Co-Women member, Camille, founded Hove's Float Spa, which is a firm favourite among us! What you may not know is that this is just part of her journey. Here, she shares more about how she looks after herself as well as running two businesses...
I love to exercise! I love the feeling post run or swim – that sudden rush of endorphins which makes you feel like super woman.
When I was born I was diagnosed with a rare heart condition and in the 80s – conventional medicine wanted me to endure open heart surgery to ‘fix it’. Luckily my parents decided to push back and wait for medical advances – but in the interim I was told to not run around, not to do PE and not to exercise. I was told my skin may turn yellow and without the necessary ‘fix’ procedure my life span would be around 40 years (I’ve now turned 40!). I ignored most of this advice and as a child was very active, in the 90s before smart phones – riding our bikes everywhere, playing in the woods and took every opportunity to play sport. Captained the school hockey and netball teams, competed in swimming competitions, tennis matches and was even in the army cadets for 6 years. No one thought of me as any different.
I was very lucky and in 1998, advances in research and medicine lead to me being the first child in Manchester in the UK to have the heart surgery without being cut open. The surgery was a success and I have never looked at my dodgy heart as anything to hold me back.
Since then I have run marathons, endured cycling events, open water swimming events and even competed in a charity boxing match. It has really been since the birth of my second child in 2016 when I stepped up my level of fitness to be where I am today.
I love everything about the process of exercise and how sport makes me feel. Every week on a Sunday I schedule my week’s exercise along with my kids activities and my work schedule (I own two businesses). For me I see exercise as equal importance to all other events in my life. I exercise 7 days per week (often twice per day), of course I vary the intensity – not every day is a race day and I have spent years building myself up to this routine. I limit my intense or hard sessions to only 3 of these per week. I love competing in races and events and have my first full distance Ironman race scheduled for August 2024. To an average person I seem crazy, but I absolutely love it and wouldn’t change a thing.
As a teenager I suffered horrendously with very heavy periods and as it feels usual practice the GP suggested the Oral Contraceptive Pill as a method to control them. Since the birth of my children – I reacted very badly to going back on the pill and knew this wasn’t a long-term solution for me. So I researched and adopted a more natural approach. Having opened my first business The Float Spa in 2015 which is a health and wellness centre, then going on to re-train as a Naturopathic Health Coach, meditation teacher and Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, and develop a more natural approach to all areas of my life. These included completely changing my diet, lifestyle, stress, sleep and alcohol consumption. I felt all of these were affecting my health and hormone health. By slowly reviewing all areas of my life I was able to create a new lifestyle which was balanced and worked.
My experience and professional history has given me some knowledge I'd love to share with you - check back later this month for part two of my blog, where I'll share some practical tips that you can try too!
To find out more about Camille and her work, visit www.camillepierson.co.uk