“I lost my ability to run, train, even walking or doing the washing”

Coach Olivia Plato joined the coaching team last year 

She shares her own health and fitness story here…

“This isn’t your usual before and after you often see with weight loss programmes.

I have been up and down with my weight all my life but ironically when I thought I was at my healthiest and had my best physique I was actually on the edge of nervous system collapse.

Don’t get me wrong, I felt great. I was clean eating, running every day, training strength, doing fasted cardio and cold water swimming.

Lots of things I thought were good for me because they felt good and that’s what I’d seen in health trends.

What I didn’t realise was that even though I had a lot of capacity and strength, living on the edge of my ‘energy envelope’ all the time was having a detrimental effect on my nervous system.

When COVID hit, along with life’s stressors and a challenging relationship breakup I went into a full blown crash which has lasted off and on for about 4 years.

I lost my ability to run, train, sometimes even walking or washing. I lost a lot of muscle and started putting on fat which was very hard for someone who had put in so much time, energy and work into training their body.

However I gained perspective on the difference between ‘health’ and ‘fitness’. My body had been too lean for my frame, my endocrine system couldn’t cope, my nervous system couldn’t cope so it went into both shut down and overdrive.

It’s taken a long time and I still can’t run or do as much cardio as I used to or would like to but I am healthier and stronger both in my attitude to food, fitness and my body.

It’s a hard lesson to learn but when people talk about wanting to lose weight or hit their fitness goals I always try and remind them that everything in moderation, even moderation, be kind to yourself and check in with your body. If you push it too hard it can take a looong time to bounce back and may never.

I now can’t run trail marathons any more but can bench press more than I ever have and have learned better form and technique to get stronger and healthier rather than just looking fitter.

So, in my before photo I may look, leaner, skinnier and fitter but I don’t think I was healthier!! In the ’after video’ that’s me today, a bit more fat around the middle, but I also know my limits and am more considered about how I look after my body and my health.”

Thanks Liv for sharing!