“What have you been doing,” a friend asked my client. “You must have lost 50 pounds.”
Through tears of joy a client shared an interaction with a friend she hadn’t seen in a couple of years.
“I’ve been doing Pilates,” my client responded. “I don’t even weigh myself, but I have not lost 50 pounds.” She turned sideways, tightened her calf muscle and said, “This is brick.”
My client’s friend asked how many times she trains with me. My client held up two fingers for twice a week. The friend has been doing ballet nearly her entire life. She was blown away by what she was seeing.
My client told me (but not her friend) that she’d been able to wear jeans that were a size smaller than what she’d been wearing for several years. She’d gone shopping the day before and the salesperson asked, “Would you like to try those in a size 10?” My client — through more tears of gratitude — said nobody had ever asked her that question.
There’s a good chance weight loss is not your ultimate goal. You probably would love to get into better shape, have more stamina, heal from an injury or surgery, or just feel better about yourself, your health, or maybe life in general.
This particular client of mine said she started doing Pilates as part of what she calls a rescue mission. She gave me permission to use her story as an example; hopefully it will inspire you.
Her brilliant, beautiful daughter had met a boy with serious troubles. The teenagers had fallen hard for each other before trouble surfaced. So, when the daughter approached the mother, it was a plea to help the boy. The compassion, patience and understanding lasted a few months. There was another “incident” that disproved the “sleeping disorder” excuse his family first gave.
The rest of the story doesn’t matter — except for the day my client decided to “save herself” (her words not mine) by going to her first Pilates class. That was two years and two months ago. She’s only missed a sprinkling of sessions because of short bouts of illness or weather. Her Pilates training has become part of her lifestyle.
We eliminated weather and travel issues by using FaceTime for her Pilates sessions. In fact, we had been doing it long enough to become comfortable and confident with it by the time I moved several states away from her, that we didn’t miss a beat when I moved. Her FaceTime Pilates sessions continue twice each week to this day.
She has a tendency to report something positive every session because of the way Pilates has transformed her body, energy level, stamina and quality of life. The fact that someone she hadn’t seen in a couple of years thought she’d lost 50 pounds moved her to tears.
