Some time ago, I had a woman named Jenny* who hired me to be her personal trainer and nutritionist. In her first appointment, as with all of my first appointments, I asked her about her exercise history, diet history, and what was she hoping to achieve by working with me.
Jenny began to tell me how she weighed 172 pounds (at about 5' 6") and was sick and tired of being overweight. But what frustrated her even more than that was the fact that she was eating healthy and exercising regularly, but still couldn't get under 170 pounds. Her husband, a vegetarian and cyclist, made it easy for her to be active and healthy. They ate many healthy, vegetarian meals together and both worked out 5 or 6 days a week. For exercise, she would do the elliptical machine for 45 minutes each day or maybe do a Spinning class. She was confused and depressed as she couldn't understand how she could eat healthy and exercise regularly and not get below 170.
I made some diet recommendations, such as keeping a food journal and cutting back on cheese-based vegetarian dishes. As for her exercise routine, I recommended she mix it up a bit and start taking some aerobics classes in lieu of the elliptical and I also created a strength training program for her. She gave this a try for a few weeks and was happy to lose 2 pounds (going from 172 to 170), but seemed to not be able to break that number. Over the next few weeks, she kept up with the changes but seemed to stay at 170. During her next appointment, she talked to me about how hard she was exercising and how much she was paying attention to her diet, but felt discouraged because it didn't seem to make a difference. She cried and was genuinely frustrated and depressed, feeling like she was a failure.
I decided to get more aggressive with her as I knew that unless she had an underlying medical issue that was keeping her from losing weight, there had to be something we could do to get her to break 170. And I knew the answer....
I looked at her and said "OK, new game plan. From now on, no more elliptical, no more Spinning, no more aerobics....from this day forward, you will run." She looked at me as if I were crazy, argued with me, and said, "No Kim, I can't do that. My husband has been trying to get me to run for years and I won't do it. I HATE to run." Being the somewhat devilish person I can be at times, I gave her a smirk, laughed and said, "You CAN run and you WILL run", (followed by some bad joke referencing the Karate Kid when Miagi says "Teacher say, student do, no questions...").
She then asked me when and how long. I said "Now, and you'll find out". So I took her outside and we started out with a short walk, just to warm up. I then told her that we would find markers. She would walk until we saw a marker, then she would run until the next marker. Walk, run, walk, run. She was miserable, looked like she really was considering punching me, and I think there were some four-letter words coming out of her mouth if memory serves me well.
When we were finished with my drilling, we headed back to my office and sat down. I quickly put together a beginner running program for her, handed it to her and said, "This is your new plan. Five days a week, do exactly what it says." I then told her I would see her in two weeks.
After she left, I wondered if I really would see her again or if she would decide that she hated me, throw her running program in the trash, and never return.
However, two weeks had passed and she did, in fact, show up for her appointment. I could tell by the expression on her face that as much she wanted to hide it, she was proud of herself and damn happy. I asked her, "How did you do?" She responded "...I'm 167!!!". She was so happy, she cried (again), but at least this time they were tears of joy.
She began to tell me how hard it was the first week but decided she would do it anyway because of how great she felt after I made her run. She hated it at the time, but afterward, stated she felt great. She figured it was worth a try. We decided to keep her on a beginner running program and see how she did over the next month. When she came back, she was down to 162. The next appointment, 158.
About six months later, I received an email from her. She was down to 135 and happy with her new healthy weight. She told me that she had signed up for her first 5k running race and loved being a runner. She thanked me for all that I had done to help her change her life and told me she would forever be grateful to me for making her see how much she could really accomplish. I love those kinds of emails.
Success is possible for everyone, you just need to believe you are capable of achieving it.
If you are having trouble with your weight and need an effective program, contact me. I'm here to help you change your life.
*Jenny is not her real name. Of course, you knew that, though.....
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