Today we celebrate the beautiful Jasmine Fuao. Jasmine was a pleasure to train right from day 1! She is an incredible woman, with loads of passion, a wicked sense of humor and awesome banter. She has always been a shy quiet woman, however over the last few months, she has really come out of her shell; you can see her confidence coming through. Congratulations Jasmine, you are an incredible woman, and I am super proud of how far you have come, knowing the challenges you have faced. Coach Stephen will elaborate on Jasmine’s story.

• Coach Terri

Jasmine has been with Terrific Fitness since 2018.  She has been a frequent and loyal member to the community.  She builds on her strengths and overcomes her weakness.  I have helped Jasmine take on some new challenges in the past year and witnessed Jasmine’s struggles that she has recognized and overcome.  Jasmine is not one to give in to struggle and will always look to battle through hard times and make good if things don’t go the right way or fall by the wayside.  In saying this, Jasmine has had to put some hard work in to help herself and develop her mind and thinking to overcome some pressures that involve her previous work environment, toxic people, hardships in coping with stress, Covid pressures and many factors we can all relate to.  But if there is one thing that I have seen as a quality in Jasmine, is that she knows how to put the body to work and release the tensions of life through exercise.

I could see the potential in Jasmine and gave her every opportunity to excel her physical capabilities.  It began with Kettlebell Strong-U, when Jasmine began the classes.  Jasmine grasped the technique early.  I encouraged her to go heavier, 8kg, 12kg, 16kg kettlebells to test and challenge at each class.  Jasmine then took on the commitment of Personal Training, and although it was disrupted by lockdowns and training at home, Jasmine invested in her own kettlebells and weight bars, getting heavier plates and set to work with me, pushing her limits each time.  This year Jasmine has been a regular at Cardio Boxing, hitting the gloves hard and keeping up the pace of fitness, and taking on the tasks of Warrior Excel where I set the bar higher because I know she can go that extra, and she still finishes first most of the time.

All of this has built and developed Jasmine’s confidence.  She has recognized her abilities physically and developed her mental strength to rise above the pressures and stresses that previous plagued her and constantly kept her down, and afraid to break free from.  Jasmine keeps taking on new challenges in her to build herself in body and mind.  You’ll see her in Kettlebell Strong-U her example, lifting and pushing the heavy weights, but it took a while to get there.  She’s an example of conquering adversity.

Through all of her struggles, Jasmine was ready to take her changes to the next level, earlier in 2022. Jasmine registered for the 8-week ‘Mind, Body & Lifestyle Challenge’ at the end of January. Through this, she developed habits that have helped to further enhance her healthy lifestyle.  The nutrition program, which included a nutrition workshop yielded great results.  Jasmine lost 6kg of body weight in 6 weeks, improved her sleep patterns and found a better daily routine through better lifestyle habits.  After 6 weeks on the nutrition program: lost 6.2kg of body weight, 4.5% body fat, and 15% reduction on visceral fat.

Congratulations Jasmine! You are a force to be reckoned with!

• Coach Stephen

Jasmine’s story in her words:

“The challenges I faced prior to joining TF were whether I would commit going to the gym and having the necessary motivation to undertake classes. I wanted to join a gym due to weight gain brought on by a stressful job, my anxiety and depression. I looked up gyms in the South Morang area but what stood out about TF was the reviews written about the gym on FB and the internet about how they genuinely care about its clients and their fitness progress and how everyone is treated as family. This was exactly what I was looking for at the time and I haven’t looked back or regretted my decision since joining. I was committed to going to the gym weekly and motivated to attend group fitness classes because of the supportive coaches who pushed you beyond your capabilities, and every member, who all had their own goals and motivations to attend classes. It is a great environment to be a part of.

Some of the successes I have experienced since being with TF are as follows:

– Completely cutting soft drinks from my diet and predominantly drinking water.

– Nutritional wise, preparing and eating 4 meals a day which includes a protein source, a healthy fat, veggies and carbs (at the end of day).

– Increasing the number of classes I attend from 2 classes a week to sometimes 6 to 8 classes a week.

– Undertaking strength-based classes such as Kettlebell Strong-U and Barbell Strong-U, and PT, which has increased my strength and the amount of weights I can lift. I’m constantly lifting heavier and heavier as I progress during the weeks.

– Learning more about my body type and what foods I should be consuming to optimize my muscle gain and weight loss.

– Continuously learning more about nutritional facts to help with my own journey to eat more nutritious meals.

– My stamina and endurance increasing over the years so I can train harder and longer.

– Improvements in my sleep as part of my healthy habits which has helped with my anxiety and depression.

– In turn, eating nutritious meals and cutting out foods that inflame me such as gluten, dairy and decreasing the amount of sugar I am consuming, has made a drastic difference in terms of intruding thoughts and overthinking.

I feel more confident in myself in terms of accepting my body; not being ashamed of how I look and continuously learning more about my own capabilities when training. I am motivated and committed to go the gym because of the benefits I gain from attending. I love what I see and feel within myself.” – Jasmine Fuao