A New Beginning!
Hello Everyone,
I’m very excited to introduce to you Emily and her 100 lb. weight loss journey.
At the beginning of December, Emily’s parents approached me about mentoring their daughter through a lifestyle change. As a family they had watched a television show “I Used to be Fat” and this sparked a desire in Emily to take charge of her life and health.
It took me a week to think about how to set her programme as it was more than just Personal Training. My favourite times to think are in the shower and walking my dogs; it came to me how to make the leap from Personal Trainer to Lifestyle Coach. Emily would need to learn the skills for grocery shopping, meal planning and preparation, time management as well as a fitness regime. To keep her motivated on her journey I thought she could blog her experiences, take before and after pictures, make an appointment with a naturopath and when she achieves her weight loss goal we will present her with a makeover! I presented these ideas to Emily and she accepted all the terms with enthusiasm!
The work began 2 weeks ago with a meeting to start to get inside of Emily’s world! Emily had to journal for 1 week prior to this meeting her diet, sleep patterns, her moods and activities. I found out diet soda and carbs ruled her world! With a few minor changes: decrease the pop, increase the water intake, she added a protein shake in the morning and a few hours of exercise, voila, 5 lbs lost in the first week!!!!!!!!!!!! Well done Emily!
The second week we added a swim at the pool. I discovered while talking to Emily she loved to swim and that’s one of my cross training sessions so it worked out that we could swim together. It was a fun time as we did laps, pool running and Emily taught me this skulling technique where I circled around in the water only using my arms. It was challenging at the time and the next day my triceps were burning…..thanks Emily…..I thought I was the trainer!
After the swim was a cooking lesson at my house. After our hour swim our bodies needed protein to rebuild muscle so I made us an egg white omelette with dill and goat cheese feta. At first Emily was hesitant but thankfully my cooking won her over! The focus of that days lesson was on healthy snacks she could bring to school with her. (Emily is a student of Landscape Design). We made Chocolate Amarath and Pumpkin Flax granola clusters. Both were a hit …Yeah……..3 for 3!!!!!!!!
Emily has written her first blog entry which we have as an attachment.
The family community of Staying Alive Fitness wish Emily success on her journey!
Enjoy your day.
Leanne
Take a look at Emily’s Blog….
December 20, 2011
These first two weeks have been so interesting, and challenging. I went into this thinking that I wasn’t going to be able to change the foods that I like and that this may end up hurting me. Only two weeks in everything that I thought I knew about myself has already starting to change. I’ve seen myself being pushed and pulled but that my body is starting to change and allow these things to happen.
Leanne has been instrumental in the changes that I’ve started to see in myself she’s opened up my eyes to foods that I never thought I’d want to try much less enjoy. This past Thursday I enjoyed one of the more interesting sessions with Leanne (not to say that working out isn’t interesting) after our swimming session Thursday morning we went back to Leanne’s house and she showed me how to make delicious granola bars an d we had an egg white omelet with dill and goat feta. I’m not a big fan of eggs and only minimally like egg whites so I was really surprised that I would really enjoy the omelet.
As for exercise so far I’ve been trying to really push myself in each session and each new session with Leanne and with Barb have been pushing my limits but I think for me the next step will be breaking though all of my pre-conceived boundaries and seeing how far I can really push my body. My dad has been reminding me of a story of my brother while he was in the army, he had all of these standards that he thought that he wouldn’t be able to live up to, thinking that his body wouldn’t be able to do it but they pushed him making him push through the limits that he’s set for himself and he found that he could rise to the standards. In some cases he even surpassed the standards that they had set for him. I see the value in this advice, knowing that even when I think that there are boundaries that there is always the possibility to change and to adapt and to better myself. That’s what this is all about for me, I know that in me is the possibility of someone great and powerful and beautiful and I need to fight against the Emily that I know and have become comfortable with and start to fight against her and pushing myself to be better than I am now.
I want to see each new day as the next challenge and the next thing that can conquer.
