Meet our featured beauty with brains Jasneet Jhinger, a personal trainer and fitness coach based in Sydney, Australia. Here is her story.
“I was born in India, studied in Canada and am now working in Australia! My name is Jasneet Jhinger. I am a Mechanical Engineer turned Certified Personal Trainer and Online Fitness Coach. My intense passion for health & fitness gave me the courage to make this career change and leap into a field that moulded me into the person I am today.
Due to the loss of a loved one, in 2011, I struggled to deal with the reality of what had happened. Without even realising, I started isolating myself from family and friends, work and social settings. One day (sometime in 2013), not sure, why or how, I decided that I wanted to start working out. I started training at home by following workout videos on YouTube. Soon after, I started realising how this was actually making me feel better, emotionally and mentally (saw physical improvements as well but emotional well-being surpassed everything else).
Ever since then, training and nutrition has been a huge part of my lifestyle and is a source of empowerment for me. I enjoy experimenting with new forms of exercises and programs as well as testing out various nutrition plans and diets to see how certain processes affect my body and mind. For the past couple of years, improving strength has been my biggest goal. Instead of having a body weight goal or certain physique goal, I have been focusing on getting stronger – every time I enter the gym, I aim to beat my previous record.
Training for me is not just a form of activity that “needs” to be done because it is “good” for me but is something that is LIBERATING, EMPOWERING & UPLIFTING! I can easily say, I have been able to create a healthy, balanced & sustainable lifestyle that is non-restrictive and is fun to live.
For this same reason, in 2016, I decided to finally give in and follow my passion to help others in creating their own healthy (mental, emotional & physical) lifestyle that is easy-to-follow and sustainable. I wanted to make others realise that it is not hard to achieve a well balanced lifestyle and that following a training program and/or healthy diets does not necessarily make you live a restrictive life that you do not enjoy. Life is too short to be living it unhappy (speaking from experience!).
Since I have been in this career, I have had the opportunity to work with amazing individuals and feel honoured to be part of their transformation (not only physical but mental & emotional as well). Based on my experience so far, I can easily say, “I empower individuals to overcome their stress & anxiety through my coaching and make them feel and look the best they ever have”.
Here is an interview with her.
1. Who or what inspired you to help others?
My personal battle with depression after the loss of my brother back in 2011 is what started this journey for me. Following a fitness and healthy lifestyle became an outlet for my grief, aggression and feelings. Working out, especially weight training, gave me a sense of accomplishment and made me feel empowered and strong. It is the sole reason I was able to come out of my depression which made me realise that there are way more benefits of training and living a healthy lifestyle than the physical aspect and progress. It has massive positive impact on your mental and emotional health. It inspired me to quit my job as a Mechanical Engineer and pursue this career in Health & Fitness to be able to help others see the same benefits that I did. I mean why wouldn’t you want to create a lifestyle that is healthy, sustainable, makes you happy and gets you in shape all while enjoying your life! It’s a win-win!
If you wish to learn more about me or my transformation story, please visit my website:
https://www.livfitlifestyle.com/about-me/
2. What is your advice to people who are unable to work out due to injury?
You can always work your way around an injury. I personally have a lower back injury but I have been able to work around it, do rehab exercises consistently so I can still kill each and every one of my workouts. In my experience as a Fitness Coach so far, 90% of my clients either have/had injuries or other physical limitations but they still managed to reach their goals they set out. One of my clients had both his wrists broken during a push bike accident and yet he still managed to stay on track with his training, worked out 3-4 times a week and progressing every single session. What you need is determination, appropriate training program and supervision from Fitness and Medical professionals. So really…..NO EXCUSES!
3. What are your thoughts on certain diets in general?
I am someone who keeps things simple, fun yet effective and sustainable for my clients when it comes to nutrition. I do not recommend or provide any set meal plans or diet plans as they tend to be restrictive and for most of us (if you love food as much as I do), it can be tough to stay consistent and motivated to stick to the restrictive diet. I mean of course meal plans and diets do work for some (Kuddos to you who can stick to it forever) but from my personal experience and my client’s experience, what has worked best is slowly and mildly tweaking your eating habits around your lifestyle.
Myself and my clients have successfully been able to create a balanced lifestyle that does not restrict us from eating certain food. All that matters is the proportion and hence we all follow the 80-20 rule. 80% of the time we ensure that we consume nutrient dense food and rest of the 20% we can indulge in some of our favourite treats. We do enjoy our weekends out with our friends and family without feeling guilty of that pizza or that wine. This way of living is fun, healthy and sustainable.
4. How do you keep your clients motivated?
One biggest tip (and the one that I apply to my clients as well) to stay motivated and determined towards achieving your goals is to break down your main end goal into smaller and short term mini goals. For instance if someone comes up to me and says I want to lose 40kg by the end of this year, no doubt it is a great goal to have and an achievable one too but trying to stay on track and motivated consistently through the next 7 months to see that 40kg loss is a bit hard. Rather than waiting around 7 months to feel accomplished, we break it down into short term goals of losing 5kg in the first month for instance, so the goal doesn’t feel so far fetched and you can celebrate your achievements throughout the journey which in turn keeps you motivated to keep pushing towards that next goal.
Other than that, I ensure my clients have constant access to me for support and I bond with them on a more personal level where they feel comfortable to come up and chat and share their concerns with me so we can work through it as a team. Because I totally understand that life happens and no one can stay motivated consistently – I don’t always feel motivated either and that is perfectly normal. We all need that extra push and external help to get through some of the tougher days and I make sure I am there for my clients when they are experiencing such times.
5. Anything else you would like to add?
I would like to conclude with one simple thing – creating a healthy lifestyle does not have to be tough, hard or restrictive. You can easily create a lifestyle that works for you as an individual, one you enjoy living, while staying fit and healthy (both mentally/emotionally & physically). Unfortunately, there are no short cuts to reaching your ideal way of living a healthy life. It is a process where you slowly start tweaking certain habits and create new ones and then only it can be sustainable. Short cuts lead to only short term fixes without guaranteeing life-long results BUT a healthy balanced lifestyle is what guarantees life-long success and happiness so choose wisely.
STOP THINKING & START DOING! TAKE ACTION NOW TOWARDS IMPROVING YOUR LIFE!
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