Ivy Purkiss

Hi, well my name is Ivy, and I have enlisted Lisa to kick my butt and turn it into one mighty fine one! I'm no stranger to training, around 6-7 years ago I competed in my first ever body sculpting comp and came 4th in the Novice Figure Tall, not bad considering it was my first. I had always yo yo dieted and after years of trying to get pregnant decided I needed something else to do to keep my mind off having babies...and I absolutely loved it, it was the hardest thing I had ever done, but the achievement afterwards was well worth the sacrifice. Not long after competing I fell pregnant (after 4 years of trying/treatments and so fourth) and went from 58kg to 105kg! Yep I was massive, the year of no bread and all that good stuff, came back with a vengeance, it was all I craved during my pregnancy, obviously causing the huge weight gain, I can tell you that there are no pics of me pregnant and if I was at the shops and caught a glimpse of myself I didn't know who was staring back at me.

Ivy 'gimme pain' Purkiss

Not long after the birth of my daughter who is now 5 years old, I fell pregnant again when she was 3 months old, which for us was a huge shock considering we were told we would probably never have kids, then had one and dear god now I was pregnant again, so another 9 months of being 105kg! I was not happy. My son is now 4 and im starting to take control of my life again, it is so hard with little ones, and easy to make excuses for not being able to do anything. I am currently weighing in at 75kg, I am not looking to be the 58kg person I was, but I want a nice shapely toned healthy body.  Read more

I had known of Lisa for some years, and seen her at Body Building comps over the years as I worked for Nutra-Life Health and Fitness and helped out at shows... (Yeah I should have a mint body with all the supplements I could take etc.... but alas...) Anyway, I contemplated going back to my previous trainers and nutrition but I thought a change was what I needed, I liked Lisa's page and so I emailed her.

Ivy and Lisa

Well I can tell you that her new name is Jillian, and for those of you that watch the Biggest Loser on TV3 on Thursday nights, you will get the idea of what its like to train with her! I worked hard for my first 5 weeks and got some great results, and I have been on an "extended" holiday for 4 weeks and now am back on full training and diet. I can tell you that as I am writing this, I can barley walk, after our "Jillian" type session yesterday, going to the bathroom hurts, and I managed a RPM class this morning at 6am, and have now booked in an hour-long massage for tomorrow to loosen the body!

I love my training sessions with Lisa AKA Jillian, I love the variety and the challenges she puts to me, she will ask me to do something, I tell her I cant but I do it and surprise myself, I might look at bit ridiculous doing it, and I try not to laugh or cry and concentrate hard on the muscles or fat that I am trying to mould or melt!

I am looking forward to the rest of my journey, watch this space, expect to see one hot mama when I hit my goal! Which will be thanks to the great Lisa Menzies and of course myself for sticking to it, working hard and embracing the challenges!

Ivy Purkiss
7 April
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From Lisa: I love hardworking, self driven and high achieving people, that's why I just love training Ivy. She says her occupation is housewife/mother/slave but I think she should also add super athlete and soldier!  No matter what exercise, what pace, how long or how high I ask her to do something she does it. Perhaps there might be a slight hesitation or a wee moan at first but she tries, in so doing surprises herself of what she can do. Our sessions are pretty high intensity (with rest breaks ofcourse) but its these types of sessions that burns the calories and brings Ivy closer to her end goal. 

So far she's had a good weight loss and although she had a 4 week break, she still managed to keep the weight off. I know she works hard in the gym when she's training by herself but its the eating that needs a little improvement. Like most people who are watching their weight, they tend not to eat enough so the mission for Ivy is to eat the amounts I've set for her.  I know she's a trooper, so she'll do as I say,
right soldier?!!