When I retired in my early 60s, I promised myself that I would get fit.  Not that I was not active while working but I wanted to be athletically fit. To this end, I started working out on the stairs at Casa Loma. I had my own ideas of how I should go about doing this and at the end of six years my knees were done for, or so I thought.

 

At the same time I was also dealing with a number of injuries that had become chronic, not just wear and tear from the stairs but injuries that I did not look after before because I was working and did not have the time. In addition to all this, age is now creeping up on me, I am dealing with type 2 diabetes and I have osteoarthritis in all the wrong places for someone who wants to be mobile.  The icing on the cake is that I also have issues around sleeping. All told, I am a bit of a mess. 

 

But, despite all the physical problems my brain still sometimes gets it right and it said to me, what you need is a personal trainer! Jen entered my life and it changed for the better.

 

We have now been working together for seven years and in that time my ability to run injury free has improved immensely. Before, when I was working on my own, I would get to a certain point, injure myself, and have to start all over again. Now, because of Jen’s training, injuries have become rare and for the most part minor, needing only a very short time off from running.

 

My body, thanks to Jen, is in better shape now than it was when I was in my 40s, 50s and early 60s. I feel much stronger, mentally and physically. Who knew that after years of telling myself that I could not run because my knees were bad or something else hurt that I could actually run 10K on a regular basis! I could not have done this without Jen.

 

As for sleep, Jen had a number of really good ideas; most of which I put into practice and my sleep, while not perfect, has improved substantially.

 

I could go on endlessly about how great a trainer she is - which she is - and how she knows all the right exercises for me to achieve my goals, but the reality is a lot of people can do this. Rarer, but far more important, is her ability to read me as a person. By this I mean that she has the ability to know when to push me and when to hold me back, how to encourage me when things are not going as well as I think they should be, and to be there when I need her.

 

This intuition, or insight, or empathy or whatever it is you want to call it makes her more than just “a personal trainer”.  She is the one who keeps me on track, creating the environment in which I can achieve goals I never have believed I could achieve. With Jen I do not feel like I am growing old and more than that I cannot ask for!