Personal fitness tips with Holly Braithwaite PT

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My background

I became a personal trainer in February 2017. Before that I was a ladies fashion buyer for seven years at Shop Direct.

I’ve always been very much into my fitness and ever so slightly on the competitive side. My school (Liverpool College) was very sports focussed and we had nine different sports we played each year.

I played for the Lancashire lacrosse team and have competed to a high standard in horse riding from the age of seven.

I now teach 1-1 clients, groups and classes.

My main focus is for women to feel more confident and comfortable in their bodies, and understand that they can have a social life whilst working towards their goals.

It’s not about hiding away, spending hours on end in the gym or saying no to meals out because you’re living on fresh air.

Find the why

Why do you want to start your health and fitness journey?

Before starting any journey you need to find out why your doing it.

Is it for you? Is it for someone else? Is it to get strong, lose weight, gain weight or just build up your fitness?

Once you know the why you can then create your goal. It’s as simple as that.

How to know what you should be eating…

Many people fail before they’ve begun as the diet they think they have to be on is too restrictive.

What people aren’t told is that they don’t need to be on a diet to lose weight. It’s all about being in a calorie deficit.

3 easy ways to track your food so you don’t fall off track

1

Know how many calories you should be eating each day.

Many people go by the guidelines (2,000 for women & 2,500 for men) but this could essentially mean you’re eating an extra 500 calories a day without thinking you’re doing anything wrong.

How to find out your calories is simple. Firstly find out your body weight in pounds, times it by 10 and subtract 12.

Example: 10 stone in pounds is 140 x 10 – 12 = 1388 calories

2

Download the MyFitnessPal mobile app.

With it you can log your weight, activity, and the calories you must hit to achieve your goals.

A lot of people underestimate how many calories they are consuming each day.

This app is simple and easy to use; you can log all your food simply by typing it in or scanning the barcode of the food.

3

Choose sensibly.

You can still go out and enjoy the fun things in life but just be more mindful.

If you’re going out for meals with friends, look at the menu before going and quickly scan this into MyFitnessPal.

Then you will know roughly what you’ll be consuming so you can figure out the calories that you have remaining for the rest of the day.

The easiest way to stick to healthier eating is to let it become a part of your life.

Follow Holly on Instagram @holly.braithwaitept