If you haven't guessed from all the pictures featured on the website... I love sunrises, sunsets, the ocean and nature in general - and taking photos of them!
I do love healthy eating and being active, but I’m not really a health and fitness nut!
Fitness
I didn’t become a personal trainer because I had illusions of spending my days in the gym, working out and looking hot. I did it because I was on round three of losing weight that had crept on and I figured that if I was a role model for others, it would keep me accountable! This was around the time that it had dawned on me that maintaining a healthy weight was a full-time job, not just a journey that you took and then returned to ‘normal’ at the end of.
In fact, before I did become a personal trainer, I had only been a member of a gym for 12 months. I went to training sessions with my personal trainer and that was about it! If I did go when I didn’t have a session on, I only used the treadmill (and just between you and me, I hate the treadmill!)
I love outdoors physical activity. I do love running, just not on a treadmill! I love kayaking, but the effort of getting it to the water is a great deterrent! Cycling is great - if I actually have a destination! I’m not really one for jumping on the bike just to go for a ride! Now that I actually know what to do with weights, I love strength training. Like anything though, I need to schedule it in, or it won’t happen!
Healthy Eating
I didn’t become a Nutrition Coach because I love cooking up a storm in the kitchen either! I don’t mind cooking, but to be perfectly honest, a lot of time I just can’t be bothered! I’ve always been a healthy eater and my nerdy science side has allowed me to have a reasonable understanding of what is good for our bodies and what isn’t. My problem with eating has tended to be portion sizes. That was until I gave up drinking. Oh, that may have been the unhealthy side of my ‘eating’!
Since I had been a drinker for so long, I didn’t consider what effect giving it up would have on my eating. Each of my ‘weight loss journeys’ had involved increased exercise, not giving up wine! So now I find that I would like to eat lots of sugary stuff to compensate for the lack of alcohol!
My solution is to menu plan! If I have a clear plan of what I will be eating for the week, it is easier to eat well! We’ll change subject now so that I don’t actually admit to how that has been going!
Mind & Emotions
Like most things in my life, I practice things before they have a label and are trendy! I started karate at the age of six and it was a style that was more ‘way of life’ than the sports versions of today. It encompassed a creed to live by, although I’m not too sure that I really understood all the components of it at six! It also included a five-minute meditation at the end of each session, not that they called it meditation or that I realised that is what it was until recently!
Later in life, my ‘mediation’ came in the form of scuba diving. The slow, deep breathing. The quietness of the underwater world. The mindfulness of studying the ecosystem of coral. Again, I hadn’t realised that this was what it was until a couple of years ago after going a few years without diving. When I actually started meditating and then realised that this was something that I had been missing.
My approach to life has always been that things will work out as they are meant to be. So now I can label this as my spirituality. The belief in the Universe, Law of Attraction and generally getting back the vibes you put out.
Fun & Recreation
This has taken many forms for me throughout my life. These days it tends to lean a little towards the slowing down and relaxing rather than the high adventure stuff. I started the Sea Breezers group so that I could do fun activities with a group and be social! We go stand-up paddle-boarding, mountain trekking, walking, running, ten-pin bowling and will be adding more variety as we go.
I’ve also started drawing and painting again. I may get back into sewing. The main thing is that I went through a period of not making fun and recreation a priority and ended up not including it at all! This really isn’t good for mental health!
Life's Work
My purpose in life? I hadn’t really given this much thought until recently either. It seemed that I just let life take me where it wanted and didn’t strive to achieve anything in particular. I’ve always been happiest teaching other people.
I was teaching visitors to the property how to skin rabbits when I was three. I’d teach my sister what I’d learnt at school for the day. I started instructing the karate classes when I was nine. I’d help others in my classes when they didn’t understand things. I became a scuba instructor, taught numerous military lessons throughout my Army career and moved into corporate training when I left the Army. When teaching the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment became more about pushing people through to get a piece of paper rather than them learning how to be a good Trainer and Assessor, I changed my lifestyle and made Personal Training my main role.
I love the light-bulb moments! I love seeing the joy when a concept falls into place and a whole new world opens up having just learnt something new. Personal Training for me is not about getting someone to do a bunch of exercises. It is about teaching my client to feel the movement, to understand what their muscles are doing and understand what the exercise is doing for their body. With Lifestyle Coaching it is about teaching my client to look at what they are doing from a different perspective to see how they can do it easier, more enjoyably. How they can eat better without missing out, how they can incorporate mindfulness into their lives, how to be fit by doing activities they enjoy and how to love their life!
Read more... my personal journey.