I have a mental strength when I put my mind to something. I don’t deny this. I like to think it’s my inner strength. It’s been called other names in the past though;

-         Obsessive – just can’t seem to let that shit go!

-         Compulsive – how will I sleep if I don’t just do it??!

-         Dogged – is there really such a colour as grey?

-         Maniacal – there are many ways to skin a cat and I like to put a few together sometimes.

-         One-eyed – there is grey. Dark grey or light grey. Nothing in between.

-         Even … gulp .. a zealot – ouchie – that one hurts just a tad!

I have an update on me. I’m not nearly as much of any of those things as I used to be. But I do retain just a bit of each of them, that’s undeniable. And I won’t even apologise for it. I’d rather have an opinion and give it a good crack, then be a cream shade of vanilla and not bother to get passionate about something.

Once I decided to give bodybuilding a crack, on 1 January 2012, I threw myself into head-first. Those around me at the time are probably smiling about now. You see, from that point on, I just had a one-track mind and pretty much every move I made was to get one step closer to that goal. And I won. I won my class and I won the Overall title that year. I have no regrets, but I would do it differently if I knew what I now know.

Of all the lessons I have learned, the methods and techniques I have picked up and the tips I have up my sleeve, the best one I have is to never call my way the only way. Never ever. It has been hard when I’ve learned something new and it works almost immediately and I feel like I can save the world with this little titbit - so hard not to announce it in such a way as to be a smidgin condescending, a little bit smug and oozing a little slice of mentalness.

It hasn’t always been my fault though. People desperately looking for weight-loss are pretty easy to impress upon. More than easy – they tend to want to jump into anything that promises the world. In fact, the crazier and more ‘hard-core’ the better. Why simply eat less shit and up the ante on exercise, when you can pay one of Michelle Bridge’s office girls to write you a personalised (snort!) program with exactly what to eat and when, matched with over-the-top cardio on 6 days, with a special “Super Saturday” extra-long session for good measure. Michelle and her wallet wins every time.

The other thing I can say about myself these days is that I am truly grateful for my career that runs alongside my training. I was chatting with a beautiful lady at the gym today and it dawned on me that so many girls (not so many guys that I know of), get a taste of bodybuilding and next minute they are focused purely on how to immerse themselves in that world from morning til night. Suddenly they are studying their Cert III & IV and surprisingly pushing their professions/careers/jobs to the side and pursuing a life as a trainer/coach – and it feels like they think the total immersion in all-things-and-people-gym makes them a more dedicated/pure/hard-core trainer. I wish them well. As for me, I went the other way. I was a PT when I first started out and I quickly returned to the career that I love, and I love it all the more as a perfect contrast to training. I love every day of my job and I am sincerely grateful that I am there and thriving in a career that will keep me very comfortably into my retirement (which is still a bloody long way away for your information!!). Something that personal training will not achieve for about 99% of people. And to be honest, pt’ing is bloody hard work!! It’s like being a life-coach without the training and it doesn’t pay particularly well, has no super attached and, here’s the real kicker, can be fairly unforgiving as we get older and don’t wish to be our own walking training advertisement. All things to consider before re-locating from the 'office' to the gym.

Onto exciting stuff. This new trainer of mine, she writes a brutal program. I’m flogged at the end of every workout and, just quietly, there is one in there that plays with my mind when I know it’s scheduled for the day. The scheduled split is different from what I have ever done and there is a combination of styles within one workout which is quite exciting. There are changes happening and that’s pretty exciting.

I also have a nutritionist looking after me and that’s a first. I struggle to trust myself with food sometimes so it’s even harder to trust someone else. But I am and it’s paying off. I have the type of personality that likes to do everything very correctly so following her plan is no exception. It helps that it includes hummus and strawberries and eggs and rice cakes and berries and porridge and quinoa and chickpeas and meat ….. all the usuals but some great combinations and a very user-friendly format.

I’m still looking at Season A, 2016. I need to seriously practise more posing so I can lose the 1980’s robot dance moves, or maybe I’ll keep them in there and go for the sympathy vote!