Georiga Archer If it doesn’t challenge you it wont change you. Health and fitness has always been away of life for me, I got into exercising at around 16 after being relatively shy at school and lacking self confidence, I struggled with body image as a child as I was always so terribly skinny and bullied as a result, exercising was a way for me to take charge of myself and build my self esteem, I qualified as a personal trainer and aerobics instructor as well as teaching on the national diploma for sports science in my local college, and worked in various health clubs. It was however in 2012 after having my son prematurely a year and a half previously that I started taking a different approach towards exercise, having a child prematurely (I had my son at 25 weeks weighing 770grammes) changes your perception on life forever, it knocked my confidence, my self esteem, my faith, and I endured the hardest battle of inner strength I'd ever had to face, it was a roller coaster ride watching him literally battle to survive, he had numerous issues from a hole in his heart, to chronic lung disease, to MRSA to septis, to hernias.
“I could write a list as long as my arm, but looking back now 5 years later, he i a perfect picture of health, smart, handsome and funny.� It was after having him that I decided for my own sanity and self esteem I needed to do something for myself, so I started competing, I competed as a body building athlete in the bikini class, and did pretty well, initially I started just to have something to focus on and take my mind off all the hospital visits and problems I had with my son, but I found I actually quite enjoyed it and did pretty well, I placed top three in the British finals 2 years in a row and I've re qualified for the finals again this year as well, but it was during this journey that I really started
to appreciate how not only a healthy body was important but also a healthy mindset. I realised our perception of things was a great factor towards the outcome of situations in our lives and how we felt with them.
so I also started studying NLP (Neuro linguistic programming) its a method of influencing brain behaviour and thought process, ie the "neuro" part through the use of language (the "linguistic" part) and other types of communication to enable a person to "recode" the way the brain responds to stimuli (that's the "programming") and adopt new and better behaviours, and in turn have a different and more positive perspective. I realised once I started studying this that I subconsciously applied a lot of these behaviours to my life but I needed to learn how to apply them to my conscious mind so I could not only improve myself but also help and teach others to do the same. I realised that although I could dwell on my previous experiences I'd actually been humbled and blessed as a result, and I also realised that i had developed a mindset resilience that I could transfer to all aspects of my life - in NLP terms this is known as transferable skills. So facilitating change in people is now what I pride myself on, working on perspectives and emotional states as the foundation and trigger points to success in all areas of an individual's life be it in health, business and relationships, based on the things I've been through and experienced I realised it has enabled me to teach others to create results that are maintainable.
“So what can sometimes be seen as adversity is literally a pathway to personal understanding, clarity and happiness.� I now offer 1-2-1 coaching sessions Georgiaarcher@hotmail.com
Yolande Green Fit for purpose Attracting new talent to the fitness industry are apprenticeships the answer? With both GCSE and A-Level Results out soon, employers have a bumper crop of available young people to choose from. Yet bringing on new talent can be a big challenge for all companies, espcecially in the fitness industry where an instructor has many roles to fill such as fitness motivator, nutritional and healthy eating adviser, programme writer, equipment maintenace specialist the list continues.
Apprenticeships are a unique way to ‘grow your own’ to model and support the apprentice and pass on the many years of knowledge and experience that many instructors have, this knowledge is not something that can be imparted in a few weeks of initial insturctor training, and an apprenticeship is a fantastic opportunity for both the apprentice to learn, experiement, reflect and improve over a year of working alongside experienced professionals, and for the mentor of the apprentice to learn and develop. Having worked with many apprenticees in sport and fitness I have to say that I have grown as a tutor and an instructor, they constantly challenge us to think about why we work in a certain way, to consider embrassing new technology, and they are willing to try new things, when we are sometimes stuck in our ways. Apprentices are motivated and driven and keen to work and learn, they are also exposed as part of their training through a college or training provider to the most up to date research and concepts of fitness and exercise, as experienced instructors sometimes we can slip behind when caught up in the circle of working and miss the opportunities to update our own knowledge.
However apprenticeships can be challenging to a business, do you have time in your working day to explain to someone why you have done what you have done, do you have time to allow them to try and make mistakes? Do you have the patients to repeat the same practices over and over and to teach someone else to do them to the same high standards? What is the reward to you? I personally feel that the rewards to both a huge, not only does an apprenticeship bring new innovated talent into our industry it also can relight the fuse of the mentor, the team player who now takes on a role of nurturing and supporting their young seedling, this in itselfs brings new challenges and opportunities for the mentor and can bring out a new talent, a better working team and more motivated member of the team.
Looking for new talent? Consider an apprenticeship you may be amazed at what it can do for your business and you may be surprised at what you learn too. Yolande Green This article was written by Yolande Green, tutor and assessor for Colchester Institute. Please contact on yolande.green@colchester.ac.uk
How I Found My Confidence and Became A Plus Size Model By Cara Maris Betts It all began a couple of years ago when Liz from Apples & Pears Clothing asked me if I wanted to help her by taking some pictures for her new clothing website, and its snowballed from there. I enjoyed it so much that I started to feel so confident and took lots of selfies. So far I have done charity fashion shows, catwalk shows, photoshoots and pageants. I am currently in the final of three pageants this year and can’t wait. I only do it part time as have a full time job but when I do, I love it. It gives me so much confidence and even if you don’t feel confident to begin with, the feeling you get when doing the modelling is so good. To be a plus size model is amazing. You meet so many lovely people and gain so much confidence around them. People often say it can’t be healthy and are quite rude to plus size people but the truth is, I’m healthy and I’m finally happy in my own body due to all the confidence boosts. It doesn’t matter if you’re a size 6 or 26 everyone is unique. The best thing about being a plus size model is that you get to meet some many new people and try on amazing clothing, get made up and take stunning pictures with them.
When I first began to model I was nervous because I didn’t know what to expect, but once I stepped onto the catwalk, I didn’t want it to end. It gets addictive, especially when I get so many compliments and praise. Some of the working days are long because of rehearsals and practice, but it’s all worth the feeling once you have done it. The people I meet are lovely and everyone boosts each other’s confidence when I did my first pageant I was so nervous but the support from the girls and judges afterwards made me want to do it again and again.
If someone said to me “could I do it, if I have no confidence?” I would say yes of course you can. You could be the least confident person ever but the amount of confidence you gain when doing modelling is unbelievable. Once you’ve done one show won’t want to stop! People are often shocked when someone says I’m a model because of how quiet I am, but then they see me on stage and it all changes.
My tips to start your modelling journey “If you ever want to start modelling just look up catwalk shows or charity fashion shows and see if they want models. The key is to start small so you don’t get to overwhelmed. Then if you enjoy it to do more and more. The support from everyone is amazing it’s like one massive family that you could not talk that much, but when you see each other again it’s like you have been in constant contact. If you feel it’s right just do it, you will never look back.”
Cara Marie Betts You can follow Cara’s modelling and pageant journey on her blog carrajane.blogspot.co.uk Apples & Pears Clothing is an online fashion store for women sizes 16-32 www.applesandpearsclothing.com
Jo Mason “PLEASE STOP DIETING! THERE IS ANOTHER WAY!” Did you know the average woman spends 31 years of her life on a diet, at least 50% of women are on a diet at any one time and, the worst one, 98% of people who lose weight dieting, gain it back within 12 months? That roughly translates to at least half of us will spend a third of our lives on a diet because only 2 out of 100 people will be successful at keeping the weight off! I find that mind blowing and incredibly sad because it essentially means 31 years of struggle, frustration, misery, restriction, desperation to feel better, never really getting anywhere, then ultimately failing. 31 years of not actually achieving the one thing you crave more than anything else in the world, while dealing with the immense emotional roller coaster of yoyoing up and down the scales.
What I want people to realise is, using these flawed diet methods are effecting what is really important here. YOUR LIFE! Your daily experiences. Your here and now. How your life story is unfolding. How you are creating the days you’re going to look back on in your nineties, thinking about how you spent your one precious life on this earth. Battling through every day. Getting up with the best intention to “be good” , breaking by lunchtime, beating yourself up and feeling like the most useless failure on the planet. THAT is going to be your life story. THAT is what’s important, your every day experiences of life. This is a big part of what drives me to scream from the roof tops “PLEASE STOP DIETING! THERE IS ANOTHER WAY!” This seemingly impossible point in the future, can become possible. It IS possible to be able to look back on your life and think “I did it!” To become happy with how you look and how you eat, for good, without the endless boomerang effect. Successful weight loss CAN become your life. How? Change. Stop going round and round in circles trying diet after diet and do something different. Change what really needs to be changed instead of chasing the next latest superfood combination, fat burning pill or ridiculous fad that promises a body like J-Lo before 5pm tomorrow night! If you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done, and that doesn’t mean muster up even more willpower to try and stic to a set of rules for slightly longer than last time. It means, change your life in ways that are going to create the results you crave. So, what do you need to change? Here’s the top five: 1)
Give up dieting!
They are creating and reinforcing your misery and not providing you with a long term solution.
2)
Change your focus
Instead of focusing on the food, imposing more rules and regulations, switch your focus to figuring why it’s so hard for you to eat or not eat the foods you know you need to. This all lies in how you think, feel and perceive about the food, NOT the food itself. Change that and food choices will come with effortless ease. 3)
Change your approach to food
How you eat has to come from a place of empowerment, ease and free will NOT rules, restrictions and force. The answer here simply lies in listening to your body. It has all the answers you need. You have a natural ability to know when and how much to eat. You just have to tune back into it. 4)
Change how you think and feel about yourself
Never mentioned by diets, but utterly essential, especially after being annihilated by years of diet failures. You MUST feel worth it, good enough and capable of success. If not, efforts will, unfortunately, be short lived. 5)
Get some proper help
Much of this takes specific knowledge and support. You need someone who knows more about all this than you do. Who can see what you can’t see, help you understand the barriers and know what to do about them. Who knows what needs to be changed and help you do that. Make the commitment to change the right things, with the right help and your everyday here and now will change beyond recognition. No longer caught up in the pitiful, sad statistics of dieting, the battles will ease, the guilt disappear and your weight will come down and stay there. Leaving you to create a life story you can look back on and be happy about. Stop dieting and start living. It IS possible, it’s NEVER too late and YOU AREABSOLUTELY WORTH IT! There is a life where diets don’t exist, come join us!
Gary hood My journey becoming a fitness professional
My name is Gary Hood I live locally in Braintree and have done for many years and over the years I have trained in one thing or another trying to keep myself fit. I first started off boxing many many moons ago which then led me onto Judo and Martial Arts. I now train locally in Tang Soo Do which is a Korean based Karate. As with all Martial Arts we do lots of fitness to keep us physical fit in both mind and body. .Back in 2015 I and my wife pulled into the Rayne village hall car park as we were meeting our friend Julie. The reason for this meeting is that Paula and Julie would often meet here and do some fitness and practice their forms. (Forms are a set of movements within our Karate syllabus which we need to learn as we go through the ranks). As we pulled up we noticed and guy cleaning off the newly installed outdoor exercise equipment with a Personal Trainer tee shirt on. Upon talking to the guy we found out that it was Steve Rogers who was attending that day to give free fitness help and training to the local community. We thought this was a very good idea and Paula and Julie decided to have a try, unfortunately at this point I could not join in due to inappropriate cloths (jeans and shirt) for training and looking after our young daughter while the girls trained. We was very interested in the new fit club and decided to attend the classes which were being held at Rayne as this would help increase our fitness and also it’s a nice social event. As the sessions got busy I had been asked by Steve if I would like to help out with some warm ups or cool downs and generally helping out with some coaching. I found this very enjoyable as along with meeting new people I was enjoying learning new things about the fitness industry. I was approached by Steve that there could be an opportunity for me to go on a Fitness/Gym Instructors course so I could build on my knowledge. I have to admit that at first I was not sure of how much would be involved in the course but Steve was very supportive was confident that I would be fine. D Day arrived and I attended the Gym to meet Gracie Humpoletz from Muse Fitness who was to be my Tutor who handed me a great big bunch of books and sheets to which I thought what have I let myself in for. Luckily Gracie reassured me that we have lots to do but we will work through it over the next five days. I found the course challenging at times as although I enjoy exercise and fitness this is not my occupation so a new beginning for me. Over the next few weeks I attended the classes and got stuck into trying to learn as much as I could with plenty of work in the gym in the practical and written assessments. The journey has been very eye opening and in many ways and I am over the moon in passing the course which can now help me move forward in helping in the community fit club as it continues to grow
Gary Hood Level 2 fitness instructor