First of all, let me introduce myself more formally. My name is Martin Eckel and I’m a personal trainer.
I became the $50 Personal Trainer for a simple purpose. To make the services of a coach and trainer affordable for EVERYONE.
The fitness industry is full of personal trainers all charging anywhere of $90 and up for 45 minute sessions, which, if being realistic, is more like 30 minutes after a quick warm-up and pleasantries. Some of the most fitness-challenged people who need the expertise of a coach the most are in lower socio-demographic positions and that kind of ongoing expense, is not affordable and their health and fitness becomes a non-existent priority. I aim to fix that.
This is me circa mid to late 2000’s. I was in my early 20’s at the time and nudging the 165KG mark on the scales. In no uncertain terms, my GP quite bluntly instructed me to lose weight, lose it fast or you won’t see your 30th birthday.
I had been to gyms and had personal trainers, gone on diets for many years before, even while in High School, but nothing had worked up to that point. I didn’t know what else to do and that’s when I was referred to a specialist surgeon for weight loss surgery.
Around those years, bariatic surgery was very new, not a lot of people knew about it, not a lot was known about long term outcomes, but the short-term benefits appeared miraculous. Lose mass amount of fat, quickly.
I opted for the the most popular option at the time, which was the gastric band and the most important outcome of the surgery was that IT FAILED.
Initially, I lost about 40KG, which was amazing. It allowed me to get small enough to fit on a plane, tour Europe for nearly 2 months and actually enjoy life. But by 2015, I was not only back up to my original weight, but I had gone beyond. The scales were nudging 180KG.
I went back to my surgeon, defeated. I had accepted my fate that I was going to be morbidly obese for the rest of whatever amount of life I had left.
Fortunately, he didn’t accept this fate and informed me that a lot had changed in the weight loss surgery space. The gastric band was no longer the preferred choice due to it’s lack of long-term success. He offered a revision surgery to remove the band and peform a newer, more successful option. In my case, it was a mini-gastric bypass.
About 1 year later. SUCCESS.
Since then I’ve been able to maintain a healthy weight and learned about nutrition, how it worked for me and my new ‘Normal’.
After a few years and lots of positive comments about my weight loss, I decided to get back into going to the gym. This changed the ball-game all over again as I had to re-learn what nutrition meant for me in conjunction with strength training and cardio conditioning.
It was at this point that I decided that I could help others. All of this information I’d learned, all of the things I’d tried and tested, was valuable information, skills and experience that I couldn’t let go to waste. I then enrolled in a Certificate III/IV in Fitness Trainer course and the rest is what they say is history.
If you’ve managed to reach this far, congratulations! I’ve been through a lot and I’m sure you have too. The most important thing is that taking the first step, even if it’s small, is all you need to do. From there, you can achieve anything.