Alex
2014
I was never one for going outside or playing sports as a kid. I would always stay in my room playing video games and eating junk food constantly. I was no stranger to eating fast food as well, seeing as how I would go out for McDonald’s or Taco Bell pretty often. I also had very few friends, if any, growing up. My personality didn’t make it easy meeting new people. 99% of the time I would wait for them to approach me because I was so shy and my self-esteem was unbelievably low. This exact lifestyle would haunt me until I was 20 years old. This was the age when I found the inner me that was hiding under layers of fat and possible health problems. If I can thank one person for giving my lifestyle a complete 180, it would have to be Ms. Jackie Fitness.
I had been overweight for my whole life. I never wanted to do anything as a kid because I was so ashamed of my body and how I looked in the mirror. I didn’t want anyone to judge me for my weight or eating habits, so I would almost never go do activities with people that weren’t family. When I was 14 years old, I received a physical and found out something that would disturb me for the rest of my life. I was 6 feet tall and weighted 240 pounds, with pretty much all of it being fat since I would rarely exercise. Thinking back, I want to say I might have been somewhere in the 30-40% body fat range. At that age, that stuck with me forever, and I refused to do anything that involved me taking my shirt off in public, which meant not being able to go swimming ever again and having to change clothes as quick as possible when in the school locker rooms.
It wasn’t until I had my 20th birthday in July of 2013 that I decided to really try losing some of the weight, mainly because I was going on vacation to Mexico at the end of the year and wanted to look good on the beach, but also to really make a necessary change to my life. It would be the first time I ever attempted dieting or exercising regularly. I managed to lose a good portion of weight and even gain a little bit of muscle, with my self-esteem increasing too, but I still didn’t feel like I was where I wanted to be. It wasn’t until April of 2014 that I heard about this great gym called Athlete’s Choice from some fellow co-workers. I decided to give them a try and hope for the best. This is the first time I would meet the one and only Ms. Jackie Fitness.
I have been training with Ms. Jackie Fitness for about 8 months now, and she has completely transformed my body into the one I have dreamed about for years. I was about 205 pounds and 13% body fat when I first started with her. It was the first time in 6 years that I stepped on a scale. The last time before that point was when I had my physical at age 14. I would go about 5 times a week with 3-week phases of bulking and cutting respectively. She wouldn’t let me check my weight during the process, because she wanted me focusing on the workouts and not thinking about the numbers, which really helped me put in more effort and think about what I would become in the future. After months of constant training, my body became something I wasn’t familiar with, sexy. I currently go on average 7 times a week, twice on Mondays and once a day Tuesdays through Saturdays, making sure to have a rest day on Sundays. Right now, I’m 21 years old, 6 feet 5 inches, resting at about 210 pounds, and have 10% body fat. My chest sticks out, there are veins visible in my arms along with huge biceps, my legs look like those of a marathon runner, and I actually have abs, which I though would be impossible to get. Counting the weight I lost before I began training with Ms. Jackie Fitness, I lost a total of about 60-70 pounds and 20%-30% body fat.
Nowadays I eat clean, nothing but organic foods for the most part. I refuse to eat anything considered fast food, with some exceptions such as In-N-Out and Chipotle. The word soda isn’t even my vocabulary anymore. After realizing how disgusting it is, I will never put that in my body ever again. I also consume far less sugar daily than I used to. Unfortunately, I succumb to the temptations of something delicious like ice cream, but even then, I portion everything and make sure to not have more than I should. Jackie has completely changed the way I take in food. I literally have to eat all the time now, but I have to in order to support my high metabolism. It’s wonderful knowing I can eat all the time and not worry about putting the weight back on. Back in the day, I would have struggled immensely to eat this way, now I can’t imagine it any other way.
Jackie is, in my opinion, one of the coolest people you will ever meet. Whether you come in for her PFT class or personal training, she will always give you an intense and satisfying workout. She may be hard at times and push you to or even past your breaking point, but that’s only because she knows that you’re capable of achieving so much more than you think. Her exercises are hard work, emphasis on hard, but you really see results in no time. There are also different workout plans she makes every day, making it fun and exciting to see what new exercises she brings to the table. I can see the joy in her eyes every time she successfully convinces someone to see the importance of fitness and nutrition, like me for example. She may seem tough (and she is), but she is also very kind and caring, the type of person that you would want to see even outside of the gym.
Living as an overweight child for nearly 20 years, I always imagined the thought of being in shape and having an amazing body, but never would have believed in a million years that I would achieve this goal. I came with these same silly dreams to Jackie, and she miraculously made those dreams a reality. Without the help of Ms. Jackie Fitness, I have no idea how my life would be. Honestly, I think I would have fallen back to my couch potato days and avoided any contact with the outside world, but I hate thinking about that, since I have changed immensely over the months. I’m not going to lie, it won’t be easy, it never is. It will take a lot of drastic changes to your day to day habits, and plenty of sacrifices, but I guarantee it is worth every penny and second of your time. Once you look in the mirror and see every muscle in your body bulging, or find that your stomach has shrunk in size, you know you’ve accomplished what you thought has been impossible all this time, and you end up trying to see how much more you can do. She can make your fitness goals come true, the only thing you need on your end is dedication. Once Jackie gets an idea of how you want your body to be, she’ll get you on the right path and you’ll see your body transform before your eyes. These last 8 months have been the most fun I’ve had, with such great results that show on me. There is intense definition all over my body, and I’ve never felt more confident taking my shirt off in public. I not only think of her as my personal trainer and my mentor, but also as a great friend that I’m glad I had the honor of meeting.
Thank you for all the motivation and training. None of this would have been possible without you. I hope these months together turn into years.
– Alex Nollola, Devoted Client of Ms. Jackie Fitness