Kayla Itsines - The Bikini Body 28-Day Healthy Eating & Lifestyle Guide: 200 Recipes, Weekly Menus, 4-Week Workout Plan

CONTENTS WHO AM I? Dear Reader, My name is Kayla Itsines and I am a personal trainer. I have been in the fitness industry for almost 10 years and chose personal training as my career because I am passionate about making people, especially women, feel better about themselves. As a child, I wanted to be a beauty therapist because I liked the way make-up makes women feel (at one point when I was really young, I even wanted to be a grass cutter, because I loved the way freshly cut grass made people smile my dad still thinks this is funny!). As I matured, I discovered make-up is only skin deep, and therefore a very temporary change. I realised I wanted to make a permanent change to womens lifestyles and mindsets. MY MISSION? I WANT TO HELP AS MANY WOMEN AS POSSIBLE ACHIEVE THEIR IDEAL BODY, CONFIDENCE AND HAPPINESS. MY MISSION? I WANT TO HELP AS MANY WOMEN AS POSSIBLE ACHIEVE THEIR IDEAL BODY, CONFIDENCE AND HAPPINESS.

Not only am I passionate about helping women change their lives, but I am passionate about exercise in general. I love training women. I love seeing them work hard and sweat, finishing their session with a big exhale as they look at me, exhausted, but with a huge grin of success. Exercise can be very empowering for women of any age, shape or size. Since 2009, I have trained women in a female-only studio and on the road with a portable training franchise. In 2014, I decided to take my workout advice away from what had become my very own personal training studio and into the online world, and this is when #bbg, or the Bikini Body Guide, was born.

But the name Bikini Body Guide has nothing to do with the way you look; instead it represents an ideology that my partner Tobi and I created (see overleaf). The global fitness community we have established is now over 13 million women strong, and its growing daily. Our mission is that this community of amazing women is going to change the world for the better through health and fitness, and now youre a part of it too. Kayla xo I am a woman who has grown up in the age of mobile phones, social media and apps. What this means is that conversation is everywhere, and both good and bad messages can be spread far and wide. The way social media is rapidly able to distribute messages to the world is phenomenal.

Unfortunately, it is often the wrong messages that we see trending in our news feeds. How is it anyones right to set the standard? Why should a celebritys appearance be the body goal for our society, when often it is their job to look a certain way? Its fine to idolise the person, but often young, impressionable girls idolise the body because of the way media pitches imagery. Along with this altered perception of beauty, I now, more than ever, see people being publicly abused and shamed on social media, not even just for their appearance, but for their desire to change, their desire to do better and feel better. No one should be shamed for trying to improve themselves. THE EXPECTATIONS WE HAVE OF OURSELVES ARE HIGHLY DRIVEN BY WHAT WE SEE, TYPICALLY IN THE MEDIA AND ON SOCIAL NETWORKS. THATS THE PROBLEM OUR EXPECTATIONS AND GOALS SHOULD BE BASED ON WHAT WE FEEL, NOT ON WHAT WE SEE. Because peoples perception and expectation of normal has changed so dramatically, it alters their view of what truly is normal.

Now, some people are attacked for being what should be acceptable, but instead they are shamed for not looking like what our manipulated perception of reality shows us. MY CLIENTS ALL HAVE INDIVIDUAL GOALS AND THEIR TRANSFORMATION JOURNEYS ARE UNIQUE TO THEM. @kim_fairley32 years old, mum of 2,Gold Coast, Queensland@mysweatlife26 years old, mum of 1,Texas, USA@danipguy25 years old, mum of 1,Mandurah, Western AustraliaWE AS WOMEN are being attacked by a new breed of soldier. We are becoming victims of so-called keyboard warriors, who are playing directly into the poor messaging of mass media. The worst part? These keyboard warriors can often be women. keyboard warrior

noun, singular

A person who believes their opinion in relation to your life choices and appearance matters. They often write rude, hateful and disheartening comments about you on social media, thinking that it doesnt affect you.

Thats just the baby weight coming off. She looked better before. Her legs are too thin. So, in this generation of keyboard warriors and mass media trends, what effect is all this having on body image and the associated issues of anxiety, depression and body dysmorphia for women of all ages? We have men degrading and body-shaming women, but we also have women doing the same to other women. This needs to stop.

I believe that one of the main reasons women suffer from anxiety and depression is because of the way they look or, more accurately, the way they feel about their appearance. In my opinion, a huge amount of this negative emotion can be caused by messages about women in the media and society. More specifically, the way women speak about each others bodies, as well as their own. After continually seeing huge amounts of negativity in the media, I wanted to make a stand and help create change in the way women see their bodies. There is so much negativity surrounding women and the supposed benchmarks for their appearance that it is easy to understand why so many women who would like to wear a bikini are uneasy about it. WHY SHOULD WE BE REQUIRED TO LOOK, ACT OR DRESS A CERTAIN WAY, OR HAVE A CERTAIN BODY SHAPE, TO FIT INTO SOCIETYS DEFINITION OF BEAUTIFUL? BEAUTY IS NOT CONFORMITY, IT IS NOT FINITE OR SINGULAR.

BEAUTY IS UNIQUE. Nothing is more disheartening than being unnecessarily ashamed or worried about your appearance. It is a very hard thing to assess objectively on your own, especially when we all know that we are often our biggest critics (and often you are your only critic). Only you notice that one little freckle on your cheek that you hate. Everyone else loves it and thinks its cute. Only you notice your bad hair day no one else can see it because theyre too busy staring at your beautiful eyes.