New Beginnings – Changing my Body for the Better. By Nicky Edwards, Body Ambition 2009 finalist.
Looking in the mirror there was only one thing I could see….a body I had demolished. Overweight and unhappy it was time for a change, but this time a permanent one. My weight has always been an issue. Having spiralled from my teenage years I had become used to being the ‘bigger’ one of my friends. I remember going to bed wishing that I would wake up the next morning being slim, but as I was to find out over the next ten years there is no such thing as a quick fix.
At 17 I joined a gym with a friend and before I knew it I was hooked. If anything I became too caught up in my new found hobby, visiting the gym every night after college and dropping from 15 stone to 11½ stone over the coming year. However with no guidance with regards to nutrition the levels of cardio and aerobics classes were never going to make my new found weight maintainable. With a career in childcare and a constant source of cakes and sweets around bad habits crept back and following a bad relationship I found myself once again tipping the scales at 13 stone. It never stopped me achieving anything, and in 2006 I completed the London Marathon in just over 6 hours but I wasn’t happy with how I looked or felt.
One day something clicked and at the start of 2007 I looked in the mirror and decided that this time I was going to make a change, a long term one….
To decide to lose weight is a big obstacle. This wasn’t the first time I had embarked on this decision over the years, and many times I had failed. Waterfall Diets, Special K Diets, Weight Watchers...the list is endless but none fixed the problem and a few days later the weight would be back. To decide to change it you need to believe in your ability to succeed and make a decision to stick at it because it is your priority. This time it was mine.
So I returned to my old gym and got back on the treadmill, in a literal sense! Starting with cardio workouts 3-4 times a week, with a commitment to wanting to achieve my goals I would note in my dairy each Sunday what day I would attend the gym so that I could fit my sessions in and stick with it. After initial losses, I hit a plateau. At which point I decided to get some help. I utilised the Personal Training available at the gym to add a different session to my workouts each week which set me back on track in my training. I found myself at 10.5 stone and so much happier and more confident. Having gone from a size 18 to a size 10/12 my old lifestyle seemed years away. Training was however difficult when I was working, at university part time and trying to see friends so I moved my workouts to the mornings before work, it was here that I made some friends that willed me on through my next journey. In January 2009 I was flicking through a fitness magazine looking for some inspiration to change my workouts and tone up those last stubborn places. It was whilst I was doing this that I saw Maxitone’s Body Ambition 2009 advertised. It was as though something truly clicked and an opportunity came to change my life once and for all to leave the old me behind.
That weekend I spoke with one of the Personal Trainers at my gym and gave him an 8 week challenge, to get me into the best shape of my life. The rules – not to let me give up and guide me with all that I needed. It was hard work but I loved every minute of it. Resistance training with a PT twice a week with an upper/lower split my remaining sessions were Cardio and abdominal work based with spin, interval running and stepping machines becoming prominent. The results were almost immediate. However I did struggle to recover from the workouts. My PT suggested that I look at protein Shakes to support my training so I went off to research them. With so many brands on the market it wasn’t easy to decide which one, however Maxitone came recommended and in comparison to the other products available their ingredients and aims were female specific which sold me on them. I turned up the next day with my Maxitone Shaker and a very proud PT. It was the first time in my life I felt in control of my training, nutrition and meeting my goals. I was worlds away from the 17 year old girl who entered a gym without a clue.
Eight weeks later I was a size 8…..no small feat and I worked hard to get there, but when I went to the photography studio I had booked a session at to have my entry photos taken I was on top of the world. When I saw the shots on the screen I didn’t recognise myself. My training had whisked away the girl in the marathon photos with the sad eyes and replaced her with a more confident, happier and healthier person. It wasn’t an easy transition, having spent so long being unhappy it took a while to acknowledge that I looked so different, for me and family and friends. However it remains the best thing I ever did. It was during all these changes that I decided that it was time for the biggest step I would make…a change in career, inspired by my training and the changes I had accomplished. As the photos and my entry form disappeared with the post to Maxitone I sent in a new application form….
Life hadn’t been easy over the past few years and after much soul searching I decided that with all the other changes I went through it was time for a special one for me. I enrolled to train as a Gym Instructor part time and in October 2009 qualified and then resigned from my position as a childcare support co-ordinator and went to train as a Personal Trainer full time in November 2009. In 2010 I planned to start the year with a real fresh start. As I walked into the classroom on my first day on the course I was a bundle of excitement and fear, this was a big chance to be taking and had its risks, but having reviewed all the adventures, obstacles and issues I had gone round, over and overcome I knew it was the right one. I chose to specialise in weight management and Pre and Post Natal Exercise, knowing that if I could help one woman feel as good at reaching her goal as I did my job was complete. Two months later I walked out of that class a Level 3 Qualified REPS Personal Trainer with a full time job in a gym to start the following Monday. Alongside that I became a finalist for the Body Ambition 2009 competition, what a start to 2010!
Retrospectively, looking back I wish I had done this years ago. I finally have a job where I fit in, am happy and look forward to going to work every day, but it wouldn’t mean as much to me had I not finished my journey first. The hours are long but the rewards make it all worth it. My clients are an inspiration to me, as they plough away at their workouts with me I am full of pride for what they achieve, and as the scales and measurements reduce it only secures to me that I may have found my calling in life.
Weight is a personal issue, and my approaches to it as a personal trainer remain that. No two of my clients fits into the same box, everyone has their own reasons for weight gain and everyone has a different time when it comes to their chance to shine and lose it. Some days my job is like being a detective, searching for the clues to unlock the potential that every one of my ladies has to change their life, and it becomes our mission to get to it. If someone had told me in 2006 that in 2010 I would be working in a gym, supporting other people on the journey I have been through I wouldn’t have believed them. The day I entered Maxitone’s Body Ambition 2009 it changed my life, literally.
I learnt the hard way that diets don’t work, that poor nutrition and hard training will never prosper and that the only way you can have long term results is by changing your lifestyle in every element. I still train, harder than ever, and support this with Maxitone products. Having completed further training on Nutrition for weight management and from my course I can’t believe the things I have followed in the past, but like all things in life we learn from them, and I now use my experiences to change the lifestyles of those I come into contact with every day. So, when I am asked am I happy now? You bet I am! It took me 10 years but I got there and so can you.
Nicky Edwards
- Level 3 Active IQ Diploma in Personal Training
- Level 2 Active IQ Certificate in Gym Instruction
- Level 3 Certificate in Exercise prescription for Pre and Post Natal Clients
- Advanced Certificate in Nutrition for Weight Managament
