Calista Serfontein completed her Higher Certificate in Fitness in 2020, and is currently completing her 2nd Year in Advanced Certificate in Sports Conditioning at the George eta College.
The 3 Comparison photo’s: From a young age, Calista struggled with her weight and self-image, as she had a compulsive eating disorder, that lead to her weight gain to 115kg at the age of 16 years old. Her Fitness Journey started from the age of 17, when they moved to George. She started training at Virgin Active, and met Herschelle Jantjies (George eta Alumni Student)(UltraFITT). Herschelle saw the potential in her, as he mentioned that he can see her on the front page of a Fitness Magazine.
At this stage, (115kg) she didn’t think that it would be possible, and brushed it off. Herschelle(UltraFITT) as the Specialist in the field, saw her potential and offered to assist her with any fitness guidance. This led Calista to Johan du Doit (Intensity Training, Fitness, Nutrition & Clothing) regarding guidance to Nutrition, and weigh ins. Unfortunately as we all know our bodies are different, you will need to experiment with different eating plans, to ensure that you find the right one.
February 2019 Calista started with Johan’s program. The weight loss was only 2kg per week for a month, as after each month the eating program was amended. Calista also tried Keto, and that also didn’t work. In September 2019, they compiled an eating program that successfully worked with her, and lead her to losing 50kg from August 2019- January 2020.
That lead to Anorexia in March 2020, as the weight loss was too much for the body to consume such a big change. March 2020 Calista also started over training as she trained 3 times per day for 7 days a week, not taking any Recovery days. This lead to fatigue, and all the other signs and symptoms going with that. She fell and broke her Coccyx, without knowing, and just kept on training through it all. Calista is grateful for her mother that assisted her through this time, and saw that Calista needed more guidance, a Psychologist. She was advised to gain weight again, to ensure that her body works optimally again. This though as we all know causes an emotional roller coaster as weight is decreasing and need to fluctuate at the same time. December 2020 Calista picked up weight again, and then lost a bet between friends, and this lead to her training and prepping for her 1st Body Building competition, due to COVID it was cancelled twice, and had to adjust and go back to the drawing board.
Within Calista’s 2nd Year Experiential Logbook Hours, workplace experience 80hours, she completed her Workplace Agreement at Just Fitness Gym, where she met Kenneth Vermaak (George eta Alumni Student). That lead her to the 1st competition 25 September 2021 in Mosselbay called the IBF South Cape Spring Classic Garden Route. She achieved a 2nd place in beach bikini. After this event Calista started preparing for the next 4 weeks again, as it was the Eye Candy NPC in Cape Town. Calista also took part in the Beach Bikini U/23, and achieved a 4th place. She qualified for NPC World Wide Africa Championships, that is taking place the 4th December 2021 in Johannesburg.
Calista is preparing very hard currently for this upcoming event, as if she places, this would give her access to her PRO Card and could go and compete Internationally.
