Transformation/Motivation

I remember teaching a strength training class where a woman named Clara was attending. I believe she only participated in my class twice but then disappeared from the gym altogether. I eventually started reaching out to other gyms and to my surprise, I ran into Clara, after teaching several strength training classes at the new gym I reached out to. When teaching a class, especially if I have a small amount of participants.... I use that opportunity to know the members in the class. I got to know Clara a lot better than I did in the previous gym I was instructing and to my surprise, she's a real down to earth person. I didn't judge her but in the previous gym, she seemed to also be on the go because as soon as class was over... she was gone. With that said, even if I had the time to converse with the members of the gym, she wasn't around for me to talk to. Regardless of the past, I'm grateful for the future because it allowed us to once again cross paths. She then started coming to all my classes that I instructed at the new gym and then confronted me about personal training services, I recommended my younger brother whom she trained with for a while. My brother eventually left the gym, I stayed and Clara approached me again about personal training. I honestly limited the amount of people I trained due to the distance I have to drive in order to get to that gym and train members but of course, since I love what I do and helping others.... I had someone I was training previously so we made it a group session in which she joined.

The group session lasted a couple of months until eventually for a couple more sessions, it was only Clara participating since winter came around. I LOVED working with the group, they were and still are a great group of people whom still participate in my classes. Working with Clara gave me the opportunity to get to know her even more. Every chance you get to spend working with someone one-on-one is an opportunity to get to know them much more then you would in a class environment. I could see Clara's body slowly transforming, I was happy for her people not only did she have a physical transformation but mental transformation as well. Weeks past and she told me she was doing a program and when she mentioned this, it concerned me because I notice sometimes she'd appear tired and sluggish. I knew it wasn't because of her workouts so I asked her what she ate for breakfast and though it appeared she was on a diet, I recommended a lifestyle to her. Eventually she took me up on the offer and she not only continued to lose weight but in a healthier way along with gaining her strength back plus some. In the beginning I feel like Clara was lost and trying to find her way but now...she knows the path to walk down and does it with confidence. I knew a lot about her present and future but not much about her past until I asked her for an honest testimonial and here's what she wrote.

"My journey for better health started over 10 years ago when the Doctors warned me to get my health in control. I needed to take at least 50lbs off of which I weighed 250lbs off my stats. I had high blood pressure, which I still have and will have to always take a pill for but my diabetes had a chance to be controlled by losing the 50lbs off by exercising and eating healthier so that's what I did. It took me two years of trying to adjust my life with programs I participated in. First, I went to weight watchers in the area before work. It took a while to eat right, exercise and introduce water into my diet. I felt dizzy because my diabetes was out of control before the weight loss began, I hung in there and was monitored by weight watchers then the weight kick started and I started to lose a little bit of weight at a time until I plateaued. I kept showing up at my weight watchers meetings, knowing that all the people attending went through different things which helped me make it pass my plateau every time. I relocated and had some sad issues in my family so unfortunately I put approximately 40lbs of weight back on. I started back on my journey but had to start over from scratch. I joined another program in my new location and vowed to aim for over 50lbs, I did it, it took two years of working out, eating right and exercise. The program ended but even so, I thought I could continue my journey and I did but forgot some of the fundamentals which made me put weight back on. I started this journey with meeting Dwayne's brother, a personal trainer and instructor. He helped me with exercising along with reminding me what I can and can’t eat. It all started there, then was introduced to a certified nutritionist whom I joined and she introduced her weight loss foods which I followed until I merged with Dwayne. Keeping this in mind with the things I remembered, he incorporated his knowledge into my journey and this is where I am now. I'm looking forward to the future"