How Sophie Guidolin lost 28 kilograms and took the fitness world by storm

WHEN 25-year-old Sophie Guidolin gave birth to her second child just a year after her first, she was tired. Tired of being pregnant, tired of giving birth, tired of always being tired.

“I put on quite a bit of weight while pregnant, and I was really unhappy,” Sophie tells news.com.au. “It wasn’t so much that I hated the way I looked, I just had no energy or strength. I wanted to have energy for my boys, and I just didn’t. I knew something had to change.

“Initially the only thing I could do was put the boys into a pram and go for long walks with them. Then I started to be more organised with my food. Then I signed up for weight training, and that’s when I really started to see the changes.”

Those changes Sophie is talking about culminated in an incredible 28 kilogram weight loss. Two books, three workout guides, her own gym, 500,000 social media followers and a few bodybuilding titles later, she’s never felt better.

“I never imagined I’d be here,” she says from her Gold Coast home, having just been announced as a brand ambassador for the Fitness Institute of Australia.

Sophie now.

Sophie before she began to put on weight.

“As far as competing goes, it was never my goal. I just wanted more energy. But I’ve learned that you have to really enjoy the exercise you’re doing, and if you don’t enjoy it you need to stop and find something else you’re going to love. You can try swimming, running, surfing — there’s no one ‘good’ exercise, it’s whatever’s right for you.

“I exercise every day and encourage other people to do the same. It doesn’t all have to be intense — I do weight training, swimming, stand up paddle boarding, we go bike riding as a family. The boys love skateboarding so often I’ll bike next to them. I do have 2 children so sometimes I can’t get to the gym, so I follow a program at home that includes lunges, step-ups, that kind of thing. It’s about being the best that you can be.”

The proof is clearly in the pudding, and Sophie has turned her knowledge and expertise into a career. She and her ‘Mr World Olympia’ husband Nathan have just opened their own gym, and together, they have coached thousands of men and women online. But at the moment, it’s clean family eating that Sophie’s really passionate about.

“When I was pregnant with the boys I had no nutritional goals. I just didn’t realise how much it could affect your energy and moods,” she says.

“Then when the boys first started to eat, I never dreamt of feeding them sugar, so I thought, if I wouldn’t give it to them, why would I eat it myself? That really prompted me to reassess what I was eating and what I was doing with myself. Your children learn from you, they’re like little sponges. I wanted them to grow up with healthy role models.”

Cute! Training with one of her boys.

Sophie’s second book, the newly released My Kids Eat, aims to show people “how great their body is designed to feel.” It contains a collection of her favourite family recipes based on clean eating principles.

“I used to have a folder with handwritten recipes that I’ve used over the past five years, and people kept telling me to turn it into a book, so I did,” she explains.

“There are heaps of nut free suggestions in there because so many child care places are nut free these days, there are heaps of lunch box ideas ... It’s so hard for mums who are trying to do the best for their kids.

“A lot of our clients are mums who have two or three children, who used to have takeaway for dinner every night but want to change that. But they’re up against a lot! Often they’re even shot down by their kindergartens! That’s exactly what happened to me when my son first started kindy. I sent him to school with quinoa bread for lunch, and when I went to pick him up, I was given a $6 fine, because they had to feed him a vegemite sandwich instead. I was so confused!

“I went to the school and said, this isn’t a dessert, this is a bread, why is there a problem? The director said to me, we can’t have nuts at school. I explained that quinoa is a grain, but she still said well look, he can’t eat it here.

Sophie with her family. Her children are now 6 and 7.

“The next day I sent him in with a banana bread cake, made from wholemeal flour, no sugar. When I went to pick him up and I had another fine! They said it wasn’t acceptable. I went through the recipe to show that it was better than bread, but I was still told no.

“The director gave me a copy of the nutritional guidelines I had to follow. For lunch you could have bread with jam, vegemite or honey. No meat allowed, because it might go off in the sun. You could have fruit, and you were allowed to bring in things like cupcakes as a treat. So he could have cupcakes, but not homemade banana cake? I thought, this is crazy!

“Next up, I made a flat bread to take in, I wasn’t going to give sugary bread. I brought in heaps of nutritional information to explain why, but she still didn’t get it, she told me it wasn’t acceptable again, and I got another fine. I ended up pulling him out of the school, because he wasn’t allowed to eat anything good.

“Basically, I think there’s a definite lack of education around what we should and shouldn’t be eating. People don’t understand what foods actually are good, and their basic nutritional principles. It should be a basic educational requirement, to know what you should be eating. That’s what I want to change.”

Sophie in competition mode. She doesn’t change what she eats in the lead up, but she does focus more on weight training.

In case you’re curious, Sophie eats five times a day. Here’s a typical day on a plate:

Breakfast

A peanut butter smoothie or an almond meal pancake with almond butter

Snack

Homemade muesli bar

Lunch

Mango and chicken quinoa salad or a smoked salmon and cream cheese wrap with capers on a rye nature’s wrap

Snack

Homemade chocolate mousse

Dinner

Roast chicken with vegetables or eggplant lasagne

Happy, healthy, never better.