Gabbi
63, lost 10kg
Had tried everything and did not believe she could shift it. We actually increased her food first. Sixteen weeks later she had energy to keep up with her grandkids, which is all she wanted.
My 29th Birthday Step Challenge · Starts Monday 3 August
I'm turning 29. So I'm taking 29 women
with me.
An eight week challenge built on eating properly, moving more, and finally understanding why. Same meals your family eats. One spot for every year I've been here.
All prices AUD. No subscription and no auto-renew, on either option.
Start here
If you have said any of these out loud this year
I lose the weight and then I put it straight back on.
I'm exhausted by 3pm. I can't keep up with my kids.
I avoid photos. I dread getting dressed.
I know what to do, I just can't seem to actually stick to it.
I have said every single one of those. Some of them for years.
Why I do this
I did not get here the clever way
I grew up watching my mum yo yo diet. She hated being in photos, even holiday ones. She would look away from shop windows so she did not have to see herself. That was just normal to me.
I swam for Australia from the age of 14. Around 100km a week, plus four gym sessions, plus school. I was eating over 4,000 calories a day and I still thought carbs were bad. I used to throw my school lunch in the bin because I was embarrassed about how much bigger I was than the other girls, and then get home ravenous and scoff my dinner.
Then I had my first son. I could not walk properly through the pregnancy, and I came out the other side 15kg heavier and not recognising myself. So I did the only thing I had ever seen anyone do. I starved it off. Eight months, no breakfast, as little as I could get away with.
It worked, technically. The weight came off. What I actually got was no muscle, no energy, and postpartum depression. I would not go in the pool with my own baby because I did not want to be seen in bathers, so I would send my husband in instead. There was a point where I did not want to be here at all.
I got to the goal weight and I was more miserable than when I started. That is what nobody tells you about doing it that way.
After my second son I promised myself I would never do that again. I found a coach who taught me flexible dieting, and in 16 weeks I lost 5kg without setting foot in a gym. Just walking, and actually eating enough. My whole family started eating better. My kids' moods changed. So did mine.
Then my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer, and researching how to help her is what made me study nutrition properly in the first place. She passed away in October 2024. She left two kids behind.
That is when this stopped being about bodies for me. It is about having the energy to actually be there, and getting ahead of things instead of trying to fix them later. I would like to be a small pivotal moment in someone's life. Something they look back on in 20 years and are glad happened.
That is what the 29 is. It is my birthday, and this is what I want to do with it.
Just so you know
Who you are actually working with
I do not think a certificate on its own makes anyone a good coach. But you should know I did the study, and you should know why I did it.
Qualified
Certificate IV in Nutrition, Health and Wellness Coaching
Through Vast Fitness Academy. I started studying so I could help my sister, and I never stopped.
Coaching since 2024
Over 100 women coached
Mums, shift workers, women in their sixties, women who had written themselves off. Since August 2024.
Lived it
Represented Australia in swimming from age 14
Which taught me an enormous amount about training and almost nothing about food. That part came much later, the hard way.
Also true
Competitive arm wrestler
I am a really strong girl arm wrestler. It is how I ended up on a podcast talking about coaching.
What the 8 week challenge actually is
Level one. And that is completely the point.
I am not going to try to recomp your body in eight weeks. This is the foundation layer: a better relationship with food, a weight you can actually hold, more energy, and finally understanding the why behind it. Get that right and everything after it gets easier.
You will not be cutting out carbs
Or sugar, or bread, or any other food group. You do not need to, and it is the reason it never lasted last time.
You will not cook two dinners
You eat what your family eats. If you have to make yourself a separate sad meal every night, you will quit by week three. So we do not do that.
You will not be starving
I will not keep cutting your calories to make the scale move faster. It wrecks your energy, your mood and your hormones, and I have seen where it ends.
It blows my mind how many people still think they have to cut out carbs and sugar to lose body fat. Zannetta, and roughly 80/20 is all it takes
Actual meals from the plans
Lose fat. Eat delish food.
The nuts and bolts
What you get in the eight week challenge
The community chat
Everyone doing this at the same time as you. Announcements, a questions channel, and a place to just chat. Share the love.
The education station
Calories, macros, energy expenditure, nutrition fundamentals. All in plain English, all yours to keep.
A support team in your inbox
Real people for anything that needs changing, fixing or explaining. You are not emailing a void.
Fortnightly 1:1 check-ins with me
Team 29 only
Sleep, food, training, energy, hunger, your wins and whatever is getting in the way. I read every one and write back myself with your focus for the fortnight ahead.
I am available by chat inside the app
Team 29 only
Message me when something comes up, so you are never left guessing between check-ins.
The step challenge and the prizes
Brisbane to Byron Bay, the leaderboard, and a grocery gift card every fortnight for whoever is leading.
A getting started checklist
Everything to sort before day one, so week one is not overwhelming.
Habit, progress, water and period trackers
So you can see what is actually shifting, not just what the scale says.
200+ recipes
Including the takeaway guides and how to handle eating out without stressing.
Four personalised meal plans
Updated every fortnight, built around foods you actually like and nothing you do not.
A training program
Home or gym, your choice, refreshed every four weeks. Completely optional.
A free app that holds all of it
Included with the challenge at no extra cost. Everything in one place, on the phone already in your hand.
Where the steps are taking you
We are all walking to Byron Bay
Here is the bit that needs explaining if you are not Australian. I live in Brisbane. Byron Bay is a little coastal town 165km south of me, and I have wanted to go properly for years and never managed it, because there has always been something else on or someone else to look after. Which, if you have read this far, you probably understand.
So for my birthday, I am walking there. And I would love it if you walked there with me.
Not literally, obviously. I have two kids and a business. But over the challenge you and I are both going to cover that 165km on our own two feet, and we are going to tick the stops off as we go. Every one of them is named after something my clients have actually told me happened to them along the way.
You do not need to be anywhere near Australia to do this. Your steps are your steps, wherever you take them.
And if I get very lucky one day, maybe I will actually make it down there and see it for real. This is me doing my version of vision boarding the outcome I want :)
Why Byron
The lighthouse on the headland sits on the most easterly point of mainland Australia. It is the first piece of the country the sun touches every single morning.
Twice a year
Humpback whales pass it on the way north, and again on the way home. People stand on that headland and watch them go by.
The point of it
It is the place Australians drive to when they want to slow down and remember what matters. Has been for about fifty years.
165 km · about 220,000 steps · roughly 3,900 a day
Brisbane, start line
1
First Light Landing
You started, and starting was the hard bit.
2
Second Wind Rise
The afternoon energy that is suddenly just there.
3
Delish Creek
The week you realise the food is genuinely good.
4
Grace Gully
You gave yourself grace and kept going anyway.
5
Chocolate Cove
Living proof that the 80/20 actually works.
6
Piggyback Creek
Energy left over for the kids at the end of the day.
7
Dive In Bay
Straight into the water. No hesitating, no cover up.
8
Favourite Jeans Point
They do up, and you did not have to think about it.
220,000 steps · 165 km
Byron Bay
You walked the whole coast. Yeehaw. And if you get there before the eight weeks are up, you keep going, out to the lighthouse to watch the sun come up before the rest of the country does.
Stops unlock as you go. You cannot fall off the map, you can only get further along it.
Women who have already done this
It works on people who were sure it would not
Shelley
Perimenopausal, lost 5kg
Was convinced her body had stopped responding. Hunger and cravings were the real battle, not willpower. She goes out for dinner with her husband feeling confident now.
Alexa
Down more than 10kg
Came in with a hard all or nothing mindset, where one off plan meal meant the whole week was ruined. She gives herself grace now instead of spiralling, and that is what actually kept it off.
Straight from the group chat
The person who signed up with Evolve With Zee is just a shell of who I am today. Emily, down more than 10kg and keeping it off
Two ways into the challenge
Pick the one that suits your week
Same eight week challenge, same plans, same community, same leaderboard. The only difference is whether I am personally checking in on you.
29 only
Team 29
The twenty nine women I am coaching myself, start to finish.
$229 AUD
One payment
No subscription and no auto-renew. Works out under $29 a week.
- Everything in the eight week challenge
- Personal check-ins from me every fortnight
- A private chat with me in the app
- Step challenge and prizes
Twenty nine spots on the team, one for every year. When they are gone I am not adding more, because then I could not do it properly.
Join Team 29 One Time PaymentShadow Spot
Walk the whole thing alongside Team 29, at your own pace.
2 × $29 AUD
Two payments, then it stops
$29 when you join, $29 on Monday 31 August, then nothing. Not a subscription. Works out about $7 a week.
- Everything in the eight week challenge
- Same meal plans and training
- Same community and same leaderboard
- No private chat or fortnightly check-ins from me
You will do everything Team 29 are doing, in the same group, on the same leaderboard. Just without the private chat and my fortnightly check-ins. Two payments and it stops. It is not a subscription.
Take a Shadow Spot 2 payments of $29Before you ask me in the DMs
The questions I get every time
Is this a subscription?
No. The 29 is one payment. A Shadow Spot is $29 when you join and $29 on Monday 31 August, halfway through, and then it stops on its own. Nothing renews, nothing keeps coming out of your account. I hate subscriptions as much as you do.
What if there are foods I hate, or I am allergic to something?
Then we take them out. Your plan is built around what you will actually eat. This gets asked a lot and the answer is always yes.
Will I have to eat differently from my family?
No, and I would not want you to. If it means cooking two dinners every night it will not last, and the whole point is that it lasts. Most of my clients find their whole family starts eating better without being asked.
I have got a holiday, or a wedding, or a busy stretch coming up.
Susan went away for two weeks in the middle of her program and still lost weight. There is genuinely no perfect time to start, and if you wait for one you will wait forever.
I have tried everything and nothing works on me.
Gabbi said exactly that at 63, and she had tried everything. The first thing we did was increase her food, not cut it. If a lot of restrictive dieting is behind you, cutting harder is usually the opposite of what you need.
How much weight will I lose?
I am not going to give you a number, and I would be careful of anyone who does. What I will tell you is that the scale is just data. Some of the biggest changes I have seen were on people whose weight barely moved but whose energy, clothes and confidence were unrecognisable.
Do I need a gym?
No. There is a home option and it needs a set of dumbbells at most. I lost my own 5kg without going to the gym at all, just by walking.
What happens after the challenge?
That is up to you, and there is no obligation. Around week six I will talk you through the options if you want to keep going, and if you would rather take what you have learned and run with it on your own, that is genuinely a win as far as I am concerned.
Closes Sunday 2 August, 11:59pm AEST
Twenty nine spots. One for every year.
I turn 29 on Thursday. I would love to spend the next eight weeks with 29 women who are done starting over.
Starts Monday 3 August. All prices AUD. No auto-renew on either option.
Brisbane, Australia
