I decided to sign up for the NEW YOU 12 week challenge after reading an article in women's health and fitness magazine I found myself in awe of the transformations that were featured.

I joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1996 at the age of 17, straight out of school. I was just under 5 foot tall (still am) and weighed 49kg. I had grown up on a farm with my small family. My Mum had brought my sister and I up eating great, healthy food. Most nights we had meat and three veggies. I didn’t know what it was like to have pizza delivered, we never had soft drink in the house and we only had dessert if ice cream happened to be on special.

Since I first put on 10kgs as a teenager, I've been a chronic yo-yo dieter. I tried many weight loss programs. The regimes were always so restrictive that I was never able to maintain them. Even if I lost weight, eventually I became complacent, returning to my old eating habits & the weight would soon pile back on with interest. Finally after multiple failed attempts at losing weight, I fell into deep depression.

I was very unhappy within myself, no I actually despised myself. Its hard to explain, but for me it radiated through all aspects of my life. And its not that I ate junk food, believe me, the last 2 years, if you ask people, they will always say, she would never drink and “party”, and I trained... boy did I train!

For years I have battled with weight and body image issues. I have lost weight, through really low calorie restricted diets and lots of cardio, and not a lot of weight training and have always put the weight back on through bingeing. My body has been in a state of starvation.

I used to be very active in my youth, being part of every sports team in school there was. But at 20 years of age I left my country to study in Australia and to pay for my studies I started to work in restaurants, where I discovered a love for food and wine and where I also met my husband.

I recall that I was reasonably active as a youngster.  I played representative softball in primary school and representative netball in high school.  I remember choosing to do Primary School PE Teaching as work experience in grade 10.  I just always had an interest in fitness and sport.

Like too many others, my weight has been a problem from a very early age. When I reached 18, due to some happenings in my life, I decided to do something about it, so, slowly, started increasing my activity and modified my diet a little. Then, I came to Australia, and a new lifestyle, new opportunities did help me get to a very reasonable weight, for which I was happy (65 kg) but not satisfied.

Hi all, I’ve just completed my 12 week challenge under the guidance of mentor guru – Karen Lewis - and she’s asked me to proffer a few motivational words.

Approaching my 29th Birthday, being a wife and mother to my three beautiful daughters (9,7 and 4 years), I have never been one to put myself first.  Between the responsibilities of running a family, working part-time and studying, I had little time left for myself. I kept my goals in the back of my mind, things I would dream of achieving, but never seemed to have the will to reach them.

Coming from a background of sport and fitness, and coaching martial arts for a number of years, it was to my disappointment that I had become what I had feared most…a fat, frumpy, unfit and debilitated thirty-something.

During 2008 I found myself really struggling. In fact it would have been appropriate to call me a ‘wreck’. My life felt overwhelming and exhausting and I was no-longer coping. I was at the point of requiring medication for anxiety and depression.

I had struggled to lose weight for quite a long time - 11 years in fact. I had tried pills, shakes, green tea, Xenical, circuit training without proper nutrition and other potions and lotions that I can't even remember the names of. I was desperate to look like the other women on the IBO website and thought that I could do it on my own.

Well I didn’t waste any time joining as I thought, this is it, this is what I’ve been trying to do for years.  I’d had personal trainers in the past but they only guide you in the exercise area.  They didn’t really follow my eating plan.  I’d always been fairly slim and exercised regularly but somehow in recent years I have had a tummy and got tired of people asking if I was pregnant.

I was pretty fit around 40-42 years old. I was doing novice triathlons, running and swimming regularly with a group and feeling in pretty good shape. After I separated from my husband of 17 years 3.5 years ago (age 42), my life had an enormous turn around.

My personal fitness journey started some 12 months ago. My weight had increased to an all time high, and my confidence and self esteem was rock bottom. I had begun a cycle of eating out regularly, enjoying my new relationship, drinking far too much, and using food as medication for a stressful and busy lifestyle. Working 24 hour shifts in a children’s home was taking its toll and I was constantly feeling tired and exhausted.

I was approaching my 30th birthday and it occurred to me that for more than half my life I had been “on a diet”.  As a teenager I developed disordered eating patterns which carried through with me for 17 years.  Ever since I can remember I’ve been on and off diets and lost, then gained significant amounts of weight.

I am 36 years old, I have two children, and a wonderful husband who has supported me through out the last 12 weeks of my weight loss challenge. Only twelve weeks ago, I was at my heaviest weight ever. I was starting to feel very tired, unhealthy and unattractive. 

I never believed that not only would I stick and follow the 12 week challenge, but that I would “win” in so many ways.

I decided to become involved in the Ideal Bodies Online NEW YOU 12 week challenge after realizing that all my clothes were feeling tight and that I was walking around with a jumper tied around my waist to hide the muffins that were hanging over the top of my pants

On my usual trip to the local milk bar to get the paper I decided to buy an issue of Australian Ironman (Fighting Fat). In the magazine I came across the article by Sue Heintze “Training your body and mind”. The article struck a chord with me, especially one sentence: - “the twelve weeks will pass anyway”.  Of course they would, thirty nine years have passed and I had not achieved all I was capable of. 

I have always known the benefits of regular exercise and had always done some form of exercise to keep the mind and body in shape, but over the past couple of years a couple of kilos crept on and a couple more and so on. Before I knew, it 10 kilos had found their way to my lethargic body.

Having spent a large portion of 2004 travelling for work, followed by an extremely indulgent Christmas and holiday season, my weight had ballooned to the highest ever. My body fat was 25%!! I had never felt so ashamed of myself, or so out of control.

Kelli Howden's fitness adventure started four months after she gave up smoking for good. Kelli was no longer lighting up a cigarette instead of having a healthy lunch and slowly the weight started to creep on.

To say that the 12 Week Challenge was the best thing I have ever done would probably be an understatement. I decided to take on the Body Blitz Challenge to see if I could not only transform my body but also more importantly transform my health, well-being and attitude.  So for me this challenge was not only an external transformation but also an internal one.