Motivational Case Studies
Monica Sutton
Related tags: Weight Loss
Date Added: Fri, 15 Apr 2011
April 2004
The weight loss industry in the UK is huge, with thousands of projects and diets vying for the attention of the general public - but one woman and her Concept 2 Indoor Rower have proven that weight loss even after long periods of being overweight can be achieved with a sensible diet and good exercise.
Monica Sutton of Wakely near Sheffield is 55 and has suffered from weight problems since being diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 25.
Monica weighed around 18 stone when she first used a Concept 2 Indoor Rower and was attending the gym three times a week for an aerobic and 'light weights' workout that was as uninspiring as it was ineffective - with Monica losing just ounces as a result of her efforts.
Despite eating a calorie controlled diet at the same time, it would appear that the workout was not intense enough for her to lose weight, and she would frequently put on the ounces that she had lost.
Her first meeting with a Concept 2 machine came about at her local gym when she injured her foot and was unable to continue with her usual fitness regime. It was at this point where Monica decided that the Concept 2 Indoor Rower would probably work in place of the treadmill that she was previously using.
Once Monica made the change she was smitten, and actually discovered that she may have a hidden talent for rowing. She took this up with her coach of the time, who showed her some of the figures for actual race times for the previous year's indoor rowing events.
These figures inspired her to carry on with the Concept 2 and actually focus on a specific goal - that of achieving a significant time in an actual championship.
Monica began training intensively and as a result, managed to not only to fine-tune her 2000 metre time to 9min 48sec, but to also lose four stones in the process - something that she had previously been trying to achieve for years!
This achievement was added to further at the 2003 British Indoor Rowing Championship, where she was presented with a bronze medal from Steve Redgrave - an achievement that Monica managed to reach just six months after first getting onto a rowing machine.
In the race Monica was competing against the best 55-59 year old rowers in Britain and to add to this achievement, she had by this time managed to lose over 6 ½ stone since first using the Concept 2 Indoor Rower.
Helping her throughout all of these achievements was her coach, Vicky McDonald, who assisted Monica in her training by creating a rigorous training programme for her. This involved spending an hour at Green's Gym each evening on her way home from the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, where Monica works as a diabetes nurse specialist.
Whilst she has found a great deal of joy in her racing achievements, Monica will be the first to admit that her most fond achievement is her weight loss - which she does attribute to the machine.
"The Concept 2 helped me to lose weight for a number of reasons," explains Monica.
"I lost weight as the machine brought out the competitor in me and made me want to exercise more.
"From the very start I began to watch the monitors of those rowing next to me and found myself racing them unknowingly.
"This drive and competitiveness helped me to focus, as I began to enter into events and started to constantly challenge my own distance times and set myself targets - I then realised that the weight had begun to just fall off me.
"You do really have to enjoy exercise to make it work. I was lucky to find an exercise technique that worked for me - helping me to not only lose weight and achieve goals but also to make new friends in the huge social scene that surrounds the Indoor Rowing Community."
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