I’m 53 years old and I was struggling with continuing to gain weight. I had never really invested much in learning more about a healthy lifestyle. I had always had a high metabolism and active lifestyle, raising six sons meant that I was always on the move. The fact I was always active was my saving grace because I stayed fairly slim until the last five years. I then started gaining weight and I think part of it was hormonally and because I was starting to be less active as my kids grew up. Even though I was less active, I was eating the same way and not making healthy choices. I started gaining a lot of weight in my upper body so I started feeling the stress on my neck and shoulders. The pain in my back became one of my main motivators. I was the heaviest I had ever been in my life and I really wasn’t happy. I didn’t feel good, I wasn’t making good choices and I wanted to make a change.
What problem were you facing when trying to achieve your health goal?
I knew what I needed to do but I lacked a change of mindset. I was also longing for somebody to support the cause of a healthier lifestyle. I have struggled my entire life at setting goals. If I set myself a goal and mess up, I find it difficult to get back on track. I knew it would help if I had someone to counsel me and help me set goals because I found it difficult to stick to my goals when I was doing it alone. I was also talking to a friend about accountability and I thought that this would be great to help me make better decisions so I started looking for a health coach.
How did Fitmate help you?
Fitmate provided me with accountability, someone to cheer me on, and encourage me when I failed. I am an artist so I think I use the right part of my brain more, the creative side, instead of the logical side where we set goals and that's why Fitmate worked for me. My Fitmate coach makes me want to cook and be creative. They help me come up with creative ideas for incorporating a healthy lifestyle through cooking and even inspiring me to create new recipes whilst holding me accountable to my goals.
What did you enjoy about the program?
I have a fear of failing so I really enjoyed that the goals that we set were so easy to achieve. It was so helpful because I have an "all or nothing" mindset when trying to lose weight on my own. I used to set myself a hard goal and then I would fail. With Fitmate Coach, we would set a goal like "exercise 2x this week" or "eat 4x breakfasts that have protein", they were so small that they were easy to achieve. It was impossible for me to fail. Also, when I set a goal I had to meet that goal because otherwise, my coach would know I didn't meet it. They kept me accountable.
What did Fitmate help you achieve?
I feel better. I lost weight so I started fitting into my clothes better. I actually lost 20lbs in the program and dropped 3 dress sizes. My back and shoulders used to hurt whereas now they don't hurt as bad. My joints were hurting a lot and I don't have that pain anymore.
