As I'm sitting here, waiting for my alarm clock to go off in about 20 minutes, I think about the journey that is ahead of me and the step that I took before the weekend to start taking health a little more seriously. Today is day 1 of my having Jonny Straws as my personal trainer/coach.
I have gotten a few questions from people about the things I've posted on Instagram and Facebook the past days, so I wanted to blog about it. I mainly started this blog for myself but from experience I know how great it is to be able to help people who are interested in getting/staying healthy.
In short, I was put on diets when I was little and developed an eating disorder from there. For a good while I had it in check; I danced very actively and lived a healthy life. But as psychology can explain, dieting is the result of diets. I was in this diet - overeat - diet - overeat cycle that seemed never ending. A lot of you will recognize the cycle I'm talking about. I've lost up to 35 lbs in the past but I never could stick to diets that were laid out by "experts".
In the end it all makes sense - every diet doesn't work for everybody. There's plenty of experts out there that think they know it all and are trying to give you advice. Sure, healthy food and exercise are the not-so-secret ticket to health. But there's more than one way to eat healthy and exercise.
I found Jonny Straws on Instagram. I saw a few of his client's IG accounts and how much success they've had working with him. I watched his videos on IG and YouTube and the first thing I noticed was how caring he is about every single one of his clients, no matter their starting point. I emailed him asking for information about his online coaching. He emailed me back in a matter of hours.
And so I started thinking about it. Surely having a personal trainer isn't cheap. I didn't expect it to be, but still I had to think about it. I'm saving up for a wedding and a long honeymoon. With him being experienced in his field, and being a trainer on ABC's Extreme Weight Loss (season 5), I knew he was legit. But what it came down to in the end was: is it worth it. After talking to my fiancé for a little bit I decided to take on the challenge.
I emailed Jonny, made a payment and we got started. I sent him all the information he needed and he sent me a meal plan, workout plan and a personal video (great touch!). I spent 2,5 hours in the kitchen yesterday, prepping meals for 3 days. I'll get better at it :P
Having someone like Jonny in my corner at all times is great for a couple reasons: he knows his stuff. He will make a plan custom-made for me. Every body is different and he will monitor my food and exercise logs and photos to see how I am responding to foods and exercise so he can change my meals and workouts accordingly. For me it is also a mental support. Knowing how involved he is and how much he really cares, makes me want to go 110% as opposed to 100%. I have to log every single thing I eat and do, and you have to be 100% honest. I wouldn't want to let him down. He is always there to keep me accountable, and I appreciate that.
What I want to blog about here is my experiences with having a personal trainer. I will not share exactly what I eat and do because of obvious reasons (Jonny's services aren't free for a reason), but I will share my progress: how I'm doing, how I'm feeling, what I lost, etc.
My alarm clock just went off so... Day 1, here I come :)
