Kate - A Force of Nature!
You Can Change Your Life!
Hi there, my name is Kate Nankivell and I am 41 years old. At the beginning of 2008 I used to weigh over 128kg! I now weigh 90kg and have lost a whopping 38kg. It has changed my life.
Tuesday 16th January 2008 I set my big goal to lose 50kg to take me to my dream of weighing 78kg, and I joined Jenny Craig as a first step. I last weighed 78kg at 25 years old, so at this time I couldn’t even envisage how I was really going to get there, but I set my sights on this goal, and trusted that I would find the solutions along the way.
The solutions were forthcoming when I SHARED MY GOAL and vision with all around me; and I mean ALL around me. Friends who had lost weight in the past were really helpful. I quickly learned that you need tactics and strategies to manage every food situation that you will encounter such as surviving work morning teas with your food plan intact.
I am a big believer in the power of visualisation as a success tool and the creation of vision boards to represent any goal you are striving for. At the start I created my own vision board, for what I wanted to achieve, and along the way I was lucky to meet the creator of the OrangePeel vision board software tool. Using their vision board software I have been able to create my own online vision boards and have a constant visual reminder of what I am working towards.
Since that day in January 2008 I have not looked back. Along with the new food plan I started a weekly program of exercise including:
- 5 x 40 minute walks
- 3 x strength workouts at my gym
At the end of the first month I increased my exercise plan to:
- 5 x 1 hour walks
- 3 x strength workouts at my gym
At this same time I went back to my favourite gym the Olympic Pools & Fitness Centre in Newmarket and booked in for a weekly one hour session with a Personal Trainer, Dave Margison. I have been physically active for long periods many times in the past 15 years, but nothing shifts the weight unless you are prepared to change what and how much you eat.
Weight Loss 101
Excuse me for one moment! Here is the instructional element of my story. We all have to do more and eat less to lose weight. Yes that is ALL OF US! I know, sorry it’s a bit gutting to have to face this, but it is true. My trainer Dave explained a useful fact to me that it takes 4 hours of cardio to use up the kilojoules in one bottle of wine. So unless you are prepared to cut back somewhere on a regular basis, please don’t beat yourself up for not losing weight when you are exercising like a mad thing and not changing your eating patterns. That is just setting your self up for frustration. You can make change happen if you are willing to change.
The Power of Exercise & Dave My Personal Trainer
Seeing Dave for a weekly session has been critical to so many great achievements for me during this year.
- Developing my physical strength to levels I didn’t know I was capable of achieving
- Sustaining a great and positive attitude
- Having someone to be accountable to beyond myself
- Hanging in there with my weights programme when the going was tough and I was low on motivation
- This investment has contributed significantly to my ongoing success towards my goal. Now I burn kilojoules even when I am sleeping! Yay!
I chose Dave because I knew he was tough and that he would expect great things of me. I love and hate him in equal parts depending on whether I am in the middle of my ab workout or not! Nah, I love him really! He is the best Personal Trainer I could have asked for.
Progress
In the weeks that followed Day One the weight loss kicked in. By early March I had lost 12kg and was going strong. I can’t begin to tell you how empowering and exciting and motivating this loss was for me. My clothes were getting loose and my hope for real change was growing strong.
On the food front I had to make a lot of changes. I went to Jenny Craig because it is a kilojoule controlled way of eating which is pretty damned essential when you want to lose weight. I keep repeating this because it is true. It’s a simple formula, eat less and exercise more and you will lose weight. Putting that into action every day is the hard part.
Throughout the year my gym membership was another key ingredient to my ongoing success. I had started the year only fit enough to walk and have progressed with Dave’s expert guidance to someone who can and does go to all types of aerobic classes and Boot Camps. I have even started running with Dave’s encouragement, (firstly I thought he was bonkers to ask me), and ran the 2009 Round The Bays fun run 8.4kms for the first time in my life this year in just over 50 minutes. I had never thought I would run that far at the start of my journey. That was a completely WAHOO moment for me! A critical aspect of staying the journey is to enjoy what it is you are doing, and it’s easy to enjoy yourself at my gym.
If you get injured, seek professional help
Something else that happens to you when you start doing a lot of exercise and pushing yourself beyond your known limits, is that you can get injured. When I hurt my knee and back I was lucky to have the friendly and professional staff at PhysioOne Olympic Pools care for my injuries. Experiencing their physiotherapy, acupuncture, and Pilates treatments enabled me to continue with my goals and be free to achieve all that I dreamed of.
So where am I now? I have lost 38kg so far, have been skiing as a fitter, slimmer person, and been through many, many wardrobe changes. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE shopping now and I used to hate it. I have gone a little mad in the new clothes department, and used shopping to reward myself for achieving milestones. Now my sights are set on achieving my goal weight of 78kg, with the expert nutritional guidance of Mission Nutrition.
Mission Nutrition has given me the tools to achieve my next weight and fat loss goals, manage my emotional eating, and to understand the key elements of sports nutrition. It matters what you eat and when, in relation to when you train, and this former couch potato now needs to fuel her body for training. If you had told me this 18 months ago I would have laughed out loud! I’m busy learning how to plan and cook for myself to achieve my weight loss goals. It’s not easy, but it is worth every bit of effort. That old adage is true; nothing tastes as good as being slim feels! With the professional team at Mission Nutrition I know I will achieve my goals and have fun along the way.
Reflecting on what this has meant to me, the weight loss was the big goal to begin with, and that achievement has released new energy and created many more possibilities. I have loads of new goals and the confidence to make them happen. As a direct consequence of my weight loss and the attention it has created I have started my own business, Force of Nature, doing motivational speaking and I love it! Sharing my transformation with others is a privilege and so much fun too!
I would totally encourage anyone else who is keen to make a similar change or has another really exciting dream or goal to just do it! It is the most amazing thing that I have done for myself ever!
What Made This Work For Me?
I’d like to share with you what I believe have been the key elements to my success.
- Goal setting and visualising with the help of OrangePeel Vision Board software
- Initially choosing a kilojoule controlled food program from Jenny Craig
- Getting a coach for my physical transformation; my personal trainer Dave Margison
- Make exercise a daily habit
- Receiving physiotherapy treatment for my injuries at PhysioOne enabled me to keep working towards my fitness goals
- Enlisting support from all around me and sharing my success with my wider support team
- Spending time with other goal oriented and inspiring people
- Planning rewards and making sure I gave these to myself
- Reviewing my progress and learning from mistakes
- Being relentlessly committed to my goal
- Problem solving, coping with all slip-ups and getting positively re-focused
- Enjoying the success! Yay!
- With ¾ of my excess weight gone changing to a self regulating food programme with the help of Mission Nutrition
A Note of Thanks!
I would like to say a HUGE thank you to all the great people in my life who have been supportive along the way and continue to be. My wonderful loving family, friends, Saturday morning brunch crew, Personal Trainer, Nutritionist, PhysioOne staff, Olympic Gym staff, work colleagues and the publishers of Verve. I really appreciate all the cheering along I get.
Cheers,
Kate Nankivell