Sophia Hatziandreou

My Journey at Vision started 18 years ago at the Caringbah Studio.  I had just had my 4th baby and I had been a Yo-yo dieter all my life.  I always considered myself fit, all my life I was active, into every sport and I was a swimmer.  The problem was I was an emotional eater and no-matter how much weight I lost; it would always come back.  The more I lost the faster it would re-appear. I was all or nothing.

Just to give you an example over my life I have lost accumulatively approximately 135kg but in order to lose that weight I also gained it.  My heaviest weight was 99.4kg.

I originally came back to Vision to check on my Son Dimi.  I wanted to 'check out the scene'.  I loved the environment and immediately started to train with Dimi. It's not easy to train with your son.  We have our little disagreements but, in the end, I acknowledge that he is the expert when we are training and I listen.  I feel like I have the best of both worlds now. Peter started training me at the end of last year and the two personalities of the boys has helped me with different perspectives and experience. The 9-week Body Breakthrough Challenge was one of the best for me, with the combination of Peter's calmness, knowledge and steady guidance and Dimi's explosive workouts they helped me loose 8kg.  I felt stronger but the question was what now?

Dimi told me that I needed another goal.  But not a weight loss goal.  I needed to do something that would really challenge me, something I had never done.  Running.  I am not a runner; I am a swimmer.  I have always been afraid of running because I had exercise induced asthma since the age of 2.  I associated running with not being able to breathe.

Dimi, as you can imagine did not take no for an answer!  So, I started running.  I found a partner in crime, Kathy Haros.  Together we were to run 21 km a half marathon.  Dimi set the date for Sunday 14 June.  We had 9 weeks to prepare.  We had no idea how we were going to do it, I think secretly we hoped that Dimi would call it off, or even forget about it.

We set ourselves small goals, first we would hit 5km.  Then 10km, then 16km, then 18km and finally 21km. We paced ourselves and we went slow, we had a goal to just get to the next km.  We would laugh and have fun while we ran, all the while announcing to each other all of the little aches and pains and how we can't actually believe that we can run this far.

Taking the emphasis off weight and looking at the big picture has changed my perspective.  I am learning to set small goals and take life, one step at a time, one day at a time and one km at a time. I know that we can do anything that we set our minds on, if I can run, anyone can.

In the end just like the half marathon, life has to be lived one day at a time and for me and Kathy it's not how fast you get there,  it's breaking it up into small incremental parts, enjoying the journey, having a great friend to come along with you and making it to the finish line.