Marni - thanks for your perspective on this. I've already gone from 34% bodyfat to 28% and have lost 15 pounds in a little over 2 months. My current trainer is a certified medical coach with a strong strength training background who is currently working to help me overcome a strong neural deficit - one half of my body wants the other half to do all of the work - so we are doing some heavy unilateral training right now to persuade all of my muscle groups to do their fair share of the load.

I've done some work in the past with the cycling/personal trainer I mentioned, and while he gave me much lighter workouts than my current trainer, I was in worse shape at that time and we were focusing on increasing my tolerance for exercise in general. I think he would be great with helping me with core conditioning - and perhaps the best thing would be to see both of them once a week.

Part of my problem isn't motivation - but pushing myself too hard and in the wrong way. I am strongly motivated, but I do not know the right things to do and - just as importantly - how much is enough. The training is expensive, but it keeps me honest and I probably would have already hurt myself without it. All of our trainers have two degrees and are all ASM certified - the two I work with have multiple certifications.

So what I hear you saying is to work with the trainer, or trainers, that have the knowledge and understanding to get me where I need to be - and that knows when to pull back. That makes sense - I just wanted to check to see that what I am considering actually makes sense - personal training is not cheap.