My story starts long before I conceptualised Bondi Bare and unfortunately doesn't have a happy beginning. For years, I struggled with my weight and was unhappy with my shape and size. When I hit almost 70kgs and found out that due to my short height, my BMI was considered "overweight", I finally took action and hired an online personal trainer. My first encounter with Ideal Bodies Online, an online personal training website, had actually happened 4 years before. At that time, I had logged on to IBO, been inspired by the success stories and pictures and even signed up to for their limited time free offer to access the forum. But still I didn't fully commit to the signature 12 Week Transformation Challenge. I'd love to give some dramatic excuse as to why it took me so long to sign up, but there isn't one.

"At that time, 4 years prior, I was still under the illusion that my body was my 'lot in life'."

My sister, who's four years older than me, is an amazing athlete with the figure to match so I always just figured that she was the one in the family that "got" the great body and health, that I was the "artistic one" who could sing well. It really saddened me, and still does even now, that I pigeon holed myself into that category for 26 years. I never believed that I was worthy enough to be confident, fit and healthy, therefore I never would be (at least while I had that mindset, anyway).



I finally rediscovered Ideal Bodies Online (four years later!) when I was reading a Women’s Health Magazine article called “Acing it”, about a woman named Nicole Yardley who turned her life around through online personal training with the IBO team. It’s not that I was spurred into action by her transformation (though it was AMAZING), it was more a reminder that I had let another four years slip by being unhappy with my body.

Even though I was (and still am) in the most committed and loving relationship (with my now-fiancé Tristan), I wasn’t completely happy with myself. Despite living in Sydney and having a partner who surfs, I never went to the beach to swim. Instead I always sat on the beach in jeans or a maxi dress, anything to “hide” the result of dinners that too-frequently consisted of corn chips and salsa (seriously) and a lifestyle of inconsistent exercise. 



Things changed dramatically for me around the same time as I rediscovered IBO. Due to the Global Financial Crisis, I was made redundant from an Executive role with an ASX listed company. That same company had given me a promotion and relocated me from Perth to Sydney just 12 months earlier so, despite being positive about the change in career direction, the redundancy left me feeling lost and confused. I was relatively new to Sydney and my fiancé worked most evenings managing a restaurant so I spent a lot of my time bored… and eating. Man did I eat. I think I ate Mexico out of corn chips and surely the Executives of Ben and Jerry’s in the US were wondering why the sales figures for their ice cream had just spiked to a new high. It was all me, devouring my boredom. Just prior to being made redundant (by a few months), it just so happened that I had started my own business designing sports swimwear (Bondi Bare) after a chance discussion with my sister, an athlete based in Brisbane. It’s incredibly ironic that during the time I was at my heaviest and unhealthiest, and refusing to even swim at the beach let alone wear a bikini, I had begun designing luxury sports bikinis. Go figure. I didn’t even realise at the time, but I was designing my business to reflect exactly what I wanted for myself...to be sporty, healthy, happy, outdoors, actually feeling elated (instead of like I was dying) on a 5km run. And of course, I wanted to proudly wear a bikini. 



"My 12 weeks of intensive training were far from easy."

There were a lot of ups and downs, including a trip to China in week 6 that nearly sent me over the edge due to some hiccups in my nutrition and training. Though, for the most part I actually enjoyed the guidance of the training and nutrition even from the beginning. I always looked forward to my morning oat pancakes and my mid-morning “banana ice-cream” (check out the recipe section for these!) and felt even more inspired and positive about life and Bondi Bare. For the first time, I didn't feel like a fraud when I spoke about eating healthily and being active.


Fast-forward to now, I can happily say that the ocean is my friend and I love that I have the chance to manage my own business, which, like my own weight loss story, has grown from being a "wishful thinking" idea to actuality. Hopefully Bondi Bare will inspire other women to get outside, move, be happy and to proudly wear a bikini, like it has for me. This year, I’m competing in two Half Marathons and, in November after our wedding, my fiancé and I will be cycling the length of New Zealand on an extended Honeymoon. Life has never been better.



My Tips:

• Just do it. There are always going to be days when you don’t want to get out of bed to do a workout. Don’t over think it, don’t make up excuses. Just get out of bed and do it. You’ll be thankful all day that you did.
• Don’t lose sight of the long term goal. Yes, it’s AWESOME when you go down a kg in a week, but it’s more important to focus on the long term goal and what you need to do every week to get there. If you’re patient, consistent with nutrition & exercise and get to the end of 12 weeks, it’ll be a lasting change.
• Don’t listen to your friends. My friends kept saying “but you didn’t need to lose weight to begin with” or “you’ve lost enough now right?” My answer: NO! My thoughts: hell, I’m going to listen to my feedback coach who is trained in nutrition and exercise….not you, one of the people who helped me to get fat in the first place by eating cheese & drinking wine.