therapist said “what would happen if you just ate balanced meals” and I was like I don’t know?? But I’m trying

What can I do to get my body battery to 100? I’ve only gotten it there once in the past month.

I usually sleep 7.5 hours and my sleep score is usually in the 70s-90s.

Why is it never going back to 100?

I’ve been running for almost 2 years. Maybe more like 1.5. Last year I ran a 5k, 10k, half, and full marathon.

Mostly I’m looking to run another long distance race (half minimum, maybe even up to a 50k. But for simplicity let’s just say a marathon, even though it’s flexible).

The bigger the race, the better.

I am from Chicago but obviously it is too late to run this year’s Chicago marathon. I am not against the idea of traveling to run a race, but I am a teacher and I am against the idea of using my vacation time to travel to run another long race. Long story short, it has to be a local race or it has to be during school vacations (Christmas time or end of May-early August).

This leaves me with basically the following options:

1. Run a half marathon nearby during the fall

2. Find a destination December marathon

3. Find a destination summer marathon

4. Run a full marathon nearby during the fall, but not THE Chicago marathon.

5. Enter lottery to run next years Chicago marathon

6. 1 and 2 and/or 1 and 3

My only stipulations are that I do not want to run a really tiny race. At minimum I’d like to be among a few hundred people.

I would like to have something planned, but not sure what the best idea. If I do go with options 2 or 3 (destination races) I’d love any and all suggestions.

Thanks!

The context: I asked for a referral for endocrinology or a dietician/nutritionist because I gained 10 lbs quickly and struggle with extreme hunger.

My doctors response:

“We still recommend oral contraceptives or cyclic progesterone for treatment. Regarding weight gain, you are in the normal weight category. Diabetes and other metabolic disorders have been ruled out. We do not typically refer normal weight patients to dietitians.”

Sorry? What? If PCOS isn’t a metabolic disorder what is it?? Am I being gaslit right now??

I am studying Spanish. I have a high enough level that I can understand Spanish quite well. I’d like to watch youtube in Spanish but as I’m american all of my favorite youtubers are in english.

Some that I enjoy are Greg Doucette, Will Tennyson, Jesse James West, Jeff Nippard, Dr. Mike, Honey Bison, and Angelyka Unfiltered.

Are there any similar accounts (youtube or podcasts) in Spanish? I know I can dub the English ones but thats not as good as just listen to a spanish speaker.

My last period was in June 2024. I literally have not felt okay since then. In fact it’s basically as if the entire year of 2025 didn’t even happen because I spent the entire fucking year in my head about my weight.

Notable moments include refusing to go on vacation because I was nervous about the food situation, opening myfitnesspal in the middle of a 15 mile run to log the gel I ate, and ordering doordash twice in one night.

I have gone back and forth on my thoughts and feelings about going all in and recovery. It has been so hard mentally. Obviously, I’ve never fully committed.

Through all of this I’ve gained weight, felt worse about my body, and felt physically worse. Tired, anxious, uncomfortable.

I have a complicated hormonal and weight profile so my doctor is convinced I do NOT have HA. He suggests I just diet and take birth control.

I just feel so lost, uncomfortable, embarrassed and unsupported all the time. Meanwhile two years ago I felt GREAT and confident and on top of the world.

I can’t spend the rest of my life feeling like this but I worry I’ll never get back my body and peace that I used to have

I’ve been struggling with my weight for several months.

Ultimately, I am still technically at a healthy weight, but I have put on 10 lbs since December and if I gain more I will be overweight. Also if I continue at this rate…

Anyways, I have a couple things that I think triggered the initial weight gain, running a marathon in early December and then having my purse stolen off of my (with ALL of my things) a couple weeks later. And then Christmas holidays…

What concerns me most is that I gained 5 lbs or so during a short vacation during winter and then not only has it not come off, I’ve continued gaining.

However, now I am dealing with even more stress. I am moving internationally in two weeks for a new job. Said job requires passing an exam and I am not even 100% confident I will. So the next two weeks I will be packing and studying and saying goodbyes.

On top of that, I’m working with my primary care doctor on hormonal issues likely contributing to my overeating (I have PCOS and subclinical hypothyroidism) plus a therapist on possible emotional overeating causes. And neither is working which I guess makes sense because all my doctors done is told me to eat less and track my calories and take birth control and all my therapist has done is told me to think about my emotions.

I just can’t stop eating. Everything’s a battle. I’m always thinking about food. I eat in a surplus and then wake up with my stomach literally growling.

I feel like a hamster on a wheel because all I think about is food and I eat all the time and yet I’m always hungry and I’m gaining weight. I’m scared to stop because I don’t want to make my weight issue even worse but I’m also scared this loop is going to haunt me forever.

Any advice?

I’m 5’1 and 130 lbs. I have PCOS. Most recently my glucose, insulin, cortisol, thyroid, and a1c were all normal but my estrogen and progesterone are quite low. I’m 25 definitely not pregnant.

I work out fairly frequently, I currently average 15k steps but that includes running. Running I am hoping to get/stay at around 25 miles per week. I also lift weights 5x a week.

This makes things difficult because as you can see my weight is very close to overweight. I do have a lot of muscle mass so I will always be on the higher end but I am also definitely carrying extra fat. I’d like to lose 10-15 lbs.

Obviously for fat loss I need to focus on a calorie deficit. And high protein especially to maintain muscle mass. For PCOS I’m told to limit carbs, dairy, and anything with oil added sugar. However running necessitates carbs.

I just feel lost and like I can’t come up with the right nutritional balance. I also feel like I need a schedule/mechanical eating because my preoccupation with food and overeating are problems.

Any advice?

I’m so uncomfortable.

Yesterday I had to change my belly button piercing that, mind you, I’ve had for 5 years, because it was STABBING me. Because my stomach has changed size so much that my butterfly shaped belly button ring was actually SCRATCHING UP my belly button.

Today I had to put on a REAL BRA for the first time in at least 3 years because I’ve always worn sports bras but mine are all now TOO small and my boobs are too BIG that braless is uncomfortable and oh yeah my boobs are also SWEATING.

I also have PCOS (and maybe HA or maybe just PCOS I don’t even KNOW) so my doctor tells me I need to be monitoring my calories and carbs and sweets.

And my therapist has me keeping track of my emotions around eating so I have a literal log of the fact that’s I’ve spent 3 hours nonstop thinking about eggs and rice cakes.

I woke up at 3 am and guess what my first thought was?? Food

Guys I can’t do this. I feel so off balance I am PHYSICALLY uncomfortable in my body and I also am INSATIABLE so I’m uncomfortable in my brain and everything is wrong

I’m so uncomfortable.

Yesterday I had to change my belly button piercing that, mind you, I’ve had for 5 years, because it was STABBING me. Because my stomach has changed size so much that my butterfly shaped belly button ring was actually SCRATCHING UP my belly button.

Today I had to put on a REAL BRA for the first time in at least 3 years because I’ve always worn sports bras but mine are all now TOO small and my boobs are too BIG that braless is uncomfortable and oh yeah my boobs are also SWEATING.

I also have PCOS (and maybe HA or maybe just PCOS I don’t even KNOW) so my doctor tells me I need to be monitoring my calories and carbs and sweets.

And my therapist has me keeping track of my emotions around eating so I have a literal log of the fact that’s I’ve spent 3 hours nonstop thinking about eggs and rice cakes.

I woke up at 3 am and guess what my first thought was?? Food

Guys I can’t do this. I feel so off balance I am PHYSICALLY uncomfortable in my body and I also am INSATIABLE so I’m uncomfortable in my brain and everything is wrong

So I basically made a deal with my fruit guy and I am getting unlimited free fruit for the next 2 weeks.

I live in a tropical country so always available are mango, pineapple, papaya, banana, avocado, and watermelon.

Unchecked, I often eat about 800 calories of fruit a day. I am trying to cut back but I still want to eat a lot of fruit while I can (in addition to it being free, I’m moving soon so won’t have fresh tropical fruit for too much longer).

What else should I eat to make sure I’m still eating a balanced diet?

I’ve been told that covid changed education and kids. I don’t know how true that is but what I do know is I started college in 2019 as an elementary education major and now feel incapable of teaching anything under 6th grade.

I sometimes feel like a professional hand holder. When I was in middle school, I was responsible for keeping track of my assignments and grades, I had weeks to months long independent projects that I completed, and school was a lot more like it is on TV (you know, “today’s assignment is _.“ students complete the assignment. the end.)

But in reality, in my 6th grade classroom, I am reading out loud to the kids, because they can’t read. I am completing half the work for them with sentence starters and walk through because they can’t write. I’m spending less the half the time teaching because more than half the time is spent managing behavior. Going up to 20 kids each one by one “okay, write your name right here“ (pointing at paper). They can’t do anything independently. I swear it’s like I can’t say “what’s your favorite color” it has to be “what’s your favorite color? white, brown, black, green, red, blue, pink? oh you like all of them, okay but what’s your favorite? yeah hold on, i’ll be with you one second. sorry what’s your favorite color? give me one second. yeah i guess sparkles is a color. S-P-A-R-K-L-E-S.“

I’m just wondering if my own perception is off and it’s always been like this? Is it this bad in high school too? Or, and I’m kind of afraid to ask, is it me? Am I not teaching right?

My goals are to reach/maintain 20 miles per week of running. 2 hours a week or so of stairmaster. Maybe 15-30 minutes a day of stretching and handstands. 4-5 days a week of lifting.

I have lots of free time (summer break). I can go to the gym up to twice a day. I can also go on walks (duh).

My biggest difficulties with scheduling my week are leg fatigue, not sure how to match up cardio with lifting, and uncertainty about whether it’s better to come up with a <5 day repeating split or a weekly M-S split.

I don’t care much about building muscle, but I’d like to improve endurance and lose fat.

I’d take any advice.

I’m interested in becoming a personal trainer.

I’d like to get my certification as soon as possible. Getting a job in July would be ideal, as I’m a teacher and go back to work early August.

I am pretty knowledgeable about exercise but definitely need to study on anatomy and specific tests/data.

I skimmed a personal trainer textbook but obviously plan to go back through and study more in depth.

How long did it take you all to study for the exam/become a CPT? Would I be able to get hired before getting the credential? Any tips?

Also is it worth it to become a personal trainer if I’d only do it part time (weekends/after school)?