Melbourne fitness blogger ‘sorry’ after breaking lockdown rules, posting evidence on Instagram
A popular Prahran fitness blogger has issued an apology after posting a series of pictures which showed her breaking a number of lockdown laws. Sharp-eyed Instagram users slammed the 26-year-old Adidas ambassador as she raced to hide the evidence.
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A Melbourne fitness blogger has issued an apology after breaking lockdown exercise restrictions and posting the evidence on social media.
It comes after dozens of furious Instagram users slammed Prahran health and wellness ‘influencer’ Beck Lomas after she shamelessly posted pictures after she completed a two and a half hour walk on Monday and left the house to exercise at least twice on Tuesday.
Ms Lomas said she had been “inundated” with threats and abuse after posting the content which has since been removed from her profile.
The fitness guru posted the promotional content to her 166,000 strong following a bid to beat her boyfriend Josh Klein as part of FitBitANZ’s sponsored #FitBitWithFriend couple’s challenge, which encouraged participants to log the “most active minutes” as possible within six days.
The 26-year-old lingerie brand founder also paraded pictures in her activewear in the street without a mask on Tuesday before snapping a selfie with Mr Klein who was also without a face covering.
It is illegal for Melburnians to participate in more than one session and one hour of exercise outside of the house, as instructed by the Chief Health Officer.
In videos and screenshots which have since been deleted from her account, Ms Lomas said she woke up early on Tuesday to go for a walk while Mr Klein slept in a bid to get an advantage over him before they both completed a run later in the evening.
A post also showed Ms Lomas walked more than 15km, which took two and a half hours.
“I kind of feel like going for a really big run … so I think I’m just going to set out and go for as long as I feel like to get my active minutes up,” Ms Lomas said on Tuesday.
Sharp-eyed followers slammed the Adidas and YoPro yoghurt ambassador on Tuesday night, claiming she was “self absorbed” and “disrespectful”.
Followers also complained Ms Lomas was blocking the accounts and deleting comments of people who called out the behaviour.
“As a Melburnian you are breaking the rules and you should not be promoting such behaviour … walk around your home if you want to increase your steps,” one fuming follower said on Ms Lomas’ profile.
“Your privilege and self absorption is showing, the fact they even think it’s OK to publicly admit to such blatant disrespect of the rules shows who you really are,” another said.
“People behaving like you are the reason I can’t see my grandmother, friends and family,” another wrote.
Instagram users also came for challenge organiser FitBitANZ, with the brand encouraging the couple to clock the most active minutes possible to be crowned the challenge winner.
“I won’t ever be buying from you again. Don’t you realise Beck Lomas is breaching Stage 4 restrictions and flaunting your product?” one person said.
“I am requesting you cancel the challenge until it is safer for sponsors to take part,” another wrote.
FitBitANZ management took to social media this morning and announced the challenge was cancelled.
“It has come to our attention that this week’s couple’s challenge participants may have breached COVID-19 restrictions by exercising out of their home for longer than one hour,” an Instagram post read.
“We take this matter very seriously and do not condone their behaviour in any way.”
In a statement sent to the Leader and posted online, Ms Lomas said she would not make excuses for the posts and insisted she was taking the pandemic “very seriously”.
“ … We were wearing masks and socially distancing the entire time while also keeping within the 5km radius of our apartment. Without thinking, I shared the activity on my stories which showed that we’d been outside for longer than allowed,” she said.
“Once I realised what I’d done — what this was promoting — and how wrong it actually was, I deleted the stories.
“I’m not going to make excuses for it or try to spin the situation to make it sound better than it was. I’m a human and I made a mistake … I meant absolutely no harm to anyone however can now see the seriousness of the situation.
“I am taking this pandemic very seriously. I wear a mask, I work from home and I don’t see my friends.”
Victoria is in a state of emergency and Melbourne is under Stage 4 restrictions which enable residents to leave the home for goods and services, work, care and compassion and exercise.
Those wanting to exercise must not travel more than 5km from the house and must only exercise for once a day and for up to an hour.
brittany.goldsmith@news.com.au
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