“I am getting married in May and I want to be fit before the ceremony so that I can be as confident as possible on the day and look great for my fiancé.”
The above was your primary goal. Do you believe you achieved this?
“I definitely feel like I am more confident and way more fit than I expected. I believe that my results are not necessarily the ones that I initially expected as I thought that I was going to drop a lot of weight initially. I did have a reach goal of ending the 3 months at 95kg (10kg weight loss). However, it is clear that I was burning fat at the same rate I was building muscle. I think the best way to show this is the fact that I have had to buy a new belt which I really did not expect. So all in all, I did not necessarily meet the weight target I first set for myself but we 100%, unequivocally thrashed the targets I wanted for myself.”
“My fiancés family (from Hong Kong) are all really fit and have really healthy habits. My family (Swedish) do not. I wish I had more confidence around my fiancés family because they are really healthy and sometimes I feel like I am letting them down. I want to change this.”
You mentioned the above on your pre-exercise questionnaire - has your confidence improved as a result of your training & the results you have obtained in doing so? In what other scenarios do you feel better and more confident?
“My fiancés family came over to our house for easter weekend and I felt really confident in my body and my shape and fitness for the first time in a long time. I definitely feel more comfortable in my clothes and I feel more confident walking down the street which is massive. I tried on my wedding suit and I felt super confident that I was looking as good as I possibly could which was a really strong moment for me.”
“Hopeful, excited, determined” was how you initially described yourself in 3 words.
What 3 words would you use now?
“Hopeful, excited, determined!!! I am hopeful that I have changed some really bad habits. I am excited that this has worked. I am determined that this is just the beginning.”
“I want to be able to have a long and healthy life and be as preventative as possible with health related illness.”
Having trained for the past 12 weeks and improved your eating and lifestyle habits, what long-term changes do you think you have made?
“I do feel like mentally there was a bit of a blocker that I would need to put in sooooo much effort to even just see a dent in my health. However, I think the program was designed perfectly for me. We started off with good exercises which didn't force me to go 100% in on the first day but rather ease into going to the gym every day. I feel a lot less stress in my life, I feel a lot more energy, I feel stronger and healthier. I look forward to doing my next body check to see if there have been improvements to my health wellness”
What have you learnt about yourself over the past 3 months?
“I think that I have learned, or relearned, how stubborn I can be. Even when I have had no interest in going to the gym, I have pushed myself to just get out of the house and that has been half the battle because once I am in the gym I always feel great. I have also learned that it is ok to not be perfect. Some days I really have just not had enough time or energy to go to the gym and that's ok. I have also felt really hungry now towards the end of our diet and it is ok if I cannot follow it 100% for 1 month. What I do know is that every morning when I step on the scale and I am weighing less than yesterday, I feel so good about myself and that often gives me the motivation to just stick with it.”
What would you say to someone considering starting training or undergoing a transformation?
“If you are not used to going to the gym, it is so important to have the right motivations in place and to have all the support possible from professionals. They say it takes 21 days to build a habit but that also means that it takes 21 days to cut a habit and the first 21 days was really hard. Having you, Paul, there to keep me accountable and to just give me some words of advice or even to change the plan midway to better suit me has been invaluable. Honestly, to start off with, I would really recommend getting a PT to set you onto the right path.”