About Me

Victoria Aspinall
Stay-at-home mom
Beachbody Coach

You know that girl in high school that avoids the gym at all costs? The one that uses every excuse in the book so she doesn’t have to do the beep test, the 7-minute run, the “Pacer Prance” (our school’s version of mandatory cross-country), etc, etc? Yup, that’s me!

I spent 19 years of my life avoiding anything that involved sweat.  In 2006/2007 I became an infrequent gym attendee.  Infrequent because I only went when my boyfriend (now my husband) would drag me there.  Ok, so he didn’t have to drag me exactly… I was clearly trying to impress him by how “physically fit” I was (haha).  Side note: The one day I pushed myself so hard with the leg exercises he had me doing that I literally could not stand the next day. When we got engaged in 2008 I was done, no more gym for me, no more attempting to impress, back to my old self, phew! I could finally relax!  When we got married in 2009, it was even easier to say no to the gym; “we don’t have equipment”, “gym memberships cost too much”, “we have to pay mortgage, bills, etc”. I am the master at excuses!

Then we decided to have kids. Well what’s the point of being in shape when you’re just going to put on a ton of baby weight, right? Might as well enjoy the ride and eat whatever you want and lay around, you know you are growing a human after all so better rest up, right?  Well I put on 70Lbs, yup 70…. I asked the doctor several times “are you sure it’s not twins?” to which she replied, in her East Indian accent, “not twins, eat less carbs, it’s all hips and face!”. Hah! Eat less carbs?? But what about my breakfast bagel, and poptarts (a craving favourite), and I can’t stop cooking huge piles of chicken alfredo pasta that my husband loves!  So I kept eating, and eating, and eating. 70LBS worth!

Well some of that 70Lbs did come off when I had my baby girl in September 2011.  We will call her “Alice” (she’s slightly addicted to Alice in Wonderland and seems to think that’s her name anyways). Well after Alice was born I was still 30Lbs heavier then I was pre-Alice.  I saw my bagels, poptarts, and pasta in my double chin, my love handles, my big booty that came out of nowhere. I felt terrible, I wasn’t happy with my body this way but I told myself continually “what’s the point of fixing this now? Sure you could try to lose all this weight now but then you will get pregnant again and put it all back on.”  I did manage to lose 10 of those pounds just by breastfeeding and another 10 doing something called the “3 day military diet” which is good for quick weight loss but really does not lend itself to actually being healthy and changing your lifestyle.

Jump ahead a few years.  We had our second girl, we will call her Anna, in December 2013.  In January, spending a lot of time on Facebook while breastfeeding, I saw several posts of insane before and after pics.  I thought I would give this exercise thing one more time.  I mean if I could have results like them I’m all for a bit of torture, and for only 25 minutes a day, I could do this! I took the jump and ordered T25.  Now if you ask my husband he will tell you I’m a penny pincher.  I won’t spend money on anything for myself.  So I figured that by spending money on this product I would have to commit to the program.  My T25 program arrived 2 months after Anna was born so I jumped in right away on February 18^th, 2014.  This is me before I started T25. 

I committed to waking up before my girls everyday around 6am and pushed play for the first week.  I have to tell you it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be.  Yes, I was incredibly out of breath but I got out of breath just rolling over in bed so of course I would be out of breath when I was actually moving!  At the end of the week I was nervous to do my stats because I was sure I wouldn’t have results this quickly.  But check this out! 

So I kept pushing.  Motivated by taking my stats at the end of the week and seeing how much my hard work paid off.  I started paying attention to what I was eating.  Doubling up on the veg and protein and cutting back on my precious carbs.  I was starting to feel better, lighter, less bloated, more energy.  It wasn’t long before I could do the workouts without stopping and only slowing down once or twice to breathe.  Maybe this exercise thing wasn’t so bad after all… Then after just 5 weeks I took my after alpha photos.  Wow.  I was hooked.

I finished the T25 program and saw more amazing results.  Throughout all of this I was not using Shakeology because I didn’t feel comfortable cutting calories while breastfeeding.  I was eating a ton of food to keep my calories high enough to support both increased exercise and breastfeeding.  

I started thinking to myself that if I actually enjoy exercise now then what else would I enjoy that I have been telling myself I hate?? So I’ve set out some goals for myself.  I won’t tell you them all because that would just spoilt everything but here’s one to keep you hanging.  Running was my nemesis.  Seriously who runs? How could that possibly be fun? Your legs hurt, your lungs hurt, it’s so repetitive, and you sweat.  It sounded terrible.  But so did working out when I started. So I told myself “you have run a 5K by the end of this summer”. So I’m doing it.  Running 3 times a week and doing a little bit better each time (check out the app C25K for a great running program on your phone).  And yes my legs hurt while I’m running if I push myself, but my lungs don’t hurt anymore, sweat washes off and when I run outside it’s not repetitive because I get to watch a gorgeous sunset that the Lord painted for me! 

I am thoroughly enjoying my new, healthy, active life! I want to help others to change their life too.  So many people live in their little boxes of safety just like I was doing.  I would love for you to join me as I continue to step outside of my comfort zone and push my limits.  I am eager to discover my own personality that was hiding under being “mom” and “wife” and to help you to also discover who is hiding under “mom/dad”, “wife/husband”, “office worker”, “labourer”, etc. Join me!