Terry Clifford

It is now one year since joining Vision Personal Training and timely to reflect on the past 12 months and what has changed for both Annie and I as a result.

My Vision Personal Training journey began in late January 2017 I went along to an initial consultation to support Annie who was keen to join. I had no intention to join up myself as I had ongoing lower back issues that I was planning to investigate with a referral to a specialist. I also had various aches and pains and was at risk of becoming a diabetic.   
 
Over the past 20 years I had spent thousands of dollars on ongoing treatment for back pain and whiplash with numerous chiropractors, physiotherapists with some relief from time to time, but always a reoccurrence and no long term results addressing my back or neck issues. Additionally, over the years I had gained a lot of weight without really realising it. I had been diagnosed with severe sleep apnoea after doing an overnight sleep test several years ago and was advised to buy a sleep apnoea breathing machine, which I refused to do! And also, due to being overweight I experienced a lot of acid reflux when I was sleeping and often woke up choking... quite a scary experience.

I had not considered a gym membership due to my back issues, however during the initial consultation Deni said Vision could help me and that there was a Trainer there that was really good with injuries. I was interested when I heard this and thought I would give it a go. When I started with Craig it was clear he had excellent knowledge of the body and I immediately felt I was in good hands. He set about helping addressing my back issues, building up my core and of course helping with my food plan.

I had been making some effort to shed a few kilos and had reduced my weight from 104.6 kilos to 100 kilos when I joined Vision. I have always had a liking for sweet things in my diet and this has been the case for most of my life.

In the first 9 weeks I lost an average of 1.8 kilos a week with my original goal being to get to 90 kilos and a longer term goal was to get to 85 kilos. I achieved this by the end of the next 9 weeks landing in a range of 82-84 kilos. I can see a big improvement in my energy levels and sleep patterns and I was loving the training sessions with Craig. I hadn't been this weight or felt this good in over 30 years.

One added expensive but with a good outcome is that I had to buy all new clothes as nothing would fit me. My pants went from size 38 to size 34 or 32 depending on the brand and with shirts I went from 2 or 3XL to a large or XL. I can now buy clothes off the rack whereas before I had to have my business shirts custom made to get them around my fat neck!

A key factor in my success was that my wife Annie was doing the program too so we were on the journey together. The care and guidance provided by Craig was invaluable. He worked with us taking small steps working with my various issues and I am not as young as most other Studio clients, so I think of myself as being a bit like an old car with a bit of wear and tear. A bit vintage or classic as they say!

Due to eating clean I now breathe a lot better, sleep extremely well, my digestion is amazing, have more energy than I have in years and no longer have back or neck issues that would have required surgery sooner or later. I feel like a new person and a younger one at that, I plan to continue to manage my diet and exercise this way for life.

I can't thank Craig and the Vision Personal Training family for all their support and encouragement. I could not have done it without you all.