“When I looked in the mirror, I saw an ageing, tired, overweight woman who had lost her way,” Joanna Blacker previously told Express.co.uk.
Joanna, 53 at the time, wanted to shift the body fat that was seemingly “creeping up and up” and the spare tyre she had acquired around her belly.
Not only that, the menopause was hitting her really hard, especially with all the symptoms she was experiencing. “I was trapped in a downward spiral of miserable menopause symptoms,” Joanna revealed.
“At times the menopause symptoms I had felt like torture; brain fog and concentration issues, low mood, excessive weight gain, aching joints, even my skin became really dry and itchy.”
Her diet didn’t help, either, with Joanna admitting that she’d reach for chocolate and cake “in an attempt to feel better”.
But, of course, the extra fat she was eating only added to her misery when her waistline grew and clothes started to feel snug.
At 12.2 stone (78kg), Joanna felt she had “lost a lot of the strength” that she once had and felt as though she was losing direction in her life.
Things had to change, Joanna knew she wasn’t in a good place, so she decided to do something about it by changing her diet and exercise routine.
“I also felt really curious to discover just how physically in shape my body could actually become with the right guidance,” said Joanna.
Knowing that she would need help, Joanna signed up to Ultimate Performance to receive one-on-one personal training and nutritional guidance.
“Within the first two weeks I dropped 2kg and the brain fog had begun to lift,” she revealed. “This small but early change switched me on mentally and left me wanting to do more and be more active.”
As for her diet, Joanna said: “I thought I’d really miss having chocolate but instead I would make a protein shake with the Ultimate Performance salted caramel whey protein powder and added a scoop of their Chocotrients, nutrient-rich fruit and greens powder, which stopped me craving the chocolate. It’s like having a really thick milkshake and it gave me the ‘sweet fix’ I needed.”
Partnering with her Ultimate Performance personal trainer, Mark Bloice, Joanna trained three times per week and took up resistance training.
“It was a whole body approach that consisted of a series of seven different exercises targeting various muscle groups, using the machines and free weights,” said Joanna.
“I also started walking, getting in 12,000 steps each day at first, which increased to 16,000 a day at the peak of my training.”
As for Mark’s support, Joanna beamed: “He kept me accountable and kept me going when things got tough!”
Now on the other side of her weight loss journey, Joanna has lost 15 percent of her body fat, the spare tummy tyre, and more than 1.5st. “I feel incredible,” Joanna smiled. “I feel really proud of myself for achieving what I have.”
