Danielle Van Heerden

Swimming teacher & personal trainer, Pinetown.

Before Danielle van Heerden and her husband decided to start a family, she was a competitive Bikini athlete. However, after two pregnancies her once svelte, stage-ready physique was unrecognisable.

“I really wasn’t happy with my body. I had fallen into that trap of believing that when you’re pregnant you need to eat for two, but I now know that’s utter rubbish! I felt really uneasy and uncomfortable, especially when I looked at pictures from my days as a Fitness Bikini athlete.”

But rather than dwell on her current weight and predicament and long for the ‘good old days’, Danielle decided to use those images as motivation. “Looking back at those pictures and videos made me more determined than ever to train and diet hard to get my body back, even though I knew that with two children it wouldn’t be easy.”

SOLID SUPPORT

Danielle says that she thankfully gets a lot of help from her parents and her husband when it comes to looking after the kids. “This makes it a lot easier to fit in my training and gives me the time I need to work with my clients.”