Why are you a good trainer? What makes fitness your passion?
I began dieting as a young girl and dieted myself right into morbid obesity. At 51 years of age, I found myself 2 pounds away from 300 pounds, with diabetes and hypertension, and becoming immobile. Several years back I had resigned myself to being obese because I had tried diet and exercise, pills and potions, but nothing worked. Something clicked and I knew I had to start on a lifetime journey but things had to be different. No diet! So I began slowly changing my eating habits until I felt good enough to add on a little exercise. After losing 50 pounds I came to a standstill, so I sought out a trainer at the urging of my chiropractor. It was the best thing to happen to me. Under his supreme guidance I lost half my body weight, becoming fit in the process. Having always been overweight/obese, I was never athletic. Now I was skydiving, winning my age group in 5K’s, half marathons, open water swim, and triathlons. I came ALIVE!
The journey was tough. It’s very hard for an obese person to enter a gym and stick with it. You are uncoordinated and it’s hard to “hide” the fat while weight lifting. People snicker, etc. And you’re starting with the defiict of already painful joints, etc. But the transformation that happened both inside (it must come from the inside) and out was such a gift to me that I knew I needed to pay it forward, so I became a PFT and later an RYT. I have a passion for helping those who have given up, for those who thinks it’s too late or not possible to become fit and healthy, for those with limitations and “issues”, for those that need a total overhaul on the inside. I love to watch the light bulb go off and the inside transformations to begin which spark the outside transformations. I love to facilitate their engaging in life and doing things they never dreamed they could do. And that desire to help and guide shows. They see my dedication to staying fit which makes them believe it’s possible, and they feel my dedication to their reaching their own personal goals. I can relate to them because I know what they’re thinking, and they relate to that. So many times, they will ask me how I know them so well or if I was secretly filming their every move! And since I understand their limitations they feel safe in trying the things I ask them to do. And the younguns will kill themselves trying to do something I’ve demonstrated for them because if “the old lady can do” I will definitely try it with all I’ve got!