Q&A with Emily, of Cope Fitness and Wellbeing

This week we caught up with Emily at Cope Fitness and Wellbeing. Emily has been on an incredible journey and has completely transformed her life and mindset. She completely inspires us and has shared some of her tried and tested tips to improve your fitness and how to lose and maintain weight loss.

Tell us a little about yourself, how long have you been a Personal Trainer, and why you have chosen this career path? 

I was a teacher for 10 years, and in my free time, I played the saxophone in various big bands and orchestras and flew light-aircraft! I was happy teaching until the pain of the endometriosis and PCOS made it almost impossible for me to dedicate the hours needed to teach successfully.

After being told numerous times that weight-loss would help the symptoms but being given no follow-up advice or help on that, I decided that I would have to learn these things for myself to see if it would really help. At the point that I started training in nutrition and exercise, the pain was so crippling my first goal was to walk to the end of my street and back. The feeling of accomplishment was amazing! As I continued to learn about exercise and nutrition and applied it to my own life my fitness improved and, overall, I lost a massive 8 stone.

I have first-hand experience of how difficult it is to lose weight when your health isn’t good and, importantly, I understand the psychological effects that trying to exercise with chronic pain can have on people.   

In ‘Cope’ I offer a package of daily check-ins so we can eliminate the bad habits from the beginning and replace them with good habits that will last.
Goals are important and these will be different for everyone and change over time. My first goal was to walk to the end of my street, my current goals are to run an ultra-marathon. This gives me a focus and something to aim for.

What are the three biggest mistakes that people make when they want to improve their fitness?

1. Wanting to do it as quickly as possible. This inevitably leads to only short-term effects, because good habits and a change of lifestyle cannot happen overnight. 

2. Cutting out all the ‘bad stuff’. So many diets advocate this, cutting out carbs, cutting out sugar, or cutting out fat. In reality, our bodies need all these things to function properly. Cutting them out totally means not only will you be forcing your body to function without essential elements, but inevitably the cravings will increase before you binge on whatever you’ve cut out. This leads quickly to the ‘I’ve blown it now so there’s no point in carrying on’ mentality. It’s counter-intuitive but cutting an entire food group out is rarely sustainable and usually has more negative effects than positive ones.  

3. Weighing every day or even weighing once-a-week. Whilst weight can be a good general indicator and can be encouraging to look at once every 3 months or so when you are becoming fitter and increasing your muscle mass this will show as a gain on the scale. At this point what should be a positive thing and something you should be pleased about becomes a negative thing which destroys motivation and confidence. How your clothes fit and photos that are regularly taken 3 weeks apart are a much better way to monitor your progress.

How do you track your client’s fitness goals?

Goals are particularly important and need to be realistic. The first thing I get asked is how quickly can I lose weight or get fit? There is no right answer to this. Everybody is different and losing weight and getting fit are two different things, though they obviously work best together.

The goals I set are small and achievable. An important part of setting goals is introducing a realistic timeframe. Done too quickly not only is there a risk of demotivation if the goals aren’t met, but there is a very real risk of injury if someone goes from not walking or running at all to walking or running 5k in a week.

Then bigger goals are also set so that the little goals are going to get you there. For example; to run a 10k or half marathon for someone is now able to run a 5k.

The same principles apply in weight training. If someone can lift heavy weights a few times, this doesn’t mean it is the most appropriate way to approach it. For most people starting with more reps at a lighter weight gives the stability needed to then progress to heavier weights safely and effectively. It’s also particularly important in these goals to build in rest days. Hitting the gym hard every day, 7 days a week is counterproductive. Your body needs time to rest, recover and adapt to the changes you are making.

Reviewing the goals throughout is key to this is also important as the goals can change and it’s important the client doesn't lose interest because the goals are too small or unattainable.

What would you say are the most important benefits of eating healthy and exercising?

The most important benefits from healthy eating and regular exercise are improved physical health, improved mental health, and confidence in your body, both in its appearance and its ability to function well.

It’s not about clothes size because I look fine at a size 10, whilst other people with a bigger frame would look too thin and need to be a size 12-14 to be comfortable. For these people, a drive to lose weight and get to a size 10 or a size 8 will lead to eating less, depriving your body of the food groups it needs and the end result will be negative.  Fitness and physical health will decrease, and mental health will suffer too.

Now I eat 5 times a day between snacks and meals, and I am fitter and healthier than I ever was starving myself and cutting food groups out.

Can you give us 3 tips that will help us stick to our fitness goals and not lose interest?

1. Planning. Making sure you have a plan is key. If you know you’ve got a class booked or are going for a run/walk/bike/swim if it is pre-planned you are more likely to stick to it. Also, try and find an exercise you enjoy as this makes it easier to stick to a routine. I’m lucky that I enjoy running, but others don’t have a particular exercise they enjoy. Usually, with these clients, I find an exercise they can tolerate, and once fitness levels improve, they often find that they are enjoying it more.

2. Training with a friend or family or online group especially in lockdown and joining apps like Strava so you can follow friends. Exercising with other people is not only more enjoyable but can bring out the competitive side too, which makes you more likely to engage long-term.

3. Planning nutrition so you are never hungry. If you create a plan so you know what you are having and keep snacks handy (cherry tomatoes are great to just take a handful of for example) can really stop the cravings as your blood sugar remains stable.  My favourite snack is cottage cheese because it’s a great protein and can be a sweet hit with pineapple. It’s always important to ask yourself if you need or want it, sometimes the body does actually need and that shouldn’t be ignored.

   In summary, it’s a lifestyle change, not a diet. Diets never work.

If Emily inspires you and you want to know more about her story, head over to www.copefitnesswellbeing.com.