Our United States of Fitness | Celebrity Personal Trainer NYC | Terri Walsh

Yvonne Beretta, a client from People Magazines Half Their Size series has committed to my DIVA Fitness Factory program for 6 months. You can do this program in the privacy of your own home and lose the weight too!

January 2009: 10 Steps. 30 Days. New You.
January was bumpy at best. We used all the steps outlined in my 30 Day JumpStart post. It was a struggle getting the client to really MAKE the commitment for… a stable schedule. After about a week and a half of ups and downs, we get the schedule down and start the hard work ahead. We get 3 solid weeks in of 3-4 workouts per week in January,however, there’s at least one, or two cancellations every week. This is not a good sign, but I’ll keep plugging, there’s a long way to go. In the very early stages, it was hard for this client to stand for any period of time. The first few sessions were barely 15 total minutes of continuous motion with no seated rest.

February 2009: 30 Days in
Things are looking UP UP UP! As we knock back session by session, this client starts to improve remarkably. She can now move for 60 minutes WITH NO REST. Her meals & meal planning is still erratic, but we’ve removed the liquid sugar, entirely…she’s begun getting breakfast. It takes time to make lifestyle changes. We add them one by one, and we don’t add more UNTIL we are able to get something into the schedule on a stable basis for an entire week. Breakfast isnt there EVERY day yet. The workouts are happening 4-5 times per week, cancellations are less, but still happening and her arrivals are on the dot on time, and she’s bouncing in with a smile now.

March 2009: 60 Days in
The beginning of March brings FABULOUS news. An additional 8.75 inches lost. Where there was NO loss of inches in her waist measurement in the first measurement cycle there is a full 1.50 inch lost in the waist this time! I attribute that loss in the waist entirely to not drinking sugared drinks. Her meal schedule is still erratic, but when she eats, she’s eating better quality food. I know this can seem amazing, AND slow at the same time…but again…lifestyle changes on this scale take time, and it’s only 60 days into it.

She’s exactly where she should be. The visible difference in her energy is clear …Her weight only went down a half a pound in this measurement cycle, and yet her inches and body fat have taken another dramatic decrease. The body starts to build healthy muscle mass, and guess what…it burns more fat! This is why ‘riding the scale’ doesn’t work. Her weight WILL come down, there’s no worries there. Results aren’t always about the ’scale’. Another amazing aspect is her resting heart rate has gone from 140 to 80. Yes, I said RESTING heart rate. The heart rate you take when you just roll out of bed…Look at the staggering difference!

January Resting Heart Rate: 140
February resting Hert Rate: 120
March Resting Heart Rate:   80

I’m so psyched for her….and while there’s a long way to go….she’s definitely not in a life-threatening position and it’s safe to push her a little further now. Onward to April!

April 2009: 90 Days in
She’s lost another 10 lbs, 5 inches.

Weight loss is a combination of what you’re doing and what you’re NO LONGER DOING. The big losses reflect what ISNT HAPPENING (No more large binges & power eating=less calories going in)…as we’re moving into smaller losses, it reflect the result of what the client IS DOING. There will be smaller consistent losses from now on, but the biggest hurdle has been crossed. It takes 90 days to make a habit…it takes 90 days to break a habit and create a new one. This month brought alot of emotional upheaval to the front. I’ve often said that no one gains 100+ pounds because they’re happy with their life. This type of weight loss can be emotionally volatile, as the weight comes off.

Usually the client becomes happier, and starts to process their emotions in ways that make them happier, more even tempered people. There are indications that this is going in the opposite direction. There are a lot of irrational emotional outbursts that appear to be misdirected, but…my qualifications only go so far. I have a knack for working with those who need to work their issues out….lots of people have cried their way through their sessions….but this has indications of much much more that needs dealing with… but for now… I am able to get her through the sessions, it’s still productive.

This was a tough month, she moved, was sick for a week…and you know… had to handle it. This was not a staggering blow out amazing month. It was tedious, annoying, bumpy, no fun and filled with challenges. She was late many times, not eating very well, and overall not doing as good a job as she could have done.

Guess what? She still got results. It doesn’t have to be fun or pretty, and most of the time it isn’t, but that’s perfectly FINE, because thats the way life is, and if you want changes in your weight, it usually …no wait, not usually …it ALWAYS requires changes in your LIFE. Yvonne has also had to start doing workouts on her own, as the program steps down throughout our time together. She was to do one workout per week on her own. She managed that 50% of the time.

Once some training responsibility starts to shift to the client, it will bring up problems, emotions, anxieties that have festered and been ignored for years. The test is whether she starts cleaning up old issues and starts taking responsibility for her health.  It’s rough going…but again, she’s showing up to the studio….and it’s working. She’s barely showing up for herself on her own though. I’ve tried texting reminders, requiring phone calls …but those workouts on her own are still a 50/50 toss-up.

May 2009: 120 Days in

2.25 more inches lost!

So, the thrills are gone folks….and the it’s about showing up, showing up, showing up on her OWN when she’s supposed to. She’s come down off the ‘high’ of the ‘event’ of being included in the People series, and is struggling with maintaining her own workouts as we step down the amount of sessions she spends here in the studio with me. Has she hit a plateau? No. Is her strength where I want it to be yet? No. Unless she practies what I gave her to do on her own, she’s throwing a cog in the wheel. But there were still results to be had.

Yvonne has not hit a weight loss plateau yet. There’s still alot of foundation work to do. I really can’t mix up routines or change course at this stage. In fact I cant really change her program yet, because she needs these basic skills to do everything else…She’s not in the position yet to have the luxury of getting bored   She still needs to  work on building basic strength, and that’s not that exciting, but it works….so she’s still doing it.  She’s not completing the workouts on her own like she’s supposed to …but the basics skills will keep her protected from injury and they must be accomplished.

She’s still in early beginner stage as far as physical conditioning goes. Shes no longer in danger of anything massive happening to her, however. Thats a huge improvement. She won’t die if she’s physically stressed, and she doesn’t have to worry about a massive event happening to her. If this is all that comes from this up to this point, this is still on the best side of awesome!

The downside is I know she’s not doing the workouts she’s supposed to do on her own. That being said however, she still lost 2.25 inches and another 1% of bodyfat. And I can do all I can here at the studio to compel a client to invest the time in themselves on their own….but at the end of the day they are the ones that have to actually do it. Will she slack off and not practice on her own? Well, right now I’d say its still about a 50/50 shot.

June 2009: 150 Days in

7 more inches lost…

June marked the point of 3 days per week sessions in the studio and twice weekly workouts on her own. There’s been a lot of push back and static from Yvonne about having to workout on her own twice per week now. She doesn’t need a gym, or even equipment. All she needs is HER, practicing the exercises I gave her along with the DIVA book she has to guide her. She’s entirely capable of handling the workouts on her own. She’s been instructed in how to use rubber bands if she wants to….she’s been shown absolutely every way to perform whats needed without the gym. She’s just not doing it herself. Since People Mag is terminating the duration of the story to September, the clients emotions have been on the anxious side with periodic outbursts that can be irrational and uneven. She’s lost a remarkable amount of weight, and has made incredible progress in lowering her bodyfat% and resting heart rate, and lost a ALOT of inches but she seems to be stuck in a constant state of negative emotions that I can’t seem to shift her out of.

I can’t train her forever, so she MUST get it together on her own.  Absolutely ALL my clients train at least twice per week on their own. This is the pivotal moment when a client decides if they care about themselves enough to make it happen once or twice per week on their own. This is a crucial time. I’m wondering though if she’s even able to make some choices rationally at all…She’s having a hard time focusing on what she’s accomplished up to this point, and tends to focus on negative experiences that are sometimes current, sometimes not. She panics about the decrease in coming to the studio, rather than just doing what’s required of her on her own. When a client HAS been doing what’s required, there’s no push back and no separation anxiety based on the step-down in sessions. This are alot of indications that there’s more going on than my expertise is equipped to handle. There’s been a marked increase in unpredictable emotional outbursts and irrational anger.

This made it difficult to get focused sessions completed. There’s a point where the trainers expertise comes to a stand still…and it’s time to refer her to a specialist that can work on the emotional issues and the corresponding escalation in anxiety & outbursts that are coming up more and more, as the weight continues to come off. At this point there are issues that actually are preventing me from applying the rest of my program appropriately. We have concluded our relationship with the end of June, and I’ll send along a recommendation for her to get the emotional support she needs to continue on her journey. I’ve done the most I can do without proper clinical support from a therapist.

BUT… she was still able to lose 7 more inches and another percentage of bodyfat. Sooo there it is…If you move it you will lose it! Check my post here for the full results.

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