How One Australian Woman Learned to Lift and Discovered Her Dream Job

“Partly because cultural norms from my background idealizes being thin, but mainly from my high school social circles,” she told NextShark.

At 17, without any guidance on fitness exercise or health, she began going to the gym regularly, thinking that the habit of going to exercise was “taking fitness seriously,” she said. With her limited knowledge, she would use fixed-movement machines like the leg press and leg extensions, two exercises often debated in workout circles over their potential risk of injury.

At 20, she met her now-fiancé who greatly expanded her weight lifting knowledge, and she found a new goal of reaching for strength rather than for aesthetic reasons.

“I truly believe that being able-bodied and having the opportunity to train is a blessing that not everyone is lucky enough to have,” she said.

Now 27, Kimura is an online coach and trainer at Goodlife Health Clubs. Having lost two jobs and her sources of income due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she was consumed by hesitation on how and where to focus her career. By this time, all gyms had closed.

“I have wanted to become a coach and trainer for years, but procrastinated delving into it simply due to self doubt,” she said. “I have wanted to become a coach and trainer for years, but procrastinated delving into it simply due to self doubt.”

Facing her fears, she eventually rolled up her sleeves, set up a website within weeks, and began creating content for her online fitness coaching business.

Kimura now finds coaching to be fulfilling and what she was destined for. “Today, a client told me she is eating more, training better and feeling so full of purpose since joining my team and it is literal music to my ears,” she said.

Meg also acknowledged the large impact her family had to her fitness regimen, especially her father. He made time out of his day to maintain his health through physical activity for as long as she could remember, even still to this day, she said. “I was hugely impacted by my dad and his commitment to training. It rubbed off on me in the best way possible and it instilled a routine early on,” she added.

Today, a normal workout routine for her is a lower body session twice a week, upper body twice a week, and one full-body session.

She advises anyone who is looking to start their healthy lifestyle to take it one day at a time. It could simply be to drink more water or go to the gym at least two times a week. The key, she says, is to not overwhelm yourself and to make achievable goals.

Despite going to the gym for ten years, Meg feels as if she is only just scraping the surface of what she can do. “I am inspired to show up every single day, knowing that if I can give my all into training and overcome barriers like feeling unmotivated, I can apply myself to everything else in life,” she said.

The coach finds caffeine as a source of energy for when she is tired. A good playlist is another essential for training.

Kimura told NextShark that if she could tell her younger self anything, she would say to be grateful for everything and not waste “precious energy” on negative self-talk.

“Spend your time wisely and invest in feeling good internally, training for mental clarity (not aesthetics), and cultivating your passions,” she said.

Feature Images via @megkae