What a journey!

For many years, I’ve wanted to do something to lose weight, get back in shape, be comfortable in myself again but every time I tried something, an obstacle got in the way – work/family/life….or as I now realise it was really just excuses and lack of motivation.

I’ve half-heartedly tried diets over the years, but when I didn’t see results happening immediately, I lost interest and gave up. I thought about exercising and doing different things, but without the discipline, I never did get round to it and the notion fell away. Excuses started to come too easily – long standing injuries made it difficult, bad weather stopped me, nobody would do it with me! In the meantime, my weight never got any better and my motivation to do something about it got less.

With a mixture of unconventional working hours and the inevitable snacking that goes with it, combined with everyday stresses of work/life/family pressures, I was started on tablets several years ago to control blood pressure. The last couple of years has come with new challenges too which have affected my mind and resulted in self-doubt amongst other things.

Then, I saw the advert for Burn It’s Revolution – a 10 week course of structured classes, with like-minded others taking part. I thought I’d give it a go, see how it went – but if I’m completely honest, like everything else I’ve tried, I fully expected to go for a few weeks then drop out! So the welcome meeting came and I listened to what was said. Then came the first class – geez, that was an experience! For around 3 days afterwards, I honestly thought I’d never walk that same way again! Looking back, it wasn’t anything overly strenuous, but probably just showed how unfit I actually was. I recovered in time for the next class – the aftermath of this one wasn’t quite so bad, then week after week, I continued to sign up and go along to classes…I was actually enjoying it!!

So, going from my previous efforts of finding excuses to not exercise, I was now actually finding reasons to go to Burn It – I was loving it! I’d met a great bunch of folk who all encouraged each other. Some had just started at the same time as me, and others been going for quite a while, but everyone was positive, encouraging and friendly…not what I’d expected at all from such a group. The exercise became addictive. I could quite quickly feel my fitness levels improve and it gave me an escape from everything else and helped greatly with my mindset towards everything else. Just being outside, in all weather feels great. Meeting such friendly people on a regular basis, having the support of a great team of instructors, and such a variety of classes is such a bonus. In the time I’ve been going, I still haven’t done the same class twice! What amazed me the most was that during the 10 week Revolution programme, my medication was reduced by half, and I’m hoping to have this stopped completely with a bit more work.

Needless to say, regardless of what anyone is looking for from any activity, whether it be improved fitness levels, help and support, better mental health, friendship, or anything else, I couldn’t recommend Burn It and the Revolution programme enough.

Well done Team Burn It – keep up the good work, and thank you for helping me start my journey to where I want to be, and I’m looking forward to the next part with you!