Being honest and open.....

It’s been a weird year (and more) for EVERYONE and that’s putting it lightly. My business has near enough come to a standstill while I have tried to keep up with the ever changing covid rules.

So you’d think that having a good number of emails trickling in this week enquiring about personal training sessions would leave me feeling super excited, right? I mean, I absolutely love working with women and seeing them realise what they are capable of. But my honest reaction to receiving these emails was utter panic.

You see, I've gained quite a bit of weight during the pandemic, which, for the first time in my life I was absolutely fine with. My body changes sometimes and my body is just my body. It doesn’t define how good I am as a person, it doesn’t change the fact that I am a great personal trainer.

However, the prospect of meeting new clients brought about feelings that I thought I'd put to bed, I read these emails and sat there panicking that they will think I'm a shit personal trainer because I'm overweight, that I won’t know what I am doing, that my years of training and experience will mean nothing. This then added another layer of guilt, I am a body positive personal trainer,  I teach women to be body positive and I’m currently feel slightly negative about my own body. I'm fighting a huge dose of imposter syndrome.

Then I saw a post from Molly Galbraith in ‘GGS Coaching and training women’ detailing her experiences in the fitness industry, the post contained a picture that said
“If you want to be a personal trainer or coach – PLEASE do not let the size and shape of your body hold you back from pursuing your dream. Your body size and shape says nothing about your knowledge, skill or coaching ability”.
It popped up when I needed it most and there were other personal trainers talking about how they felt the same way I did.

I have realized we are all human, body positivity is a work in progress for us all and we have to keep at it. But most of all be open and honest, don’t be ashamed of how you feel, because I guarantee you that others can definitely relate!