Cory Norbutus Founder of Heart Healthy Tips
There are many reasons that I developed this website. Some which date back to my childhood. Growing up, I was always the tall, "big boned" kid in the class. I always looked 2-3 years older than I really was.
I was active like most other kids, but always battled food. "Treats" were given for good behavior, good report cards, celebrations, and holidays.
Let's be honest, you can find a reason to celebrate every day, getting out of bed and heading to school or work can seem like a challenge some days, but do we really need a chocolate bar for it?How my fascination and appreciation for the systems and makings of the human body started
At some point in my teens, I threw myself into sports, but my true love was basketball. That was when I first became interested in how the body works together to complete tasks.
As competition increased, I added more strength training to increase my dynamic as an athlete. I started a weight training program in the off season to improve my strength. I was so excited going into that pre-season practice game. I was stronger than ever!
The game started, and within a couple of minutes, I was already out of breath from running up and down the court. The game had just started! How could by body already be shutting down on me?
I learned an important lesson, that being healthy and having a body that performs at peak capacity, comes from multiple types of training and good nutrition. Since I had put my focus on strength training by lifting weights, and let my cardiovascular training slide, my heart and lungs were not ready to perform at the capacity I needed, and expected them to perform.My education and experience as a fitness professional
I went on to graduate with a degree in Exercise Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. While at UMASS, I worked as an athletic trainer intern with the UMASS football team and as in intern at University Health Services.
Little did I know how vital my hands on experience would become in my career.
I took the knowledge I learned and became an exercise physiologist, and then a manager, of a corporate fitness facility in the Boston area. I developed health and wellness programs for 100's of employees.
Next, I worked within a leading Boston fitness facility as a group exercise instructor, and personal trainer. During this time, I became more creative as a health professional to meet my client's wide ranging needs.
Already having my certification as a Personal Trainer from ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine), I took additional training and certifications to increase my knowledge in the ever expanding health and fitness realm. Some of my trainings included Weight management and Lifestyle consultant, as well as pre- and post-natal training.
I gained experience as an in-home personal trainer, and developed a boot camp business, as well as post-natal mommy and me bootcamps (my beautiful newborn daughter was my assistant)!
How Heart Healthy Tips was born
I helped many people to lose weight and tone up. Which is an amazing accomplishment! However, some of the unexpected victories in helping people were being able to improve their quality of life.
When a client would tell me they were able to decrease or stop taking medications for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or even diabetes, that would make my day!
When a client would tell me that the new healthy lifestyle tips we had started with, are now habits, I would rejoice! It can be somewhat easy to lose a couple of quick pounds. But the real difficulty is maintaining a healthy loss and heart healthy lifestyle.
Last reason being Heart Healthy is important to me? Heart disease runs in my family. I can't do a whole lot about my genetic makeup, but I sure can do something about the lifestyle factors that will determine my quality of life.Why this site is for you
Pairing together my knowledge and experience that has helped my Boston clients, I developed this site to help everyone else maintain a heart healthy lifestyle. Please use this site to find out if your heart numbers (blood pressure, heart rate, etc) are in the heart healthy range.