Testimony – Renee Clark

What was the reason for starting training?
I had two reasons for starting training with Stephen. One, I had a wedding coming up, which set a great timeline for me to lose weight. Two, I have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). PCOS was affecting my ability to fall pregnant so weight loss was really the only treatment to be able to fall pregnant naturally. Since PCOS can’t be cured, weight loss had to work, I was unsure if I wanted to put my body through IVF.

 

What was your goal?
My goal was to lose 30kgs before my wedding which was about 18 months away.

 

How did you feel before you started training?
Mentally, I thought I couldn’t do it.

Prior to losing the weight, I had convinced myself that “this is what my body was going to look like”. The biggest factor that made me decide to lose weight was that I hadn’t ovulated for 8 months. I had to sit down with my partner and ask him if he still wanted to marry me considering we may not be able to fall pregnant naturally. Not wanting to be a ‘fat’ bride also helped contributed to my negative state of mind.

Physically I felt heavy, clothes never fit well and I always felt uncomfortable in them.

I puffed a lot more than anyone should and I was tired all the time. 

 

What were the challenges you faced?
I guess my biggest challenge was that I loved red wine and chocolate.

I also thought there was no way that I would ever be able get through one PT session, let alone do it every week. The thought of running, jumping, doing weights and possibly being yelled at to keep going had haunted me prior to training.

 

How was I able to help overcome those challenges?
Stephen helped by not only being an ear to listen to my challenges, but also by offering advice on how to handle my everyday battle with food and exercise.

He started me off working to my capability and then we slowly increased everything without me noticing. He taught me what my body could do.

If I was doing it on my own, my negative mental state would have stopped me.

 

What impact on your health did the training have?
Training had a massive impact on my health, I was happier, fitter, more likely to try new things because I wasn’t embarrassed about how I looked anymore. I learnt healthier options with food and how to control my diet. I even got to the point where if I was angry or sad I would go for a run to make myself feel better!

 

How did you feel after you reached your goal?
Extremely happy and empowered. I always thought I just wanted to be thin: I hadn’t considered being fit but when I hit my goal I realised that being fit was the part I had fallen in love with.

 

What was your favourite part of the training?
My favourite part about training was realising that my body could do a lot more than I through it ever could. I found I was quite competitive with myself. If I was given a number to hit with any exercise, then I wanted to hit that number, plus it was great to catch up with Stephen each week.

 

Do you have a favourite exercise you would like to share?
My favourite exercise would probably be the kettle ball clean and press, and running. I always thought I would never run unless I was being chased but running ended up being a good way to release of frustration. 

 

What did you learn?
I learnt how to get fit, how to be persistent to reach your goals, how if you failed one day it didn’t matter as long as you got back on track the next day. I learnt what to eat and how often. I learnt that I didn’t give my body enough credit as to what it could do. I realised I didn’t need to listen to that “evil” voice inside my head and instead chose to exercise. 

 

Would you recommend Strength Being to others and if so, why?
I would definitely recommend Stephen. Stephen’s approach is never judgemental.

He has the right amount of push in him to get you to where you need to be without yelling (Yelling is what Personal Trainers were portrayed like on TV to me).

He makes exercising fun and is great for a laugh while your training.

Stephen’s great because he’s had a fight of his own to get where he is, so he understands how good red wine is and how bad that evil voice inside our heads can be.