By December 2011 I had lost a total of 55 pounds, the most I’d ever lost and had been sharing all about my journey on Facebook. It was at this time that I decided I needed, and wanted to reintroduce the gym back into my life.

We walked into the gym on December 22nd, 2011. Because we had mentioned my husband was a Type II Diabetic we were paired with Patrick, since he was quite knowledgeable about that subject. I was a little skeptical of him at first because he didn’t look or act like my idea of a typical trainer. He wore glasses, which for some unknown reason just struck me as odd, and he was energetic and truly excited to work with and help us, he didn’t seem to see us just as a paycheck.

We started working out with Patrick once a week for an hour- one of us would do cardio for a half hour while the other trained with him and then we would switch. My husband soon got busier at work and wasn’t able to maintain his commitment to the gym, but my once a week appointment slowly turned into 2 and then 3 times a week.

Patrick knew I was doing Weight Watchers, and aside from his astounded look that a banana was 0 points (when in actuality a medium one has around 105 calories) he kept his opinions to himself and slowly started to offer information about nutrition and exercise.