Woman drops five dress sizes in seven months

Admitting she lacked confidence in herself and her body image having produced her family of three, Gail Campbell, from Kilfennan, said she would recommend the steps she took to get herself back into shape.

“I decided I wanted to do something for me. I had grown to a Size 20 and had been that size for a while. So I decided I was not having any more and I was going to do something about it. I started a nutrition plan with Mark Doherty first, because I had not done any exercise at all since I left school.

“In fact, I was adamant I was not doing any exercise, and that I was only doing nutrition. So I did just that for a couple of weeks and was starting to see some results. At that stage my husband, Brian, talked me into letting Mark come over and show me a few exercises,” she said, admitting that she had had no intention of going to a gym to train, but that is where she ended up.

“I definitely feel better about myself and my image. I lost a lot of body fat but I gained muscle tone simply by training, and I would recommend it to anyone,” she said.

For her trainer, Mark, there are a number of ‘absolute no-no’s’. One of those is jumping on and off the bathroom scales. Another is starving yourself thin.

A ‘performance nutritionist’ by profession, Mark has his own fitness business at Pennyburn, and is a skilled personal trainer for those looking for help.

“I knew Gail’s husband, Brian, who had been training with me for about a year. I was doing boot camps at that time and he had lost a lot of weight as well.

“One day he came to me and asked me to do a nutrition plan for Gail. So Gail started off on that and was getting some results,” he said.

“I am a great advocate of combining nutrition with exercise, and especially a fan of resistance-based exercise,” he said.

“One thing I have noticed is that women tend to do too much cardio work and not enough resistance training, which is the opposite of what it is they really need to be doing. Women are afraid of bulking up, which is what puts them off training with weights, but resistance work will not bulk you up.

Congratulating Gail on her success to date, Mark said: “Hopefully this story will inspire and motivate some ladies and men to make that same step forward to sensible flexible eating and using resistance-based training.”