Last year I turned 40. It didn't bother me - probably thanks to a wealth of media promoting that 40 is the new 20 and we all turn into sexy cougar type women when we hit this magical number!
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| The old me |
What did bother me last year was ME. I have always struggled with my weight and enough was enough. My 30's were spent on one diet or another always chasing a 'thinner' me and never catching her. There was no way I was going to spend my 40's wasting so much energy chasing dreams - it was time to actually do something once and for all!
As a busy mum running a web design company from home, as well as helping out my husband with his business paperwork, time is precious so every minute had to count. I signed up to an online food diary to record my food and joined a new gym opening locally. Over the next few months I really surprised myself - I actually stuck to it 100% and it worked! I was dropping kilo's and dress sizes and didn't constantly feel like I wanted to gnaw my own arm off thanks to eating proper healthy food rather than being on a 'diet'.
I even started to venture into the gym studios to take part in some of the Les Mills classes. It was hard to start with - no exercise for about 20 years and being hugely overweight didn't make life in the gym easy to start with. What did surprise me is how quickly I became fitter and how hard I could push my body.
January 2010 saw me in the 'morbidly obese' BMI category and in plus size clothes that definitely were not designed for sexy cougar type 40 year olds!! One year on and I had lost 40kg and wearing skinny jeans in a size 12!
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| The new me |
My healthier lifestyle is here to stay and I still have some to lose but know it will come off and stay off. I have learned to love exercise so much that I went back to 'school' for 2 months to retrain to help out other like me lose weight. at the Australian Institute of Fitness I gained my cert 3 and cert 4 qualifications in Health & Fitness and graduated as a Master trainer.
Boost Fitness is my way of staying fit and healthy while showing that exercise can be fun and does work! Last year I was the master of excuses of why I couldn't work out - I wasn't fit enough, couldn't get gym gear in my size, was too fat to go the gym (yep used that one a few times!), was confident enough to stand with all the skinny people working out, would look stupid trying to exercise, had no time etc etc. I can guarantee if you come up with an excuse I have used it first!
The main thing that I have learned and the first thing I want to pass on is that you can do it, you can push your body to work hard no matter what your age or size and your body will love you for it! More energy, more confidence, feeling healthier, feeling younger are all worth the work...
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