Tamsin’s Journey

I’m 36, mother of 3 and work full time.  I’ve been a regular in the gym for the last couple of years, working hard with a trainer.  I managed to keep a relatively good healthy size 12 shape.  I also mainly ate “clean”; I avoided wheat, dairy, processed foods, alcohol and sugar.  I sat comfortably around 22% body fat, so not big but not lean.

In June this year, I unfortunately suffered an injury which took me out of training for 6 weeks.  During these 6 weeks, my eating spiraled a little and I gained some weight and lost some muscle tone.  To top it all, I then I found myself in hospital after I suffered an infection after a small operation.  When in hospital, I barely ate for a week and was discharged taking in barely 1000 calories a day.  It’s safe to say that period of time damaged my metabolism somewhat.

This is when I started with Dan.

I had signed up to compete in a bikini fitness competition, Miss Galaxy Universe in November, so I had 16 weeks to get prepped.  Dan prepared my daily allowances and explained exactly how to count and tracks foods.  The most amazing thing was no food was off limits.  This took some getting used to, for someone who’d been eating “clean” and fairly extreme and limited, suddenly I was “allowed” to eat flexibly.

We managed to slowly increase my cals to around 1650 calories per day before dropping the calories closer to the competition to allow for fat loss.  I was given a refeed every weekend, which I used to eat pick and mix with the kids on a Saturday night.  I don’t think they even noticed I was dieting, and I certainly didn’t feel like I was on a diet!  I even went out for my birthday 3 weeks out from my competition and enjoyed way too much vodka!

I’m now one week out from my competition and I enjoyed a roast dinner last night including roast potatoes, unheard of for fitness competitors! No white fish and broccoli for me!!  I’ve dropped 7% body fat, 22lb and am now a lean size 8.  I can’t wait for the competition on the 1^st November! I’m leaner, fitter and more confident than ever – and eating loads of food! Winner!