K Renton
K Renton
Aug 8, 2017 · 9 min read

Welcome to my life…

I’ve always been involved in the sport/exercise scene from a young age. I was fortunate to have parents who put being active as a high priority in our lives as children. My mum a British swimmer and my dad a footballer. As a youngster I started with trampolining and gymnastics, roller skating and swimming (obviously). Following a family relocation I stayed with just gymnastics. As I started to get older and interests widened I stopped being involved with sporting clubs, but still played with the other kids on the block over school holidays, evenings and weekends. After starting at secondary school I was introduced to field hockey – that brought about a new turn and passion in my sporting world. I was soon playing and training at both club and school, whilst still keeping basketball and tennis going. During the summer months at school sports switched to rounders and athletics (javelin, shot and discus). This carried on throughout my high school years achieving multiple successes and awards. At club level I’d broken into the ladies teams making my way up to the first team, alongside representong the junior temas and eventually making the mixed team.

Following a very difficult 5 years of high school I made the decision to take my education (post GCSE) to college. But with this brought another tough decision hockey or basketball!! Two of my big loves and actually two sports I was very good at. So the decision came and I settled with hockey, mainly I chose to stay close to home and not have to get up at 5am daily – you can’t blame me! So this meant hockey was my path. In my final year at college whilst playing for my local club I met a coach for the opposition who suggested I came the British Colleges trials! WOW! I was successful - but there were questions about where I’d been at area/county trials/teams?! Well my face didn’t fit so my school never suggested/put me forward!

Soon came my university days I was studying Sport Science and I was keen to get into the university sports scene. Again I got a bit torn, do I try something different or stick with what I know. Well when I say something new, I really mean go back to basketball. After all sadly I’d become disillusioned due to club politics! (I’ve learnt now though that politics is everywhere – you just have to choose how embroiled you get in it) I settled on hockey, after all I love ot and I know i’m good at it - but alas it was not an easy 3 years. I got scouted by a local club – but I was used to playing at high/competative level, not to mention that actually I’m a pretty under confident/anxious individual in new environments, despite the loud exterior.

Sadly, injury struck twice in my university seasons and not for the first time in my sporting life. I got a hamstring tear in the first year and subluxed my shoulder in the second year (I’ve lost count what number it was)! So this kept my university sporting life short. But how I deal with it is for another blog! So my final year at university saw me debate trying something different, well going back to basketball. But I didnt take the chance so I found myself at the local council gym, doing a mix of cardion, resistance work and swimming – but as you may know social scenes at university tend to take priority not to mention dissertation of final year so I ended up not doing a lot of activity that year.

As all good things do, well all things really, university came to an end. 3 wonderful years in Livepool, a city which has a piece of my heart for life. Working life was beakoning which meant another move, somewhere new again. Due to poor public transport and weird working hours, playing club hockey wasn’t really an option for me. I started to run a lot more though, mainly as a way of escape but actually quite enjoyed it – at this time I was certainly a fair weather runner. Sadly I got poorly and lost a lot of weight in a quick time, overall 6 stone in under a year but probably 5 stone in 6 months!! A mixed emotion. Once things had settled I started the running again not as a get away but I actually relatively enjoyed it.

Then another move came and this time I wanted back in to hockey I’d missed it after nearly 5 years away, and I was living in a city with a team who’s ladies 1s were national league and known for national players. So training started straight in at the top 1's/2's (uh-oh am I ready for this? Do I still have the skills? Am I going to make a fool of myself?) NO, I kept my head, trained hard and loved every second – I’d missed the rush of having those balls pinging at me in the net and yes I made some cracking saves, there’s nothing greater. So match day came with the 2's second half was mine, first attack came and I went out hard for it (boom – pain and I was seeing white flashing dots – s**t hamstring, gone - again) not cool. I managed to play out the half but with great difficulty. So that was me out. I soon healed but decided to only train from then on. Season over and I decided to challenge myself - I had decided to run the Leicester half marathon (for a local chairty – I knew this would keep me motivated). What was I thinking!!! I’d hardly run further than 6/7km once or twice how would I get through 13.1miles!!! But I did 12 weeks of commitment, training, sweat and tears and plenty of money raised for an amazing charity! But I never wanted to run again! It was horrific I didn’t enjoy the race or anything other than finishing. Then I made a big life changing decision – I was going to return to full time study. I was determined to better my career but I knew it would come with a challenge.

So off I went ,27 months of long days of learning, extra study at home, clinical placements – how would I fit any sport in…. Well 3 months went by and on a warm Saturday afternoon in March I was having a break, some me time, reliving my youth on a trampoline – POP. I couldn’t stand, the pain was making me feel sick, I thought it was a fractured ankle (being a trainee Physio) – not what I needed, turned out to be ligament tears, some pretty big ones and I couldn’t do anything. I was on crtches for the best part of a week. Continuous swelling and pain. This was by far the worst i’d experienced. healing was not going well and I eventually ot some scans the results weren’t great, but at least I had a diagnosis now. It took over a year to get back to some normality and even then I didn’t know what I wanted to be doing. I went for a couple of bike rides, tried the odd run and swimming on and off but nothing which sparked my passion like I’d previously known when exercising. So time went by of me doing little bits here and there but nothing routine – university life started to settle, I was getting cloise to the end and I felt like the time was right to get going again. Off I went and joined the gym – August 2016 I was ready to make the commitment to something again.

I’ll be honest, I was a little sceptical, I’d never really loved the gym and I’d always felt a little inferior so I thought I’d just try the classes get in to a good routine and just be active again. So I stared and started hard – classes booked Monday – Thursday, I thought as I’m not one to cancel or bail on plans if I’ve booked it means I need to go. So off I went and actually really enjoyed what I was doing Tuesday and Wednesdays were my favourite days as it gave me a mix of cardio and weight based classes. Not long after starting one of the instructors of the pump class complimented me on my technique at the end of the session. I’d seen her about the gym and thought she seemed pretty neat, strong female who didn’t conform to expectation - GirlPower. So after a couple of sessions we got chatting about things and she offered to help me – she felt my goals were a bit muddled and conflicting and after this it highlighted actually just how conflicting they were! I wanted to lose weight but also tone – well you can’t do both at the same time as they require different training and fuelling. So after a very long open and honest chat, with quite frankly a stranger at this time, she set to work. She wanted pictures of my food intake daily and also offered to hit a session in with me outside of class. So I kept my training up and we started working together along with some changes to my food.

As I mentioned earlier I was quite unwell for a period and my relationship with food had always been a bit hit and miss since late teens, suffering with bulimia for a while and then skipping meals. With having to limit the foods I ate whilst I was poorly my thought processes were confused to say the least. It certainly wasn’t supported by being witness to my mums relationship with food and exercise where she would only eat if she had exercised, so food became a reward and she certainly was addicted to exercise. So unhealthy behaviours and mental health issues had played a huge role in my younger years and unknowingly would impact my life more than I would notice at the time or admit to. So this was my biggest challenge to overcome when changes were being asked of me and the mindset that went along with it. I would say by far the psychological support I needed far outweighed the physical. I got the science behind it but physically putting the food in my body at times would make me feel sick, riddle me with guilt and be much more challenging than physically lifting weights…

So along came the game changer, my training partner started a transformation and I just kind of jumped in every now and then on training sessions where I could. She changed things up for me and adapted exercises to make it work for both of us and soon I was doing things I didn’t think possible, enjoying the pump and sweat and getting that gym buzz – wow it’s real and I wanted more! But it wasn’t long before injury struck – however this time not for me for her! This was bad though it wasn’t going to be a quick fix and it meant changing the game in a big way! But that was ok we were adaptable and we would support each other through the challenges. So we changed the game then BOOM – injury struck for me a calf tear this time. Life is cruel sometimes, again we changed the game up to support this.

So classes were now the minority in my training week hitting weights 4/5 days a week and making big gains. Not always the best at seeing the little things nor acknowledging the progress so through the journey we’ve used pictures and videos to help document things and I would 100% recommend this! It’s the only way to truly visualise your changes, accomplishments and note improvements. You can review technique and see where you can make minor changes to see huge improvements. So where am I today with my exercise journey… I’m still training hard 4/5 sessions a week, i’m on a two week cycle and high/low carb. Not to mention i’m back working full time, with a 45mile round trip commute and a 2 mile round trip walk with 7.5 hours on my feet – but I LOVE MY JOB and I wouldn’t change it. What it has meant though is training sessions are shorter, food prep is imperative but changes are still being made.

K Renton

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K Renton

I've been through a drastic weight loss, which wasn't planned. Here's my story as to how I've dealt with things along the way and where I'm at currently!