Is someone sabotaging your journey to your Ideal Body?

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As a Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer, I enjoy being a part of my client’s weight loss and fitness journey – I get just as excited about their progress as they do! I also love to hear their stories about the compliments they get from the people around them in their daily lives.

Unfortunately, there can be an unpleasant side to peoples’ comments when embarking on your own health and fitness regime. I’ve often had to tell my clients to be wary of the people around them and how these people respond to their health and fitness regime.

Hopefully most of them will be like your personal cheer squad – the type of people who support you no matter what. They are there praising and encouraging you when things are going well and pick up your spirits and help you back on track when things get tougher. ( Being a Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer means I’m  a 1 person cheer squad too!)

Then there are the people who appear supportive and believe they are being supportive but they may say things or behave in ways that lead you off your track or discourage you.
These people are the unconscious saboteurs of your weight loss journey and are more than likely people close to you, such as your family, friends and colleagues. They don’t intentionally go out of their way to sabotage you but act out of habit or what they think is right.

This happened to me once when I lost quite a bit of weight. I went to a party where there were people I hadn’t seen in a while, I bought a new outfit and I was looking forward to seeing their reactions to the changes I’d made.
The funny thing was I could tell they had noticed I was leaner – they’d look me up and down or out of the corner of their eyes – but no one made a comment what-so ever! It was confusing and a bit discouraging.
It happened again with the same group of people a few times over several months as I kept slimming down. I finally figured out that my success was confronting to them in some way. Instead of letting it get to me, I decided that if these people made no comment about my trimmer figure – I knew that I was looking good!

The people in your life may not be so subtle. Perhaps you know people who are conscious saboteurs – people who intentionally try to stop you from achieving your goals by behaving in certain ways or putting obstacles in your way. They might appear to be supportive but are actually thinking of ways to foil your success. Keep your eye out for these people as they are often those close to you, friends, family, colleagues or acquaintances and can be difficult to spot.

So while you are on your way to a slimmer, healthier, happier you – be aware of the people around you. How many are genuinely happy for you and your progress and how many are confronted or threatened by your success?
At the end of the day, remember that you are your own person and you are working towards your own betterment and personal development.  Don’t let someone else’s issues affect your own journey.

Live the life you want & love the body you’re in!

Yours In Health & Fitness,

Sascha Aiono

Sculptlife Personal Training

The Crossroads…which road will you take?

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Anything worth doing in life will take a bit of hard work and discipline – and I’m sure all you  will agree that shaping your ideal fit figure is definitely worth it!
Unfortunately this also means that the hard work and discipline will apply! This also means there will always be time where you come to what we at Sculptlife call ‘The Crossroads’: where the two paths of your old and new lifestyle meet.

For example; your old lifestyle might have involved you and your friends meeting every few weeks to catch up, have a few drinks with cheese, dips and nibbles. You  know that ‘ a few drinks’ never literally means ‘a few’. You end up having many drinks, lots of cheese and dips, not to mention the food you’ll consume the next day to soften the hangover.

So let’s say that while you’re en route to your ideal body and your friends arrange the monthly get-together. Of course you’ll go and you’ll feel excited to wear something that shows off your diminishing waistline and shapely arms. But what will happen when you get there and suddenly – there is an arsenal of alcohol ready to shoot holes through all your hard work?

Ladies and gentlemen, you have now arrived at The Crossroads. The Crossroads can apply to anything where you are tempted to go back to your old habits – giving in to your sweet tooth; missing your Sunshine Coast Personal Training session; skipping meals; eating carbs at dinner; not preparing your meals ahead of time and then making the wrong food choices.

You have to decide – will you stay firmly on the path of your new lifestyle habits or will you stray back to your  old lifestyle habits? And I don’t mean to imply that no one should ever fall off the bandwagon – we’re all human! We make mistakes! What I do mean is that you need to decide how committed you are to your goals.

At the end of the day, whatever you decide, your desire to obtain and maintain your ideal body never changes. You’ll always still want that.

So you need to choose – would you prefer to stick to your new lifestyle path and pass on the temptations? Or would you prefer to enjoy yourself and take the old lifestyle path knowing and accepting that you are adding extra miles to your journey?

Friends, the choice is always yours. But I can guarantee you – the new lifestyle path will always get you there faster!

So, which path will you take? :)

Yours In Health & Fitness,

Sascha Aiono

“Live the life you want, Love the Body you’re in!”

How I Used My Sunshine Coast Personal Training to have an Exciting, Fun Holiday in the Snow!

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Sunshine Coast Fitness

Heading up the Hill

Hi all ! I’m Tiani, Bianca and SculptLife’s administration worker,(i have most likely talked to you if you’ve ever rang up about a Sunshine Coast fitness program.)  I have just returned from my 3 day mini holiday in Thredbo, NSW. It was a great experience spending 3 days snowboarding up and down the slopes trying to master turning (and falling !) and getting a great workout while having a whole lot of fun !

So the first day we woke up at 6.30am, got everything together and headed up to the slopes. We started our first day with a snowboarding lesson, then up and down the slopes for 8 hours (and until i had mastered turning down the hill :) )

Sunshine Coast Fitness

Kevin being pro at Snowboarding ;)

Kevin (my partner) picked it up really quick, and ended up on the harder slopes by the first day ! I figured this was from Surfing all his life, and also being good at skating and wakeboarding.

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On Top of the Hill

Everyone had been telling me how sore i’d be after my first day Snowboarding so i got training with our Personal Trainers, Sascha and Colleen, preparing all my muscles with lots of weights and strength training. After our first day snowboarding all our friends could hardly walk ! Except me i felt excellent, my leg, bum and stomach muscle’s felt like they got a good workout but I was no where near as sore as i thought i’d be!! Which was great, so i had no problem getting up at the same time the next day and doing it all again..  I was getting really good and by the end of the day i started getting a bit more confident and a bit more speed and ended up falling backwards down the hill and landing a little to hard on my arm ! But Kev pulled me back up, told me to toughen up :)  and up we went on the chairlift to the bigger (much scarier !) slopes. Then continued down the hill with my thigh muscles burning and abs all getting a great workout !

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Yes I'm Up!

However the third day i was out of action as my wrist was just a bit to painful to fall on, which i had realised the day before coming down the harder slopes and spending a lot of the time on my butt !

So that was the end of our snow trip, (luckily i only missed out on the last day) we flew back late Sunday night then monday morning headed to the doctors and to get some xrays, which showed that i had fractured my radius, which is one of the bone’s going from your wrist to your elbow  (i’m learning all about bones in my Sunshine Coast Personal Training Course). 

So now i’m back at work with my big, plastered up knobbywacker arm :)  
 (and now makes writing this blog and operating a mouse pretty tricky ! )

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Back on my Bum !


Was it worth it ?? Of Course, i am so stoked i learnt how to snowboard so quick and was still able to walk after the first day ! Thanks to my
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My Snowboarding Holiday Souvenir !

Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer’s Sascha and Colleen for getting me into some strength training to prepare me for using all sorts of different muscles !! I feel great that i’ve had an exciting, energetic holiday, instead of those holidays where you sit around and pig out ! I can’t wait for my arm to heal and to find some more great sports on the Sunshine Coast that are just as exciting, while getting a great workout at the same time.

Any suggestions??

I’d love to hear about your adventure holiday, or when you’ve injured yourself doing something new and exciting??

Working out doesnt have to feel like work!

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I may be a Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer but I’m no superhuman  – I still face the same tests and temptations as my clients do and exercising on weekends is just one of those trials. I just dont want to do a workout that feels like ‘work’! :)
But on the other hand, I’ve found out the hard way that it’s important to keep in a healthy, active lifestyle frame of mind over the weekend – its far too easy to relax and let your healthy lifestyle habits slip which is not so great for your figure and fitness goals!

Working out on the weekends is even harder, I find, when I work all week on the beautiful Sunshine Coast – where you just want to be outdoors all the time – then come back home to Brisbane where everything is very city-like and urbanised – its just not as inviting to be outdoors and active. So I have to trick myself into exercising over the weekend by aiming to do something fun and active at least one day of the weekend.

me & kane at the Acacia Ridge Ice Rink

For example, I’ve made a habit of going ice skating at a local rink – a three hour public session that I turn into interval training by doing a few laps as fast as I can then slowing down to do the fun stuff and learn a few tricks! (I’ve only fell on my butt once so far –touch wood!- and ironically it was when I wasn’t trying to do any tricks, I was standing completely still! Haha!)

I also bought rollerblades from Cash Converters ($24 for a decent pair, what a bargain!) and blade with my boyfriend and his mates along the Southbank board walk.

$24 blades = fitness fun!

Last weekend I went around to Mum’s place for a bike ride – she was doing a practice run of a new route so she could cycle to work. It was a sunny but cool morning riding through Belmont – one of the few acreage suburbs in the middle of Brisbane that has a pleasant country feel and impressive properties. I forgot that I was exercising while listening to the birds, chatting to mum and stopping to pat some ponies along the way.

Bianca and I made a game of climbing Mts Ngun Ngun and Coollum last year – Bianca brought her ipod and ipod dock and we powered up the mountain as fast as we could with Sneaky Sound System cranking and getting our adrenaline pumping! The rule of the game was that we weren’t allowed to use our hands to help climb up, it was all legs only! Great leg workout! The best thing was – I forgot I was working out!

Why not try this weekend workout trick for yourself? The idea is to do something that keeps your activity levels up over the weekend and keeps you in that ‘healthy lifestyle’ frame of mind. It will help you stay on track with your nutrition too.

Some things you might like to try – a run along the beach; take the kids to the park and play frizbee; or climb Mt Coolum, Mt Ngun Ngun or Wild Horse Mountain – you could take a picnic up with you and make a day of it!

So what will you do next weekend?  :)

Yours In Health & Fitness,

Sascha Aiono

Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer Releases Workout DVD's

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Hi, My name is Bianca Aiono and even though I was an elite athlete from the age of 14, I always struggled with my weight.
It was only when I discovered the SECRET of working WITH my body, instead of against it that I now have a body I can be proud of.

Do YOU want to be proud of your body ?
- Are you confused about the BEST exercises to lean down your legs ?
- Are you scared about bulking up ?
- Have you tried everything to lose that stubborn lower body fat but nothing seems to work ?
You can find out all the answers and more in the first of my dvd series “From Fat 2 Fitness Model Transformation Package”

After releasing my Fat 2 Fitness Model DVD’s a few months ago, i’ve had loads of customers telling me how great they’re feeling and how much a difference my DVD’s are making to their health and wellbeing.

“Hi Bianca, sorry it’s been a while since I last emailed you. I’ve been busy working out with your Dvds, going to the gym, personal training etc. I’ve even taken up tennis. You’ve been a great inspiration. The minute I read about you and your experience, I decided to follow suit and change my life. I’m happy to say I’ve lost 7 kilos since your DVDs and program,  I also do vibragym, eat healthy and I get the family to eat healthy too. I’ve lost lots of inches and I look forward to working out everyday. I have one or two bad days every so often but the difference now is I get back on the healthy eating and exercise plan straight away. So I thank you for helping me believe that i can do it and I also thank vibragym but you really started it all for me. You really made me believe. I hope to keep going and lose more kilos. I’ll keep you upto date. By the way, I’m getting lots of compliments from Friends and that is such a great feeling.
I thank you and best wishes,
Angela x.

Check out our Fat 2 Fitness Model Transformation Package at http://www.fat2fitnessmodel.com/

Staying on Track with your Sculptlife Nutrition Plan over the weekend

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Its pretty common for people, in any line of work, to work their butts off during the week and then when the weekend comes around, to relax and not even want to think about anything work related. The unfortunate thing here is that this can happen to a Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer too!

And this can be a dangerous thing I’ve found, especially since the nature of my work is also a lifestyle – I spend all week motivating, training and educating clients on exercise and nutrition which is great – but then I get to the weekend and have trouble motivating myself to keep up with my own exercise and nutrition habits.
I needed to do something that kept me in a healthy lifestyle frame of mind over the weekend, instead of thinking after a long week at work “whoo hoo! It’s the weekend – Foxtel, chocolate and lollies here I come!”

So I worked out a few tricks to help me through the weekend that made healthy meals enjoyable and not like work at all! So I changed my meal plan slightly to incorporate things that seem special, or a little out of the ordinary – meals that I wouldn’t take the extra time to make during the week.

For example, instead of my weekly breakfast of porridge and a protein shake I’ll make protein pancakes with sliced strawberries and a drizzle of maple syrup. (click here to see the recipe for Protein Pancakes). Instead of my weekly morning tea of a protein shake and an apple I’ll have smoked salmon, tomato and cucumber rice cakes (click here to check out the recipe for Salmon Rice Cakes)

Afternoon tea gets changed from a tuna and nuts to a caramel fudge flavoured protein bar (which tastes pretty close to a chocolate bar without all the calories) and half a punnet of strawberries – yum!

I already love my lunch (rice, grilled basa seasoned with lemon pepper and steamed veggies) and dinner (steak and steamed veggies) so they stay the same over the weekend except for my free meal evening – pizza! I prepare these meals on a Monday night and have them ready to go in the fridge or freezer for the week. It really does pay off to have your meal ready for you in the freezer over the weekend – I usually find the longer it takes to prepare a meal the less likely im going to stick to the plan if I haven’t done the preparation beforehand.

I’ve found that making these simple changes that still fall within Sculptlife’s nutritional guidelines (click here for your free, no obligation consult and find out how we can help with your fitness and figure goals) makes my weekend meals feel just that little bit more special. You’d be surprised how much more enjoyable healthy eating can be over the weekend when you look at it from a lifestyle perspective – lets face it, no one wants to feel like they’re on a ‘diet’ – so make it fun! Think outside the box! This weekend for breakfast I’m going to have a fruit salad – strawberries, rockmelon, watermelon and apple – with a protein shake. Yum! I might also do something with oven baked garlic zucchini and grilled eggplant…mmm.  Check out our recipes for something different you might like to try!

I’d love to hear your favourite figure friendly meals!

Have a Happy Healthy Week! :)

Yours In Health & Fitness
Sascha Aiono

Total Transformations with Sculptlife's Body Balance Challenge

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Eight weeks ago our Body Balance Challengers began their journey towards better, balanced bodies and now – we just cant believe how much they’ve changed in only eight weeks!
Rachel Pope, our Body Balance Winner and recipient of the grand prize of $700 noticed changes after just 3 weeks! “I had to tighten my belt buckle a notch and so did my husband from just eating the same dinners as me!” (Click here to check out all of Rachael’s amazing before and after shots!)
Sunshine Coast NutritionSunshine Coast Nutrition

The Body Balance Challengers banded together and it was fantastic to have such a positive and supportive environment in the nutrition and group exercise classes. Natalie Thorpe, winner of the ‘Make Your Friends Crazy Jealous Award” said it was the encouragment and support that got her through the exercise sessions. Natalie said “the classes gave me tips to get through the shopping minefield and methods to overcome my cravings.” Lisa our 1st Runner Up found the nutrtional knowlege she accquired from the classes were a big part of helping her to fit back into her size 9 jeans.

The results were not only on the fat loss front but on the health front too. Mandy Wright, 2nd Runner Up, now says she is looking forward to reaping the benefits of a much healthier future with her new lifestyle habits. Rine, the Challenger who gained the most amount of lean muscle mass and winner of the ‘Buff’d Babe Award” also reaped health benefits from the eight week challenge, ” I feel like a new person, I have energy, I feel fitter, I am more motivated and less moody!”

Sunshine Coast Nutrition

Rine receiving her Buff'D'Babe award !

Getting your body in balance is not just about the physical changes you make, its about your mind and self image too, Vikki Newton’s experience is an example of this. After only six weeks of working with Sculptlife and the Body Balance Challenge she is now happy in her body and knows that the changes will keep coming as long as she stays positive and commited – and she did exactly that! Vikki won the “Determination & Bust-a-Move Award” for always giving 110% during training sessions while simulataneously turning the studio into a dance floor!

With the Body Balance Challenge being such a success for our Challengers in so many aspects – body, health, mind and spirit – we cant wait to begin the next Body Balance Challenge! Stay tuned for the next chance to change your body and your life; get confidence and control; and a chance to win $700 with the Sculptlife Body Balance Challenge.
Click Here to see all our challengers results !

Sunshine Coast Fitness & Time Management Tips from Wildly Wealthy Women

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On the Sunshine Coast, there is an absolute plethora of inspiring and amazing women that I come into contact with. One of them is Sandy Forster, International Mentor of the Year 2008, Bestselling Author, Speaker & Prosperity Coach . You can read more about her here : http://www.wildlywealthy.com/

I have recently enrolled in Sandys Inspired Spirit Coaching Academy ( you can check it out here www.inspiredspiritcoachingacademy.com) and in one of her calls she said some great things about time management and making sure that she includes fitness  into her day. I thought it was a really good tip, so I wanted to share it with you Sandy Forster speaking on Sunshine Coast Fitness and Time Management

“When working out your weekly schedule, book in the big things first and write them in your diary straight away. I’m not one of these people that’s in love with fitness and exercise. But I do love how it makes me feel afterwards . I know it affects everything when I exercise; I make better choices with my eating; I feel better; I make better decisions at work; I feel more inspired, I feel more balanced; I have more patience, everything is better.

Therefore I know it’s a big thing, even though I’m probably one of the laziest people on earth and I do not enjoy it at all and I moan and groan the whole time – my daughter says “Mum, you sound like you’re having a baby! “ But really, it is fun, I go down to the mfirst thing in the morning and when it’s done I feel great. I feel amazing. I feel good and so I know I have to write it down and book it into my schedule. I set the alarm and make sure it happens. It’s 5 o’clock, it’s dark, I could so easily go “ I don’t feel like it today” but because it’s written in my diary and I checked it the night before, my mind was already committed and my body just has to follow through “

Sticking To Your Sunshine Coast Fitness Program – Even When The Weather Gets Cold!

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Early mornings are not so fun in winter when its cold and dark outside, it becomes quite temping to just stay in bed where it’s warm and cosy! Even a Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer can find it difficult to get out of bed and slog it out in the cold – which happened to me just this morning.
My alarm went off at 6 am (which is a late start compared to the 4.30 am wake ups I have in order to start training clients at 5.30am) it was dark and cold at 10 degrees outside and all of a sudden that sneaky, whingey little voice inside my head said “Aww, but I dont wanna go for a run! It’s cold and dark – I cant be stuffed!”  So I hit the snooze button and rolled over.

I lay there thinking about how much I loved bed, so cosy and comfy, and how nice would it be to stay there all morning, get up at 7.30 and just skip training altogether.
Almost immediately images from the night before popped into my head, I had been to a BodyBuilding contest and seen lots of lean, buffed bods in bikinis and high heels strutting around on stage. It was then that the Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer in me piped up and said “Unfortunately for you being warm and cosy in bed isnt going to get you to your health, figure and fitness goals! Get up!”
(See! Even us trainers are vicitims of our own trainer-to-client encouragement!)

And so reluctantly I got up, reached for some training clothes, devised a way to get dressed that would expose the least amount of bare skin to the cold air outside the bed covers (ie: getting dressed under the covers!!) This took a while, considering I was getting dressed in bed and when it’s cold outside, I usually layer up my workout gear so I’m warm until my heart rate is up, then I can start taking off the layers as I get warmer. Finally I was ready and went for my run.

Forty-five minutes later I was pumped, on an endorphin high and feeling great and I thought about how my day would have started if I hadnt gotten up and trained; it seemed like a sluggish and lethargic way to start the day and I was glad that I hadnt stayed in bed.

Even some of our clients have encountered and overcome this same early morning, inner-monologue debate. One such client bounds up to me in the mornings at 5.30am in the dark, and cheerily says “good morning!” while i’m still mentally waking up! (Even though my body is up and awake – my brain is often half and hour behind my body!) It takes a bit of mental toughness to get up and get going when the rest of the population stays inside in their beds where its warm.

I’d like to know about the times you’ve had to talk yourself out of bed to get to training or the tips and tricks you’ve come up with to make sure you get out there and get working towards your goals. One of our Sunshine Coast Personal Trainers – Sammy, her trick is to set 3 different alarms, while our office administrator Tiani asks her boyfriend to help her out of bed – this ‘help’ he interprets as pulling the covers off her, refusing to give them back then literally kicking her out of bed!   Harsh, but effective none-the-less!

If you’re having a little more trouble than getting out of a warm bed when trying to stay motivated on your fitness journey make sure you check out our article on “refocusing on fitness.”

So lets hear it then! Post your comment below!

Yours In Health & Fitness

Sascha Aiono
Sculptlife Personal Trainer

Eating Yourself Slim – Tips From A Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer

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As a Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer I know how hard it is to wade through the ocean of misinformation out there. But the secret to permanent and effect weight loss is to eat yourself slim! That’s right – awesome isn’t it ! I come from a family of Samoans – we’re big eaters, and in the traditional Samoan culture the fatter you are, the more you show your wealth. So as you can see, “dieting” is going against hundreds of years of ancestry for us ! But , I’m very pleased to tell you that my cousin Keri has recently lost 18 kilos after spending a day with me working on her eating habits ( and of course training with my talented cousin Josh’s bootcamp in Sydney )

She was absolutely over the moon that we had to schedule her meals in every three hours – with alarms so that she wouldn’t forget. But she was totally blown away with how much she could actually lose weight, just by choosing the right amounts of food to eat – and when to eat them.  

To permanently lose the fat stores in your body, you’ve got to burn more calories and increase your metabolic rate ( the rate at which your body burns fuel throughout the day – even when you’re NOT exercising) with a precise exercise routine and proper nutrient ratio adaptations ( that means eating the right stuff at regular intervals ) . Even if you don’t exercises ( but I recommend you do ), just eating 5 – 6 small high quality meals  each day ( and by a meal, I mean anything from a nutritious snack to a sit down dinner ) will substantially increase your metabolism and you’ll burn more calories.

On the plane on my way down to visit Josh and Keri I took a photo of the food that they were serving  to the girl who sat next to me. Everything looks nutritious and healthy, and you’d be forgiven if you thought that meant you would be able to lose weight. But as  you can imagine, everything that they served was highly processed, packaged material, that had a lot of carbohydrates ( used to provide energy for ) and next to no protein ( used for growth and recovery of lean muscle tissue ). Accompany that with the next 3 – 5 hours of sitting on your bum waiting around, you’ve got the perfect conveyor belt for everything that you consume to go straight to fat stores. There is a lot of occupational hazards when going travelling as a Figure Competitor and a Sunshine Coast Personal Trainer  – especially when those Krispy Kreme donuts seem like they are actually sending you ESP messages to go pay them a visit ! he he ;)

On my return, I was very proud to open the door to our Sunshine Coast Personal Training studio fridge and see how we are all practising what we preach ! There are tupperware containers upon tupperware containers, filled with lean beef stirfry with rice noodles, morrocan chicken and basmati rice ( my snack and lunch ) a lean beef burger and salad on a whole grain roll ( Tiani ) salmon, salad and low fat fetta on a mountain bread wrap ( Sammy ) and steak and rice and steam fresh vegetables ( Sash ). Now, just as long as we make sure we clean it all out ( if not we always have Tiani ;) just kidding ) we should really be seeing some changes in both our figures and performance over the coming weeks. Recently I lost 2 % body fat after 3 weeks of tightening up my diet like this, and of course still enjoying my treats on a weekend ( you may not be able to see my diet chocolate mousse in there – but it’s in there !)

Plenty of regular meals here !

If you need more help with your eating, we’re here to help you , with our latest body composition analysis testing and our Diet Master Pro system so that we can customise a nutritionist approved eating plan, complete with exactly WHAT to eat and WHEN in order to achieve RAPID FAT LOSS!  And bonus for all you time poor guys out there – it even comes with a complete shopping list !

Remember, your nutrition is your foundation to your health and fitness, without it , no matter how hard you exercise you won’t get your ideal healthy body.  If you would like a free nutritional consultation valued at $80 to find out how we can help you with your nutrition just email us on info@sculptlife.com.au or phone 5493 8269.

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