The smallest version of yourself isn't the healthiest

A message to my younger self: the smallest version of you isn’t the healthiest.

It’s coming up to my 10th year as a Personal Trainer and Women’s Health Coach.

This has led me to reflect on my own journey so far, and how far I have come since the start.

When I was starting in the gym, I had self confidence and body image challenges. I used to think (subconsciously) that the leaner and smaller I was, the more I would like myself, and the more others would see me.

The gym honestly was the best thing for me, I started building muscle and getting stronger and more confident in my ability, and this started my passion for fitness.

However at the same time I also started to find control in restricting my food.

I was very interested in extreme styles of eating, eating excessively “clean” and “paleo” and fasting because I had read it would keep you lean. I didn’t know the effect excessive restriction had on female health.

So after getting as lean as I did in the photo on the left, the rebound hit. I couldn’t maintain this level of leanness or low calories forever. My hormonal cycle went haywire, I started overeating on foods I had restricted, my acne broke out, I gained back weight and my stress hormones crashed so I was exhausted all the time.

It took me a long time to recover from this. Luckily I was also studying exercise and nutrition at university and my Personal Training certification to help me build my knowledge and understand what was a better approach.

It took me years of study, practise, trial and error and self work on my beliefs about myself to get to the place I am today.

Now I am so much more accepting of my body and have a balanced relationship with food, I have found a healthy set point with my body fat that maintains my hormonal balance, energy and wellbeing, and I focus on building strength and muscle over being as lean as possible.

This is why it is my passion to coach women with a sustainable and balanced plan for exercise and nutrition with healthy habits straight up.

You will feel so incredible, strong and confident in your body with an educated and sustainable approach!