SUCCESS STORIES
ROBERT
Robert’s job entails travelling around the country visiting training sites which often means staying overnight at hotels. This results in huge options at mealtimes with bad choices in restaurants followed by a few beers. This, over time has inevitably taken it’s toll on his health and waistline. Robert has admitted it has started to affect his mental health as his lifestyle and results of his lifestyle was getting him down and he couldn’t see a way out of the cycle.
When Robert first contacted me the first thing, I said to him was that he was not alone and there are so many people in his position, mentally and physically and he shouldn’t beat himself up about it.
So, we both worked together to devise a solution which included a bit of flexibility. Some hotels have gyms and swimming pools and some also have nothing apart
from a bar!
What I did was put together a gym-based exercise session which he could follow if there was a gym and alternative options if there wasn’t. The non gym-based option was designed to be done in a small area of his hotel room. Both sessions were delivered by either pre-recorded videos or live sessions as well as suggestions of healthier options to have when eating out, or in at hotel restaurants.
Result of these options provided = mentally stronger, physically fitter and a weight loss of 2 stone down!
GARY
Gary works away on wind turbines. As you can imagine his job is very active and strenuous. Gary’s problem wasn’t so much the physical exercise he did in his life, but he struggled with his nutrition and choices he made. Not knowing quite how to get the healthy balance with food he asked me for some guidance.
We sat down and devised a plan to help find and a possible solution. Gary gave me some basic information about his food choices and regular meals that he ate. From this I could calculate his daily calories and move forward to formulate a realistic eating plan for him. This did not compromise or remove his favourite foods from his diet, or did it take away his social life and nights out when he came home.
The guidance and support I gave to Gary wasn’t complicated or daunting, just simple, very effective and was proven to work. There really are no excuses to being the best version of yourself.
Having an open mind, listening to advice and following guidance was all that was needed to change his daily habits and improve his lifestyle.
DAN
Dan has a shift pattern at work which is one month on and one month offshore. Dan went to the doctors for a routine check-up because he was constantly feeling tired and low in energy. He would also often have dizzy turns he kept quiet about to others. He found out he had high cholesterol and high blood pressure and was put on medication to lower his blood pressure. (reduce the dizzy turns) He was also
warned he needed to look at his diet to lower his cholesterol.
This information was a ‘wakeup call’ that his lifestyle needed to change for his health. Dan then got in touch with me to ask for help after a recommendation he saw online.
After our initial consultation I realised it wasn’t necessarily his home life that was the main problem, as he was very active with lots of walking, 5-a-side with the lads and
some swimming. He also enjoyed cooking at home. It was when he was on the rig it was different as he felt so tired after his shift, he would have some food, any that was quick and easy and then go to bed.
So here we had to look at both aspects of his lifestyle, short training sessions for before/after work and adding in nutritious, healthy, easy to follow food choices for
meals he could prepare after his shift.
What I did was provided him with some short training videos, with exercise routines he could do in the gym on the rigs that took no longer than 30 minutes. He would do this before his shift as it avoided when he was too tired after work. This then became engrained as a habit he could sustain. We also looked at healthy food swaps within
his diet, switching high saturated fats, like cheese for lower fat healthier options which helped towards lowering his high cholesterol.
I checked in on Dan every week to give him some guidance, support, and some accountability with the aim of improving his high BP and lowering his cholesterol.
Dan’s health problems are now under control, his cholesterol levels have lowered, not requiring medication and his BP is stable resulting in his dizzy turns going.
This work-life, work – health balance is now in place for 100% of his life.