Camera shy Anna falls back in love with her figure after her 13kg weight loss

I’ve had to get used to dozens of people telling me that I look great every day. I’m not used to all these compliments – it’s almost embarrassing!

34-year-old Anna had started dressing in oversized clothes to disguise her weight gain.

She’d grown tired of the way she looked – but could never motivate herself to do anything about it.

Anna put the blame on her sedentary lifestyle and her fast-food diet.

A glowing reference about Ultimate Performance from a colleague at work led her to start her own transformation journey.

Within weeks, lifting weights and tweaking her diet delivered results she wasn’t expecting.

Anna managed to strip away 13kg of weight in 17 weeks, and almost everyone she knew noticed!

She had all kinds of compliments about her figure – something she’s not used to – but it’s a testament to the progress she made working in partnership with U.P.

Here, Anna explains here the magic ingredients behind her stunning transformation…

How did you hear about U.P.?

I was inspired by a work colleague. She was very vocal about her transformation. Very proud and celebratory. People had asked what she had been doing, how she had lost all this weight, and it was something that seemed to work.

I initially parked it in the corner, but I reached a point where I had been trying different things, and nothing had worked.

I was not in the happy place that I had been in, and I wanted to lose weight. I was at that tipping point where I needed something radical that would guarantee success. I thought of her because whatever she had been doing had worked.

When I came into U.P. it turned out that I had three colleagues from my company who had been through this, and they were all super positive about it.

I wanted to look better. It was a simple goal. I wanted to lose weight, look lean, fit, and toned. I wasn’t happy with how I looked physically. I had been gaining more and more weight and I wanted to find a recipe that would help me reset.

What were your health and lifestyle like beforehand, compared to what they are now?

My health is way better now. I’ve suddenly started living a healthy lifestyle and that influences everything. I feel better because I’ve been putting less junk in my body. I’ve also been more active and getting better sleep.

I’ve developed all these healthy habits, so I have higher energy levels as well. I used to sit around a lot, and I wasn’t getting that natural movement every day.

Then I’d order junk food late at night. I made the sacrifice to cook every day and now I question why I’d want to go back to ordering food. I enjoy cooking and picking my own food so it’s a much happier lifestyle.

I just want to take care of my body now. I feel way better. I didn’t like my body when I came in – I was avoiding being on pictures, I was wearing unflattering clothes to hide my body. When I sat down, I could feel the fat.

Now I get to look at old pictures of me and it’s better because I used to be the opposite. I had a goal and I’ve managed to succeed at something that was within my control. It has a knock-on effect on everything.

It gives you hope so it went beyond the aesthetics and losing a couple of kilos.

What was your proudest moment in the gym throughout this entire process?

The day I did pull-ups. I thought that they would be something I would never do in my life. It was a joke in the beginning, perhaps I’ll do one, but I didn’t think it was for me. Even if I did the easy version of it, it felt crazy.

But there have been a lot of mini achievements along the way. I was doing 8kg at the start and it felt hard, now I’m using 11kg and I’m doing it. I’ve seen the kilos increase whilst doing the harder version of the exercise. It was a mini achievement when I added one kilogram on to the chest press and so on.

You think that you can’t do something, but you actually can. Every time we work at that boundary, when I think I’ve reached my limit, I push through it. It’s your mind holding you back from doing something and then you surprise yourself.

If you really want something you’ve got to make it work. I was committed. I had a healthier mindset, I wanted to take care of myself and do what was best for my body and mind.

Now I’m inspiring other people around me. I’m coaching my family and people are looking up to me.

How has your relationship with others around you changed?

It has been super positive. I’ve had that many compliments that it is almost embarrassing. I had to get used to dozens of people telling me that I looked great every day.

It was crazy and it reached a point where I got used to it. It sounds stupid, but they look and talk to me differently now. It flatters my ego, which gives me more confidence.

It’s become a common occurrence, even with people repeatedly telling me that I look amazing. They’ve been celebrating and congratulating me. Society judges you on this – it is what it is, but you get the positives out of it.

Some people close to me were defensive at the start, asking why I was doing it, but it was quite the opposite once they saw it happening.

They would see the results and realise that what I was doing was healthy and inspiring.

Do you feel you achieved everything you came to achieve at U.P.?

Yes, in so many ways. At first my goal was to lose 10kg, then I wanted to lose 13kg and gain self-confidence. I wanted to regain control of my life, relearn how to cook, set boundaries, and prioritise what matters to me.

I could make a long list of all the things that have changed. It’s a mental thing more than physical.

My short-term goals were more than what I had hoped for and now I hope to have the habits to sustain it in the long-term.

What goals have you set yourself moving forward?

I want to keep working out and doing resistance training, which I became addicted to doing. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would do.

I used to walk into a gym, and I wouldn’t have a clue what to do. I would go to group sessions, and it would be comfortable. Now I want to keep resistance training in my routine and keep working my muscles.

I want to keep that momentum, maintain my weight and keep my healthy habits.

What is the secret behind your success training with Ultimate Performance?

It’s all encompassing. It’s a smart combination of all the things that work.

There’s a lot of data-driven measurements, so tracking keeps you accountable. When you visualise that, you notice what you’re doing.

It can help you correct your course when you see the influence between what you do and the consequences.

We figured out that stress was a factor for me, but it was an interesting pattern when considering the things that you eat, and how it correlates with stress.

Then there’s the accountability, having pressure put on me, but also having you on hand to offer advice about anything.

The personal training component of all this is pushing you to the maximum; getting one last rep that I wouldn’t have got myself. It’s a combination of working on your muscles, your metabolism, you have a recipe to follow, and you trust the process.

It offers you comfort because it’s easy to question yourself and give up when you’re on your own. It’s a well-oiled machine at U.P.

It’s taken Anna just 17 weeks to turn her life right around. If you’re serious about losing weight and want to feel the same, team up with your own U.P. trainer today. Enquire today

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