Question: Can you describe your diet/exercise regime before starting at Aston Fitness?

Charin: Before I started Donna's program my diet consisted of convenient comfort food high in sugar and processed carbohydrates. Lethargy, fatigue and headaches were an everyday affair. In terms of exercise, I was fortunate that my work had me standing and moving around, aside from this incidental exercise I was not doing much physically. The occasional swim or walk was all. The neglect of myself through my diet and lack of exercise led to my weight gain.

I tried many methods to lose weight; pre-prepared calorie controlled meals, detox, low-GI diets, diet pills, none of these were successful and were always counteracted by binges on chocolate, cakes, lollies and other high sugar foods. I realise now that numerous attempts to lose weight were conducted when I was not actually overweight, all this served to do was hamper my metabolism and break down muscle.

Question: How has your lifestyle changed?

Charin: When I first arrived at the Aston Fitness studio I was the heaviest I had ever been, and was well and truly ready for a change. Over the last 15 months I have steadily dropped 28kg and gone from 44.7% body fat to 25%.

To begin with I trained with Kris twice a week, followed an eating plan and made sure I exercised for 30mins most days, whether it be going for a walk, doing a spin class or using the cardio machines.

Now I get grumpy if I haven't exercised for a few days. I still train with Kris weekly and do some of the TRX classes at the studio. I've started swimming again and cycling to work (though it is a bit hard to get on the bike during the colder months), and I run regularly (3 or 4 times a week for at least 30mins). The thing I am most proud of is my running. I always wanted to be able to run long distances and be comfortable running. In April I did my first distance run, a 17km trail run in Tasmania, and just recently I finished my first half-marathon (in a faster time than the 17km).

I've learnt that I need to keep setting new goals and challenges to keep me motivated. My next challenge will be another half-marathon in October at the Melbourne Marathon, and I am keen to try a triathlon at some stage. Also I have loved doing the Cirq training at the studio and am looking at doing more aerial and acrobatic classes in future.

Diet and exercise have now become an integral part of my life, essential to the maintenance of my physical and mental health. I now eat food mind-fully; I make informed decisions about what I put into my body. I am much more respectful of myself in this way.

My diet now looks a little like this:

• Breakfast: Donna's 'legal' muesli with strawberries, protein powder and milk, and a cup of tea (the morning's not right without it).
• Snack: Piece of fruit and a coffee
• Lunch: Generally leftovers from the night before or 2 hard-boiled eggs mashed up in lettuce cups with cut vegies on the side, followed by a peppermint or green tea.
• Snack: Small handfuls of nuts, piece of cheese or 1 or 2 of Donna's chocolate fudge balls and another cup of tea.
• Dinner: Meat & vegies or a recipe from Jane Kennedy's cookbook (this has been invaluable as I get bored with food quite easily) It's also getting easier to modify recipes, my mum is brilliant at this and as long as I keep an eye on the portion size, dinner (and subsequent lunches) are full of interest and flavour.

Any other comments?
Training with Kris has been wonderful. He is certainly not a trainer who yells like a drill sergeant or acts like an over-enthusiastic cheerleader with an inane grin (my own preconceived ideas about personal trainers). Instead he has very gently and patiently guided me with great humour and expertise. I always leave my sessions feeling fantastic, exhausted, and inspired. The continued support and encouragement from the whole team at Aston Fitness has enabled my success, their genuine concern and interest in helping me has kept me going. Losing weight is hard work both physically and mentally, but every success I had (no matter how small) was always applauded, I never felt like I was on my own. I can't thank or recommend them highly enough.