“Wow, tell Blake congratulations on his progress!  That's very inspiring.  Good luck with the GrassIron folks.  I have a goal to lose 15 lbs. by the end of the year so I'm right with y'all!  If I'm not successful with the game plan I'm trying out, I'll definitely give those folks a call.”

Well, I definitely wasn’t planning to give anybody a call.  After all, I could do it myself.  However, it turned out that my game plan wasn’t so successful, but that was nothing new.  I had been living on the edge of fit and fat my whole life.  Always an active person, I was also always “almost overweight”.  At the age of 48, I was starting to develop joint problems and knew that getting in shape and losing some weight would make a huge difference to my joint health and well-being.  This was just about the only thing I was right about!

As you can see by my email above, I had a bad habit of thinking it was best to just handle everything myself, not get help from an expert.  After all, I knew what to do: eat less and exercise more, right?

As my friends who were working with Amalia and Pattie got leaner and leaner, stronger and stronger, I stayed perched squarely on the edge of fit and fat by doing things my way, which was by myself, thank you.  Finally, it dawned on me that they were getting results and I wasn’t.  In fact, it became so blaringly obvious it drove me to do something really rash, something that frankly, was a little uncomfortable for me: I sought the help of an expert…  Yes, I asked Amalia if she’d be my personal trainer.

Breaking the “I’ll just do it myself” habit was one of the best things I’ve ever done.  Amalia is a magician.  She tweaked my diet, worked with me a couple of times a week, and within months I’d dropped over 20 lbs. at that healthy one lb./week pace.  Soon I discovered that all my clothes were too big, and I became a thrift store junkie!  I learned to shop cheaply, because every time I bought something new to wear it would soon become too big again.  My knee felt so much better, and the downward dog pose in yoga class became so much easier.  Losing weight and getting so much stronger just made everything easier. 

How does Amalia do it?  Gently.  She taught me how to be gentle with myself, pay attention to the signals my body gives me, and make adjustments along the way.

Amalia is a magician with perfect balance.  When I need to ramp up, she gently ramps up the program.  When I need to ramp down, she gently ramps down.  Believe me: you can trust Amalia to quickly get you strong and svelte injury-free!