Fatbird to Fitbird

The start of the journey

So I was fat, 40 and totally unfit, weighing in at a whopping 16stone I was the size of an actual small country, when a friend’s mum had just passed away with cancer and she asked me to keep her company at a race for life event. It was only 5k but it might as well have been a marathon!

A week later I was on the start line of what was going to be my very first attempt of any kind of physical exercise since back in the day when I was a gangly teenager! Here I was stood, dressed in an extremely snug fitting pink T-Shirt looking like what can only be described as a blancmange gone wrong, I mean how hard can running 5k be!!!!!

I will tell you how hard running a 5k is but let me get my breath back first!

It was HARD I had never experienced pain like it! I thought I was going to die right there and then in the middle of a forest, being trampled on by a herd of overly energetic ladies dressed in bright pink!

But out of somewhere, and I mean it must have been very deep within, I managed to jog, walk and then practically crawl over the finish line, in what I can only describe a very good impression of an over weight, overheated menopausal ‘fat lass’! Oh hold on, that’s because I actually was!

Still having fun several
years on, and a lot fitter!

But the feeling that was running through me, and at a faster pace than my 5k I have to add, when I crossed the finish line was like no other feeling I had ever experienced before, I was buzzing and I knew I had to repeat those feelings again and soon.

And it was that moment I made a deal with myself that the next time I was stupid enough to agree to anything like this ever again, I would be less Percy Pig and more Pink Panther like!

And so the fun began!

Nic K

Why Fuelled By Fun...

Mental health comes in all shapes and sizes, ways and means, and finding that THING that keeps you happy, that keeps you sane, and most of all keeps you going, no matter what life throws at you – that’s the THING I want you to find.

It has taken me a while (about 40 years) to find it, and I want to help others find that THING too.

After a tough day/week my THING used to be to reach for a bottle of wine, I thought that helped. But actually it did the opposite. I’d feel like crap the next day, I put weight on (a lot of weight on), which then made me feel like crap, so because I felt like crap I’d drink more wine to ‘cheer myself up’!

This cycle went on for years – and without boring you with too much detail – a good friend suggested I get some help! I had reached the end of my tether; I was bored of listening to myself moaning about life so I swallowed my “pride” (i.e that stiff upper lip that everyone’s supposed to have) and reached out for some help.

To cut an even longer story short, this lead me to set up a small running group, I realised my THING was running in the forest – being close to nature, but it wasn’t something I liked doing on my own, so the group was created for like-minded people. People who want a bit of a social, as well as a bit of running in mud, up hills and around the forest. But the most important thing is that it’s fun!

It turns out quite a few also like open water swimming, cycling, and all sorts of other activities – it’s great to get a group together like that, as there’s always someone that can join you for a run/swim/walk/hike.

It’s not about having the willpower to do something, its have having the desire to do it because you know it makes you feel great! That’s what makes it Fuelled by Fun!

Nik G.