The Crazy Angmo And His Angry Wife: Baby Steps To A Fitter Me

This blog post was written as a special shout-out for my personal trainers at IFC Personal Training.

Struggling With Fitness

Throughout my life, I had always been struggling with my health and fitness. Growing up too skinny would be a slight on my Asian parents' capability of providing the best for me, so Mum and Dad always ensured that I was fed the best of everything which gradually also meant more of everything. I fared poorly at physical fitness sessions in my school days. I would often forge Dad's signature in a letter requesting to be excused from physical fitness sessions. I also often pretended I was suddenly not well on that day. I spent half my school life dreaming up of creative ideas to dodge physical fitness sessions. I thought that was okay after all, I knew of friends who spent half their school life dreaming up of creative ideas to dodge regular classes and even school altogether.

I only discovered the love for sports when I became a rugby player. I did not like training even then but I did love turning up for a tournament. My coach who became my husband years later would never stand for that. He felt that I would be a liability to the team if I did not train regularly to prepare myself for the tournaments.

IFC Personal Training

So my personal trainers at IFC Personal Training were the same. It started with just Aaron Rolley. I was introduced to him through an ex-boss, mentor and good friend Laurel, who had been training under Aaron after incurring a back injury through a gym accident. Aaron specialised in rehabilitative training and got her back to full recovery.

Aaron supplemented all that rugby training three times a week by helping me increase my strength and stamina. Without Aaron, I would have gotten more injured at the rugby games.

Years of playing rugby had taken its toll and driven me right to the surgery room of the hospital for a Tibial Tubular Elevation surgery a couple of years ago. Please do not ask me any details about the surgery. I am still clueless about what the surgeon did but I went home with a prosthetic shin. By then Aaron's team of personal trainers grew. I had Yu Wen, then Justin and now Greg who had been responsible for my total recovery from surgery. Again, like Aaron, they specialised in rehabilitative training. I gradually grew my strength back in my left knee, and lost the weight I had initially put back on while convalescing from that surgery.

I never got to play rugby again, but Greg got me to the point where I could do my first half marathon last year. That was just exactly one year after my surgery.

Then over the year, I was hit with several health issues. I had a breast cancer scare and discovered through an angiogram that I had a myocardial bridge condition in my heart. Undaunted, and even more eager to get fitter, Greg and Aaron worked on a fitness regime as well as watched my diet very closely. In a year, I managed to lose 11 kg and I am still on the journey to lose more of that extra weight to get to my optimum fitness level. My heart surgeon was so pleased that he halved my hypertension pills late last year and is set to decrease my cocktail of pills even more when I visit him this August.

Pumped with a little more confidence and the desire to get even fitter, I took on boxing training with a never-say-die attitude. Who ever said that someone with a plastic shin and a heart problem cannot do certain sports? Never say never.

I am very thankful to the team at IFC for getting me here on a journey that was tougher than anyone could ever imagine. It is easier for those who are very fit to get even fitter as they trained for their respective passions like the Ironman competition, the ultra marathons and even an MMA fight. For someone who had been through the health ringer with 3 surgeries in 2 years, this journey towards a fitter me was even more arduous. However I was never alone. My personal trainers from IFC were with me all the way. They will get me there.

You can find out more about IFC Personal Training at www.ifcpt.com and you may contact Aaron at aaron@ifcpt.com

About The Writer:

The writer of this blog post is a 44 year old mother of one, who spreads her time between her day job as a marketing professional at a financial institution, her hobby as a certified professional tarot reader and numerologist, and her family which includes a 20 year old son and 3 dogs with personality disorders. She's married to a Scot who has been affectionately called "The Crazy AngMo" and prays that he does not find out that the term when translated, has labeled him as a "Ginger Head". Together, we create a home made up with more nuts than a fruitcake but filled with plenty of love. Her other blog can be found at http://sungoddesstarot.blogspot.com