As I will be running a 12 Week Transformation Challenge in January, I thought it was only fitting that this week’s blog post was about my personal transformation challenge experience.

It really begins at the end of 2012.  I had decided my job life was going nowhere in a dead end job so I sought out a career in the only thing I was passionate about (besides football) and that’s health and fitness. During the course at AIF in Parramatta I was required to seek out a fitness business to do some work placement at, which happened to be Vision PT around the corner. I met with the owner, had a chat about what Vision did, about the industry and about my goals for fitness and my career for the future. During my work placement with Vision, I had pretty much decided that is where I wanted to work, and so the owner suggested I do the 9 Week Transformation Challenge. It wasn’t a competition where I was going to win a prize or anything like that, more personally for me it was essentially a job interview, because if I couldn’t do it for myself, how was I going to be able to get clients to do it for themselves really.

Prior to doing my course and taking part in the 9 week challenge, my nutrition was quite poor. I never really made a solid attempt to eat healthier, because I had always played sports my whole life I never had any kind of weight problems, so it just wasn’t at the top of my priorities list. If I was going to do this 9 week Challenge though I was going to do it 100%, to show Vision that I was committed, but more so to prove to myself that I could do it, and make positive lifestyle changes for myself.

I was only like 69kg when I started but after the first week I think I lost something like 2kg, which to me was quite amazing. I actually trained LESS that first week than what I had been doing prior to starting, and that weight loss simply came from making changes to my diet. Cutting out all the pasta’s, bread’s and rice for dinner and substituting for quality vegetables. I was given my macronutrients (carbs/protein/fats) when I started, so I worked out what I needed to have each day, I meal prepped, weighing and bagging meat for the week, putting salads in containers ready to go, yoghurt and fruit for snacks in another. I concentrated on having 5-6 quality meals a day, never eating til I was full, but just what my body required, and of course drinking plenty of water.

I remember the first two weeks being quite tough. I didn’t make GRADUAL changes like I probably should have. I went for a complete shake up of my diet, and it was a shock to my system. I had headaches, I couldn’t sleep, and it wasn’t enjoyable. However after that initial two weeks I noticed various changes taking place. I had a lot more energy throughout the day, and my performance in sport increased dramatically. With an efficient fuel source, and eating at appropriate times in accordance to when I was training, I was running further and faster and lifting heavier, even though I was losing weight. My ability to recovery also vastly improved.

I made everything in to a routine. I found it easier to have everything planned and prepared so I always knew when I was eating, what I was eating, and when I was training. Creating a routine really helps with being consistent and it definitely helped me achieve my goal.  I also always planned what I was eating if we ate out a restaurant. I would opt for the grilled chicken or steak and vegetables or salads, no chips, no sauce and no bread (which was the hardest part haha). I allowed one “cheat meal” I guess you can say, a week. This was usually pasta or something of that nature. I forbid myself from eating pizza and Nutella for the entire 9 weeks, as they are my 2 favourite foods and I didn’t want to over indulge.

I didn’t really start to see a noticeable change until about week 6 I think, but from week 6 until week 9 that’s where I guess you could say the real body composition changes took place. I think I got so used to eating what I was having every day it became quite easy towards the end. I was more eager to take my AFTER photo and measurements than I think I was to have my first pizza in 9 weeks. I think definitely creating that routine and being consistent really taught me discipline, which I have now since incorporated into my everyday lifestyle.

9 Weeks was up and this is what I had achieved:

If I remember correctly when I started I was 69kg and 12% Body Fat and I finished at 64kg and 7% Body Fat (this was recorded on a tanita scale so not too sure how accurate that is).  I am really quite proud of what I achieved in such a short time though. I was always thin in general but also always had a bit of belly that I just couldn’t manage to get rid of regardless of how hard I trained. Doing this challenge, as well as doing my PT course, really opened my eyes up to how important nutrition is to any result, and that you can’t out-train a poor diet.

 

I am really looking forward to this 12 Week Transformation coming up for Team Transform and I can’t wait to see what people can achieve for themselves, no doubt some amazing results! 😀