ABOUT ELISE
I always enjoyed sports. I tried everything under the sun growing up but it was dancing and track and field that took most of my attention when I was young. I excelled in anything that needed power and strength and I think I always knew that athletics would be in my future.
After moving high school to a performing arts college I decided dance was going to be my career and after school attended ED5 International, a performing arts college in Sydney. The year was spent dancing, acting, singing and honing my skills for the stage. And after it was over, I came out with an agent and big dreams. There seemed to be plenty of auditions but I just couldn’t crack into anything of substance though.
At 21 I managed to land myself a 6 month contract living in Mumbai India, dancing in Bollywood. Although I had travelled before this, India really opened my eyes to this incredible world and different cultures within it, and I grew up quicklyin this time.
As I arrived back in Sydney, I realised that dancing wasn’t going to provide the income I needed so in 2009 I applied to get Certificate III and IV in Personal Training. From here I virtually tried every Personal Training job under the sun.
Starting off in outdoor bootcamps, then boutique PT studios, working on cruise ships, commercial gyms, groups and one on ones, I tried it all. And it was in these early days as a trainer that for the first time in my life I encountered my own personal struggles with food and disordered eating.
I had dabbled with diets before in my dancing career but was easily able to determine what was and wasn’t rational behaviour with food. It wasn’t until I began coaching other people that I began to feel the need to lead by example and have a body that inspired.
What started as a 9 week weight loss challenge turned into a 5 year struggle with binge eating and bulimia. Throughout this time I had also decided to tackle the world of body building, something I had on my to-do- list since I began Personal Training.
In 2013 I stepped on stage in IFBB Figure and the following year WBFF Fitness. I placed well but this extreme world threw me back into the depths of my eating disorder.
After my second competition I knew something was desperately wrong. My binging was back in full force and my self image was at an all-time low.
I decided to take my training focus away from aesthetics and try out powerlifting.
I immediately loved this new challenge and for the first time since my track and field days I remembered how good it felt to feel powerful without the burden of worrying about what I looked like.
It was in this time in 2015 that I met my now husband Luke who was waiting on approval for a space to open his own CrossFit gym in Sydney. He asked me join him in coaching and running OLOC Fitness, my introduction into the world of CrossFit.
So I trained and competed in powerlifting for the year and loved it. I got strong and I began to slowly fall back in love with my body but I wasn’t completely over my disorder and when I had to drop a few kilos for a weight class in powerlifting the diet regime, even though it wasn’t strict at all, sent me into a spin.
Luke and I had made plans to move to Thailand and I had made plans to tackle this disorder once and for all. In the process of moving I committed myself to a year without diets. A year without worrying about weight or abs or training with a goal that had anything to do with those two things.
A year to completely fall in love with myself and my life again.
When we arrived in Thailand Luke started coaching the CrossFit classes at a fitness camp called Unit 27 in Phuket. In the 3 months before I began coaching, I started learning CrossFit and it was the perfect fit for what I needed at that point in my life and training. There was always something for me to work on and I fell in love with the process of seeing a skill and breaking it down until it was mastered.
In 2016 I competed in my first CrossFit Open and placed 4th in Asia earning myself a spot at the Pacific Regionals in Australia. Unfortunately I missed out on competing because of an injury the week before, so had some unfinished business with CrossFit.
Thailand became our base for the next 3 years and in between coaching, Luke and I travelled the world seeking out challenges and adventures. In 2017 we set off to cross the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. We covered over 1800km on foot dragging our own supplies and after 57 days I finished my first big expedition. This was trip the start of my adventure life.
After this expedition I gave myself 5 months to rebuild what the desert had stolen to make my way to the CrossFit Regionals floor. And in 2018 qualified and competed at the Pacific Regionals.
My husband and I live by the motto One Life, One Chance and tackle each day with this ringing in our ears.
After battling for so many years with food and my body image I have made the commitment to myself to never waste another second of my days worrying about a love handle, a stretch mark or whether I should have the piece of chocolate.
And now, through my experiences, I want to show other men and women how to rid themselves of the notion you have to look a certain way to live an incredible life and accomplish more than you
ever thought possible.