John Brown

Before I joined Vision, I was endeavouring to lose weight without much success. I was starting to feel old because I was unable to do the things I wanted to do.

My quality of life had deteriorated dramatically firstly due to a debilitating virus that attacked my balance system in the left side of my brain stopping me from walking to the point where a specialist suggested I may not ever walk again.

The mounting kilos that I was carrying had created an expanding waistline that stopped me from being able to fasten my own shoes without holding my breath. My increasing weight was impacting on my ageing body stopping me from being able to lift myself back up if I bent down to weed my garden. Instead I had to kneel, grab a garden fork and use it to help me get back up into a standing position. My overall fitness had deteriorated so much that walking up hills was hard to do and walking up stairs hurt my knees and hips forcing me to use the hand rail, something that I had never had to rely on. The overwhelming need to get back some quality of life was uppermost in my mind; I wanted to feel younger and healthier so that I could once again enjoy my sport, work and life in general.

I had a dream that I wanted to go to South America to see Manchu Piccu but in the condition that I was in there was definitely no chance of me ever being able to do the climb. I had seen what the Vision experience had done for my daughter and a number of her friends so I decided to give it a go.

Through the help of my trainer, the positive atmosphere within the studio and the setting of achievable goals I was able to start an incredible journey that has seen me lose 30 kilos since working out at Vision.

As a result, I have become as fit and healthy as most fifty year olds and what is more amazing is that I have been able to have participated in a variety of boot camps, walked/jogged in several fund raisers, swum a leg of a triathlon and set myself a goal of completing one on my own sometime in the next six months, something I could not have dreamed of two years ago. To say that I am amazed at my results is an understatement.

I now feel fitter and healthier than I have in almost twenty five years. I now believe I can achieve my dream of climbing Manchu Piccu sometime in the next two years (other trips to take first). My family, friends and colleagues regularly compliment me on how good I look now and ask how I managed to achieve success. I tell them that I needed to lose the weight and so I worked on a proven method, not just to dream but to VISION. If anyone needs to lose weight, I would tell them that they would have to need to lose it if they want to achieve success. I'd tell them that their need is what will motivate them when they strike the difficult times when even with diet and exercise the body decides to fight back and hang on to a kilo or two or three when they want to keep losing weight. I would tell them they can realise their dream with their help of a Vision experience and the visionaries who masquerade as trainers. The usual reply that I hear from people is I have tried to lose weight but I "can't". I now tell them that there is no such word as can't, that it is an abbreviation of I cannot do it and that there is an 'I CAN' in it so do it. With the help of Vision and your own personal trainer together you too can achieve success.