I am bursting with pride over our Hidden Meadows neighbor, David Hoover. David has an amazing transformation story that I just have to share with you.
David had been in a horrific car accident when he was in his 20s resulting in three spinal fusions. He came to me to work on his core strength, get more flexible and take some weight off in hopes it would reduce the chronic pain he was suffering with. He had been successful at losing over 100 pounds but couldn’t get to his ultimate goals because he kept getting injured working out on his own. Every time that happened it erased all the gains he had made. My “Be Healthy Enough” concept felt like the right fit for him because he wanted to get in shape but not at the cost of hurting himself.
We started out strong the first month, exercising together twice a week. Then the pain started to sneak in. I pulled out my “tool box” and we stretched more, did foam rolling to rejuvenate and restore his body, I even used Reiki when he just felt like he couldn’t exercise. Thanks goodness he didn’t give up because it hurt.
David kept it up and made progress in our 6:45 am workouts twice a week. He was lifting very heavy weight and his back spasms were almost nonexistent but those pesky pounds were not coming off. Instead of getting frustrated, David got serious. Because of the work we had done stretching, building his core muscles and foam rolling, his body was ready to lose that weight once and for all.
In June of this year David and I put together a new plan (my favorite thing to do). It was time to reevaluate his eating, add another day of strength training and use the hills of our community to torch that fat. It wasn’t easy but in 3 months David lost over 33 pounds!
David’s Key Success Factors:
• Having a plan that he could commit to. If you can’t commit it will never happen.
• Completely changing what he ate. We set a plan for him to eat three healthy meals and three snacks that contained no sugar and very few carbs. He also limited his alcohol and increased his water intake. Sure it was hard at first but his health was worth it.
• Weighing himself every day. This was the best way to measure if he was on track or needed to make a change.
• Having an accountability buddy. While I hoped I could take the credit here, it really was his wearable fitness tracker. All day he could keep track of his exercise progress. Being a bit competitive he was always trying to do better the next day!
• Having support from home. His wife, Marj, was so supportive. She found low carb recipes to help him stick to his plans. I would drool when I heard what she was making him for dinner.
• Not getting discouraged when the scale wasn’t moving. There were weeks when it stayed exactly the same but he didn’t give up, stuck to what was working and it would drop again.
• Continuing to do corrective exercises such as stretching and connective tissue massage. Right now our actual strength training time is about 30 minutes. Yes, he pushes hard during that time but it’s only 30 minutes.
• Learning the importance of REST days. When his weight stalled, often a good rest day got it moving in the right direction again, even more so than working out harder. This was a big “Aha” for him and for me. Sometimes the harder he exercised the harder it was to lose weight – funny right? Our bodies need rest to heal.
At the end of October David was at the lowest weight he had been in years. A personal trainer’s job is to push people beyond where they would push themselves.With David my job now is to get him to back off a bit to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself. It has been an honor and a pleasure to be with David throughout his transformational journey. Way to go David!