The LO down: becoming #BikiniReady

Partner up with a swimsuit model and promise the world (via social media platforms) that you’ll document the process and for your ‘big reveal’; you’ll pose with said model in a no holds barred photoshoot. Only wearing a bikini. At least, that’s what I did. Here’s my story about my journey to wellness.

The background

Winter is tough on all of us when it comes to health and wellness goals. Colder days; comfort food. My ‘winter’, however, started during my second year in varsity and never quite changed season. So when Yolandi Malherbe, Cape Town based model and SKINNYBEACH swimwear ambassador, contacted me about a health challenge collaboration; all 67 kilograms of me jumped at the chance. By declaring to my blog, twitter, instagram, and facebook followers that I had started a 90-day, 12-week bikini challenge, my spring started on the 1^st of August.

The body

Sure, starting at 67 kilograms might irritate those of you in the triple digit numbers. And I faced a fair bit of criticism and concern from friends, family, and colleagues over why I thought I needed to lose weight. But my response to the critics is this: we all have our own understanding of where we *should* be health wise. Although I may not have weighed in as obese, or even overweight, on the scale (of death I refer to it as), I wasn’t happy with how my clothes felt; I wasn’t happy with how lazy and sedentary I’d become; and I wasn’t happy with how easily I turned to takeaway food on at least a bi-weekly basis. With summer fast approaching, knowing I had never stuck to any wellness goals in the past, I knew it was time to do something drastic. Enter: Yolandi ‘The Body’ Malherbe. “It’ll be easy,” she told me, “I’ll help you through it.” Encouraging words that she’d need to repeat almost daily as our challenge progressed.

Image courtesy Freerangestock.com (GeoffreyWhiteway)

The bikini

I am in corporate wellness so I know about all the ‘right’ things to do in any healthy weight loss endeavor. I also know about all the ‘wrong’ things. But, of course, I started out doing all the wrong things anyways. Starvation. Really. Doesn’t. Work. In fact, I picked up weight in the first week with my yo-yo dieting that I almost called the whole thing off. Luckily, some experts intervened – including a food psychologist, dietitian, fitness trainer, mental toughness coach, and hypnotist(!) – and I was soon the proud owner of an eating and training plan. The important part of this all was that the meals and exercises recommended were tailored to my lifestyle: I hate cooking, so the food options had to be easy to prepare. I’m not big into exercise; so the workouts had to be more fun than fitness. This is where Pilates came in and I was invited to join Sarah Laatz from Body Divine Studio in Craighall Park for some group sessions. It’s been eight weeks since, and I’ve (finally) found my exercise calling, all thanks to Sarah.

So, now what? I am weighing in at just over 57 kilograms with 2 kilos to go to reach my goal weight. But more than that, I’ve lost centimeters, gained energy, and am finally feeling confident enough about my body to believe that I can be #BikiniReady after all. As you are reading this, I have just under a month to go (28 days to be exact) before I stand in front of my world and pull myself out of winter. If I succeed, I will be proving to myself, and also hopefully to you, that setting and achieving health goals, no matter how many times you’ve attempted (and failed) before, is possible. Think about me on the 1^st of November. 12 weeks, 90 days of transition into my summer.

Follow Leigh on Twitter @Le1ghlo (#BikiniReady) to find out more about this challenge or visit her blog: le1ghlo.com