Client’s corner: Naomi Anderson

It has been a pleasure to work with a very good friend of mine, Naomi. A big thanks Naomi, for sharing your experience with us and well done for your continued commitment to your programme, you’re doing an amazing job. Here’s to more Friday morning Personal Training sessions…!

 

“I’ve not engaged in regular exercise since leaving high school (which was many years ago!) so I wasn’t sure how successful I would be when I asked Áine to work with me to incorporate better and healthier habits into my daily life. I’ve been lucky enough to know Áine since meeting her at university and have always admired her work ethic and the caring way she treats everyone she meets so I knew she would be the right person to work with. I had been feeling low in energy and lacked motivation to ‘get out’ to exercise as I felt it was a huge chore that I didn’t have time for. Áine carefully listened to what I was looking for and tailored a programme to my individual needs, including all of it taking place online as I live 3 hours away in Devon!

 

Áine has been working with me for 3 months now and this has involved online personal training sessions, home programmes, online yoga classes and telephone check-ins. I also completed a consultation with her colleague Sarah who provided very helpful tips and pointers about healthier nutritional choices I could make and ways to boost energy levels. Sarah shared some great tools to help plan my weekly menus and I have been able to make some simple changes to include more colour (aka vegetables) into my work lunches which previously just consisted of sandwiches. I have really enjoyed the variety of combining the home programme, yoga, and training sessions as well as adding in activities that I do in my free time such as hiking or paddle boarding (weather permitting!). I thought I might start off well in terms of meeting the recommended 3-4 physical activity sessions a week and then lose motivation but as the weeks have gone by I’ve been able to keep it up and have realised that I can do exercise without it taking up a large part of my free time.

 

My aim was to boost energy, improve mental health and start to feel a bit more confident in my own skin rather than to specifically ‘lose weight’ as if that didn’t happen for me, I didn’t want to become disheartened. I’ve surprised myself by being able to engage in personal training sessions at 7.30 on a Friday morning so I feel I’ve achieved something just by turning up at the right time no matter how well the session goes! After 3 months I’ve definitely been able to make some positive changes to my attitude towards exercise and nutrition and I think that’s been well supported by Áine and Sarah’s focus on finding your natural weight which means there has been no weekly weigh in’s or measuring of waists etc. I’ve noticed a difference in how I feel, both mentally and physically, and as my confidence has grown I’ve been able to do longer solo hikes which I wouldn’t have attempted before. Thank you Áine and Sarah!”