Due to the hours I worked and spent travelling every day I was unable to get to a gym. My goals were to lose body fat, tone muscle, improve fitness and strength. I needed a well rounded program with weights, cardio and nutritional advice that I could do from home. I tried to work out an exercise and...
QUOTE: "The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will." - Vince Lombardi
Written by Jay Bonaretti on Saturday 17 July, 2010.
Sarah was overweight and unhappy with herself. Although she desperately wanted to feel better about her body, Sarah was almost convinced that she was bound to be overweight for the rest of her life. This is one truly inspirational transformation.
Sarah had almost convinced herself that she could never have the body that she truly wanted. Having been unfit all her life, even the concept of being healthy was foreign and somewhat scary to her. Sarah undertook an amazing transformation where she not only transformed herself physically - but now she has a completely new lease on life having really improved her self and body image.
I've never been fit in my life. Ever. I come from a family whose concept of get togethers always involved massive amounts of food and exercise is not something that has ever been part of my day-to-day life. Had the odd gym membership over the years, which made me feel good while I was there but as soon as the membership expired it was back to square one again! This year I booked myself on a trip to Nepal, something I've been dreaming about for a long time, and this involved a trek around the base of the Annapurna region. I had previously climbed Mt Sinai in Egypt and was completely embarrassed at how long it took me and how much I struggled and I really didn't want a repeat! I didn't want to spend the entire trek lagging behind, slowing the whole group down and wishing I wasn't there. I found a review of Amino Z while flicking through an old Women's Health magazine and checked out the website. It then took me another couple of weeks to draw up the courage to email them to find out how the online thing works. Jay (my trainer at Amino Z) called me the next day to find out what my goals were and where I was at at the moment. I told him my goals were fitness for the trek and weight loss and was amazed that he thought I could actually do it. I hung up from the call and laughed, thinking that maybe it works for some people but this guy seriously doesn't know me! I had tried everything else though and nothing had worked so I figured I had nothing to lose! I had absolutely no idea what to expect, but both Jay's exercise and nutrition programs were impressive! I have a few dietary requirements but we managed to work around them and come up with a plan that gave me enough energy for my increased exercise but also helped with the weight loss. I went in with absolutely no idea what I was doing and I honestly didn't expect to see any improvement, but I made the program my priority and gave it absolutely everything I had and the results were amazing! Some days I felt like I was on top of the world and other days I felt like I had hit rock bottom, but through everything Jay was so supportive, always had the right advice and was extremely positive and encouraging. Somehow he always made even my bad days look good! For the first time I figured out what that word 'exercise' actually means and how it fits into my life. I found that I loved the idea of beating previous times/reps that I had set and this in itself was motivation for me to head out on a run or pick up the weights. And most importantly, I found that that elusive word 'fit' is not that foreign and scary and might actually apply to me! I literally feel like I have a new lease on life - if I can completely smash a mindset about exercise that I've had my whole life, then anything is possible! Needless to say, Nepal was amazing and the trek was my favourite part! Next stop - base camp!
I have to start off by saying that Sarah is one amazing person that is now a good friend of mine. I thoroughly enjoyed working with her over the course of a few months to help her understand her own true potential.
When I first spoke to Sarah, she was a really lovely person to speak with and I was extremely excited about the prospect of training together with her. Although she didn't seem totally convinced that she was able to break through some of her negative self-beliefs and get down to her goal weight, she was willing to give it a go. That to me is truly inspirational because she took that step into unknown territory, not knowing what to expect. It's not as if she had gained weight all of a sudden - she had been living her life in an unhappy state for almost as long as she could remember. So this negative body image had really had become the norm for her.
I was amazed at Sarah's commitment to our training together. She did an amazing job on the exercise front - especially considering that she had practically accepted that it was in here gene's to be unfit! How she broke through this psychological barrier is absolutely mind-blowing. Her nutrition certainly wasn't strict as we often saw some sweets creep in there. But why she achieved these phenomenal results were not because she adhered to a "diet" per se. Rather, she changed her approach to nutrition and learnt how to balance her food, so she could eat in a healthy manner and still treat herself. It was because she was able to remain consistent with a smarter approach to her eating that she has accomplished this phenomenal change.
Sarah really is an amazing person and I'm so glad that she had the opportunity to prove to herself exactly what she is capable of. I must admit that she cracked me up a number of times with her training updates - and it was great to see that she really enjoyed this life changing process.
I am really looking forward to touching base with Sarah when she returns from her next overseas trip because she is one truly inspiring person. Congratulations on such a great job Sarah, you've really earned it!
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