Client Story – Andrew Eden

Saturday 1 Dec 2007 – the day I started to change my life.

Its been almost a year since I came through the door of the Personal Best studio at Sherwood for my first fitness assessment and training session with John.  The week before I had met with Shane to discuss what Personal Best could do for me.  It had been a long time coming.  After being in the Air Force for 15 years I had gotten out and started working for an engineering company in Brisbane and been able to settle down a bit for the first time. And settle I did.  I weighed 122kg when I walked in to that studio that day.  One of the catalysts for doing something about this was renewing one of my passports in Sept 07.  I had to get new passport photos taken.  It was not until my passport came back to me by courier that I got the shock of the haggard fat person staring back out of that shiny new passport.  I was only 32 years old and the photo was telling a different story.

I had been putting off doing something about my weight and fitness for ages – always another excuse to delay another couple of weeks but I finally bit the bullet.  I even made sure that I was not going to let the usual excuse of my birthday, Christmas and new year delay things until ‘next year’ yet again.

It was the best bullet I have ever bitten!

Shane and John made me feel very welcome and were very understanding of where I was at and how I got there.  No judgement – just an unconditional commitment to help me change it. Since that day I have been going to Personal Best three times a week for one on one sessions with John.  I am not going to say that it has been ‘easy’ – in some ways its quite the opposite – hard work but John makes it easier to take on the challenge, his encouragement and his commitment to my cause has made my commitment that much easier and it is infectious – it gets me through the days when my motivation has been at an all time low and its taken everything just to drag myself to the studio.

The credit must also go to the whole Personal Best team – John obviously needs holidays and when he has been away the team organises to cover your sessions and keep your routine.  So you still have your sessions with another trainer that has been fully briefed on where you are at.  They are also a friendly bunch – no matter when you walk into a Personal Best studio there is always a cheery greeting and a “How are you going?” from someone that actually wants to hear your reply – its not just a throw away line.

There have been set backs during the last year with a couple of injuries and the odd sickness – and again John and the team have excelled, their understanding of the injury and working with my physio I was able to keep training through my rehabilitation – being able to keep working towards your goals despite issues like this makes it easier to keep the motivation up there.

John has also ensured that my travel for work is no longer the excuse that it used to be to do nothing with my fitness.  He has designed a program for me that requires nothing more than the hotel room I am staying in and my own bodyweight so that I can keep up my training whilst on business travel.  The proof of this program was a 5 week trip through the UK, Switzerland and the USA.   I had set a goal to simply not go backwards during that time – the result I had was to actually lose 2kg.

So a year on I had to renew my other passport and went back to the same post office to get another set of passport photos.  I had kept one of the photos from Sep 2007 and I have included them both with this letter for you – the difference blew me away.  It was the first time I had really SEEN the difference so clearly.  Yes I have been very happy going from some 42 inch pants that were tight and about to lose the button to now having to wear a belt with 36 inch pants so that they don’t fall down!  I have thrown out so much clothing in the last 12 months – the changes were evident but these pictures brought it home in no uncertain terms.

Personal Best is now a part of my life.  I have lost 25kg so far.  I can buy slim fit shirts and not look like the Michelin Man.  My resting pulse and blood pressure are way down.  I sleep better.  I FEEL so much better than I ever did.  I know that John and Shane would say that it was all me – but I had help – their help in finding the effort I needed to put in.  I turn 34 in a just over a week, I am not sure what the next 12 months holds but one thing I am sure of is that Personal Best will be a part of it.  My improved health and fitness has had a positive effect on every other aspect of my life.

THANKS JOHN, THANKS SHANE, THANKS PERSONAL BEST. 

 

Please find attached the pictures that showed me the HUGE difference you helped make in my life.