I’ve had a few people ask me recently how I got into fitness, what’s my backstory, how did it all come about. Well, if you’ve got the time – here goes! The story goes back pretty much 20+ years, to when I was living in London. I’d been there about 4 years by this stage and The Heathrow Injection had got me good! Not all at once mind you – slowly, but surely my weight had crept up from my usual 72/73 to a hefty 81kgs! It might not sound like a lot to some people, but for a girl who is all boobs and no bum – it wasn’t pretty and I could barely button up my pants! Luckily, a friend of mine had just joined Weight Watchers (yes, I know, but this was the early 2000’s) and so off we went every Wednesday night for our weigh in, I started swimming again (having been a competitive swimmer from the age of 6 all through my school years) and started making what I thought were healthy food choices. Things went well, until they didn’t. 

Fast forward to 2003 and I had let the swimming slide, as well as the WW and was living a rather hedonistic lifestyle – all beer, all carbs, no exercise, late nights – you know the drill. Then I developed a rather frightening pain on the left side of my abdomen, which resulted in 3 trips to the emergency room, an endoscopy (right up there as one of the worst experiences of my life), almost having my gallbladder removed, only to be informed on the last trip to the ER that I had Acute Pancreatitis and because I had been misdiagnosed the previous 2 times at the hospital, things were pretty serious! I was admitted there and then to the ICU and spent 4 days hooked up to all sorts of machines, looking like The Borg Queen, in an isolation booth in said ICU because my condition had turned life threatening. After 4 days in the ICU, I spent a further 5 days in a general ward courtesy of the NHS (not an experience I would ever like to repeat) and from there was sent home, exhausted, terrified and questioning my life choices (something I still do a lot, but mostly during a CrossFit WOD). Things had to change and slowly but surely they did. I started running (like a sick tortoise going backwards), but went from someone who couldn’t run for a bus to someone who could run 10km, started boxing, learnt how to skip and do push ups and the rest, as they say, is history…

Well., not quite, because I still had some serious health conditions resulting from the AP (think super high cholesterol and triglycerides) and really had to watch what Iate and drank and had to keep up the exercise. By the time I left London at the end of 2006, I was back down to my fighting weight of 72 kgs and almost fit and healthy.

2007 found me in Perth, Australia and not long after I arrived, I joined a Masters Swimming Club, which brought back my love of competitive swimming. So much so that I competed in The FINA Masters Swimming Champs in Perth in 2007 and the World Masters Games in 2009 (I have the gold, silver and bronze medals to prove it). The end of 2009 saw me going through some massive changes personally and professionally which is how I ended up becoming a Personal Trainer. I mean, how hard can it be to teach someone how to squat and count reps (it’s pretty bloody hard actually, just so you know) is what I thought going into it, not realising that I had truly found my calling, even at the advanced age of almost 34. Throughout my 7 years at a commercial gym in Perth, I took to the stage as a Fitness Model, completed multiple Tough Mudder/Spartan Race/Obstacle Challenges, ran everything from 5kms to 21kms and really loved the art of bodybuilding. Until 2015, when I found CrossFit and well and truly drank the Kool Aid. It was love at first Metcon and I haven’t looked back since.

Which brings me to today. Here I am, 48 years old, the mother of the spunkiest 6 year old you ever did see and the fittest I have ever been. It hasn’t been an easy road and I have tried almost every healthy eating permutation there is, but at the end of the day, it really is about finding something you love to do, day in and day out, find a way of eating that is simple, works for you, makes you feel good and perform well, but also allows you to let loose once in a while and enjoy life. Even if that means eating chocolate every day (I don’t, but you could). I’m lucky in that I get to work surrounded by healthy, fit people every day, but we all have to start somewhere and if I can come back from almost dying because of poor lifestyle choices, then there really is a starting point for everyone. My journey has been 20+ years and I look forward to it being another who knows how many, because it really is a lifestyle. Not a complicated one, sometimes a challenging one, but one that is doable, whatever your starting point.