First off, congratulations! How did you feel when you found out you won?
I was rapt to place on the global stage. It felt like acknowledgement for the hard work and commitment I had put towards the F45 8 Week Challenge. But admittedly I was curious what the overall champions results were as I'm very competitive and knew my results were strong.
What inspired you to take on the challenge in the first place?
My wife had competed in the F45 8 Week Challenge prior to this one and was our local winner. The changes to her body and mindset were inspiring. I was obese and had troubles tying the laces on my work boots due to the size of my belly. I had to hold my breath while bending over as my stomach made it hard to breathe. I had to stop and take another breath after tying each boot.
I am also very competitive and the idea of a challenge was to be a great motivator to assist with my weight loss.
How did you find the challenge, was it hard?
I really enjoyed the Challenge. It pushed me but kept me motivated. It gave me the tools to change my life and transform me.
I was very unfit and found the training hard for the first week. Lots of aches and pains as my muscles were awakened, but this was temporary and I soon felt fitter and stronger. After two weeks I was attacking my training and pushing myself harder.
Sticking to a meal plan and food prepping was also hard at first but made the challenge so much easier once I had food prep sorted.
What changes did you struggle with more, the eating or the exercising?
Eating by far. I have a sweet tooth and I suspect a sugar addiction. I had cravings hard around week three and tried some sugar free treats but felt they hindered my weight loss progress. Birthday parties, Father’s Day and social gatherings were also a struggle and admittedly I did slip up a few times but the trick is to not let a slip turn into a slide and get straight back into training and diet.
How often did you train?
I'm very competitive and smashed out the training. I never missed a day of training, trained multiple classes a day if possible. On my days off work I was doing three classes a day and for the last half of the challenge I was doubling up doing back to back classes.
Was there anything additional you did to help achieve your results?
I did additional training at home on a treadmill every night. I also made a few tweaks to my daily calorie intake as I found my energy levels fine and I was able to complete all training without feeling fatigued.
What helped you stay motivated?
I'm very competitive and had my eye on the prize. My motivation was to win our local challenge and have a competitive result to take to the Global stage.
The more I worked the more determined I was to push harder to get a stronger result.
How did you feel after the challenge?
I felt a million dollars. I'm in the best shape of my life at 47 years old. Fitter, stronger and healthier than I was as a youngster when I was playing representative sport and training nearly every day of the week.
My lifestyle has changed and the Challenge has had a huge effect on how my family live now. Better nutrition and a lot more family physical activities.
What would you tell others who might be considering signing up?
Get into it. It's life changing and the results will come if you stick to the challenge. There are a lot of members of our local F45 whose lives have been transformed through the challenge. You don't need to attack the challenge like I did to get great results.
