Beating Cancer and Getting Buff with Thalia Cottis

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Thalia has a truly inspirational story to tell. Beating cancer, only to be left with depression, relationship and weight problems, she has transformed her mind and her body. She’s a badass positivity machine and is well worth following, check her out at @ThaliaCottis and ThaliaCottis.com.

I’m so happy to have interviewed Thalia, she’s so inspiring! She shares some great tips and advice, especially to do with lifting weights!✌️❤️

What led you to want to make your lifestyle transformation and where are you at now?

5 years ago I got diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, stage 2 critical and was required to do chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Due to treatment I lost alot of weight and I was weak as I didnt have any muscle. After treatment I put on alot of weight as this is also a side effect of chemotherapy and I was still weak.

I broke up with my ex, I had lost my job, I was depressed and unhappy.

I was lucky enough to meet Kayla Itsines as she needed someone to do her hair for her ebook shoot and meeting her in person made me want to do her BBG program even more so I decided it was time to start at the gym to get my strength back and her BBG plan seemed like the perfect start.

What was the hardest part about making your transformation and how did you overcome it?

The hardest part with my transformation was definitely the food! Being Greek I love my greek food, so it was hard to say no to a lot of food. I also have a massive sweet tooth so it was hard to train myself to have no chocolate and that’s when I also got into making raw desserts which are sugar free, dairy free and gluten free. Those were my “treats”.

Do you have any favourite fitness resources or information sources?

As for resources, I love instagram! I follow alot of fitness accounts where I see alot of new workouts! Some of my favourites are @tanaashleee, @casssmartin, @bagsandbunnies, and @kaliburns.

I only follow pages that motivate and inspire me.

I find following people like that have a huge impact on me and keep me motivated.

If you could only offer one piece of advice, technique or strategy for women looking to transform themselves, what would it be?

If I could offer advice to women it would be lift weights!!!!

Seriously my body has toned up so much from lifting weights, plus you burn a lot more lifting weights than cardio does.  Don’t be afraid of carbs either, your body needs them and don’t starve yourself! Make sure you have 5-6 meals a day, lots of water, green tea and try and train at least 5 times a week.

As for my fitness journey, I have decided to push myself even more and I am currently preparing to compete in INBA next year. I love the gym, I am passionate about fitness, I feel amazing when I train and I am seeing progress every week.

Also some more advice would be to make sure you always get the technique right before lifting heavier. Technique is important to make sure you are working the correct muscles and prevent injuries.