May 27, 2015

Living Fitness in Livingston

I believe the key to changing your body (besides eating right of course) is mixing up your workouts. As much as I love Bari and yoga, I needed to find something else to help me with all my problem areas. A friend of mine recommended a trainer that she LOVED. I wasn’t sure about going the personal trainer route because I felt like finding a trainer you really like is like trying to find the perfect therapist. You want to connect, you want them to help you breakthrough and push you to YOUR max and you want to see a difference. You are making an investment on improving your fitness level, leaning out or bulking up, and trusting that person that he/she knows how to you get you there. After an hour of insisting that this was the trainer for me, I gave it a whirl.

I met John at Living Fitness , which he co-owns with his wife Alissa. Something about a family owned business always makes me feel good and I was excited to begin.

The first thing I noticed when I walked in the door was how IMMACULATE it was. I mean you could eat off the floor it was that clean.

John came out to greet me, have me sign some paperwork and he asked me a bunch of questions about my fitness level. Truthfully, I had zero idea what my fitness level was. I knew I worked out a lot but when I am in yoga, I can’t balance for shit, I am the world’s slowest runner and my weight lifting skills are not so hot. Therefore I was dead honest and on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most in shape ever person, zero body fat, I am probably a 6. I had a lot of room to improve. I told him that my thighs and tush are the worst part of my body and I am willing to do anything to improve them before I resort to laser lipo. I am not sure John liked my comment but he laughed and said he wanted to give me a quick tour.

Living Fitness has huge assortment of gym equipment from the 80’s stair master to the latest and greatest TRX bands, kettle bells, weights, treadmills, and assisted pull up machine which was a sign to me the workouts were going to be extremely varied.

Living Fitness offers Studio Pilates with a fully equipped Pilates Studio.

We did a 45 minute workout to test out my fitness level. I never asked where I stood so I have no clue if I was in great shape or just average. After the session John explained that he would be weighing me every Friday and my next session would include a food plan based on what I ate in the next few days (This would give him an idea of what kind of foods I like, where I was falling off the wagon and WHY I was). I signed on for two days a week with the hopes of reaching my goal before June 1st. Key word here – HOPE.

I sent John my food diary a few days later and began my twice weekly training sessions. I should divulge my training times were at 5:15am or 5:30am. I was basically waking up in the middle of the night to workout. I know it sounds psychotic but I like to workout before my kids go to school. Not that it makes any sort of difference to my results but I made a commitment and I stuck to it. Maybe not my eating so much but definitely my workouts.

My six weeks played out like this:

A five-minute warm up followed by a workout that got increasingly harder each week. John knew exactly how far to push me and when enough was enough. I was amazed each week by the design of his workout sessions. They were perfectly in tune with my fitness level with an added push to help get me to the next level without feeling like I joined the Marines.

Here is a sneak peek into some of my workouts:

After spending six weeks with John and the Living Fitness crew, what can I tell you?

I can say this – Living Fitness is not your ordinary run of the mill training gym. It is so much more. John and all of the trainers at Living Fitness care about each and every one of their clients. John takes the time to answer all of my crazy questions, responds quickly to my email and texts. John is a true expert in body mechanics as well as fitness and nutrition. He constantly works on my balance, flexibility, strength training, cardio and core. He tailors each workout for my increasing fitness level and is mindful of my limits. I lost 4.5 pounds in the six weeks with I started training at Living Fitness. I will be honest and tell you that I did not follow John’s meal plans to a tee. If I had stayed the course and my Miami trip and Memorial Day weekend did not get in the way, I would have lost more than the 4.5 pounds. But I am back on it and John is helping me reach my goal by July 1st. John is the real deal – he is thoughtful, caring and tough all in the right measures (and yes he is very tall).

Please know that hiring a trainer isn’t a luxury for the sake of vanity, it is an investment in your physical and mental health. I was fortunate enough to find John. I was actually hesitant about writing this article because I didn’t want to lose my training time. But I wouldn’t be doing my job if I wasn’t spreading the word about my fab finds. So if you are looking for a trainer – check out Living Fitness. You will be VERY impressed not only with how nice the gym itself is but with the tailored training, quality of your workouts, nutrition advice and a true sense that the trainers are focused on helping you see overall results not just in body but in mind.