Kate: "Half the Battle"

Paul “PJ” James, a personal trainer from Melbourne, Australia decided that the best way to connect with his clients was to go through a drastic weight gain. While I do understand what he claims to be a way to connect to his clients, I think there was perhaps a better way to develop and maintain a trusting and confidential relationship.
Allowing an individual to work with me so closely when I wasn’t even 100% sure I wanted to change my living habits was very difficult; I was always self-conscious. From an overweight person’s perspective, I knew that it would be hard to let someone in and allow myself to be personal, yet from a common sense viewpoint, I also knew that in order for this transformation to really work, I must have faith in myself and give Stace the benefit of the doubt.
Stace and I had formed a friendship before she started working with me, so I knew our personality traits were compatible. There were certain aspects of the training regimen that I was nervously anticipating such as the dreaded push-ups or burpees (you’ll have to look those up on your own;)), yet I knew that her patience and willingness to help me would outweigh all of those fears.
In regards to exercise, I never knew what my limits or what I could exceed. As much as I cursed my “ever getting involved in this!”, I knew that I was in this and I wasn’t going to waste Stace’s time by not giving it my all, so when I was ordered (politely of course) to hold a plank and my glutes were numb from squeezing them so hard and every muscle was shaking, I knew that it may be uncomfortable, but it wasn’t going to kill me.
Before embarking on my health-conscious expedition, I made sure that I researched that what I was doing was going to work. I also knew that while trusting Stace was important, I needed to know that she was literally qualified to train me and she definitely was. I have asked more questions in the last nine months than I did in my 16 consecutive years of schooling and her answers have always made sense to me and have never made me feel like I am doing anything bad, just something healthier. The real reason that I had and continue to have unwavering trust in my trainer is because I have seen results. Who knew? Listening and following directions really do prove to be useful! Now, when I hear “gimme ten!”, I mutter some incoherent obscenity all the while smiling at myself because I know I’ll be alive when those push-ups are over…maybe.