ENTRY #1: Fitness Diary of Mum of 3

This is an honest, funny and motivational account of InstructorLive customer, Linzi Martin’s journey to get fit whilst looking after two small children (and one young adult) and all the trials and tribulations that come with this. We will be getting an update from Linzi every couple of weeks so be sure to check in to see how she’s getting on! Thanks so much to Linzi for taking the time to share your fitness diary with us!

Hi everyone,
My name is Linzi and I’m 39 (I’m not, I am actually 40 but it makes me feel youthful to say 39!) and I live on the Fylde coast (near Blackpool) with my other half and 3 parasites…sorry I mean children!
I have an almost 18-year-old daughter followed by a huge age gap…a 2-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl. Oh, and I am ever so slightly crazy and becoming more so as to age and small people take their toll. I joined the instructor to live in February of this year and I am so so glad I noticed a little write up in a baby magazine about it. Being curious as to what it was and looking for fitness inspiration I took a look and have never looked back since.
Being out of shape after 2 back to back pregnancies and zero time, I was desperate to get into a fitness regime but found DVDs boring…I mean they don’t change, do they! Same workout every time you load it. Boredom quickly leads to a lack of motivation.
I had no idea what to expect on the site and have never enjoyed gym-based classes as I feel self-conscious so I was curious as to how this could work on a website and spare me the indignity of flailing around and gurning in public.
I had a look at the classes and the choice on offer and took up the free trial and gave things a try. Yes, it was hard starting out and yes sometimes I cried because I felt like my body wouldn’t do what I wanted it to do and I was struggling. Did I want to give up? Hell yes. I ached, my limbs shook, I sweated but DID I give up? No, I did not because I decided that, you know what, even if I’m struggling a bit and finding it hard I’m off my wobbly bum and I’m doing it, I’m out there….I’m exercising.
If like me you are an exhausted mummy that feels unfit and just..meh and is despairing of ever getting back into normal clothes…. don’t worry you will soon get there.

Me and baby Marnie before joining InstructorLive
When I joined I had just stopped breastfeeding and I had piled the weight on. Oh yes, that’s right breastfeeding did not make me lose the weight I had envisioned it would…no, it made me crave chocolate, cream cakes, biscuits and tea with sugar-all things I never eat- to horrendous proportions. I was literally stuffing my face while feeding my baby. Trust me if I had 2 months they both would have been eating! And let’s not even mention the takeaways that were being ordered as I had no time or energy to cook. So all in all the weight piled on AFTER the baby and left me with a 5-month-old and a body that still looked pregnant, bingo wings that carried on waving after I’d stopped and a bum so huge I had to ring the highways agency if I ventured out for a walk. So, I wasn’t exactly feeling great about myself but I knew I wanted to get the weight off. Somehow.
Now the hardest thing is I found was getting started. I argued with myself that it would take ages/I was too old/it won’t work but once I started looking around at classes and trying things I got more confident. Some days I STILL find it tough particularly in the last 2 weeks as I have been ill with a virus and have felt rubbish but once I get my gym stuff on I feel ready.
This is why I love doing the classes at home as nobody can see me and trust me this is a good thing. Nobody needs to see me doing an Elvis lip curl while lifting weights or my camel toe in compression leggings (they’re supposed to warm you up!) so this is another big hoorah for being able to do fantastic workouts in the privacy of my own home!
Since I have been on instructor live I have done a huge variety of classes. In the last 7 months, I have done: Aerobics, Cellulite Dynamite, Legs, Bums, Tums with both Craig and now Leigh, Bootcamp, and Work it Circuit with Saul. Then, I went on to do, Kettlebells and Top guns, Barre Concept, 5:2, Yogini Bikini and the new Kettlebells 2 and Barbells.
I have had a dabble with others like Tabata, Fit Club and Belly Dancing but for some reason, I cannot coordinate in dance classes and be really rubbish…don’t get me wrong I was a brilliant brilliant dancer way back when after several vodkas and throwing my own shapes but to copy someone else just wasn’t working for me.
My body shape has really started to change. I don’t weigh myself as I personally find it counterproductive and demoralizing and I get down about the “numbers” so I won’t torture myself. I go off how my clothes feel….don’t forget I have spent 2 years in maternity clothes so fitting back into things that don’t have bump panels and elasticated waists is a revelation.
I have a bum now as opposed to a flabby mass that looked like porridge in the bag! My legs are more toned and those bingo wings are diminishing. My waist is back but my tum still is the problem area but we are getting there.
I can do things now that when I joined I couldn’t even attempt. Planks and abs exercises were something I just couldn’t manage but in 7 months of sticking with it, I can now do them. The instructors put together fantastic classes that are never boring and I credit these guys with whipping me into some sort of shape and keeping me on the right track.
That said…never ever tell an instructor that something is too hard/easy. Never I tell you. If you say it’s easy they will make it a million times harder and if you say you hate it they sadistically keep doing them (yes Craig Glasgow this means you and the prisoner push-ups!)
I have my weaknesses like we all do (except the instructors as they are saintly in their diets!) and I could tweak my eating much much more but with my 2 small people I tend to live on toast, cold cups of tea the odd tin of mackerel in the day.
I have cut down a lot and swapped white bread for brown, lots of vegs and I make my own soup. My homemade parsnip soup could honestly power a whole housing estate off the emissions!
I don’t eat chocolate don’t like cakes or biscuits but before you all curse me for being able to resist, I can demolish a garlic bread with cheese from the takeaway at such speed I actually think I should hold a Guinness world record and a fresh baguette with real butter would be just about as good as it gets.
I am booked in for the Wedding Workout this week. I’m not getting married, I just like Leigh’s classes. Unless I have missed something and we all have to wear bridal dresses to intensify the workouts!
So there you have a bit of insight into who I am, what classes I like and how I am getting on with where I want to be. You see I don’t have a strict goal I am aiming for, I simply want to lose extra weight, tone up and enjoy the health benefits of being fit and active plus as an * ahem* older mummy to little ones I want to run around after them and indoctrinate a healthy lifestyle into them. If they see me do it they will do – and my 2-year-old is already copying my squats!
I will be doing regular updates of classes I am doing and how I am finding them, how I fit my workouts in, and I may even bore you with my soup recipes and what I have been eating in my next blog!
Until next time…and remember….you don’t need to see the whole staircase to take the first step.
Love Linzi

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