For as long as I can remember, sport and an active lifestyle has been a major aspect of my youth. If I wasn’t playing in the yard at school or weekend games of sports, id be helping my parents establish their garden – mowing lawns, moving statues, planting trees – every day I was out and about embracing physical culture. On the weekend, I’d make my parents sit through some of, what I could say now, would have to be the worst dance recitals they’d ever experience, but being in motion was what made me truly happy!
Oh, and the dreams of becoming an Olympic athlete – I wanted to be the next Ian Thorpe, Henry Collins, Cathy Freeman – I just yearned to be exceptional at some sort of sport. And you know, funny I mention this – because I manifested this once and recently found myself competing on the grounds at Sydney Olympic Park where the 2000 Olympics were held.
During my first year of high school I was given the opportunity to take out a scholarship as a competitive weightlifter. Excited about this opportunity, I embarked on a life changing adventure and never looked back. At this time, I was fairly overweight due to some mental struggles I faced during my transitions from primary to high school and was holding onto some extra weight. After just three months in the sport of olympic weightlifting I dropped a tremendous 30lbs (14kg) and completely transformed my physique, mental awareness physiological and psychological strength.
After about 5 years of traveling and competing in the sport, due to school commitments, emotional struggles and a developing lack of interest in the sport, I retired from weightlifting. In an attempt to maintain a level of fitness and health, I continued to train at the local gym doing a combination of heavy weights and running and occasionally mountain biking on the weekends to mix things up.
Through my passion for health, fitness and hard work I attempted to join the Police Force where I thought my needs and wants for hard training and challenges would be met. Unfortunately my application fell through, but through my hard training with a personal coach I was offered a scholarship, where I became a personal trainer myself. After 8 weeks in education, I still wanted to learn more and wanted more of a challenge. Triathalon rarely raised the excitement bar within me, team sports were enjoyable, but just didn’t give me the flavour I wanted to get a taste for.
It was then that I stumbled upon forging elite fitness. After my first session I was humbled. I thought I was fit – I could lift heavy weights and run quite fast and maintain decent tempos. I could ride the hills and swim the seas – but nothing, nothing compared to the challenges I now faced. Before I could even speak I was hooked. Within the first four weeks of training not only did I lose a whomping 12% body fat, but I developed an entire new base of skills I never thought imaginable paired with a completely new physique. Alongside that I learnt a tremendous amount of information about nutrition principles I never knew existed and became part of a fitness movement that is yet to change the world. The real journey for my new found health and fitness has only just begun and I am truly grateful for all the incredible people I have met along the way and the challenges I have faced. Life is about lessons and my life long commitment to personal health, development and fitness will forever teach me new and exciting lessons that I hope to share to the rest of the world.
Life is about progression, not perfection but we continually strive to progress towards perfecting our lives. It’s a never ending journey. Its full of ups and downs, long straights and hard bends, but the rewards that you reap from stepping up to a challenge is where you can truly become a winner. A world class winner.
