Shawn is our client of the month for July. Watch his video interview and read along with the interview transcript below! See how Shawn was able to get off of diabetes medication after losing weight and improving his fitness level.

Shawn: I’m Shawn Parker from Plano, Texas.

I have a desk job so you kind of get into somewhat of a sedentary lifestyle there working long hours and not working out a lot, eating bad. I developed diabetes. Sleep patterns were not good. I wasn’t sleeping through the night well so just a lot of general health concerns I think that I was having.

Fat, overweight. I’ve always had pretty good self esteem but it does impact you when your body is not what it should be–both physically you don’t feel good and your self esteem suffers from that as well when you don’t look like you should. I’ve been pretty much exclusively through diet and through cardio.

I can always do a plan. I can get down to a goal weight. But it’s always the yo-yo cycle. You get down to where you want to and then you revert back to unhealthy lifestyles and it comes back on.

That yo-yoing effect is not very healthy long term. My wife was the same way. Together we’d go on diets and we’d both lose weight. Sometimes at one time, sometimes at another, but, yes, it was frustrating.

Hut: You’ve been working with us here for a few months now and, tell me, what type of results have you achieved going through our New Wave Fitness Program?

Shawn: I’ve lost 18 pounds of fat. I’ve gained some muscle mass and I can really tell it in my upper body, for sure. I think I did seven push-ups when I started out. That’s all I could do. Now I’m doing 25 or 30 at one time. My cardio aptitude had always been pretty good when I’d get into it, but never like it is now. My VO2 was like 55 or 56 on the elliptical, which is pretty darn good.

Hut: Great.

Shawn: The results have been pretty much across the board good. My breathing is tons better. My sleeping is a lot better. I don’t wake up in the middle of the night anymore. My self esteem has improved a little bit. I get comments from people. That always helps. Both from physical standpoint and from a self-esteem standpoint, it’s been great.

Hut: Great. In the past, you talked about doing yo-yo diets. Do you feel like what you’ve been coached through here over the last few months is more of a lifestyle-type program rather than a yo-yo type program?

Shawn: That’s what sold me on this to begin with. The yo-yoing is just not healthy long term and you go from one plan to another. Over the long haul, it just doesn’t make any difference. That’s really what I was looking for was to get into more healthy patterns so I’d make better choices both in terms of exercise and diet, because one without the other you can defeat yourself that way as well.

Over six or seven months, I think that I’ve developed some choices and some habits that are going to benefit me for the rest of my life. Since I started the program, I’m off the diabetes meds so that’s good. I’m still on blood pressure and cholesterol medication but I would guess over the course of time I’ll be able to come off of those too. That’s another carrot for me to maintain is to not go back on the insulin.

Taking care of yourself is one of the most important things you can do. The accountability factor is the issue. A lot of people I know join gyms, they spend money on a monthly basis for a gym membership and never go. This program has provided that accountability because Tarmo shows up at my door and I better be ready to work out or he’s going to charge me anyway.

I think that accountability factor is pretty key. I hadn’t work with a personal trainer before. I’ve known a number of personal trainers. I know people who have worked with them and finding the right fit is pretty key there. You don’t want somebody who’s too over the top, that’s going to drive you like an NFL linebacker.

What I have found is that New Wave Fitness work with where you are in your fitness program and is able to develop a plan over the course of time that suits you. It’s not too much and it’s not too little so it pushes you so you can get to where you need to get to without wearing you out.

If you get frustrated and either not getting the results you want or you’re being pushed too hard, it’s wearing you down and you don’t look forward to working out, those are the types of things you want to avoid. I didn’t have that issue at all.