Anja’s 12WBT Story

Anja with her husband after running a 10km obstacle course – 12 weeks prior she couldn’t run 1km! 

In just 12 weeks, life changed dramatically for young mum Anja. The former yo-yo dieter, not only lost 19 kilos with 12WBT but has discovered a love of fitness and a passion for weights! Read her 12WBT story.

As she scrambled through the nets close to the end of her first ten-kilometre obstacle run, Anja recalled the day—just a couple of months earlier—that she couldn’t even run a full kilometre.

“When I did the fitness test for the 12 Week Body Transformation program, I thought I was going to throw up. It was all really hard, but the running was the worst,” she remembers. But less than three months and nearly 20 kilos later, the Queenslander found herself outpacing her husband in a race that she never expected she’d get through.

It was not long after the young mum gave birth to her second child that Anja realised she needed to do something about her health.

Instead of seeing her body change as she lost baby weight gained during her pregnancy, she was continuing to put more weight on.

Finding a Balance

Anja says she was a yo-yo dieter pre-12WBT but she made a decision. “I needed something sustainable to do and pass onto my children instead of going back to self destructive habits.”

“I’ve always had a problem with my weight,” says Anja, adding that she was a yo-yo dieter in the past. “I just thought, you know what, I need to sort this out before it becomes that way for the rest of my life.”

When she saw her sister-in-law lose more than 30 kilos through the 12 Week Body Transformation, she decided to join up, too. “I needed something sustainable to do and pass onto my children instead of going back to self destructive habits.”

The 23 year old nurse says her relationship with food has always been problematic. While she cooked healthy meals, she didn’t have a healthy attitude to the way she consumed it. She would skip meals then binge eat. Portion control was also a constant issue. “I used to pile up my plate and have seconds,” she admits. “I’d go for a walk or do a workout for one day and then I wouldn’t do anything again for weeks. I had no balance.”

Getting a Plan and Sticking to it!

The 23 year old mum says pre-12WBT her relationship with food was problematic.

For Anja, committing to overhauling her lifestyle meant following the 12WBT Exercise and Nutrition Plans to the letter. “I find it easier to stick to something 100 per cent, and I loved that I didn’t have to think about it—everything was laid out for me. I didn’t have to think about what to make for dinner or how many crunches to do. I just printed off my workout schedule and did it,” she says.

Nevertheless, the first few weeks challenged her resilience. “I started getting up at 4.30am to workout, and until the routine set in it was really hard with the kids and working 25 hours a week as well.” But with the support of her husband, Anja pushed through and began seeing results. “I did what Michelle Bridges said – don’t think, just do it. And within four weeks I could run a kilometer. Then was interval running up to five kilometres!”

Anja has not only discovered running – she now has a love of weights.

She also discovered a whole new group of friends at a local gym—and a passion for lifting weights. “It was a big deal to find like-minded people and surround myself with that energy,” she says, calling it the biggest lesson she’s learned. It also helped motivate her when she didn’t feel like working out—after all, when you know friends will be there waiting for you at the gym in the early hours of the morning, you don’t want to disappoint them. Plus, Anja wanted to get fit for the 10km races she was aiming for. To keep her on track she decided to book and pay for them well in advance to lock herself in to completing them.

Now 19 kilos lighter and on her second 12WBT, Anja says she has more energy to play with her children as well as a new-found confidence in how her body looks—and what it can do. “I even ran 10 kilometres on two consecutive days this week. I’m really proud of myself!”

Anja’s Top 12WBT Tips

• Be consistent. Just keep it going and don’t stop; that way you don’t have to start again. The start is the hardest.
• Don’t overthink it. Just stick to the food and the workouts. Don’t analyse it, and don’t listen to that friend who says you’re exercising too much, you’re fine the way you are, give yourself a break. Just get on with it.
• Be really, really organised. I diarised everything and every Thursday I started doing online shopping as soon as I received the upcoming week’s shopping list. Then I’d get my delivery the day before the menu plan started. That way, I wasn’t tempted by the supermarket and I didn’t buy anything else that wasn’t on the list.
• Find an awesome, supportive sporting or fitness group. They do exist, you just have to find something you like with people you like too. It makes getting out of bed to work out that much easier.

Your life could look as different as Anja’s in 12 weeks! Register your interest in the 12 Week Body Transformation now!