How They Did It | Louise Robbins From Nursing To Nutrition Coaching and CrossFit Training

Louise worked in Australia as a Registered Nurse. One day, she decides she wants a change — a big change. So she leaves her job, books a flight to the UK and, in her own words, “wings it”: everything from where to live and what to do once she lands is undecided. She hits some rough patches as she navigates nursing career in a new country with a completely different system. It’s not easy and she doesn’t know anybody — and yet she pulls through. A few months ago, she started working as a CrossFit trainer full time and soon she will launch a nutrition coaching service.

Why did she leave the nursing career behind and became a coach?

This is a summary that accompanies the original interview published on Work In Progress Podcast. Here we highlight the main takeaway and some useful resources. Listen to the full interview here.

WHAT IS YOUR PRIORITY?

“I Want to be able to help people prevent ill health rather than treat it”

Before CrossFit

• Louise had been working as a registered nurse for the past 10 years
• [2:50] Her past relationship with food was unhealthy at times
• [5:47] She has been active her whole life. In school, she was involved in basketball, soccer/football, cricket, swimming, cross country running. In her teenage years that became less important as her focus shifted to social activities like hanging out with friends and partying. She would do boot camps and go to gyms here and there but she wasn’t nearly as physically active as she was before. When she started CrossFit and she said it was like going back to being like a kid again!
• [13:35] Working as a nurse can be stressful. Louise describes a typical day as a nurse on the ward
• She wanted to moved to UK because she wanted to travel and do something different. Initially she planned to travel for 6 weeks and winged the rest of it — she didn’t plan where to work or live. It turned out that finding work as a nurse proved to be harder than she thought. Of the many people she met along the journey, a nurse from Melbourne helped Louise get a job working in live-in care. In this job, Louise cared for a disabled university student by living on campus and working with her. In Louise’s free time she started going to CrossFit classes
• A year later, Louise moved to London and started working as a healthcare community assistant at the West London Hospital. Her role here consists of providing support to patients who have just been discharged from hospital

What’s empowering? To know it is possible to leave behind a career and go into another without compromising what you love doing — to help people be their best. My favorite quote from this episode is when Louise says:

Food Can Be Used As Medicine

Louise’s Switch

• She believes in prevention first, treatment second. Her desire to help people live a healthier life is instrumental in her career choice
• [3:20] Louise got into crossfit because he felt unhealthy and wanted to change that. Once she started training she noticed that she was eating better and she wanted to help others do the same
• [3:50] As she learned more about it, she wanted to help others do the same. Louise later did a nutrition coaching course then did the CrossFit level 1 course and an internship
• [23:20] Her work schedule was flexible (compared to before working as a nurse) and she trained during her down time and she would coach whenever they needed cover, she really enjoyed it and she had supportive people around her who encouraged her. Then she decided she wanted to leave
• [25:00] She started coaching about two years after she started CrossFit. So far she’s been coaching for about 8 months. She had other friends who did the same thing (started CrossFit then became a coach) and her boyfriend had been coaching for the past 6–7 years so this is not unfamiliar for her
• After completing the training, she did an internship — watching other coaches work and have them watch/assess her [27:40]

Louise’s New Role

• [19:30] It was scary in the beginning
• [40:36 ] Louise talks about a typical day working as a CrossFit trainer and 1:1 nutrition coach
• [20:45] Louise gives us an intro to Crossfit. Workout can always be adjusted to everyone’s level and needs
• [28:30] How she prepares for a CrossFit class: sessions are usually programmed and she demos how to do them and helps students adjust the program to their own fitness level
• [36:00] What her nutrition consultation sessions are like
• [38:40] Health should be preventative

Obstacles Along The Way

• Her previous career provided steady hours, lots of leave and sick pay. Going from steady hours to being self employed is not an easy change: she now needs to make sure that she has enough hours and clients; the hours can easily fluctuate
• [34:35] Currently, being a CrossFit trainer gives her minimum 15 hours of coaching a week and the 1:1 nutrition and coaching would provide hours on top of that

Advice And Resources

• Take the CrossFit Level 1 Certificate Course
• [50:20] If you are interested in becoming a CrossFit coach, you will find that a lot of CrossFit gyms are open to let people watch and learn from the coaches while they work. Do this on top of the certificate to get feedback

Where To Find Louise Online

• Instagram

What’s Next For Louise

• She is launching her own online nutrition business in a couple of months
• CrossFit Level 2
• Specialty: Strongmen course, gymnastic specialty

Work In Progress is a blog hosted by two twin sisters passionate about transitions in career and life. The series “How They Did It” features interviews of people who successfully changed their careers in all walks of life.

Their belief is simple: if people are able to pursue the careers they like, they can lead more fulfilling and meaningful lives. This is where you can find a collection of interviews from people who have successfully switched.