Marnie | Assist Personal Training

Marnie - Practice Manager 12 Week Transformation

Meet Marnie, a busy Mum of 3 who gained muscle and lost over 60cm and 7kg of body fat in our 12 Week Challenge.

“I have sporting activities 13 times a week for my kids. That’s 9 basketballs and 4 footballs so it’s busy, it’s really busy!”

“I signed up for the 12 week challenge at Assist PT because I needed to be accountable. I needed a start and end date, a before and after to help keep me focused. I needed someone watching out for me. I needed help with food and exercise.

I needed something for me! I spend a lot of time with young kids, and when it came to my wellbeing I let things get way out of hand. I decided it was now my time, and it was time I had to come first.

I made myself a priority and the kids knew I was doing this to get healthier so I could spend more quality time with them and be more active with them. I was very fortunate that they could also come along on Saturday mornings too, so they were my support crew!

To fit this challenge in, my compromise was that I had to get up at 5.15am every day but I’ll tell you what, when it’s 7am and I’ve already done my training, I feel a million bucks! And even better, I knew that no matter how busy my day was going to get, I had already done something for me! I was home before my kids woke up and before my husband left for work so their routine wasn’t disrupted at all.

Marnie’s 12 week progress photos showing her 7kg loss of body fat with 17cm off our stomach alone!

Now I am happier, I’m not screaming at them all the time, I’m definitely more calmer now. I’m healthier, not so tired, cranky or irritable anymore. My kids can see I’m doing something for me and they’re happier I’m doing something for me too.

As far as a physical change goes, I squeezed back into my skinny jeans within 9 weeks. Now I’ve got no overhang…nothing hanging over the top (says Marnie with huge smiles), which is awesome!!

Being busy, I had to make sure I allowed time for preparation, cutting up foods, cooking and sometimes freezing meals to make sure food was available to me. Times I didn’t get to do this made it a little more difficult to eat and probably consumed more of my time as I wasn’t prepared.

I had my gorgeous sister and a very good friend of mine help motivate me in the beginning, telling me “we’re going to make you come and if you are not out the front of your house by 5.30am we are going to sit in your drive way and toot the horn until you get up”. That was good enough incentive because I like my neighbours and I don’t want to give them the shits. So we took it in turns and if I committed to picking them up, then I knew I was getting out of bed. I wasn’t going to let them down and the same for them to me. It did get to a point where if one couldn’t make it, I would still come and it was good for me to see I didn’t need the threat of someone tooting the horn out the front for me to get out of bed and get to training anymore.

Now I’ve made this part of my routine I’m hoping that as the mornings become colder I’ll be able to roll out of bed at 5.15am and continue on and push through when it’s cold, wet and revolting. It’s part of my routine to exercise at the start of the day now, even on the weekends, we get up and walk the dog and it doesn’t matter what happens for the rest of the day because you’ve already got up and done something for yourself!