Naomi Rotstein is a personal trainer, podcast host, and business coach, as well as the founder of 1FitFuture, her signature 12-week program that helps women ditch the diet culture mindset, food obsession, and calorie counting with individualized coaching and group support. She is also the host of the 1FitFoodie podcast, where she facilitates conversations with other leaders around the struggles and triumphs of the entrepreneurial journey.
Over the past 12 years, Naomi has worked with hundreds of clients to help them heal their relationships with food, feel confident in their bodies, shed fat, and ditch diets for good. A former fitness competitor, who has experienced her own disordered relationship with food and body image, leading to some major health scares, Naomi knows all too well the vicious cycle of bingeing and restricting over-exercising cycle, and how overwhelming and all-consuming that can be.
Naomi holds a BS in Exercise Science with a minor in Nutrition from Ithaca College. She is a Certified Health Coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and has a Precision Nutrition Level I Certification.
Naomi, where did you grow up, and what was your childhood like?
I grew up right outside of Boston in a town called Newton, Massachusetts. My childhood, I don’t want to say it was pretty normal, but I have two wonderful parents, I also have an older brother who I was very close with, and I’m still very close with. He also lives currently outside of Boston, I see him often with his kids and wife and my parents are also close by.
So, a pretty tight-knit family always encouraged us to work hard, be independent, and no matter what we wanted to do in life, just to go all-in, really. They always stressed the importance of education so going to college was not really an option, not that I didn’t want to go. It was kind of like the ultimate goal after graduating from high school.
I had a wonderful upbringing; it was there that I really got my love for living an active lifestyle through my parents.
When did you become interested in fitness?
I’ve been active as a child. I played soccer and softball in middle school and then in high school. I played field hockey, and while I loved field hockey, I really didn’t fall in love with any other Spring sport, and I still wanted to be active, so I actually started going to Gold’s gym with my mom, a super hard-bodied gym at the age of 15 and I fell in love with just being in that atmosphere. I loved strength training; I just kind of followed my mom around. I took some classes, I became friends with the trainers, and it was like a really no-frills bare-bones gym, but I just loved hanging out there; it was kind of my calling, and I started to see at a very early age the effects of exercise and how my body transformed and how I gained so much confidence.
I would have to say that my junior and senior years in high school is when my true love for fitness and learning more about it started, like why is it that we can lose body fat by not running all the time and we can lift weights, really diving deeper into exercise science. When I applied to colleges, I looked for colleges that had some sort of exercise science program because I knew I wanted to go into that field.
I see you are a certified health coach through Integrative Nutrition and you have a Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification. Why is nutrition important?
I think nutrition is the key to healing all sorts of ailments. When you go to the doctor these days, and you say I have a headache and they say here’s a prescription for a pill or I have acid reflux, here’s a prescription, but really what I learned through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and I knew this before but it was really ingrained, is that nutrition can truly heal you from the inside out and there is a time and place for medication, of course, but choosing certain foods and nutrients and herbs and spices and teas and tonics and all that …. nutrition is so powerful and there are so many ways to utilize it.
You had a disordered relationship with food and body image, leading to some major health scares. Please explain this disordered relationship with food and how it affected your health?
When I was 25, I got immersed in the world of fitness competition. For those who don’t know, for women, you put on a bikini, and you get all tan. It’s essentially a fitness beauty pageant. I’m sure most people listening have seen pictures. It was when I was at Gold’s Gym that I got exposed to this world because there was a trainer there who would coach women to compete so I always looked in at the studio, and these women had these heels on and bikinis. I said in my head, one day, I want to do that, and that looked amazing, and so when I was 25, I was actually in a really not so great relationship at the time, and that relationship prompted me to do something for myself. So, I signed up for a show, and there was no turning back at that time. I signed up for Cathy Savage Fitness, I thought I was going to do one show, and I continued to do six shows over the course of four years. I even became a coach for the team and so I got really, really immersed in this world. At first, my body completely transformed, but it was really the validation I was getting from the outside world, let’s say, that really kept me going. I was getting compliments from men and women. I was pretty much terrified of gaining an ounce of fat. I tried to maintain my on-stage body year-round and which for those who have competed is not ideal and is not sustainable, so I did everything I could to just maintain the way I looked, so as you can imagine I had a disordered relationship with food, I had a lot of food anxiety in situations where I was not in control. It affected my social life, it affected my family life, so that’s kind of the disordered part and I knew at the end of the day I was not going to do this forever and at the age of 26, I actually suffered from a perforated peptic ulcer.
Perforated means it burst through my intestine. I had emergency surgery and it was there that it was my kind of Ah-Ha moment, when I realized I needed to get my stuff together and begin this journey of just getting to a better place mentally healing my relationship with food and my body.
What are your views on fad diets and Why Don’t they work for most people?
We can do another podcast on this topic, Vincent, but I will keep it short. Essentially fad diets are exactly what they say. They are fads. The diet industry is a billion-dollar or more industry, and these days it’s super hard because every influencer is being paid to Market some detox tea or waist trainer or quick fix or what have you, and at the end of the day diets are not sustainable. They force you to follow food rules. Any sort of food protocol where you’re following a set of rules is not going to be sustainable for life because if you go outside of those rules, you’re going to have anxiety and it’s going to force you to go down the slippery slope and by that I mean if you’re told you can never eat chocolate chip cookies and then you have two chocolate chip cookies, two things are going to happen, you’re going to have a lot of guilt around that and that’s not going to be great for your mindset, or you’re going to say screw it and eat the entire bag of chocolate chips then you’re going to feel guilty, you’re going to want to wake up and detox, you’re going to want to over exercise and it’s a vicious cycle that too many women I have seen get caught up in, myself included.
What is Naomi Rotstein’s Exercise Philosophy?
I am a big fan of strength training, especially since most of my clients are women. I do work with some men one on one, but the men never have any problems with strength training, that’s why they work with me (laughter). It’s more the women who need some tough love and a little convincing. Some of my female clients actually love lifting heavy and love how it feels. My philosophy with my clients is strength training, a minimum of 3 days a week. That is a sweet spot for most people who work full time and have a life and a couple of days of cardiovascular and could be an activity that you enjoy whether that is a spin class or bodyweight HIIT workout or kickboxing or a run and then one day of something a little bit more mindful like yoga or a karate class or a long walk and then absolutely a minimum of one day completely off from exercise to rest and recover and continue to rest because your body cannot work overtime if you’re not letting it rest. It will constantly be inflamed in a state of stress.
How do you Motivate Your Clients to Want to Work Out?
That’s an interesting question. I am going to say that my ideal client is already motivated. In my Instagram bio it states that I help motivated women and I also do train men, lose body fat. I want to work with a motivated group of people, so my ideal client and because I work on my own, I have firsthand pick on who I do work with, so my roster of clients right now, they don’t need a ton of motivation to show up and do the work. They might not like some of the exercises I give them to do, but most of my clients want to work out. They just are craving that structure. They are craving some accountability. I help them create workouts for their goals. I help them with their weekly workout schedule, provide accountability and support. My clients are the best!
Do you train your clients in person at a gym or virtually?
As we are recording this during COVID, I would say that most of my clients are virtual. I pivoted in mid-March when this pandemic hit. I contacted my clients to say that I am going to continue working and what time works for you? We will keep your time, etc., and I just pivoted all of my business virtual. There are a couple of clients I am seeing in person but previous to COVID I worked in boutique studios, I do not work in a big box gym anymore. You do not need a gym membership at the gym that I train, you just come to work out with me, I rent the space, and that’s that. I am also training a couple of clients in the gyms of their apartment building.
How has this COVID-19 pandemic affected your business?
I’m going to say that my business has skyrocketed, and I also think that’s due to a lot of gyms being closed. I get personal training inquiries almost every week. As we are recording this interview, I am not taking on any new clients. Although this always changes, my personal training schedule/roster is full. I am also pivoting my business a little bit, getting into business coaching for personal trainers. I am currently working with a business coach, so I’m bringing another leg to my business. So, I think that COVID for me at least, has been a really big blessing in disguise to access and to also really tap into some other passions that I have and one of which is helping other trainers with their business digitally and that is the next endeavor that I am working on.
Honestly, it’s been great for my business. It’s also forced me to slow down a little bit and not run around the city like a chicken with its head cut off. If you’re a trainer, you know what that feels like.
You have a 12-week program called 1FITFUTURE, where did the name come from and what does it mean?
I started my blog 1 Fit Foodie in 2009 and started my brand’s name and everyone started recognizing me and calling me 1 Fit Foodie. I just picked it one day and fell into it. Different legs of my business are called…I used that 1 Fit so and so. I just created a workout program called 1FitBod. In my ID bio if you click the link “About Me”, it says 1FitFoodie, so when I created this program, I was still trying to keep it on-brand. You want it to be catchy, you want it to be memorable, so 1FitFuture, that’s where the name came from and I’m really proud of that name.
What can clients expect to receive from joining your program?
1FitFuture is my signature program. It’s a 90-day course, and I work with motivated, driven, incredible women, all who have a common goal, they really want to stop wasting their time, energy and money and see results. It’s a hybrid coaching program, it’s built to teach and guide women through a 4, and I actually added a 5th module call the Quarantine Edition, so it actually has 5 modules. It’s 12 weeks; it’s a hands-on course with group accountability with individual live support. There are zoom calls every week; I have some amazing guest coaches. There is a 24/7 Facebook group for the women and me to connect and talk all day long, and the course is online. You can go at your own pace. It also includes a three-month strength training program, meal prep guides. There are lessons that range in everything from nutrition to binge and restrict cycles to self-sabotage to more mindset to workout recovery. There is a 25 recipe e-book, so there is a lot of content in this course and the women go through it together. And to your question as to what they can expect, at the end of the day I want the women who enroll in this course, to have a better relationship with food. We do not count calories; we do not use the scale. It’s all intuitive eating principles.
I want them to have confidence in their food choices. I want them to never be tempted to do another fad diet again because that has gotten them nowhere and because of that, most of them don’t lose body fat. This is not a guaranteed weight loss course, though. I’m not guaranteeing anyone is going to lose 10 pounds. That said, most of the women who show up and do the work 100% do lose weight. They lose weight because they do the work of getting out of the diet mindset.
Do You Have Any Success Stories on your Website?
Of course. There are tons of testimonials. There are testimonial videos. I have hundreds, literally hundreds.
Can Anyone Start Your Program at Any time?
Because I am the coach of the program, I actually run this 3 or 4 times per year.
I coach it 100%. It’s not the kind of thing where you buy it, and you go through it with no guidance. You are doing it with the other women. Right now I am in the 4th round of it. There are 16 women enrolled. This course will go until around Thanksgiving, and then I will kick off a new class in January. Women can sign up months in advance because they are not locked in that spot. There is never a time you can’t fill out the application, chat, and lock in your spot.
What advice would you give someone who is concerned about their health during the upcoming fall and winter months?
I would say the most important thing to me is sleep. Making sure you get adequate sleep is going to set you up for a solid foundation to keep your cortisol levels in check, keep your adrenals in check, not have anxiety and be productive during the day and it’s so critical for your health, so I think sleep is number one. Try not looking at your phone before bedtime, keeping your room cool, and then finding ways to move your body and it doesn’t have to be some hour-long crazy Cross Fit hip style workout, it could be a 30-minute walk, it could be a 20-minute yoga flow. Find ways to move your body every day, so you’re not sitting at a desk all day and feeling cooped up and be sure to get a wide range of nutrients in your diet, so if you’re used to always eating zucchini for your vegetables, put a new food item in your cart, try new foods.
How Can We find out more about Naomi Rotstein and 1FitFuture?
You can visit my website at http://www.naomirotstein.com, and on Instagram you can always shoot me a DM. I am super approachable and would love to hear from you. It’s naomi.rotstein.
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