When I started at Anytime Fitness, I was a size 16 and just over 200 pounds. Working out on my own and eating what I thought was a good plan did give me initial results, but then I plateaued. I knew if I wanted to see real results, I needed some help. After working with Jessica Helmlinger, I’ve noticed such a change. I’ve lost another few sizes, am developing great muscle tone and am now over halfway to my goal weight. Jessica has been awesome! The workout plans are challenging, but not overwhelming. It’s such a great feeling when during our sessions she sets the weight, and I say “that’s too light; let’s go higher.” She’s provided great nutritional advice and is always willing to answer questions and provide recipes. I don’t think I could have made this type of progress without her guidance. I look forward to continuing my journey to a healthier and thinner self.
I started my weight loss journey about 2 ½ years ago, spring of 2010, when I reached my highest weight of 147.5 pounds. Seeing this number woke me up and made me realize that I needed to do something about where my weight was going. I joined weight watchers online for about a year, and was successful at keeping off the 18 pounds I lost until the summer of 2011. That September I got married, and after about a month or two, slowly started to put on a few pounds here and there. By January of 2012 I decided something more needed to be done. My husband and I decided to join a gym, the first gym I have belonged to, so I was a little nervous. I have never been much into exercise, and hadn’t been truly active for probably about 7 years. I needed a push start and had a free personal training session to use so I decided to try it out. I wasn’t sure about the one on one attention seeing as I had no clue what I was doing, but Jessica was awesome and made me feel comfortable. Doing that one personal training session made me realize that I really didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing in the gym. Sure I could do cardio, but lifting weights or anything else, I was lost. This time I wanted to be healthy and truly feel better about myself and not just reach a number on the scale. So I decided Jessica was the way to help me achieve my goal. When I started training with Jessica I weighed 137.5 pounds. I reached my goal weight of 122 pounds about 7 months into training with her. I am now 5 pounds under my goal weight and maintaining it almost 11 months later. I feel so much healthier than I used to, and never want to go back to where I let myself go. My confidence in myself and what I can achieve is all thanks to Jessica, for pushing me, supporting me, and keeping me interested in working out. She has given me a variety of workouts targeting certain areas. Jessica knows what she is talking about, and if I am doing something wrong she will fix how I am doing it so I get the most out of my workout. She not only helped me out in the gym, but also at home with my nutrition which was also a huge help. Thanks to Jessica I have the knowledge to keep on the path towards a healthy lifestyle, and the abilities to help me maintain it on my own.
Guy started personal training just a couple weeks before Thanksgiving in 2011. By July 2012, he was down 30lbs and had lost 6% body fat. As of October 2012, he is still working hard and maintaining his weight. I have always been involved in some type of athletics since grade school; baseball, football, wrestling, etc. After high school, I was pretty religious about working out at the gym and stayed in pretty good shape. It was easy at the time, living at home and not many responsibilities. After I got married and started a family, the working out tapered off, and then pretty much stopped.
I would start up here and there but nothing ever lasted. The weight came on slowly, 5 pounds here, 5 pounds there, so I never really paid attention to it. I started noticing myself getting heavier in the mirror and in pictures, but I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t that bad. Then more and more family members and friends started to lay down subtle hints that I could lose a couple of pounds. Just by chance, one of the owners of the company I work for asked if I would be interested in coming to Anytime Fitness to work out with him. I really enjoyed it and thought maybe this is the right time for me to get back into the swing of working out again. I met with Jessica and we went over the goals that I had. She put me on the right path. The workouts she put together for me were prefect. The best thing was that she would incorporate routines that I never thought of, but they were very effective. I have been working with Jessica for 9 months now and have met my goal of losing 30 pounds. Anytime Fitness makes it easy and convenient to work out, and everyone there is very friendly. Jessica, Josh & Katie have been especially helpful to me. I don’t know what my next challenge will be, but I know that with the help of Jessica and Anytime Fitness, I will have the help and support to achieve it. I have never really had a major weight issue in my life. Iʼve had periods where I was up a few pounds after the birth of my children, or normal weight fluctuation over winter, however once I hit 50, my metabolism began to change. Coupled with the fact that I had finally quit smoking, not only did the pounds begin to creep on....but my energy level really began to decline.
My sister and I have been dedicated walking partners for over 15 years, but when she suggested joining Anytime Fitness, I balked! I had been to other athletic clubs during my life, and frankly, they were not for me. I felt joining a club to walk on a treadmill or use an elliptical machine or exercise bike was a serious waste of time and money....not to mention the fact that I really didnʼt want to work out in front of an audience. My sister persisted, and talked me into checking out the facility and talking to the staff. After careful consideration, I suggested if we join I wanted to work with a trainer. It was the only way I felt I would not only benefit the most from the use of the equipment, but also stay on track and keep myself committed. And so....I took the plunge! Jessica began working with me and taught me the importance of setting goals that were realistic, and educated me on using the Anytime Health website to track my caloric intake and exercise so I was eating the correct food and maintaining portion control. Tracking my food was a real eye-opener! Besides keeping me in check with calorie intake, it also showed me the correct balance of protein, fiber, carbs, etc to keep me healthy and keep my energy level up. Of course, working out was a major component to my success, and Jessica kept my workouts interesting and challenging. Not only did she teach me the importance of changing up my work-outs, she geared them to suit me and help me with my problem spots. She didnʼt let me slack because of my age....thatʼs for sure! I think she had more confidence in my ability than I did, and she pushed me and made me responsible for my own success by holding me accountable at bi-weekly weigh-ins. I feel really great, and I have learned so much thanks to Jessica. I have reached my weight goal, and am now working to maintain my weight and do additional strengthening and toning. This may prove to be just as challenging as reaching my initial goal, since itʼs easy to allow myself “treats” now that Iʼve gotten to the weight I want to be. I will definitely recommend Anytime Fitness to my friends, and plan on being a member for as long as I can! Thanks so much, Jessica, for helping me achieve my goal! Iʼm going to feel great at my daughterʼs wedding! Starting in January 2011, Chrissy lost 15lbs and almost 6% body fat in about 7 months. She is now working towards losing another 10 lbs to meet her goal weight of 115lbs. Last year was a turning point for me. I had reached the heaviest weight ever. I was in the biggest pant size I had ever been in, and I was sick and tired of feeling bad about myself. So I decided I needed to make a change. I joined Anytime Fitness in January 2011. I know what everyone thinking of people who join at the beginning of a new year. I even feared it a little myself. I didn’t want to turn out to be one of those people who make a New Year’s resolution to lose a few pounds and join a gym; only to lose two pounds and go to the gym for a month and then never go back. I was determined to make a lifestyle change.
When I came for the tour Katie got me really excited about joining, and it was motivating to get me started. I got my first training session with Jessica. I realized that I had no idea about how to workout. All I really could do on my own was walk on the treadmill and do some sit-ups. I took the plunge and signed up for three months of training with Jessica. This was the best decision I made. She showed me how to do so many different kinds of exercises. I even went back into the weight room (which I never would have stepped a foot into if it wasn’t for her). After about four months I was down 10 pounds and one pant size. I felt great. I t was also motivating to have other people notice this change in my body. Jessica even coached me about my eating habits and how to make better choices. After that, I signed up for more sessions with her. I was really excited about working out because I knew that I had a plan about what I was going to do each time I was there. I eventually lose 7 more pounds. I have really made a lifestyle change. Working out is not just part of my weekly routine. If I go more than a few days without working out I really feel sluggish. I have more energy and have even been sleeping better. I actually look forward to going to the gym (every once in a while). I have participated in two 5k runs this summer. I am very proud of how I finished in both of the races. I have the typical challenges in keeping the weight off, but I don’t let it consume me. I have had the right training so that I know what I need to do to get my body back into shape. I am hoping to continue on this path so that I will never return to the person that I was before I joined the gym. I love the new me! In 6 months, Joe lost 20lbs and 6% body fat. When Joe started personal training, he could not do any pull ups unassisted. Now, he can do many regular and TRX pull ups. I joined Anytime Fitness in June of 2011 after many failed attempts with other local gyms. Even though I was in decent physical health, I didn’t feel like I was in the best health mentally, and I didn’t feel as though the other gyms really stressed this. I have always been a long distance runner, and I certainly knew how to do cardio workouts, but what I was missing was the mindset to want to do these, as well as the knowledge on what exercises are the best to improve strength. I didn’t feel as if these other gyms I went to cared about my personal goals or my want to improve.
Right away I talked with Jessica Helmlinger, and she agreed to be my personal trainer to help me achieve these goals I sought. With the personal attention and the workouts that Jessica came up with me, I dropped 20 pounds of fat, 4% body fat, and was able to recover from a pretty nasty case of plantar fasciitis, all in 6 months. Most importantly, I feel like I actually want to work out, instead of seeing it as a chore. Combining this guidance and this newfound ambition, I don’t see anywhere to go but up (but not in body fat!). It’s amazing to see what good physical health can do to the mind, whether it’s in the foods that I now eat (I recently gave up eating out for Lent), to generally being in a better mood, to sleeping better at night, it seems as if life has just gotten much more fulfilling. One of my life goals is to be able to run a marathon. For now however, I’m going to have to start small, so I’m looking at doing 5k’s and a half marathon later this year. All of this would not have been possible without the guidance of Jessica and the great environment I got at Anytime Fitness. In 2 years, Erica lost more than 70lbs and 5 pant sizes. She lost more than 60lbs before training with Jessica, and with Jessica’s help she got the last 10lbs off and went from 18.6% body fat to an incredible 13.8% body fat! Over the past few years, I have made quite a change in my daily lifestyle. Smoking 2 ½ packs of cigarettes a day was a part of my life for three years. Food was my worst enemy; I had no self control. My clothes kept getting tighter and shopping was no longer fun for me. All I wanted to do was take a nap after every meal and I had no energy. Enough was enough and it was time I made a drastic change. By April 2009, I was 185 pounds and was the heaviest I had ever been. First, I decided to quit smoking and did so cold turkey. The second goal I set for myself and accomplished was eating right. The Barnes and Noble health section was my new best friend. I took it upon myself to read books about nutrition and how to cook healthy. Once I changed my entire eating habits, my weight went down to 175 after 4 months. From quitting smoking to eating right, the last and final step was exercising. I joined Anytime Fitness in Milwaukee in October 2009. I decided to hire a Personal Trainer and this was just the extra push that I needed. A combination of cardio and weight training was incorporated into each workout and little by little I started losing more weight. Once I switched to Anytime Fitness in Cedarburg I was 135 pounds. I was still weight training and pushing the cardio 4-5 times a week. At this point, I primarily wanted to strengthen my core, tone up and learn how to incorporate different types of workouts into my weekly routine. I felt I also needed that extra shove and I wanted to be pushed beyond what I thought I was capable of.
This is where Jessica comes in…After the first session with Jessica, I knew our training sessions would be exactly what I was looking for, a challenge! With Jessica there has not been one workout session or exercise that have been the same. For instance, she has taught me how to squat on a Bosu ball with weights and perform bent over rows with one leg out. I am doing exercises I never thought I would be able to do. I have fun putting myself to the test with Jessica and now see that I have it in me to go above and beyond what I was doing before. When learning an exercise, I realized that proper body mechanics is extremely important. Jessica takes the time to point minuet details out during an exercise, but without her doing so, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Prior to Jessica, my back felt agitated on and off. Since training with her, my back has never been stronger nor does it feel agitated. I have become so much stronger and I can now do 8 “boy” pushups in a row. I have built much more muscle and gotten rid of more fat. Before training with Jessica, I got all the way down to 125 pounds. Once we started training together I started out at 125 pounds,18.6% body fat and I was in a size 6. Six weeks later, I was in a size 3/4, 115 pounds and at 13.8% body fat. Jessica has been a true partner in my success. She is very passionate about fitness and is extremely knowledgeable and personable. Thanks Jessica for helping me make this huge transformation! I just cannot believe that two years ago I was 185 pounds and a size 14. Health and fitness is and will always be a part of my life! |
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