Hi!  I'm Beth and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for visiting my website!  I'm very passionate about fitness and the benefits healthy living has on the body and the mind.  I know from experience how it feels to be overweight, how hard it is to lose weight and how GREAT it feels once you've lost it!!  I decided to become a Personal Trainer after losing 5 stone and dropping 4 dress sizes!  Here's my story...


This was me in 2002, on holiday in Madrid.  I always dressed like this when I was overweight; shapeless, baggy jumpers, jeans, baseball caps - anything to hide myself from the judgemental eyes of the world.  This wasn't me at my biggest but there aren't many photos of me from that time.  Some may call it "camera shy" but I prefer to call it "photo fear"!!  The last thing I wanted were pictures of me looking like that!  Any other pictures of me from that time were destroyed immediately after I had seen them!!

I often ask myself "How did I get that way?".  I think I fell into a trap that a lot of people fall into.  When I left school, I went straight out to work.  At the end of the day I couldn't be bothered/didn't have time to exercise.  I'd moved out of home and had to fend for myself.  My idea of cooking was putting a pie and chips in the oven!

In short, I ended up just plodding along in life.  Work, home, eat, sleep.  No breakfast, lunch on the run.  Big dinner, what's on TV?  Cake?  Sure.  Another piece?  Why not?!  That was my life.  For years it went on that way.  I tried a few fad diets along the way; low fat, no meat, no carbs, soup only, no dairy - all a waste of time and all ended up with me putting weight back on!!  I thought I would just be fat forever.  I'd resigned myself to it.

Then, one day, I decided to go swimming.  No reason for it, I just felt like going swimming.  I used to like it when I was younger and thought it might be something fun to do.  And you know what?  I really enjoyed it!!  Just a nice, gentle swim.  I felt invigorated and was happy that I'd done something a little bit different.

So I decided to make the time to go swimming once or twice a week.  From there, I started trying other new things, Aqua Aerobics, Cycling, Gym, Dance Aerobics, Legs Bums and Tums...  I went from not exercising at all to exercising three, four, five times a week.  I learned more about exercise and nutrition and as time went on, I started to lose weight.  People were giving me compliments, saying I looked great, I seemed happier, my skin was healthier, my hair was shinier and it made me feel amazing!!


This was me in 2005 (at the Grand Canyon!!).  I had lost 2-3 stone by this point and I felt good about life.  See how I'm much happier to stand in front of the camera... my smile seems to mean something more than it does in the picture above!  Exercise does that to you - makes you feel good on the inside, more confident, more balanced.  Here in this picture, I was happy with who I was.

But it wasn't the end of my journey.

Shortly after this, I stopped losing weight.  I had set my goal to reach 10 stone and that left me almost two stone to go.  I was still exercising and eating healthy but it just wasn't shifting.  One of my good friends suggested that I try something new and invited me running with her.  "No way!" was my immediate response!  I hadn't run since they made me do the mile run at school and even then I walked well over half of it!  But, I figured I'd come so far already, why not give it a try??

So, we went running.  My first time out and I ran for 3 minutes!!  Three whole minutes - I was excited!  I didn't think I'd be able to run for 30 seconds, let alone three minutes - wow!!

Running became my new thing.  I hated it at first because, man alive it's hard!  But the more you do it, the easier it gets.  Soon enough, I was doing the 5K race for life and then a few 10K runs (50 minutes is my best time!) and even the 10 mile Great South Run!  I felt like a new woman and was absolutely loving life!!


And that's my story!  I went from doing absolutely no exercise whatsoever, to being a complete fitness addict, reaching my goal weight (and then some!!), and setting up my own personal Training company!!  I love telling people my story, seeing them look at me as if to say "you were never fat!" and helping others to reach their goals!!  I have the best job in the entire world and I would never, ever change a single part of it!!

So, if there's anyone out there who needs that first little bit of motivation or a push in the right direction or just wants to make a change for the better, give me a call.  I know better than anyone that if you want something and you're willing to work for it - you can achieve anything in this life!!

This is me now... time for a game of 'Spot the Difference'??