AMANDA DILNOT – HOW I LOST 6 INCHES OFF MY WAIST

“My name’s Amanda, and I’m a fitness fanatic ”…if you’d met me between the age of 18 and 35 you could pretty much have guaranteed that I would have used those words to describe myself at some point.

Then I became a mother!  Daughter no.1 arrived & after 10 months with the help of a (potentially scary, but actually wonderful) German, female personal trainer I toned back up.  4 years later, at 39 my second daughter came along.  By then, I was self-employed, juggling work with school runs and running a home and life felt way too hectic to even contemplate getting to the gym.

So for four years I did nothing.  Except feel pretty sad about how many of my clothes no longer fitted, and what felt like a scarily fast descent into middle age.  I figured that’s the price to pay for having 2 beautiful girls (and they were more than worth it).

Then, in October 2012, just as my youngest turned four ESPH advertised that they were taking part in an Exercise, Health & Wellbeing study in conjunction with the UK Active Research institute & Greenwich University.  I put my name down and was lucky enough to be one of those who got chosen – and given a year’s free use of the gym!  It was like ‘coming home’ – slipping back into a routine felt so easy.  I couldn’t believe my luck and found I was really looking forward to my workouts; 6 months on that is still the case.  The gym is ‘ME time’ – however tired or stressed I may be when I arrive, I always walk out of the door feeling fantastic.  Those endorphins are amazing things!

It has (naturally – I’m a woman) been amazing (and fascinating) to see the physical changes – 6cm off my waist in the first 8 weeks (wow), 6 months down the line and that’s a full 6 inches, back into size 12 skinny jeans (double wow…never thought I’d be there again)…… feeling good in my clothes is so brilliant, so too my massively increased cardio capacity – very noticeable when I go dancing, or chasing children in the park!  But what is even better is how good I feel inside.  I feel stronger, mentally and physically.  My husband has noticed a huge difference; I have more energy when I play with my children, and more energy when I go to work.  Put simply I feel happier, and more positive about life.

My children keep telling me how great I look, which means the world to me, plus I know I’m setting a good example – the eldest at nearly 9 is already asking me when she will be able to come too!

A lot of this has been about unearthing the old ‘Amanda’ from the pile of Motherhood that had buried me, but I’ve also found a new, stronger me, that I like even more.  So all I can say is that it is truly great to be back, and thank you ESPH!

Amanda Dilnot is one of 37 clients using ESPH East Dulwich as part of the UK Active Research institute & Greenwich University Health, Fitness & Wellbeing study.