Finding the confidence to embark on a fitness journey

This is Laila’s* story, which is so relatable and we love the fact that although she no doubt saw many positive physical changes, at its heart, this is a mindset change story. Changing the way you think is often the first step and harder than the physical changes that follow.

I haven’t felt like myself for 20 years and over the past few years, more and more I have been falling deeper into a rut that I couldn’t seem to come out of. I think with the rush and pace of life, having three children in fairly quick succession and then also working full time. The time I used to have to care for myself seemed to have fallen away a long time ago. Worst of all, I found that I didn’t even really feel like making time for self-care as there was always the excuse of having to do something for the children or work. I was literally last on the list of priorities.

When I hit my 40’s it was almost as if things physically started to fall apart from my birthday. I have had a niggly back since my first pregnancy and then I somehow injured a tendon in my foot that didn’t heal and I was generally achy and nowhere near as agile as I used to be. The shame was that I used to be pretty sporty and took part in everything and now I was worried about running or jumping from a small height in case I “injured” myself.  Then there was the slow weight gain. I was always a size 8-10 but I was now definitely a 10-8 (if the clothes were very generously cut). I told myself that was all fine and considering I had three children that wasn’t bad at all.

The truth was, I was carrying quite a bit of excess weight and thought nothing of a glass of wine every evening after an exhausting day at work to unwind and eating whatever I wanted. I was convinced my one or two takeaways a week was very restrained compared to what it could be. But underneath here was always this feeling that I could be in such better shape. As time went on, I was becoming more and more out of shape and had totally lost the confidence to do anything about it. It was excuse after excuse – no time, too expensive and it’s not my thing.

So what changed? For me it was a sudden stab of fear, the thought that it was all downhill from now and my body was old, I was hitting perimenopause and if I didn’t do anything about it I would just slide into a physical decline. I decided to go to a personal trainer, something I never had the time or money to do before.

I didn’t suddenly win the lottery and stop work, I just reprioritised. I redirected the money I was spending on eating out for lunch during the week and takeaways into my training sessions. I won’t dwell on the details, other than to say I found a trainer who understood what I was experiencing and was passionate about keeping me on track and 2 years later, I am feeling even better than I did in my early 20s. I think my experience has taught me that it’s never too late and, cliched as it sounds, it is all about taking control of your life and choosing to make lifestyle changes. I have never regretted it and wished I had prioritised myself sooner.

• We love to hear your stories and if you feel more comfortable with not using your real name then that is totally good with us.