When the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2023, I knew I wanted to make a lasting change in the year ahead.

Since the COVID lockdowns began in 2020, like many people I found that my mental health was gradually deteriorating. I’ve always lived with depression and anxiety, but the lockdowns exacerbated this massively. Without anything fun or exciting to occupy my busy brain, more than ever I turned to one of the few things that I could still access: food.

In 2020, my junk-food binge eating habit became more out of control than ever before. In the months and years that followed, this contributed to weight gain that made me feel more self-conscious than ever about my appearance due to excess fat. My particularly poor mental health meant that I had no motivation to exercise, so my physical fitness levels were lower than ever. In my late twenties and early thirties, I was already experiencing shortness of breath when walking up more than two flights of stairs, and a lifelong ankle injury was causing me more pain than ever due to the extra weight I was carrying.

To get my motivation back, I tried 1:1 and group Personal Trainers, and even completed one of those 6-week transformation programs focused on exercise and nutrition. None of it stuck. I didn’t realise it at the time, but this was because all of the trainers and coaches I’d come across were working on a one-size-fits-all approach and hadn’t taken a moment to even ask me about my specific goals, or just get to know me as a person to explain which behaviours or habits could be holding me back. The advice was always the same: “eat less, move more.” When you’re a chronically depressed binge eater, this advice is less than helpful!

By May 2023, I was completely fed up. I was fed up of gyms, fed up of always being mean to myself, and fed up of being given the same nutritional and exercise advice as someone whose health, goals, and body type couldn’t have been more different to my own.

I vividly remember putting my feelers out on Facebook for a local PT, and there was Davina’s business, Transform Fitness and Personal Training. The following week, I was sitting on Davina’s couch in her living room for my consultation. Almost instantly, I got a great gut feeling that I’d finally met the sort of Personal Trainer who could help me to achieve my goals get over this hump.

Davina’s instant friendliness and eagerness to understand me was so refreshing. The consultation questions were all focused around my personal experiences and feelings, rather than the standard, limited questions I’d been asked in previous PT consultations, like “how much weight do you want to lose?”

From May 2023, I started seeing Davina 3x per week for 1:1 sessions in her private gym. It’s now been almost a year, and to say I have transformed in that time is a huge understatement!

After just a few weeks of regular sessions with Davina, I knew I’d found the perfect PT. These are just a few of the main reasons why:

It didn’t take long before I recommended Davina to my boyfriend, Andy. It’s one of the very few things Andy has done that I’ve suggested to him and like me, he’s never looked back! He has been visiting Davina 3x per week for 1:1 sessions for almost a full year, and the difference in his body shape, strength, and confidence is amazing.

What’s great is that I know from speaking to Andy daily that his programme is completely different to mine. We often swap stories about the exercises we’ve done in our sessions and it’s crazy how different our programmes are. Davina truly designs each person’s programme completely bespoke to their needs.

Feeling encouraged by our muscle gains, in January 2024 Andy and I asked Davina to create a nutritional plan for us to follow in the new year. She asked us about the types of cuisines we enjoyed, how much time we could give for cooking, and considered what each of us liked and disliked about food prep, to make sure the plan she created was mindful and realistic.

After only three months of following the plan, our body shapes have changed even more. We spent 9 months building our strength and muscle, and now with the diet change we’re able to chisel away at the fat hiding our progress and see the results more than ever! I couldn’t be happier to actually see all of the important muscles I’ve been building all this time, and appreciate how much more physically and mentally strong I feel.