Member Stories: The Real Deal

Active Life

I was a 400m hurdler for many years. I have competed for RAU open athletics club and Gauteng at SA’s. I stopped running about four years ago and for three months did no exercise. I was highly frustrated at the time as before that I was training for 2 hours a day, 7 days a week and then was not exercising at all. This has been a huge change for my body and mind to deal with. So I decided to join the gym. I have been using the Virgin Life Care HealthZone machine since I joined and it is a great tool to monitor and track my measurements. The result of using the HealthZone is that I’m more motivated to improve my health and training regime.

Virgin Life Care ran a campaign whereby if you measure yourself regularly at the HealthZone you could win a trip to paradise. I thought I might as well carry on as usual and see what happens. To my surprise I received a call to say that I won a trip to Barra Lodge in Mozambique for two PLUS a Nikon Camera, Nikon Binoculars and a Mellerware travelling iron. I had to keep on pinching myself to make sure this is not a dream…. but it was for real. Who would have thought that you could be rewarded for looking after yourself. This is what Virgin Life Care has just done for me and it was so easy!

I love using the HealthZone before every workout. It motivates me, and in a way it puts me in touch with a holistic approach to what is required to stay healthy.

This has been a win-win situation for me and I would recommend everyone to use the HealthZone. Look what happened to me – I’m off to Mozambique!

Bon voyage!

Thanks Virgin Life Care.

Faruk first started using Virgin Active in January, 2005. Although he realised he needed to improve his body mass index, weight and body fat %, he wasn’t too worried about changing his lifestyle. However, when he was diagnosed with diabetes that December, he became determined to eat better, exercise more often and monitor himself regularly:

He started to use the HealthZone consistently; measuring himself at least 8 times per month.

To lower his cholesterol, he made big changes to his diet: cutting out all the fats, sugary foods and his favourite; cheese! He also replaced high Glycemic Index (GI) foodstuffs (like white bread) with low GI alternatives.

He began to eat more fruit and although not a vegetable lover made the effort to increase his intake of vegetables.

He followed a regular training routine in the gym: cycling for 20 minutes, using the toning circuit for 5, the treadmill for 20 (10 for walking, 10 to jog) and finishing up with 15 in the steam room. While the cheese-and-sweet lover in him suffered, by the 1st of February, 2008, he had lost over 23 kilograms!

Losing the weight made him feel much healthier in body and mind. He no longer felt tired/lethargic and the word can’t no longer exists in his vocabulary

He’s a happier person and is determined not to gain all that weight ever again: all his six-monthly glucose and cholesterol blood tests reveal that he has these well-controlled.

To add to his success, Faruk was the lucky winner of a trip to the Protea Hotel Kruger Park courtesy of Virgin Life Care!

I’m Leonardo Snyman and I’m 25 years old. I’ve been training for years, but have never really seen results ): ! Although I have always been fit, I really struggled to stay motivated to go to my Club.

At the beginning of 2008, I decided to change my gym routine and eating habits. I started to go to the gym everyday, stopped eating junk food and took up mountain biking. Tracking my results with the HealthZone at Virgin Active has been of great help. Using it helps me set goals for weight, body fat % and body mass index.

After following a healthy eating plan and exercising regularly, I have lost the excess weight and feel great!

When I first started using my Club, I weighed 85kg at the HealthZone. When my doctor told me I was obese, I felt bad. I used to drink beer. I asked my doctor if the beer has any effect on my weight and he said yes. I stop drinking beer and my weight dropped to 66kg!

The gym has worked for me and I’m glad. I try my best to go to the gym at least three times in a week. I do not have any regrets: It’s better to have a healthy weight than beer!

This is my journey so far: I was on annual leave in 2005, it was my sisters’ wedding and I was really enjoying myself. I had been overweight my whole life and was used to it: Just before I left Cape Town the wedding photos came back and I was shocked at how fat I looked. The smoke before my eyes lifted and I decided there and then that I will change. I returned to Kimberley on the 5th of December 2005 and bought myself a scale; my diet would start on the 6th!

I have been to the gym off and on for most of my high school years but never ever followed a diet. I weighed in at 125.7 and for my height (1.82) I was severely obese. I followed the Body for Life program initially and from there I consumed all the information I could regarding bodybuilding and good nutrition.

At first, I never used the thing in front of the gym where you measure yourself (Virgin Life Care HealthZone). Let’s face it; that station is probably the most intimidating station in the gym except maybe for the chin-up bar!

The first time I used it was on the 16th of February, 2006: I was shocked that I measured in at 32. body fat % and 114.3 kgs. Keep in mind at this point I had been on diet for more than two months and lost more than 11kg… makes you think what my body fat % would have been at the start maybe more than 40%.

I haven’t reached all my targets yet but I am making strides every day; my final target is to be under 10% body fat and weigh between 90kg and 100kg. Currently I weigh 94.5 (still weigh myself everyday, bad habit) and according to THAT station at the gym, which is not that intimidating anymore my body fat now stands at about 21%.

After two years living healthy and joining the movement: Weight: 125.7kg to 94.5kg Body fat %: 32.1% to 21% Emotional state: Feeling crappy to feeling great!

Thanks Virgin Active and Virgin Life Care!

I'd got caught up with home renovations and wasn't finding time to go to Virgin Active. In February I started getting headaches, which kept returning as soon as the headache pills wore off. I'd been for a full medical last year and so didn't suspect any other problems with my health.

My son, who is a medical student and keen gym-goer, encouraged me to get back to the gym. To be honest, the main reason I returned was to check my blood pressure at the HealthZone; it turned out to be quite elevated - a bit of a wake-up call!

Now, I try to go to the gym twice a week, checking my blood pressure before each session. I have also been walking around the neighbourhood in the mornings with my wife and daughter. Within two weeks my blood pressure was back to normal, and I haven't had another headache.

I'd been threatening to cancel my membership, because I just wasn't utililizing it enough. Deep down though, I knew that if I could only discipline myself to get there, it was good for me. And the strange thing is that when I'm there, I always enjoy it!

So I'm back on track, and hope to be a more regular Club-user now. It's proved that just a little exercise can make a big difference!

I joined Virgin Active in July, 2007, because I realized that I had to start a healthier lifestyle by eating and exercising better. I didn’t know where to start and booked a few sessions with a personal trainer, Jacques, at my Club.

Jacques worked out a training and eating program for me. When Jacques did an assessment on me, it shown that I had 30kg to loose and my fitness level was almost non-existent: my resting heart rate was 94 and my body fat % was 36.7%! Today, 8 months later, I am 17kg lighter, my resting heart rate is 58, my body fat % is 22 and I scored a good rating on my latest Virgin Life Care health and fitness assessment!

I know I am not at goal yet, but I feel great and love my new lifestyle. I enjoy going to my Club 4 to 5 times a week and am really motivated to achieve my health targets when I do my next assessment.

Virgin Life Care was the best thing that could happen to me. I never liked exercise, in any form whatsoever. I tried ballet, felt like a hippo in pink shoes, tried running but convinced myself that I had frail ankles. I just was not good at any sort of sport at school. Being 1.74 m tall and of medium build, weight was never really a problem and besides I came from a “healthy home” meaning my mom was a good role model regarding eating right.

In 1997 my life was rather empty: all my friends were married, had a home, front lawn, a dog, a child or two. I decided to join a cycling team at work and started training for the Argus Cycle Tour. It was fun getting all the gear, a bike (a cheap one from Pick ‘n Pay), the very uncomfortable cycling pants, shoes and helmet, but what I most enjoyed was being fit. I had energy, could see some muscles on my legs and arms, but generally I felt good. Well- to make a long story short – the Argus came, the Argus went; my bike against the wall in the garage and that was that!

Met the love of my life, got married in 2000, had my first child a year later, my second child 4 years later and I was not the woman I used to be. I was irritable, weighing more than I ever had, always tired; life was hectic. Having to buy bigger sized dresses was depressing. I am in the Communication field, so looking good is part of my job, and I did not feel good about myself. Buying clothes that cover my behind, loose fitting tops so that you cannot see the rolls and rolls of “me” underneath. Trying to balance all the balls of being mom, wife and working full-time, and trying to fit in a training schedule, it just did not happen…