Client Story: Victoria Hayward
Before
After
My name is Victoria Hayward, I’m 31 and I work as a Marketing Manager in Bradford. I can lose and gain weight quite easily but I’ve always had problems with maintaining a consistent weight – I spent most of my 20s gaining and losing the same 20lbs over and over and over. When I turned 30, I decided that I wasn’t going to spend my 30s doing the same – it was exhausting and depressing. I realised that just doing the same things I’d always done was never going to help me break the pattern – I needed some help so I started looking into Personal Trainers.
Sharon has been fantastic in terms of motivating me – she very quickly figured out how my mind works and used that to encourage me to keep pushing myself further and further. I struggled to lift 2kg weights in my first session – after a few months I was regularly using 6kg weights – something I never dreamed I’d be capable of doing! Sharon kept it interesting by varying the sessions every 6 weeks and also giving me programmes for the gym. I found it useful planning out my exercise for the next week with her – if it was written down it was much more difficult to make excuses not do it! Sharon also helped me make some changes to my diet – the best one being that each snack should be a mixture of protein and carbs, which was a revelation as it keeps me full for much longer.
My goal was about consistency – I wanted to get into the healthy BMI bracket and stay there for longer than a couple of weeks. I also wanted to learn to run – I’d always struggled with it and had decided that I just wasn’t a runner. Over the last 10 months I’ve lost 16lbs and 10cms off my waist and hips, but more importantly, I’ve been a healthy weight for 5 months now – the longest I’ve managed to maintain my weight in my adult life! I can now run 6k quite comfortably and I’m working on increasing to 10k over the next few months – not bad for someone who isn’t a runner! One of the highlights of the last few months was going on holiday and feeling confident enough to walk down the beach in just my bikini – another first for me!
I initially planned to have 12 weeks of sessions to get me started but found that I enjoyed them so much that I kept going. Some weeks were difficult – I didn’t always lose weight and a couple of times I gained a few pounds back. If I’d been going it alone, that’s when I would have given up, but having someone weigh me every week helped me keep going and Sharon helped me see where I’d gone wrong and what I could do to fix it. I’ve definitely learned that slow and steady is the best approach. My advice to anyone wanting to improve their health or fitness is to get some help. I am really amazed at the difference its made to my mind set, as well as the physical changes – I really feel that I have much better habits now and that I will definitely be able to maintain my weight in the long-term.
Find out more about my personal training programmes here.