In this episode Brett & Emily chat with Fiit Chick VIP member – Danika.

They ask questions on how Danika has transformed not only her body, but more importantly her outlook on life.

You will discover:

• 
  
• Danika’s tips on how she made the change to transform her life
  
• Strategies Danika uses daily to maintain her results
  
• Key insights as to where to start
  

This is a must listen interview.

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Introduction:

Hello and welcome to another Fiit Chick podcast. Today we have a very special guest you can hear in the background there whom you will be introduced to in a moment. This particular person has been a part of the Fiit Chick VIP forum for over fourteen months now. Along the way she has had an amazing transformation which you’ll be able to go and view that transformation if you head on over to Fiitchicks.com.au, and you can click on the tab podcast when you look for this episode then you will be able to see this amazing transformation. Without further ado what I will do is introduce you to our special guest who is going to share some insights, and tips and strategies that she has used to create her own transformation. The person we are speaking to with a big round of applause we have got Danika Thompson on the line. How are you doing Danika?

Danika: Good thanks Brett. How are you?

Brett: I’m very well thank you, also a special mention we have got my beautiful side-kick sitting right here, Emily.

Emily: Yes, hello.

Danika: Hi, Emily. That’s a thank you day.

Brett: I guess before we get kicked off I’ve got to say this is pretty cool feeling surreal almost we have been in contact with yourself for fourteen months. You’ve seen Fiit Chicks International grow and it’s a great honor to be able to speak to someone who has been a part of it from day dot. From our behalf thank you very much for taking your time to come on the call today, so let’s get kicked off. I guess to give our listeners and the other Fiit Chicks listening to this can you give them a bit of a background about yourself Danika. How old are you or how young are you depends on which way you look at it? And A bit of a background about what you do work, study, etc, etc., so we can get a bit of an overview of who you are.

Danika: Yep, sure, okay, so I’m twenty-five years young and I’m currently – I do have an office job, so I do run around quite a bit up and down the hallways, but it is kind of a dominant job, so I sit down most of the day.

Brett: Where bouts are you from? Where do you live?

Danika: I’m currently living in Perth in Western Australia and I’ve been here for about two years, and I did about a four year stint in Broome. I meet a fella and followed him up to Broome and ended up getting married to him so that was a good move. Yeah, but over the five years I’d put on a lot of weight.

Brett: The love weight that’s a new one. I’m sure our listeners there can relate to the love weight, me as well I stick my hand up sometimes. I guess Danika in regards to – your twenty-five years old what was your upbringing like, in regards to health and fitness now. For example myself I was kind of a heavy young lad, and it was probably my ADD that really kicked that off, but were you active as a child? How was your childhood in relation to you health and fitness and so forth?

Danika:  I guess I had a really good up bringing I was really lucky I have a lot of siblings and a lot of cousins. We always lived in a big house and big back yard and we were always kicked outside to go outside, and run around and play in the dirt and stuff like that. Food wise mum and dad are pretty into it as well so that was quite handy, so I think it’s definitely was – when I moved out of home and started not to be quite healthy.

Brett: It’s quite interesting you say that I guess I had the total opposite where we thought white bread sandwiches was the in thing a healthy sandwich not knowing that white bread is actually one of the worst foods you can be consuming for your body. I guess for yourself you’re really lucky you had that upbringing.

Danika: Yep.

Brett:  I guess it was just a matter of you didn’t implement it when you moved out of the home.

Emily: What was the starting point for you wanting to change your lifestyle? Like, at what point was it for you that you wanted to make the change?

Danika: I think a lot of my friends and everything think it probably was because of our impending wedding, but it wasn’t really that so much it was more just – I don’t know I’d been on holiday with my friends and I wasn’t the same size as them anymore. You know I just wasn’t feeling happy and wasn’t fitting into my clothes, and I remember I was watching the biggest looser and I saw a girl who had lost you know my body weight and she was now fifteen kilos lighter than what I was at that moment. I thought well, “You know she looks amazing and she looks happy” and I want to really take charge of myself and do it for once instead of just talking about it and trying something and then giving up after a couple of weeks you know.

Brett: What was your first step? Let’s paint a picture of you sitting there and you’re watching the biggest loser and you had that light bulb moment like, I know many of us have before. It generally is that one thing that you know you just flick the switch, so what were your actions from that moment when you decided you know what, “I need to do something about it.”

Danika: Well literally my actions at that exact moment were to throw my camera and my fiancée and rip my clothes off and tell him to take a photo of me in my undies.

Brett: This is a PG rated podcast okay.

Danika:  Really comparison photos, so that is what I literally did at that second quite few surprises, and then I had just joined up to do some pole dancing and form there I booked a lot more of their classes in kick-boxing, abb classes and things like that. Went through and chucked everything that was in the fridge and went shopping the next day and wrote out a list of what we would be eating and went shopping that day.

Emily: Straight on foot.

Danika: Yep.

Brett: I guess we can give our listeners a little bit of a heads up – can you give us a bit of a description at that moment when you were watching the TV where were you currently at? Just to give people an over view of that situation you know you said to yourself, “Like I’m overweight etc” and like, where were you at that stage. I guess let’s fast forward to your results now and then what we will do is ask some questions in the between times. Where you were and what have you achieved so far?

Danika: I’m a hundred and sixty-three centimeters I’m not the tallest person in the world. I think I was about 80 kilos and probably more I remember getting on the scale and jumping off and going, “I’m not” I didn’t want to see it go up anymore, so once it hit that eighty it looked like it was going to keep moving and I jumped off then. We were very much couch potatoes we would try and go for a walk and probably get one walk in every couple of weeks, so we didn’t move pretty much at all.

Emily: Yep.

Danika: Dinner was what we wanted to eat it wasn’t necessarily what the best thing for us to eat, so you know just crumbed chicken and chips we’d have veges and things like that, but it was all the other bit and pieces and the desert on top of that.

Brett:  I’m looking at a transformation photo right here and again, everyone else can go and check that out at the Fiitchicks.com.au website. Fast forward we have got here you have a loss of over fourteen kilos.

Danika: A, hum.

Brett: I guess in regards to that what are the main things that have changed for you when you actually look at you’re before photo to the photo now what sort of things pop up to you?

Danika: Gosh, I love to shop anyway, but now I like to shop even more because I can actually try clothes on and they look a lot better. I’ve found so many things I love to do like, pole dancing absolutely love that with a passion you know do it anytime between one and four times a week as well as other classes, I’ve joined the gym and found weight-lifting to be really enjoyable I like pushing myself there. I recently maxed out the set of leg press two hundred kilos of the machine, so I’m quite impressed with that, and look at. I’ve meet heaps of people in the Fitt Chick group either girls that I just talk to everyday who live over grace who don’t get to spend hours to lose as many tons, but I feel like I know them you know friends on facebook and chat and stuff like that. I’ve meet a lot of people who live in Perth who I actually do spend time with one of the girls I see most does pole-dancing with me, Mudd-Rush, and Warriordash with a few of the girls, so yeah, I’ve made some friends.

Emily: Great.

Brett: Fantastic.

Emily: How do you stay motivated to stay on track like, what is it that keeps you going?

Danika: I remember how I felt that day when I decided I didn’t want to feel like that anymore, so that’s one thing that kind of sticks in my head as well as I’ve posted a lot of Fiit Chicks and a lot of Instagram and I know there are girls that do look at that and do – there are some girls that come up and say to me, “You’re my inspiration your why I have done this” and I don’t want to let them down, and I don’t want to let anyway using me as an example I don’t want to let them down either as well as myself I don’t want to ever feel like crap again.

Brett: None of us want to feel like crap your dead right there, and you touch on a really good point though the fact that you remember what it used to be like, because in this day and age we move around so fast and, so many things happen that we actually tend to forget what it was actually like at that position. I know myself by seeing hundreds, and hundreds of people transform over the years that if you don’t have that emotional trigger, so when you have those bad days, because at the end of the day look we all have bad days. It’s really what you do with bad days and how you recover from it I guess you would say. With that in mind what do you do when you get those urges of, “I feel like treating myself to this or I don’t want to go to the gym or I don’t want to go to pole today how do you combat that?

Danika:  I guess!! Sometimes I do have that with food I will think I’ll be at work and we have got biscuits on hand twenty-four seven and I will want to just quickly do that and I’ll straight away say to myself, “Okay, you can do that once you’ve eaten what you’ve had prepared” like what is before you, so as soon as I’ve eaten you know my snack my yoghurt or whatever I have prepared…usually I don’t want the other bad stuff anymore. I’ve also got a fantastic husband who I would ask to get me a glass of wine on a week day which is something I’ve kept in place as a no, no in the house and he tells me no, so that is fantastic. Yeah, generally again, I remember how I feel when I do eat that sort of food and you know if I feel like chocolate I can eat some chocolate, but if I eat too much chocolate I will start to feel sick, so you just have to remember those things. I’m human as well so sometimes I need a glass of wine and a piece of chocolate and I will have a glass of wine and piece of chocolate I just won’t have a bottle of wine and a block of chocolate.

Emily: She’s exactly right.

Brett: Well a block of chocolate is good isn’t it? No, it’s all in moderation?

Danika: Yep.

Emily: Danika what sort of knowledge have you gained, and your continued to live by to help maintain your fit healthy lifestyle?

Danika: I probably gained a lot of knowledge about food you know if you asked me two years ago what healthy food was I would have rattled of a whole bunch of things that I now know are crap for you. Also, the way in which I eat like, I’ve tried so many different you know diets, all fads and shakes and whatever, and you know two years ago I was eating you know not having that much food, but it was all crap for me and I think it was on extreme calorie restricting diet that they would eat whatever they want. I’ve done that I’ve had eight hundred calories a day of crap foods, and managed to put on fifteen kilos, but I know eat sixteen hundred and more a day, but it’s all good food, but it’s actually food.

I can enjoy my food and enjoy a lot of food, but it’s all good stuff that I know is fueling my body, so that is one main thing I’ve learned is to fuel your body not to starve it to work with it. Yeah, also find something that you love which to me is pole that is what motivates me especially you know going to the gym and going weights because in pole I wanted to build up my strength. I guess also trust the process and you didn’t put it on overnight and you’re not going to lose it overnight. I had a stage where I go, “I’ve put on a couple of kilos” it’s not the end of the world you know I didn’t put on fifteen kilos when I met the fella and moved over to Broome I didn’t put on fifteen kilos overnight I put it on over five years, so I wasn’t planning on loosing fifteen kilos in five minutes.

Brett: Excellent stuff, so I guess what would be if you had to put your finger on it I know it would be hard to, but what is the number one change you have seen in your life since you pulled the trigger back that day when you were sitting on the couch?

Danika: I’m just happier like, I have had a lot of stuff go down in the last twelve months that’s been tough, but I’ve been able to deal with it. I’m just a lot happier in myself and happier in my life whereas; a few years ago you know pretty depressed and was never happy with anything that was happening even though my life was pretty much textbook perfect. Last year when things you know I had few tough things happen in my life I was just in a better place to deal with them. I’m so much more motivated to do things I want to do. I quite my old job and found a job I really, really love to do, yeah so it’s just happier and able to get out there and do things rather than sit on my ass the whole time. I’m actually trying new things and meeting new people and yeah, pretty much happier is the main change in my life.

Emily: You also just recently had a holiday overseas is that correct?

Danika: Yeah, just did a few days in Bali and we went to New Zealand at the start of the year as well.

Emily: So, how do you feel been able to be confident in your bikini?

Danika: I’ve never really had a body confident issue like, regardless of how big I’ve been I’ve walked in a bikini and run around anyway, but I definitely felt a lot better especially looking at photos from the first time I went to Bali which is eighteen months ago just before I started my journey. The photos I feel are so much nicer looking at these ones from a couple of weeks ago than I did the April ones which you know those photos eighteen months ago was some of the reason that I you know how I said I was comparing myself to my friends and I wasn’t the same size as them anymore, so yeah it’s awesome.

Brett: A good couple of points I take from that is the whole thing of comparison and comparing yourself to others that for me is a big no, no, and it’s a trap we can all fall into you know whether it’s business it’s your work, job, friends, social life whatever it may be. By trying to compare yourself to someone else all your going to do is just try and live within their values and you’re not living and growing within your own values. If you’re not living and growing within you own values you basically just on an off road track and you don’t really know where you’re heading. When you guess came to those realizations that you were trying to – I guess you said you were comparing yourself to friends what was the significant change there?

Danika: In saying that though I do totally and utterly agree with you with comparing yourself with other people Brett, and I guess what I meant was I saw…I have got a quite similar body to a lot of my friends and I could see myself in them, and what I was seeing in them wasn’t what I was seeing in me anymore, so that is what I actually meant by that. Comparing yourself with your friends, and a conversation I had with one of my best friends who is also a Fiit Chick quite often I would say, “I did this move or that move or I pushed this weight” and she’d be, “I wish I could do that, and I wish I could do this” but then I’d have to tell her we are two completely different people and this is – my goal is based around pole, and my goals are based around obstacle courses, and things like that whereas; your goals are based around you know coding or whatever, we have two completely different goals. I have to remind her frequently that even though I can do this she can do so many things way better than what I can do. She inspires me every day to get out there and you know sometimes she would drag me into the gym you know I’ll do my fits as to hers, so me and my friends all have different goals, but we do use them to work together to get an outcome that is good for everyone.

Brett:  Yeah, great point well said there couldn’t agree more. If you were to provide listeners what would you say are three tips that you would give the listeners out there who are in a position where you know they are fed up with how they are currently going, and they want to make a change? What would your advice be?

Danika: Get educated the Fiit Chick group is the main place I have got most of my information about food and I have also done a little bit of looking around myself. I have friends trying to lose weight and they will ask me for help and I will have a look at what they are eating and they are eating without realizing it muesli bars full of crap and fruit yoghurt full of sugar, so yeah, get educated about what you’re actually eating and why you’re eating it. Education is power and that is really something that has been different in my journey as compared to all the other times I have tried to lose the fat.

That is one point another one would be to give it time like, I said I didn’t put the weight on overnight and I’m not going to lose it overnight, so just keep at it. Weight loss isn’t just, you don’t just keep continuously losing weight it’s all over the place you might put some on you might take some off. Also, in saying that I’m concentrating on fat loss I’m not concentrating on weight loss as I said I lift weights and I’m building muscle I’ve actually put on a few kilos over the last couple of months, but you know I’m slimming down still. Take measurements as well don’t rely too much on the scales, because they may not necessarily be telling…they won’t be telling you the whole story they are not giving you the whole picture.

Brett: Couldn’t agree more that’s fantastic information and I’m sure the ladies are going to love it. Once again, the biggest take home for me from that I mean I loved all three points, but the thing of your fat loss journey not of your weight loss journey, so it’s very, very important to not concentrate on those scales you know especially if your journey is fat loss, because as we all know or if you don’t know you will know in a few seconds that the more muscle you have the heavier you will be on the scale. That’s okay, because if you put a photo of a 60 kilo ripped person standing next to a 60 kilo person who has no muscle they are going to look completely different, and the person with the muscle actually looks smaller.

Emily: Yep.

Brett: So, look Danika we appreciate your time you spent with us this morning we know that you’ve actually go to go to work today, and we just want to personally thank you once again, for been part of the Fiit Chick community and been able to share your knowledge and experience with all the ladies and secondly just for taking your time out today to share this information it’s been really, really great. From our side of things we want to say have a fantastic day a work and don’t work too hard and we will be talking to you in the forum.

Danika:  Thanks Brett and Emily thanks for having Fiit Chicks as well it’s obviously been a life changer for me, because of you two guys I thank you.

Emily: Pleasure.

Brett: It’s always our pleasure and that’s exactly why we do it right there, so you have a fantastic day mate and go and take care.

Danika: You take…

Emily: Bye.

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