Based in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, I’m a 40-something wife, mother and animal lover. I firmly believe that anything is possible with the right mind set and I approach challenges with a pragmatic and optimistic view.
I don’t offer fad diets; this isn’t a quick fix or fast weight loss plan. We will work together to build new habits (which are based on science), and tweak them to fit your lifestyle. A lot of my clients have long term health conditions (such as arthritis, hypertension or anxiety) or are experiencing symptoms of the menopause and I’m be on hand to offer guidance and support to help, whatever the goal.
Whatever your goal is, I’ve got your back!
My Story
Until I hit my thirties, I was an exercise avoider. I had been a school refuser too, with terrible social anxiety which left lasting low self-esteem and low resilience well into adulthood. I was always overweight and suffered from back ache and joint pain from about the age of 12. I jumped from diet to diet, starving myself and then bingeing. I was too scared to exercise – I didn’t know what I was doing, and I was petrified of being made to feel stupid.
When my children were small, we bought a treadmill. It sat in my conservatory and I used it to do a couch to 5k plan. It was the middle of summer and that conservatory was south facing, I sweated like I’ve never sweated before! But I did it. And that lead to the start of a change, but not straight away. I didn’t keep up running on the treadmill. Life with 2 young children got in the way I suppose.
About a year later, a couple of friends suggested trying to do a race for life, I felt a bit embarrassed about having given up running before but decided to try again. And so, we began training. We ran the race for life and this time, the running didn’t stop. Instead, we set a new challenge, 10k. Then that led to half marathons and eventually marathons. We had a routine and running was giving me a chance to learn that I was more resilient than I realised. And I lost some weight, 5 stone to be exact (although that was down to diet changes too, not just the running).
But it wasn’t without problems. The joint pain didn’t go when I lost weight. Instead, it got worse. Particularly my ankle. It would take 6 long years of appointments to get to a point where I was diagnosed and able to manage the pain. Along with that, fatigue would sometimes be too much to cope with and I’d often spend the day in bed after a run. Giving up didn’t even cross my mind (for once!) instead, myself and one of my friends set up a running group. We wanted to help women to start running and to get the same mental health benefits from it that we had.
We ran that running group together for 5 amazing years. We made such good friends and the community held me up through some horrible health issues. Eventually, I decided I couldn’t run any more. I was compromising too much of mine and my family’s life to do it. Leaving broke my heart. I loved seeing the confidence grow in the ladies who joined us, as the weeks of pounding the pavements went by. But I couldn’t keep on going like I was.
I was down but not out.
At this point I decided a full overhaul was needed. I looked at new ways to exercise and discovered how to manage my arthritis but keep active. I started weightlifting and taking part in lower impact exercise that suited my body more. Finding new ways to make exercise work for me led me to consider retraining, and in 2021 I graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Sport, Fitness and Coaching. I also qualified as a personal trainer with additional qualifications allowing me to support new mums, adults with medical conditions such as diabetes and hypertension and also to support adults with lower back pain.
Now my mission is to help people like me to find their groove with movement. And that is where you join the story.