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TRAINING IS BETTER WHEN WE’RE TOGETHER
MODEL COUPLE JAMES AND TEODORA MOTIVATE EACH OTHER THROUGH THEIR INTERESTS IN NUTRITION AND FITNESS, WRITES TANYA SWEENEY
As couples go, they don’t get much more photogenic than personal trainer James Murphy and his model girlfriend of two years, Teodora Sutra. So it stands to reason that the pair met in that time-honoured Mecca for beautiful people: Hollister.
The two were working there at weekends: James, incidentally, was one of the store’s iconic meet-and-greet models (yes, the ones who stand outside in those famous red board shorts).
“He just asked me out on a date, but I didn’t realise it was a date at the time,” laughs Teodora.
“She thought I was gay, that’s why,” says James. “Only recently I heard this.”
Love soon blossomed for the pair, and the two bonded over their mutual love of health and fitness. But it wasn’t that long ago that James, who works part-time as a model for Andrea Roche’s agency, was experiencing a body crisis of his own.
“When I was in secondary school, I was really tall and skinny, but as I progressed through school, I became overweight,” he recalls. “From studying and a sedentary life in general, I was about 15 stone. So I joined Ben Dunne’s Westpoint gym out in Blanchardstown and became kind of obsessed with losing weight. The more I saw results, the more I wanted to do.”
While working a full-time job in insurance and training as a personal trainer in Coláiste Íde in Finglas, James also started bodybuilding, which took his weight to a buff 17-and-a-half stone. These days, his shape is more athletic, and he tips the scales at 15 stone. “This time, it’s all muscle as opposed to fat,” he smiles. Within a few short years, he was back at the Westpoint gym . . . as its manager.
“Working full-time was fine but I’d always wanted to do my own thing,” he explains. “So last year I started to branch out.”
Still, James’s dream of becoming a full-time personal trainer didn’t come easily: “Last year, I was doing two boot camps in the morning and seeing two or three clients at night on top of my 9am to 5pm job (in Westpoint),” he recalls. “It wasn’t a case of setting up the business blind — I went into it with 20 or 30 clients.”
Regardless, it appears to have been a case of perfect timing for James, who opened his increasingly popular Zest Fitness Centre in Baggot Street this year (and plans to open another Dublin 2 studio next year).
“It’s hard to know these days if people are going to the gym more because they know about the benefits of being healthy or if it has to do with the recession,” he muses. “Some people take it up because they’re so stressed after work; after working more for less money.”
And, as his business grows, James has a consummately supportive partner in Teodora. It’s a two-way street: James is also training his girlfriend . . . an arrangement that has its advantages and drawbacks.
“Many times she’s walked out (on a training session), and many’s the time I’ve walked out,” smiles James. “We trained once in the park and Teodora left, like ‘I’ve had enough, I’m going home’ . . . but the thing about training is I’m the boss. There’s no negotiation if you find it tough. Fortunately, we have a different relationship outside of the sessions too. Going out with Teo is great, because we motivate each other. On days I want to get a takeaway, she will try and cook something healthy instead. It really does work both ways. Someone who has a similar frame of thought when it comes to well-being is really important.”
Teodora has a similar take on things: “I like fitness, but can be a little lazy, and he definitely pushes me. He’s bossy enough in training, but I do try and listen!”
To keep match-fit for her modelling assignments, Teodora trains with James and is also a member of Temple Bar’s Crunch Fitness gym. Sufficiently inspired by her boyfriend, she also has a career in fitness and nutrition in her crosshairs.
“I think I’d be into that and James would love it too,” she enthuses. “I’d probably be more interested in the nutrition side of things. I’m really interested in knowing what certain foods can do for you.”
“I think she would be an amazing yoga teacher. She’s very into Pilates and is trying to get me into it,” says James.
So far, so Spartan . . . yet the two note that all told, their regimes and diets aren’t endlessly punishing.
“If you’re very strict on yourself 24/7, you’ll just get sad and depressed,” shrugs Teodora. “I’ll have my little bit of chocolate once a week and I try to change up the rest of my food.”
“I try to do some training every day, and I try to eat as natural as possible,” explains James. “But if I want chocolate or crisps, I’ll have it. I don’t like the mentality of counting calories or constantly worrying about food, as you’ll have no life. People need to enjoy their food, have fun and have the ‘bad’ food from time to time.”
Yet, for all of his balanced advice, Christmas is something of a diet danger zone for many of James’s clients. After all, the average person puts on several pounds over the festive season.
“I say you can eat whatever you want (at Christmas), especially if you work hard all year round,” notes James. “You may put on a few pounds, but you’ll lose them the week after. A week won’t ruin your good efforts.”
And while Latvian-born Teodora has resolved to travel more in 2014, James is eyeing up various fitness competitions as part of his New Year resolution. On the top of his ‘to-do’ list is a Hell & Back event — a giant assault course tagged ‘Ireland’s toughest physical and mental endurance challenge’.
Though Teodora has no interest in either, the pair ran a half-marathon together earlier this year. Sure enough, it would seem that the couple who trains (and models) together, stays together. Rather touchingly, the model dubbed ‘Ireland’s answer to Cameron Diaz’ admits that James is one thing she can’t live without. And his gruelling, occasionally explosive training sessions are helping to propel the promising model to ever greater heights.
Famously, Teodora won the Irish heat of the Ford Supermodel of the World at the age of 14, and was promptly signed to 1st Option Agency. And despite her blessed Eastern European looks, Teodora is grateful that Irish clients still have an appetite for healthier, toned models.
“If you’re very skinny in Ireland, you get no work,” she notes. “If you’re abroad, you have to pretty much not eat. Fortunately, people in Ireland would rather see models with a bit of a glow on their face; that means girls who are fit, happy and healthy.”
