Jenny. 35kg weight loss.

Patrick. 18kg weight loss and a great cholesterol score.

While living the good life I met friends that I often had a bite and drinks with and these guys asked me whether I was interested to join them on Saturday morning and go training at Jen and Jon's studio. 'Yeah why not', I said and so I became one of the early members of what is now called BPM. Jen and Jon are always there for you and they make you feel welcome. Although the first spinning classes were hard, as I had not done much sports since 2005 other than some irregular tennis and once or twice a year touch rugby tournaments, there was always a drive to go on the bike on Saturday morning. I always motivated myself to go, even after extended after work drinks on Friday night. When, during a regular medical check up, slightly high cholesterol levels and higher blood pressure were diagnosed, I decided to work that and get it back to normal by increasing my spinning frequency and change my diet. 

I increased the frequency of training to four times a week (rain or shine, sober or drunk, pitch dark (at 6.30am during winters!) or already hot and humid on Saturday mornings during summer, I went to the studio. Again, the main reason, next to my health was the fact that it was always a pleasure to meet Jen and Jon and the fellow trainers like Cees, Anselm and Ron for example. 

On the diet side I started having breakfast, as advised by Jon, which reduced a lot of weight already in the first couple of weeks. I also started using a calorie counting app and changed from a multiple pizzas and hamburgers a week habit to more salad, fruit and no 'all you can eat and drink' teppanyaki or buffets. I did continue to visit my favourite watering holes and needed to have some 'meat lovers pizza' every now and then but I did keep track of volumes and when it has been excessive one day I would make up for it the rest of the week. I still remember how surprised I packed my shoes and visited the hotel gym during my overseas trips to Jakarta and Paris for work. Something that never happened in the six to seven years before, it seems I became a 'gym addict'. 

Wow! The combination of this, together with the BPM guidance, made me reduce my weight from around 93-95kg (pictures available when I visited Hawaii in May 2013) to 75-76kg where it is now. I also became much more fit and like to work out now, or better, I have to. My blood pressure is back to normal levels and I am convinced my cholesterol be at the decent levels next time I will do my medical check up as it went in the right direction when I had it checked a couple of months ago.

In the meantime I moved to NYC and am missing BPM but I kept exercising and watching the diet so I am training here now as well when work and travel allow. I have to admit that after more than a year without I could not resist a hamburger and may have more it often, but not multiple times a week anymore. I think this is all right as long as I keep tracking weight and keep spinning!

I hope this experience will encourage others to work on their fitness with Jon and Jen because Spinback is the most effective, friendly and fun place to work out.

Patrick.