Lauren Simpson
I have always led a very active lifestyle and played representative netball and touch football growing up. I have had a gym membership for as long as I can remember and really loved doing group fitness classes and challenging myself. My own personal health and fitness journey has certainly had its up and downs. I was once very underweight, unhealthy and running myself into the ground with hours of cardio and poor nutritional choices. I was uneducated on the importance of food to fuel your body and it soon took a toll on my health. I was pushing my body to its limits on the bare minimal food. I had taken the ‘fitness craze’ to an unhealthy extreme.
I used to be a cardio bunny and avoided the weights rooms for the fear of getting ‘bulky’ and let’s be honest its quite intimidating walking into a room full of males and not knowing how to use the equipment! I started reading A LOT about weight training and found myself more confident in the weights room before long. However this soon became an unhealthy obsession. I spent hours training, became anxious if I couldn't go twice a day and completely let how I performed in my session dictate my mood for the rest of the day. At the time I didn't recognise it but I had an extremely distorted view of my body and of food. I wasn’t training because I loved it (it was a chore!) and restricted myself with food groups and calories. This impacted not only on my body but my relationships with friends and family. I saw the signs of being lethargic, moody and withdrawn. I started to realise this wasn’t a person I wanted to be.
The first thing I needed to change was my mindset. I had to completely let go mentally of my usual dietary and exercise habits. Let go of being so caught up on how lean I was or how little calories I could consume each day. I sought out a coach who could help me change bad habits and educate me to have a healthy relationship with food and training. When I was back on track, my ultimate goal was to start prepping for a fitness competition.
It was difficult in the beginning to just ‘let go’ however my mindset slowly changed as I started to see the positive effects of eating right to nourish and fuel my body and not overtraining. I was no longer moody, constantly fatigued, nor having random headaches and feeling weak.
I learnt that health and fitness shouldn’t be about punishing yourself to a point where you are unhappy. I aspire to be fit and strong, but most importantly with my health, happiness, friends and family as first priority.
My love for fitness led me to the world of body building where I went on to compete in the 2015 INBA Sydney Super Bodies show and INBA Southern Cross Championships where I took out 1st place Fitness Model Open and Fitness Model Overall Champion. In October 2015 I competed at the WBFF Gold Coast show placing 3rd in Bikini Diva Tall.
May 2016 I competed again with WBFF where I placed 1st in Bikini Tall and won my WBFF Pro card. My first Pro show was in Nov 2016. where I was honoured to take first place in the Pro Bikini division and be crowned WBFF European Bikini Champion.
My most recent competition was the 2017 World Championships where I was grateful to place second to my good friend Rachel Dillion.
I have also found a love for ‘lifting heavy’ and find that being strong has been very empowering. I can now squat and dead lift over double my body weight which rivals a lot of men in my gym!
I eat a healthy wholesome diet, work hard in the gym but also recognize the importance of rest and balance in life.
Through increasing my knowledge around nutrition and training I know I have changed my life for the better and this is a lifestyle approach I am able to happily maintain. I am a more confident person, have loads of energy and have a very positive outlook towards everything I do. I am a very passionate person and I now share my love and passion for fitness and well-being with other girls around the world. I am now an online coach helping other girls around the world to achieve their goals so they too can be living their best life.