Healthcare Series: Results: A Different Way to Assess

By: David Ryan Barnes

During my time as a personal trainer and wellness coach, I have had the pleasure of working with individuals of ALL fitness levels. One of my first clients was an 83 year old female who had been a competitive dancer well into her sixties. As an expectation of the aging process, her flexibility and mobility had degraded. She also found herself starting to experience issues with her balance. When I first sat down to speak with her, we talked in length about what it was she was trying to achieve. Better balance, increased range of motion/flexibility and more endurance were among her main goals. Much to my surprise, losing weight was not a topic of our discussion. While she did not know much about fitness or nutrition, her wisdom seemed to assist her in maintaining realistic expectations of the results she would achieve. The experience I gained while working with her to reach her goals was invaluable, and it helped me to put “results” into perspective for my current and future clients.

While anyone seeking a healthier, more active lifestyle may be doing so to lose weight, it is extremely important to define other variables that will allow us to better measure our successes. In most cases, these other variables can be more important to our health and well-being than that of our own body weight. In situations where your body refuses to lose weight (plateau effect), we should look to these variables for inspiration to continue pushing forward. Perhaps you noticed that you didn’t break a sweat or lose your breath after climbing a flight of stairs. Or unlike before, you can now get into and out of your car almost effortlessly. This other data can show us that even though we don’t see any change on the scale; we are in fact changing on the inside. ANY result is something to be proud of, even if it is not visible.

When working towards a set of goals, sometimes it can be difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Pursuing a more active lifestyle should be about an internal drive to be a happier and healthier version of yourself, not about the mindless pursuit of a number on the scale. The last thing that we want to do is base our successes solely upon one variable: body weight. Working with a personal trainer and/or wellness coach can help you to define the variables that work best for you. They can also instruct you on how to exercise and adjust your nutrition to better compliment your goals. A passionate personal trainer will be your ally, understand your individual challenges, and do everything in their power to assist you during your journey.

About the Series

The YPAL Healthcare Blog Series, sponsored by Norton Healthcare, is part of the new Healthy YP Initiative, which will focus on the health and well-being of our Louisville Young Professionals. This blog series will feature various young professional bloggers in our community sharing their stories on health, wellness, nutrition, fitness and healthy lifestyles.