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If you want to change your life, change your choices

My client Sandra sharing this fantastic testimonial on escaping a job she was unhappy in and pursuing something that now brings meaning to her life SANDRA My background is in Environmental Health where I qualified from Salford University in 1985. I worked in Greater Manchester in several Local Authorities as an Environmental Health Officer working up the ladder until my last job promotion in 2010.   From 2010 I was head of The Food Safety where I was responsible for an  Enforcement Team who would inspect food businesses and would award them with a Food Safety Rating (you’ve probably seen them they are green Food Standards Agency stickers with ratings from zero (being the worst) to 5 (being the very best)). A poor rating could finish a food business, so tensions were high if standards were poor or needed improvement.  Any businesses which had infestations of rats/mice/cockroaches or were unhygienic and presenting a risk to health would be closed and prosecuted.  I was working long hours
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MAKING THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS A BETTER LIFE

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  Our lives tend to improve when we put the action in and often that starts with just one small step. People often come to me for help with their strength and fitness when they see my social media or hear about me through word of mouth. Throughout my career I’ve come across many people who have reached out and asked questions on social media and I try to explain as best they can what they can expect and what they’re going to get from my coaching. Often, they don’t follow this up with action. One of the reasons I love this job is to see clients grow and this is the same for them – they benefit physically and mentally and transform their lives outside of the gym too. I often think about those who reach out and never follow through, about how different their lives could be with exercise. Life is hard. We all face hardship, some more than others. Exercise, especially community based fitness massively helps with living in this society. Being around like minded others even for an hour pe
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LAKES 3000s

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  This weekend we took on the Lakes 3000s mountain challenge which entails climbing 4 of the biggest mountains in England: Scafell Pike, Scafell, Helvellyn and Skiddaw, each over 3000 feet. In total, the height of these mountains is the equivalent of the height of Mount Fuji . We often do mountain challenges like the national, Welsh and Yorkshire Three Peaks challenges but this year a client mentioned her friend was doing the Lakes 3000s so I started looking into it and found Jack from Adventuring and we got the ball rolling. In preparation we did various walks to train for the challenge so people could get some training but also so they could get to know each other. We ended up with 22 people undertaking the challenge. One of the great things in life is learning from experiences and one of the things I learned from this challenge is to never underestimate anything in life. I thought it would be like the other challenges we’ve done before. How wrong was I? The day got off to a great st
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GROUP PERSONAL TRAINING

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  GROUP PERSONAL TRAINING In an era where more and more coaches are moving online, face to face group PT sessions have transformed my business for the better. There is an argument for embracing technology and moving to online coaching. It’s flexible, there’s earning potential and the possibility to reach a wider audience but it’s not for me. I much prefer face to face interaction and feedback and it’s something that’s really important for me to maintain so I wanted to write about how I’ve achieved longevity in face to face personal training through implementing group personal training. HITTING BURNOUT When I first started in the fitness industry, I did what many new PTs do. I was walking the gym floor, working 12-15 hours per day and although I was building an amazing client base, I was seeing one client per hour, back to back. The business model was unsustainable and I eventually burned out. I wasn’t drinking or sleeping enough and my nutrition consisted of grabbing protein bars off
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Helping others helps yourself

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It’s a known fact in psychology that helping others helps you in many ways from increased confidence, happiness and even helping you to live longer! Both my business and personal ethos are centred around helping others and just about everything I have achieved in my life is as a result of this. This week I wanted to recognise some of the individuals who helped me to reach my goals last year. Just about everything I have achieved in my life is as a result of helping others. At the start of the year, I always set myself goals. Things I want to achieve for myself, with clients or my business. This week I wanted to recognise some of the individuals who helped me to reach my goals last year. I always seem to doubt myself every year when it comes to goal setting but for me, that’s a sign that it’s an appropriate goal, something I will have to work hard for. If it doesn’t scare me a little, it’s probably a sign that it’s too easy. Having these goals to strive for keeps things exciting. Ev
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WHO CARES WHAT THEY THINK?

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  Each year I go for a New Year’s Eve walk with one of my clients. It’s become a tradition of ours. Last year she asked me, ‘What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned in 2021?’. I told her, ‘I’ve learned not to worry about what other people think about me’. It’s human nature to want others to like and respect us but it becomes a problem when we think about this too much. I’ve mentioned before how much I admire Denzel Washington and I heard him talking about this. He was saying that if he started thinking about others think of him, it would become a barrier to living his life. He wouldn’t have achieved such success if he let others affect him. I could relate to this. I often found myself dwelling on what others might think of me. I would literally create problems in my head, wondering what others thought, doing their thinking for them. Lao Tzu, an ancient Chinese philosopher wrote ‘Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner’. This quote rings true as it is
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THE LONG GAME

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One of my clients changed her entire lifestyle, from nutrition to exercise, career to relationships. These changes happened over a few years. Gradual changes = lasting changes I want to talk about long term goals and long-term success. Most men who hire personal trainers stay with them for short periods of time. They learn what they need to and go it alone. Women, on the other hand, tend to remain clients for longer periods of time. I’ve seen this in my own business. Some of my clients are women who have trained with me for years, some of them up to 9 years! Clients have come to me at all sorts of different starting points. Some are healthy, some were heavier than they wanted to be, some wanted to move better. When clients come to me, they often have a short-term goal in mind. They want to lose weight for an occasion or train for an event. As many personal trainers will know, some come at peak times in the year following a new year’s resolution or for a summer shred. Others come becaus
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