MICHELLE Bridges might seem on top of her game, but she has a secret. The fitness guru uses her own personal trainer. ‘‘Motivation is like a bad boyfriend. It’s never there when you need it!’’ she says.
Bridges believes suburban Australians need to change our ways and when she visits Greensborough to promote her latest book, she will be spreading the message.
‘‘As a human being and a personal trainer, I know you’re not always going to be motivated,” she says. “On the one hand they use it as an excuse, on the other hand they treat it as the magic pill.’’
Bridges is not surprised that the north-east of Melbourne has seen a dramatic rise in rates of diabetes, and alarming obesity statistics. She points out the amount of fast food outlets in the area. ‘‘Where are all your healthy fresh fruit and veg shops?’’ she asks.
‘‘We have forgotten how to make simple meals ourselves and rely on the fast food outlets to cook for us.’’
Eating better is only one half of the equation though. Bridges puts it bluntly: ‘‘We need to get up off our butts and move more.’’
It’s the kind of drive that made Bridges a household name whipping contestants into shape on the Australian version of The Biggest Loser. She believes the key to success is consistency.
‘‘Be consistent with your choices around nutrition, be consistent around your exercise. This is a regular ongoing thing that you do 95 per cent of the time. When was the last time you had to psyche yourself up to brush your teeth? You do it every morning and every evening as a habit. The more habitual you become the more successful you will be.’’
Growing up in Newcastle and Wagga Wagga in New South Wales, Bridges started her career as a fitness instructor while still in high school.
Always an active child, she says sport taught her valuable life lessons from a very young age. ‘‘My sport and my training of sport taught me things about discipline and commitment, how to lose, how to win, how to be a team player, how to be a star performer.’’
At 14, she went to her school head mistress when she noticed some of her classmates weren’t playing football, netball or soccer. She suggested she could teach a fitness class. After she bluffed her way through teaching her fellow students using basic training techniques, she decided to turn it into a part-time job. ‘‘I thought I was pretty hot stuff after that,’’ she laughs.
Next, Bridges went down to her local squash court and asked for a job. They hired her on the spot. She eventually became a qualified fitness instructor at 18, and has been training ever since.
Now living in Sydney, Bridges is a one-woman industry. She is currently shooting the next season of The Biggest Loser, runs an online fitness business and has just written her sixth book. Her latest, Five Minutes A Day, is intended to get people to plan their lives. She trains every day.
‘‘Even with over 20 years of experience I still struggle. I have my days. That’s when you just have to switch your head off. I don’t like to do my tax sometimes but I still do it. I do a bit of exercise every day.’’
And about her trainer she says, ‘‘It’s fun. I’ve got someone who kicks my butt.’’
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