When I was 13 years old, my father passed away suddenly. He was 41, fit and in shape; then one day he had a heart attack and was gone. I was totally ruined as he was my best friend. The day I found out I came home and a policeman was in my driveway to break the news.
This police officer was amazing, he went beyond the call of duty, made us cups of tea, and had so much empathy. It left me with a massive drive to join the police force, as it made me think, ‘If you can make the shittest time in someone’s life just that tiny bit better, that would be so rewarding.’
By 16, I was training hard to improve my fitness, and at 17 I got accepted into Police College. I’m only five-foot, so there were a lot of challenges along the way. In the fitness test there was a 6ft wall to get over, and everyone said, “Oh she won’t be able to do that”. Everyone doubted me! I didn’t have any trouble, but I often had to improvise. At 18, I was out on the front line.
On the job we were always going to family violence situations, and it was always the same families. It felt like there were no steps in place to change the situation, get these ladies more confident, and make a real difference in their lives.
We were going to so many of these jobs each week, arresting somebody, then they would get out on bail and it would all happen again. It wore me down.
I really wanted to do something to help these women feel better, so I started doing some personal training on the side. It quickly grew through word of mouth, and soon I had so many clients that it was getting hard to do my full-time job around it. After almost eight years in the police force, I decided to leave and start my own venture.
Building confidence
I wanted to create this really cool women-oriented atmosphere where these ladies had people they could confide in. I’ve got an amazing group of women now. I take six sessions a week that are for mums, plus a couple of sessions a week just for men, and people can sign up to classes through my website, shapefit.co.nz.
Most recently, I’ve started the ‘Beer Gut Be Gone’ programme for men, and it’s not for your typical gym guys who walk around in little singlets – most men join us because they are sick of looking pregnant!
Everything I do now is about creating confidence for ‘normal people’. I was once into competitive body building, and at the time I assumed everyone wanted to look like that, but I’ve learned that most people just want to feel good in their own skin. They don’t necessarily want to have a six pack.
At the men’s groups, I say to these guys, “I don’t want you to be in a box. You want to be at your kids’ 21st birthdays, and walk your daughter down the aisle. My dad didn’t have that chance in his life.”
Guys don’t tend to talk about their feelings, but they still have insecurities with their body. The men are a bit stand-offish to begin with, but they eventually start to talk about things.
Some of the guys have spoken about being alcoholics in the past, or suffering from depression, and when they hear other people’s stories, it makes them feel able to share their own experiences. Plus the physical transformations are amazing – one of the guys lost 15kg in 11 weeks.
With the women’ sgroups, it’s very much about learning to feel good about themselves. It’s how you feel when you look in the mirror, rather than body fat testing and that sort of stuff. For me, it’s not about training people who are already fit, it’s about working with people who want to gain the confidence to do something about their health.
The next step
Working with the women’s groups, I had the idea to start a fitness clothing line. The ladies gave me some great input, like “make the waistband higher so it will keep our love handles in” and “make tights that don’t go see-through in the bum when you do squats”.
They started getting all of their friends involved too, and now we’ve got 80 women’s clothing styles under the Fit-n-it brand.
I’ve launched a ‘cute curves’ collection, as I think a lot of women go out to buy sports gear and they can’t get it in a size 18, 20, 22 – and it’s not fair. Just because they’re bigger, they should still be able to feel positive about their bodies when they are working out.
I’ve changed all of the labelling, so instead of saying extra-large, I’ve called it cute curve, and extra-extra-large is cuter curves. It’s about getting rid of labelling someone based on their size. My brand isn’t about being a size 6, it’s about being able to wear some cool clothing that represents all shapes.
While it’s been a big change going from a secure income to winging it and starting two different businesses, it’s so rewarding. It brings tears to my eyes seeing the transformation in these women, and how their whole outlook changes.
Here, they have a really supportive friend group, where there is no judgement. It’s crazy how it’s all taken off. I often think, ‘How did this happen?!’ This wasn’t meant to be my career, but I love what I do.
