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Well in short, a fitness coach with a side serving of how amazing I can change your life... but I’d prefer the long answer....
Back in my good ol’ schooling days, I was a little nerdier than I am now. Yup! I loved playing games online, I loved to draw and paint, and I was obsessed with cartoons. OK.. a lot of these things are still true. Today my life looks a little different, between helping clients find inner strength and slowing taking over the world…..who has the time?
I have always enjoyed exercising but back then it wasn’t my biggest passion. It was mainly because I didn’t feel like I fit in with the cool sporty kids. I wasn’t loud enough, cool enough or funny enough, I wasn’t skinny, so wearing little b***y shorts or training in a sports bra was a big no-no! I wasn’t the fastest runner (granted, I’m still not!), I wasn’t strong, I didn’t have the coordination to be a talented dancer. Basically I just didn’t feel like I was enough.
Time went on, I studied, found a job, left that job, found a few more. During this time, I worked on myself, I discovered how important self care is. I lost some weight from the little knowledge I had about nutrition and exercise. I would go to any traditional globo gym, training alone and doing what I could. I fell in love with the process of bettering myself- not just physically, but mentally.
And somewhere along this path of self discovery and self improvement I realised that I wanted to help others do the same. I realised in order to do that I needed to know more about nutrition and exercise so I started to study. After I finished my course I applied for my first job as a personal trainer, it happened to be at a functional gym and I got it.
Everything changed when I started working at this gym.
The perception of fitness was different. It wasn’t based on looks, it was based on the work you put in. It wasn’t skinny girls hanging around the water cooler wearing full faces of makeup and matching designer active-wear. It wasn’t guys checking themselves out in the mirror more than actually exercising. It was real people doing real work. Everyone was accepted and admired for what they did and what they could accomplish.
It changed the way I looked at people, it changed the way people looked at me and, most importantly, it changed the way I looked at myself. I realised that functional fitness was the piece of the puzzle that I had been missing.
After I started training functionally the following things fell into place:
My MINDSET changed dramatically. My fitness goals felt so much more reachable. I had always been so hard on myself before, if I didn’t see a dramatic difference then I thought I wasn’t doing it right. Functional fitness changed this. It allowed me to modify movements in various ways so that if I couldn’t do something I could adjust the movement, slowly progress until I could do it.
My GOALS changed. Before I just wanted to lose weight, the goal was to be skinny. When I surrounded myself with people like me, struggling but progressing. It allowed me to see a different way and that “just be skinny” mentality faded away. I transferred my energy and focus to becoming functionally fit. Could I do a pull up? Could I do full push ups? Could I run 5kms in less than 30mins? Could I deadlift my bodyweight? These goals took the pressure of losing weight off of me. Suddenly I could enjoy fitness without constantly checking the scale.
My SELF-ESTEEM was a big one, it needed the most work. With me always being so hard on myself, it had taken a toll on my self confidence. Before I felt weak, overweight and worthless. Once I started working consistently at something- I felt more confident on my journey. People started to look at me differently. Slowly I got push ups, then pull ups, weightlifting movements progressed from 20kgs to 30kgs and then 60kgs, right up over my head! I remember getting all sorts of compliments, my posture improved, my skin glowed, I looked stronger. And slowly I also started looking at myself differently.
Today I know I am a badass! It took me a long time to get here and I know the journey isn’t over. I will always keep learning and challenging myself every day. I don’t let the struggle stop me anymore because I am strong inside and out!
The most important thing that I learnt was to do it for YOURSELF, not anyone else!
If you do YOUR best every day, you can walk out knowing you did something incredible for yourself.
