1. You juggle quite a few things in your life (your music career, your career as a personal trainer, being a mother). How do you make sure you are balancing your priorities?
Now being a woman who is in my 50s, I realize more than ever the importance with staying in touch with who I was as a child before life, marriage and career came into play. Keeping the idealistic dreams alive in one’s heart, staying in touch with our passions is most important in terms of not losing a sense of self. Many women who give up a career in order to have children and get married often suffer the most with obesity where food has become the center of their whole world. After all, we Moms usually plan the meals, make the parties and plan activities that 9 times out of 10, center around food. Most people, especially women, go through life having to compromise many goals set at the start of their lives in order to have one thing or another. I once heard someone say ” if you work hard you can have it all…. but maybe not all at one time!”. Very wise.
As a musician and an artist who started dance at age 4 in 1963, violin and piano at age 7 and vocal lessons at age 12, the path of the never ending struggle in entertainment could have come with the common isolation and loneliness that accompanies many artists through life. Having “normalcy” in terms of having a husband and children with a family life which started when I met my husband Roy in 1983 on a blind date, has given me the balance as a person as well as an artist that I never would have achieved if I had not followed that path. Have I had to compromise much along the way in terms of career goals set as a child?.. Well yes… however… the balance, maturity, security and overall sensitivity it has given me towards others all around me could not have been acquired without it.
The challenge of balancing a business, career as well as a 27 year marriage while raising 3 children now ages 17, 19 & 24 all of whom are incredible young people has given me the motivation to stay in touch with my personal goals. They are my mirror as well as my motivation. My children have been raised with a mother that has worked hard to balance and have success in all areas of life whether it be with my career, my marriage, my relationships with my children as well as balancing my weight and fitness agenda for myself and countless people that I help around me with their personal weight & health goals.
2. What inspired you to become a personal trainer?
I was a fat kid with all the issues that come with that. I am extremely sensitive to others who struggle with a food addiction. Even those that only have a few pounds to lose. Let’s keep in mind that we need to burn 3,500 calories more than we take in. That is a lot! Not a snap for anyone.
The first time I dropped weight on my own as a young singer/ dancer in 1978 at the age of 19 in NYC pounding the pavement with my picture and resume in hand going to countless auditions, I supplemented my income by waiting tables at Weight Watcher’s Restaurant and as being one of the first aerobic exercise instructors at the legendary Body Design by Gildas. We were the first, complete with headbands, flexitards and vinyl records in hand spinning the hits of the day like Flashdance, Fame and Maniac on that turntable while we taught our dance aerobics and crunched those abs to the sweat of the beats.
In the late 90s after being in the recording business co-owning Kamen Entertainment Group, Inc. together with my husband for 15 years casting and producing hundreds of TV & Radio commercials and losing 100 pounds , charting in Billboard magazine with my original song recordings of “Dreamlover” and charting around the world with my CD Single “Um’Lotty”Da”… these songs started to get licensed to the fitness community. Companies including Jazzersize, Dynamix, NY Sports Club, Equinnox started to utilize my material for various fitness programs and aerobic workouts. By the year 2000, QDirect ( a division of QVC ) launched Urban Rebounding.. the mini trampoline and contracted me to write the music for their videos, Host and front their live event trade shows, choreograph and tell my weight loss success story around the country.
Over the years additional companies such as Strive Enterprises Circuit Training, More Magazine and Jackie Chan’s CableFlex asked me to do the same. This past year, I had the opportunity to cast, and work for 90 days with over 75 people tracking their weight loss for 3 different Fitness Products coming to television 2011 with both Gaiam and All Star Distribution. What an amazing eclectic skill set this takes. Casting and finding the people, mastering the particular workout for the product, writing music that will motivate the people daily that I need to keep on track for a 90 day period and then working them out, weighing and measuring them weekly. Woo.. Honey! They inspire ME! THEY keep ME on track.
How lucky am I? 🙂
3. What are your three favorite songs to dance/work out to?
Well, of course, as a songwriter who has written 400 songs for fitness I have a few personal favorites from my own catalogue at http://www.MarinaOnline.com 🙂
http://www.marinaonline.com/BlogMP3/132-BPM-TodayIBelieve.mp3
http://www.marinaonline.com/BlogMP3/150-BPM-Dance.mp3
In addition… I had the opportunity to work with QVC/Urban Rebounding in the year 2000 to re-record a double CD release of Disco Classics at a tempo of 132 bpm…. Here is my remake of my favorite from those CD releases which has played in health clubs around the world for the past 10 years…… everyone knows this one 🙂
…”Shake Your Groove Thing!”…loved recording this one! Enjoy! http://www.marinaonline.com/BlogMP3/132-BPM-GrooveThing.mp3
Here is my song “Dance” the video. Simply get on up and “walk” in place to it… you will “feel” like you are a dancer without having to follow complicated choreography…. enjoy and burn those calories!
6. What’s coming up next for you? Any exciting developments?
There are always new products and companies that I work with in the health & fitness communities, however, I am most excited about working currently on my High-nrg Fitness Musical Health Perfor
mance Workshop here in NYC.
I have had the opportunity to work with some of the country’s greatest singers, dancers and musicians and merge it with the world of health & fitness. As a vocalist, performer, writer and producer, I approach weight loss from the entertainment side first to present fitness and not from the fitness side trying to be entertaining. There is a difference. The art of musical communication through music and lyric “edutainment” if you will, is the best way to motivate people in terms of getting on up and moving. No one wants to be yelled at by a drill sergeant. We all just want to feel good, have a good time and be entertained. Working out should not feel like a homework assignment. It should be fun, easy and as matter of fact as watching your favorite TV show or listening to your favorite song.
http://www.marinashighnrgfitness.com/
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