‘THE KIDS THINK I’M AWESOME!’
She’s been around the globe competing in some of the world’s most ambitious spaces, but Jana says SAS was a whole other level of challenging.
“The course was as
I expected, really hard, but the problem for us athletes was that there was no end point to the challenges. We’re used to finish lines and a finite number of reps in what we do, so it was mental torture as we waited for someone to call an end to the challenge,” she explains.
Interestingly, the star says competing on the quasi-military series had her feeling more like a mother than an athlete.
“I was reminded so many times on the show of just how far behind me my athlete days are. It was tough knowing how well I could have completed some of the tasks if I was at my athletic best – I feel more like a mum now, than an athlete.”
Fans applauded the doctor when she showcased the reality of postpartum incontinence during an episode, in which she wet herself while completing a gruelling challenge.
“Physically, I was under done. I’d given birth five months earlier. My hips hurt when
I ran because they were still soft and, embarrassingly,
I kept peeing myself because the muscles around my bladder and birth canal hadn’t tightened. I’ve had thousands of messages from women around
Australia saying it happens to them all the time and thanking me for normalising it.”
Looking back, the busy mum turned ‘wonder woman’ says her kids think she’s awesome since watching her compete.
“It’s really endearing. After each episode, they do ‘challenges like mummy’. On the monkey bars they are
‘on the helicopter, like mummy’ or they take a backpack full of teddies on our walks, mimicking my hikes with the heavy berkut, and they box each other,” she gushes. “I love being a positive role model for children and I’m so happy with how the public is accepting me.”