As you wander through the airport food court, eyeing off the Krispy Kreme donuts and the golden arches, that evil voice in your head says…”Go ahead, you are overworked, time poor and you have to eat right”? You begin to rationalise the situation and convince yourself that grabbing the Big Mac meal is a fair decision because you will get back on track when you return from this trip.

The problem is that far too often we don’t get back on track and this type of cycle perpetuates until we find ourselves struggling to fit into that business suit and the journey to gate 5 appears to be getting mysteriously longer?

You can balance a busy business travel schedule and still strip fat, build muscle and feel like you are in control of things!

It comes down to learning how to make food work for you and ensuring that you don’t fall victim to the savvy marketing and irresistible scent that the Krispy Kreme’s give off!

Our February Shaker of the month is a very busy working mother of 3 boys who has always travelled for work and is super familiar with the above scenario. Samantha Lloyd has transformed her life, body and the way she travels.

Sam is an amazing mother who wants to set the right example and inspire her family. She is certainly doing that with a regular training routine, stripping 8kgs of fat and enjoying leaping out of bed in the morning! As all busy mothers understand, energy is a very precious commodity and it’s worth doing whatever it takes to fuel the fire! We recently caught up with Sam to chat about business travel, a busy family and fat loss:

Tell us a bit about yourself Sam:

45, mother of 3…Oscar 14, Isaac 13 and Cayden 11. I have been married to Clayton for 13 years. A house full of boys and we have a blast!

All the boys are active, surfing, skating, soccer so life’s pretty busy and we are constantly juggling work commitments and running the kids around to their activities.

I am a pharmacist and have always worked as a pharmacist up until recently. The past 3 years I have been working as a business development manager and I find that this role involves a lot of travel and  I am sedentary most of the time. Drinking coffee and taking clients out to dinner is pretty standard and all of this meant that I put a lot of weight on in a short time frame.

I was tired of being the fat, frumpy mum waiting on the beach while the boys surfed, so I joined the Shake UP and have never looked back!

You completed our Spring 10 week Challenge in 2016. How did this change your lifestyle Sam?

The mindset that you guys instilled upon us was the biggest life changer. Understanding how to balance my eating, structure certain foods around training times and knowing that I can still enjoy life’s treats I am just making more balanced choices now. I am still doing cook ups on the weekends and preparing all my food for the week. I pack an esky to take with me every day and now when I go out for dinner with clients I make sure I am pretty selective with my eating. I really enjoy the food that I am eating, I am just way more comfortable in ordering what works for me off the menu and not caving into social expectations.

I love that this is a sustainable lifestyle and it doesn’t seem like a diet. Years ago when I was opening pharmacies, I was opening popular supplement/meal replacement weight loss centers within the pharmacies. Throughout this period, I was receiving loads of training and knew the system/products very well. All that being said, it still didn’t work for me because essentially, it was a diet and required me to drink shakes and eat less. It’s hard to make that a lifestyle!

How do you manage travel and smart eating choices?

In the last 2 weeks I have done over 2000km going to visit clients all over South East Queensland. I am always on the move. The key for me is preparing loads of tuna patties, frittatas, protein balls, salads and things that I can eat on the go. It’s so much easier, I really feel like I am not rushing around, wasting my time trying to find something crappy to eat.

I am certainly eating more food now than I ever have. It’s just more regular and generally more nutritious choices. It feels amazing!

What do you love about The Shake UP?

Definitely the group. Its unreal. I have made some really great friends. Everyone is very encouraging and it doesn’t feel like a chore to come to get my ass kicked! I love it!

What an amazing woman! We are very lucky in that we get to watch the journey for a mother like Sam go from being tired, overweight and slow to bouncing in and out of workouts with a giant smile on her face. Sam’s kids often come to our training sessions and watch how hard their mother works. No better example than leading the way for your kids to follow! For all her hard work Sam has scored herself a treatment at Anchor Health Clinic in Palm Beach. Alex Yates is an absolute women’s health guru and we are delighted to have her train in our community and provide so much support to our hard working members.