I think there’s no better investment you can make than in your health and your wellbeing. So, the sooner you do it, the more time you have to enjoy the rewards.

‘Happy and confident’ is how 29-year-old Sheena describes herself now.

Yes, she loves the 11kg weight loss she’s experienced at Ultimate Performance, but the transformation process changed her life in ways she never expected…

Before, she had been through a living hell with severe ADHD symptoms that made her feel like she was drowning in stress and anxiety.

Drinking and smoking were her coping mechanisms, which only made the cycle of bad sleep, stress and anxiety worse.

Feeling so low and constantly ‘on edge’ affected her relationships with friends and family, and leading her team as a marketing manager.

Her transformation with U.P. helped her take back control.

Under the expert guidance of her trainer, Sheena fixed her sleep, overhauled her diet, and learned the art of weight training as a positive channel for her stress.

She says it felt like having a ‘life coach’ not just a trainer. Going through the process has helped her fall in love with exercise, be more focused and productive at work, and even come off her ADHD medication.

“I think the part that really had the biggest impact on my life was almost the mental element of it. It makes you a happier person.

“I became somebody that was just more optimistic, much more forward-looking, and just somebody who found it easier to handle challenges that came my way.”

Sheena shares how she accomplished this 180-degree lifestyle turnaround below…

What were the reasons you made the decision to start your transformation with U.P.?

I’ve always been someone that struggled a lot with ADHD. I’ve had it all my life, so that made it very difficult for me to manage stress and anxiety.
When I started a new job, things got really busy. So it really became worse and worse for me.
I was finding it hard to sleep. I was finding it hard to eat. I would just pick the most convenient food that I could have. It was complete trash, and I was sleeping three or four hours a day.

My mood and my overall wellbeing were all super affected, and it spilled over to other parts of my life. My work suffered, and my relationship with friends and family too.
And to make matters worse, I picked up really bad coping mechanisms. I picked up smoking and I was drinking.

It got to the point where I just felt like this really had to change physically. I was feeling awful mentally also because I wasn’t channelling my stress towards the right places.

I had a few friends that found weightlifting or going to the gym a really good way to release stress.
But the reason that I didn’t try was because I had no experience. I was super intimidated. I had zero confidence to take that first step, and I almost didn’t know where to start. So that’s why I decided maybe start with a little guidance that would help me take that first move.

 

How did your life change when you started here?

I’m not going to lie, the first few weeks’ adjustment period was really hard, but it got to a place where I had a routine.
I had something to look forward to every week. There was a new challenge, there was something different for me to explore, and it felt like there was a goal that I could work towards that was very fulfilling.

I think the act of weight training, and getting all of these healthy habits into your life, adds a lot of structure and teaches you how to focus and direct your energy in a great way.

I got a lot of advice and guidance around my diet, my sleeping, my water intake, as well as ways to use physical activity as a way to redirect and release stress.

Because at U.P., they don’t just look at that one hour that you spend at the gym, there’s a lot of guidance and advice around the other 23 hours of your day.

The eating and the sleeping and all of these coming together really help you to take those steps towards building a sustainable, healthy lifestyle. And I found that of course, there’s the physical element of it, you become fitter, you become stronger. But because of that, the mental aspect I think was the biggest takeaway.

I found that I was able to manage my stress really well. I was able to focus. And the biggest thing for me was a very long-term medication that I had to take to manage my ADHD for many, many years, I actually stopped taking it.

I feel like I don’t actually have to go back to that. And I’ve kind of found a long-term way to deal with these things in my life.

How do you overcome the difficulties in your life throughout your journey at U.P.?

I had a lot of guidance and support from my trainer. I really appreciated the patience and the fact that I was never forced to do anything that was unsustainable, that I couldn’t integrate into the rest of my life.

Whenever we came across a situation where I felt ‘this is not working’, we would try something different.
We would find creative ways to work around commitments that I had around my work, my friends or my family, and it was never ‘my way or the highway’ kind of thing. That made it something that I could integrate into the way I already live, and I didn’t have to sacrifice or give up anything to meet these goals.

I think there’s a high level of knowledge. And I feel like if I had tried to do all of these things on my own, there would have been a lot of guesswork. I would’ve maybe made a lot of mistakes along the way that might have made me want to give up.

But I think because there was a lot of expertise, I could quite efficiently find ways around it. And the last thing, I feel like the most important thing is having someone there to hold you accountable and almost want it as much as you want it yourself. It feels like you’re part of a team almost, and you’re not doing it alone. So, I think that kept the motivation levels very, very high.

 

How did your trainer help make this transformation possible?

My trainer puts up with a lot of my challenges. He is very patient, because I think what he and many trainers here try to do is understand the situation that you’re in and recognise that everybody comes here with a different set of difficulties.

My trainer was able to ask a lot of the right questions to see what my lifestyle was like, and then integrate the right habits, the right kind of step changes so that gradually we got to where we wanted to go. There’s also a very high level of expertise, and I think that really opened up my eyes to a lot of things that I had misconceptions about. or I was wrong about.

To a certain extent, he acts almost like a life coach because I feel like half the battle is mental anyway. It’s psychological. So, having somebody that understands that some days you need to take two steps back to take three steps forward, especially on days that you’re not a hundred percent, that helps you to keep going for a much longer term.

How has it improved your lifestyle and your wellbeing in life?

I think definitely there’s a big change physically – losing a lot of weight that gives you a lot of confidence. It makes you a happier person in general. And the mobility, the movement helped me to pick up things that I stopped for a while, like running, which I’d always enjoyed.

But I think the part that really had the biggest impact on my life was almost the mental element of it.

Because every time you come to the gym, you’re challenged to push yourself and that gives you the mindset of things that you thought were impossible. It’s not, if you put yourself to it, you can always overcome something really difficult.

I think overall I became somebody that was just more optimistic, much more forward-looking, and just somebody who found it easier to handle challenges that came my way.

 

What would you tell somebody who is actually hesitant to take the first step towards their fitness journey?

Before I started here, I had a million excuses. There’s always a reason why you cannot start like, “Oh, I’m too busy,” or “I’ll wait for the next quarter,” or “There’s this going on in my life right now,” or “I have this commitment, that commitment.”

There’s always going to be some kind of reason that you don’t want to start. But I think the hardest thing is taking that first step. There’s never going to be a perfect time in your life to do it.

I think there’s no better investment you can make than in your health and your wellbeing. So, the sooner you do it, the more time you have to enjoy the rewards.

Don’t leave it off till you’re 50 and you’re regretting it.

 

Don’t waste years of your life feeling the way Sheena did. Start your own transformation today and enjoy the life-changing benefits of fitness now.

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