My Story

About Me

I am currently a senior leader in public services having started my career in Manchester in 1994. I worked in two large metropolitan areas until very recently. During that time I have undertaken many challenging roles but find my work incredibly rewarding and have enjoyed leading teams to serve their local communities.

I hold a BA Honours degree in Theology and Religious Studies from Manchester University and a public service MBA from Birmingham university. I spent many of my formative years playing a number of competitive sports at club and county level - netball, hockey, football, tennis were particular favourites and into adulthood added ski ing and cycling to my repertoire. During my early 40s I qualified as a registered exercise professional in the fitness industry specialising in indoor cycle programmes eg Stages power, flight, Les Mills RPM and Sprint and ICG My ride. Despite being very sporty, I unashamedly share about my battle with weight gain from my teenage years and how this had been a source of great frustration to me. Genetics have certainly played a role in this with sensitivities to fats, carbs, slow metabolic response, and a propensity for stress related obesity and low appetite control.

During 2020 I suffered a combination of physical and mental health symptoms [thrombophlebitis, DVT, ECG irregularities, acute peri menopausal stress and obesity] which led to a “burn out” episode and chronic fatigue symptoms in October 2020.

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It was at this point that I invested in a lumen device to try and navigate my health back on track. Lumen provided I with the necessary structure to plot a course with small daily decisions based on metabolic feedback as I sought to recover mentally and physically. I also recognised fully the toxic role that regular alcohol consumption was having on my physical , mental and emotional wellbeing and using the tools from Annie Grace's Live Alcohol Experiment and her book, This Naked Mind, I stopped drinking alcohol.

Fast forward 7 months and I had lost 50lb, returned to work and was supporting others in the Lumen community with their own health journeys. By September [now on the fitness performance track within Lumen], I had lost a total of 60lb since starting my journey. I enrolled on Lumen’s metabolic coaching course and was certified as a Lumen metabolic coach during October 2021. I have recently been appointed as a lead group expert in the Lumen community which has over 60000 members currently and Lumen recently published a guide I developed over Christmas/New year 2021/22 to help new users on their health journey.

I am developing my expertise in health and wellbeing as I study to become a qualified personal trainer with level 4 nutrition, specialising in obesity in order to help others who find themselves with the weight gain/loss battle. I plan to pursue a second career, beyond public service, enabling, equipping and inspiring those within stressful occupations like policing to embrace self care in order optimise their health and wellbeing. I plan to develop tools and resources as well as delivering workshops and coaching in order to support them in developing consistency in the "four pillars" so that they can be the best version of themselves wherever they are. Since I discovered Lumen, the battle with weight gain appears to be over as I now experience what I describe as a “transformed” metabolism with great metabolic flexibility, meaning I burn both fats and carbs well vs storing them.

Using the tools from This Naked Mind and working with Lumen to hack my metabolism and navigate a new and different path, I was able to address thinking and beliefs at a deeper, often subconscious level, to make lasting changes to my relationship with food and alcohol, whilst simultaneously developing a healthy approach to all areas of my life. This shift in mindset has undoubtedly supported my overall health transformation and I have recently completed TNMI [This Naked Mind Institute] training to join their team of the internationally accredited TNMI coaches, enabling me to offer an holistic approach to health and wellbeing that is flexible and able to cover all aspects.