For what some would still consider being a ‘tender age’ I still have a long time to go in my working life before I can finally hit the backburner and enjoy my retirement days. Over the years I had flirted in my mind set with different career ideas (I had always dreamed of being a vet as a kid, but being scared of holding animals didn’t start me off on the right foot!). Following a lack of motivation in my college days I found myself in retail where due to lack of qualifications I resigned to having to work my way up to ‘shop manager’. After spending 2 years standing behind a counter counting dust particles I landed myself jobs in administration, sitting behind a desk 8 hours a day. This coupled with the not long turned 18 lifestyle of drinking and eating fast food, I soon started gaining the pounds. I had always been active as a teenage and therefore had a slim physique but this was no longer the case. As per the typical modern day female I refused to accept the size I had become and carried on the façade of buying clothes 2 sizes too small, walking round like a blackberry muffin in my overly tight jeans. It was only photos from my holiday to New Zealand which made me realise what I had let happen. After failed attempts losing weight through what I believed to be ‘eating healthily’ and gym and fitness DVD fads, I stumbled across a fitness boot camp in my local area, a company called Urban Vitality. They guaranteed to drop a dress size in 28 days and this was just the remedy I was looking for.
The photograph that pushed me over the edge
I completed two straight months of the complete boot camp and was back on the road to fitting into all the new clothes I had bought but couldn’t wear! Realising how hard weight loss was without the correct guidance and motivation; I opted for a career in fitness and personal training, completing a night course at college alongside my full time job. I wanted to be able to help people who were like me, desperate to lose weight but lacking the knowledge and motivation to do so. Once qualified, I took the biggest step of my life and left the cold and blustery lands of blighty for the more aesthetically appealing warm shores of New Zealand. It is here that I landed my first ever job as a personal trainer at City Fitness gyms. I trained a number of clients and realised that I had finally found the career in which I wish to progress and flourish.
Back in NZ, this is about two years after the last photorgraph
Returning back to London a little less than a year later, I was successful in getting a job with Nuffield health working within their corporate gyms. Despite still enjoying the people contact in the gyms, my fitness ethos was changing, I no longer wanted to train people in hot and stuffy rooms using set machines, I wanted to be training in the great outdoors, providing people with a real quality exercise routine. This is where the Urban Vitality Company came back into my life. I had remained in contact with John Limpus, the owner of UV and someone who has turned out to be a great mentor within my fitness career. Upon the plans we made, I quit the gyms and returned to my old office job in a temporary position; allowing me to open up my very own branch of Urban Vitality boot camps. The very place I found my own inspiration years before in my own weight loss journey.
It is here I find myself today, running my bootcamps and personal training business out of Barnes, SW London. I am loving life and excited about building my business and website. I believe that life is all about embracing challenges and living your dreams which is why I have chosen this path. Many people think I am mad to leave a good secure job, but the truth is, what I am doing and the people I am meeting truly inspires me; and I hope to pass that inspiration onto those that read my articles 🙂
Eat, Move, Love 