There are some client success stories that you never feel justified in writing because you know you’re still watching a process evolve.
This is one of them…a work in progress. But I want to tell it to you to show how a single person can achieve weight loss while healing themselves and inspiring others.
The central goal of this client didn’t just revolve a fairly straightforward goal of weight loss. She wanted to feel better and reduce the amount of back and pain medication she was on. She suffered from numerous food allergies and severe scoliosis. Her process was one that would take time; results could not come quick. It would involve working closely with her doctor to understand both the movement limitations and how the medicine she was prescribed could affect diet and appetite.
(the work in Progress!)
It was my job to encourage her to stick to her overall goals of better health though I knew how long the road ahead would be for her.
And she was also a client who didn’t even live near me, she was an example of an online/distance client, one that I would train from afar, prescribing guidance on meal programming, strength training, and cardiovascular activity. How was I supposed to motivate and coach her towards her important goals if we did not see each other on a regular basis?
Although we met every 6 weeks to remeasure body composition and take progress photos, she was largely accountable to me on her own via email and phone calls, and we regularly touched base regarding changes in weight, how she was faring in the gym, and how her training was progressing. She took ownership of her training logs, of prepping and planning her meals in advance, of setting the alarm earlier to stretch and add in daily activity, of making the initial steps at home and at the office towards positive fitness lifestyle and diet changes.
For anyone who believes that you can only see progress when you have some personal trainer screaming at you to push out one more rep, this client will prove you wrong.
For anyone who believes that just because you’ve been stuck at the same weight and size for years and years and that it will never come off, she will prove you wrong.
For anyone who believes that you can’t become stronger because of a physical disability, she will prove you wrong.
For anyone who believes you can’t lose the weight because of a food allergy, she will prove you wrong.
For those of you that think that you can’t lose weight because your job has you eating several meals out during the week for business, she’ll prove you wrong.
And for anyone who believes that you need lots of money to hire a trainer or succeed in your fitness goals, WE will prove you wrong.
Here are some of her accomplishments:
45 lbs of continued weight loss in 10 months.
Went from a Size 16 to a Size 8 in 10 months.
40 modified pushups after 5 months (she started at 11 modified pushups) and now can complete 2 sets of 10 traditional push ups.
Able to walk 5-6 miles nonstop after 5 months of training (and is again enjoying her weekend hiking trips), after previously being limited to 1 mile at a time.
Able to do 3 sets of 12 dead lift at 60 lbs. When she started she could only lift a 7-lb bar. (Yeah, they make that).
Reduced pain medication for back and joints by over 50%.
These are just a handful of the measurable accomplishments this client has attained. She’s still got work to do (she can’t do a chinup to save her life 🙂 ), and we both acknowledge that. We also acknowledge that progress sometimes comes in spurts. You’ll see fantastic gains some weeks and during others it feels like nothing is changing and the scale isn’t your friend. But when you know that building a stronger, healthier better body is a slow, gradual process you don’t worry about the short-term road bumps.
Establishing positive lifestyle changes means that the results you see can finally be permanent and that they are yours to keep. You CAN keep the weight off, you CAN stay off or greatly reduce the amount of medications you take (and take the pressure off your pocketbook!), and you can inspire your friends, your family, and coworkers to sit up, take notice and say “hey, I can do this too!” The slow and steady pace may be a tough path to follow, but it’s well worth it.
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