Erika had turned 40 and felt like her whole life revolved around her two children.

Being a full-time mum came with lots of sacrifices and she felt like she had lost ‘herself’ along the way.

She had been an athlete growing up, but busy family life meant she was constantly on and off the fitness ‘wagon’.

But hitting her milestone 40th birthday and seeing her friend’s transformation at Ultimate Performance motivated her to finally so something for herself too.

After just 30 personal training sessions, Erika has transformed her body. Not only did she lose 6kg of fat, but she has built knowledge on nutrition for her and her family, and proved that weights won’t make you look like Arnie.

“A lot of girls immediately think they’ll look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but that’s not how it works. It’s a weight training and nutrition plan.

“It felt like the nutrition portion was cutting out all the fat from my body, and the weight training was sculpting it.

“I feel lean, strong and sculpted. I don’t feel bulky in any way. I love how my clothes fit. The way they hang and sit; it’s a good feeling.”

Here Erika talks about her transformation journey, how it fit into her busy life, and the impact having a goal-focused training and nutrition program has had on her life.

  Ultimate Performance

Erica, what were your expectations before starting your transformation journey with Ultimate Performance? 

My expectations going into Ultimate performance were high. I felt like I was here to do something big. I felt like I was ready for a transformation, for something to happen in my life. I was challenging myself in that I wasn’t sure how I was going to get there or if I could get there.

There was also a fear of failure that I had in the beginning. But that said, my expectations were still high, and I was hoping to achieve a top transformation.

What was your motivation for starting your transformation at Ultimate Performance?

My motivation going into this was the fact that I had turned 40. Fitness has been in and out of my life over the years. I’m either on the wagon, or I’m off the wagon. But I wanted something more consistent.

I wanted to re-learn not only exercise, but nutrition. When you’re in your 40s, things get a little bit harder. You don’t bounce back the way you did when you’re in your 20s. So I wanted to change that.

I also have two children, and I’ve been a mum full-time for seven years. You make a lot of sacrifices in that, when you’re raising two kids with busy lives, you lose yourself a little bit.

So I needed something for myself. This was just a landmark in my life where I needed something for me. I wanted to accomplish something. I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to talk to people about something other than my children. Something I did – something I accomplished.

So that’s where I was in my life, and that was coupled with a friend of mine who recommended the program to me. She completely transformed her body, and she’s at a similar place as I was in my life, having just had children herself as well.

So when I saw her transformation, that’s when a light went off, and I said, “That’s the thing I need right now”. So that’s what brought me here.

Did you find the training and nutrition aspects of the program easy to fit around your busy lifestyle and responsibilities outside the gym?

Fitting the training and diet at U.P. into my lifestyle was difficult at first. I will say that it was a bit of a learning curve. I was busy. I am still busy. I’ve got two kids, and I’m running around all day.

There’s a lot of logistics involved; the pandemic, my husband being home, which is helpful and challenging at times. I have a lot of responsibilities, my children being at the top of the list. I was concerned about fitting it in.

Honestly, it was hard at first, but once I got the flow going, I felt like I could do this, and I could fit it in. You just have to think about it, and you have to plan. Matt, my trainer, really helped me with that.

Meal prep, getting food in advance, getting the training sessions in your calendar, getting the 10,000 steps were challenging for me too. I was under the misconception that I was running around with my kids all day thinking, ‘Oh, I’ll get 10,000 steps easily’. Once I started actually calculating my steps, I realised that I was in the car a lot more than I thought, driving them from here to there, everywhere all over town.

Although I was on my feet all day, that wasn’t necessarily getting that extra activity in each day. Thinking about those things more and planning helped me make a significant change throughout this process. So once I was able to incorporate those things in my life, I realised it was achievable to do this.

 

What aspects of your life have changed since undergoing your transformation at U.P.? Do you think it will benefit you going forward?

It’s helped me think about nutrition differently, and it has helped me structure my life differently. It helped me to really make an effort to fit things in and quit the excuses. My kids were always my excuse. I had a million excuses after that. You know how there’s never-ending housework, meals and taking care of the family? There’s just never-ending things to do. But this actually made me stop and think, and fit it in to create this amazing change.

What were your results like during the transformation? 

My results after doing the U.P. transformation program are amazing. I actually couldn’t even believe it when I was looking at myself. In the end, I would catch myself in the mirror and be so surprised. I often forget, and my husband or my friends would remind me like, “Wow, you look so different”.

It’s not just visually; it’s been amazing mentally. It’s been awesome because, like I said before, I have been able to talk about other things other than my children. Things I’ve accomplished, a challenge I set myself up for and made big accomplishments. I didn’t have a ton of weight to lose before, but with the sculpting and the toning and the leaning out, I feel like I’m certainly in the best shape of my life.

I was an athlete growing up, but I feel like I’m almost in better shape now than I was back then, which is huge as I’m now in my 40s.

I lost 14lbs which is incredible. I’m a lot more streamlined – no more muffin top. My friends want my arms now, and my husband is just really impressed. My husband is also a fit person, so the fact that we’re able now to do workouts together and do more active things together has been great for our relationship. I’m getting my kids involved, and they want to do my walks at the end of the day together as a family. So we’ll do family walks together, and we’re really getting everyone into it and just making a healthier lifestyle for all of us.

Being a positive example for my kids is important.

 

Is there any physical accomplishment that you achieved during the transformation? 

I can do pull-ups now! I couldn’t even kink my elbows in a pull-up before, and now I’m able to actually do real dead-hang pull-ups, which is huge.

I’m doing push-ups like I’ve never done before too – I mean 20 multiple sets of push-ups. It has been amazing.

It made me feel so good mentally and physically. I have a lot more energy. I’m just feeling good. I’m feeling accomplished. I’m feeling confident. I went on vacation shortly after the six-week accomplishment, and my outfits felt really good.

Do you have any advice for other women that are considering a transformation? What would you say to them? 

Right, just do it! There are a lot of misconceptions out there about how training and weight training will make you bulky. I wouldn’t say that weight training bulks you up in any way, shape or form. You would have to be in the gym 24/7, lifting a lot heavier weights, and the trainers take into consideration your goals. I didn’t feel like I was training for the Olympics. I felt like they were very calculated workouts and very efficient workouts. If I had one thing to say is that the workouts are efficient. You’re in and out. I felt like every rep was making a difference. You’re not standing there wasting time, doing a million reps or overdoing it and getting injuries. It’s very calculated, very efficient.

 

Is there anything else you want to add that we didn’t talk about? 

I’ll say that I would definitely recommend U.P. to anybody out there. Mums who are stuck in the same daily routines with their kids and maybe don’t have much else outside their kids. I could really speak to that audience; women out there that want to tone and firm and sculpt. If you have to lose a little bit of weight or a lot of weight, either way, I feel like this works.

To be able to reach my 12-week goal in eight weeks first of all surprised me, but also just gave me so much confidence and re-invigoration of life. It’s been good for me, and it’s also been good for my family, so that’s just a win-win all the way across the board.

It’s just been a positive experience. I’m rethinking food and health and nutrition and setting a good example for my kid. So just do it. Don’t think about it. When they say the word ‘transformation’, they mean it. I literally transformed my body, and I’m really happy.

 

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