The Sugarbabe

About SJ...

This is SJ, SJ has just started training with the Find and I asked if she would be up for doing a case study.

She sent me this amazing picture for which I am truly grateful.  SJ is 65 (can you believe it!), she looks incredible for her age and to my mind Marilyn Monroe might have looked like this had she been able to grow older.

SJ is of an era of counting calories and restricting food intake and she is slightly baffled at the idea that we can achieve great results without any hunger. Since in her prime dieting days, hunger meant success, but with the Find, where we are all about metabolism and long term results, extreme hunger is BAD.
The reason that I am so pleased with this photograph is that in lycra gym gear SJ looks truly stunning and it would be difficult for anyone to understand why she has started on this journey.  Her focus is less about weight loss and more about improving skin tone and building muscle mass and definition.

She is going on a beach holiday to Madeira in the Summer with friends and would like to improve the appearance of her skin and feel confident that she could wear a bikini and not just stick to one pieces.

SJ is not a big eater and is satisfied with quite small portion sizes, she likes to eat regularly and does occasionally just snack all day and only eat one reasonable sized meal  a day.
Sugar is her biggest downfall and it was only when we sat down to discuss her diet that she realised that barely an hour passes in the day when she does not eat refined sugar in some form.  Often just a cup of tea with one sugar, or a bite of someone's cake, or a small corner of chocolate, but it is consistent and it is daily for years and years.  With the calorie method, this was OK, as long as your total calories are low enough, it doesn't matter where they come from so even when she was slimming (her word, not mine, and I have to say it sounds much nicer than 'dieting') probably 60% of her daily calorie intake was from sugar.

She does get what she calls a 'bubbly' stomach, where her stomach will blow out more than usual even when eating something fairly small.

She is  very much the lynch pin of the family and her time is in demand from many people. She often puts their needs first and as much as she really enjoys exercise, she sees it as a self indulgent luxury that can only be enjoyed after everyone else is satisfied.  And this is despite an accident a few years ago where she was told that the only way she can maintain good health is by doing regular physio and pilates.

SJ does have a wonderfully straight spine (particularly upper spine which can be a problem area with people that haven't done much exercise) and through her convalescent pilates a great body/muscle awareness that will make training with her a joy.

SJ has agreed to send a monthly photo so that she can watch the results.

Tomorrow I will post the recommendations for her first month.