For Ashley, from Plate Of Origin‘s Team Cameroon, walking out on stage in a bodybuilding competition was one of the proudest achievements of her life.
“What I was most proud of was knowing I can do anything I put my mind to,” Ashley, 28, tells TV WEEK.
Ashley’s weight has varied dramatically throughout her life. She was born in a car on the way to hospital in Cameroon, and tells how was “really skinny” when she was young.
“I was so little and sick, no-one knew if I was going to make it,” she says. “I had injections every day.”
Ashley has had a difficult journey with her health and weight.
(Channel Seven)Ashley moved with her family, including younger sister and teammate Kelly, to Australia in 2005. After that, she started “making up for lost time”.
“Kelly, my friends and I worked at fast-food eateries and bakeries, so I was eating a lot of those types of food,” she remembers.
“My family were worried about my health due to my weight gain.”
After getting into bodybuilding the kilos began to fall.
(Supplied)Ashley started eating better and going to the gym, even though she found the gym “really weird” at first.
“I didn’t know what I was doing, so I mostly used the cross-trainer,” she says.
Her weight dropped from 77kg to 57kg, but continued to fluctuate. Then she set her sights on bodybuilding.
“The most important thing to me is how much I love myself,” she says.
(Supplied)“I love muscles and admire those who go on stage in front of people or pose in magazines, because I’ve never felt that confident,” Ashley admits.
Thanks to a workout and food plan, and a coach, Ashley made it to the competition stage.
Now, she knows what she needs to do to lose weight.
“But the most important thing to me is how much I love myself,” she adds. “No matter how much I weigh, I am proud of me.”
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