Sometimes one person comes into your life and changes its direction completely. For me, that person was my first personal trainer.
I had actually trained as a personal trainer myself when I was 25, so fitness was already part of my world. But after having my son, Dan, at 27, my body and my life had changed. I’d gained weight during pregnancy, I wasn’t feeling particularly fit, and I wanted to feel strong and comfortable in myself again. I started going to the gym regularly, and that was where I met Pete.
Pete became my personal trainer. Initially, my goals were probably similar to those of many people who start working with a trainer: I wanted to lose weight, get fitter and feel better in my body. And I did. I lost weight, became incredibly fit and rediscovered my love of exercise. But looking back, the physical transformation was only a small part of what happened. Pete didn’t just introduce me to a different way of training my body; he introduced me to a completely different way of thinking about my life.
At the time, Pete was working on Slimming with Pete, a book that incorporated ideas about weight loss, motivation and behaviour into a story. I found the whole concept fascinating. It wasn’t simply about telling somebody what to eat or which exercises to perform. It was about understanding why we behave the way we do and why changing our habits can sometimes be so difficult.
Pete introduced me to NLP — Neuro-Linguistic Programming — and the work of people such as Tony Robbins and Richard Bandler. I became absolutely fascinated. Suddenly fitness wasn’t simply about sets, repetitions, calories and body weight. I wanted to understand what we were thinking, what we were telling ourselves, what we believed was possible and why we could feel incredibly motivated one day and completely unmotivated the next.
I became particularly interested in the language we use when we talk to ourselves. If somebody constantly tells themselves, “I’m lazy,” “I have no willpower,” “I’m not a fitness person,” or “I always give up,” those thoughts can influence how they approach exercise before they’ve even started. I wanted to understand how we could change those patterns, build confidence and create a completely different relationship with ourselves. Eventually, I went on to train as an NLP practitioner myself.
That understanding has become a core part of the way I work with people today. I love building rapport and getting to know the person I’m working with. A client isn’t simply a body that needs a fitness programme. They arrive with their own history, experiences, confidence, fears, motivations and beliefs. You can create a technically brilliant exercise programme, but it isn’t much use if the person hates doing it or doesn’t believe they can succeed. For me, good personal training is about understanding the person as well as understanding exercise.
Pete also introduced me to Ayurveda, and once again I became fascinated. I started reading extensively, particularly the work of Deepak Chopra, and learning about the Ayurvedic constitutions of Vata, Pitta and Kapha. I loved the idea of understanding our individual differences and recognising that one approach doesn’t necessarily suit everybody.
At the same time, I was interested in the traditional fitness concept of somatotypes — ectomorph, mesomorph and endomorph. Today, I wouldn’t put people into rigid categories or suggest that their body type determines what they can achieve. But the fundamental lesson stayed with me: we are individuals. We have different bodies, personalities, lifestyles, strengths and challenges. The best approach to health and fitness needs to take the individual into account.
Then Pete introduced me to something else that would eventually become an enormous part of my life: yoga. I can still remember learning my first Sun Salutation and Downward-Facing Dog with him. At the time, I had absolutely no idea where that introduction would eventually lead. It was simply another little seed that had been planted.
As my interest in weight management, psychology and behaviour grew, I began helping Pete with his weight-loss business. Eventually I created my own weight-loss course, and at around 30 I was working at Le Spa in Cirencester, running a weight-loss programme alongside personal trainers. My work began bringing together exercise, nutrition, motivation, behaviour and mindset. I was beginning to understand that helping someone change physically couldn’t always be separated from helping them understand themselves.
Life moved on, but those early interests never really disappeared. Around twenty years later, I felt drawn much more deeply towards yoga and Ayurveda. Eventually I travelled to India and completed my yoga teacher training at an Ayurvedic retreat. From there, I continued studying yoga, Ayurveda, meditation, breathwork, relaxation, movement and mindset. So many of the subjects that had fascinated me when I was younger eventually became central to my own work.
When I look back now, I realise how extraordinary that first experience of personal training was. I walked into the gym thinking I wanted to lose some weight and become fit after having my baby. Pete certainly helped me achieve that, but what he gave me went far beyond fitness. He introduced me to NLP. He introduced me to Ayurveda. He introduced me to yoga. Most importantly, he sparked a lifelong fascination with the connection between the mind and the body.
That’s one of the reasons I believe so strongly in the potential of personal training. A great personal trainer can help you become stronger and fitter. They can teach you how to exercise safely, help you build confidence and support you towards goals that once seemed impossible. But sometimes their influence reaches much further. They can introduce you to ideas you’ve never encountered before, help you see yourself differently and recognise potential in you that you haven’t yet recognised in yourself.
Sometimes they simply plant a seed. You may not even realise how important that seed is until many years later.
That’s what happened to me. I walked into a gym wanting to change my body, and I walked away with ideas that changed the direction of my life. All these years later, as a yoga teacher and personal trainer myself, that’s something I never forget.
When somebody comes to me for personal training, I don’t just see a body that needs exercising. I see the whole person — where they’ve come from, where they are now, and all the possibilities of where their journey might take them.
