Sophie Guidolin Turned A Dream Job Into Her Dream Job

By Beth Excell

We’ve all wondered at some point what our dream job might be; we’ve planned since we were small what we’d most like to become when we grow up.

For those of us studying, our perfect job can seem a remote fantasy at the end of a long tertiary tunnel. But for fashion-turned-fitness model Sophie Guidolin, her ideal job has become a reality. She is proof that – notwithstanding a whole lot of hard work – you can make your fantasy career transpire.

Guidolin is a full time professional fitness model, mother of two, and business and clothing-line owner who built her brand from the ground up in just three years. Sounds impossible, right? At 24-years-old, she’s making a splash in the fitness community and a name for herself, both here in Australia and worldwide.

What started it all? A simple choice to make a change within herself after the birth of her two sons.

“I put on 28 kilos after having my kids, so I wanted to lose the weight that I’d obviously gained and I wanted to build muscle as well, therefore adding to my shape,” she explains.

Now, with a social media following well into the thousands, her own personal website, and a string of competition titles to her name, she’s maintaining a healthy lifestyle and inspiring people all over the globe to better themselves.

In the café where I interviewed her, Guidolin’s positive energy was contagious. She makes it look easy. So it’s obvious why, at the end of our tether, four weeks into our own healthy lifestyle change and ready to crawl over glass just for a bite of chocolate, some might think that what she’s achieved is unattainable to the ‘average’ mother (or uni student).

But Guidolin says it’s perfectly achievable to anyone who wants to make the change bad enough. “One hundred per cent!” she exclaims. “I started off working 70 hours a week when I first started training. I only stopped working full time in December last year, so just three months ago.”

And she’s the first to admit she is no super mum; she puts it all down to planning her time wisely. “Organisation and time management is probably the key,” she says. “I prep all my meals the night before; I make my boys’ lunches the night before; I try and lay out washing the night before – everything that we’re going to wear – because otherwise the mornings are just hectic.”

A normal day involves a 5am wakeup for morning cardio, followed by an artful juggling act of two small children, paperwork, a business, house chores, meal preparation, appearances, and of course the perennial gym session.

Unfortunately, like all good things, none of her journey has come easy. Quite apart from the gruelling training she puts her body through, Sophie has had to compete with a constant barrage of social media ‘trolls’ providing endless commentary on her physical appearance.

“I think that people see an image and they take that person out of the image before they comment,” she says. “You wouldn’t go up to somebody in the street and be like ‘oh, yuck – you look like a man’ but yet there seems to be some form of acceptance [of that behaviour] on the internet.”

Guidolin says she is well aware that her muscle tone is not everyone’s cup of tea and she is perfectly OK with that. “Progress within your own body and being the best that you can be is most important. You should be striving for perfection within your own body; not somebody else’s idea of what perfection is.”

Her success is a bit of inspiration for those of us standing, blinking at the big wide world that looms ahead once we leave the comfort of uni. So, what do you want to be when you grow up?