Because I know what it’s like….

After the birth of my first baby, Ava I felt completely out of control of my body and my mind.

I’d lost the discipline I’d had before having her around exercise and food and self care and felt like I was in free-fall, just reacting to anything and everything rather than having any plan or structure for my own life.

Life as I knew it, and liked it, was long gone and I needed to find a new normal.

Even though I was a PT, a nutritionist and a life coach – I still had no idea where to start to get my life, and health, back on track.

And when I took the time to look for information it felt like nothing was for me.

• I didn’t with 1, and I certainly don’t with 3, have the time to cook meals involving lots of ingredients, complicated steps and that take more than 20 mins.
• I can’t go to the gym, I know running isn’t effective for my goals (or good for my joints) and I don’t have time to spend hours working out.
• I’m post-natal so the reality of my saggy skin disappearing and a 6-pack amazingly materialising without significant time and investment is just unrealistic
• I have small children so, even if I could be bothered counting calories or macronutrients this is not healthy role-modelling for them

I wanted small pivots that I could make in my current lifestyle that would make a big difference.

I knew my time, energy levels, and motivation were limited.

I wanted sustainable and realistic changes that I could make easily and keep up with even when I was rocking on 3 hours sleep and a cracking headache.

But I also knew it was possible even if no one was telling me how.

It seemed overwhelming – where the hell would I start??

It seemed no one ‘out there’ really understood what was possible or achievable for a mum with children.

But I knew I could make small, consistent, realistic and sustainable pivots in my lifestyle. And I knew that these could build up to making a big difference in how I felt and looked.

My baby was (and the 3 of them still are) my guiding light and reason for it all, but I wanted and knew that I deserved to feel (and look, damn it) good again.

I wanted to thrive rather than survive.

I wanted to look and feel better than ever before.

And so I started.

Tiny little pivots:

• Drinking a matcha tea in the morning
• Reading for 15 mins (even when none of the information stayed in my brain for more than 3 seconds)
• A 5 minute morning stretch routine
• Making a smoothie after a workout
• ETC ETC

New little habits that built up to create, what is now, a really healthy lifestyle.

Don’t get me wrong. My liver is still complaining about Saturday night’s date-night in Soho and I am no food saint. But the reality is, when your life is made up of healthy habits 80% of the time – the other 20% of the time (i.e when you’re eating all your kid’s haribo from last Sunday’s party) you really can do what you want to do.

And 6 months after Ava was born I was healthy and happy and felt in control of my body and my health. I didn’t diet. I exercised as and when I wanted to. I practised self-care. I felt whole again.

And then came Elle – baby number 2.  And the panic set in again – could I do it? Did I need to start again? How could I do it with 2 KIDS???

The answer was: Exactly the same way I did it with one.

Because habits are habits and once they’re set, they’re hard to break.

Out she popped (well…after an excruciating 7 hours) and, post the new-born 3 week haze, I was back to it. Strangely easier second time round.

Then baby 3. Huge baby 3. 9.2lbs baby 3. And surely, just surely, he would ruin it all? How the hell with 3 kids under 4 would I be able to be anything but a very tired, very short-tempered excuse for a woman?

But it really is true: It does get easier. And I found myself doing all the breathing and posture techniques I teach my clients the day after I gave birth to baby boy Cole.

Those 'habits' kicked in and I didn’t have time to do anything but let those well-used behaviours drive me forwards.

And when a girl-friend asked me one day, a few weeks after Cole was born,  how it was that when all the other mums of small kids she knew were just surviving but that I had 3 under 4 and a baby just a few weeks old – I was thriving – I realised:

NO ONE KNOWS HOW EASY IT IS.

Because, when you know exactly what to do, you thrive!

It doesn’t have to be difficult. It can’t be because who the hell has the time for something difficult??

It doesn’t have to take all your time.

It doesn’t have to be extreme.

It doesn’t even have to change your current lifestyle that much.

Habits are learnable.

And I want to teach them to you.

The habits but also so much more.

I want to share not just ‘what’ to do but also exactly ‘how’ to do it.

So you don’t have to figure it all out on your own from insta posts, plus BBC online, plus an article you read in InStyle, plus that bit from The goop Labs you saw on Netflix.

I take care of all that – let me do all the research and work for you – so you can concentrate on deciding what habits are going to be best for you, your goals and your lifestyle.

And then we insert them in to your daily routine.

Step by step. Day by day. Over 6 weeks of self-discovery – we create an exact blue-print of a healthy life for you.

Not a blanket approach. A customised approach. A personalised approach. Just for you.

I want you to thrive.

I want every mum to thrive.

Let me share with you exactly how to do it. Because you deserve to live your best life. You deserve to have all the energy you need to play with your kids AND do the things you want to do for yourself.

You deserve to look and feel amazing.

You deserve to T.H.R.I.V.E.