From 0 to about 25, your body, if you exercise it, seems to be working with you and you get very quick tone, strength, and stamina gains depending on how you're working out. By 30 or 35, you are starting to have to expend more time and effort to maintain the same results, and by 40 you start to realize that your body seems to be working against you.

By 40 it is very difficult to maintain the kind of work it takes to stay truly fit (if you aren't one of those people who can just eat anything and stay skinny... feckin' bastids') without some sort of outside help. Getting a trainer should certainly help to keep your motivation up and keep you concentrated on exercises which will maximize your results. Good luck.

So yes, it is a challenge. Some days are better than others, physically and mentally. One things absolutely love about taking the group and one one one training sessions is the fact it is a set date and time, X times a week. That makes me show up and do it.

a trainer, not a chest. My fear is that (s)he would tell me I have to stop eating so much. I like eating.

They tend to discourage poor nutrition.

I'm in the same boat, retired from the military and used my 9/11 GI bill benefits to go to school full time, which meant a serious decrease in activity level in my forties and man, did my body go to pot. I need to figure out a work/school/sleep/exercise schedule that I can live with and not burnout. Unfortunately, I don't have the funds for a trainer and need to motivate myself to start exercising without any outside help or influence.