Meet The Instructor - My Story

Sport and generally keeping fit has always been something I’ve enjoyed, as a child raised by a Royal Marine and living in Cornwall, ‘route marches’ across Bodmin Moor was something we did for ‘family fun’! I loved swimming, cycling and horse riding. In spite of that, it did not mean that I was immune from issues with my weight. In my late teens I ballooned from a skinny child to a pretty podgy 18-year-old at college. I used to be known as ‘Thunder Thighs’, or ‘Tubs’! Hmmmmmmmm….. not great! My self-esteem was not high! During that time, I tried all sorts of things including the ‘mars bar diet’!

After I left college and started work, those weight issues were still present, I remember, using laxatives, ‘Ayds’. Ayds (pronounced as "aids") Reducing Plan Candy was an appetite-suppressant candy which enjoyed strong sales in the 1970s and early 1980s, revealing my age!! And although I didn’t acknowledge it, or even recognised it, showed something of a pretty dysfunctional relationship with food.

I left home, moved to Bath, developed an early morning swimming habit, an evening Squash habit, interspersed with the Gym and Cycling, and working all the hours God sent me, which meant my weight did drop off. My attitude to food changed and I chose to feed myself quite well. I worked in the travel industry at this time and had the chance to go skiing, which became another love of mine! My weight remained pretty constant for the next few years until the birth of my children, when I gained weight again. Not unusual! I had a C-section after the birth of my daughter, which wasn’t planned. After which, I sat, ate digestive biscuits and drank Lucozade and ballooned in weight! At my heaviest, I was bigger than I was at full term with my daughter!

I lost about a stone, then fell pregnant with my son. After he was born I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid making the whole weight issue even more tricky to overcome. Approaching a big birthday, and following a tipping point one Easter when I just felt so wretched! So unhappy with myself, the way I felt, looked, moved, I was just like a sloth! I decided it was time to make a change, for the better! I was not happy at the prospect of moving towards the ‘3rd Age’ carrying extra weight and being unfit. I’d had my first child at 35 years old and I did not want to be the mum sitting in the sidelines, the one who couldn’t run with them, couldn’t cycle, swim, surf, ski or whatever it was…. I didn’t want to be the one watching while everyone else had fun! That was my motivation, to be as fit, agile and healthy as I could for my kids, so I could enjoy them and all the things they were going to do.

I addressed the issues in my nutrition first (and my head; the comfort eating, ‘the sod it atitude’, the sweet tooth, the glass or more of wine in the evening) it took just 5 months for me to shed the surplus 2.5 stone from my frame, during which we had birthday’s, family celebrations, holidays, Christmas, all of which I was able to still enjoy whilst getting slimmer and fitter. Nutrition and mindset was the key for me.

Keen to share my success and my love of all things fitness, serendipity intervened and in September 2013 I had the opportunity to undertake an ‘Exercise to Music’ certification. December I completed that course. In September 2013 I also completed the Group Kettlercise instructors course and on the 30th September 2013 started teaching these classes. I have not looked back!

As a woman I was and am still particularly interested in women’s health and helping other women achieve the results that they look for from a health, fitness and well-being plan. Being uniquely female too, I so understand all the weight issues, how our mental health is surrounding those, having had my own pretty dysfunctional relationship with food in the past. Having had 2 babies, one C-Section, one normal delivery, the whole premenopausal issue, the changes that occur hormonally, physically, emotionally and how all of this affects your mental health too! I get what it is to take hormone replacements, be horribly anaemic, to have to fight with doctors to be heard and get the ‘treatment’ you need.

I’m passionate about helping women understand and realise that they/we have the power to change things, have the power to become fitter, stronger, healthier, physically and emotionally. That we can achieve much with great nutritious food and physical exercise, that can restore, rejuvenate, reinvigorate and protect us and help us lead the best, most fulfilling lives we can, in order that we can be fit to carry our children, nurse them, enjoy being physically active for them, approach peri menopause, menopause, post menopause in the best shape we can, physically, mentally and emotionally, feeling happy and confident in the bodies we have. Bodies that will carry us forward as well as they can into as healthy an ‘old age’ as we can live, without horrible osteoporosis/arthritis/pelvic floor issues!

I took the Burrell Education course in the ‘3rd Age’, (October 2015) a specialist wellness course in perimenopause and beyond fitness, health and well-being course for females to specifically help me coach and design programmes that tackle all the issues we are likely to face as females, moving through the various stages of our lives.

I’ve recently completed and certified with Girls Gone Strong, a pre and post-natal pregnancy certification and a Burrell Education Modern Pregnancy and Wellness certification. Both taken as I often see ladies leave classes as they fall pregnant and really feel a desire to continue to be able to serve those ladies during this phase in their lives. Exercise is so important for everyone on so many levels and equally so for those carrying babies! Exercise during pregnancy is both safe and good for you! All mums need to be ‘match fit’, for this new stage in their lives, I feel honoured and privileged to be a part of a new mum’s life whilst she is on this journey.

I love teaching classes, they’re great fun to teach, a massive buzz and the results, as long as you’re consistent and eat well, are amazing! Which is where the programmes come in, they ensure we all do the right things in terms of nutrition, goal setting and mind-set, exercise and staying accountable! All the things that really really make a difference for us! We have a goal setting/mindset workbook and a cookery book and more recipes and books on the way!

I continue to expand and enhance my own level of expertise and knowledge, in order that I can provide the very best service to my you, my client as is possible.

I love hearing from you so if you have a request or a question about fitness, don't hesitate to contact me and we can work out a programme for you. You can also view my current classes and fitness programmes - I look forward to seeing you there!