Honour Your Body, Your Life, Your Self.

Dr Karl is on Triple J this week with a guest, talking about the science of weight loss & this is a topic close to my heart.

You may not know this but I used to have an eating disorder & probably a fair bit of associated body dysmorphia (when you have a distorted view of how your body looks).

When I was in high school, I learned to be bulimic; other girls showed me how you could throw up after eating to not gain weight. I thought it was a magical formula until I found myself living a miserable life. Then I started to make the changes that made the difference to save my life.

This, combined with my Mum being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes around the age I am now (early 40’s) made me sit up & take note of my health.

I did not want to follow in my Mum’s health-footsteps.

It didn’t happen immediately, but I started on the path that has led me to become a Fitness Trainer & Health Educator.

I know how it feels to not want to exercise, to complain about working out, and when I was training to be a trainer, I still remember the time where I actually started to enjoy working out.

That feeling of “yeah!” after a workout has stayed with me and once you get that, you don’t want to give it up.

Now I’m glad I went through that process because I empathise with clients who do the same. Although now I allow them to bring their ‘don’t want to’s’ and complaints, (they can even swear a lot), but they still do the workouts.
And they feel so much better at the end.

I also remember the point in my life where I realised I was choosing exactly what I wanted, so why couldn’t I choose what was good for me.
So I did.

I started eating better and actually enjoying it, moving more & feeling great for it.

When I had my son 11 years ago, I put on 40kg. Four Zero.

It was no mystery, I ate EVERYTHING, and then I ate theirs. When I had a 3.6kg baby, I had to take stock and decide; did I want to keep these extra kilos that made me feel so uncomfortable?
Was this related to my eating disorder so many years ago?

I made a conscious decision to love my body, to fuel it well & to exercise. If my body never returned to its previous state then so be it, but I was damn sure I would do everything possible to treat myself well & be happy with the outcome.

A lot changes in a woman’s body after children & we are so exposed to unrealistic images in the media (celebrities don’t even look like they do in the magazines!!).

So what if our bodies aren’t the same as pre-kids?
Are we going to be miserable for the rest of our lives?
Missing out on all the joy & richness in our lives?

A flat stomach is not an achievement.
A life well-lived, full of love, adventure, curiosity & laughter, sure is.

I want that for you.

If you have never exercised or unsure about how to start, please get in touch.

I'm here to help.