About ME

i THINK IT IS ABOUT TIME I FORMALLY INTRODUCED MYSELF and gave A little (lot of) BACKGROUND…

My name is Donna and I have ran and managed Focused Nutrition since it was up and running just over 2 years ago.

I have always been into fitness, ever since my school days, I used to swim, be on the cross country team and also basically do anything I could that was competitive. After leaving school and in my teens, I still continued to exercise. I took up running and used to run about 6 miles every day, without fail. (Not even a rest day - silly me).

At the time I was working in retail but knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do forever. I had the opportunity to start a gym instructor course and literally jumped at the chance. Once this was complete I got a job in a local gym, working two jobs because I was still in retail and it was only part time. I managed to find a full time job working at DW in Byker a few months later and absolutely loved it. I got to do all of things I loved, help people with fitness, do my own fitness and also learn so much about the fitness world. I started participating in classes rather than running and loved the feeling it gave me. I was the female that always wanted a defined look but never did any weights until I started classes. I loved how challenging it was in every way and for me, this was now the way forward. Believe or not I always very shy and the thought of standing in front of people was horrendous, however I knew I would love it once I got over the fear. I was at DW for about 2 years, until moving onto Gateshead Council. When I worked for Gateshead Council, I mainly worked in the gyms, moving around to different facilities to cover shifts. I learned so much from doing this, from what I wanted to do and also what I did not want to do.

I had the chance to take a course to take some classes and although was actually terrified, I did it and absolutely loved it… I remember writing down my name at the top of my sheet incase I forgot my name when I introduced myself… haha.

From then on, I did lots of other courses including, aqua fit, spinning, kettlebells, circuits, meta fit, hula hoop!, boxercise and a probably a few more I can’t remember. My working time was split between working in the gym (now contracted to Blaydon Leisure Centre on a weekend) and working at different facilities during the week teaching all sorts of classes. This meant I was working 7 days a week and had maybe 1 night off per week, but I loved it. I loved the variety, meeting different people, seeing their progress and helping them achieve their goals. I still carried on my own training and surprise, surprise still found/made time to train twice per day whatever that was or entailed.

I was always looking for new classes, different ways to train, new things to do, basically because I loved a new challenge. Whilst working for Gateshead council I had heard of ‘CrossFit’ and thought that sounded like something I would love. I found a place to try it and obviously loved it. Off the back of trying the class, I ended up working for that company (not CrossFit) and offering a few classes a week as well as training there myself. The training and set up was different to what I was used to, barbells etc but I loved the challenge. From there CrossFit was pretty much all I did, I found something that challenged me physically, mentally and also I could see progress in my strength, fitness and gymnastic ability.

It is safe to say I was absolutely rubbish at first, so many of the movements were new apart from things like KB’s, but I picked the movements patterns up relatively quickly and I was eager to learn. I hated not being able to do certain things so that certainly pushed me even more. Fast forward a couple of years.

I became a CrossFit coach at CrossFit Northumbria and eventually gave up all other jobs to do this full time which again I obviously LOVED. I probably realised at this point how important nutrition was to sport. I was vegetarian at the time and was not getting anywhere near enough protein, so for the sake of my training and all of the hard work I was putting in I wasn’t seeing the results in my strength as I wanted so I decided to start eating meat again (only white meat).

In relation to nutrition, it has always been a big part of my life. I have always been careful of what I have eaten and I pretty much read every fitness magazine going, any and every article I could find on nutrition and built a fairly good knowledge base. I took this knowledge and applied it to my own life and from there started helping some of my PT clients with it too.

After working at CFN for about 4 years, we thought that there was a huge gap in members training that could be filled with nutrition. I was obviously over the moon about the opportunity to learn more about nutrition and gain a qualification in it so I went for it. I completed my Precision Nutrition Level 1 about 2 years ago and as a result we introduced Focused Nutrition to the world.

We had previously offered things like meal plans and challenges but they were fairly generic and after members had finished, they certainly had got brilliant results, however, they were unsure of where to go next or what to do or how to progress. Although I could offer advice, I did not have any set plan for them. Once FN was up and running, I had a platform I could offer individualised 1:1 nutrition coaching… (the dream).

From the start it has evolved so much but with always with the same drive, to help, educate and give people knowledge to help them with their goals day to day. I always knew how important nutrition was but getting that message across was not always easy. I have helped over 250-300 people with their nutrition over the years in various different ways and will continue to do so as best I can.

The way FN is now, is the best it has ever been, I have worked hard over the past two years to improve the system, the service, my own knowledge and the community. I check in with clients on a weekly basis via email as well as either fortnightly or monthly face to face (currently ZOOM) to see how they are getting on and what they can improve on going forward. We set small goals day to day and week to week to help the overall goal become more achievable. They have also taught me so much and help me stay accountable to my own goals by their determination. (Cheesy but true).

So that is the story of myself, my career in not only education but also fitness and also where we are with nutrition and most importantly Focused Nutrition.

Some things have never changed, my love of helping people, in both fitness and nutrition my drive to train twice a day (most days), my love of CrossFit and the challenges it poses, but most of all I just love the community both Method Training brings and also Focused Nutrition. Nothing is more rewarding than seeing people relate, get through the struggles together and improve because of it.

In terms of my own body composition, it has changed over the years, I have been lighter, heavier, had visible abs, not had visible abs, had more muscle, less muscle etc. Albeit, small changes but changes all the same. My attitude to my body composition has always remained the same, as long as my performance is good or as good as it can be then it doesn’t matter. CrossFit is about performance and that is all is important to me.