Joe's story of confidence gains

Joe came to our service wanting to lose weight and become more active. He was quite despondent and did not feel he was likely to make much progress due to failing before - a recent death in the family due to health issues had incentivised him to try again.

The first barrier we focused on was his snacking habits (always in the evening) – this was habitual rather than emotionally motivated. Joe decided that distraction and activity helped him deal with his cravings and began to go for a walk with his wife in the evening at around the time we identified as being his vulnerable window. He found this new habit started to improve his breathing, stopped his snacking altogether and improved his mental health. Joe found it really helpful to stop focusing on the scales and instead focus on his ‘new normal’ of being a healthy person – rather than identifying as ‘someone on a diet’.

The other significant barrier we concentrated on was Joe's confidence around attending the gym- Joe found the gym environment intimidating as there were often ‘body builder’ types socialising in groups on the machines. This would then prevent him from being able to follow the program he had been set if the machines he needed were taken. In his previous experience this resulted in him giving up and losing his confidence to return.  

We spent some time working on building Joe's confidence in our sessions and explored ways he could continue his workout routine if the machines were already in use. We came up with the idea of asking the Exercise on Prescription practitioner to provide alternate floor/bench/free weight exercises for each machine so that he always had a back-up plan. This approach really worked for Joe and his confidence improved dramatically. Joe shared that he was highly competitive and enjoyed working to targets and challenges. Bearing this in mind we made sure to set his challenges higher than we might for a client who was really struggling with motivation. Joe rose to his personal challenges and goals and became very enthusiastic and committed to attending the gym, his wife also started attending with him providing further incentivisation.

By the end of our course Joe had lost two stone and was attending the gym almost every day. He continued to go for a walk in the evening and does not bother to buy snacks anymore.

"This experience has been life changing. The Health Coaching helped me to find my confidence attending the gym which I never had before. Rachael sharing her own story really made me feel like there was hope, it inspired me and helped me find my motivation to change my own lifestyle for the better".

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