My name’s Sam. When I’m in trouble you get to call me Samantha. I have three sons and a husband, who I like most of the time.
Imani is a real place with real people who care for me. I’ve never had that before and it makes me feel emotional.
I’ve spent most of my life feeling aggressive towards other people, pushing them away because I didn’t feel like I fit in. I felt like I would never fit in because of the size I was. I felt as if I always had to make an excuse for myself.
You see, I’ve done so many different things, stuck by it and nearly killed myself doing it. But even in the end, I never saw any results. And I wasn’t being me. I was being someone else.
But now I get come to a place like Imani, where I feel I can finally breathe, make changes and better myself. Here I get to be me. I get to see results. And I feel so loved and supported in this environment. It doesn’t matter if I stuff up. It doesn’t matter if I make mistakes. We all make mistakes. It’s okay.
Even in 14-15 weeks, the change is massive. I had so lost myself, but now I walk around with so much more confidence. My life beforehand was just all about avoiding social situations. If I could get away with not going out, I would. Anything so that I wouldn’t be seen. I certainly wouldn’t go to gala dinners or get dressed up and have my hair and makeup done. No! I’d do anything to avoid any of that.
That’s what it was like for me. But it’s just so different now. I can’t wait to do all that. I love going and having a look at clothes. I’m not so much buying them, right now, because I’ve found a whole new wardrobe in my wardrobe that hasn’t fitted me for about 4-5 years!
A lot of the people here are genuine and I just want you to succeed. Even though I can come across as quite gruff sometimes, they’ve held my hand when I’ve needed it and have helped me through. It’s like a counselling session. You can be vulnerable.
That’s the thing that I love about here. Nowhere else in my life, have I ever been able to be vulnerable. This is my thing. It’s just for me. It’s had a massive impact on me. I don’t even think I can verbalise it all properly yet but it’s huge.
I certainly don’t drink, like I used to because I’m too busy doing all my other things. I just don’t want to. I actually don’t want to do the things that I know are going to make me feel bad.
And it’s not because Ronnie and Mel say I can’t, or the program says I can’t. And I’ve never been told that I must do this or mustn’t do that. But when you see results, you just want to see more results. So you end up wanting to do all the things that will keep getting you good results. It’s as simple as that.
What you’ve got to do is stop thinking about who you think you’re going to be, and start thinking about who you want to be. Once you figure out who you want to be, it’s all going to come. That’s all going to happen here at Imani. All you have to do is think about who you want to be and Ronnie and Mel will help you.
They have this intuitive instinct to know when you’re ready for the next step. It’s not this 28-day program crap, where there’s all these little boxes, and everybody has to be in the same box. We’re all human beings here, all trying to better ourselves. But we don’t all do it at the same time and we don’t all do it at same pace. There’s no ticking boxes. When you’re ready to do something, you will be given the tools to do it.
I’d recommend it for anybody that just wants to feel better and be better. Anyone that wants to be a better person and give more in life. Because that’s what they teach you here as well. But it’s not just about you. It’s about other people as well. It’s about taking, but giving more and being more spiritually aware, and having fun.
If you’re not a fit and healthy person, or you’ve never done this in your life, it’s difficult. It’s difficult to do the leg ups and the push ups, and everything else. But even when you can’t do it, they will help you. And they’ll make it fun, so even on your worst exercise — the one you can’t stand — you’ll still come back and do it.
Guilt kills so many people. You can carry around so much guilt and it can just make you into a tyrant really. But here you can just put all that aside and start, like start fresh.
You are literally the author of your own life book. I’ve turned the page and that’s what I’m writing now. I’m doing it for me.
