**Disclaimer** This is a long one and I've simply put it here so that you can learn a bit more about who you are considering training with!
 

My fitness journey hasn't been a linear one, I doubt that anyone's ever is, but it has been a learning process. 
Growing up I was very fortunate that I had parents who took us out doing loads of active things like hill walking, swimming, kayaking, biking etc. They encouraged us to find something that we enjoyed that would keep us healthy, no matter what it was, and make it a habit. After I left school, I was cycling 18 miles a day in and out to whichever job I was doing and then ended up in a very active job too, working as an instructor at a high ropes course. My preference had always been to do my exercise outdoors. 
When I moved to university, for the first time in my life I really struggled to stay active, and feel good. I had joined a sports team but it wasn't really what I wanted and I was trying to take my bike out after class as much as possible but honestly, I was a little bit depressed that first semester of uni. I had struggled to make friends, was living in a city for the first time and when I got back to my room at the end of the day all I wanted to do was hibernate with a cup of tea and Netflix. 
At this point in my life I definitely carried the most body fat I ever had, not that I realised at the time, I just knew I felt miserable. This was never anything to do with body image for me and I feel very fortunate to have never struggled with side of things but mentally this lack of exercise or activity really affected me.
The summer after the first year was over, I met someone, and it just so happened that someone was into the gym. It took a few months but eventually, I joined too and took up the free PT session that they offered on joining. The PT was ex-military and took me straight into how to squat and deadlift. It's funny thinking back now as the deadlift is my favourite exercise, but when he first showed me I just could not get my head around the movement! When I first started in the gym, I spent a lot of time on the upright bike 'watching'. I watched everyone. I picked up on things that I thought looked like a good idea and things that I just could not see the point/enjoyment in. And I googled things, correct form, what was this exercise actually doing, stuff like that. Fast forward a year and my boyfriend was now playing football and had ditched the gym, and I had started going at least 4/5 times a week. I was the strongest I had ever been, I liked to train hard and heavy. 
And then I got sick. I say I 'got sick', as it turned out it had been there for a lot longer but at this stage it got bad. I was in a lot of pain, I was getting extremely bloated and sore after eating anything, I started to have issues with my bowels. Back pain that you wouldn't believe, cramps that had me on the floor silently screaming. And I am not a person to over dramatise things, or to pay much attention to pain, but I knew something was wrong. I lost so much weight because eating anything made me feel horrendous, I felt weak and tired and achy all the time. I eventually went to the doctor and spent a very frustrating period being given various IBS medications and anti-depressants (used to treat nerve pain) and told that I just needed to 'relax' and not be so anxious...despite not being anxious about anything! 
After finally persuading my GP that I should see a gynaecologist as well as a gastroenterologist, I persuaded him that there was a high chance I had endometriosis, and signed consent forms for an exploratory laparoscopy. I was told it would be at least a year before I was seen for the surgery so I thought, that's good I'll start training differently and be in really good shape when I go in so that recovery is as easy as possible.  Well the best-laid plans, as they say, I got a call one Friday 6 months into waiting and got asked if I wanted a cancellation slot on Monday! Of course, I said yes to and four days later I was coming round from the anaesthetic feeling like I'd been run over by a truck. But I had my diagnosis, I did indeed have endometriosis. 
Recovery from the surgery did not go as I planned, I was in a lot more pain than I had thought and for longer than I thought I would be. 
Three months after the surgery and I was getting back into a new routine, I had to accept I could no longer do 5 sessions a week in the gym and had cut down to 3. If I didn't feel up to it, I didn't go, and I focussed on getting out on lots of nice walks with my dog. It was a hard adjustment, but one of the worst parts of endometriosis is chronic fatigue and pain, which was only made worse by training super hard. 
Then came another big change, due to my diagnosis and the higher chances of struggling to conceive or have complications, my partner and I had decided that we would try and get pregnant. We were extremely blessed and we found out we were pregnant pretty quickly in April. 

Now when I had imagined being pregnant I had always thought I would keep training the same way I had been, that I would find it easy and that I would see no real difference in my programmes. I am pre and postnatal qualified, but boy was I naive!
The first trimester I was exhausted and hot all the time but provided I was wearing very few clothes I was ok and still managed to climb a few hills, walk the dog and go to the gym. The trickiest part for me was fitting it in as I was working 8 and a half hours a day and driving 2 hours to get there! In the second trimester, I felt like I had slightly more energy but my joints had already started to get very sore, making a lot of the exercises I enjoyed doing hurt a lot. I tried swimming when I could and found that enjoyable whilst my bump was still small. Into the third trimester and it all went out the window completely, I was getting so much hip and back pain that I was struggling to sleep and despite gym sessions feeling ok at the time, the days following I would be in a lot of pain. Add to this a growing bump that was making everything uncomfortable and difficult, my exercise ended up being daily dog walks with the occasional bodyweight session in the gym, and a lot of housework. Hello, nesting!
The most difficult part for me has been losing a lot of the muscle and strength that I had built over the 4 years prior. Postnatal has been a weird one for me, I have done A LOT of walking but struggled to do much more than that until 18 months plus. I, unfortunately, struggled with Post Natal Depression and combine this with a baby and then a toddler, a husband away in the Army and a big dog, getting to the gym was not top of my priority list!  And we won't even mention the 'C' word...
For me, it has become all about doing what I can when I can because that is the reality for the majority of mums/parents. And, I personally am happy with this for now. There are times and seasons for everything in life and I know I will be able to get back into a regular gym routine at some point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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