Geoff Chard

The COVID years had been tough on me, being stood down from work and having my CrossFit gym close for good. I developed some bad eating (and drinking habits); what used to be a once or twice a week event became a nightly ritual. For the better part of 2 years, I did little to no exercise, put on a significant amount of weight and kept saying to myself that I would re-join a gym - next week. When my partner and I were on holidays and seeing photos of myself so overweight I finally said enough is enough. So I contacted Nathan at Vision Prahran (having been a client back in 2015). Within 24 hours I was having a consult, and 24 hours after that I was in my first X-Train class.

It was a bit of a wake-up call having all my bad habits pointed out to me, but I viewed it simply as a starting point. No use dwelling on what I was (or did), just who I could be (and what I could do). With Samir guiding me, I hit the ground running and lost around 6kg in the first 9-week program. The X-Train and Run Club sessions were certainly the hardest; I didn’t realise how unfit I truly was, until faced with some serious workout routines that physically challenged me. Tracking my food was the hardest part for me; being a perfectionist and not someone that is self-motivated when it comes to things like this, but I followed the eating principles I learnt years ago at Vision and got things on track. In the studio I simply turn my brain off and do what the trainer tells me to do, until I physically collapse!

After a couple of months’ after I started I rediscovered a good size chunk of my wardrobe that I’d been unable to wear for several years. I haven’t actually purchased any new clothing as I keep discovering old gems that I thought were destined for the charity basket. I’ve done several fat loss programs and a maintenance program this year, and have lost a total of 12kg fat mass over that time. When I first started it was just about the fat loss, but over time that has become less of a focus for me and it’s now more about the increase in muscle mass. But most importantly for me I think is that I can actually look at myself in the mirror again and be happy with what I see.