Felt Like Giving Up Lately? Read this!

Local Seville resident, Simone lives with Multiple Sclerosis. On the 3^rd February 2010 I met with Simone for her first body composition assessment when she joined Fenix Fitness in Mooroolbark (now Goodlife Mooroolbark). At the time she was sitting at 89kg.

While Simone’s intensions to train were up at a 10/10 commitment, her health would often dictate what capacity she could give, so we started with 2 weekly weight training sessions focusing on strength and mobility work.

In July that year, a bad MS attack left Simone with complete numbness in her torso for 6 weeks, totally reliant on a walking stick to get about. I referred Simone onto my naturopath because at the time my knowledge on nutrition for disease was not great. A change in diet saw Simone experience less severe attacks less frequently. Soon after her strength had returned and Simone was turning up to her training session without her walking stick. Her positive attitude meant that stopping training was not an option, even though finances were under pressure at the time as a student Nurse. What Simone needed was to train more frequently so after a little chat we decided to drop her one on one personal training session and swap it for 3 weekly group training sessions for 5 weeks.

I will never forget Simone’s first week of group training. Running with a limp and trailing behind all the fit people but she never once gave up. She just gave her best. The deal was for her to keep taking steps forward in her journey.

In those 5 weeks, Simone lost 5kg of body fat but she also dropped lean muscle. We knew for bigger and better things to happen, Simone needed to return to weight training, so that we did.

In May of 2012 Simone was hovering at 75kg. She needed a bit of a kick up the backside so she decided she would like to do a 12 week challenge. After a little chat we set a goal, “drop 8kg of body fat in 12 weeks and I’ll make you feel special for your after photo and do your hair and make up”.

The goal was achieved in 15 weeks! Simone was now at 69kg. So far 20kg lost. Simone was ready to start picking things up. Her MS attacks were better managed now with diet under control and Simone went on to continue training with one of Assist Personal Trainings Transformation Specialists.

Simone has been such a wonderful inspiration, even her Mother Lola is now coming along and doing her own training session with us each week. Lola has her own inspirational story to tell which we’ll write up for you when we can. She does like to keep our trainer Jordy on her toes!

In January 2015, to celebrate the amazing journey of Simone, we gave her a special gift voucher for a Studio Diva photo shoot experience. Both her and her Mother had 12 weeks up their sleeve to get ready for their photo shoot.

The outcome; Simone now sits at 59kg! 30kgs lighter than she did before meeting the trainers at Assist PT!

Words can’t describe how proud we are of both these beautiful, strong, inspirational women! They are a credit to one another.