• Job: Personal trainer, Athletic Club Northeast, North Druid Hills, and pastry chef

KARL W. RITZLER/Special (ENLARGE)

Liz Smith puts clients through the paces — in a friendly way — at Athletic Club Northeast. She also bakes pastries part time.

• What I do: Liz Smith's two jobs seem like a contradiction. She's a personal trainer during the week and has been a pastry chef on the weekends.

But now that she's expecting her first baby, Smith, 32, has cut back, working full time as a trainer and only part time as a baker of wedding cakes as well as cakes and cookies for friends.

Most of the time, she helps her clients shed the pounds they put on from enjoying too many treats.

"I work with people on their specific goals," she said. "Some people need a little extra motivation, and some need guidance on knowing what to do."

Her 18 clients range in age from their 20s to 85.

Everyone who enlists Smith's help is evaluated on his or her abilities and condition, and Smith develops a program that will keep the client motivated to achieve his or her fitness goals.

That usually includes strengthening muscles through free weights or resistance machines and improving heart health through cardiovascular exercise equipment, such as treadmills and stair climbers.

"Weight training is just as important as cardio," Smith said. "It burns fat. Lean muscle mass is important for posture and balance."

She also teaches step aerobics, one of the many classes at the club. "People like it, because they don't feel like they're working out."

But Smith also helps people ring up the calories with her pastry business.

For friends and gift baking, she works out of her home kitchen. But for wedding cakes ordered through her baking business, she uses the professional kitchen at Atkins Park, the Virginia-Highland restaurant where her husband, Andrew Smith, is the executive chef.

"People love to come to our house," she said. "They get a great meal from him and great desserts from me."

• What got me interested in this: Smith has been a pastry chef for 10 years but has been a personal trainer for only one.

"I've always loved working out," she said. "Helping people really appeals to me."

Besides, the personal trainer job fits with her expected schedule as a new parent.

Her interest in cooking stems from an eighth-grade home-economics class. All it took was a batch of chocolate-chip cookies.

"I loved every minute of it," she said. "From then on, I baked constantly."

• Best part of my job: "I like helping people reach their [fitness] goals," Smith said. "It's so rewarding knowing I had a hand in it. People need a friend while they're doing something they don't really enjoy. . . . When they see improvement, they tell me about that, and they're just beaming."

After helping her 85-year-old client improve her walking ability, Smith said, "I wouldn't put a price on that."

• Most challenging part: Smith said she gets frustrated with clients who frequently cancel their sessions.

"They'll have every excuse in the book not to come," she said.

She also said she is challenged to keep clients' workout sessions new and interesting "so they'll come back," she said.

• What people don't know about my job: "People think I just have to work people out," she said. But each client has a new routine for each visit to the gym.

"You have to know a lot about the body and how it works" to make sure that clients don't overexert or get hurt during a workout, she added.

• What keeps me going: "I look forward to the clients I'm going to work with that day," Smith said. "I make a personal connection. I listen, not just put them through a routine."

She said she likes to hear about events in their lives.

• Preparation needed for this job: Most gyms hire only certified personal trainers or people who have degrees in exercise science.

Certifications must be renewed and usually require continuing education.

Several organizations certify trainers after several months of courses and passing a test. Smith is certified by the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

In addition, Smith had to take a local practical test as part of the hiring process at her gym.

Besides having certification, Smith said a trainer should be outgoing, patient and nice. She doesn't take the drill-sergeant approach to training.

For cooking, Smith has a bachelor's degree in foods and nutrition from Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C., and an associate's degree in culinary arts from the Art Institute of Atlanta.

She has worked as a pastry chef in several high-end restaurants in metro Atlanta, and she met her husband in the kitchen at her first job after culinary school.

- By Karl W. Ritzler, for ajcjobs. Got an interesting job that you love? E-mail your story to jobseditor@ajc.com.