PERSONAL TRAINER WANTS PEOPLE TO BE HEALTHY AND COMPLETE

Joy-D. Williamson’s goal is to create a complete and healthier person.
Joy-D. Williamson’s goal is to create a complete and healthier person.

Personal trainer wants people to be healthy and complete

BY TIA CAROL JONES
     Joy-D Williamson is a certified personal trainer who has developed a
12-week program to help people improve their quality of life by becoming
healthier.
    Williamson, owner of Body Integrity Fitness, started off as a high school
athlete doing track and field. She also ran track at Southern Illinois University
in Carbondale, Ill.
    She became a personal trainer and even received a Master’s Degree in Applied Exercise Science. “For me, it just fit because this was a way I could really mesh my careers together,” she said.
    While working as a personal trainer at Bally’s, Williamson saw a revolving
door of clients. She said some personal trainers were not helping people the
way they needed to be helped and she always worked with people who were
part of a special population, including those with hypertension, arthritis, geriatric patients and children. She said those people needed the most help.
    Williamson said she started her fitness company once before in the early
2000’s, but it wasn’t sustainable for her.
     This time, she had more knowledge and awareness and wanted to start it
up again.
    The 12-week program starts off with one week of cleansing. She described it
as a lifestyle change program. “Looking at the fitness world, there were so many fitness fads and challenges, and for me, one of the things I observed with
people, even with being a trainer, is adherence. People start with their fitness journey but they don’t adhere,” she said.
      Williamson said there is a multitude of reasons for it, but most of the time,
people become unmotivated, they get bored and they don’t know what to do. “I developed this course because I wanted to look at the psychological, coupled with the physiological,” she explained. “If your mind is not in the game, you’re not going to perform.”
     Williamson’s program is digital, with three weekly Zoom meetings. Next, they meet twice with her to do a workout and after that, do an additional workout on their own. Williamson said the cleanse is designed to do a reset, get
the body back on track and talk about food and nutrients.
     “The other thing I found is that a lot of people aren’t eating enough. Most
people are averaging one or one and a half meals a day,” she said. “One and a
half meals is not going to cut it.”
    Williamson said trying to work out after only eating one and a half meals
can lead to burning calories and not seeing the scales move or not seeing
their bodies transformed, which can be discouraging for people.
     “Also, with a challenge, there’s an end. We need to change how we view
working out. It needs to be something we do, as easy as getting up and brushing your teeth, or showering. It needs to be thought of as something we need to do daily or a few times a week,” she said.
     Williamson said there also needs to be a change in not thinking of working
out as a chore. She said even with foods, people should make subtle changes like adding fruits and vegetables to the daily diet rather than dieting.
     “I wanted to design this course so you would be able to see the benefit and
see why your regime wasn’t working. There is a science behind work out
design. We have to understand how to work out, how to make sure when
you’re working out, you’re executing your exercise with the proper form.
All of that makes a difference, form is everything,” she said.
     Williamson said there are different metrics to measure success that don’t
include the scale. She said especially in women, because women fluctuate in
weight due to water retention during menstrual cycles.
     “There is not a one size fit[s] all workout regime for every person. Everybody is not going to follow the same workout and get the same results. So, they have to be tailored to fit your needs,” she said. “Weight loss is not the focus, I need to improve your quality of life first.”
     The program costs $120 and includes a journal and workouts.
     For more information, email bodyintegrityfitness@ gmail.com, visit www.
bodyintegrityfitness.com.

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