I’ve written this for ladies over 30 that want to get in shape.

Life felt pretty tough a few years ago.

I was approaching the big 3-O.

I was working 14-16 hours per day – and feeling stressed out.

For a personal trainer I was pretty unhealthy. Bad skin, dull hair, drinking loads of coffee to stay awake during the day, feeling knakkered all the time, a bit of a tummy and muffin top and looked at least 10 years older.

At the weekends I was then lazing about on the sofa. Using whatever crap was on TV to numb my reality. I didn’t have the energy to get my own workouts done, that I’d spent so many years studying and learning. These usually became abandoned by the time Thursday rolled around.

Then I would get ill as I had a persistent chronic stomach condition that kept flaring up. Bloating, cramps, frequent trips to the bathroom feeling lethargic and drained.

I had been with my then fiancé Damien for nearly 10 years and that spark had faded a little bit. As he works shifts, it often felt like barely saw each other. For the rare occasions we weren’t ships in the night, I had no desire nor energy to want to do anything at weekends and everything felt like a massive effort (and I mean everything…)

My solution to all of this was to work harder. Work longer. Blame the high costs of renting a studio and saving for a deposit for a house, for having to work as hard as I was doing.

…..but really I was just running away.

I was using work as a way to just block out the problems and the challenges that were facing me. Using work as a reason NOT to sort my own health out, focusing on my own clients.– “I just didn’t have the time, right?”

The result of all of this?

I was disconnected from my fiancé and friends. I was distant.

Even when I was physically with them, my mind was elsewhere. I was never actually present with them. I loved my job and my clients but it consumed so much of me, my energy being as low as it was.

I wasn’t being the fiance, friend and even personal trainer that deep down I knew I wanted to be.

It was eating me up inside.

….and so my solution to this was to eat more!!!

From memory I think it was mainly in the form of snacks. Nuts, yogurts, dried fruit, oat cakes, hummus and pitta bread, toast and peanut butter, protein bars, energy bars and large amounts dark chocolate on weekends that I told myself I’d “earned”. Because that’s all healthy stuff right? My diet could have been a lot worse…right?

Thinking about how much sugar and processed products I was consuming, no wonder I looked a mess.

It’s Not What I Wanted
The strange thing about this situation though was that I knew I didn’t want to be acting like this. I knew that it was ruining my relationship.

I knew that I would not be this young or get this time again with my man. I was wasting it.

Yet I carried on.

The Turning Point

Then 2 things happened back in 2012 that changed everything.

I went to try on a new pair of jeans from Diesel. I found the style that I liked and went to try them on. To my surprise the 26 waist trousers that I took in were too small. I had to buy a 28!!!

Then within about 48 hours I saw some photos on Facebook a friend had posted. We were at a party with a bunch of our friends. I was wearing an outfit that hid my problem areas, rather than flattered my shape.

I was developing middle age spread…and I hadn’t actually even reached middle age! If I felt this way now, how would I look in five years time? Or after…I’d actually had kids?!

All of a sudden I didn’t feel my age. I felt much older.

I looked at the smile on my gorgeous man’s face in the photos, and those of all my lovely friends and it dawned on me that I wasn’t being the loving supportive girlfriend, friend or inspirational role model as a personal trainer, that I had always dreamt of being. I didn’t feel happy. I’m surprised many of my friends still bothered to ask me to things, I’d turned them down so often!

That was it.

No more!

Time to change.

What A Journey!

It’s then been one hell of a journey since.

Within 6 months I had become super fit. Thrown myself into furthering my nutrition knowledge and got rid of my tummy and muffin top. Stopped the unhealthy habits and literally transformed into a completely different girl.

Learning that I had a severe gluten intolerance and a fungus in my stomach, from the result of an extremely poor diet throughout my childhood and teenage years explained my low energy, bloating and brain fog. I feel so happy to be free of all this and am now in better shape in my 30’s than I ever was in my 20’s.

I loved feeling this way so much that I decided to take a leap of faith and open my own private personal training studio, which I did a few months later….and have not looked back since!

My dream life

I am now blessed with the most amazing relationship with Damien, who after 10 years together became my husband in 2014. We had the wedding of our dreams on the beautiful island of Jersey, followed by a honeymoon in the Maldives where I pretty much lived in a bikini!

It feels like we get on better now than ever. We share our dreams and aspirations and work together to achieve them. We own our first house, have weekends away together and behave like we are in our early 20’s, which is how old we were when we first met. We are best friends who just have loads of fun together and make each other laugh.

And when I am with my friends, I am really with them – not thinking about other things.

 

Damien and I hope to start a family one day and are aware, like it or not, our kids will model our behaviours. Good or bad.

Kids see us day to day. They will see the way that I look after myself. The way that I eat. The way that I now speak to my husband. The way that I can help other people change their lives and the impact that I am now having on people’s lives, and I hope they are inspired to do the same.

Now
This has all happened since I made that decision.

Since the day that I had that ‘wake up call’

The day that I decided to start actually taking care of my body and my health and actually waking up in the morning with a spring in my step after a deep refreshing sleep, rather than just hitting snooze and rolling over. 

Has it been easy?

No

Has it been expensive?

No

Has it saved my relationship, friendships and business that I am so passionate about?

Oh yes!

Now some reading this will probably be thinking “that’s a bit dramatic – putting everything down to just getting healthy”

The thing is, it’s not just about getting healthy. It’s what getting healthy then leads on to.

Me getting really healthy meant that my husband started to also get really healthy.

Me starting to give a shit about how I looked and acted meant that those around me did the same (Damien, the people we are closest to and every person who comes to me for personal training.)

Me starting to set crazy goals and achieving them inspired also others to do the same. 

Me then investing the time to reconnect with my husband has meant that he has then wanted to do the same in return.

Is there a secret to all of this?

Not really.

Just a case of following a certain programme and be held accountable along the way.

It would be selfish of me to just keep this all to myself though, which is why I now help ladies over 30 to do the same.

Thank you so much for reading,

Gen x

 

 

 

 

PS: send me a message if you fancy a quick chat about getting started