I'll begin shall I? Meet the Bingham Girls

Three sisters. A journalist, a personal trainer/health guru and a chef. All 3, fitness freaks and for the first time, combining for this blog dedicated to good health and happiness!

Introducing;

Georgie Bingham - Sports Journalist, TV presenter and self confessed try-alot-health-freak (with a weak spot for pizza and wine) there's no diet/exercise programme she hasn't tried and like most women of the world she struggles to stay on the straight and narrow . Georgie's aiming to bring you and comment on all the latest fads, trends and published news that affects our nutrition, exercise and wellbeing.

Rosie Bingham - the perfect advertisement for her trade! A personal trainer with the body to match and, unlike her sister Georgie - the ability to resist those temptations and inspire others to healthier ways!! She's getting people into shape one by one and aims to take her fitness mission to the world! On the Bingham Girls Blog, she'll be discussing exercise, nutrition and imparting her knowledge for the greater good!

Zar Bingham - she may live down under but that doesn't matter because the beauty of Blogging is it's geography neutral! Owner of ZarBar, a spectacular coffee shop and eatery in Crows Nest Sydney, she's the girl who loves ocean swimming and keep fit and has promised to impart some of her chef knowledge with recipes and food tips! Yum!!

INTRODUCTIONS FIRST - STARTING WITH GEORGIE

I'm Georgie Bingham - journalist, TV anchor, sportsnut. I am also a health and exercise nut. After years of ballooning then slimming I have finally - aged 33 - got my head on straight and in a good place health wise. I can't believe it took me so long to realise that there is NO SUCH THING AS A DIET. A commitment to lose weight and get healthy takes everyday for the rest of your life. Working in TV, I have to look good. Lets be honest, there are times when I haven't. I am lucky to have held down a job!

I've always had a good relationship with food (too good probably) and will-power is NOT my strongpoint. I admire both my sisters SO much for their god damned ability to get off their asses and work out/ get busy when they can't be bothered. When I can't be bothered - I don't. I am, I think, your average woman. I have so many opportunities to REALLY succeed and just as many opportunities to fail.

As a journalist I am hired to tell a story. Having told so many sporting stories over the years, I have been surrounded by amazing stories of success and god-dam hard work. Surrounded also by amazing sporting bodies that make you want to get off the sofa and into the gym. Well some days. I hope to bring my journalism skills to this blog to write about, comment on and question some of the big health and exercise stories making press. I look forward to sharing my 'can't keep my hand out of the cookie jar' moments with you too. Now meet my heroes... my sisters.

MEET Rosie Bingham

I'm the youngest of the Bingham Girls, known as Baby Bing (I've been trying to shake that one off for years!).

A personal trainer, nutritionist, fitness class instructor... but also a normal person, mother of one, wife, dog owner, trying to fit in exercise and a healthy lifestyle just like the rest of the world!

Our family has always been super-duper active thanks to our parents and I have always loved sport. Sailing ALL summer holidays was the norm and I suppose being active all year round - rain or shine - was the beginning of a way of life for me! I can't remember a time in my teens when I wasn't playing sport, running or just mucking about outside.

Of course, I did the whole "yey, go to uni, do no exercise, drink too much beer, eat too many chips" and I put on weight. I was horrified. I'd always been a string bean and didn't know you COULD put on weight! I started rowing seriously at university and competed at Henley Regatta. Training twice a day yet still eating the rubbish food you do as a student didn't do it for me and whilst I rowed regularly in the first team, things didn't click into place and I still hated my body - being "chunky"! It still didn't click that food and exercise were equally important...

After this was when my real passion for fitness and nutrition started and, after a few years of travelling and dead end jobs, I trained as a personal trainer. Wow. Not only something that I loved doing but made me who I am today. I've done marathons, half marathons and 10 km races, so I suppose you could say running is my thing... I am so lucky that I have inherited my mothers' metabolism (thanks Mum!) and my work is my passion. Having a baby makes it a little more difficult to fit in what I would like to do exercise wise but these days I teach 5 exercise classes and try and fit in a couple of runs a week too.

However, I also know that not everyone has the same attitude towards exercise and healthy living. For some it's a real struggle and to find a way to fit regular exercise into their life is extremely hard work... it's not so easy if you work 50 hours a week and never see the light of day in the winter.

My approach to fitness is a no nonsense, no excuses, no fads, no gimmicks way... just the ONLY way, which is healthy eating and regular exercise. Boooorring but important.

I'll be contributing tried and tested ways of keeping healthy, tips for busy people, how to exercise effectively in a short period of time, how to eat well and still enjoy it. Looking forward to it!

NOW MEET ZAR BINGHAM

G'day! Zar (ZarBar) Bingham here, eldest and most responsible!! I might be the eldest but I find it almost impossible to keep up with my two younger sisters - incredible women they are. G talks me up as a chef - I like to describe myself as a passionate cook. I am lucky enough to do what I love everyday, making coffee and fiddling around with food in my espresso bar here in Sydney.

In terms of my body and relationship with it, there's been ups and downs. I started having a weight problem at 16 eating too much stuff that tasted good but was SO bad! I'm a comfort eater, emotional eater, gorger, secret eater etc, etc. 18 months ago, I'd had enough when my size 16 jeans were beginning to get too tight...... I signed up to Weight Watchers and that was the first turning point. I had 8 kgs of success with WW by using resistance training, walking and swimming. I then was offered the opportunity to start with a personal trainer and work with Vision Personal Training. They not only helped me with working out but really educated me in terms of eating and nutrition. I also had the lightbulb moment. Losing 13 kgs has been a lot of hard work but keeping it off, adopting a permanent change and not slipping back into bad habits will be the real challenge. I'm lucky in that I've always eaten healthy meals but the 200g bar of choc or packet of biscuits at a time is not something that is acceptable to me anymore.

For me, exercising 6 times a week, portion control and keeping a food diary is the key to it. Also "the number doesn't matter" in terms of weight doesn't work for me (a strategy I used to employ - denial) anymore, I weigh myself every week and keep an eye on it.

I started ocean swimming a couple of years ago. I did a mini triathlon last year and that's really given me the bug. I want to do a half marathon in September and then a full triathlon next year. This from a girl who's only form of exercise 10 years ago was walking to the shop for chocolate and chips!!