She's a qualified nutritionist, a personal trainer, and an absolute ray of sunshine! Meet Sharee- the boss babe behind the smiles of those who have turned to her for support and reassurance with their fitness journeys. With a wealth of knowledge and personal experience behind her, Sharee knows that finding a healthy lifestyle isn't always an easy road. In our chat, Sharee talks career changes, eating disorders, bodybuilding comps, life with Polycystic Ovaries. Oh! And her one absolute golden rule of advice for those ready to embark on a healthy lifestyle.
Firstly, have you always been really into health and fitness?
No, I hated PE when I was in school, absolutely hated PE. I was into dance, but I didn’t know dance was associated with health and fitness. So, from there I went on to study dance at Deakin University, I auditioned and I got in. I studied dance, drama and education to become a teacher. However, throughout my time at university I went through my own health issues. Being diagnosed with IBS and trying to take out that mentality that I had in high school that I could out-train a bad diet. I slowly fell in love with fitness and learning about nutrition. Then when I was a teacher, I realized that I actually had more fun in the staffroom talking to the teachers about what to eat, how to exercise, and I would run little boot camps with them for free. I thought ok maybe I need to redirect my energy.
Do you still dance now?
I used to dance for my church in Melbourne, we had a worship band. For that group we’d choreograph dances for any special events. But once we moved down to Geelong I decided not to do dance, I was just getting in my head too much. But eventually, I’ll get back into it. It’s nice to just have a break.
You have a lot of achievements behind you, what are the ones you are most proud of?
Probably coming first place in the ICN All Female Classic. After doing the first competition I fell in love with it. I was really nervous that the girls would be really bitchy or that I’d be too exhausted but I found that I learnt so much about my body and I was eating more than I’d ever eaten before. I thought I was going to fail and just binge eat but you’re eating so much food you’re actually not hungry. It was my greatest achievement standing up there and not expecting to get first place. I forgot it was even an option until they were calling out the list and I was thinking 'oh my gosh I think I actually have this.'
The preparation for these comps looks so brutal. What did you find most challenging about it?
You might miss certain food because you enjoy the taste or texture of it, you're kind of just having the same thing every day. You have to take supplements to make sure you’re not missing out on any nutrients and that’s no way to live. At some stage, you’re going to want to go out and enjoy time with friends and family at cafes and it felt like you were missing out on that. That was probably the hardest part.
Did you find it a challenge to stay disciplined as well?
All you really need is money and time. When you’re putting so much investment in something you’re going to do the right thing. It’s got value to it, you’re putting money towards it and you don’t want to spend all this money just to waste it on a box of Skittles. You don’t even realise you’re doing it, you’re being disciplined because you’re putting value into it.
What about your favourite parts of doing a comp?
I had a different coach for my second competition. When you’re on the stage, even though you all look the same, you all get there in different ways. Every time I do a competition, I will want a different coach because I find it fascinating how the coach gets their information. Even though I’ve studied nutrition and fitness it’s so interesting. Sometimes you get in your own headspace and when something works for you, you go 'great, I’ve found the Holy Grail. I’m just going to stick with this, this is what I know.' It was so much fun learning from different coaches and not think of it as the Holy Grail rather it is just a different way to get there on to that stage.
My favourite quote of yours is - “Not all reasons to keep fit are about losing weight and having a really slim body. A healthy body is a body that functions optimally”, what was the lesson behind this?
When I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovaries, I found it fascinating to find out that my hormones were so imbalanced that I needed to keep fit and healthy. To not do it for the reason of getting slim but to balance my hormones. Also if you’re planning to do a competition you need to actually gain weight while increasing your fitness. So essentially your body is going to be gaining weight and bulking (growing muscle). When people hear bulking they think fat instantly but that’s not always the case.
You've previously spoken about your experience with Polycystic Ovaries, what have you learnt from your diagnosis? Has your healthy lifestyle helped you to manage it?
Polycystic Ovaries Syndrome is different from Polycystic Ovaries. It just means I have lots of eggs in each ovary not really doing too much. If you have PCOS it means your body struggles to produce insulin causing facial hair or severe acne. For that, it definitely comes down to diet and exercise. A good person to be following is Plant Based Body she has Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and she is fantastic at monitoring her PCOS. Mine is a lot more manageable because I have Polycystic Ovaries it means I can reverse the effects quite quickly and easily by, as my doctor said, gaining weight and being less stressed. However, exercise and HIIT is a stressor for my body so my kind of cardio needs to be either walking or running, so something that is steady state.
Stress can be a huge factor for women. We can eat super healthy and have such a great lifestyle but have somebody pass away and our body is under so much chronic stress. There are just so many different factors that have a play with it. It’s honestly trial and error for each individual.
You’ve also experimented with a vegan diet, what changes did you notice in your body?
Ever since finishing competitions my meals have always been plant-based. When you’re comp prepping you’re having so much meat, 60% of my diet was coming from meat products. When I finished, I wanted to make sure I was doing vegan/plant-based. It was more just an experiment. I always say to people even when they’re starting to be healthy, use it as an experiment. Give yourself a set day that you’re going to stop and you might not even stop, you might just change a little bit. If you treat it as an experiment it becomes so much easier to do it. You’ll be like ok in eight weeks’ time doughnuts will still be there or meat will still be there. That’s the way I sort of treat everything. So I planned to do 8 weeks vegan and see how I felt. I didn’t notice any immediate effects because I had been eating quite clean food this whole time. After one week/two weeks I noticed I was getting a lot more acne and was feeling a lot more bloated more of the time and that was because of my IBS. There’s lots of high fructose in beans and lentils and soy products which affects my skin. Whatever was happening my body just didn’t agree to the soy. There were so many intolerances I had to deal with. I had so much fatigue. I was trying to supplement where I could, but my philosophy is if you need to supplement then it might not be the ideal diet for you.
B12 is a bit different. B12 comes from the dirt in the ground. Because we clean all of our fruit and vegetables so much these days even meat-eaters can’t get enough B12.
In the end, I try to tell people, just do you. Whatever happened to preference? Why can’t we just eat that because that’s what we decide to do?
You’ve spoken about trying to become a model and the feedback you were given that you wouldn’t get any work weighing your current weight at the time (see Insta post here). What was it like having an agency tell you they think you should trim down?
I think I had so many insecurities that I already thought I needed to. Also, this was just before I was diagnosed with IBS and I was trying to out-train a bad diet so I knew inside that I needed to be healthier. I would wake up and have Coco Pops for breakfast, a party pie for lunch, pizza for dinner. In between, I’d have a choc-chip muesli bar. This was me trying to be healthy. When you eat that way you feel crap. You feel lethargic, you feel heavy, you feel addicted to it as well. At the time my insecurities were like 'yeah you need to lose weight' because I knew how unhealthy I was eating. I suffered an eating disorder having a really unhealthy relationship with food. I couldn’t eat around anyone unless it was my family. I wouldn’t eat all day until I would come home and then I would binge eat and then the next day I’d do the whole cycle again. I either felt completely empty or completely full. With the modelling, I thought I was bigger than what I was. But when you suffer IBS you get bloating all the time. For me that was a big thing, I would look at supermodels and they’d have these awesome bodies and they are questioning in the magazines “is she pregnant?” and I’m like 'I look like that most of the time.' They’re saying she probably just ate a big bowl of pasta and I’m like 'I look like that after eating one banana!' All because I would be so reactive to the foods that I was eating. So for me, all I drew from that was the attention to my belly and my bloating. Back then IBS was such a new thing. I thought I needed to work on stuff.
Your social media shows a beautiful, energising account of self-love and kindness. Was there a point in time when you did struggle with the opinions of others?
100%. When you come into the fitness industry, it’s all about what people think of you. It’s a slow, long, hard and constant practice of going 'no, I’m this way and I love myself.' You just have to treat yourself as if you would treat your best friend. Don’t let yourself say bad things about you. Don’t let that inner mean girl come and attack you. You know who you are. It’s funny how in one day we can go from being super loving and happy with our bodies and then someone takes a picture of us and we think 'ugh I look crap' and you’ve got all these insecurities. I definitely have worried about what people think but I’m getting better at not worrying. It’s still something that I have to practice. If you don’t want to get hurt, then you’re insecure and worried about what people think all the time. It’s just about practising saying “no”. There’s always going to be at least 10% of people in the world that aren’t going to like you. There’s no point in pleasing people, it’s about you just being true to yourself.
What is your number one rule of advice for those embarking on a healthier lifestyle?
Don’t make it perfect. Don’t aim too high in a way, which sounds ridiculous but if you can do 50% work or 80% work that’s better than sitting on the couch doing absolutely 0. However, as people we struggle to do that, it’s either all in or nothing. We need to not have that mentality when it comes to lifestyle because it’s life. Life is fricking insane. One day it’ll be perfect and then the next day it could be completely reversed. You just can’t control it.
So the best thing is to not beat yourself up. Work on doing a little bit at a time, aim for that 80%. When it comes to exercise try and have a minimum that you’re going to come to the gym instead of going ‘I’m going to go 7 days a week and it’s going to be awesome!’ Realistically sit there with your schedule and go ‘I can probably go three days, easy.’ I’m going to aim for seven but if I make my three days then I’m still winning. Rather than going ‘I only made three and I feel so crap about my body.’ That was better than when you made 0! We just put so much pressure on ourselves.
Falling off the wagon then comes with feelings of guilt and failure, what do you say to those who have been discouraged?
The sooner the better to get back on. Do you know how easy it is to fall off a bandwagon? Have you ever seen a wagon? Like back then the roads weren’t great either, they’re actually not that easy to hold on to. You’d fall off all the time. You’re meant to fall off a wagon. So you just jump back on, if you let it go too long you have to run after that thing before you jump back on. It’s not about starting the next day, it’s about starting the next meal.
You said you never liked exercising at school and now you’ve made a career out of it! Did you ever think this is how your life would have turned out?
I never thought that my life would be like this honestly. I thought that I’s be a school teacher and be travelling all over the world. Then when I decided I didn’t want to be a school teacher I thought that I would have this huge business that’s like online training. I’ve had so many different jobs and I think any advice for people is to just keep going until you find the right job. It’s almost like finding the right guy. You know you date a whole bunch of guys to work out what you like and what you don’t like and then you find the right one. That’s kinda what I feel like. I’ve done receptionist work before and worked as a pharmacy assistant, teaching and retail. This is finally a time where I actually enjoy going to work. Never thought I’d be here though.
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