From a very young age I’ve always been super into sports and very active. As a kid I did squad swimming, tennis, hockey, cross country, athletics, I signed up for every single inter school sport and loved every minute of it.

Then motherhood changed a few things. I had a hard time with the transition to motherhood – my daughter was quite hard work as a baby, I’d had a cesarean and some suppressed birth trauma, we didn’t get much sleep at all for the first year, and looking back I can honestly say I had undiagnosed post partum depression and anxiety. My weight spiralled out of control, I was uncomfortable in myself, I was sluggish and ate my emotions. I knew I had to do something!

My sister had been doing F45 training for a year or so, and I could see the amazing results she was achieving, so I signed myself up for a free session and fell in love instantly. However, I fell pregnant with my second child and 2 months later Covid was in full swing. Lockdowns put my mental health at possibly the lowest I’ve ever been, combined with the anxiety of the unknown of giving birth in lockdown, navigating the system alone with no support with the wish for a VBAC, and not knowing even if my partner would be allowed to attend the birth, I gained a lot of weight in the pregnancy.

Once we were allowed to get back to gym (a few months after my son was born) I got straight back in and it became such an important part of my daily routine – it got me out of the house for my ‘me time’ – my mental health break. My mood and my mothering improved, my ‘mum rage’ and triggers came right down. And of course, the happy side effect of losing a whole lot of weight – around 20kg. F45 offer a full meal plan and do regular challenges to help with the nutrition side of things. I was eating a lot of food – but good quality complex carbs, lots of protein and healthy fats. It was a complete overhaul.

The love for F45 kept growing, I have always been very competitive, and I couldn’t help but to make every class a little competition, both between myself and the other members. I got so strong, my muscles started showing through. Not to mention meeting so many other mums and making a whole community of friends through the studio. There is even a foyer area so I can bring my kids and they sit with their lunchboxes for the 45 minute sessions where I can see them at all times.

I fell pregnant again with baby #3, and trained the whole entire pregnancy, adjusting things as I went, and watching my heart rate – I even trained the morning I went into labour. That labour and birth was the best experience of my life, the easiest by far and the quickest. The recovery was amazing, and I was back at training as soon as I was cleared at 6 weeks by the doctor.

I’m currently 5 years into my F45 training, I’ve hit so many goals from nailing unassisted pull ups and pistol squats. I’ve worked on my mobility and I’ve recently got back into running while I train for the 2024 Hyrox event in Melbourne (T Minus 1 month to go!) I personally feel like it’s so important for me to have something to train for – something to look forward to and keep myself motivated.

One of the main ways I keep on track with nutrition with 3 young kids with a partner who does shift work is to be prepared, which I’ll cover in a whole new post. But for now it’s simply – meal prep, meal prep, meal prep. I batch cook everything and it saves me so much time and completely takes the guess work out of what to have for dinner