How to Choose a Personal Trainer

Getting Started, Healthy Fitness, Motivation 3 Responses »
Dec 212011

How is your week going so far? While I am sure you’re busy running around before the holidays with all the parties, shopping, and spending time with loved ones, I bet you are starting to think about ringing in the New Year as well. Have you decided on any resolutions yet?

Are you up for a challenge? (Directions at bottom of post)

A common New Year’s Resolution is getting to the gym more to workout. That is half the battle! But how do you make the most of your workout time at the gym?

There is no sense in wasting your valuable time if it isn’t going to help you lose weight, get toned, or just get healthy, is there? So, how do you make sure you are doing the exercises that will help you best reach your goals?

In order to get a customizable workout that takes into account your current health status and body shape, it is best to hire a personal trainer. They can run from $30+ per session, but most gyms offer a free session for just joining the gym. If you haven’t taken advantage of your free session yet, I highly recommend you start off the new year with a personal trainer.

Why would you want to work with a Personal Trainer?
  1. They can help you meet a goal such as lose weight, run a 5k, or get you in shape for sports.
  2. They can customize a workout for those with special health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, injuries, or women who are pregnant.
  3. They can help you determine your current fitness status and help you improve it!
How do you choose a Personal Trainer?
  1. Look for one with a Personal Training Certification from organizations such as ACSM, ACE, NASM, or NSCA.
  2. Choose one with the specialization for your current health condition (i.e. pregnancy, postpartum, injury, heart disease, etc.)
  3. Determine how many years of experience they have and any experience in your specific condition.
  4. Make sure they have liability insurance just in case something happens while you are on their watch.
  5. Determine the location you would like to work out at such as a gym, in-home, health center, weight loss clinic, etc.
  6. See if the Personal Trainer has a trial session to make sure your PT is a good fit and will best help you! Remember, it is all about you getting the help you need to reach your goals.
  7. A great Personal Trainer will devise a customizable workout plan, will help you evaluate your progress, gives you direct answers and in terminology you can understand, is a good teacher, is patient, and is someone who cares about helping you reach your goals.

The key is finding someone who fits well with you and your goals.

As you get ready for the New Year, decide on your resolutions and make sure they are doable. There is no sense in making resolutions that are too hard to reach. Make your goals short term and reachable.

For example, if you think you need to lose 50 pounds. Don’t make your goal ‘I will lose 50 pounds by March’. That is a big goal to reach and if you don’t reach it, you may become discouraged. Instead, make your goal I will lose 10 pounds in the next 6 weeks. This goal is smaller and easier to achieve. Once you achieve this goal, you will be more motivated to stick with your program and keep working your way to those 50 pounds.

New Year’s Resolution Motivation Tip: Start with small goals!

Ready for that challenge?
Leave a comment below and let me know what your new year’s resolutions are this year.
Let’s help each other stick to our New Goals for 2012! It’s easier to do things together than alone!

To your healthy & fit life,

P.S. If you have a question about fitness or a starting a ‘get in shape plan’, and would like to see your question answered on this blog, send your question to Amber or contact Amber on Facebook, Google+, or Twitter!

Posted by Amber Keinath at 9:32 am Tagged with: , , ,

How do I Start Exercising?

Getting Started, Healthy Fitness 2 Responses »
Jan 132011

So, you are ready to get started back with a great workout so you can get back into shape! That’s great! Let’s get started!

(If you have any chronic disease or underlying medical condition, you must consult with your doctor before you start anything new)

Let’s get started with what you need to do in order to get started with a workout routine and make sure you are successful.

  1. Determine your ‘why’.
  2. Write down your goals and make them measureable so you will be able to tell when you reach them!
  3. Plan your course of action!
  4. What is your current fitness level?
  5. Permanent marker these workouts into your schedule. This way you are committed to doing them because you have already set the appointment in your schedule.
  6. Find a buddy to workout with you or hold you accountable.
  7. Ready! Set! Go! Planning is good, but doing = results!
    1. Aerobic (Cardio) training
    2. Strength training
    3. Balance training
    4. Flexibility training (stretching)
    5. Core training

Now get out there, write down your goals, plan your course of action, and get working out already!

Leave me a comment below answering this question of the day: What is your favorite type of workout?

To your health journey success,


P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Posted by Amber Keinath at 11:35 am Tagged with: , ,

The Power of a Health Journal

Healthy Eating, Tips & Tools, Weight Loss No Responses »
Dec 162010

I always used to laugh at those people who would talk about doing a journal. What could you possibly have to write about?

Then I learned about health journaling and was hooked.

It is an awesome tool to track your progress and really figure out how you are doing on your road to ultimate health.

Some things that are great to include would be a food log of what, when, how you feel when you eat. Also, how is your energy level? In addition, include what you did as far as activities or workouts.

Never degrade yourself if you don’t follow your healthy living plan. Just get right back in the game and start from there!

Health journaling is a great way to express what you are doing, specific solutions to your health issues, and to evaluate your progress.

What do you think about a health journal? How do you recommend keeping track of your progress? Leave me a comment below and let me know!

To your health journey success,


P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Posted by Amber Keinath at 11:34 am Tagged with: , ,

How to Lose Weight with Positive Thinking

Weight Loss No Responses »
Dec 092010

I have received quite a few questions asking what the first and most important step in getting started with losing weight is.

It seems like people are just plain struggling to get started with the right foot that will allow them to have the most success when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off.

I made a quick video to illustrate the importance and power of losing weight with positive thinking. Watch my video below:

I was shocked when I saw that we have 60,000 thoughts a day! I had never really thought about it before.

It was then that I realized just how important it is that we control our thoughts and use them to help us accomplish things in life.

Jack Canfield, Anthony Robbins, and other top personal development gurus also talk about how important it is that you have a positive mindset before you start trying to get somewhere in life!

Your thoughts are the #1 key for ultimate weight loss. Any negative thoughts will ruin any weight loss plan before you even start. So, use your positive thoughs to plan, set goals, and get it done!

What are your thoughts about using your positive thoughts and throwing out those self-defeating thoughts that are hindering your success? Leave me a comment below and let me know!

Otherwise, leave me a comment below and answer the question of the day: What is your favorite activity to do that gets you up and moving?

Don’t forget to share this post and video with your friends by clicking on the social media buttons below!

To your health journey success,


P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Posted by Amber Keinath at 8:16 pm Tagged with: , ,

Get over yourself and Lose that Weight already!

Weight Loss 1 Response »
Dec 082010

Get over yourself and lose that weight already!

I love that title! It made me laugh, but it is so true!

Chances are by now you have heard that the majority of adult Americans are overweight, how many people die prematurely each year because of it, and what this obesity epidemic is costing our economy!

If you haven’t heard the latest of these statistics, watch my video below.

Even if you have heard these statistics, watch my video below and learn how you can overcome the stats and lose the weight!

Americans are obsessed with weight loss, but yet we are pretty much the fattest country in the world. What is up with that?

We need to change the way we think about out weight because it is not something we are stuck with! We can change our weight and decrease our risk of certain diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and some digestive issues.

What are you currently doing about your weight? What kind of results are you getting with it?

If you are like the majority of Americans who start a diet on Monday and then quit by Wednesday, I think it is time to try something new!

Leave a comment below and let me know what you think of this blog post and video or you can answer the question of the day: How many times in
the past year have you tried to start a diet?

Don’t forget to share this post with your friends by clicking on the social media buttons below!

If you are tired of trying and not succeeding, it may be time to check into hiring a personal health coach.

To your health journey success,

P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Posted by Amber Keinath at 2:32 pm Tagged with: , ,

5 Crazy Simple Steps for a Healthy and Successful New YOU!

Beauty/Style, Healthy Life, Motivation 17 Responses »
Sep 092010

I think I can vouch for the majority of us to say that we come to a point in our lives and we just want more!

We want to feel better. We want to be successful in life. We want to make a difference. We want to achieve something great. We want a job promotion. We want to be free of taking medications. We want to just feel better about ourselves. We are ready to get out of the old grind and get on with lives! We are tired of the everyday mundane lives we find ourselves in. (Can you think of another “we” to add?)

So how do we get to the point that we feel better about ourselves and what we are accomplishing?

Well, I have come up with the top 5 steps to consider when deciding to create a healthier or more successful you!

1. Take your health (or your success) seriously!

What does this mean? It means that the first step to achieving greatness no matter what area in your life is to take it seriously. If you approach this desire for change in a half-hazzard manner, you are not going to accomplish anything. Make sure you have a positive attitude about creating a serious change in your life.

Changes are hard to make which is why it is vital that you take this change seriously.

2. Small changes are where it is at!

With determining a need for changing, it is important to determine what changes are to be made. Make sure the changes are small and achievable which will make it easier for you to stay motivated on your path. If your change is big, cut it down to smaller bite-sized pieces so they will be easier for you to chew (or achieve).

Instead of saying I want to workout on a regular basis and eat very healthy, say I would like to workout doing XYZ 2 times a week and cook one healthy meal at home a week. Then once you have done that, move on and add more to your list. Achieving these small goals, will help you keep making small changes towards your ultimate goal!

Big changes discourage you when you mess up, small changes are easier to achieve and encourage you! Which do you want?

3. Get support!

With making any changes, there will be difficulties faced. You will come to a road block and not have any motivation or knowledge of how to get around the road block. This is where you need help! It is vital that you find a support system to help you on your health or business building journey. These people will help you overcome difficulties and will give you the support, encouragement, and accountability to keep going towards your finish line!

If you can’t find a good support system in your friends and family around you or if you feel you need a 3rd party to really help you stick with and work through the difficult times, hire a personal coach.

There are coaches for many different areas of your life. There are business, marketing, or success coaches that can help you build business. There are health and wellness coaches to help you reach your health outcomes and offer the expertise to set you on the right track. Check into coaches for what you want to accomplish.

4. Plan of Action!

Develop your plan of action requires you to determine what your goal is and what steps are needed to achieve that goal. Your plan of action should include what health benefits you are after, what achieving these benefits will do for you, and how you are going to achieve these health benefits.

Without determining all of these aspects to your plan of action, you will not be organized in reaching your goals which will lead to a lot of time wasted and could even cause you to lose your enthusiasm and give up! We don’t want that! Write out your plan of action!

5. Don’t forget to continue learning!

Learning is a growth process. In order to grow in any area of your life, you need to learn more about it in order to change how your current approach to this area of your life is. If you are very interested in learning how to get healthy, it is very important to keep reading more about healthy living. This way, you are equipped to tackle this area of your life. If you don’t know what it means to be healthy or what the experts are currently saying, how can you expect to become healthy.

If you are very interested in building a home-based business, it is very important for you to learn the newest marketing strategies and business building tactics since these are changing on a constant basis in recent days. How can you expect to grow your business if you are using out-dated tactics? Never stop learning!

With these 5 steps, you will be unstoppable in achieving greatness in all areas of your life! Try them! You will be amazed of what you thought you would not be able to achieve that actual proved doable! What are you ready to change in your life? What are you ready to achieve?

YOUR TURN! What is currently holding you back from achieving your goals in life? Is it fear or the uncomfortable feeling of steping outside of your current status-quo that is holding you back? Leave me a comment below and let me know! Don’t forget to share this post with your friends and click the “like” button below!

Get started with you 90 Day Weight Loss Challenge and Join a Community that will make losing fun and easy! Come join in on the success we are having over at THE CHALLENGE!

To your health journey success,


P.S. Get your butt in gear with the 90 Day Weight Loss Challenge! Join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Posted by Amber Keinath at 10:37 am Tagged with:

4 Steps to Improve your Health by Dinner Time

Getting Started, Healthy Eating, Motivation, Tips & Tools 9 Responses »
Aug 182010

Are you getting enough nutrients for your health?

Maybe your day looks a little like this:

You wake up and get ready for work without time to fix a good breakfast. You pick up a coffee on your way to work. For lunch you go out with friends to a fast food place for a quick meal and try to order something off the menu that sounds healthy. During the mid afternoon you get hungry again and that plate of homemade finger food snacks and desserts look great and you help yourself to a few. Once you get home, you are too tired to think too much about dinner and opt for boxed dinner mixes for your family.

How close is this to your reality? How do you feel about your current health state? Are you ready to start today taking the simple and small steps that can dramatically improve your health?

How about we improve your health by dinner time with 4 easy steps?

1. Changing your health starts by making the decision to change

            In order for any change to take place, you need to want to make the change. What is your reason for wanting to be healthier? Do you want more energy, to sleep better, to be more active? What is your desire to change? Are you ready for change?

2. Determine what you want to accomplish

            Do you want to eat healthier by switching to whole foods instead of processed foods? Do you want to find 5 good new recipes that are healthier? Do you want to eat healthier for more energy, immune strength, or for your current chronic disease? What do you want to accomplish by eating healthier?

3. Figure out how you want to go about accomplishing your goals

            What are you going to do in order to reach your goals of healthier eating? Do you need to find recipes ahead of time and make a grocery shopping list for a weekly grocery shopping trip? Do you need to clean out your pantry of all the unhealthy foods? What steps do you need to take?

4. Take Action!

            What good are goals with a plan of action if you don’t actually take action? TAKE ACTION! Go out there and do what needs to be done. Stop wishing and start doing!

With these steps you can have a healthier life by dinner time! What is your first healthy step?

YOUR TURN! If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to claim your FREE printable food guide and healthy grocery shopping guide by clicking here! This can be your first healthy step! What else are you wanting to accomplish right now and how are you going to take action? Let me know by leaving a comment below! Don’t forget to share the love by sharing this post with your friends!

To your health journey success,


P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Posted by Amber Keinath at 5:53 pm Tagged with:

7 Steps to Achieving your Health and Weight Loss Goals

Tips & Tools, Weight Loss 2 Responses »
Jun 132010

Everywhere you go,  you are bombarded with health and wellness products, advertisements, and “the next big weight loss promises”.

Why is it then that 64% of the US population is overweight or obese? If everywhere you go from the grocery store and walmart to right in your own home on your TV and computer. Why does over half of the population still struggle with weight issues?

This can be a complicated answer.

It would seem that because health promotion is all around us, it would create a leaner and healthier population. However, the trend is tipping in the opposite direction. This percentage just keeps growing.

Instead of trying to feed you more information about health related behaviors or how and why you should lose weight, I have found there is too much of that information out there so I put together a little course that just walks people through the steps needed in order to make the changes they want to make.

Why did I put this together to help you out by giving it to you free?

Well, as a registered nurse, I was so frustrated when a patient was suffering from a list of health issues that could be eased or even cured just with them losing weight. Now I’m not saying anything negative about my patients. On the contrary. Who doesn’t want to be leaner or in shape? These patients were wanting to be healthy! They were looking for answers for their health issues. They were tired of oodles of pills everyday. these people were looking for answers and they were turning to me as their nurse.

I mean, afterall, I am a nurse. I should have the answers to make them feel better right?

Well, the truth was I too was lost! I had awesome training and knew what a healthy lifestyle looks like. I was very good at teaching my patients. That was my strenth and passion that I discovered while I was still in nursing school. However, no matter how creative or inofrmative my patient education methods got, patients were still stuck. They were still struggling on how to get healthier by putting this information into practice. I didn’t know what else to offer my patients!

So, I went and got my Master’s Degree in Nursing with Wellness Promotion. Surely I will be able to offer solutions that will help these patients reach their health and weight loss goals.

This allowed me to increase the amount of valuable information I had for my patients. I could also now develop Health Programs if I so desired. But, my patients now were only able to have the informaiton available regarding how to be healthy. It wasn’t until I discovered the art of health coaching that I finally found the way I could help my patients.

With coaching, I am finally able to combine my health education background with the tools of coaching to actually help people reach their health and weight loss goals.

So, this is all great and all, but what does this all mean for you?

Well, chances are that you are part of the 64% of the US population who are overweight or obese. Even if you are not part of this percentage, you still are looking at how to be healthier and reach your overall health goals.

To learn what I use to help my patients reach their health or weight loss goals, get FREE access to my “7 Steps to Achieving your Health and Weight Loss Goals” by putting in your email address on the right sidebar ———>>>>>

I hope this course will help you find success with your health or weight loss goals! Let me know how I can best help you achieve your goals! Leave me a comment below and let me know. Don’t forget to ‘share the love’ by sharing this article and FREE offer with your friends!

To your health journey success,


P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Posted by Amber Keinath at 5:38 pm Tagged with:

Success in Achieving Health or Weight Loss Goals

Healthy Life, Tips & Tools, Weight Loss 8 Responses »
Jun 052010

So, do you have the belief that you CAN and WILL find the success you are searching for? 

Once you have established your belief that you can obtain the health or weight loss goals you are dreaming about, its important to next establish your overall vision. What do you invision for your health? Do you want to prevent disease? Have more energy? Lose some weight? Manage your chronic disease more effectively?  

Whatever your vision is for your health, write it down. This is your “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow”, your ultimate vision of success in health. What does that look like? How will your life be different? What will you be able to do that you can’t do today? What would this mean for your life? 

These are all valuable questions to ask yourself. Sit down and write about your perfect day of perfect health. Ponder what your life would look like or how you will feel. Now take all that information and determine your “vision”. You know how big companies or organizations have visions for the ultimate goal of their company? Well, you are creating your vision for your ultimate health outcomes! Write your vision on a piece of paper. This will enable you to view it often to remind you what you are working towards.  

After you have determined your vision for your health, it is time to write out your goals. Goals should be short, obtainable, measurable, and motivational! How can this be done?  

Well, make your goals about small changes towards creating a healthier you. For example, “I will make a healthy afternoon snack for the next 5 days”. This goal has a definite end point, is measurable so you will know if you accomplished this goal, and it is motivational. Motivational, you ask? Yes, it is motivational because it is something that doesn’t require a painful addition/subtraction to your current lifestyle and once you reach this goal, you ar emore likely to stick on your road to health! It is both pleasurable and a self-confidence boosting experience.  

What are your health goals? Write them below your health vision. If you need some more help in determining how to write effecive goals, check out a blog post I wrote: Creating Health Goals!  

So, we have a healthy mindset, have determined your vision for your health, and have created obtainable and measurable goals. You now have the beginning of your roadmap :) This is your Plan of Action! What I want you to do now is to put all this information together. On your piece of paper make sure you have your vision at the top of the paper. Underneath, write out your top 5 short-term goals for achieving your vision. I recommend not choosing more than 5 goals because anything more than that will overwhelm you and hinder your success.  

After your goals, write out your specific plan of action.  

What do you need to do on a daily basis to meet these goals. For example, if your goal is to eat healthy snacks in the afternoon for the next 5 days, write out your plan of action something like: buy some apples and peanut butter, wash and then put apple in a bag and put the peanut butter in a dish, pack the apples and peanut butter in your lunch. This will help you plan out how you are going to set yourself up to follow through on your goals.  

What will it take to preparing your day so you can accomplish your goals? 

Congratulations!  

You have now developed your Wellness Plan of Action!  

 
To your health,


P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Posted by Amber Keinath at 11:03 pm Tagged with:

Do you have the Mindset to be Healthy?

Healthy Life, Motivation No Responses »
Jun 052010

Setting health and weight loss goals is an everyday occurrence in our society. We all want to look and feel great as well as live long without all the devastating effects of those diseases that can plague the aging process. Diabetes, Heart Disease, and Cancer are all huge concerns that people spend huge amounts of money on resources to prevent or to manage these conditions. Some other people spend their money on gym memberships and exercise equipment. But where has this left our society? We are still hurting from devastating diseases and our rates of these are still increasing dramatically.

Why are these chronic illnesses still so prevalent in our society when so many people are consuming health and wellness products?

These issues could be due to the fact that change is hard! People want to be healthier than their peers and to live a life without limits, but what keeps them from being healthy? Our society is built around unhealthy eating and activity behaviors.

Most of the advertisements out there are related to fast or unhealthy food and a sedentary lifestyle.

Compare how many advertisements you see for healthy fruits and vegetables compared to candy, soda, cookies, chips, ice cream, burgers, hot dogs, and all those fast food restaurants. Even when you go to the grocery store, healthy food is way more expensive than the unhealthy food.

Compare how many advertisements you see for having fun with healthy activities such as walking, recreational sports, and other activities that you enjoy that would get you moving compared to movies, TV shows, video games, computer or phone products, and other sedentary lifestyle behaviors. What do you notice?

Our society is built on some unhealthy lifestyle behaviors. Everyone around us has a certain way of living that it is hard to be anything different. This can make changing your way of life to a life of health is very difficult. It is just not congruent to everything about our society.

What does this mean for you?

In order to be healthy, you will have to have a mindset to partake in certain lifestyle behaviors that are not congruent to your neighbor. The people around you may not understand. This can make your ability to change the way you eat and exercise way more difficult.

So how do you actually find success in adopting a healthy way of life or of losing the weight you have been trying to lose with so many different fad diets or lose-weight-quick-schemes? There are some key elements to setting yourself up for success rather than failure.

So, today I would like you to ponder what state of mind are you in and how does that have to change in order for you to be successful even in an area you have only found failure.

You can do anything you put your mind to! It’s true! Whether we are talking about health, weight loss, work, play, starting your own business, running a marathon, you can achieve anything you put your mind to! Do YOU believe that?

Are you going to have a mindset that nothing has worked for you so far, therefore nothing could possibly work for you now? Or are you open and ready to make the necessary changes in your life to reap the benefits?

The first step to creating lasting lifestyle change is to create the mindset that you can do it and your WILL do it! For your homework today, I would like you to think about the following questions. Without pondering these questions, you will not have the willpower to achieve success with your health!

  • Are you ready for a lifestyle change?
  • What are you ready to change in your life starting today?
  • What is your passion and desire regarding your health status or weight status?
  • How do you picture yourself different once you reach your goals?
  • How would your life be different?
  • What will it take for you to reach your goals?
  • How can you achieve your goals?

If you found something here that made your contemplate your own lifestyle or if you have any comments or feedback, please leave a comment below! I LOVE to hear from you!

To your health,

P.S. If you are ready to learn more about how to create a life of health and wellness, join me by Clicking Here! Find and connect with me on my Facebook fan page and on Twitter!

Posted by Amber Keinath at 10:32 am Tagged with:
Older Entries
© 2012 Amber Keinath Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha