the story of my fitness journey and how Menno Henselmans unknowingly validated the way I manage patients

I was a fat child. This fact has dictated virtually every aspect of my behaviour – and my life - for the past 40-ish years. In all honesty, it was and still very much is, an obsession. Seemingly, my one and only ‘major’ self-perceived problem in life was being fat and I spent my entire teenage years, my twenties and well into my thirties trying to solve it. 

I read every book, subscribed to and read every fitness magazine, tried every diet, every exercise programme. I read the blogs, the scientific papers, I tried the pills, the programmes, the shakes. Keto, Atkins, South Beach, Paleo, Vegan, Intermittent fasting, Bullet-proof coffee. You name it, I tried it. I am great at following a ‘programme’ so I was very diligent with each and every attempt. If social media existed when I was a teenager, I would have followed every fitness and weight loss influencer. Gosh, I probably would have become one of those people whose entire Instagram is about food and diet and exercise and weight loss. I thought I was super well-informed, I thought I knew it all. I thought I was an expert. Hours of cardio, low fat, super low calories, high fat, fat fasting, orlistat, caffeine, I even used nicotine patches to speed up my metabolism because I read a paper somewhere saying that it would help. I even considered smoking cigarettes. I started running marathons and did triathlons. I spent 9 hours on Sundays riding my bike around the hills of Greater London. My life revolved around calorie counting and going to the gym. I lost weight and gained weight. I avoided social situations. I felt uncomfortable in my body all the time, every day. I thought all people saw when they looked at me was a fatty. Nothing mattered but my fatness – it defined me. Despite all this time and effort and money spent, I never got the body I wanted.

After almost 35 years of this – of thinking I was the absolute expert in all things weight loss with no actual long-lasting weight loss or a shredded physique to provide evidence for this (I even became a personal trainer and gym class instructor in an attempt to ‘normalise’ my obsession) I stumbled upon someone who basically told me that everything I had learned and religiously followed about diet and exercise and weight loss was absolute bullshit: Menno Henselmans. Using an evidence-based approach, Menno basically said ‘it’s all crap, everything you know is wrong, stop doing cardio, stop all these weird eating habits and let’s get you the body you want. Let’s get you shredded.’

Reluctantly, I decided to fork out the cash to have Menno coach me. God knows I had done everything else. And I did initially resist his methods – letting go of ingrained beliefs and habits is really tough, especially when everyone around you is following ‘mainstream’ fitness and weight loss ideology. I had to stop reading fitness magazines and talking to people about weight loss. I had to tune out all the noise and force myself to do what Menno was telling me to do. But at the beginning, I did break the rules: I did cardio and when I admitted it to Menno, he told me off. I cut calories too harshly – and again, got told off. Menno told me no more cheat meals and I reluctantly agreed but asked ‘hey, isn’t a cheat meal meant to boost my metabolism?’ No, he said, don’t be stupid - How the hell does a binge ‘in disguise’ help you lose body fat?

He made me see sense. And to question everything I had thought was true about fat loss and exercise.

And you can predict what happened: I got there. I got the body I never thought I would have. I got down to less than 12% bodyfat. I got deltoid striations and a six pack. But it took me letting go of all the marketing gimmicky BS I had been believing for so many many years and just to focus on what is simple and true and logical and based in science. And I got there. And it wasn’t as hard as I expected it to be. And now I maintain a relatively low but comfortable bodyfat percentage of around 16-18% (I get regular Dexa scans to monitor it and never really weigh myself because I have a heck of a lot more muscle than most women my age so I weigh a lot more than you would think – but I don’t look butch. Honestly, I don’t!) I never read Muscle and ‘Fiction’ magazine now, I never pick up a fitness magazine at all. I don’t do crossfit or pilates or Bodypump (though nothing wrong with any of those activities – it just doesn’t help you get shredded). I know it’s all just bullshit written to propagate myths and sell products. Fitness magazines are just advertisements that you pay for. Menno didn’t get me to buy protein powder or eat fake food or use supplements. He simplified my life and just said it how it is. He told me to train properly with heavy weights and correct form and do a full body workout everyday (for not more than an hour a day) and to not eat crap. To sleep at least 8 hours a night. To reduce my stress levels. No cheat meals. Eat enough of the right foods to feel satiated. And do it consistently. And that was basically it. Oddly, I never once actually spoke to Menno during this entire journey (I worked with Menno for 15 months). We only communicated via email. For all I know, Menno could have been some fat dude eating Doritos and drinking beer in front of a computer in Missouri. There was something about his honest, frank, simple approach that appealed to me via his website and his publications after so many years of confusion and complexity. Deep down I trusted him from the very beginning. 

During this time, I was training to be a dermatologist. Only recently did I realise the similarity between the way Menno views fat loss and muscle building and the way I view skincare. His number one goal is to get people shredded. My number one goal is to get people the best skin of their lives. And we approach our goals in exactly the same way: by cutting out the crap and helping our clients/patients understand the facts to give them the knowledge and therefore the confidence to go against the mainstream ‘noise’ that envelopes and confuses these topics and in the end they actually reach their goals. 

My primary career goal is to make sure that the people out there who are unhappy with their skin seek the help of an expert who won’t flog them expensive products or treatments but rather someone who can accurately diagnose their problem and prescribe the correct, evidence-based, targeted treatment. Someone like me. My mission is to get people great skin by using my in-depth understanding of skin physiology and pathology and my vast clinical experience. I want to do for skincare industry and for my patients what Menno has done for the fitness industry and for me. Watch this space.