My Story
I have not always been so passionate about health and fitness, especially my own. Never into sports as a child, I spent my early adult life completely addicted to junk food and my sofa. I looked and felt dreadful. My family were worried but I just wasn’t able to do anything about it. It felt too hard to change my life. It wasn’t until the age of 25 that a visit to the doctor made me realise that I needed to make some changes. My resting heart rate was over 100 and my blood pressure was high. It was the kick up the backside that I needed. I joined a gym and fumbled my way around, no direction or guidance but it was enough for me to lose some weight and bring down my blood pressure.
Fast forward a few years and pregnancy brought about a MASSIVE weight gain. Due to pelvic girdle pain I wasn’t able to stay active during my pregnancies and I kinda just used that as an excuse to sit my butt down and eat too many calories again. It was so easy to do! I got stuck into life as a mum, but in the meantime I neglected myself. Baby number two arrived two years after baby number one and I vowed I would make a change. I wanted to be a good role model for them. I found a local gym with a crèche and when baby number two was 12 weeks old (the minimum age required to go to the crèche!) I made my return to the gym.
I didn’t have much clue about exercise or nutrition but I kept turning up, making it a solid part of my daily routine and soon I was completely addicted. I started going to classes and completely fell in love with the buzz of high intensity exercise to music classes. As my confidence and fitness grew I was no longer hiding in the shadows of the back row. Being in the front row, and feeling confident in that space gave me the desire to take it to the next level. Inspired by my class instructors, I knew I wanted to make a positive change to people’s lives just like they had made to mine. I had no desire to go back to my sedentary desk job so I began my journey to train as an Exercise to Music Instructor.
Before I knew it I was teaching 12- 15 classes per week but unfortunately, going from couch potato to fitness diva in such a short space of time was a bit too much for my body to take. I needed regular trips to the osteopath, physiotherapist, and chiropractor and they all said the same thing, ‘You need to strengthen your core. You should do Pilates.’ Urgh! But Pilates is so boring! I did a minimal amount of Pilates and kept doing my high intensity training. Episodes of lower back pain got more and more frequent and more and more severe but I just buried my head in the sand, not wanting to admit that I could not physically do this job that I loved so much.
The tail end of 2016 was my wake up call. The excruciating spasms in my lower back left me unable to stand up straight or walk properly. I wasn’t able to take my beloved dog for his long walks and it severely impacted my ability to properly take care of my kids. Luckily they were old enough by then to not need carrying! I took 4 weeks off work and stupidly attempted to teach my classes again at the start of 2017. I didn’t last long, funny that! I gave all my classes up and was completely heartbroken but I knew it was the right choice. MRIs don’t lie. The scan showed I had degeneration and herniation in 4 of my lumbar discs. My hospital consultant said ‘I’m nearly twice your age and I’ve got one bad disc. You’ve got four!’ I made a joke about how I win at having bad discs but he didn’t laugh, ha ha!
Determined to stay in the industry I loved I retrained as a Personal Trainer. I found a new love in the 1-2-1 work with my clients and a new passion was born. Many of my clients had injuries and I found myself helping them with Pilates using many of the exercises that helped me to recover. In my mind it made complete sense to train as a Pilates Teacher. The more I learned about this amazing training method devised by Joseph Pilates, the more I wanted to know. It wasn’t boring at all! Read more about what Pilates is all about here.
If you’ve got this far then I thank you for reading my story. Please take a look around and get in touch if you think I can help. I am truly passionate about helping people feel stronger and move better. Having been at rock bottom where I felt my body had failed me, I understand what that feels like. In hindsight it was I that failed my body by not looking after it properly, not only in my couch potato days, but also at the other end of my extreme when I was thrashing my body but had failed to build a solid foundation first.