About Me
For the past seven years I have been passionate about postnatal wellbeing, a passion that was born from my own postnatal experiences. Following the birth of my daughter in 2015, there were a number of things I wanted to know more about and simply didn’t know where to go to source the information.
The internet was a confusing and contradictory place, full of questionable advice and judgement. I spent hours online, sifting through the material, researching and learning. I took courses and classes, each one offering me something different in my quest to build a solid foundation of knowledge. I became certified in physical fitness, movement, nutrition, breathing and anything else that seemed relevant and important.
I formed wonderful friendships with other mothers and through conversations at play dates or online realised that the knowledge I had developed could help other women too. I knew that if I could share this knowledge with other women, I could help to empower them towards their own postnatal wellbeing. And so the fantastic community of Nurture Fitness was born.
The Earlier Years
I began my professional life as a visual artist, graduating from Glasgow School of Art in 2000. I then completed a postgraduate research degree in art therapies and worked as a workshop facilitator and educator in a variety of places such as hospitals, prisons, schools and nursing homes.
In 2005 I embarked upon a long-distance relationship by moving from Glasgow to London to pursue a PhD at the Royal College of Art, which is where my research skills were truly honed.
While in London I became a police officer with the Metropolitan Police and then in 2014 decided that my long-term relationship deserved to become more of a priority, and transferred to a police service back home in Scotland.
In 2015 I became a mother for the first time and everything I thought I knew about life changed forever.
The Journey
Having been fit and well prior to my first pregnancy back in 2015, I took the saying ‘eating for two’ to heart and once the nausea of the first trimester wore off, I made up for lost time by indulging my sweet tooth to the max. I put on more body fat than I was comfortable with and following the birth resolved to lose it with diet and exercise. I gave myself one year to get “back into shape” as that was when I was due back to work, and there was no flipping way I was going back in a larger uniform. I made this self-imposed deadline by the skin of my teeth and by 15-months after the birth of my first baby, just when I was starting to see my abs again, I discovered I was pregnant.
The second time around I resolved not to go so heavy on the cake and chocolate and tried to eat as well as I could. I put on a healthy amount of weight and once my son was born, my body returned back to something resembling the old me very quickly.
I also developed postpartum depression. I didn’t realise it at the time, and began binge-eating. I don’t really know why. But I put on a lot of body fat in a short space of time, which had even more of a detrimental effect on my mental health. I knew that I wanted to train as a movement specialist, and suddenly I felt intense pressure to look the way I expected a fitness expert to look. So out came the diet and exercise regime. And I mean regime. I was training at the gym or at home 5-6 days a week, doing lots of high impact exercises and heavy weight training. It wasn’t working this time around, though. My belly wasn’t getting any smaller. In fact, it was getting bigger. Huh??
Around the same time, I was doing a number of courses and certifications in pre and postnatal fitness and wellness. And as I worked my way through the course material, things were starting to make sense. I realised had a diastasis recti! All the jumping around and heavy lifting I was doing was literally making it worse. I was damaging my own body through my ignorance. I designed a recovery programme for myself based on the training I had received through my certifications and set to work.
My ab separation is now greatly improved, as are other pelvic symptoms that I was experiencing and didn’t realise were related. And now I have a very personal understanding of some of the fitness issues that can arise postnatally, and how to improve them. My fitness ethos is no longer “go hard or go home”. There is a time and a place for that style of training, and early postnatal is not it. The time following pregnancy is the time for nurturing and restorative movement. A time to connect to your core again. A time to learn how to breathe optimally again. A time to establish a fitness foundation upon which you can build more high-intensity activities should you choose to.
It is my experience of pregnancy and motherhood that has lead me to this understanding – I want Nurture Fitness to be the fitness sanctuary for women that I needed and couldn’t find after my first pregnancy
Some Random Facts About Me
I was born in Glasgow, Scotland.
I’m a complete introvert and hate being the subject of attention.
I used to be a visual artist, then a police officer. At one point I was both at the same time.
Despite working with lots of people with mental health issues, I never truly understood their experience until I developed postpartum depression.
I have been unhappy with my body for as long as I can remember. I am doing some body positivity work to rectify this and be in a position to be able to help others who feel the same.
I love wine. And dark rum. And chocolate.
I have two incredible children who make me laugh every single day. They changed my life in ways I struggle to put into words.
I thought that the nausea I was feeling on a police firing range was nerves about the firearms assessment, but it turned out to be morning sickness.
I wish I was vegan, but I love eggs too much.
I used to play the flute.
Some of my favourite movies are The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Back To The Future, Forrest Gump and Toy Story.
I am a complete hoarder, but during my second pregnancy when I was in my ‘nesting’ phase, I cleared out nearly all of my possessions and sold them online.
I used to have my own photographic darkroom in a shed in my garden.
I am terrified of spiders, I but I manage to keep a handle on it when I am with my children because I don’t want to pass on the phobia.
I would LOVE to visit Australia, but I never will because … spiders.
Twins run in my family, as well as my sister-in-law’s family. When we were both pregnant at the same time, we joked that one of us would be having twins. It was her.
I am a complete perfectionist. It sometimes keeps me from moving forwards and I have to work really hard at letting things go.
I’m writing a book.
I have my own range of published stationary.
I swear. A lot. My dad still tells me off if he hears me.
