Get Help Staying In Shape for the Holidays

With Halloween now behind us, and Thanksgiving and Christmas quickly approaching, physical fitness may not be on the top of your priority list.

While contemplating gifts for others, perhaps a gift for yourself, let’s say, the services of a local, in-home trainer and nutritionist to coach you through the holiday season, ensuring you look dazzling in your New Year’s Eve outfit, may be a good idea.

In business since 2007, Lisa Culling, Peachtree Corners resident and mother of two school age children, has been helping clients in the Peachtree Corners, Berkeley Lake and Norcross area reach their fitness goals, not in the gym, but in their homes. She operates under the business name of Lisa Culling Solutions.

When asked why she started the business, Culling said, “staying physically active has always been a part of my life, but I had women start asking me how I was staying fit. So I started showing them in their homes.

"I also noticed that many women didn’t like to exercise and were uncomfortable in a gym setting because they weren’t confident and didn’t know how to exercise or why it is important.”

With a main customer base of women of all shapes, sizes and fitness levels, Culling has grown her in-home fitness business to include nutrition and life coaching. She’s not just a personal trainer, but also a certified Life Coach and Venice Nutrition Coach, which she said “allows me to help clients in other areas that may be holding them back from reaching their health and fitness goals.”

Culling has a definite zest for life, fitness and nutrition and an obvious passion for sharing it with others. She’s made healthy living a priority in her personal life, and hopes to help others find a brighter, more balanced future through the services she offers.

She specializes in developing personalized programs to fit the needs of each client. To personalize each client’s program, she begins with a thorough medical and health history, which allows her to determine any health related risk factors, critical for allowing her to prepare a safe, tailored exercise program. After that, she’ll discuss the client’s individual fitness goals, what they would like to be able to do, feel, and enjoy as a result of investing in improved fitness.

The next step is a fitness assessment, which is a battery of activities to gauge cardiovascular condition and evaluate things such as strength, flexibility and range of motion. Lastly, she matches up each client’s goals and objectives with the results of their fitness assessment and the contents of their health history, and create an exercise program that will allows accommodation of unique needs to safely achieve all personal fitness goals.

“I believe in finding solutions that fit my client’s life style and where they are in life, not just one plan fits all," said Culling. "In addition, I believe in serving my clients by finding out what they need and coaching them in the direction of their journey.

"Women are so busy taking care of others and making decisions, that it is my joy to give them an hour where they don’t have to decide what to do or what is next."

Culling charges $50 per hour for in-home training sessions and says she draws her greatest work satisfaction from helping her clients reach their health and fitness goals.

“Over the past two years, Lisa has been coming to my home for an hour twice a week," said Pam Jones one of her clients. "I have benefited tremendously from seeing her. I not only have lost pounds and inches but I have more energy and understand how to both eat and exercise more effectively.

"Lisa is very committed to my health and well being and comes each time with an enthusiasm that makes me look forward to seeing her. I have used at least three personal trainers in my life and she is by far and away the best.”

Like any woman with a family who is running a business while raising a family balancing work and family life is a challenge. “I will say that it is sometimes difficult to turn off your work life when you own your own business," said Culling. But I do my best to be finished with work by the time we sit down for dinner.

"I work with my clients while my kids are in school. I also get up an hour before my children to prepare for my day so that when they get up, I can help them get ready for school and be ready to walk out the door when they do.

"I often have a couple hours of paper work each weekend but if I plan well, it doesn’t affect our family time (at least I try!).” Lisa has a Facebook page (Lisa Culling Solutions- Real Fitness Solutions for Real Women) and can be contacted through her website.