health

The smoke & mirrors of obsession..

“I attended a summer camp with this little stick of a girl…Twila Stansberry.

Hell of an athlete….captured the flag.

Had an unrelenting passion for fitness.

But she was never skinny enough…..a pound here, a pound there.

Ran like a deer.

Until she couldn’t ….could barely walk.

Turns out she was anorexic.

The disease caused her to lose her sight.

I’ve never known anyone more obsessed with her body than Twila . 

Spent her entire life chasing something that destroyed her.

Make sure your passion isn’t your sickness.”

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It’s not always about the food..

Black or white, that’s where we seem to get stuck. In nutrition people tend to think in these terms, either this is right or that is. That whole, huge, massive grey area in between seems to get forgotten about. But you see, that grey area is often where the real story lies.

One thing I see argued about repeatedly on social media is the reasoning behind people gaining weight, like in a “that’s what happens in weight gain, so this is how to deal with it” type conclusion.

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Anxiety Girl

The sad news about Robin Williams has been everywhere this past week. It must be so hard for his family to have to deal with everyone’s opinions about his death. He is a father, a husband and a person yet people seem to be acting as though they have forgotten he is human. His only mistake was to have worked in an industry where your life becomes public access; where you become less of a person, more of a product.

I have no idea what he must have been going through to find himself at a point so desperate he felt there was only one way out. Depression is a monster that many live with on a daily basis. I have never had to deal with depression, so I can’t talk about what a horrific condition it must be to live with. But when I see comments from people like “what the hell has he got to be depressed about?” it makes me so gawd damn mad.
Because even though I’ve not suffered from depression, I have suffered terribly from GAD (General anxiety disorder) and on the very rare occasions I’ve mentioned this, people have sometimes said similar things to me. “But why, you have nothing to be anxious about?” (more…)

The power of my belief…

The first time a client actually physically cried on me because she couldn’t see her abs, was a prominent moment for me. She was lean, she was way below 20% body fat and had a figure many would wish for. She just didn’t have visible abs. But that simple little fact right there, that she couldn’t see those small little lumps poking out, was enough to warrant not just a bit of a hissy fit, but actual tears.

This was monumental for me. The way I saw it, I had two choices… (more…)

Life doesn’t come with instructions..

I’m going to write this blog in two parts, so this will be part one, I’m not yet sure how many parts there will be to it yet. Lucky you!
There is a trend I see in this industry we all know and love called health and fitness; it must be one of the most saturated industries there is out there. There is constantly a stream of new enthusiastic (or, some not so) trainers and health coaches coming off the qualification treadmill each and every day.

They come out into the world of work with such hopes and ambitions so high, thinking that they will become the next Layne Norton or Molly Galbraith within their first year of working.

It’s all about social media these days and people can become “mini-celebs” overnight, rather than having the ambition to help as many people as possible or make a significant difference in the world, it’s being replaced by wanting to be the most controversial, or getting so many likes/followers & satisfying egos. (more…)