My journey to health & fitness

When I meet people they assume that health and fitness has always come easy to me, so I want to share with everyone my personal journey and how I ended up in the industry. And why this has made me so passionate about the new training space I am opening in Southville this summer – Empowered Fitness.

As a child I was overweight and as a teenager I was underweight. I got bullied for being too fat and too skinny. I couldn’t win! And I was always picked last in PE lessons at school.

For years I had a very bad relationship with food, with episodes of binging and purging, trying to control my weight. I once threw a tuna sandwich in my mums face because I was scared I’d get fat if I ate it. It was crazy!

I used to hate my body. I starved myself and became addicted to exercise trying to fix it but it did more harm than good.

Enough was enough and I needed to change. I started learning how to exercise correctly and how to eat food which nourished my body. I started noticing how great I felt and how my body was changing. So much so that I felt like I had discovered a secret which I didn’t want to keep to myself.

Until I discovered fitness I felt like I didn’t really know who I was and now I’ve found my purpose in life. It makes me feel amazing when I look after myself and I enjoy teaching others how good they could feel too. I love seeing my clients break through barriers, achieve their potential and become empowered by exercise.

And this is why I want to open a personal training studio to support people who aren’t gym fanatics, who are fed up with what they’re doing right now and want to change their bodies in a healthy way.

Although today I’m fit, strong and healthy, I’ve been exactly where so many other people are right now. I’ve hated my body, I’ve battled with exercise and I’ve struggled to eat well. Exercise is still tough, but now I embrace the challenge and love to feel myself progressing. Despite all the exercise, I still have to watch what what I eat - I just have to look at a doughnut and my jeans get tight - so I can sympathise with every woman on the planet!