Bikini babe!
Months after giving birth, I looked like this!
I’d always been active but, after I met my partner Dave, 24, a body builder four years ago, I became a gym addict. He was impressed by how I took to our gym sessions.
‘You should enter a bikini competition,’ he told me.
I laughed but the more I thought about it, the more fun it sounded.
Exercise was transforming my body – why not show it off?
There was a competition being held in November 2015…
‘I’ll challenge myself to get in shape by then and if I succeed, I’ll think about competing,’ I told Dave. So I began training six times a week – cardio and gym sessions. And I’d fuel up with eggs and spinach in the mornings, and a rice-and-chicken-dish before training. In 12 weeks, I’d dropped from a size-16 to a 6! When the comp came, I was up for it! And on 15 November, I strutted my stuff in a skimpy bikini before the panel of judges. A first-timer, I didn’t think I stood a chance. Then... ‘In first place – Cerys Bawes!’ said the head judge. Can’t be right, I thought. But, at the side of the stage, Dave was grinning. I really was a champ! I wanted to compete again, but it had to wait… ‘My lower abs aren’t coming through,’ I said to Dave in April last year. Despite my workouts, there was no definition. So Dave suggested that I take a pregnancy test. It was positive! We were both absolutely thrilled. Little Roman arrived in October last year and I loved being a mum, even though it kept me out the gym for six weeks, while I recovered from the birth.
When I did get back in there, I noticed that the competition I’d won the year before was just months away…
‘I’m going to enter,’ I told Dave.
This time, Roman was part of my workout schedule.
I’d get up and change him, then feed him while I hit the exercise bike, took him in his pram
when I went power walking. My body seemed to snap back into shape.
On 7 May this year, I entered the competition to defend my title.
I put no pressure on myself – I hadn’t long had a baby!
So I was amazed when I won for a second time!
I plan to compete again next year, too.
But for now, I’m going to focus on my newest passion – being a brilliant mum…
My body seemed to snap back into shape
I was amazed to win again!