The mother-of-three gave herself a new figure for her 40th birthday and she’s never felt better.
The TV personality, mum-of-three and wife of swimming legend Kieren Perkins has lost 8cm off her hips and is two dress sizes smaller – all in just 12 weeks. “I figured I could either fight [turning 40] or embrace it,” she says, shrugging. “I realised the thing I wanted to do the most for my birthday was something for me.” The past few years have been an uphill health battle for Sam. Suffering chronic migraines that left her hospitalised, she had a groundbreaking Implanted Pulse Generator (IPG) fitted in her back to help control the pain. Then, just as she was starting to get fit again, she broke her ankle.
“I’ve been pretty chronically ill for the last 12 months,” she says. “It’s easy to find an excuse not to get up and do something. You don’t feel well, so you lie around trying to feel better. Then you get depressed and eat a bit more than you should, and you don’t move because you’re in pain. Then you put on weight and it just keeps repeating itself.”Seeing the scales hit 102kg was a shock to Sam.
“When you put on weight, it’s a slow thing, and you’re sort of in denial about it,” she says. “You just think, ‘Oh, I’ll get a bigger shirt.’ But you can’t avoid it when you’re looking at a number on the scales. The really shocking thing was the last time I was at that weight was when I was heavily pregnant.” The thought of turning 40 and not being able to take part in family life was enough to make her realise something had to change. “I needed to get in shape and get healthy or I was going to miss out on really important parts of the kids’ lives,” Sam says.
Sam’s dietary habits were kicked into shape thanks to the Woman’s Day Diet.
“I’ve learned how important it is to eat breakfast,” she says. “It used to be that by the time I’d made the kids’ brekkie, made their lunches, driven them to school and checked my emails, it was lunchtime.” Nutritionist Susie Burrell says, “It’s essential to eat breakfast, otherwise your kilojoule load in the second half of the day skyrockets.
Symantha has been eating a protein-rich breakfast such as a smoothie, or egg on grain or wholemeal toast.” Sam says, “I get up half an hour earlier so I can eat a proper breakfast. I’ve started to really enjoy that quiet time of day – it’s great me-time.”
Exercise never used to be a big part of Sam’s life. “When Kieren was swimming, the girls on the team would say that sport relaxed them.
I thought that was bizarre,” she says. “But now I get it!” Gary Smollen from Workout Indooroopilly in Brisbane, who trained Sam, says, “Walking briskly for 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening boosts fitness and strengthens legs and core muscles. Sam also did circuit training, cycling and rowing in the gym.”
See the fitness routine Gary devised for Sam, here.
Read more about Symantha’s weight loss in this week’s Woman’s Day, on sale July 18, 2011.
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