Maz Dela Cerna – How I Lost 30kg Without Going on a Diet

If you think that everyone that starts studying as a Personal Trainer has always been fit and sporty, you are wrong.

AIPT Student Maz Dela Cerna shows that sometimes little steps lead to huge changes in transforming your life.

The chafing was painful. It was uncomfortable. It hurt to walk. I had enough.

It was the middle of summer, and the heat made it near impossible to hide the excess weight on my 5-foot frame. No longer could I hide behind layers of clothing, it was too hot for that. I felt insecure, and I felt self-conscious. Whenever I was in public, I felt like people were looking at me thinking about how overweight I was. It didn’t feel good, and I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. Something had to change.

Being overweight, I often felt lethargic and lazy. The thought of being active and working out made me cringe. It felt like so much effort.

I decided to start small and take baby steps by walking every morning. I didn’t want it to feel like exercise, so I would stroll the Brisbane River and take scenic photos. I fell in love with photography and soon it became a hobby. I would listen to music and stop for photos every time I saw an image that caught my eye.

Before I knew it, I forgot about the chafe and found myself walking for hours. I would be excited to get out of bed each morning. It became my outlet and stress reliever. People would compliment me as they noticed I was starting to shed some weight. This motivated me to clean up my diet. I didn’t restrict myself at all as I knew doing so would lead me to binge eating.

I started to make better choices when it came to food. Instead of white rice, I chose brown. Instead of white bread, I went for wholemeal. Instead of ordering pizza, I made my own.

The weight started to drop off quickly just by making small adjustments. I then decided to step it up a notch and signed up to a 12-week boot camp challenge for females. I was still too insecure to go to a gym and felt that I would be more accountable to show up if people were expecting me.

I lost nearly 10kg in those 12 weeks, and my confidence started to grow. I needed another challenge which lead to me signing up to a weight lifting group. Again, I felt safe in the environment as we were all beginners. I had no clue what I was doing when it came to lifting, and the trainers were super friendly and helpful. It didn’t take long to discover that lifting shaped my body in ways cardio or HIIT could never do.

It blew my mind that I could still eat out with friends, maintain a social life, eat the food I love and yet still see gains. Here I was thinking losing weight meant restricting myself!I fell in love with how good I was feeling from being active. I started to fall in love with the girl I saw in the mirror. Safe to say I became addicted and wanted to achieve more. That’s when I decided to do my first bodybuilding competition. I wanted to compete. I wanted that bikini bod. I wanted to challenge myself.

Fast forward, I am now a social media influencer, have competed in a handful of shows and have featured in some of my favourite magazines, including Oxygen. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine that my fitness journey started with walking. Sometimes it’s that first step that turns out to be the biggest step of your life.

Stay tuned as Maz chats about her challenges in training leading up to competition in the coming weeks.