YOR BEST BODY

Hey everyone! So the past 8 weeks have been a massive journey of self discovery and without a doubt one of the biggest personal journeys I have put my mind, body and soul though. It has truly been a phenomenal ride where I have learnt that the body functions the best when you fuel it with a healthy balance of proteins, carbs and fats. I have also learnt that my body is just like any working machine, if you feed it with premium quality fuel, it's going to run really really well! That is what I have done for the past 8 weeks in a nutshell. Here is my story so far...

Since I was 18 years old I have been an elite athlete with the Australian Softball team and have always spent most of my time training hard and playing! I always thought I ate pretty well but I never really understood that eating a lot of highly processed, heavy huge meals would eventually suck the energy out of me and wouldn't give me the nutrients that I probably needed to perform at my best. I guess I never really knew that eating those types of foods made me tired, and how badly they would affect my energy levels and how a poor diet would prolong my recovery and general well being. I guess I have always looked physically fit on the outside but honestly have never felt it from the inside out. I've always chased that feeling as an athlete and in general in life.

I'm 26 years old and up until I decided to make a change, my body recovered slower after a heavy team gym session and even after trainings and games. This was obviously frustrating because when I feel fatigued I know that getting through my day is going to be a struggle. So I decided to make a change in my life and step 1 was to jump on this 8 week challenge and start some sort of journey into changing my life. I wrote down some goals and the first one was to drop 5% body fat, the second was to increase my lean muscle mass (put on some extra weight) and my third goal was to just feel better and have more energy from day to day. When I started back in April I weighed 68kg and realistically I wanted to get up to 70kg and put on some muscle. My body fat percentage was 19% and I wanted that to go down to 14% and see some abs and I really wanted to not have that exhausted, tired as hell feeling by 5pm everyday!

To start off with, I can honestly say that today as I am writing this, I have never had so much more energy on a day to day basis before! I taught my body to run at its optimum level and all I did was change my diet. Within a week of being on my challenge I started to notice a difference mentally and physically. I managed to limit the amount of processed foods that I would normally have - so things like deli meats, bread, potato and pasta. I made slight adjustments to my diet and swapped the potato for sweet potato, white rice to brown rice, deli meats to lean chicken breast, red meat and salmon. I made sure I ate 3 main meals a day and 2 snacks for morning tea and afternoon tea to keep my metabolism burning. I also gave my body extra nutrients by taking the meal replacement protein shakes, super greens, berry blast and fibre. I had the occasional naughty snack or cheat meal every now and then cos let's face it, I love to indulge in a bit of chocy, pasta or bakery treat every now and then! I limited my alcohol consumption to a minimum but I don't drink that much anyhow cos I train so much. I upped my water intake to 2L a day. The products truly maximised my positive change of diet. The super greens cleaned my system out and so did the fibre! I became more regular and started feeling revitalised. My favourite thing to do was make a greens, berry blast and MRP shake in the morning with a banana blended in, and would have a high protein breakfast that included scrambled eggs. This really kickstarted my day and kept me going until the mid morning.

In terms of exercise I have been training twice a week doing softball skills, and twice a week in the gym doing strength and conditioning. I have been taking the muscle repair after my strength and conditioning sessions and this has allowed me to recover quicker and I don't experience as much muscle soreness and fatigue as I have done in the past. This is massive for me because I have had major knee and shoulder injuries that I've been dealing with for years and to no longer experience aches and pains any more is such a massive thing! Since beginning my 8 week challenge I have signed up to run the Gold Coast Half Marathon in July where I will run 21km! For all my friends and family that know me, they know I'm not a runner and have always despised running. But now that I have all this energy and my body has never been working so well, I just want to use my energy and running a marathon is a massive new challenge! Not only has my body started feeling amazing, my mind is so clear and free and I feel like anything is possible! I am able to concentrate and my focus is so much clearer!

So this has been a completely life changing experience for me and something I will never ever forget. I have put myself out there and succeeded. I really just wanted to see what I was capable of, and I really am now extremely passionate about how beneficial putting the right types of foods into your body is. I now weight 71kg (have put on 3kg of lean muscle), my body fat percentage is 14.1% (from 19%) and I have started seeing some tiny abs poke out on my stomach! I have never felt so invigorated and healthy from the inside out! It's all thanks to eating healthy, exercising regularly and feeding my body with high quality food and premium supplements. I have once and for all found out how and why absorbing so much goodness has truly changed how I feel. The biggest life lesson I have learnt is that if you want to change something in your life all you have to do is take that first step and begin! Tomorrow is only a day away! If you know what you want to achieve all you have to do is figure out how you will achieve it, set your goals and go for it! Thank you for reading my story and I hope you could relate in some way and I hope it inspires you to make a change in your life :)