At the very core of what I teach at All Change is the idea that fitness is a process not a goal. Working slowly and consistently on building fitness into your everyday life rather than focussing on weightloss, means that you enjoy all the benefits of being healthy and fit for longer periods of time. Yvonne, like many of us had been in the ‘join-a-gym-on-a-12-month-contract-but-never-go-after-the-first-month’ cycle for a decade, before finding amazing success with a little help and a fresh approach…
I started training sessions with TeeJay in January this year. It was a slightly reluctant Christmas gift from my husband. To be clear he didn’t think I needed to lose weight but was sick of my moaning about being out of breath on our weekend dog walks and doing nothing about it. I also had this huge dream of running a marathon(which seemed totally delusional at the time). As a teenager I was active and did lots of exercise and especially enjoyed running. Over the years I have joined many gyms to try to regain my fitness but I unfortunately have a job with long, unpredictable hours so committing to gym classes was a total nightmare! I would invariably sign up for a year contract and go loads in the first month and then not find the time to go back….sound familiar to anyone?! I would often tell myself that paying out the money would make me go… it didn’t !! My job is also incredibly emotionally demanding and I had read so much about the capacity of exercise to help people who experience anxiety. I knew if I could get my self into an exercise routine it could have a positive impact on my mental wellbeing too.
During my failed gym sessions over the years I have taken advantage of sessions with personal trainers only to leave the gym feeling a failure when they have worked me so hard that I have almost thrown up my lungs. (*sweeping generalisation I am sure there are some lovely PT’s out there too!!) So before my first session I was really worried that it was going to be the same. I had read TeeJay’s website and what she said encouraged me to have hope it would be different. I was also really worried about how unfit I was let’s just say I would have struggled to run for a bus.
TeeJay understood my goals and in every session has balanced pushing my abilities and increasing my confidence in what I can achieve. The variety of the sessions is perfect TeeJay is very creative in structuring the sessions and working outdoors in the park instead of a gym gives you a huge endorphin boost. I know it’s cold and winter at the moment but I started my sessions in January and if you have the right kit on for the conditions it’s totally fine!
So one of my goals was to start regularly running again. I really wanted to start doing Parkrun but I didn’t have the confidence to go to one. I remember driving to one and having a total panic attack and not getting out of the car. I am now a regular at Parkrun and it is down to TeeJay’s support that I got to the start line of my first one. I also credit her with giving me a fool proof hill technique for the pesky hill at my local Parkrun! I now regularly run at least 20 KM a week. WOW! I didn’t think that would be true back in January. I have also just set myself a shiny new 10km PB at the Leeds Abbey Dash over the weekend. I’ll be embarking on half marathon training for a race in May.
I have put some serious thought into why I have achieved consistent training with TeeJay when I had over a decade of failed gym memberships before that didn’t. It comes down to three things: 1) the flexibility of the sessions to fit my lifestyle, 2) the individualised nature and structure of TeeJay’s sessions (she does like to be creative) and 3) TeeJay empowered me and built my confidence and belief in my own abilities. That is what a personal trainer should do….not beast you so that you don’t want to do exercise ever again.
If like me you want to increase your fitness. I would highly recommend giving TeeJay a go. She is not a stereotypical PT she will work WITH you to achieve your goals. She is honestly motivated by seeing her clients get a real kick out of exercise. I would also say if like me you are getting into fitness after a while it helps to have a personal trainer to help guide you with exercises and techniques. I speak from experience having in the past ended up with injuries because I was doing it wrong. I can’t thank TeeJay enough for sparking my love of exercise again it has been nothing short of transformational for my physical and emotional health.
