You may have previously read about Charmaine’s transformation when I finished the first round of the Get Fit & Win $1,000 Challenge, where she came in close 2nd.
Charmaine believed that the value she received from participating in the challenge the first time warranted her to sign up for it again.
I was honoured (and surprised) to hear that she canceled her travel plans to Hawaii in order to focus on achieving her fitness goals and to save money to be able to invest into training with me. It genuinely means a lot because I view foregoing a nice (and well-deserved) vacation as a sacrifice.
Charmaine made a sacrifice in order to keep herself on track with her fitness goals. I have a huge amount of respect for her dedication. Despite facing some financial challenges, Charmaine still made it happen because she believed that training with me is a long-term investment into her future and her health.
Above: Charmaine and I after she completed yet another personal milestone on the stairs 🙂
This is what Charmaine had to say about her experience in the 2nd round of my Get Fit & Win $1000 Challenge:
“Due to financial constraints, I had to fundraise in order to afford the cost to participate in this 2nd round of the Fitness Challenge, but it was important to me to do it again because I knew that Yana’s proven support was what I needed to keep reaching my fitness goals.
Yana does not just support me with pushing past my perceived physical limits, or making me see that I can do things I never thought I could, or help me safely manage injuries and limitations while motivating me, but she does all that while helping to support me with the biggest barriers to fitness excellence: psychological barriers.
Yana supports me to really allow myself to ENJOY my workouts (she laughs and she smiles and yells “fitness party” all the time!); she helps me to stop worrying about how EVERYONE ELSE looks (she focuses on my good physical features and tells me about it); and she focuses on how I am reaching amazing accomplishments by reaching MY personal bests, not everyone else’s.
While I’m proud that I can now do 21 push-ups (properly!), complete nearly 100 sets of stairs with 20lbs. worth of weights, 151 sets of stairs without weights, box and kickbox (a true dream come true, with a pretty solid roundhouse and a left hook!), or how my glutes are now strong and support my week hip joints (my physiotherapist is glad for that!), or how I’m 6 lbs lighter, or how my biceps are bigger, my triceps are tighter, my tummy is smaller and my back is more defined; the true accomplishment to me is that I spend most of my day at work looking forward to getting to the gym, and I now miss working out, exercising, moving my body (be it the gym, or a run, or kickboxing) with even just ONE day of rest.
I’m not the lightest I have ever weighed, and I can’t run the farthest I have ever run, but Yana has taught me how to set, meet and exceed my own ever-changing fitness goals by pushing me psychologically, emotionally and dare I say spiritually, to feel accomplished, healthy, fit and happy.”
It was extremely exciting to see Charmaine continuously set new personal records. The most important thing is that she is focused on functional strength rather than vanity. Charmaine has developed a healthy attitude towards fitness and for that I’m very proud of her.
We did a variety of exercises to help her overcome her injuries and finish the challenge while at the same time setting new and bigger goals for herself.
I started this challenge as a way to help my clients reframe their thinking around fitness and what it represents to them. Not everyone wants to just lose weight and not everyone wants to get six pack abs.
At the end of the day, everyone who finished the challenge and stuck with it is a winner, regardless of who will actually take home the prize money and who was selected to be a finalist.
Charmaine has transformed both physically and mentally. She is becoming very strong.
I’m so happy that I’ve been able to help her achieve her fitness goals while working through past injuries and past mental barriers.
Now, she also does kickboxing, running, and so much more. Charmaine now enjoys exercise and has truly made a lifelong commitment to health and fitness.
They say that consistency is the key to success. I genuinely believe that’s true. It’s one thing to show a client some good exercises, but it’s another to help the client reframe their thoughts about exercise and facilitate adherence to the program.
Adherence to the program is where the real progress is made. Charmaine has done that.
I want to take this opportunity to thank Charmaine for allowing me to be a part of her journey and for letting me share this story with you. It truly is an honour and a pleasure.
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Do you want to change your life too? Want to reframe your thinking around exercise? Contact me and let’s get started.