Weight Loss Journey

If your reading this I hope it inspires you along your own weight loss journey. To give you a little background on myself, My name is Rohan and I have had a weight problem for as long as I can remember. I am now 28 and have for the past 2 years been attempting to lose this weight so I could go into a career I can feel good about.
While my journey has made my body healthy eg: blood pressure, heart rate and cholesterol all good, I was unable to lose the weight. My last confirmed weight before I met with Anna at the tough spot was over 200kg. This is my journey through 3 months of weight loss to lose the weight and to make myself feel good again.

2nd of May
The TOUGH Spot opening opened my eyes to a new way of training and it was an enjoyable day even before I found out I had won the 3 month weight loss challenge opportunity.

5th of may to the 12th of may
I met with Anna on the 5th to discuss my nutrition, I was unable to start working out until after the 17th due to the difficulty in getting a doctors appointment, however I sat down with Anna and discussed a meal plan I could follow that while strict was not unbearable, we were able to work around my likes and dislikes when it came to food. (while I love my veg there are certain ones that just make me want to gag).  We also decided that the isagenix program would be good for me to start on and on the 12th of may I met Gary who walked me through the requirements of the program and I took delivery of the products.

12th of may to the 19th of may
I won’t lie, I found the isagenix program hard in the first week, I am a former chef and the choc shakes for me had no taste they were just like thick water and ionix supreme was too sweet for my taste (it tasted vile). On the 17th I had my doctors appointment and had my first training session on the 19th at the tough spot. I have not had so much water to drink in less then an hour in my life, I was worked hard and while it hurt it was a good pain, I felt it was a worthwhile pain. I however learned one very important lesson, don’t train on a clense day. You have no energy due to the fact that your not eating food.

19th of may to the 26th of may
Weight loss for the week 1 kilo.
Well you have so far heard about the 19th (training on a clense day see above) so now I was well and truly into it, training 6 times a week from them. My next training was the Thursday night (I should point out that I am writing these entries to cover a week from Wednesday to Wednesday) Systema. What can I say about systema but it was bloody fun, I have been involved in martial arts one way or another for the majority of my life, either training in them or working with the organizations helping with tornaments and such. We started off with a circuit warm up that included push ups, squat jumps, throwing medicine balls (watch out for those I cracked myself in the jaw with it) and tyre pushing (and if you think tyre pushing isn’t exercise I will happily give you a lesson in just how hard you have to work while doing it :D). We then moved onto the lesson proper, I have trained in karate and I can tell you systema is nothing like it. Its very flowing and quick. Onto Friday and this is where the hell started, I was actually a bit scared of my first workout with Anna because I knew she was going to push me to my limits, a 10 minute warm up on the tread mill and some stretching out and we were into it. To say the rest of the session was a blur is an understatement I think I have blocked it from my memory however I do remember a lot of pain for the next 2 days so I know I worked hard and well.

The weekend saw a break, I broke my diet and had a biscuit, now some of you may say “hey its just 1 biscuit it won’t hurt” I can tell you it does, The minute I finished eating it I thought of everything Anna and Gary and the rest of the trainers at the gym wanted for me and I felt disgusted at myself. From that point I resolved to myself to never break again and the rest of the weekend was spent strictly on my diet. Come Monday everything seemed to have clicked at last, the isagenix shakes weren’t causing me to pause before drinking them now and when I got to the gym that day to train with Anna I was happy and more full of energy then I had been in months. Warm up on the tread mill (including a spurt of jogging for the last minute or so) and stretching and we were into it again, Leg press’s and lat pull downs to start and I was starting to feel a bit cocky, If Anna realized this or not I don’t know but we then went to working with dumbbells on my arms and sholders and then the penny dropped, Anna wanted me to do pushups and not cheating ones like I had been for years on my kness, proper leg straight push up’s. I was terrified I hadn’t done a push up like that since I was 14 and knew I was going to fall flat on my face. I then proceeded to surprise myself and pushed out 20 in 2 lots of 10 and sure it hurt and I just wanted to go curl up and never go back while I was doing them but when I finished I looked at myself in the mirror and couldn’t belived I had done them. Were they good looking push up’s, hell no but I had just done 20 of the exercise I hated more then running and Anna was telling me that I had done good. The feeling was fantastic.

Come Tuesday and I was still feeling that feeling, I had a boxing for fitness class that night and I came in thinking this is going to be easy I have done martial arts for so long. I can tell you it wasn’t but it was fun and it makes you feel great to see the trainers out there with the group sweating away doing the class too.

26th of may to the 2nd of June
Weight loss for the week 2 kilo’s.
Not quite the loss I wanted, I am after 3 kilos a week and it hurt a little that I hadn’t lost it but I was also excited it was the most I had lost in one hit in a long time. Thursdays systema class was of great interest to me with it being more scenario based which applied well to my line of work in the security industry.

I think I have identified one problem however in my training, By the end of the week and the time I come to write this I have been worked so hard that Friday ends up as a blur however I do have flashbacks of curls with a barbell and push ups , I am going to have to start writing down exactly what I do on Fridays so that you can all see what I do (and so I can remember what hell I am putting my body through for it to turn into this lean mean machine its meant to be).  Saturday and Sunday I did the bare minimum of walking I needed to do to try to meet the 3 kilo weight loss for the next weigh in because my body was rebelling and saying no more. Come Monday however I was back into it, circuit training in my session with anna (after of coarse the good 10 minutes warm up on the treadmill, getting faster and faster each time I do it.) Involved was dumbbells kettle bell  pushups situps and a reminded of my schools days a medicine ball (ohh how I hated sports days at primary school), Anna pushed me and pushed me and even when my knee couldn’t take anymore she pushed some more after modifying the exercises to avoid aggravating the knee anymore, 30 minutes later I was off home to ice my knee.

It seemed it worked because I was back for a boxing class the next night and this is where I got a real wake up call as well as a bit of a boost. In this class are a number of trainers and I happened to square off against one. To see a trainer sweating and tired by the end of the class like I was made me feel like we are all just people doing our best, something the tough spot and Anna really push the idea of. Up until that point working out by myself is what I preferred because the only person to disappoint then was myself, working with someone if I was unable to keep up I felt like I was denying them as well and that’s something I refuse to do. Yet this entire time here is a trainer pushing me to keep going  as well as the trainer leading the class pushing and offering alternative exercises when previous or current injuries offer an obstruction.

That’s it for another week be sure to keep reading for the next thrilling instalment.

2nd of June to 9th of june
Weight loss for the week 2 kilo’s
Well this week has been an interesting week, It saw the last of my Wednesday clense days, systema cut short early for my on Thursday night due to family commitments and my first Saturday training session at the gym.

Thursday night unfortunately I had family commitments that required me to leave systema early, It was shaping up to be a very fun lesson.

Friday, Hell day as I have come to call it in my head. This is when I do my weigh ins and to say I was disappointed with the result was an understatement, I was frustrated already due to other things and not reaching my target weight just added to it to the point of wanting to go do one of my other favourite stress relive activities (which I won’t mention here as it is controversial to some people). I was also due to have my measurements taken on Friday and I was dreading the result because I hadn’t seen a change. I know that seeing yourself all day everyday its always going to take longer for the individual to notice changes then someone else looking at you. In total I had lost 33.5 cm’s off various areas of my body, this lifted my spirits right up from where they were heading. From there the session started, squats holding logs (not sure how heavy but after the second set of 20 you stop caring because everything feels like it weighs a ton) to doing push ups off what I believe was a medicine ball with handles, that’s tough to do believe you me it wants to go side to side if you don’t keep the weight balanced right. Next I was off for jerry can carries, 40l’s of water total back and forth 3 times then back to the logs and push ups. To finish the session off it was tyre flips, what has to be my favourite exercise of all time. Starting off with the 80kilo tyre it was decided it was too light and I was moved up to the 140 kilo tyre. To finish the session it was push ups off the tyre.

Saturday was my first Muay Thai class which started off with skipping, something else I haven’t done since primary school and I proved woeful at it. From there we went into some basic’s learning some of the blocks and kicks that would serve as a basis for the martial art. My partner for the day left a nice bruise on my stomach which took a couple of days to disappear but I left the class feeling happy as well as sore. I was really starting to enjoy myself with the variety of exercise I was doing something a regular gym always let me down on. Sunday was the first day I started my new cleanse day (so I could attend the gym more as well as to help when I start studying next month).

Monday I was back on with Anna and we were on circuit training again, this time on weights and machines. Leg presses, push ups (getting better but I don’t think the loathing of them will ever leave me), leg curls, bench press and dumb bells were the order of the day and I was definitely feeling the burn by the end of it. Anna is a task master but at the end of it you know you have done well.

Tuesday I arrive early for the boxing glass and did 30 minutes on the treadmill, 20 minutes straight my longest ever time and in that time I did 3 lots of 1 minute sprints which is something I haven’t been able to do in years, I was exstatic. Boxing and it was upper body work that night, I had been to see the myopracter earlier in the day to see about trying to treat my injuries and I was still feeling tender in my shoulders from the work he did. It didn’t stop me doing the absolute best I could in my state and even after the first round of boxing and time to switch pads and gloves and me admitting I couldn’t handle any more I was kept busy with shadow boxing so that my heart rate was up and my body kept warm but was not experience the impacts which were causing problems for my sholders.

Follow the whole weight loss journey on our website for The TOUGH Spot, Brisbane's only gym that has microfitness and Caveman Circuit Training.

As a mother of 3 children under 5 my training goal was to lose enough weight to fit into my work wardrobe. In 4 weeks of training with you I lost 5 KILOS!

Looking back on it now I don't think I really thought I would do it. I achieved my goals but gained something much more important than weight loss.. I gained self-confidence, fitness, muscle tone, positive outlook, ENERGY and physical and mental strength that I didn't know I was missing. I am lighter but feeling 200% more capable to get on with the things my life requires.

If I was to get a chance to inspire another mother out there thinking about personal training I'd tell her this "all you need to do is commit, Anna will take care of the rest."

I am continuing with my fitness journey, for myself and my family and can't wait to achieve my next set of goals. I now KNOW I can do it and that is exciting. All that in 4 weeks imagine what a lifetime of keeping fit will bring!

Sincere thanks to you for your tough kindness. I look forward to improving in your boot camps and seeing you, and your team, more along the journey.

— Susan Bishop

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