Meet Whitney

Today I wanted to tell you all about one of my newest, and most determined clients. Her name is Whitney. I met Whitney at a Kid Rock concert we were attending with mutual friends. We got to talking about working out and weight lifting and hit it off from the start. I found out she used to train heavily in college - we're both former soccer goalies - high school for me, college for Whit. But she admits she let some bad habits fill a void after she graduated.

Without going into too much detail, let me just say this. Whitney is one of the strongest women I've met in a very long time. She may not "look" like it from the outside, but I see it as clear as day. At the age of 26, she is 5'7" and 353 lbs (when we started). She is in danger of life long health problems and, like most people in her position, she knew she needed to do something. But she just didn't know where to begin.

Then we met about a month ago. Me, a personal trainer looking to grow my business; Whitney, a woman in need of motivation and instruction to bring out the athlete that's hiding inside. It was a perfect match.

Whitney and I started officially working together last week. She has committed to training with me three times a week, comes to my bi-weekly strength club sessions and began making some lifestyle changes regarding diet and how she spends her free time before we even began training.

I'm going to be posting updates from Whitney's journey and am counting on my followers to comment at any time with encouraging and motivating words to help keep her fire burning. She has a long road ahead of her, but she's already moving in the right direction. I know that, with consistency and some simple changes in her diet, she will find tremendous success.

Whitney's Week 1 Update

Me: Whitney, what was the biggest  challenge you faced starting this program?

Whitney: Motivation to say yes and to actually attend all workouts with a positive attitude. Knowing you're overweight is hard, but actually feeling it through every workout and your food choices is harder and a constant reminder.

Me: Did anything surprise you? (Something you thought would be difficult that wasn't so bad? Something you thought would be easy that wasn't...)

Whitney: I thought that these workouts would have a large amount of cardio (running) in them because that is what everyone told me before: “just run and the pounds will melt off.” But the truth is, ya its easy for a small little petite person to tell someone overweight to “just run,” but overweight people can’t run that well - that's the problem. These circuits and workouts that I have been completing (with Jenn) are not only a good workout, but also fun and involve cardio without you even thinking about it.

Me: How do you like the facility and the training environment?

Whitney: I like the atmosphere of the facility [All Star Sports Academy in Toms River, NJ]. All of the staff that I have had the pleasure of meeting were polite and you can see that they care about all their members. The facility is packed full of different free weights, machines, open space and perfectly set up so that you can have a group running at the same time of one-on-one training and everyone feels as though the entire facility is open to them.

Me: Are you noticing any changes in your energy level? Appetite? Cravings?

Whitney: I have noticed that my craving for Coke Cola has decreased and now I can take a sip and be satisfied when before I would drink two full bottles worth in one setting. I have noticed that, now that I eat three squared meals a day with or without a snack, I feel full and am able to stop. Also what has helped is realizing the difference between a craving for a specific food/drink rather than my body being actually hungry which has helped decrease my intake.

Me: How are you sleeping? Is this better or worse than before we started?

Whitney: My sleep has definitely improved. I try to get to sleep between 10-10:30 at night. Before I would not be able to fall asleep until around 1 am and I always wake up at 6:55 am (5 minutes before my alarm). I fall asleep faster and I've noticed that when I wake up I feel energized, not sluggish.

Me: What about how are your clothes are fitting?

Whitney: I’ve noticed that I don’t have to stretch out my clothes before wearing them much anymore, also i’ve always had a hard time finding clothes that fit around my neck. My pants are fitting better around the waist and a little loosely and people at work have noticed and say things like, “your shirt looks big on you” and “your clothes are hanging off of you.”

Stay tuned for Whitney's next update coming soon!

NOTE: I'm not posting pics of Whitney yet. I want to give her some real time to groove her new habits first. But, rest assured, we will be proudly posting her progress pics after a few months of consistent training.