Michael Mantell

Body-image issues can be hugely damaging to an individual’s self-esteem and ability to enjoy life. As a fitness professional, you will likely encounter clients struggling to feel good about how they look and feel. Learn how you can help your clients develop a more positive self-image and begin to counteract some of the outside forces that contribute to body-image disorders.

If you’re trying to stick to your healthy eating plan and goals, the workplace can be full of landmines designed to trip you up—Halloween candy, birthday celebrations, dinner meetings. Even your well-meaning coworkers can derail or diminish your efforts. Dr. Michael Mantell offers five great tips for dealing with “diet saboteurs” and how to politely deflect their often less-than-positive influence.

What’s the secret to controlling our out-of-control stress levels? Dr. Michael Mantell offers his five top tips for managing stress, creating happier, healthier thoughts and finding joy in the little things.

Do you feel selfish when you take time to work out and take care of yourself. Stop it, says Dr. Michael Mantell. Taking care of yourself is the best kind of selfishness—it makes it possible for you to care for others and to enjoy all that life has to offer. Here’s how you can stop feeling selfish about making your health a priority.

You know stress is bad for you, but do you know exactly how bad? It’s much worse than you think. Dr. Michael Mantell describes the high cost of stress-inducing thinking on both the brain and the body, and explains why halting these thoughts in their tracks is essential to both your health and your waistline

Does your spouse or partner support your physical-activity efforts? If not, you’re not alone—a recent survey found that nearly half of respondents said that their spouse or partner did not support regular gym attendance. Dr. Michael Mantell explains why supporting one another’s fitness goals is essential to not only a healthy body, but a healthy relationship as well.

No amount of fitness or nutrition knowledge will be enough to help your clients make healthy lifestyle changes that last unless they learn to increase their levels of willpower and self-control. Dr. Michael Mantell explains how you can help your clients develop the WIT (whatever it takes), grit and self-control necessary to reach their goals and live happier, healthier lives.

It’s the beginning of a New Year—are you still on track with your resolutions? If you’re starting to waver, it may be a good time to create some big-picture thinking. Dr. Michael Mantell explains why only the fully accurate, big picture will give you the tools to properly check-in on your goals, assure that what you are doing supports your plan for the coming year for your fitness, and help you feel good about the time and energy you are expending.

Every year it’s the same for so many clients—making resolutions only to break them within the first few weeks of the New Year. Dr. Michael Mantell explains how you can be source of real behavior change for your clients all year long by using techniques from positive psychology, motivational interviewing and cognitive behavior change.

It’s time to end this nonsense of making—and not keeping—New Year’s resolutions, says Dr. Michael R. Mantell, ACE Senior Fitness Consultant for Behavioral Sciences. Instead of waiting until the ball drops on New Year’s Eve to make a fresh start, start now by picturing the changes you wish to make as if you have already met your goals. In other words, forget resolutions and start aligning yourself with your chosen self.

For many people there’s no more challenging time of the year than the holidays to test your commitment to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Equipped with the best ways to think about eating and exercising, however, you’ll enter January feeling better than you could ever imagine—guilt-free, healthy, fit and happy.

Clients who back off from their workouts during the hectic holiday season are not only impacting their health and well being, but your business as well. Here are some great strategies you can use to keep your clients engaged and motivated during this most wonderful—and busiest—time of year.

Do you look forward to the holidays with anticipation and joy? Or are you more likely to view this season with dread and anxiety as you struggle to stay on track with your health goals? Dr. Michael Mantell explains how to effectively change your expectations and mindset about the holiday season so that you can not only enjoy it, but also continue to make your health and well-being a top priority.

Despite countless books and articles devoted to staying motivated, many of us still have a hard time sticking to our exercise routines. Dr. Michael Mantell presents a simple exercise that will help you fill your thinking with positive expectations, know clearly what you expect from yourself and what you value when it comes to your health and wellbeing—all of which will help you overcome “motivation stagnation.” Try it, says Dr. Michael, and it will change your life.

It’s no secret that, for many of us, eating is a about a lot more than simply satisfying hunger. Emotional eating can quickly sabotage even the most committed weight-loss efforts, but Dr. Michael Mantell offers important advice on how to tell the difference between physical and emotional hunger, as well as what steps you should take to get emotional eating under control.

Research suggests that the influence of friends shouldn’t be underestimated when it comes to making healthy diet and exercise choices. Dr. Michael Mantell explains the three degrees of influence and how to counteract negative peer pressure that occurs when our friends and family make less-than-healthy lifestyle choices.

There’s no question that leading a healthy lifestyle can be challenging, to say the least, but it is also surprisingly simple in that there aren’t a whole lot of steps. There are, in fact, just 7 steps to a healthy life, explains Dr. Michael Mantell, who offers his step-by-step toolkit for taking control of your life and achieving true health and wellbeing.

Didn’t get a chance to attend this year’s 2013 IDEA World Fitness Convention? Here is a quick summary of some of the highlights, which included top-notch education and high-energy workouts. Dr. Michael Mantell also explains why this year, information was clearly king.

Spend a few minutes on Facebook or Pinterest, where motivational quotes are hot commodities, and you might find yourself feeling pumped and determined. Dr. Michael Mantell explains why motivational quotes have the power to inspire and move us to action—and offers a few of his favorites for motivating clients.

Let’s face it: Good habits can be as hard to develop, as bad habits are to shake. But it isn’t impossible. Dr. Michael Mantell shares a proven, step-wise process for creating positive habits that will not only make living healthier a breeze, but a whole lot more rewarding as well.

Like millions of Americans, you may be struggling to manage your stress levels. But instead of trying to manage it, Dr. Michael Mantell suggests we can eliminate stress before it even starts by changing the way we look at our circumstances. The link, he says, is what you think.

Trying to do a workout routine that isn’t tailored to your personality is a lot like wearing someone else’s clothes—it just doesn’t fit right. But how can you be sure what types of activities are right for you? Dr. Michael Mantell explains how you can use ACE’s online personality quiz to learn if you’re a social butterfly, go-getter, planner or adventurer, and discover which workouts will keep you coming back for more.

Does dieting or trying to make healthier choices make you feel out of control or unhappy? Dr. Michael Mantell explains why the key to lasting weight loss isn’t found in the latest diet book or fad, but in your own thought patterns. Learn why the link is what you think—and how you can change your thought patterns to create a healthier, happier you.

Tragic and senseless acts such as the Boston Marathon bombings can leave many people feeling traumatized and stressed, even if they have no personal connections to the incident. If you find your clients are struggling to deal with these recent events, Dr. Michael Mantell explains how you can help them utilize wellness tools to cope with the emotional aftermath of this horrific tragedy.

Wondering how you can make those healthy resolutions really stick this year? Dr. Michael Mantell explains the steps you can take to psychologically and physically enhance your willpower and give yourself the best possible chance to succeed in making 2013 your best—and healthiest—year yet.

Setbacks and unexpected life events are inevitable, but they don’t have to completely derail your clients’ efforts or progress. Here is some important advice for how to help your clients keep moving forward, no matter what life throws at them.

Do you find yourself dreading the endless supply of holiday-themed temptations that will undoubtedly undo all of your healthy good intentions? Dr. Michael Mantell offers some great strategies that will not only help you survive the holidays—but thrive as well!

Whether it’s the winter blues or a more serious mood disorder common during this time of year, research has shown that shorter days and less sunlight can definitely affect the way we feel. Check out some ways you can keep working toward your health and fitness goals despite the holiday drag.

We’re fast approaching that time of year when all resolve and willpower seem to go out the window. Learn how to motivate your clients to stay on track by helping them make SMARTER health and fitness goals that give them the greatest chances for success.

The mind is the central tool to healthy, sustainable weight loss, and your thoughts can either sabotage or strengthen your progress. Learn from ACE Senior Fitness Consultant Dr. Michael Mantell as he shares how to make lasting lifestyle changes by monitoring and understanding our own thoughts and behaviors.

Understanding a client’s unique personality is essential for establishing rapport, and to help our trainers, ACE has created a Fitness Personality Quiz that determines and assess clients’ predominant personality styles. Check out what ACE Senior Fitness Consultant Dr. Michael Mantell has to say about his personal experience while taking the quiz, and how it can serve as a useful tool during your ACE-based assessment.

Food is meant to be a source of fuel and nourishment for our bodies, but today it has become a coping mechanism to deal with negative thoughts or feelings. Food companies have capitalized on our emotional connection with food by creating misleading labels and special offers, making food shopping and consumption confusing and overwhelming. In this article Dr. Michael Mantell gives tips on how to regain control and recognize emotional triggers by establishing psychologically healthy eating habits.

Knowing how to connect with your clients in a way that caters to their personal styles can build the foundation for a healthy, lifelong relationship. Learn from ACE Senior Fitness Consultant Dr. Michael Mantell as he discusses the importance of rapport and the role it plays in career success.

As fitness professionals, we often spend so much time focusing on the physical aspects of health that we often forget the emotional side. Help yourself and your clients reevaluate their core selves by asking a few questions that will help them achieve their goals.

If you didn’t get a chance to attend the 2012 IDEA World Fitness Convention in San Diego last week, you missed a venue full of new equipment and research, and a networking opportunity that drew about 6,000 fitness professionals from across the country. But don’t worry, our own ACE Senior Consultant Michael Mantell, Ph.D., has a recap of the event, as well as a few thoughts on his favorite products introduced there.

Hearing a client say they want to “tone up” or “get leaner” is nothing new, but going beyond that to explore any body image issues your client may have could be undiscovered territory. Check out some insight from Dr. Michael Mantell on some signals that your client may be experiencing body image dissatisfaction and how you should handle it.

Only about 3% of people set goals for themselves and follow them through to the end. Don’t underestimate the value of goal-setting – for yourself and your clients. Determine what your clients want to achieve, have them write it down and help them take steps to turn it into reality.

Is your head ready for the big day? While you may not be competing in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London starting July 27, you may be getting ready for a triathlon, half or full marathon, a tennis match in your club, a swim meet or even a race at an upcoming family picnic. Regardless of the size of the audience, you want to win – or at least be seriously competitive.

Why would your clients settle for a Model-T when they could have a new Corvette? Don’t use the old model of personal training; be a coach. Explore how going beyond biomechanics and exercise program design can help your clients achieve more, and build your business in the process.

When it comes to working out, you can simply assume that you’re motivated, goal-directed and mentally ready to achieve OR you can distinguish yourself as a flawless fitness goal setter. Not both. For improved motivation and long-term adherence to physical activity, incorporate these three methods into your fitness plan to maximize your results.