Having felt judged by others previously, Stuart Lord was feeling unfit, overweight, and struggling mentally. He didn’t want to socialise, feeling people would look at him and in his own words, ‘think he’s a mess’. Weighing 108kg at the time, Stuart would get out of breath after going up a flight of stairs and in addition to this, family reasons acted as the catalyst to begin a significant lifestyle improvement.
”The main motivation behind me making a positive change is my daughter, I didn’t want to be the ‘fat dad’ that couldn’t run around with her without feeling I was going to have a heart attack.”
Living locally, Stuart came across Anytime Fitness Telford and got in contact with Criss Matthews, now an ex-employee turned member of the gym.
“At the time, we did PT sessions in the gym and at first, I was nervous that people would look at me in disgust.”
Stuart certainly is not alone in this fear of judgement, with our recent survey finding that nearly one in three (30%) Brits fear being judged in a gym environment. However, he quickly realised that at Anytime Fitness Telford, this simply wasn’t the case.
“I was completely wrong and felt a hugely positive atmosphere as soon as I walked in.” “The team are amazing, they all go above and beyond to ensure that everyone is included in everything. They hold regular social events which helps with internal networking, helping people make friends in the gym.”
On how the gym has helped him, Stuart added: “The main benefit from it all has been the huge positive change to my mindset, I used to hate myself and how I looked which forced me into a horrible place mentally.”
“My life has changed for the better, I feel proud of where I am now compared to where I was when I wasn’t going to the gym. I often look back at my first progress picture to remind myself of where I was, that keeps me motivated to never go back there again.”
Whatever it is that might be preventing you from reaching your best self via the gym, Anytime Fitness has supportive and welcoming teams who want the best for your physical and mental health.
For anyone that may be in Stuart’s shoes and feel like the gym isn’t for them, he shares this key piece of advice:
“It’s never too late to make a change. You may think that you are too far gone and there is no way back but I promise you if you take the first step and keep moving in that direction and you will get to where you want to be; YOU CAN DO IT.”
