With Mishel Karen’s 50th just around the corner, the former Married At First Sight star is going all out to mark her milestone birthday.
The reality TV star is welcoming the big five-oh with open arms and wants to commemorate her new decade with a “tasteful nude” photo shoot.
“I really want to do a photo shoot and show off my body! And let everyone see that 50 can be sexy and beautiful – scars and all,” Mishel tells Now To Love in an exclusive interview.
It’s little wonder the mother-of-two is ready to quite literally bare all, having recently shed the 13-kilograms she gained while filming the show, which saw her paired with her now ex-husband Steve Burley.
Determined to fit back into the figure-hugging black dress she wore to the hens party on MAFS and ring in her 50th birthday feeling fit and fabulous, the season seven star joined independent Brisbane gym Studio 99 and gave them one simple brief: “When I’m working out, it has to be playful, fun and practical.”
“If I was a little kid and I wanted to do something, what would I be doing? It has to have an element of playfulness to it. It has to be fun and it needs to be something I’d do with my young nieces and nephews,” she explains of her approach to working out.
“Tim, my trainer, put me on an exercise programme where it’s not exercise. We just have fun,” she says.
“I train with him twice a week, then I’ll do a cycle class once or twice a week and then I walk. I’ll go into the forest and walk and connect with nature.”
Before and after: Mishel during her MAFS days (L) and now.
(Images: Instagram)Using a targeted approach with her PT, workout sessions incorporate bodyweight exercises, Olympic lifting and single sided, lateral and rotational movements, teamed with a variety of classes like Pilates, and activities such as bushwalking.
In fact in April, Mishel even publicly vouched to transform her figure before she turned 50. At the time, she shared two comparison photos six months apart and made a pledge to change her lifestyle.
“Today, I started my journey, ‘unveil 50’ #unveil50 one of my first and biggest projects is the ‘Losing the extra MESH I gained in 2019’. It is quite obvious that during filming MAFS I gained a bit of extra ‘Mishel’ to love. An extra 13kgs of MESH,” she said at the time.
“I have been a curvy woman, ever since I started trying to have my babies. It was during that time my body started to change, change to a more voluptuous figure. It took me some time to get used to my new shape and start to embrace my curves; but I did it with age, confidence and positive affirmations. I am now back to my pregnancy weight just before I gave birth to my beautiful daughter Eva. Not a weight I expected to be after ‘getting married’ on MAFS or turning 50,” she signed off her post.
In April, Mishel shared these two images as she revealed she currently weighed the same as right before she gave birth to her daughter. The reality star made a pledge to shed the 13-kilos she gained while on MAFS and has stuck to her word.
(Images: Instagram)As for her diet, Mishel says she sticks to a very simplistic menu which embraces fresh vegetables picked straight from her garden.
“I’ve eliminated everything processed and refined and I just eat pure food. I only eat fruit, vegetables and meat – that’s it,” she reveals.
“I have my coffee in the morning. I don’t eat my first meal til 11am but I might have a banana or berries before I have lunch. For lunch, I’ll eat a cabbage salad with salmon and herbs from my garden,” the police trainer and recruiter explains of her typical day on a plate.
“Then I’ll probably eat some more fruit and nuts in the afternoon. Then meat for dinner with capsicum or cucumber.”
The soon-to-be 50-year-old, who rings in her milestone birthday in December, favours eating fresh foods from her vegetable garden and tries to work-out two to three times a week.
(Image: Instagram)For Mishel, no two days are the same with the 49-year-old preferring to go to her vegie garden “and eat whatever’s in there.”
The results have been revolutionary – both physically and mentally.
“Mentally I can think really well. Everything is very clear,” Mishel tells.
“Physically my body is very lean! I’ve never been this lean in my whole life. My body shape’s changed. I didn’t think that I had a ‘V’ around the tummy but I have one now – it’s really weird,” she laughs.
