Short-term goals included weight loss and I wanted to feel comfortable wearing something sleeveless by my 50th birthday. Longer-term, I wanted to make lifestyle choices that would improve mobility and posture; increase my energy levels, confidence, and overall make working out enjoyable.

I scheduled personal training sessions for 6 am to avoid conflicts and excuses, recruited a consistent early morning workout buddy and joined a weekly fitness class. I invested time in nutrition and started tracking my food. Yes, it takes time and yes, it is worth the effort. I also worked with someone who held me accountable to my plan. By my 50th birthday, I reached my short-term goals and continued on my journey. 

However, when life was disrupted in 2020, I realized the number on the scale had slowly crept up but because I was working out regularly, I had created a false sense of comfort. I took my focus off nutrition and the impact was obvious during the first lockdown – gyms closed, no workout buddy dates and everyone baking bread!

I needed to recommit to a plan that focused on nutrition and fitness during a vulnerable time. My plan also needed accountability to work. My new goal was to come out of lockdown stronger than where I started in March 2020. This time I had the benefit of having tracked my progress previously and had great insights into what worked for me. Restarting felt more like riding a bike.

My life journey continues and my goals now are shaping and toning with regular strength training supported by cardio with friends. My advice is to create a plan for a healthy lifestyle before your perfect storm strikes. You do not need to be fit to get fit and it is never too late to start. Find your people – they will support you, teach you and cheer you on through the hard days. Not every day is easy, but every day is worth it.

Fitness, nutrition and accountability together is the formula for success.

A significant life event a few years later changed things dramatically for me and created a great deal of stress and anxiety. It created a set-back and a roller-coaster of emotion, guilt, and constant sleepless nights. The arthritic pain and associated swelling returned; I was back on regular daily medication. The exercise stopped and my overall health declined again. This was the second part of my learning - that my level of stress directly impacts my ability to manage my arthritis.

In 2018, in my late forties, I had lost excess weight and returned to an active lifestyle. I was in maintenance mode and was generally pleased with how I felt. Then the pandemic hit … the closure of the gym and the move to working from home full-time hit me hard. I gained over 30 lbs and stopped all activity. My job involved leading a very challenging and intense project and my work-life balance became non-existent. I wasn’t sleeping more than a couple of hours a night, I had anxiety, I was edgy and the arthritis flare-ups were worse than ever - to the point where I could not wear most footwear because of pain and excessive swelling. The lack of workouts and exercise left me with no outlet for the pressures and the combination of weight gain, poor food choices, and stress manifested in the form of arthritic pain. And the pain made is harder to exercise; it seemed like a vicious circle.

In July 2021, I completed the project and made the decision to leave my job. I had spent 16 months neglecting myself. The toll this had taken on me was significant and I felt as though all of the good progress I had made years earlier was a distant memory. I knew that this had to change and that I had the ability to change it; I had to manage the stress, and NOW was the time. I reconnected with my trainer and became dedicated to my goals – manage stress, weight loss and eliminating the pain through activity.

In 5 months, I lost over 30 lbs and 12% body fat.

Over the past few months I have learned about how my body manages food and the impacts my day-to-day choices have, or don’t have. The scale has become a positive tool and I no longer dread stepping on it in the morning. While the results are not always trending in the right direction, I now understand why and use it as a method to guide the choices I make in the upcoming days. I still eat and drink all of the things I love but I learned to do so in moderation and at appropriate times. It took discipline but surprisingly not a lot of sacrifice.

There is no doubt that having a personal trainer has been the primary factor in my success. A trainer keeps me accountable, provides me with the tools to make good choices, eliminates any excuses I make (and I make a lot of them), ignores my constant re-negotiations for easier workouts, and ensures I consistently ‘show up’. Workouts are tailored for me, they incorporate what I enjoy (i.e. boxing for example) and they stay focused on what challenges me the most.

Despite my successes over the past few months, I do realize that physical fitness still is, and will always be, a challenge for me to make a priority – it is effort. But the benefits for me personally have been remarkable and I cannot ignore how much of an impact my recent success has had on how I feel.

I am stronger now than ever!