When Siddy first came to me, it was shortly after I was allowed to reopen. She had recently moved close by from Jersey City. She wanted to lose weight and transform her body.

She had tried multiple things in her life before. She’d done kickboxing classes, small group personal training with other personal trainers many of whom let her down from just being rude (no need for that), and one trainer whose name won’t be mentioned and I’ll only say that he didn’t know how to train her so the only thing he had her do was squats (which I later had to fix her technique so he didn’t even do that correctly).

Then tragedy struck. Her mom was diagnosed with cancer. The stress from the diagnosis triggered her to develop Hashimoto’s and hypothyroidism (each of which makes weight loss extremely difficult). Then as if it wasn’t hard enough the pandemic hit, the world shut down and her mom passed away.

Siddy was devastated and as she tried to put the pieces of herself back together again, with limited options, she found an online trainer named Serena. Serena was good, but online training as a medium is extremely limited.

What she decided to do was find a personal trainer near Parsippany (where she lives) that she could see in person, that sanitized the place appropriately, and would know how to work with her. She needed a personal trainer to both be a guide in body transformation and a friend that would be patient and walk hand in hand with her through both the good days and the bad that someone in her position faces. Grief is something you just have to walk with for a bit and take one day at a time.

She found me and the first thing I did was try to assess what I was working with so I knew how to progress her both safely and effectively. When I taught her the kettlebell swing (a wonderful exercise for burning fat and building real-world work capacity), she was wobbling all over the place. Somehow I knew that picking up a weight plate with her feet would fix it and like magic it worked.

I put her on a progressive resistance training plan that I designed that would develop her all-around strength while burning fat that would help her do things she previously wouldn’t be able to do. It’s not about building bigger numbers in the gym, unless those bigger numbers help you get better at whatever it is that makes you happy (hence my tagline strength for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness).

One day she sends me a before and after pic that she took in her kitchen.

The time span between the two pictures was 3 months. So I took that moment to ask her a couple of questions.

It’s immediately apparent from the before and after pics that she’s lost weight and is looking much leaner. However what I found interesting is that as far as what she enjoys most about her achievements, is that she’s strong. That discovery of strength has led to increased confidence, positivity, and a new outlook on life.

Now with that confidence, positivity and energy, she’s living life better. It seems every time I see her she’s hanging out with llama’s, going on hikes and even recently took a trip to Disney World. She’s even in the process of starting a business helping others with Hashimoto’s and Hypothyroidism by becoming a certified AIP coach. Stay tuned for that.

Life isn’t about living beneath your potential, life is about discovery and growth. And life is better when you have the strength, the health, the confidence, and the outlook to live it to its fullest.

And I can’t think of a better way to honor the memory of her mom than by making the most of the first gift her mom gave her…life.

Eric Moss is a personal trainer in Boonton and doubles as a world-record-holding modern-day professional performing strongman, author, and motivational speaker. In the tradition of the strongmen more common during the turn of the century, he performs feats of strength such as bending steel and breaking chains as part of a show and speaks on goal achievement for corporations, nonprofits, government as well as for schools and universities. His exclusive personal training studio is located on Main Street in Boonton New Jersey, is close to Mountain Lakes, Denville, Montville and Parsippany New Jersey.