To be completely honest, I’ve been dreading this post, because I knew it would bring up heartbreak and plenty of tears… which I’ve been finding really difficult to hold back lately.
It’s been a roller coaster of a year.
And I’ve learnt some awesome lessons, been extremely inspired and have had to really dig deep to figure “stuff” out of where I want to be in life:…
— My get out of shape experiment…
I spent nearly 16 weeks, all to prove a point, that getting into shape, reducing body fat and increasing sexy lean muscle could absolutely be achieved… But I wanted to do it from the point of view of someone who wasn’t in shape.
What seemed like a cool idea, kinda backfired on me. As you know with “letting yourself go” comes lack of core strength, gains in body fat, muscle depletion, mind games, negative self talk, and so many other things. I wasn’t expecting to feel as low, or ashamed of my body or myself. I thought because it was just an experiment, I could deal with it.
I was so relieved to get to the end of the experiment. And wondered “what the hell had I done to myself”?
During this experiment, my beautiful 12.5 year old Labrador Arnie fell really ill. I spent weeks sleeping on a blow up mattress on the floor with him, hoping he’d pull through. He did recover for a bit, but then went downhill again quickly.
Being such a strong beautiful big personality boy, and my furry child, I couldn’t believe I was going to have to say good-bye. I didn’t want to let go. But we knew it was time. I used the 3 step animal communication with him, so that he could give me signs of when he was ready. And he did. He was brave and fought so hard to stay with us, until he simply couldn’t.
— Shattered with grief and heartache…
On the first week of my “get back into shape” part of the experiment, we said good-bye to Arnie. Even now, I have tears streaming down my face, writing this… I was shattered.
I couldn’t imagine not having him in our lives. I was worried about his furry brother Louie who had spent virtually every day of his life with Arnie and was his shadow. My husband and I, and Louie, were in deep grief.
I would take Louie to the park for walks, he was lost without Arnie, and he would just sit on the lawn and whimper, wouldn’t play, and didn’t know what to do with himself. People were coming up to us asking how Arnie was, not knowing he had passed away… If I wasn’t crying, I felt numb.
But I knew I had to pull myself together. Arnie was very much a “get up and go doggy”, early to rise, ready to hit the day with bounding energy… Like me, he was a morning person / doggy. He had been knocked back by several people before we took him home with us. And we have always felt he choose us… not the other way around.
Arnie inspired me with his strength, his hilarious personality, he was a survivor… The vets used to call him the “gentle lion”… people and children were naturally drawn to him. We affectionately called “big yella”.
Due to his medical conditions and struggles in his life it encouraged me to take on animal welfare issues and campaign with all my heart for furry babies and animals, of all kinds, that weren’t as lucky to have been taken care of like Arnie was.
— So I sat down, re-assessed my life, my health and…
Here’s the thing… This is life.
Heartbreak of many different kinds takes place in our lives… And we can let it take over, and break us for good… Or do something amazing with it.
So I dove into getting back into shape, yes I still struggled with grief, but I stuck with it.
I had launched my Ultimate YOU Dream Body Program and I knew I needed to lead by example… And I truly wanted too. Not just for myself, for my beautiful clients and my family.
I trained hard, yes, I incurred injuries due to lack of core strength… one of the pitfalls of the “get out of shape experiment” and letting yourself go.
I got my nutrition on track and the results flowed.
I started re-habbing my shoulder again, which I had injured late last year trying to save Arnie and Louie from being bitten by snake.
I got back on track with all the mindset lessons, that I would normally use myself and that I share with my clients. They are life changing, and are so important when you’ve got goals, especially dream body, fat loss and lean muscle goals, that you want to achieve.
The purpose at the time (“post get out of shape experiment”) was to “get back into shape” at the same time as my clients. Lead by example. So I could share the journey with them. We’d do it together. Which was a very cool experience.
I got more clarity about how I wanted to work with my clients, and the awesomeness and results I wanted to bring them.
As you know, I adore my clients, and feel so fortunate that I can transform someone’s body, mindset and life… It excites me seeing my clients live their lives to the fullest.
I felt like I was back to being “Mandy”, but even more inspired than I was before.
Louie was still lonely and miserable, and we struggled to cheer him up. At just over 10 years old, he had spent his whole life with Arnie. So we decided to find him a brother. A furry baby near his age that he could hangout with, y’know… a couple of furry seniors kicking back and enjoying life together.
I was feeling better, but still missed Arnie… But I knew we, as a family, were ready for a new addition.
— Along came Mayson.
Mayson was 10.5 years old, and I saw his face several times on the Labrador Rescue website and Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/labrescueACT
http://www.rescuealabrador.com/
Yes I felt like adopting all of the Labradors there, but Mayson’s face in particular, both my hubby and I couldn’t get his eyes out of our heads. Even though Mayson was on the other side of Australia, we knew, he was supposed to be part of our family. Personality wise, everything about him, we knew he’d be a perfect buddy for Louie.
Mayson has been such a blessing in our lives. Yes we still miss Arnie, and I still cry thinking about him, but also laugh a lot too, remembering the crazy awesome stuff he did.
Mayson filled a big “hole” that Arnie had left behind. We have so much love to give and being able to give that to Mayson, a darling boy who should’ve had the love of owners for so much longer than he has.
We feel so fortunate that we’ve been given the opportunity to show Mayson a different life, a new awesome life, that he deserves, that his previous owners didn’t provide for him.
I have to say, after bringing Mayson into our family, focusing on my health, ramping up my quality of life, my fat loss, my lean muscle my mindset…
— I felt more and more inspired, it was like it was oozing out of me…
I fell even further in love with life… With everything. I was grateful that I was chosen to be Arnie’s mummy, I was grateful that I was Louie and Mayson’s mummy, I was grateful for my hubby, I was so grateful that I could bring amazing changes to people’s body’s and lives… That I could make them feel like they could take on their lives with full force, inspiring energy and a sexy body to boot. 🙂
I had taken things up a notch adding “group coaching” to the Ultimate YOU Dream Body Program… and I was really excited seeing the impact it was having on my clients, and the results that were taking place for them because of this.
— Inspiring Women and Fat Loss Documentary…
After being what I’d been through, and having so many conversations with women about fat loss and their everyday life struggles…
And hearing them say they were frustrated with being fooled by infomercials, ads, ridiculous scams making out that fat loss was easy…
I decided “why not tell the truth?”…
Why not go against what just about everyone else is doing… Trying to market their stuff as easy peasy, quick fat loss fad, blah blah blah…
And show the true journey that takes place!
I had thought about doing this in the past and had been told “it would ruin me, because if people knew the truth, they wouldn’t put in the effort to get into shape, I’d get backlash from big companies”… “That people like to live in fairy tale land because they WANT to believe that, they want to believe the scams, rather than face the truth”.
Well maybe some people do…
BUT CERTAINLY NOT the clients and my community that I speak with every day.
I’ve made some big “take a leap of faith” decisions in my life… and I’m so glad I choose to go with my gut feeling on this.
I just felt like it was time… people are ready for truth… people don’t want to be bull shitted too … they’re over it.
I know this, because I’ve been there.
I know what it’s like to be on that merry go round and it sucks, big time.
So three amazing, inspiring women, all with different fat loss goals, body types, lifestyles… over the past months have openly and honestly shared their, very raw at times, journey.
It’s not all about “yay, I’m in shape”… It’s about real life struggles, the hard stuff we, as women, go through, the mind games, the horrible things we tell ourselves, the self sabotage…
And how to step by step, tackle that, be accepting of yourself, love yourself, and start making steps towards a new lifestyle… a body and results that you’re excited about… and what it REALLY takes to do that.
I’m releasing the Inspiring Women and Fat Loss Documentary later into January 2015…
And it’ll be completely FREE to watch.
I’ll share the link with you when it’s ready to go.
There’s been so many highs and lows this year, these are the ones that I’m sharing with you today, the rest I may share later down the track.
— I WANT TO THANKYOU SO MUCH for being here with me, supporting me.
The love you’ve shared with me, especially when we lost Arnie, was beautiful and moved me to tears over and over.
Your openness, your honesty, your loyalty, your stories that you share with me in private, the connections that I have with you behind the scenes when you need help… I love being there for you.
I want to wish you an incredible festive season, Christmas, holiday period, however you choose to celebrate this time of year…
And know that I’m pouring out bucket loads of heart felt wishes your way for a blissful, while being present and aware of your own deep down awesomeness, healthy, fit, lean – and sexy – inspiring 2015.
Good bye 2014, I’ve learnt some amazing lessons, and bring on 2015!
Massive hugs
Mandy xo
