Category Archives: Success story

Success Story: Peggy 25 Pound Loss in 7 Months!

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7 mo. 24 days Progress: Lost 25 pounds of body weight, lost 23.25 inches, improved cardiovascular fitness by 39% and improved upper body strength 150%!

January 15, 2019 the day we began and then August 29, 2019

I am so excited about the results my client Peggy has achieved in such a short time. Read her story and what she did to achieve this success, see her measurements, read her review below and watch her demonstrate some exercises with her new fitness on the challenging TRX Suspension System.

Peggy is a 55 year old full-time college chemistry professor, wife and mother of three grown sons who came to me for a combination weight management program and fitness training saying, “I am not in horrible shape but over the past ten years I have watched my weight creep up 3-4 pounds a year and my strength, flexibility and stamina decrease. I appreciate the lifestyle approach to fitness that I have been reading on your website and would like to meet with you to work together on my path to a leaner, stronger and healthier me.”

When we first met she told me about her current exercise which was walking to work only once every 3 weeks, she did not lift weights, enjoyed biking but hadn’t done that regularly and she enjoyed gardening but only did that seasonally.

After discussing it, we decided she would work out twice a week with me, I would teach her a weight training routine she could do at the college gym or at home once a week, she would do cardio at the gym 4 days a week, would make a date with a friend to walk on weekends and she and her husband would plan a biking or hiking excursion once a week. In addition she planned on taking the stairs instead of the elevator at work. This didn’t all happen immediately, but with time she was able to attain that schedule and really started seeing the results.

We also met for some nutrition sessions where I reviewed a food journal that she had kept for a week. She noticed that when she didn’t plan ahead that she didn’t eat as healthy as she would like. In our sessions, we targeted her goals and strategies to reach them. So, for instance, she started preplanning menus using the delicious recipes on my blog, took a healthy lunch to work and planned a dedicated lunch break for herself. She and her husband researched and started cooking new healthier recipes together. Throughout her journey, she knew she could ask me questions and we could discuss any barriers she encountered.

Look at the muscles she created in only 7 months! She is enjoying showing off her toned arms instead of covering up her arms!

Today she would tell you that she is more intentional with her activity and  exercise and has reduced her dally calorie intake but doesn’t feel hungry because of the new food choices she is making. She is more interested in choosing the type of foods she eats, plans much better now for healthier lunches and dinners and cooking healthier foods. She prioritizes sessions with me as she continues with two sessions per week (she drives 35-60 minutes each way to me-WOW) and prioritizes exercising and eating healthy foods. She says she doesn’t feel like she has been “dieting” or giving things up.

8-8-19

8-8-19

In addition to the following measurements, Peggy also improved her blood cholesterol and blood sugar values. Her good cholesterol HDL rose from 27.6 to 63!! An HDL-C level of 60 mg/dL or greater is a negative (protective) risk factor for coronary heart disease. High HDL levels protect against coronary heart disease. So not only has she lost weight, she has improved her health.

7 mo. 24 days Progress Summary

Lost 25 pounds of body weight

Lost 23.25 inches

Improved cardiovascular fitness 39%

Improved upper body strength 150%

Cholesterol and blood sugar improvements

Peggy could have accepted her current lifestyle as her fate and her weight would have continued to increase at 3-4 pounds per year and her health and fitness level would have continued to get worse possibly leading to obesity and the conditions that would make her more likely to have heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, some cancers, gallbladder disease, and osteoarthritis. Instead Peggy made a choice to work towards gaining strength, power, endurance, and function which ultimately will help her live a longer and healthier life.

Peggy’s Review on Google

“Maria Faires is an experienced and extremely knowledgeable personal trainer who focuses on your fitness goals, tailoring each safe and effective workout to your individual needs.  Maria varies each workout to keep it interesting and challenging.  She works alongside you to demonstrate technique and to motivate you.  Maria tells you the “why” for each exercise, which is a nice distraction while you are working hard!  As a Registered Dietitian, Maria guides you to be leaner and more fit, on the inside as well as the outside.  Her clean professional home-studio has a comfortable atmosphere.  The studio is very well-equipped – like going to a gym, but without the intimidation factor!  Maria’s coaching style is always positive and encouraging.  I had questioned whether I could lose weight as a 56 year old female.  Through a program of weight training, cardio, and eating healthy foods, I have lost 25 pounds in under 8 months – and I am keeping it off!  I have also lost 6 inches in my waist and 4 inches in my hips!  I am stronger and have a much better fitness level overall.  When I started working with Maria, I could do 14 pushups, but 8 months later, I can do 35!  My body fat has reduced by 9%.  Maria Faires helped me turn my fitness goals into reality, and she can help you too!”

“In my initial conversation with you, I asked if it was possible to lose weight at my age. Without hesitation, you replied “absolutely!” Your confidence was what made me commit to working on a healthy lifestyle. I’m so glad I found you.”

Peggy’s Fitness Progress

Date 1-5-19 8-29-19 Change  
Height 5’3
Weight 147.6 122.6 25 pounds
Age 55 56
Neck 13.75 12.75 – 1
Arm 13.25 11 – 2.25
Waist 33 27 – 6
Abdomen 35.25 28.5 – 6.75
Hips 41.5 37.5 – 4
Thigh 24.5 22 -2.5
Calf 14.75 14 -.75
Cardio Fitness 25.9 36.1 +39%
Pushups 14 35 +150%
Body Fat 33.2% 24.5% -8.7%
Cholesterol 228 195
HDL (Good) 27.6 63
LDL (Bad) 160 121
HemA1C 5.7 to 5.6

 

TRX Exercises Demonstrated By Peggy

Look at Peggy in action! She is now proficient in using the TRX, due to her increased strength and decreased body weight. The TRX is very challenging, works muscles and pushes your strength in unique ways and takes your body to the limit. No matter what exercise you do, it almost certainly works the core. I recommend the TRX to all my intermediate to advanced clients. I teach my clients several routines that they can do at home or when they travel as the TRX is easy to travel with. Here I am demonstrating a difficult TRX Side Plank on vacation.

 

 

 

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Client Success Story: Caroline

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Taken 8-3-17 12.4 pounds lost

Taken 8-3-17 12.4 pounds lost

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caroline is a busy professional and mother of three girls under the age of 9 who was discouraged because she felt she ate “so little” but was not seeing the “pounds decrease”.  And, she wanted to be as strong and healthy as possible to keep up with three children. She was looking for help losing the last 10 pounds and creating fitness and eating plans to lose weight and maintain the weight loss. Scroll to the bottom to see her review of me!

We scheduled a series of nutrition consult sessions and weekly personal training sessions. Here she is performing a split-stance low cable row. 

Look at her terrific progress in just 3 months. Note the significant body fat loss and inches. Success of a weight loss and exercise program is defined as achieving and maintaining a healthy BODY COMPOSITION not only WEIGHT LOSS. For more information about this, refer to my blog on body composition.

8-3-17 Progress

12 pounds, 9 inches and 5.6% Body Fat lost in 5 months! Not to mention, muscle gained. She began with the ability to only do 13 max pushups and now she can do 20!

8-10-17  Progress

Weight 146.6 pounds and 23.4% body fat. 13.8 pounds lost and counting!

10/20/17 Progress 

Despite lots of reasons to find excuses, Caroline doesn’t. She makes eating healthy and getting in her workouts and hiking with the family a top priority. She eats out frequently for business and she scans the menu and using the knowledge she has gained from our nutrition counseling sessions, makes the healthiest possible choices. She keeps her focus and she is rewarded with continual body fat loss and muscle toning. Her husband is so impressed that he has started training with me!

Date 3-4-17 8-3-17  Change
Height 5’7
Weight 160.4 148 – 12 pounds
Age 45  na  na
Neck 13.5  13  .5
Arm 12.25 11.25 – 1.0
Forearm 10  9.5
Wrist 6.5
Waist 32.5 30 – 2.5
Abdomen 33 32.5 -2
Hips 40.25 38.5 -1.75
Thigh 23.25 22.5 -.75
Calf 15.5  15  – .5
Body Fat 29.4% 23.8% -5.6%
Pushups 13  20

Caroline’s Review

I am constantly feeling incredibly lucky that I found Maria!  I am amazed with what I come away with in a one hour session!  Everything she does to help you reach your health and fitness goals is customized for you – there is no one size fits all.  Being an engineer, I appreciate that her strategies are rooted in science and that I get to load up on ‘data’ when I meet with her.  I’ve always been athletic but after a decade of having children I needed someone to help me get where I wanted to be and hold me accountable.

I THOUGHT I knew a lot about healthy eating and exercise but what I learned from Maria is that most of what you read and hear is garbage.  Her guidance has changed my entire family’s approach to diet – even my two year old who is my youngest of 3.  I am in better shape now than I was 20 years ago – my kids and family are amazed and everyone has asked me what I’m doing.  I’ve only been working with Maria for 3 months and the results – which I think she will post – are shocking!  Even more proof: I played golf for the first time in seven years a week ago and played better than I ever have, had no soreness or discomfort and had an easy time walking the course in 90 degree heat! Thank you Maria!

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Client Spotlight: Meet Gene

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Gene performing a yoga Crow Pose.

Written by: Intern Callie Parry and Gene Purdum

Maria has a vast group of past and current clients. They range in age, location and life experiences. To give you a better sense of the people Maria is helping through her business and expertise, we will be doing regular client spotlights.

To start, we would like you all to meet Gene age 66 years young.

Gene was born in the Maryland countryside and attended Michigan Tech receiving a Bachelor’s degree in applied physics and a Master’s in nuclear physics. While in college, he put his classical music background and radio experience to use by working for NPR’s music department. Upon graduating, Gene moved over to Michigan State University and worked as Music Director/Operations Manager/Classical Announcer for NPR radio for 38 years until retiring in 2013.

Gene has lived a full life. He loves cycling, running, and hiking and has completed several amazing feats such as solo bike rides and endurance road races. Other hobbies of his include stamp collecting, ham radio and taking care of his immense garden.

Gene is an ambitious soul and although he has completed a lot of the things on his bucket list he is still hoping to hike the Grand Canyon again from rim-to-base-to-rim, travel to India to study with yoga gurus, finish all the remodeling on his home, ride a 300-mile 24-hr bike race and bike from Fairbanks, Alaska to the Arctic Circle.

Gene does not ever want to be slowed down so when he developed a severe case of sciatica in 2013 and had to undergo back surgery he knew he needed help. He went through physical therapy post-surgery and began working with a personal trainer. However, he did not connect well with his trainer and wanted a second opinion. That is how he came across Maria Faires. He was drawn to her because of her extensive experience in exercise and nutrition, her background in Medical Exercise as well as her experience working with older clients.

Gene has always been dedicated to living a healthy life, so he was not seeking help in weight loss or major lifestyle changes. He began working with Maria remotely via email and phone. He sent her the workouts he had received from his former personal trainer and Maria altered them to be better for strength preservation, rehabilitation and avoidance of injury. That is something that few people are better at than Maria – she is always up to date on the best exercises to avoid injury and provides post-rehabilitation exercise programs or for the healthy individual, designs effective programs that will help prevent injury in the future. She does not follow fitness trends just because something looks cool and hard, but is more concerned with protecting the body and building strength and endurance in a safe way.

Maria gave Gene three basic workouts that he could alter to avoid boredom. Since they worked remotely they began by calling weekly and then gradually tapered off to only calling every three months. They have built a great relationship where Gene feels comfortable asking whatever questions to help him with his health, nutrition and fitness needs.

A big thing that sets Gene apart from Maria’s other clients is his work as a yoga instructor. Gene has always been one who wants to expand his knowledge and delve in to unknown territory. That is how he came across yoga. Gene discovered yoga later in life after his back surgery. He was taking a Gentle Yoga class at his gym and realized they were doing the same thing every class. One day he thought to himself, “I can teach this,” and so he did. He got his 200-hr teacher certification and immediately began teaching his own version of Gentle Yoga at his local high school’s adult education program. Currently he teaches that class four times a week and has an average of 10 students per class. The average age of his students is 70. Since his 200-hr training, he completed Bryan Kest’s Power Yoga teacher training. He does not know if he will ever teach it because Power yoga is a vigorous and challenging style that is not suitable for seniors, but he has incorporated Bryan’s philosophy in to his classes. This philosophy takes the perspective that yoga is more of a mental practice than a physical workout. Gene also has become certified as a Chair Yoga instructor, but has yet to find employment in that area, let alone time to teach it.

Maria also supports Gene in his passion for yoga and is always offering advice for how he can best reach his senior students. Gene appreciates Maria’s genuine concern for him. She always is reminding him to eat more quinoa and whole grain, for example, and advising him on what yoga poses he should or should not be doing for safety for himself and his older students.

Gene encourages everyone to seek Maria’s help no matter their current health status. She is very well qualified to guide you in whatever direction you desire to go. If you need to lose weight, Maria can review your diet and recommend safe substitutions. If you need a review of your present weight-training routine, Maria can help tie them into your overall goals. Maria can give you the Big Picture about how to obtain wellness, unlike other “fitness” people who are more narrowly focused.

If, after reading Gene’s story, you would like to get additional details on his journey and experience working with Maria, you may contact him at gene@wkar.org

 

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