Mr. Tea has now been working with Coach Liz for a month. I'm so happy for him. This is the longest he has stuck with an exercise regime in a long time.
Let me tell you how he ended up working with her.
He has a lot of weight to lose. I'm not really sure if he wants me to talk about how much he wants to lose, so I won't.
He's done everything and tried everything. Last year, he looked into working with a personal trainer. He became very discouraged when it seemed like the gym was trying to sell him on a bunch of stuff, including a liquid detox programs.
When I started working with Liz, I was so impressed with her on so many levels, I thought it would be a good fit for Mr. Tea.
Liz is a Level 3 USMS Coach, Level 2 (unless this has changed) USAT Coach and Certified Functional Strength Specialist. (She might even have more certifications, but these were the most important to ME when I signed up).
Mr. Tea had a lot of pain issues. He had back pain, headaches, feet pain, etc. When he talked to Liz, he told her everything.
She said, "I can help with all that."
So, he started.
The first week, he did 3 hours of training. Since then, he has increased each week with yesterday being a 50 minute walk: the longest he's done so far.
And his pain is gone. The strength training routines managed with walking and running routines has resolved his pain issues.
In addition to this, she has him making dietary changes. Every week or two, he needs to make a change to the way or what he is eating.
To help with this, the day Justin moved out....we got rid of all the "snacks" in the house. You won't believe what a difference this made.
Now, it has it's challenges. You have ME...who can't get enough food and Mr. Tea who needs to watch what he's eating. It has it's challenges. There are days where I want to eat an entire plate of some various form of pasta, and he's best to avoid that type of eating. He can have it and does, but we need to manage the quantity of food.
All that aside, I am enjoying my NEW ROLE as Sherpa. When he has a long workout, I meet him to bring him water. I'm always available to pick him up at the end of his workout.
I want to be as supportive as possible because it doesn't matter how fast or slow you feel, we all feel the same pain when we are pushing our boundaries.
He's out there every day and hasn't missed a day. He's walked/run in pouring rain. He's walked/run late at night. He's walked/run through really bad back pain.
He keeps going on.
Yesterday, he didn't want to go. We've had a stressful August. We both knew that we just had to get to Labor Day weekend.
Well, yesterday was it. He didn't want to go. It was getting late in the evening. I know how that is. I know what it's like being tired and mentally drained and not wanting to go. I knew what it was like. So, I told him that I was going to go with him. There have been many days where I just wished I had someone anyone to go with me to keep me company during those less than exciting runs or those really long rides.
Originally, he was going to skip his walk. Then, he said, "Ok I'll do it." We head out for our walk. Of course, once again, we got caught in the rain.
And it was awesome.
It's hard for me to be "proud" of grown ass adults.
But I was never more proud of him for going last night.
The best part of all of this is that he's now talking about getting a bike soon. He's (I think) starting to enjoy life without pain and starting to appreciate his new found fitness level.
Coach Liz really summed it up perfectly when she said, "The pain you are experiencing is the pain of growing into your new body."
There are days that it is really hard for him, but he keeps going.
