 So there are two parts to my journey. First is the weight loss, but second, which is most important to me, is learning to love my body and appreciate that everything it does for me. I love to exercise now, not to lose weight, but for the mental health aspect and to make my body just feel good. Life doesn't always have to be about losing weight, no matter what size or shape you are, as long as you are the healthiest and happiest that you are, that's the most important thing. Hi, my name's Elle. I started my fitness journey in 2018. I was quite overweight. I think I was around 105 kilos, and I tried everything to lose weight. I went on walks, I ate what I thought was a healthy diet, yet I couldn't seem to shake any kilos. I started to get really upset by this. I went to the doctor to get some blood tests because surely I had something wrong with me and that's why I couldn't lose any weight. We did all the tests and everything came back completely clear. Which actually upset me, believe it or not, because if I didn't have something wrong with me, then why was I still so overweight? So the doctor referred me to see a nutritionist and from there my journey started. I was put on a plan to lose some weight. I started eating a lot healthier and also going to the gym and working out. I never thought that I would be the person that woke up to the gym early in the morning and loved to train every day and to go and eat salads and create all of these healthy recipes, but I just learned to love my health and fitness. By the end of 2019, I had lost about 30 kilos and I was well and truly in love with my health and fitness journey. But then the pandemic hit and we went into lockdown and that was when I was forced to face all of my demons. It turned out that I had a pretty horrible relationship with exercise and food, but I had been hiding that behind my daily routine that I thought was healthy. Now that I didn't have access to a gym or all the healthy recipes and everything due to lockdown, that was when I realized that I still had all of these dangerous behaviors and I still hated my body despite being at the weight that my nutritionists deemed as healthy. And this is where the next part of my journey started and arguably the most important journey to me is learning to love my body for what it is. So I realized that there were still parts of me that society deemed, I guess, not the perfect body type and I couldn't work on those in lockdown because I didn't have access to everything that I was used to, like the gym and whatnot. And so I learned that loving every part of your body is okay and we only have one body and one life so we may as well make the most of it. Stretch marks, cellulite, loose skin, I have it all and I think a big part of being stuck in my house in lockdown forced me to acknowledge and accept what I do have and that it is a part of me and that I love every part of me. Health and fitness is now my passion. Before I got into this whole journey I didn't really have anything that would motivate me every day to be the best version of myself that I can be. However, now I find that living a healthy and balanced lifestyle is really empowering to me. In saying that, I think that it's so important to have that balance in life. It's great to go out and cook all these healthy recipes and go out and exercise, but it's also important to have fun with your friends, go out and just live your life as well. It's so empowering to be able to lift heavy, run on the treadmill and just achieve my fitness goals. I feel really powerful and strong and I feel like I can do anything that I set my mind to. I first came across Oxyshred as I was trying to find a pre-workout that would give me enough energy to perform well in the gym but not to trigger my anxiety. I had tried other pre-workouts before but a lot of them made me quite jittery and shaky and they just weren't worth the crash at the end of the day. So my friends suggested for me to try Oxyshred as they had found that they also suffered from anxiety but it was just a really good alternative for them. I love being a part of the EHP community as I feel so empowered by everybody in there. I love to follow Lauren Simpson who has been an EHP athlete for quite some time as she really encourages me to focus on those strength goals rather than all the weight loss and everything. I have learnt so much through my health and fitness journey but I think the most important thing has been learning to love myself. Feel like now I am a role model for other women who may not be as comfortable with their bodies or have been told that they're not good enough as well. I know that now it's time for us to love our bodies. It's time for us to stop needing to just lose weight and hating what we see in the mirror. It's time for us to start having those strength goals in the gym and to wear whatever you want to wear despite being told that you're not good enough. The advice that I would give somebody who's starting their fitness journey is that it's just as much a mental game as it is physical. You need to be prepared for all of the demons that you're going to be facing and it's not going to be an easy journey but learn to embrace every part of it. You're going to learn so much about yourself and just learn what you can and can't handle and what makes you happy and what you actually enjoy.