Gail lost over 45lbs of fat and gained 10lbs of muscle.
I was told by my Doctor that I needed to lose weight, and she suggested going to a personal trainer to help. I admit I was not pleased because of the expense involved, but I checked out Curves, GoodLife, and HouseFit. It was not an easy decision. I went with HouseFit Toronto Personal Training Studio.
Alex was honest about how challenging it would be to lose weight. He also had very strong ideas about how much weight I would need to lose if I wanted to have a more permanent weight loss. I was not sure I could do it, and also wasn't sure if I could complete his program.
The easiest part was the physical activity, as I already had a pretty active lifestyle. I had walked several half marathons, and some 5 and 10 km races. My goals have always been to finish the race, not necessarily to better my time. I also work in a retail store so I stand on my feet all day. Don't get me wrong the exercises were challenging and tough, but not as hard as the restrictive diet.
Dieting has never been my strength, and small caloric intake was hard to maintain. I was unhappy, and somewhat difficult to live with. Finally, I got close enough to my goal that I graduated to muscle building phase. Weight training was not as simple as I expected, speed was not needed, and I prefer quicker activities. Now I am in the cut phase of the program and it is awful again because of diet.
After close to a year and a half of my life I am relatively close to Alex's goal, many people compliment my looks, and I feel well and feel like I look good.
I have worked with a few personal trainers at HouseFit, but the main one was Cindy. She is beautiful, and very knowledgeable about physical activities. I found her sessions physically challenging and very creative. Now I am working with personal trainer Danielle, she is teaching me to work smart. Her strength is her consistency. She has a positive practical attitude that is understated and l am enjoying our workouts together. She is sensitive to all my aches and pains, and if I work hard enough I get to do some boxing, which I really enjoy. I have had a chance to work with the other personal trainers occasionally, and have enjoyed each of them.
Alex takes pride in setting up the program by working closely with his clients the first month. I am not sure I would be able to do this program if I thought about it, but I did it and I am close to the end. I have learned a lot about diet, and some things I will be able to change forever but I will continue to have challenges and hopefully will have the resources to fix whatever weight I may gain in the future by using the tools Alex has suggested.
This is not an easy program and is not for the people who don't commit to it fully. It also helps to have supports at home to help when the going gets tough. I am not certain this would be a ringing endorsement for HouseFit, but I think it has worked for me and I love how fit I am and how I look.
Gail Chippin
