Personal Trainer and Coach Upper & Lower Hutt │All Active

I didn't know what I needed when I contacted Rachel, I just knew I needed to make some positive changes in my life and I needed help to figure out where to start. There was so much to love about my life but I felt disconnected from my body, sluggish, low energy, unmotivated and I'd lost my spark. That's where Rachel and epigenetics came into their own. Wow, I learned so much about myself that I never would have figured out - for example the type of work situation that works best for me, the best waking /eating / exercising / sleeping rhythm for me and the time of year when my immunity dips (which explained why I got sick on every holiday I took in August!). I was doing so many things that weren't right for me, without even knowing it. Small adjustments to my routine and choices, based on my new knowledge, had immediate positive effects, it was as if my body was saying 'thank you!'.

Rachel is so much more than a coach and a personal trainer, she has so many tools in her box! She really cares about her clients and what you need. She's also great at connecting you with other awesome professionals who can give you specialist support for anything that comes up. Rachel helped me identify that the root of my 'bleugh' is my career - I'm good at something that really isn't good for me - and she put me in touch with a career coach, who I'm loving working with. Working with Rachel was the start of a lifechanging journey for me, I highly recommend her. Invest in yourself, you won't regret it!

Donna Upper Hutt

Dear Rachel

This is just to note down in writing a small reflection about our short yet fruitful time together without too much chronological or medical details which I am sure on the database system. Lots have happened since at the start of January 2020 on a very tearful evening, when I felt so desperate with all what is happening with my health and the inner pressure of wanting to fix it all in the spirit of new year’s resolutions, I googled “trainer with autoimmune disease”. Your name and article about you came up. I read it quickly and sent a message online.

The next day you called. I was desperate, everything was going wrong on the surface: weight gain after menopause, bloating, cramps, incontinent diarrhea, can’t walk because of short breath and no fitness plan whatsoever in the middle of this sickness. Under the surface there was the bigger battle, autoimmune in the lungs, 20 years of prednisone daily tablets, loss of muscles, large lazy heart, and prediabetes. But these graver illnesses were not bothering me as long as I swallow my prednisone daily and am not in a flair or in an infectious vicious circle I am ok.

It was my mirror reflection, my sense of heaviness of fat around me that I never had in my younger age, my lack of fitness. It is cliché but true that I have tried everything Acupuncture, hoemeopathy, physio, biofeedback, kinesiology, endless books of diets and self help. Booked with trainers at gyms only to ran away after the first assessment session. Dieticians that wanted to sell me one size fits all type of diets with food I hardly recognise.

I talked to Rachel on the phone with the same avant-guarde that I have built around me not out of suspicion but just thinking if this will be good for me or just like the others. Your voice was calming me because you were very certain and confidant in what you were saying and that gave me the courage to book the appointment at the end of which I jokingly said “no pressure but I think you will be the one to fix me”. I was happy to go through the experience with Rachel guiding but I had lots of questions, too many questions which she patiently accommodated without getting sidetracked from the plan of the sessions.

The ph360 database was so accurate in everything that said about the space, the environment, the timing of things, etc. as if it had a crystal ball or reading me inside out. However I did not like the food list, the very hard restrictive yes list of food and thought I will die after three days. Yet three months now and I am still following it to the T. Me following a list of food! I am a gypsy at heart, a free spirit, hating constraints, instructions of a manual, and a recipe.

I found the recipes on the database meh, not for me as I was a good cook, proudly able to wiz anything from nothing as we had good times and bad times in life. However I loved the Jewish and Greek recipes as I realized how my relationship with food is so cultural and that cherishing certain ingredients or smells because it brings memories and place back to my life. However, I liked the email I received from PH360 every week telling us an ingredient as super food but also a bit about the space and time which I loved and were very useful.
With the guidance of the database and Rachel a new programme of the day started to take shape, new times of food new times of activity, new times of rest. However if I was given the database and not known Rachel I would have put it aside after reading it like many other instructions.

I need to emphasize it very clear that Rachel was the main change maker for theses three month. She would tell me little tips that I did not read on the database and they fit and worked. She gave me little encouragements and positivity which she obliged me to consider as I would gladly jump to tell her the negative first. I would write everything she told me and keep coming back to it.

During the sessions, speaking out loud clarified things that never crossed my mind while alone and that was very important. For example, Rachel asked me what is my goal. I found myself saying “to feel lighter in my gut” not the diarrhea not the excess of weight not this and that but to feel lighter in my tummy and more energetic. To be fit to see my grandchildren and be able to play with them. While I kept going back to meticulous questions on the food list, Rachel kept going foreword pushing the boundaries of my thinking to tackle more important realities like my cultural attachment to food and my nostalgia to the memories of two cities, two extremes loved places of my life. I also realized many things when we addressed the space, time and people: that I was performing completely against my type. If I only knew that 20 years ago!

But what I really really appreciated was that Rachel respected my culture and my religion and I could even referred to it often knowing that she would understand exactly what I mean, without the usual parenthesis and disclaimers and explanations that needed if I was talking to another person. Rachel not only accepted to come to my home to help me which in itself was a miracle as it is out of her way but she would easily relate and change items of food to accommodate my allergy, or celebration etc.

As the weeks passed, and I didn’t die after three days, I felt lighter and lighter in my gutt, and had a weird new energy which I never had before from eating a simple orange and few teaspoon of yogurt which I deprived myself of for many years.

What was not in the database at a click of a button, Rachel told me about. You told me about the gutt brain connection, about how it is ok for my type to wanting to be alone, to be overwhelmed with info or being selective with friends. She was constantly pointing at a solution, at a tip, at a positive step, never tired of my negative analysis (once a researcher always a researcher). To keep repeating what my body type is and needs in my head face to face finally released lots of guilt, lots of past bitterness and lots of hard self-expectations. Then it became clear while I binge eat biscuits while I study. While I go shopping when I am worried and why It takes me months to answer a certain email, Etc. It opened lots of dark closets.

I felt lighter and more energetic while still my diarrhea going on (I still have so many issues to address) yet cramps bloating have faded. I might even have lost a couple of kilos. The feeling of deprivation, starvation, snacking or wanting have ceased. The relationship between happiness and food was not broken but clarified: food is fuel and happiness is elsewhere. This message wouldn’t be clear if it wasn’t for Rachel presence, actual stable knowledgeable presence with me while I am asking my frantic questions.

I have seen many people doing their job and well but to really wanting to help a drowning person and basically flip her thinking for her own good, that is what Rachel did with me firmly passionately and patiently.

Then it all stopped with COVID19. My husband’s business is at stake. I sank in my bubble and can’t continue the coaching for financial reasons. I feel a bit lost and in a daze because I had hope to reach more advancement with Rachel guidance. I wish I can still hear her tips. But I am still here, reading her notes and mine trying to read every word slowly in the hope it will multiply in a new conversation.

Thank You Rachel for putting up with me, for wanting to help and heal and for understanding that under any other circumstances I would be still asking you questions. Thank you because you did everything to help me and lift me from a pit of suspicions, doubts and bad encounters with health and well being carers. I think you touched my wounds and your toolbox was the database, not the other way round.

In the hope to see you again. God Bless you in every way.

Dalia Tinawi

Would you like help with a health condition or general well-being? For more information on how we can help you please get in touch today or call Rachel on 021 0232 2193

I was at a flat point and was asked what I was going to do about it. “I want to get fit”, was my response. Here started my journey with Rachel. When I started it was all about just learning to be coordinated and to get through the session. Now I am at a point where mostly I have mastered the technique of the exercises and am able to listen to my body. Rachel has helped me become stronger and fitter than I have ever been and her assistance helped me achieve my goal to do the Outward Bound 10-day course no mean feat when I had to learn to run, something I had never done prior.
My sessions are no longer just about keeping fit but are so much more and are pivotal to my overall health and well-being.

Gabriel

The thought of attending a gym each week with all the young 25yr olds, as a 54yr old trying to get in better health and shape did not appeal to me. I didn't believe it would be easy to stick with, and that after a few months would give it away and waste membership like so many others. So having Rachel as my Personal Trainer coming to our home seemed a good option. From the start Rachel made it easy to help me get in shape, lose weight and feel healthy and wonderful.

After being on the programme for 4 months, my life has changed so much, eating smaller portions instead of a man size meal, eating good healthy food, and thinking about what I eat, instead of eating for the sake of it, or as comfort food.

Thank you Rachel, I look and feel so much better, yes it wasn't easy for the first couple of weeks to get into routine, the exercise programme is designed to suit the individual and changed frequently. What a difference,I exercise daily, it is part of everyday life, feel amazing, look wonderful, will have to get a whole new wardrobe. Lost over 7 kilos, my goals are being met, and my new lifestyle change will be with me forever I enjoy exercise, have improved health, better movement, better life, ageless.

Wendy

 Fate was on my side when I Googled to find a personal trainer and met Rachel.

Thinking that all I needed was someone to help me get fit and lose weight, I hired Rachel only to discover multiple sides to this inspirational woman. She is also a qualified NLP practitioner which was an added bonus for me as I had some underlying issues that needed dealing with and exercise alone wouldn’t have worked for me.

Rachel’s time with me has helped me turn my life around. Rachel is also a qualified dog behaviourist which I also benefitted from. I adopted Murphy from the pound with Rachel’s encouragement and care. Those extra kilos have lessened while my fitness has increased and I have found happiness again.

Thank you Rachel for all your help

Janet

I'm a type 2 diabetic
Had been going to gym and walking but noticed weight and sugar levels were creeping up. Something was not right.
Heard about Rachel from All Active and signed up.

She reviewed my dietary habits and made changes and provided a weekly exercise program. Also talked about sleep patterns, managing stress and drinking water!

In 6 months my weight is down from 84 to 77 and sugar levels down from 48 to 39 .

I found that I am more accountable with her weekly follow ups . Each session is never the same.
Overall with my sugar levels being stable, I feel more healthy physically and better mentally.

Thank you Rachel for all your help.

Ben