Case Study: Sarah

Problem

Sarah is a busy mum of 3 children and director of 2 business. Between juggling commitments at home and with her companies, she rarely if ever finds time for herself. While she never describes herself as sporty, she previously enjoyed hill walking, canoeing and cycling when she had the time.

The problem being her weight had ballooned, resulting in joint pain and a negative self-image, meaning she is shying away from some social engagements, which had impacted her businesses as well as her family activities. For example, the kids now call her to grumble mum.

Commitment

She tried Weight Watchers and while she adopted the meals, the family wouldn’t eat them and she couldn’t cope with all the calorie counting.

Her exercising with a personal trainer was great, however, after a busy week, she was too exhausted to then go voluntarily for a gruelling beating of an hours’ worth of constant sweating and near blackout exhaustion.

In despair and disappointment with her results, she resigned to herself that she should never climb mountains again.

We discussed what her motivation was to change and her aspiration, clearly defining what her desired outcome was and why it was so important to her. Then we explored how great preparation could create time for her, which will lay the foundations for change. And she committed to giving it a try.

Transformation

We worked together on ensuring there were clear times reserved in her diary, so from the start she knew what was needed, when and for how long. Then made sure that she knew what was expected with a clear exercise, meal plan along with what needed to be purchased.

Supported by these easy to follow systems that didn’t feel like another chore and personalised coaching, she was fuelled by newfound confidence, Sarah made small changes carving out time for herself and while this may only seem like a small win to some, it was a massive boost as she’d spent 20 years putting others before herself. Getting out hillwalking at least monthly and incorporating healthy nutrition and exercise into her life.

This became the spark that ignited the fire. Within 6 months she’d smashed her ambition of being able to run 10km along with dropping 0.5kg weight on average per week consistently without it feeling like a chore.

And now she is running over 50 miles per month and has set targets of toning up through body composition changes. Although my proudest moment is seeing how happy she is and enthused with life.