About | Coach Wendy Maree

Hi, I'm Wendy Maree

I'm an experienced Online Fitness, Nutrition, and Health Coach, and Certified Girls Gone Strong Women's Coaching Specialist. My mission is to empower women to overcome their most challenging obstacles and start living happier and healthier lifestyles. I'm fully equipped to guide, support, and assist you to prioritise your wellbeing and celebrate all aspects of your true self.

As a Personal Trainer since April 2012, it wasn't long before I found my passion in Women's Health Fitness. Women are over-marketed to and yet desperately under-served in the fitness industry, especially through midlife and menopause. Talking to hundreds of clients and gym members over the years, I hear more and more stories from women harmed by inappropriate, extreme exercise, and dieting. Women desperate to change their bodies are preyed on by the diet industry, influencers, diet books, and products.

My Approach

Initially I was shocked as I realised what was going on in the fitness and diet industries, then decided to do something about it. Through ongoing study and research, I developed an approach to training, nutrition, and mindset, that empowers clients to achieve sustainable results and lifestyle changes by being kind to their bodies and themselves. Amazing, right?

Exercise is not a punishment for something you ate, and you don't have to get smashed or exhausted to get results. In fact, the opposite is true - by working with your body instead of against it, progressing and challenging yourself at just the right level for you, you'll finally be able to achieve long-lasting results and get your energy back.

To continue helping people like you to be your best, I'm furthering studies in nutrition, sleep & recovery, yoga, pelvic floor health, health coaching, body image, and women's health conditions that can wreak havoc on their progress like endometriosis, PCOS, Thyroid and auto-immune conditions.

My Life Experience benefits my clients. My personal life experience means my clients receive an exceptional level of empathy, sensitivity, and understanding to help guide them towards their goals.

In my late 20s, I contracted a rare and painful neurological autoimmune disease (Guillain Barre Syndrome) that left me paralysed and hospitalised for 3 months. Treatments included plasmapheresis, and massive steroid dosage that caused me to gain over 12kg weight in just two weeks. GBS had wreaked permanent damage on my nervous system, ability to manage weight, chronic pain, and fibromyalgia. Around 6 years ago I started strength training with a brilliant Exercise Physiologist who taught me to lift heavy, and together with his 'Biopsychosocial approach' finally helped me heal the chronic pain and symptoms that no other 'treatment' or exercise modality ever did. I now follow the same approach with my clients and love nothing better than empowering women to get strong.

One of four siblings, we lived our early years in an extended family with our widowed Mum and her parents. Following in Mum's footsteps, us three sisters were dancers and we all became dance teachers. We lost our beautiful Mum to secondary breast cancer at just 67, right before my wedding. Tragically, our baby sister, Min, was killed suddenly in Feb 2022, when a young woman, who was a recently convicted drug trafficker high on recreational drugs, veered over the line and hit her in a head-on collision. The physiological, mental, and emotional impacts are deep and far-reaching.

Like most women, I spent many years looking after everyone else, from service to the community including Rover Scout Adviser where I met hubby Gerry, to family, to preschool committees, school parents and friends groups, and a CFA Operational Firefighter for 15 years. A terrible perimenopause thankfully ended with early menopause at 49. Recently diagnosed with sub-clinical hypothyroidism, and shoulder pain which I'm managing through appropriate strength training with guidance from my Exercise Physiologist. I've come to terms with the physiological and mental impacts of grief and mental health challenges which had led me to an almost sedentary lifestyle, with stress and overwhelm so bad I was not able to move consistently or nourish myself. I'm now able to look after myself and find my inner Goddess again.

A late-70s hippie, kind, highly sensitive, empathic soul. I care deeply about the environment and animals. I've always been into natural health, was a vegan during my late teens, vegetarian for more than 20 years and now WFPB (Whole Food Plant Based). I left dance after contracting Guillain Barre Syndrome as dancing made me feel physically uncomfortable, started doing Aerobics and gym workouts instead, and fell in love with fitness.

My passion and dedication to strength training, nutrition, walking, and holistic approach to natural health has helped me to overcome obstacles, avoid medications, and do the physical activities I love. I absolutely love getting outside in nature, bush walking the local trails around West and South Gippsland, hiking mountains, walking on pristine beaches on rugged coastlines, kayaking and Stand Up Paddleboarding, and organic vegie gardening. My strength training is a means to stay young, fit, help prevent injuries, reduce chronic pain, and to stay mobile for healthy aging. I'm passionate about empowering people to become more active so they can enjoy a longer, healthier life.

I'm now training for the epic adventure of my life, a Nepal trek to Pikey Peak.