I haven’t always been a picture of health.
From my late teens through to my early twenties, I was an alcoholic, prescription pill addicted, depressed, anxious and anorexic party girl who didn’t really have too much of a future ahead of me.
I was hospitalised several times for suicide attempts and not once did I attend a gym or give a rat’s bum about my health.
However that all changed when I became pregnant.
My first pregnancy gave my life meaning.
No longer were my stupid actions affecting just myself, they would affect the gorgeous little human that was growing inside of me.
It was time to grow up.
When I found out that I was pregnant with my little girl, it turned my world upside down.
It was as if I instantly grew up and my former self was just a distant memory.
I was lucky enough to be able to fall pregnant, and knowing that so many women out there would kill to be in the position that I was, I became incredibly grateful for the gift that I had received.
At the time I weighed 44kg.
I was skin and bone, and eating maybe every couple of days, as well as taking up to 30 laxatives a day.
There was no choice but to change my lifestyle.
I needed to look after my child and therefore, myself.
When I was 28 weeks pregnant, I found out that I had gestational diabetes.
This meant that I needed to educate myself about food, what my baby and I needed and what I should remove from my diet.
It was a real wake-up call.
Food became something that I no longer obsessed about. Instead, I saw eating well as growing fuel for my baby.
Having to prick myself three times a day and record my blood sugar levels was a royal pain in the bum, but it was a repercussion of my health habits before I became pregnant.
I had no choice but to suck it up and deal with it.
After delivering an incredibly healthy baby girl, my daughter Madisyn who my absolute everything, and I wanted to carry on my new found healthy habits for her.
Instead of starving myself to lose the baby weight, I joined a gym. This, was when I fell in love with health and fitness.
After losing the baby weight that I had gained, I became quite passionate about eating healthy foods, exercising and everything in between.
I started to love my body, which is something I had never done before.
Our children pick up their habits from their parents, and I wanted Madisyn to have a healthy relationship with food and exercise as she grew up.
I made sure that I didn’t revert back to my old ways – the easy way out – so I could be a good role model for her.
About a year after I had Madisyn I heard about the INBA (International Bodybuilding Association).
The women were incredible – their bodies were out of this world and it looked like so much fun, so I set myself a goal to compete in a body building competition within the next year.
I trained incredibly hard for 12 months (nine of these with a coach) to transform my body into what I thought I could only dream of.
I wanted to finish something that I started, and even though there were many times when I completely doubted myself and thought of quitting, I knew I had to finish it, and I’m glad I did.
I placed in every category that I had entered, and came home with my first ever trophies.
I finished what I started, and I had no one but my daughter to thank for that.
If I had never become pregnant, my health would never have become a priority. My daughter saved my life, and I’ll be able to thank her for that for the rest of my life.
