Ever since Melanie was 10 years old, she felt different.

Standing at 4 feet 11 inches, Melanie thought she was too short, too chubby and too curvy to be considered attractive.

Growing up with this feeling of inadequacy made her shy away from fun events and activities that are a usual part of every teenager’s life.

“My elder sister is taller and has always been rather slim. I always envied her. When we were growing up, I would sometimes borrow her clothes and whenever I did she would complain that I had stretched them out so much that they wouldn’t fit her properly any more. That conversation stayed with me for so long! It seemed to mean that I didn’t fit in anywhere, not even with my family.”

Melanie soothed the need of wanting to fit in with food.

“I often turned to food for comfort. There have been times when I have turned down invitations to go out and have a good time with friends because I wanted to stay at home and eat food. I slowly started putting on weight and suddenly I was 165lbs (75kgs) and I was not even 5 feet tall!”

The Plan-Hopping Begins

Melanie was in her late 20s when she met and dated a guy who was a fitness enthusiast. He loved training and believed in eating wholesome food.

Inspired by his dedication to health and fitness, Melanie decided to take more effort in looking after her own health and well-being.

“I realised that I had been eating so badly for so long. I wanted to eat better so I could feel better in my own body too. I also wanted to learn more about training and lifting weights, so I turned to the internet in search of the perfect fitness programme!”

On her mission to finally get a figure that would make her proud, Melanie tried every plan she came across; Keto, Atkins, Weight Watchers, Paleo, Crossfit, Whole30, to name a few! She would lose some weight, but as soon as she got off the diet, it would all come piling back on.

“My obsession with finding the perfect fitness plan was affecting all my friendships. I pushed everyone away, keeping them at arm’s length. I didn’t want anyone to see me undress, I avoided looking at myself in the mirror, I wasn’t attracted to me.

I didn’t feel good, I felt heavy and sluggish. I just wanted to get to a place where I felt good in my body and not cringe! I was so frustrated!”

It All Began With An Açai Bowl

One of the plans Melanie tried - Whole30, requires you to eat only wholefoods, essentially nothing processed for 30 days. The one good thing about following this plan was that Melanie discovered a new love for fresh veg and fruits, especially açai berries.

“I was looking for açai bowl recipes and I came across an Insta page called @drironjunkie and I was amazed that a doctor was so fit and was also vegan! While following his page I came upon @akashvaghela and @rntfitness! The more I read the more I loved!”

The Insta page with the delicious açai bowl recipes belonged to Minil Patel, a longterm RNTer!

Melanie’s research finally took her to the RNT Website, and when she saw the stories of all the transformations she knew she had to try this one last programme.

“I loved what I read! All the free information was so useful and eye-opening. I loved listening and reading all the material, they resonated deeply with what I believed in and I knew I had to give it one last push.”

Battling Scepticism

Even though Melanie liked what she read, she had been burned so many times that she found it hard to trust the programme, at first.

“I thought it was going to be another programme that promised me the world, but was bound to disappoint. But the stories I read were pretty convincing and the photos of the people I read about looked real too! So I decided I had nothing to lose and everything to gain!’

The fact that the programme was purely online was a bit of a deterrent for Melanie as well.

“The fact that I had to trust people I didn’t know and talk to them through a computer was hard!

But the weekly coaching calls were so reassuring and my cohort is amazing. I have had so much support from the other members, throughout the journey we have been cheering each other on.

For the first time, I didn’t feel alone. Before RNT, I have always been trying to hack it on my own. Now having the support of my individual coach as well as the other coaches through the calls was so wonderful and made me achieve results I never thought possible.”

Some Useful Strategies

Melanie started her RNT journey with a lot of misconceptions around training and nutrition.

She thought that she had to avoid carbs at all costs and was also not sure why she had to focus on getting 10,000 steps every day.

“I have been that person who would always only eat chicken and broccoli. I would turn up at events with my food in my purse. So now when I was told I could eat potatoes and bread I was so confused. I was almost afraid that it was all going to go terribly wrong!

But once the weight started falling off, I knew I was in the right hands. So I decided to just let go and trust the programme.”

Nutrition was the piece Melanie decided to tackle first and followed all the advice, including meal prep and meal hygiene.

“I changed my view of food being a comfort to food being just fuel. I stopped thinking that it always has to be sumptuous and tasty, I started thinking about it as just something that would fill me and nourish me. So I chose simple meals that were easy to prepare and didn’t need a lot of time.

Apart from that, I also learnt to follow all the meal hygiene advice as well.

I have never eaten slowly, I would always just shovel food in. So, to follow the advice, I decided to switch to using chopsticks so I would be forced to eat slowly.

Even though it didn’t come naturally, I made myself pause between mouthfuls and suddenly I was full! I added every little tip and trick I was given and it all made such a big difference!”

At first, even hitting 10,000 steps a day seemed like too much for Melaine.

“I knew I could wake up very early in the morning and go for a really long walk, but I doubted that was something I would be able to sustain.

So, I started the day by taking my dog for a short walk, and then chose to walk instead of drive while running errands. After a couple of weeks, getting 10k steps a day almost became a game.”

Next Steps

Melanie had always thought that her genetics and her age would keep her from discovering the physique she had been working so hard to achieve. She didn’t realise how wrong she had been all along.

“Through this journey I have come to learn that it was my own mind that was keeping me from achieving my fitness goals.

I have had to unlearn so many years of my bad habits. And now finally the negative self-talk and obsession with perfection has quietened.

In the past, I have not managed to maintain a healthy balance between having fun and living healthy. This has been and still is one of my biggest challenges.

But now, going forward I finally have the tools that will help keep me on track. What I have learnt from RNT will keep me moving forward with confidence and determination. I know that I can now stay on this course - not just for now, but for life.”

The Physical Is The Vehicle

Following RNT’s methodology gave Melanie the confidence she had been seeking ever since she was a young girl.

“Today, I am so much more confident in myself and I am so much stronger at work. I can take on more projects and still excel. This gave me the ability to trust myself, my capabilities, my dedication and my drive. I have confidence that I can conquer more than ever.

Through RNT’s teachings I have been able to dig deep and push past uncomfortable points and keep going even though I wanted to give up.

I have learnt to accept help and support from others particularly my cohort. It taught me to lean on those who believe in me. I have always considered myself as a person that is trustworthy but I found it hard to seek help from others and now I realise that seeking help is not a weakness, if anything it can only help me grow stronger emotionally, mentally and physically.

My RNT journey has been an amazing growth experience!”

In Ep 302 of RNT Fitness Radio Akash and Melanie talk in much greater detail about her wonderful transformation. She shares with us some of her innermost thoughts; the reasons for her deep-rooted insecurities as well as the steps she has taken to help her move on.

In this podcast Melanie says, “I found it hard at first to trust the process. But then I realised that if I want to actually achieve the result I have been chasing for 15 years I need to learn, listen and lean into the programme! I needed to go all in!”

As you can see, Melanie more than achieved her goal, after years of fruitless efforts, she went all in and today she feels, looks and performs at her best all year round!