5 Years Since I Changed My Life

May Bank Holiday weekend is always one that sticks out in my head and holds a lot of significance for me! In 2012, a couple of days before the Bank Holiday weekend I had gone for a consultation with Ryan about starting personal training. For those first few days it was such a huge novelty! He laid out food ideas, instructed me to keep a food diary and started the training. The first few weeks were SO hard. I had absolutely no level of fitness whatsoever. I remember Ryan having to hold my hands just to steady me so I could do bodyweight squats! It took me 22 minutes to walk a mile and I weighed well over 16 stone! I barely knew Ryan at the time and no one else in the world knew what weight I was even my own husband. I didnt even want to know myself so I tried to stay away from the scales. Ryan was the perfect person for me to start with because he was firm but fair; he wasn’t a scary trainer and he quickly became one of the best friends I’ve ever had and he still is to this day…

The concept of keeping a food diary was so strange, but it helped so much at the start. My diet at the start would have been far removed from what it is now but it was 100 times better than the crap i HAD been eating. I tried to do everything that Ryan said, went to PT with him twice a week and then did my own wee thing as well 3 times a week. At the start it was mostly just walking or cycling. Really thats all I was able for!
In January of that first year Ryan started fitness classes and I was one of the fittest ones there. This was SUCH a mind-fuck for me. I still had a couple of stone to lose but I had been training 5 days a week consistently for over 6 months. The level of intensity wasn’t as high obviously as I would be doing today but I was still 100 miles away from the girl who used to get out of breath climbing the stairs. I started to really enjoy exercise instead of seeing it as a chore to get through, I started to get real satisfaction from powering through a tough workout and I loved seeing myself getting fitter and stronger! In a year I reached my goal weight and I couldn’t believe it; but Ryan warned me this was the crucial part now. Something like 90% of people who lose weight put it back on and sometimes even more than where they started. I had worked so so hard I was determined not to let this happen to me.

I changed so much throughout the first year and now my body shape has changed a lot recently while training for this marathon.. I must be the only person to put ON weight during marathon training haha… But I’m not worried… I am using the extra calories for fuel and the weight I’m holding is making me strong. Theres plenty of time to diet down after the marathon, for now it suits me to have the extra food to achieve my goals and who doesnt love extra food??

Sometime during the first year or so training became one of my favourite things to do. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it fucking sucks to be up and out running at 6am. Sometimes your muscles are SO sore from the battering you’ve given them at the gym and sometimes all you want to do is laze around! But I never ever regret training. Its become a great release for me mentally, especially the running. As I write this I’m less than 5 weeks out from running my first marathon and I have a 20 mile run to do this weekend. TWENTY MILES. If someone had told me that when I first started with Ryan I wouldn’t have even entertained the thought, I would have said it was impossible. Nothing is impossible if you put in enough work! I have dedicated my life to bettering myself in every way I can now, because I want to be the best I can be. For so long I lived an average life, working in a job I didn’t enjoy, being overweight but not doing anything about it, wanting to drive but being too scared etc etc. I have changed in so many ways over the past few years and I have never been happier with where I am at now.

Fitness has changed my life, not weightloss. The weightloss was amazing and has given me such confidence but its the fitness that gives me the desire to succeed and keep pushing my limits! I have done so many things I am proud of over the years that are related to running, training etc and they are goals achieved that no one can take away from me…  If you are reading this and you wish that you could change your life then why the hell don’t you? As Gary Vee says, whos permission are you waiting on?? Only you can make a change and it CAN be done. Yes it will be hard for you but it was hard for me too… Through struggle you find strength and if I had to I would do every single bit over again because its made me who I am today… What are you waiting for? xx