“If anyone had told me 6 months ago that I would have joined a gym and be going 5 times a week, I really would have laughed 🤣

Winning the 12 week transformation package back in October with Zoe at AZ Fitness has been the best opportunity ever! Slightly nervous starting out. Would I commit? Would I go? Would I keep it up or would it all be wasted on me? These questions all went through my head.

How wrong I was! After two weeks, I was hooked. My preconceptions of the gym environment were so wrong. The ‘upstairs gym community’ is fab! Zero judgements, just individuals happy to get on with their workout…and happy to help out when asked. I now see it as one of my ‘happy places’.

Zoe and Harry have been great, have held me to account and supported me when I needed it but I soon realised that this wasn’t just about losses – weight, body fat etc but just as much about the gains. Confidence, resilience, positive mental health and a much healthier, energetic and happy me!

I used to have all the excuses…I was far too busy, didn’t have time but it really is about making time work for you. It’s now an hour of ‘me time’, time to zone out, get my thoughts in order as well as improving my level of fitness.

Thanks ‘Team Edmondson’ – I think I’m now the fittest and healthiest that I’ve been in a long time without ‘fad’ diets and misconceptions about food. It really is a lifestyle…a balance. I still love my food and an odd 🥂🍾 now and then 😜 and I find this fits perfectly around this lifestyle.

“I’m approaching the last few months of my 40s pretty much at the same weight I started it, thanks to AZ’s 12 week transformation. After summer I was the heaviest I’d been in over 10 years, so I needed to do something about it. Myself & my partner are pretty active – running, cycling & swimming but our eating habits were getting out of hand & we were eating too many carb loaded meals. I could eat a large bag of salt & vinegar crisps, usually with drinks, every weekend. Zoe’s videos & weekly weigh ins were very helpful & made me focus on my diet – what I should be eating, and putting more effort into planning & cooking more wholesome food. Logging my food was a chore to begin with, but I will carry it on, as it makes me mindful of my food choices. There are other changes that have become routine too – breakfast at 10.30 on the playground 😁, looking after my gut microbiome & avoiding UPFs. Although I am not a gym bunny, the facilities at AZ are fabulous & it is something I should continue.
Thank you again Zoe, I couldn’t be happier with my results xx
Thank you to my partner Loz for investing in me 😘 & here’s to being fit at 50 😁”

“Last May I turned 40. I probably weighed about 73kg. My slimmest and lightest ever, pre lockdown after losing weight with Zoe 2018-2020 was 64kg. My ‘comfortable weight’ – fit ok in clothes, didn’t have to try too hard with food or exercise, is around 70kgs.

Since having my 7 year old my health hasn’t been great. I was very poorly after his birth and it feels like I have been back and forwards to the Dr ever since. Like most things, symptoms were vague. I thought I was experiencing early menopause, had depression and was put on anti depressants, my thyroid wasn’t working. But nothing ever worked. Maybe it was just me. I thought I couldn’t cope like everyone else. Balancing a marriage, job, kids, god forbid anything for myself – how do women (not exclusively, I know) do this. Why did my mother never tell me how hard this was?!! Some nights I would get the kids to bed and lie on my bed awake but unable to function. Completely and utterly knackered.

After my latest trip to the doctors (following two bouts of sickness where I was floored, completely wiped out) Dr Dingle called me at 0830am one Sunday morning and explained he had spoken with an endocrinologist and thoight I had adrenal insufficiency/Addisons disease. It was rare, but important and potentially life threatening and I must go to the pharmacy that day and a prescription was waiting for me and further tests would follow. I have taken 3 steroid tablets a day since then and will be on them for life.

By the end of summer my clothes didn’t fit and I was heavier than I had ever been by autumn. I knew I was more hungry. I knew this was a side effect of steroids.

I’m a working mum with two demanding children and now I have a condition where managing fatigue is essential and medication which is known to make you prone to weight gain. How can I possibly now fit in working out and losing weight? I buried my head a bit longer. It’s in the ‘too hard to deal with pile’. Is THIS being 40? Is this getting older?

Then over the Christmas holidays I got my head sorted. Walking back in the gym was scary. I felt really big and out of shape. Everyone is on their own journey. It’s a safe place to be.

‘Trust the process’. ‘Progress not perfect’. ‘The energy I need is just an hour away’. These phrases have helped me through.

I’m consistently inconsistent. So much of what I do depends on the other people in my house. A child deciding not to sleep, a husband who is called out to work and needs to leave 0600 the next day. This is all before anything in my own life that might get in the way! Weight loss is all about consistency. This is my biggest challenge.

My main focus was stopping the weight gain, so to lose weight is really promising. My plan now is to reduce my calories over the week by 100 a day as I can control these days better. This allows myself a bit more at the weekend when I often have to eat out or grab something on the go at irregular times or I can even let myself have a homemade cake or pudding. My weakness. I ❤️ baking.

Thank you Zoe, its not the first time you’ve helped me out of a hole. I don’t know how you do it!
Thanks to this group, especially Rach who has made me laugh and has been a friendly face at 0545 when I’ve walked through the door.

Health is wealth everyone

Now a little from me….

Jo I really would like to say a massive well done to you, this has been one of my favourite ever
transformations, you were low when you walked through the door here at AZ 12 weeks ago, really low. Although not as low as when I first met you 🥰

Inbody Score ⬆️4 kilo
Weight ⬇️ 4 kilo
Body Fat ⬇️ 4%
Body Fat % ⬇️ 3%
Visceral Fat ⬇️ 2%