7.50am on Anzac Day morning I looked at my phone, shouted "OMG, I am in", and leapt out of bed, pulling on leggings, scraping my hair back and running downstairs with shoes in one hand and car keys in the other.
I wasn't late for work. I hadn't won the Lotto. There wasn't a tsunami warning.
I had just come off the waitlist for an F45 fitness class.
And for some reason this made me ecstatically happy.
I wasn't alone.
Reaching a still deserted Devonport Road to climb the stairs to F45 Tauranga, a crowd of people were waiting for class, with all the talk of "phew made it".
The class the hour before was still going in full burpee mode.
When they finished, one person who a few months ago I had never met high -fived me like a long lost friend.
I high-fived her back even though she was covered in sweat,
"I made it."
Three other people high-fived me.
If anyone had told me at the start of this year that I would be literally begging to exercise I would never have believe it.
And I have never high-fived anyone ever. Now I have my high fives to a fine art.
I've got used to hanging out in my active wear, even turning up to work in my gym clothes.
Such is the pull of F45.
My colleague Amy Diamond and I were invited to take part in the Bay's first ever F45 fitness challenge.
We had heard somethings about it, that it was a cult fitness trend huge in Australia, and sweeping the world.
That its followers "worshipped at the alter of F45".
We were a bit cynical about this. After all, we were just doing this for a story.
Developed by Sydney celebrity trainer to Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, F45 has become famous for the dramatic body transformations achieved on it eight-week challenges.
Participants attend a minimum of five 45 minute cardio and resistance sessions a week.
There's minimal equipment as exercises recreate every day body movement such as lifting, squatting, jumping, rotating, kicking, pushing or pulling.
There is also a detailed meal plan split into three phases - a detoxing phase, maintenance, and then a final high fat low carb two weeks to shed those kilos.
Achievements are measured visually in before and after photos, and by a thorough body scan measuring not just weight and height, but fat to muscle ratios, level of fat around organs, total body water, fat mass, bone mineral content.
There are no mirrors at F45, which is good because after seeing my before photo I was quite happy not to look in a mirror ever again.
Maybe I have the opposite of that body image disease where I think I look good but actually, I look terrible. Is that really me? Am I really that bad?
The camera doesn't lie.
"Mum you have four stomachs," agreed my ten year old looking at the shots.
I cannot blame my three children for all of my stomachs. There's chocolate, chips, nuts, a whole lot of sitting leaning over a keyboard, unsociable hours and deadlines that have your reaching for salt and sugar, work sausage rolls - every journalist's staple diet, and wine.
NZ Body Scan's Jack Witschke was more gentle on me than the kids, although the scan revealed I needed to improve fat to muscle ratio, and lose 8 kilos. Though he added that a reasonable amount to aim for on the challenge might be 3 kilos, and have the 8 kilo loss as a year plan.
I am doing this for a year?
F45 trainers are similarly encouraging. Our first sessions, despite being able to hide behind the guise of, "oh we are writing a story", we were actually terrified.
In fact I think I lost more sweat in fear in my first session than in any other session, convinced that everyone else would be able to do their height in box jumps while still looking like Nicole Kidman - also apparently a fan.
It is hard to remember that feeling now, so comfortable are we going to class. There are all sorts of people from all areas of life - teachers, lawyers, musicians, artists, students, sports people. All ages, all levels of fitness and ability.
There's never a no to the trainers. So while they will do adaptions for injuries, if they sense you just need a push they always seem to appear by your side.
One of the dreaded exercises is pulling up your whole body weight on a high bar with your foot just balanced in a piece of elastic. "Oh no thanks, I will sit this one out" I told the trainer, but he wasn't having any of my protest.
"I'm scared of heights. I do not like elastic."
Actually I just couldn't do it, but he stayed there till I did one.
I soon learn why it has earned its cult reputation. I wouldn't call it a cult, more like a welcoming family. There is nothing like training with a group of people to encourage you.
No one is looking at you, because everyone is just privately dying with their own burpees.
But it is true that pretty soon it starts to take over your life, but in a good way. Soon I started to go everywhere in active wear.
Following the meal plan is alot of commitment with shopping and meal prep. It was hard for me to adjust to eating a four egg breakfast and bowls of spinach, when normally I have two coffees.
There is no alcohol for the challenge which I found fine- my arms were too sore to lift a huge wine glass to my mouth anyway.
But the caffeine deprivation did get to me - one morning I found myself taking the dog for a walk, and was up the road before I realised I had forgotten the dog.
People encourage each other on our private Facebook group, where trainers also answer questions, and there is an app with lots of information and videos on training and nutrition.
Another thing I really liked is that the trainers walk around the class and they really focus on people's form. Owner Shal Addis goes on about this alot and says there is no point killing yourself in a class if the basic form of your movements are incorrect.
I realised I had been doing press ups wrong all these years. Could that be the reason for my four stomachs?
It is noticeable how when you start doing movements correctly in the sessions, you translate these into everyday life. At the end of the challenge, every person's posture had improved.
The first weeks are tough. Actually all F45 classes are tough, but the first weeks particularly so.
I had tried to mentally prepare for it as Addis warned us to take magnesium to reduce muscle pain.
How painful could it be?
Put it this way, those handles on the wall for people with disabilities, I started to wish I had them on the wall by my bed, in my office, in my car, in fact anywhere where I had to get up and down.
To get up and down the stairs at home I walked sideways like a crab, one foot at a time, crying out a little particularly first thing in the morning.
So back to Anzac morning, who was this person running down those same stairs?
Amy and I have this week started our second eight week challenge, another thing neither of us would have believed at the start of our first.
As for the results, I lost 3.5 kilos, improved my fat to muscle ratio and lost centimetres in every single part of my body apart from my neck - which one of the trainers joked it was because I talk so much.
I didn't think the weight loss was huge but the good thing about the challenge is that it doesn't focus on pure kilo numbers, but instead the emphasis is on fitness, function and form.
There's so much to love about the classes, even the sweat, and the pain. The music is good, everyone's happy. And if someone's not happy or just feeling average, there's someone to encourage you.
Many participants commented on this - the challenge is not just about focusing on physical health but mental too, making you set yourself goals, overcome fears and sometimes just turn up even when you don't feel like it because others are waiting for you.
By week four I felt not only fitter, but happier.
And that is why there are crowds flocking to F45, in search not of the perfect body, because perhaps there's no such thing, but you can get fitter, healthier, and yes, happier.
I have always been a bit of a "fad" girl.
I've done tea-toxes, cleanses, read multiple books on different diets, I even gave the lemon detox diet a go for about 6 hours once- then gave up and had pizza and beers.
So when I heard about F45 I wasn't sure if it was something I would be able to stick to but I signed up for the 8-week challenge anyway.
After living overseas for the past two and a half years, I hadn't exercised properly or given much thought to my nutrition the entire time.
It was obvious after all that time I had lost fitness and gained a bit of weight. It was terrifying stepping on the scanning machine and realising I had put on 15kgs while traveling, but it was also the biggest motivation push myself over the next two months.
After the first few workouts, my entire body ached. I can't think of a time where my body had been that sore, but in a weird way, it was the best feeling.
The workouts became so much fun and it didn't feel like I chore turning up to classes. I knew I just had to give it my all for 45 minutes and I soon felt the changes in my body.
Clothes I had worn over Christmas were feeling a little looser and I was finding it so much easier to wake up at 5.30am.
I used the nutrition plan as a guide but I didn't follow it strictly and I worked out 4-5 times a week.
The challenge was hard though. Birthday dinners and Friday night wines were my biggest challenge.
So it's fair to say I had a few slip-ups. But overall my nutrition had been flipped on its head to where I was at at the beginning of the year.
The challenge went so quickly and before I knew it it was time for the final scans and photos.
I was so nervous stepping onto the scanning machine again because I knew I hadn't followed the challenge exactly.
When I saw I had lost 4kgs I was a bit gutted to be honest, I felt like I had lost more than that.
But after looking into the rest of the results I had lost nearly 6kgs of fat and gained 1.5 kgs of muscle, so I was a lot happier.
Comparing my before and after photos was extremely confronting, but I could clearly see some changes in my body.
And there's nothing better than seeing your hard work pay off, so I will definitely be doing the next challenge.
It's safe to say F45 isn't a fad, it's a lifestyle overhaul.
• Annemarie is doing the eight-week challenge with F45 Tauranga, 34 Devonport Rd, Tauranga.
• For information email tauranga@f45training.co. nz or telephone Shal on 021 714 266.
• Annemarie and Amy had body scans from NZ Body Scans, www.nzbodyscans.co.nz
'It’s an expensive asset, and it should be well-used.'