All posts tagged: fitness inspiration

Active Women – meet Alison Wren

For many people, the push to exercise comes from a health scare, whether it’s high blood pressure or like today’s guest, breast cancer. The desire to do as much as you can to improve your health can really spur you into action. Alison Wren is the perfect example of even when you can only swim ‘face out of the water’ breaststroke and don’t own a bike, you can begin training for a triathlon! Bringing exercise her life has even led to a redirection in Alison’s career. Read on and be inspired. Tell us a bit about yourself Alison? I’m 58 and live in Manchester with my husband and cat. For most of my adult life I’ve been an enthusiastic watcher of sport but not a participant. I’ve been self-employed since 2002, most recently as a digital marketing consultant specialising in the wedding industry. Running a business can be all consuming and exercise was not usually a priority until I took up triathlon four years ago. I’m now completely hooked! I’m currently studying to become a …

Active Women – meet Gemma Hicks

Published by Dr Juliet McGrattan

Consistent, healthy choices, every day over time can make a huge difference to your health. In this Active Women Interview, I talk to Gemma Hicks. She discovered that aside from losing weight, becoming active and fit has so many other benefits and it’s opened up a whole new world for her Tell us a bit about yourself Gemma… I have always been overweight. I was a chubby child. I hated any form of exercise and my parents, who are both quite sedentary, were always happy to offer a note to excuse me from PE. I was treated with sweets and chocolate if I behaved. My grandparents, who looked after me while my parents worked, fed me on large portions of wholesome food. If I ate it all, it was always followed by a good Yorkshire-style pudding like rice pudding or sponge and custard. I became an obese teenager. I was relatively academic but never sporting. We never went for family walks or did any sort of sporting activities at the weekend. I continued the cycle …

Active Women Interview – meet Katie Holmes

Published by Dr Juliet McGrattan

More and more women over fifty are increasing their fitness levels and discovering just how much they can do. From a health perspective, it’s a wonderful time of life to be maxing out on physical activity, reaping the benefits and slowing the ageing process. I for one am really inspired by these women sharing their stories on social media and it makes me feel enthused and positive about the years ahead (I’m 46). Katie Holmes is one of these women, it hasn’t been an easy journey for her and she’s now taken it one step further by collecting stories of runners over fifty for her blog. I’ll let her tell you more in the interview!

Active Women Interview – meet Kirsten Huesch

Published by Dr Juliet McGrattan

After connecting on social media, I met up with Kirsten at the Women In Sport – Empower 18 conference in London in October. Chatting away to her over lunch (whilst standing and balancing plates and drinks!) we shared so many views about making exercise fun, inclusive and part of everyday life, particularly in terms of healthy ageing. We’re both on a mission to help people live long, healthy and active lives. I was really interested to hear about the great courses she leads which include nutrition as well as fitness and I was delighted she agreed to take part in this active women interview series.

Active Women Interview – meet Katie Harper

Published by Dr Juliet McGrattan

I first met Katie when I discovered Cumbrian Girls Can. I live right on the Lancashire-Cumbria border and have spent many happy working days in Cumbria, I was also aware of the high numbers of inactive women in the county, so I was keen to find out more about the partnership that Katie had started. I loved her enthusiasm and attitude and asked her to take part in this interview series so I could find out more about her journey and love of rugby.