Mindi was BurnTheory’s first Ambassador to the studio and is an amazing mother to two young girls, and another on the way. She’s also strong, independent and an amazing asset to Burntheory.
Mindi has had a pretty amazing health and wellbeing journey, which we will deep dive into, and we hope that you find some inspiration and relatability with her story.
Show notes
Hannah:
Now in today’s episode, I’m very excited to welcome Mindi salt on to share her story. Mindi was one of BurnTheory’s first ambassadors to the studio and is an amazing mother to two young girls and another on the way, she’s very excited. She’s also strong, independent, and an amazing asset to BurnTheory. Now Mindi’s had a three incredible health and wellbeing journey, which we’ll deep dive into, and we hope that you find some inspiration and relate-ability with this story. So welcome Mindi.
Mindi:
Thanks Hannah. That’s a lot. I feel like that’s, you’ve been talking about me. Like you’ve got, you’ve got the wrong person here.
Hannah:
I am. I am just take the compliments.
Mindi:
Okay. Put them in my pocket for later.
Hannah:
So I listened to is get a bit of an overview of you. Give us a rundown of who you are, what you love, and what you’re passionate about.
Mindi:
Yeah, so who am I? I am a full-time working mom. I’m 35. I still feel like I’m 20. I just love my kids. They are my reason for everything. I go to work so I can give them the opportunities that they deserve. I love our weekends. There’s never enough of them. I love being able to spend time with them, whether it’s in the kitchen, we love cooking. When the weather’s nice, we love getting outside to the beach or going for a bush walk, just exploring. That’s pretty much me.
Hannah:
That’s awesome. Your girls are so cute. They come along for those of you that come to burn through. You’ve possibly met them, but they come along and they chill out in the boxing room. He hit some bags and they have a great time.
Mindi:
They do like to push me a little bit. If I’m not going hard enough, they’ll be like, that’s not right. Get going, go home, do another burpie.
Hannah:
They do. And I’m pretty sure they’re all on almost all your live classes when we were locked down in COVID.
Mindi:
They loved it. For me, it was okay, I’ve got my 45 minutes to do a class. They’re like, oh yes it’s time for us to do a class. Most of the time, they didn’t last the full time. They’d get a bit distracted and pop off and do something else. But they loved it.
Hannah:
15, 20 minutes most of the time though, from memory. Now you’ve had an incredible journey and changed since we’ve had the privilege of knowing you at Burn. I remember your first class, and you literally gave me the evil eyes the entire time. I remember thinking there’s no way you’ll call me back.
Hannah:
As our listeners know at Burn, we’re not all about fat loss and weight loss, that’s not a huge focus. When all about drinking green smoothies and wearing the latest exercise gear and all that sort of thing. Our mission is really to help people feel stronger, healthier, and happier. And obviously the weight loss and the fat loss is something that comes in part and parcel of when you’re moving and you’re exercising well. We understand that life can sometimes kind of get in the way and things fall off the bandwagon. What we really like to do is celebrate those that have got any sort of benefit or the better themselves in any way, whether that be fat loss, weight, loss, strength, fitness, or even just generally mental strength. Do you take us back to before your weight loss and your health journey began? Where did you start with all of this? How did you, when you were younger, I guess, what was your relationship with your health like?
Mindi:
Yeah, I have been thinking about this, actually, just reflecting a little as I’m seeing my kids growing up in the kind of people I want them to be. When I was a kid, I wasn’t into fitness. I didn’t like group sports. I didn’t like athletics, swimming, carnivals. I always had an excuse to get out of those. I didn’t have to do that. Thanks mom. Like it was, I didn’t have to do them. What I did lack as a kid though, I was a lack riding, my back I lack that freedom and I liked to exploring in the bush. So it’s really funny now there things that I do with the kids as well. We’ll get out for Black Friday and we’ll go for a bush walk because they’re activities I like, but everything else, it was just, no, I didn’t have to push myself. I didn’t like it. I guess after my girls were born, I felt pretty gross. I felt flat. I felt like I didn’t have enough energy. So I started at home doing some little Zumba video.
Hannah:
I can’t imagine you doing zumba I got to admit.
Mindi:
Picture it. Me and my May was about two and I started doing Zumba workouts at home. Honestly, I was like, I feel a bit better today. My energy is better than it was yesterday just from doing this weird video on a DVD last in my lounge room.
Hannah:
Your hips side to side.
Mindi:
It was a fun thing [inaudible 00:05:22] with me as well at the time. So I guess that’s when I realised for me the correlation between exercise and improving my mental health. It was just taking a little bit of time each day to do something. Ruby was quite young. My girls are only 15 months apart, they’re quite close in age. I spent, I say three years in a fog, but the main thing that got me out of that fog of three years was moving. I’d pop them in the pram, I’ll go for a walk. I guess that stopped being enough. I did join a gym near home and I started doing some classes. And again, it was a growth. It was myself, my confidence, my strength, my energy, everything started improving, that was really cool.
Mindi:
But what happened was I became a single mum. My partner, and I separated and I was here managing kids and life on my own. I also started working full time. It was a lot. I think the first thing to go was the exercise because I was too busy didn’t I didn’t make time for it. But then I guess what came back was that cloud, that the lack of energy that not feeling happy about myself, the treating myself with food, that wasn’t really good food. On the weekends, if I didn’t have my kids, I would drink a lot. There was bad habits that just… I thought I was treating myself, but it was a bad time.
Mindi:
So many people that I kind of use food to they beat themselves up with it. Even I went through a bit of that when you’re not in a good head space or you’re not feeling very confident about yourself, I always find that odd. I eat crap or I’m over eating. All that does, is it just spiral me into feeling worse about myself and then if it works now, so then you kind of go, excuse my French, everyone, fuck it. I’ll just say, I don’t care anymore. I’m just going to eat that. Then you eat that and you feel worse. It’s like a vicious cycle and it’s quite hard to get out of. So I guess where was your turning point?
Mindi:
I think the turning point would have been about two years ago and my lovely cousin said to me, I’m going to this cool studio. You should come and check it out. You’ll really like it because she know that I have done boxing in the past. I was like, I probably should. But probably not for me, like a boutique gym in the city. It’s not really for me. I just come and try it. I think she literally pestered me for six months. You need to come here, come on, come here. I finally signed up for an intro offer and it was the day before. I got out my gym gear from three years beforehand and I was like, none of these fits, this is disgusting. I can’t, I can’t go. Like I can’t go to this class because I’ve got nothing to wear. And I at home crying, going, why, why, why would I even bother. Its going to be terrible time.
Hannah:
So your self-sabotage was just next level. You already were trying to find all the excuses under the sun.
Mindi:
I’d committed. I’d said, okay, I’m going. So I’m going to have to squeeze into these types and I’m going to have to squeeze into this sports bra. I rocked up to this boxing class, we’ve got Hannah. She’s really cool. You really like it? I don’t know if I liked it.
Hannah:
I don’t think you did the first time.
Mindi:
I thought I was going to die. I did think I was going to die. There was so much sweat.
Hannah:
We actually sat you down at one point there. Just sit.
Mindi:
Have a drink. You’ll be okay. I do like to push myself though. I think that first week I came back and did three classes. You know what? This aint so bad. I became reacquainted with my good friend endorphins. I have to keep coming. Sign me up. I’m coming back and again. That’s really cool.
Hannah:
I was also quite surprised.
Mindi:
Get into it like an addiction. I just felt that I was dying a little bit less. Each time I came along, I felt like you didn’t have to tell me as many times what the combo was because I wasn’t forgetting as much. I could just see that there was progress. I was proud and I was sleeping better.
Mindi:
It’s really weird when I’m exercising. I want to eat better as well. I didn’t even mean to, what are we going to have to do? This looks really good. It’s not just grab some takeaway because we’re running late. I want to cook something that’s delicious. I feel like it was a journey that slowly got us there to me doing like nine classes a week and going. What is life now? I do really like green smoothies.
Hannah:
Give us a rundown. Where did you start in terms of your weight loss and then where did you finish up? What was that transformation and over what kind of period of time.
Mindi:
When I started, I weighed over a hundred kilos. I think I was 103 when I started. That’s triple digits. The loss, like I’ve got an app, which helped me tracking my weight for years because I’m a bit of a yo-yo. I’m just one of those people that life impacts me and my weight and my exercise. It all kind of just [crosstalk 00:11:22]. It’s either really good or it’s really shoot black. That’s just one of these. I saw that number and at the start I felt really defeated and thought, there’s no way that I’m going to be able to successfully manage, working out, eating healthy, having a job, having kids, having a life and losing weight. I started off doing three classes a week, then just kept upping it, kept getting my food even more on track. Even the weekends, I’d go to class on the weekends, I would walk to and from. I believe after 18 months I’d lost 35 kilos.
Hannah:
That is incredible. It wasn’t like you were trying to do that to yourself in six months or three months. That is a good amount of weight to lose, but over a good amount of time too, so that’s consistent and manageable fat loss. For those that aren’t really sure what the average or what a healthy fat loss range is, it’s usually between half a kilo to a kilo a week. Anything sort of over a kilo a week, which we know it can happen a lot of the time that’s not necessarily sustainable. Your weight loss, your fat loss was incredibly sustainable. We saw it in front of our eyes. One minute there was Mindi and the next minute there’s half of a Mindi. It wasn’t just that, It was kind of like you shone, like you came all kind of curled up and had your jumper on and you’re hiding yourself initially.
Hannah:
Next minute you like rocking these new pants. You’re all bouncy and shiny. It was so good to see.
Mindi:
I remember the first class I came into when I remember feeling really confident at one point. I’d forgotten to bring a gym top to wear that day. I only have my work T-shirt and a crop top. Like the crop top out for the girls, that’s where I was. I’d give it a few months before that I wouldn’t have done that. I felt confident. I felt safe as well. Everyone that comes into the studio is so lovely and so supportive. I didn’t even think twice. I can’t get these top sweaty and wear it back into the office. That’s gross. It’s top off. Let’s get down. Let’s get boxing. I feel like that was the point where wow, I’ve come a long way.
Hannah:
Yep. Yeah, it was pretty awesome. I guess with the consistency, it’s kind of really coming down to, if you start dropping off with your movement naturally, then your food kind of drops off and then your sleep kinds of drops off. And so for you, would you say that to stay consistent or to ensure that you have been consistent. It really comes down to keeping yourself consistent with the movement?
Mindi:
It really is. I make sure I’m tracking my steps, making sure I’m getting enough steps each day, making sure at the start of the week that my class is booked in. That I know which days are needed to get my lunchtime at work, which days I need someone to get the kids off to school, just book it in and get it done. Like if you’re going to the dentist or the hairdresser, you don’t cancel those appointments. You go get it done because it’s essential. This for me is essential.
Hannah:
Yeah. Yeah. You’d have your up. You’re up weights and your down weights. I was just saying to you before, I’m having one of those weeks where I’m just feeling particularly exhausted. I’m taking that guilt off myself for not getting to my three or four normal sessions a week. That’s okay. I mean, you still have those weeks or no one safe for human.
Mindi:
Absolutely. Even though the month of January, I think I went to maybe two classes in the month of January because my body was growing a baby and it was school holidays things like that. I couldn’t do it. I needed to rest. Being school holidays, we still go down and took the dogs for a walk and we still interrupt people [inaudible 00:15:33] and stuff like that, but I wasn’t giving myself a hard time for not being in the studio every day.
Hannah:
Exactly. When you found yourself maybe slipping back towards the bad habit, what’s something that you try to do to get yourself back on track or do you have any particular tricks and tips?
Mindi:
I think it’s just the schedule. It’s knowing that it’s in there and even like Sunday hours getting up and writing the meal plan. This is what I need to go to the shops and get the lunches today. This is what we’re going to have for dinner for the week ahead. Otherwise, it is super easy to go. Let’s just grab some time on the way home or let’s just chuck some chicken strips and chips in the oven because that’s in the freezer.
Hannah:
How long does it like painful? You know, and people think I don’t have time to plan, but the lack of planning means you have less time. So just taking half an hour to sit down and nut it out. Usually, we all have a repertoire of about five or six, maybe 10 meals that we got to just roll through. So it’s not like you need to go crazy And find some, I don’t know, Mongolian something, something that you’ve never done, but it’s just taking the time to go, right. What does my week look like? Or I need to go to the shops, get yourself organised. Even if it is just spending an extra two hours over the weekend, prepping yourself for the week ahead, find that you are going to be a lot more consistent and a lot more capable of reaching those classes and making those good food choices as well.
Mindi:
Yeah. And I think as well, nights of shortcuts. At home, we love having meat and salad when it’s hot, like chucks made on the barbecue, ate some salads. The supermarket market now, they’ve got so many ready to go, prepacked salads. It’s not just your aspect and cherry tomatoes. There’s some really good, delicious salads. Like the kids love them. So we grabbed those three in the fridge ready to go cook your mate dinner, sort of. It doesn’t have to be a two hour preparation thing. It’s super easy.
Hannah:
Exactly. Yeah. As long as you’re sort of your portion sizing and things like that, it makes it simple. If you’ve just got that ingrained in you life. Well, I don’t need a slab of meat, the size of my entire body. I just need one kind of a size of my palm. Even though maybe sometimes you do feel like you want an extra, you don’t necessarily need it. Not beating yourself up if you decide that I just want pasta tonight. You can throw a whole bunch of extra vegetables and protein in the pasta so you’re not ending up having 400 million calories worth of just pasta. There’s ways around.
Mindi:
My kids love pesto pasta, but we get away with so many. I feel like there’s more broccoli in it than anything else. They don’t care. They know I love broccoli and it’s my favourite thing in the world. So they just learned to love it as well.
Hannah:
Yeah. I love that. So what does the next 12 months look like for you and your wellbeing and health journey? I mean, it’s pretty immediate coming up.
Mindi:
It’s a [inaudible 00:18:32]. I think my biggest thing I’m wanting to achieve in the next 12 months is just to keep moving. I have switched up my schedule a little bit. I used to be doing a lot of boxing classes and maybe one or two bar, but I’ve switched that around now. It’s only one or two, but boxing away. Just to take things a little bit easy. I definitely want to be able to keep going for the next six months. That’s probably just going to slow down a little bit and then start back up again as soon as I can.
Hannah:
You know its easy when your body tells you it feels okay to.
Mindi:
But I think it’s just to keep moving, keep being kind to myself. Eating what my body needs not what it just, I think [crosstalk 00:19:21].
Hannah:
And what it tells you. Chips and gravy or something, something salty. Well, if you could provide a piece of advice or even a few to our listeners about their health or their fitness or their overall wellbeing, what would you say?
Mindi:
I just think the best thing to realise is you can keep going. Don’t stop because you think it’s too hard or don’t stop because you’re just too tired for it. You can slow down, but just keep going. Whether it’s in the class or whether it’s at home with the food, you’re cooking up. Just keep going and educate yourself as well. I have got a lot of diet books at home because I’ve tried lots of different things, but looking at different advice, I figure out what I like and what works for me. It’s not just this, not a clean-cut, everything’s perfect for every person. Figure out what works for you and just keep going.
Hannah:
I love that. I think that’s really kind of hitting the nail on the head and you know, not to say that if you have a week off that stopping, it’s slowing down, but it’s when a month has gone by, and maybe you haven’t done anything that was kind of you. That’s when things can go from just slowing down to actually stopping. So, be kind to yourself and to your body and know that, as much as it sucks sometimes dragging your butt to that class, you know, you’re going to feel a million times better for one system. Well, thank you so, so much for joining us on the podcast means your story and transformation is seriously inspirational and it shows that with dedication, with strength of mind and, with a supportive community and system around you, you really can achieve some pretty massive goals. I really appreciate your time being on here.
Mindi:
Thanks man. That’s awesome.
Hannah:
Awesome. And until the next time Burn Pod listeners.
