If there's one thing celebrity trainer Amy Rosoff Davis wants you to know heading into the new year is that you deserve to feel good. And she's helped clients like Selena Gomez, Sofia Richie and Sarah Paulson do just that by crafting workouts and wellness routines that are consistent, sustainable and—gasp!—fun.
Yes, you can add enjoying exercise to your list of intentions for 2024 because it is possible.
"You don't want to do stuff that doesn't light you up," Amy said. "If we're here for this little blip of a miniscule second in this life, I want to light up the world with whatever makes me happy."
What brings Amy joy is helping people live their best life from the inside out, and she brings that energy into her training sessions as she knows there's a "very intimate relationship" between a trainer and a client.
"You're in a vulnerable state physically and emotionally," she explained. "So how can I make people feel comfortable and have fun and love it?"
As for how Amy goes about crafting a wellness routine that is tailored to each individual? She gets to know their lifestyle, including their diet, sleep and current movement level, and sets realistic goals.
"If it's someone who's already go-go-go, let me give you HIIT stuff almost and know when to stretch or slow down depending on your energy and help you out if you need in your other wellness space," she explained. "If it's someone who's more on the let-me sit-on-the-couch, then I'm going to have do some extra cheerleading. But I make it fun, we become friends, we talk about other things and I know how to motivate them. Figuring out both their personality and their go-to lifestyle helps."
And she takes a similar approach when it comes to their diet.
"Some people are really into clean eating and wellness hacks and some aren't," Amy shared. "How do I then help make an adjustment where the training will actually go further? It is then getting into what you eat and how you detox your body and how you take care of yourself because everything works better when your system works."
That means "eating to nourish," Amy advised, "not punish yourself."
In other words, she said, "Don't make a salad with just lemon on it because you have to. Make it yummy, add a bunch of olive oil and salt and make everything like you're a goddess in a way."
Treating yourself like a divinity isn't limited to just what you put in your body, Amy added, but also implementing a nightly skincare routine or maybe adopting a meditation practice.
"I walk the line of woo woo and science," she admitted, "so finding the dance of this life, metaphorically, is how you want to be and feel at the end of the day?"
Or even at the beginning of the year as heading into 2024, Amy stressed the important of focusing on small changes rather than putting pressure on yourself to magically become a new person on Jan. 1.
"You have to set yourself up for success, so if you're like, 'Okay, I am going to work out for nine hours a day and eat like one piece of celery,' it's going to feel overwhelming, you're going to dread doing it and also it's going to be hard to sustain," Amy said. "What can you implement realistically into your life that is going to make you a healthier, better version of you, whatever that looks like, but in a way that's actually doable and that you can change your lifestyle?"
Some non-negotiables for Amy include daily movement, whether it's 10 minutes or a full Pilates class, eating whole foods and cooking at home more. And the trainer is both "really big into detoxing," and "obsessed" with Broc Shot, which is a single shot of broccoli sprouts that has 15 milligrams of sulforaphane that can improve your beauty, brain, and yes, bowel movements.
As a result, she said, "You're going to get better results from your workouts, you're going to be able to absorb your food better because your gut is going to be working, your skin is going to improve."
No matter route you follow, she stresses the oft-repeated notion that it's not about trying a drastic diet overhaul or short-term program, but rather a lifestyle tailored to what you need to feel your best.
"I'm not like, 'Here, try 10 moves,'" she shared. "Your body is going to ebb and flow as much as you want to take care of it and it feels good to feel good. How can you feel good in the long-term, not just for a day or a week or just January?"
Ultimately, aside from movement or what you put in your body," Amy continued, "It's about your relationship with yourself and how much you care about self-care and self-love."
So that means committing to a consistence movement practice that is challenging but never painful, with Amy sharing that she likes to combine exercises that elevate the heart rate with "yummy" yoga flows and stretching to achieve that "yin and yang" balance.
"You're either going to be working too hard and your body is going to be swollen and you have no time for muscle recovery or you're not going to be pushing yourself and not get results because it's not hard enough," Amy explained. "Mindful exercising will give you so much more bang for your buck."
And no, it's not about eating healthy to earn the occasional girl's night out or working out so you can justify eating dessert during the holiday season.
"Make it a lifestyle so that when you have your French fries and your glass of wine, you're not stressed out about enjoying some things in life that are indulgent," Amy said. "How do you make your baseline health and wellness and whatever that means to you so that one day or holiday season doesn't derail you?"
For Amy, life's too short to white-knuckle it through a workout you don't enjoy or consistently eat foods that only make you feel bloated and impact your sleep health.
'We take everything so seriously, we all have to lighten up," she said. "We're going to sit here and stress ourselves out to the point of oblivion! And with working out and eating well, it minimizes all that stuff because you feel good, so it's like a win-win-win-win-win. Make it fun and make it frictionless so that you can easy make it a part of your routine."
And the more you enjoy it, the more you'll appreciate the journey, with Amy sharing, "It's about setting yourself up for success without attachment to the outcome."
Yeah, we ready to come and get that mindset in the new year.