My fitness journey began back in 2021 (Dubai), during peak COVID. The two years of lockdown and working from home made me suffer from a severe neck disc issue and a frozen shoulder that would literally make me cry. Constant doctor visits and pain killers didn’t work as well as I thought they would. My doctor asked me to change my lifestyle and start exercising to get rid of the pain, as I was too young to even have that kind of issue.

In July 2021, I decided to change my lifestyle and joined Fitness First in the UAE. I met Preet, my trainer, there, who first asked me about myself, my body, and if I had any underlying conditions before I started training with her. Preet was the best coach I could ever have because she is a physiotherapist and a fitness trainer who understood my body requirements well and my issues that had to be corrected in order to effectively strength train. My body lacked strength, stamina, and nutrients, and my sleep patterns, habit of eating junk food, and constant tendency to lose weight were major contributors to my bad health. All this had to be corrected first.

Preet set up the perfect diet plan for me and the required exercise plans that gradually transformed my body over six months! I was way stronger, had gained stamina, looked better, and felt better. I felt better about my body and the way I started looking. I started to eat well, eat clean, and sleep well. Over the training period, I even got rid of my neck pain issue. In between, if I had mild aches and pains, Preet would ensure I performed my neck exercises regularly to get rid of the pain once and for all. With all that consistency, my body completely changed, and I never looked back at eating junk food or stopped exercising. My clothes started to fit me well, my weight increased, I had a reduction in body fat, and I built muscles effectively. Let me tell you, this was possible even without being on protein powders! As long as you have a clean and good diet that has low carbs and high proteins, you are good to go! Unfortunately, Preet had to leave the country, and we started training online and always kept in touch. I never changed my trainer because I believed in Preet so much.

In August 2022, my body again had to fight with two major illnesses: hypothyroidism (7.2) and diabetes (169). My confidence started to go down the drain, and my stress levels increased. I started to lose weight and began to look weak again. When I discussed my issue with Preet, she convinced me that it is possible to fight these illnesses with regular exercise and that I had to exercise even more now with a lot of focus. Preet gave me the courage to fight them and stay stress-free. We would connect online once a week to discuss my health, and we would continue my training with high-intensity workouts because the thyroid drastically reduces your metabolism, and I had to fight it to keep my metabolism stronger. Preet had also changed my diet plan, which adhered to improving my sugar level and thyroid. I had to go for my tests after three months of regular exercise, walks, and diet.

Believe it or not, the result worked wonders. I got my thyroid level back to 3.1 and my sugar level back to 85, back to normal range again! Of course, I was taking medications for my thyroid too, but exercising really helped me get rid of both things very quickly. Till today, Preet has encouraged me to be regular with my diet and workouts, and we are still training together to further improve and get stronger day by day. By 2023, I should be a much better and stronger version of myself.

No matter how far Preet is, we are still together on my fitness journey. Thank you, Preet, for making me believe in myself and for making me stronger than I was.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Raisha