Ailie Suzuki saw a series of photographs from an event and didn’t recognise the person in them.
“I didn’t realise how much weight I had gained.”
She’d moved to the UK from New Zealand a couple of years earlier, burnt out from work. She gave herself permission to rest. The rest turned into months of doing very little. Mentally and physically stagnant, even with time on her hands.
“I had a real disconnect with what I felt I was, in terms of the way I looked and the way I felt, and what I actually was.”
Start: January 2026 - 61.5kg
Checkpoint: June 2026 - 47kg
From Zookeeper to Desk Job
Ailie had never had to think about fitness. For years, her jobs did it for her. She worked as a zookeeper, chopping up whole carcasses of meat to feed lions, tigers and bears, walking 15 kilometres a day without trying.
“Who needs to go to the gym when it would take your whole body weight behind it to chop it up.”
Back in a small town in New Zealand, she’d had a strength routine too. A weekly session with a personal trainer alongside a group of local mums, followed by a swim in the ocean whatever the season.
“We’d all go, rain, hail, shine, winter, summer. We’d go for a dip afterwards and do a bit of a cold plunge. For morale as well, that was always amazing, and I really enjoyed it.”
When she moved to the UK and her work became more sedentary, none of that structure came with her. Running on and off, illness derailing it, the habits never took root again. What had crept on over roughly three years wasn’t dramatic. It just quietly became normal.
“I thought I was a lot fitter and healthier and thinner than I was. And then when I’d catch myself in a photograph, it would be quite a shock.”
She’d never really warmed to gyms either. She’d never enjoyed that atmosphere, even as a former competitive gymnast who knew the value of strength work firsthand. It just never made it onto her radar.
The Real Why
Ailie is a mum raising one son with her partner, both zoologists by background, now building a property business together in North Wales.
The perimenopause research she’d started doing gave her a clinical reason to change. Her son gave her the personal one.
“My powerful why is probably my little one. We want the energy to be able to keep up with him.”
She could see why people have kids in their twenties, when energy and sleep deprivation don’t bite as hard. She’d also noticed herself slipping into habits she didn’t want to model. Too much time on her phone, doom-scrolling, snacking in front of the TV.
“I didn’t want to pass that on to him. It’s about showing him there’s a different way of doing things, and being able to keep up with him.”
By the time she spoke to Akash in December, her ask was modest. Drop a few kilos. She’d plateaued at the same weight before, on her own, more than once, and had already quietly begun building foundations months ahead of joining. Pushing her daily steps up toward 8,000. Drinking more water. Protecting her sleep.
“I always knew that I not just wanted to lose the weight, but I wanted to get toned up again. And it was all nice to say, but on my own, I wouldn’t have worked this hard on my strength training.”
What Almost Held Her Back
Even after that conversation, part of Ailie wasn’t sure she needed to join at all.
“I think it was because I was already making progress with the weight loss on my own. So it was a part of me that was like, oh, no, I could probably do this on my own.”
What changed her mind was being told what was actually possible. A number she didn’t believe at the time.
“I was quite shocked when you told me what weight I could get to. I was like, no. But I think I didn’t factor in the strength as well, the muscle. If I’d have done it on my own, I definitely would’ve been losing muscle as well as body fat.”
She joined in January 2026. Within the first month, she passed the plateau she’d never beaten alone.
“I sailed past 57, 58. I was shocked. Then when I sailed past 55, I was like, oh my. That was huge. It made me go, wow, I can do it.”
Learning to Love Protein
The adjustment wasn’t seamless. Two weeks in, shifting from a carb-heavy diet to more protein hit her hard.
“Me and my family, we’re not very much fun to be around when we’re hungry.”
She told her coach she was struggling, and the response mattered as much as the fix itself.
“She turned around and said, you shouldn’t be struggling. This is supposed to be hard, but it’s not supposed to be this hard.”
The change was small: less rice, more potato, same macros, different carb source. Ailie felt the difference almost overnight, and went on to build her own repertoire. A rice congee with stock, spices, vegetables and meat for lunch most days through winter. A spinach salad with grilled meat and air-fried potatoes for dinner. Both preppable in around 15 minutes.
“A friend came and stayed and went, oh my god, that looks amazing, can you make me some? So I was making everyone pretty awesome salads for a while.”
The Grind
In the final stretch before her checkpoint, with the photoshoot on the calendar, Ailie flew home to Australia for a month to look after her mum after surgery. New environment, family meals, zero control over the kitchen, at the exact point in her programme where holding the line mattered most.
“It helped me become a lot more confident in being able to go out and actually make better choices.”
She stayed open about what she was doing, made strategic choices when the family ordered takeaway, and used a coach-given formula for building a plate at any family dinner. She came home from the trip having maintained her progress, at the same weight she’d left at.
“It was a really good confidence boost, that I could still make progress, still stay on track, even though I was really out of my element.”
The final weeks after she got back were, in her own words, the hardest part of the whole journey.
“Hungry Ailie is not a very nice Ailie. My partner and my little one were so patient with me.”
She climbed Snowdon during the grind, on the same day hundreds of people were running ultramarathons up and down it, and surprised herself. No longer the person who struggled on every uphill.
“I thought I would really struggle, and I didn’t struggle nearly as much. That was a big deal for me.”
She also found herself hitching up underwear that no longer fit, and turned a wardrobe crisis in Australia into hours of trying on clothes she actually enjoyed wearing again.
“Rather than sitting there getting more and more down about the way I was looking, I could just try on clothing after clothing and go, oh, that actually looks OK.”
It became, in her words, one of the small joys of the whole six months.
The photoshoot itself, timed to mark the milestone, doubled as a family shoot. A natural, outdoor setting rather than a studio, chosen because she and her partner are both zoologists and lifelong nature enthusiasts. Poor weather forecast threatened the day. They found a forest with enough canopy cover, and the sun came out anyway.
Finally In My Checkpoint Weight
Ailie’s checkpoint landed at 47kg, down 14.5kg from her January start. At her heaviest, before she began working on things herself and later joining RNT, she puts the total change closer to 20kg. Her own estimate, not a figure tracked from day one, but one she’s proud of.
The recognition has been the part that’s landed hardest. At an event, someone who hadn’t seen her in person since the previous May didn’t know what to say.
“He just couldn’t get over it. He’s like, no. He’s like, wow.”
The confidence has shown up in places she didn’t expect. Standing in front of a small crowd to talk about a business she and her partner have only just built, something she says she’d have found intimidating a year ago in any unfamiliar setting.
“I found that a lot easier, just getting up in front of people and putting myself out there. Taking compliments, I’ve never been very good at that, but it’s been so nice.”
Sleep has changed too. A natural night owl who used to fight to fall asleep, she now finds herself out within minutes of getting into bed.
“By the time I get to bed, I’m so tired because I’ve been so physical all day, that I sleep really, really well.”
Leaning fully into the final phase cost her some of the shape she’d had before. Her partner noticed it before she did.
“My partner may have had some words about how my bum has disappeared and I’ve lost my curves. But I did speak to my coach about it, and she said, no, no, we’ll get your buns back. We’ll work on those.”
Her Trustpilot review, posted the same week as her checkpoint, put it simply:
“The accountability provided and the holistic view of how not just to get fit and lose the weight, but how to truly change your fundamental lifestyle choices… they championed my efforts and my journey the entire way.”
Three months in, she’d already told her coach:
“I love the way I feel in my own skin again… My confidence is through the roof and I feel so relaxed and much less conscious of the way I appear.”
What’s Next
Ailie isn’t chasing another number. She’s chasing keeping it, and building back the muscle the final grind cost her, without going too far the other way.
“I don’t wanna get too muscly, but I’m really enjoying feeling strong. It links with so many other things I’m doing in my life.”
Asked what she’d say to other women in her position, she came back to the same idea that got her through the grind.
“Don’t feel like you have to do it on your own, especially when you’ve got an awesome team around you. Yes, you do have to be disciplined, yes, you do have to strive yourself. But to have that team to fall back on, that support network, and the accountability, that’s huge. Someone just to keep you on track.”
Listen to Ailie’s full story on RNT Fitness Radio:
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