MONTEGO BAY, St James — With healthy practices delivering a major turnaround in her life, 36-year-old fitness fanatic Sigourney Hastings-Cox has embarked on a quest to “get Montego Bay moving” by hosting free workout sessions at the Harmony Beach Park in the resort city.

Hastings-Cox, who was born and bred in the heart of downtown Montego Bay, told the Jamaica Observer West that she was first introduced to fitness in 2017 after giving birth to her son and recognising how unhealthy she had become.

“The reason I started the journey was because after I had my son in 2016, I wasn’t able to work out or anything of that sort, because I was ailing from a severe back pain. I was just eating, so I gained a lot of weight,” said the Hart Street native.

“I went to my highest, which I think was 215 pounds, and that was quite heavy. So, I started walking to get rid of the weight but that wasn’t working out because I kept eating the same way.”

She noted that after making a conscious decision to change her diet, she enlisted the help of a nutritionist and personal trainer to get started on what she described as a life-changing journey.

“I then changed my eating habits with the guidance of a nutritionist — a friend of mine — and then I started hitting the gym. But even though I was in the gym, I still wasn’t able to do it on my own, so I went ahead to get a fitness trainer. He assisted me a lot in terms of working out. I had to get up early every morning to get my workout in and it was really helping,” Hastings-Cox told the Observer West.

But, the woman said, the workout sessions were cut short after her personal trainer met in a motor vehicle accident and was no longer able to assist her.

This, she stressed, was a major setback in her personal journey to weight loss.

“To be honest, without the drive and the push from him, I somewhat gave up on myself again. I did not have the determination to do it by myself. But, I then thought about the reason I really wanted to lose weight,” said Hastings-Cox.

“It was so hard doing anything with my son— whether it was playing or just going for a walk — because I had challenges breathing. So, I decided to start working on myself again, based on what my trainer had instructed me to do and when I started doing this, I started seeing the weight coming off.”

After seeing the results of her new lifestyle, friends started to request assistance for their own personal fitness journeys. This was when Hastings-Cox decided to pursue certifications in personal training and nutrition to ensure she could offer substantial help.

“You know, when you start losing weight people will start complementing you and ask what you are doing. Then they started asking me for my help and with the limited knowledge that I had, I started to help them out,” she said.

“I started out doing sessions just for friends at no cost and after I saw their results I was like, if I don’t know much about working out and nutrition, what if I really had the resources and the knowledge that I need, what could I really do to help people and myself?”

“I decided that, you know, I think I would like to become a trainer. I went and did certifications in personal training, and nutrition. When I did that, I had my same friends continue working along with me at no cost at all and they started to refer their friends to me. From there, the passion and the love really started to grow because I found that it was not just regular women coming to me, but mothers who had challenges losing weight after giving birth.”

But, the certified fitness trainer said, though she offers one-on-one personal training opportunities to women across the parish, she decided to utilise the space at the fairly new Harmony Beach Park in the city to host ‘Saturday Sweat’.

“About couple weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to do a workout programme at Harmony Beach Park for the whole family on a Saturday. But, I didn’t want to charge for it because I’m from Montego Bay and I have a client base already, so I wanted to do something that could actually give back to the community. And I think the best way for me to do it is through fitness so, on October 23 I hosted my first face-to-face ‘Saturday Sweat’,” said Hastings-Cox.

“It was very good. It was an hour workout and though I expected a lot more people because it was free and it is about health and wellness, I got about 64 participants. But, I think for a start that was great.”

The goal, Hastings-Cox shared, is to promote fitness and an overall healthy lifestyle by hosting these sessions at least one Saturday each month.

“My intention is to try and have the Saturday Sweat every other Saturday or one Saturday per month. The mission I’m on right now is to get Montego Bay moving and to let people understand how important health and wellness is. I want people to know that while it’s important to take care of everybody else, it’s even more important to take care of you as an individual,” she noted.

On the second staging of Saturday Sweat recently, some 59 individuals – inclusive of young children – turned up at 6:00 am to exercise.

Hastings-Cox shared that she was overjoyed to see children also participating.

“I brought my son with me; he is only five and he was out there exercising just the same. There’s a little girl who my mommy adopted and she was also out there exercising. A few other people brought along their kids and it was great to see the children at the front moving to the music and just exercising. They may not do it perfectly, but at least they understand how important it is to move and that’s all I want people to do, just move,” Hastings-Cox told the Observer West.

Angelene Ward-Watson, a woman who attended Hastings-Cox’s Saturday Sweat, was left feeling satisfied after her workout.

“When you work out with her you can actually feel the difference and feel like something is happening. So, that was really my reason and I dragged my husband along with me,” she added.