I am Nadine Snyman, I was born and raised in Pretoria and I’ve always been working in the corporate world. I moved to Potchefstroom around 13 years ago but life took a turn and I had to move back to Pretoria four years later. Luckily after two years I was back in Potchefstroom and has been living here for the past 9 years. I’m absolutely in love with this beautiful place. I’ve met my husband here with whom I’ve been happily married to for a year and we will probably or should I say hopefully stay here for the rest of our lives.
For most of my adult life I have always been very keen on eating healthy and following a healthy exercise routine. Funny thing is, when I was still in school I hated any sports. I didn’t participate in any activities like athletics, netball and hockey. I hated it! I was the child at school who had a million reasons why not to participate at any level of activity. Today I must admit that it is something that I really regret. If I had known that I would love it so much I would definitely have been more keen on taking part in especially something like cross country seeing that I like to run and more specifically I love it to be outside, taking in the fresh air.
At school I was the chubby girl. I didn’t have many friends and was a bit nerdy. To me it was all about reading, never going out to socialize and always just study, study, study. This was my life all the time and it didn’t bother me. I could always eat as much as I want, when I want and I can now admit that food was my comfort zone. When it was going well I ate, when I was going through a difficult time, I ate. It wasn’t until I moved out of my parents house and started working that I realized that I really had a big problem…and my problem was getting bigger and bigger.
I can honestly say that I have tried just about all the diets and diet pills that you can find out there. I’ve starved myself, I have banned most food groups from my diet, I’ve eaten only meat, I’ve eaten only veggies, I’ve eaten only fruit. Trust me I have done everything and nothing has ever worked for me! It was about four years ago that someone introduced me to a specific diet that actually worked. It was hard! I craved everything you can think of, but in the end I lost the extra kilograms that I have been stuck with for most of my life!
One true thing that I’ve heard a thousand times in my life is that the moment that you stop a certain diet, you just gain all those kilo’s you’ve dropped right back again. Luckily for me I did not gain all of it, but only most of it, if that can be something to be excited about. Why?? Because diets are not sustainable!! It is ridiculous that you may only have a protein shake for breakfast, a salad for lunch and a piece of chicken the size of your half your hand with veggies (that tastes like crap) at dinner. No one can sustain such a diet – and I think I can honestly say that if you say you can do it, there must be something wrong with you. We are all human and we do have cravings, we do have certain times of the month (ladies) that you just can’t go without that piece of chocolate or that glass of wine. And you know what, something that I have realised during my journey is that it is okay and not to be so hard on yourself!
During the time I was following all these ridiculous diets, I’ve also been exercising quite a lot. I would run on a treadmill and do some strength exercises. I got bored with that so I joined a bootcamp with a friend and that is where I really fell in love with exercising – and I’m not talking about running on a treadmill or walking around in the neighbourhood. Yes, of course running was part of the deal as we had to run around a cricket field four times – and that was just the warm-up. At bootcamp I learned what strength training really was, how nice it was to workout with a bunch of women of all shapes and sizes and ages and to work with all different fitness levels. I remember how at first when I was the newby and I didn’t know the names of the different exercises and a few months later just before I left the bootcamp I was showing the newbies what to do and how to do it. That gave me satisfaction that I can’t explain to anyone. I loved how I could motivate and help other people who didn’t know what to do or just needed that last bit of motivation to get through the class. Unfortunately I had to stop the bootcamp and move to a local gym but I’m afraid to say that that didn’t go on for long because I’m not the type of person to gym in front of hundreds of people. I’ve hated every second of that! I did a lot of HIIT classes, again ran on the treadmill for hours on end, and did a bit of strengthening exercises with weights but I was missing something.
I went through a stage when I didn’t exercise at all and that was just a disaster. What I’ve noticed about myself was that after just a few weeks of not exercising I was turning into a depressing and angry monster. I did not have energy for anything or anyone and once again started eating as if I was training for some kind of eating olympics. That’s when I knew I had to get my act together as I was on my way to being that sad little teenager I was at school and I didn’t want to let that happen to me again.
In the meantime during all of this going on in the background I’ve met the man of my dreams. We got married and after all the hype of the wedding, honeymoon and setting up house together I decided to get my own “healthy” life back on track again.
I’ve always known about Lisa Raleigh. I’ve seen her little inserts on “Espresso” in the morning and always took her advice to heart. I’ve read her life story and she just seemed to be my kind of person. I’ve looked her up on the internet and came across her website one day where I saw the rebounding classes that she is offering but did not think too much of it at that stage because really how much fun can it be to jump on a mini trampoline. Oh my goodness was I wrong!
I bought myself a mini trampoline, one of the cheap ones and bought some of Lisa’s online classes and started doing a 10 minute class once a day. I almost died! I never thought that jumping on a rebounder can be so hard! I once again realised that by not exercising I’ve lost so much of my fitness and was quite upset with myself as running 5km used to be a breeze for me and now I couldn’t even jump on a rebounder for 10 minutes. I knew that Lisa also sells her own rebounders but as it was quite expensive the thought did not even cross my mind to buy her rebounder. We were visiting friends one evening and my friend has a Lisa Raleigh rebounder which she said I should try out because it ‘feels like heaven’. So, I got on the rebounder and my oh my, it definitely felt like heaven. It was such a much softer but firm bounce and the rebounder did not make a sound…nice!
So needless to say I convinced my hubby to buy a Lisa Raleigh rebounder and have not looked back one day! It was one of the best investments of my life! As it goes with most exercises in life, is that the more you do it, the fitter you get and the easier it gets. I’ve been doing rebounding for almost a year now and let me tell you, there are still some days I want to die! It is hard but it is so nice! You have so much energy after the class and I can honestly say that I’m so excited that I can’t wait to take my next class every time! If my hubby didn’t think that I’m completely crazy for being so passionate about rebounding, then I would have probably done more than one class a day!
This is why I have decided to start my own classes. I did all the necessary courses and I have qualified as a Lisa Raleigh Bounti Licensee. I’ve already bought the Lisa Raleigh rebounders for my class and I want to share my passion for rebounding with you. Not only is the exercise you get from rebounding good for you, but there are so many other health benefits from rebounding that you can look at on my website. Because I could never stick to one diet and it always failed I’ve basically decided that I eat whatever I want but all in moderation. I try to eat healthy most of the days which is usually Monday to Friday and over the weekend I will indulge a little bit, which means I will have a glass (or two) of wine and a chocolate because really, who can say no to a chocolate? What I have now realised is that at the end of the day it is all about balance.
I’m passionate about helping people and would also love to help you not only start a healthy exercise program, but also help you stick to a healthy eating plan. Not a starvation diet, a healthy eating plan without taking any pills and shakes that will only make you sick in the long run. No I’m not a doctor but I do have enough personal experience to help you with your journey to taking care of yourself and your body! Looking forward to seeing you in my next class!
Healthy greetings,