How it all began..My Personal Journey

Hi Guys and welcome to my first ever blog posting! I must admit I was a little bit nervous to start up my own blog but after some encouragement from my good friend and fellow blogger Tiarni :) who u can follow @ http://allthingsbeautybytiarni.blogspot.com.au/ i thought why not!

I thought today I would share with you all a little bit more about me and how I came to be in the Fitness industry because I certainly haven't always lived and breathed the healthy lifestyle i follow today.

Like most of you (even those of you who choose not to admit it) i have always loved to eat. I still do lol although these days my diet is certainly very different! Growing up I struggled with my weight A LOT. I was always the bigger one and I always felt different to all of my friends because they were all "skinny" and I wasn't. Most of the time I didn't let it get to me too much but there was always the odd comment or occasional taunt and as any kid who has ever been bullied in any way will tell you, these things build up and they end up (excuse the pun) weighing you down.

When I got to highschool I decided I wanted to change the way I looked and felt about myself and so every morning before school I would get up and run and every afternoon i would come home and get on the multi weights machine my brothers often used. It wasn't long before the kilos started dropping off me and I was so happy to be able to fit into clothes I liked not to mention the compliments I received.

I managed to maintain my weight througout the next few years although I still wasn't "skinny". During the last couple of years of highschool i went through a lot of changes with relationships with friends and family and although I didn't see it at the time I think I ate away (literally) at some of my emotions. I still felt that difference and not being confident in myself or the way I looked didn't help. This carried on into my first year out of school and my first year at Uni. Poor eating habits and little exercise let my weight get to an uncomfortable stage again yet as so many of us do I chose to ignore or make excuses even though deep down I knew I wasn't happy with it.

In my second year of Uni I got a job at one of the local gyms working casually in the reception. It wasn't long before I took advantage of the free acess to a gym and remembered how much I actually enjoyed exercising. With the help of a trainer I started to mix a bit of weight training with my cardio and started to see some positive results which encouraged me to continue and slowly my eating habits followed a better path to compliment the work I was doing in the gym.

After about a year I started to plateau and was no longer seeing the changes I desired as many of you may have experienced. A plateau in my mind can either make you or break you. Plenty of people plateau and just give up, coming to the conclusion that "it's never going to work". I was determined though and decided it wasn't going to "break me". So I researched and researched and then did a little more research and once again changed up my training with different weights and interval cardio training. The results followed once more.

When I finished Uni I continued to work in the reception at the gym. Fitness was now developing to be a passion of mine and I had thought for a while about studying to be a personal trainer although I didnt want to give up on chasing a job in journalism. After all, I had just spent 3 long years slogging it out at Uni to get the degree. I also had my old friend "self doubt" in my ear saying "You can't be a personal trainer Mandy" and trying to tell me I was still the bigger person I used to be. After no job prospects appeared and didn't look to be coming my way any time soon I figured there was no harm in going and doing my course in the mean time. So, as nervous as I was I took the plunge and enrolled at the Australian Institute of Fitness.

I can most definitely say that from that day I first walked into the classroom there I have NEVER looked back. The course taught me so much more about training than I knew before and it made me want to know everything I possibly could to better my own training and myself personally not to mention help others do the same. I also met some amazing people along the way. There were so many positive attitudes and lets face it, a positive attitude and mindset is way better than a negative one- especially if you ever want to get anywhere in life.

In the past year since graduating the course and starting to work as a trainer I have come forward in leaps and bounds through trial, error and experience not only with my clients but with myself.

Sure I still have days of self doubt, i think anyone who says they don't would be lying but I am in a place now where though i still feel different, its in a good way because I am an individual and no longer compare myself to others nor do I want to be "skinny". Being able to change my body through eating healthy and exercising has taught me the value of looking after my body and my health and I know now skinny does not = healthy. It has also given me a confidence in myself that I certainly didn't have before.

My training has changed again after accumulating more knowledge and I now am big into strength training and HEAVY weights. Trust me girls there is no better way to get in shape than incorporating strength training into your workouts and once you start you will be hooked! I will look into this in another post :)

Anyway I think this is definitely long enough (almost a mini novel lol) but I believe sometimes it helps others who are on a journey of their own to know that yes i've been there too and I'm still on my own journey every single day but each day is a new day and a new opportunity to be a better you! Think positive, believe in yourself and most importantly - eat clean, train mean and you will live lean :)