About 5 years ago, I was competing in pool and ocean swimming competitions.  I trained hard and, as a result, I was fit, strong and felt energised.  I then started fulltime work in the city and my training soon fell by the wayside.  I occasionally went for a swim in the local pool but it certainly wasn’t enough to maintain my level of fitness or keep the toned body I had acquired from swimming.

Although I was never largely overweight, the kilos that crept on were enough to make me feel disgruntled with myself.  I felt sluggish and clothes didn’t fit like they were supposed to.  Worst of all my self confidence was slowly fading.  I changed jobs and decided it was time to do something about my body too.  A friend recommended Kieran Sernig so I took the plunge and signed up for 10 weeks of personal training with Kieran.

As a person with a physical disability, I was unsure of whether I would get much benefit from personal training but Kieran assured me that he could tailor exercises to suit me.  Kieran developed interesting and very challenging exercises.  I soon began to feel the “exercise-high” that I used to get from swimming training and it felt good.  Energy levels increased and the results were evident – clothes that I hadn’t worn in over a year found a place in my wardrobe.  More importantly, I was confident about my body again.  Plus, I had learnt basic self defence techniques (thanks to kick boxing) and could do 100 sit ups!!

At the end of my 10 weeks of personal training, Kieran encouraged me to join his Bootcamp.  I was hesitant at first – I have always been self-conscious about the way I look because of my disability so group exercise was not high on my list of favourite activities.  Kieran told me to come for one session and if I didn’t like it, I didn’t have to go back.  I had an awesome time and felt very much at ease with the group.

I now go to Bootcamp every week and have gotten back into swimming too.  I walk in preference to catching public transport around the city and love that I have my energy back.  I am even training for a triathlon.  With Kieran’s advice, I have changed my eating habits and know that I am more healthy!

My advice for anybody that feels dissatisfied with how they feel and look is get up, get moving and you will get healthy!  The hard work really does pay off.

Kerry-Lee Crouch