My Fitness Journey: Sarah Louise
How I went from 'skinny' to strong and fit

My reason for starting a fitness journey

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I still remember the day it suddenly hit me and I thought to myself "Wow, I really need to do something about this and get in shape". I was with a bunch of friends and we were doing a Situp Challenge (wierd, I know...). I couldn't even do a single situp.. Not one!

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Growing up, I've always been very active - whether that be from riding horses, cycling around or just running around playing with my friends. Combine that with a fast metabolism and there I was; small, skinny and weak. I didn't care much for what I ate, so I was what you would call 'skinny fat' - not overweight, but also not particularly healthy, no muscle or strength, and often feeling bloated and weak.

 

As I got older and my appearance became something I was more aware of, I started feeling insecure in my body. I was tired of my legs and arms being skinny, my butt flat as a pancake but most of all I was tired of how weak I felt - I couldn't walk far without my legs getting tired and my arms were not strong enough to carry anything remotely heavy. 

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When my friends made comments on how small/skinny/tiny I was, it hurt a little bit on the inside. I know they meant nothing bad about it, but still it got to me every time. I was tired of being seen as "the skinny girl". I wanted to be strong, fit and healthy. I wanted to change my body. Thus my fitness journey began.

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From home workouts to my first time in the gym

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It was time to change. I borrowed my mums yoga mat and starting working out 4-6 times a week in my room. I'd bought a 12 week at-home training plan that consisted of high intensity training and strengthening exercises.

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Oh.. how I was struggling! 🥵 The workouts were tough and I had to constantly stop and rest during even the most simple exercises.

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However, I continued on and ended up seeing great progress after the first 12 weeks and therefore decided to repeat the programme for another 12 weeks. I felt amazing! I felt strong! I could already do so much more than I could in the beginning and a lot of exercises suddenly became easier

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One day I decided to join my dad in the gym... it was love at first sight (or love at first rep). The gym (and the big uscle-y guys that trained in the gym) wasslightly intimidating in the beginning, but slowly I gained the confidence I needed to use more equipment, learn new exercises and lift heavier weights.

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It felt AMAZING being stronger and seeing my muscles grow. 

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My nutrition

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Alongside started researching how I should eat to support my fitness goals and started implementing these. However, being as disciplined as I was I went ALL IN. "Limit sugar" meant cutting out ALL sugar. "Limit alcohol" meant NEVER drinking. "Limit processed food" meant making ALL food from scratch. You get the point.

 

I set up rules and restrictions for myself, and stuck to them 100%. It would annoy me if something unexpected came up that would mess with my plan.

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Losing weight too fast

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Being as active as I was and eating as 'healthy' (or so I thought) as I did, meant that I kept losing weight. I didn't see it at the time, but looking back now I was tiny. My bodyfat got down to 12-14% (a healthy range for women is 

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The strength I bu

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xxxxx

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Where am I today?

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Fast forward 10 years, here I am today - I have definitely come a long way from not even being able to do a single situp.

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I am 10kg heavier than when I was at my lowest weight; I am stronger and fitter than I've ever been; and my mindset is the healthiest mindset it's ever been.

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Throughout my fitness journey I have learnt to find the balance between nutrition and exercise while maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and most importantly a healthy mindset of, of course staying disciplined, but removing guilt, restrictions and the negative thoughts in my head. I have learnt to listen to my body and see food as fuel.

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I have moved over to a plantbased diet and as I'm writing this I'm almost 6 years vegan. Doing this has helped me feel better in myself and my body, it's given me more energy and has helped me create a healthy relationship with food.

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I am a firm believer that anyone can achieve whatever they want, but not everyone has the knowledge of what it takes to get there. That's why I, as a personal trainer, love not telling my clients "do this, do that" but teaching them why: "Do this because, do that because". I love seeing the confidence grow in my clients as their body change and I love how strong an capable they feel to stand on their own afterwards.

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We all start the same place but our journeys are different. What matters is that you start your journey! 💪🏼

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If you're interested in Coaching with me download the trainn app or sign up for online coaching. I'm looking forward to getting to know you and helping you.