When should you hire a personal trainer?

I've always thought about what a personal trainer could do for me. I do go to the gym and excersise. I see the personal trainers with their clients, and I think why would someone pay money for something they can do themselves. Most of the excersises I see them doing is the same thing I do without the help of a trainer. All they're doing is standing next to you while you're doing your workout. If those are the quallifications of a trainer,then maybe I should be one. I can stand next to someone and look at them. I wouuld like to condition myself to train like an athlete, since i play softball on the weekends. I see what some of these baseball players workouts consist of, and i say to myself,"Idon't do half of what these guys do to keep in shape". But at the same time these guys get paid millions of dollars, and the motivation to stay in that shape is huge. I'm currently working my way back into increasing the intensity of my workouts,as I am recovering from a bone spur in my elbow. It's finally going away after a month and a half, and all I've been doing is alot of cardio, which is a good thing since I lost about 15 pounds. I've slimmed down like I was trying to do, but I also lost some of my stregnth and whatever little muscle I had. The only thing I think I would want is a personal chef to cook me some good tasting high protein meals. Something healthy that has a great taste. people for the most part need to be motivated to get themselves in better shape. My buddy used to ask me "how do yo ugo to the gym by yourself?" I tell him like everyone else, it doesn't other me. I don't need company to work out. I can see how it can be motivational to be around someone who is serius about excersise, it gives you energy and makes you wanna get into shape and or stay fit. I see many people come to the gym with their friends, and all they do is 30min of talking, and about 20min of actually working out. Then you have the ones that come to the gym with their news papers or talking on their cell phones. Things like that can be done at home. But to get back to the subject, I think if you are going to consider either a personal trainer or just working out by yourself, you need to be sure you're going to take it seriously. You can workout all you want, but you have to be smart about what you eat. I eat my chicken breats,turkey and tuna. I have my yogurt and fuits to snack on. I do this during the week, but on sunday,after my softball games it's beer and football time. I don't think you have to keep yourself from eating good foods every so often. Just not every day. I hate it when I hear them ask these fitness experts and hollywood stars what they eat. They say something like "I'll have oatmeal with a half an orange or banana for breakfast. For lunch I'll have steamed veggies and a smoothie. For dessert I'll have a half of grapefuit with cottage cheese, and for diner I'll have 14 glasses of water with a leaf of lettuce". I don't think it's so much of what you eat, but it's how much of what you eat. If you're goin to workout, going to Mcdonalds for lunch everyday isn't going to cut it. Depending on what you want to accomplish, people need to consider their eating habbits. All the cardio,weight liffting and personal training will only take you but so far if you have bad eating habbits.

When your are going to make way money inorder to pay for there new lifestyle and yours. I know I am posting way out of my legue but just wasnt able to resist. Happy posting.:)