Darushka's fitter, healthier life

Malabar’s Darushka Williams was only 18 when she suffered heart palpitations.

She weighed 95kg and hated exercise.

Five years later, Darushka took the decision to lose weight and eat “clean”.

Now the wife and mom weighs 58.3kg and is a gym instructor. 

Darushka's story

When I was about 18 years old, it started to set in that I needed to do something about my health because I would get heart palpitations.

Eventually, at 23, I had an operation because I was suffering from severe back pain. At the time I thought it was just the load of my front area, but I found out it was actually the excess weight that I was carrying around – I weighed 95kg – that my body frame couldn’t handle.

That’s when I knew I needed to do something, but I just didn’t know where to start.

I started with changing my eating habits. I read a lot about women’s health that gave me basic nutrition knowledge, which helped me start losing some of the weight until I reached a plateau.

I realised I needed to exercise too.

I had to give up a very unhealthy lifestyle, which I’m not sorry for. I would go to sleep then wake up to get a burger from McDonald’s at 11pm. Then there was pizza, pasta, chocolates and all the carbohydrate-loaded foods that I used to indulge in every day.

About six months after changing my nutrition, I enrolled at Virgin Active gym and started with the treadmill.

I would wear baggy T-shirts to hide my body because it just felt like everybody was looking at me.

I had so many days that I couldn’t get out of bed and felt that I couldn’t do it anymore because it was too hard but I kept myself motivated by keeping pictures of myself so I could see that I needed to see a change in my body.

The fact that I worked as a seafood sales rep for my dad helped because he would allow me some time off to go to gym during the day.

Now I only eat carbs on my cheat days, which are once a week when my family visits on weekends – otherwise I eat carbohydrate-free foods.

A basic example of my menu for the day is eggs for breakfast, chicken and veggies for lunch, almonds or biltong snacks with a protein shake during the day, and fish or chicken and veggies for supper.

I also normally keep a carbohydrate like sweet potato for lunch just as a natural energy resource for the day.

After I got married in 2010 and had my son in 2011, I realised I had really fallen in love with fitness, but I had never thought to pursue it as a job until I was on the treadmill one day and this guy suggested that I pursue fitness training as a career and referred me to a college.

From there I started juggling working for my dad, taking care of my son, studying and putting in the hours at the gym until but I eventually stopped working for my dad and pursued fitness training full time.

I am now a fitness trainer with Viva Gym in Walmer.

The journey never ends emotionally. Physically, your body changes, but inside you have to keep reminding yourself that “I don’t want to go back there, I don’t want to be that person anymore” all your life.

Initially I thought I needed to look skinny to be happy, but now I know it’s not the case anymore.

I am focused on looking, feeling and being strong.

Learning that this is a lifestyle and not a diet is very important and I advise anyone who wants to change their lifestyle to start by changing their mindset.

Change your diet and then join the gym – start with an exercise programme with a trainer if you need help.

Darushka's fitness tips

Darushka has five key fitness tips ahead of race day on May 5:

1. Always brace your core before every exercise;
2. Don’t depend only on cardio; lift weights too;
3. Stay consistent;
4. Drink more water, and less alcohol and fewer fizzy drinks; and
5. Remember you need breaks, so take days off, and stretch.