GYM GIRLS LOCKER ROOM - ANNA ARCHER: Giving Up On Her ED, The Highs And Lows Of Social Media, Being Addicted To Productivity EP. 2

Episode Date: March 12, 2024

EP 02 - hey besties. syd and anna chatted about the hilarious story of the first time they met, anna’s recovery from bulimia, the challenges they face as content creators, anna’s running tips and what she’s up to next 👀 WATCH the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-dpO4VMOao4 Find UK mental health charities: https://hubofhope.co.uk/ 💘 join the GGLR community: INSTA - https://www.instagram.com/gymgirlslockerroom/ FACEBOOK COMMUNITY PAGE - https://bit.ly/3TqhxDG TIKTOK - https://www.tiktok.com/@gymgirlslockerroom/ 📲 find Syd on socials: INSTA - https://www.instagram.com/sydgrows/ TIKTOK - https://www.tiktok.com/@sydgrows/ connect with anna: linktr.ee/annaarcherfitness GYMSHARK - 10% off code: SYDNEY

Hi guys and welcome back to the Gym Girls Locker Room podcast hosted by me, Sydney Hastie, also known as Sigros. Today we have a very special episode. We have the one that only Anna Archer on. We covered a lot. We covered our first funny meeting, Anna's journey with her eating disorder and her road to recovery, her evolution with her social media platforms the challenges that come with having a job on social media Anna's running tips and what's next from Anna there was a lot of really really special moments in this and I know that it's going to be something that you guys are going to love and be able to take lots from I do just want to give a trigger warning obviously with the nature of the topics that we have discussed there is mention of

eating disorders so if that's not right for you please um either listen to the first episode or tune in to the next one next week before we get into the episode please do us a massive favor subscribe if you are listening on apple or watching on youtube and give us a follow if you're listening on spotify you can find us at gym girls locker room on instagram and facebook and um yeah i hope you love the episode as much as i did okay anna archer hello she's here oh my gosh honestly like i don't feel like i could have had anyone else as a first guest it was like an immediate decision for us wasn't it really we were we were like I feel honored I'm your first guest we were like there's no other person I know she's in Australia

because this girl's been all over the globe but we were like there has to be a way so that kind of like actually when we were talking earlier the deadline was truly for you but I want to start because I feel like the audience will really enjoy this and I also don't know if you I've spoken to you about it but I want to start with like how we met because I don't know oh my gosh yeah I don't know if you remember but I actually first met you at the Gymshark store opening as a fan wait what yeah no no so I was not a Gymshark athlete nor I think I must have had about what do we we reckon, 30,000 followers or something on TikTok. But were you there invited as a Gymshark?

No, no, no. I was there as a fan. No way. I literally turned up and you walked up to me. I remember it so vividly. Oh wait, did I say I watch your videos so you walked up to me and you said you had like a neon outfit on and you said like you walked up to me and you said um you just looked at me and you said I've seen you on TikTok or I've seen your videos or something and I was absolutely flabbergasted I was internally screaming like it was it was so beautiful okay yeah but then I remember that there's a part two to us meeting which is I mentioned this in my first episode if you guys um have already listened to that I was um on my way to lift

Manchester and they had I was like just freaking out entirely that whole sort of journey up there imposter syndrome like the works but beforehand on the journey they had asked me to go to the store the gym truck store and to travel up with the other athletes I get put in a taxi what was it a six-man six-man car yes fully for I what was it four hours no i think it was five and a half five and a half hours with an african archer i was dying and i was just like yeah and it was you know it was really special for me but i was just i remember just internally screaming the whole time ellis and i were saying oh my god stop ellis and i were like well obviously i eased into it but i think ellis was saying it'd be funny to look back and find text messages of me just going, I can't.

Like, no. It's crazy. That is so. So anyway. No, I remember we were in the car and I was like, oh my God, sick. Like, it's just us two. And then we were chatting, what, for nonstop, like five and a half hours. Like, I think you found out more than some of my friends knew about me.

I was like, this happened, this happened. Honestly. And we were just like, right, we bonded. And then like for the whole like Manchester trip, we were so busy. I don't think we like hardly talked I was like no we had a good catch up I know yeah it's like what a way to meet someone literally spend like hours in a car with them but I think something that really struck me about you was just like how like I don't know just so like mature and like self-assured you are and secure in yourself and it's so funny to me that you're literally 22 like you're 22 but um yeah like is that something you feel like you've always

been like I feel like you've I've heard you kind of say before like you've always kind of been like a little bit silly a little bit goofy and like weird in the best kind of way. But do you feel like, yeah, you've always been like pretty like, I don't know, self-assured and secure? It's definitely been a journey. I have always had some element of Anna. And I think the more I've gone through this whole journey of life, you realize you can be even more you. And you go back to the tendance not tendencies but the traits you had when you were a child you know I mean loud dancing being all silly and so it's almost like growing up

is kind of going back to those roots but in terms of being like confident or self-assured that's been a journey itself too um I haven't always been like that and it took some very low moments to then realize that the journey that is most important to me is becoming my conf like is being confident in yourself and I think it shifts so much within your life like it helps so many things line up when you are confident in yourself and any time that you feel like the world's crashing on you it's just you're losing a little bit of that you know when someone's rooting for you you're just rooting for yourself everything feels like it's working what are like things that you kind of did in those moments where you were like struggling and then you just like I don't know because I see you before me and you're just like

like Anna is that girl like she really is I'm sure everyone listening who knows Anna knows she just like I don't know I feel like you just like embody just like just Anna right so it's like how did you get to that point and I don't know like it do you well we were speaking earlier but like you still have that like those ups and those down days oh my gosh all the time like I think this week last two weeks I've really struggled and we talked about this before um and you know when you are seen as an energetic person online I find it really hard now to show up and not be that person now I have a podcast myself and it's been such a kind of support for me the whole time I've been

doing social media because I can turn up as whatever I want within that you know I share my low days all the time but the thing is is I come back on my podcast and I share about it once I've resolved it right now I'm in a position where I haven't resolved anything I don't feel on top of the world again and so I like to share things when I'm on top of the world I go I've been there I felt that but I'm here now and this is what I did or this is what I've done and I feel like at the moment I'm like no I'm still feeling anxious and like it's just taking those baby steps it's protecting yourself it's you know that voice that goes it's okay you want someone else to tell you just lie on the sofa this evening yeah just chill out you you that goes it's okay you want someone else to tell you just lie

on the sofa this evening yeah just chill out you probably feel it don't you like just take the day off yeah you've got to be that for yourself yeah and it's so hard but as soon as you start doing that you can calm yourself and letting other people in too oh my god as I I thought I'm always one to kind of share my emotion to some extent. But I realized that I definitely do push out friends or people that are associated with work. And I'm like, no, they don't need to know how I'm feeling. I'll just tell them I'm okay. I'm the strong one.

I'm the one that's got their shit together. And, you know, even yesterday, like, I was with a friend who I normally support a lot. And I just crashed onto her. I was like, I'm not doing good. She was like, it's okay. And you realize that when you do open up. before you can create quite a story um but that's kind of what helped me a little bit recently yeah but I don't know whether you were kind of asking that

going down a different avenue of I don't know you kind of said like being more Anna I don't know well yeah I think I don't know it's just like you I think I I want to I think I want to dive in more to like earlier days Anna because I feel like for everyone that's like such a those are such formative like years and it really shapes you as a person so I feel like me as an observer of like your content um it seems like you're kind of always I don't know trying to like channel that like in a child I don't even know if that's a conscious thing but I feel like that's a really like healing part for a lot of people and like yeah is that something that you consciously try to do or yeah I think I naturally know what I enjoy and those things are potentially more childish things

but growing up and realizing that a really healing thing to do is to do things that your inner child would find fun and love and you know one of the benefits to making your own your own money is you get to spend the adult money on childish things and I love doing that like let's get some stickers and a fun pen no I know and like a bouncy castle birthday party let's do it I know when I got invited to Anna's bouncy castle birthday party I thought it's so on brand and I love it it's so golden I love it I love it um like fitness for you as a child like I know you've said in the past that like for you you had so much fun like moving your body and would you say that you had

like a really sort of healthy relationship with and I'm talking like childhood I know you did like all the activities yeah you did all the clubs that's something that like certainly really resonates with me especially like I know you spoke about like in the like as a child not always having the means you know your parents not always having the means yeah that's something that I really resonate with and I think like I was so totally one of those kids as well I'll be at the netball club I'll be at the bloody swimming tennis yeah literally all of it and like I think yeah I think that's really nice to kind of like hear someone say that and would you say that you did have like a healthy sort of

relationship with exercise exercise yeah um food and exercise I had a healthy relationship with with my body there was some when I was from the age of probably six I had some body image stuff but I never knew that exercise made a difference and I never knew that food made a difference yeah I just thought your body was what you got and I didn't understand why other girls had smaller legs than me and that freaked me out bearing in mind when you look back I'm a tiny child it's just in your head but with exercise oh my god I loved it like it was just my way to be me I would just be moving around all day and yeah we didn't have loads of money and I remember there was times where I was so mad at my mum for not making me a pro in something because

the driver's there the energy is there like I wanted to be like an elite athlete I wanted to be an elite gymnast yeah and my mum didn't let me do it and so I would practice in the garden and that's where I have my kind of background with handstands and stuff because I would play around in the garden for hours and I can do random things on the trampoline. But in terms of like actual gymnastics training and stuff like that, I don't have too much. Yeah. And so, yeah, I did loads of like tennis, swimming, gymnastics, dancing, trampolining, all of that stuff, but never was able to kind of make it elite and so when I went into secondary school it was really good that my school had lots of different kind of free squads and if you trained hard enough you could get into the top squad and then they would train you further so I was in like every squad that's like because I've heard you say a few times on like different

things that like you know you were never able to be like an elite yeah is there something that like is that something that you actually really wanted for yourself like wanting to be like the best or wanting to be at the top of something like is that something you felt you were always like pining for I think you know when it takes certain people to do certain things I think I just understood I had some sort of energy or drive and I was like like that excites me like training and becoming the best at something that excites me and then obviously when you go past 10 years old 12 and you're 15 years old to become an elite at a specific sport obviously it's a lot harder especially the ones that I enjoyed um and so going on to when I was

18 I was like right okay maybe I'll just be like a PT when I'm older maybe I'll be like a PE teacher I don't know and then in a weird way obviously with socials it was like a different way and it's not necessarily on the athleticism it's more about you know the videos you make and so I kind of put some of my passion into video editing and creating a business but I feel like there is that part of me that wants to kind of excel in something and so yeah like just kind of excited at the moment like going into high rocks I know going into some things like I think it'd be pretty cool to like get up quite high up the things with me is I need someone to hold me accountable and I need someone

to be like right you're doing this do you yeah I in terms of something like that yeah like to be number one in high rocks oh sure like oh yeah I'm gonna so is that what we're going for we're going for it literally just like came into my head the other day I was like how cool would it be and then I was like actually thinking about it I was like okay maybe like no I don't know no but I love that I love that that there's this thing in you that's just like if you want something you're just like oh oh, OK, yeah. So I'm going to work now together because it feels like you realize that you really can achieve anything like if you want to. So has fitness always have you always been involved with fitness exercise to some extent?

Was there any points within your like teenage years or anything where you did drop? Not really. It's always been consistent. Yeah, it's been consistent. I remember I got in the gym when I was 13 and then snuck in for a bit. And then when I was 14, I can get a membership. And then I probably took six months off here and there. I never had a proper training plan.

I never had a split. Girls weren't really in the gym too much then. If they were, we were doing sit-ups. And I was there doing flips off. like no I was doing some random stuff you know that little bozo ball it's a half ball oh yeah yeah I do like no hander cart was off that oh I would do like bat flips off it I'd like do weird like pull-ups like class I would just use it as a playground I've loved it so my gym anxiety was never there because when I was 14 I strutted in there like I owned the place and just did whatever I wanted like I never went into kind of like the whole um typical kind of weight lifting way then when I was 17 I dated a

bodybuilder not great idea right great journal and I learned a lot about like okay squats and this is shoulder press and this is all these things so I learned a bit my technique off but you were actually really comfortable in the gym environment yeah anyway crazy okay so was like exercise it was a playful thing have you ever like was it ever that throughout those years you were kind of leaning on it to kind of like stabilize mood or have you used exercise as a coping mechanism or for you is it just purely play time oh I've definitely had my journey oh yeah um I think probably from the age of 17 yeah I was trying to use it change my body maybe 16 um the other sports I was doing I wasn't doing it to change my body like I did school gymnastics because I wanted to yeah I didn't know if you were gonna see I well I was

gonna say where did that come from because I feel like it's really like interesting like reflecting yeah even for myself reflecting on that really like kind of awkward stage as a teenager it's like why did I have these thoughts of wanting to change my body and I just wondered was that from media was that from personal things going on was that from friendships can you pinpoint that as I previously said I had body image issues from about six years old I always thought I was bigger but I didn't know how to change it or do anything about it so it never kind of I didn't start calorie counting when I was 10 years old when I was 17 I said I had dated this bodybuilder and so then suddenly you get taught about fitness pal and you know doing these workouts and burning calories and eating for this and so I was starting

to become aware oh so there's numbers on the back of these foods and they mean something and whatever and oh if I exercise in this way and I remember he put me in my first diet which you could really question there and it was a very low calorie diet and I did start losing weight and I put it back on pretty soon after but that was the start of understanding what calories were and exercise. And it was pretty downhill from there. Along with that, without making it too deep or anything, my dad did pass away. In that year, I started really struggling with my body. And so there's a big kind of correlation there. And to take it back even further, when I started getting my bad body image when I was six years old,

my dad kind of left the fact like when we separated so i think there is a lot of dad stuff there yeah like i almost wonder if it's like me like i'm a psychotherapist but i do wonder like it do you think it was like a sort of control thing? Have you ever wondered like, almost like, where did this come from? I thought I'd be more loved if I was smaller. That was it. I literally thought I'd be more loved. I thought I'd be, when I was six, I, and this is going very like niche specific onto Anna's six year old brain. But we love it.

We love it. I looked at other kids in the playground and they were all tiny. They had these like stick thin legs. And I thought, you all have big homes, a mum and dad. I don't. And I genuinely thought it was because

I was that little bit more muscular. And that's just crazy. What a six year old, it's when a young child goes through their parents going through a divorce they'll go oh is it because i'm not good enough at this yeah and and a six-year-old brain is so like not developed with emotional intelligence of what's actually happening yeah totally i literally took it as that that's what i felt about you saying when you're in your teenage years as well

is that like baby no yeah like no there's no there's no way at all I really I really a lot of what you're saying really resonates with me I was always like a lot more more muscular which now looking back and you're like you're tiny yeah you were like you know um but for me it was also being like really um i feel like the landscape of like the media and everything was so different then so like especially if you were feeling more vulnerable because of like home life situations you're just getting hammered with this kind of like this kind of heroin chic is like really you know yeah idolized and i feel like we live in a world now and i'm so you know happy for the younger generation where like every it feels like there's a lot more of like an embrace for like diversity and like all

bodies and it no definitely I think I was I don't I think in my journey I don't think I was affected by the media really okay in terms of I wasn't on it so before socials I wasn't on it. So before socials, I wasn't on socials. I love that. Or like, I did have like an Instagram and stuff, but I never kind of like looked out for models or magazines. Okay. So I really skipped the whole kind of, it was quite, I knew obviously there was this whole thing about like growing up as a teenager, you kind of just want to be slimmer. Of course. Yeah.

But I didn't get heavily heavily maybe it's obviously in the background of movies with girls saying like oh you shouldn't eat carbs and in the background but not really like I think mine was just a bit more yeah like thinking and not enough yeah needing needing to change okay I'm learning how I can and I'm going to put full force into that. And so, yeah, there was when I was 17, 18, when I was 18, I went down, went down with the eating disorder. You're like, hey, we find humour in the darkest of times. But yeah, struggled with that and then went into recovery beginning of 2021 because I struggled so much people say how did how did you make that choice how did you make that change how did you make the decision that you were going to come out of it there was no courage I gave up I gave up on

the eating disorder it was taking up so much of my time in life it came to a point where every moment i was thinking about what went into my body how much i've done to burn it off um to go really into it i was bulimic so i was throwing up all the time it's just completely the physical side of my throat hurting eyes hurting headaches teeth just everything and i was like I give up like I don't want to do that anymore yeah and it was so hard especially the fact that I grew a social media following and I don't want to say it's the only reason but back then I thought it was that and thought it was what that you that I had a ripped body right okay because I had I was crazy lean I had about 10 abdominals on me like who knows where they came from we'll dive into the social media but I'm really interested

if you're comfortable to speak more about like the sort of eating disorder yeah of course you know for for me I feel like that's something certainly of the past I understand you massively carry that with you but it's something that I don't even kind of coming new into the space I don't even see that of you like I yeah I'm not even really like I feel like maybe perhaps you don't touch on it so much with your content even so I'm it kind of you don't think I can't even believe that that is an Anna I kind of like that I really it's nice to hear that because well I'll just kind of go straight into it but yeah yeah when I went into recovery a lot of my content was based on it because that's what I was going through and as I was kind of growing and in myself and recovering it became less of my content and

I remember being feeling guilty at one point like oh like I feel bad that I'm not helping girls through that as much because that's what a lot of girls have followed me for but we can only post what we're going through and if I'm not thinking about the fact that it's okay to have chocolate for breakfast or I'm not having it for breakfast but casually I'll just have a bit of chocolate before I eat my breakfast old version of me would post it and be like girls it's okay if you want to eat chocolate or if you want to eat a muffin or if you want a big slice of pizza yeah because I'm now not contemplating that in my brain to have it or not

I'm just eating it in my private life and I haven't even posted about it yeah so that's when the content changed I didn't have to tell people I just want to let you know it's okay if you missed a workout because I'm generally okay with it I'm not even thinking about it and then sometimes when I see other people post about it I'm like oh crap I used to stress about that but I don't and so that's why I don't post about it so that's why my content has changed because I'm generally not thinking about it but what I do kind of carry from that is the fact that I'm aware of triggers for people I'm aware of what it feels like to be in that place and so I will make my account pro positivity about your body I will not speak about a diet I will not speak about having to train every day

over exercising um forcing myself to the gym, thinking that's discipline. I won't talk about that stuff because I've had a past with it, but I'm not making my content eating disorder vibes. Does that make sense? No, that makes perfect sense. So what was the timeline of you starting your social media and your eating disorder? Were they around the same time or did you start social media when you were in recovery? The eating disorder stuff started before. Okay. I wasn't aware of it at all. I was going through one of those like crazy girl diet summers, has tried to diet for years, never worked.

Suddenly it's working. So from a girl who never really could lose weight I started dropping kilograms like nothing else and I just was in the gym more my friends some of my friends are worried they're like what are you doing but again nothing's on socials we're in lockdown hardly anyone's seeing you my body is changing a lot and I was quite nervous to go on this girl's holiday because it was two of my smaller friends and so it was like motivation at the time to kind of lose this weight and at the end of the holiday you know they kind of just leave me to do my stuff because they didn't want to get too involved

because they were like Anna's always the sporty friend she'd know what she's doing she's just getting fit do you know what I mean like we'll just let her do her thing and they're not very they're so like far from having an eating disorder even though you know they're just naturally slim they're far from having an eating disorder so they weren't able to kind of pick up on signs because they don't really know what's going on anyways at the end of the trip they're like you should start a fitness account because I had broken up with my boyfriend the day before because he had cheated on me while I was on holiday and um they're like you should start a fitness camp and I was like I don't know like it wasn't really a thing back then um obviously it was like three years ago or something yeah especially now like everyone has fitness accounts and I love it like I literally

love it um and I started it and so it was right at the beginning of me in this new body new dieting new exercise so at the time the way my account started was sharing how I got to the body sharing my low calorie meals sharing the amount of exercise I was doing the workouts how many steps I had done a day like quite and then I had a quite heavy on the dieting aspect yeah and then i'd assume also you're in like a dangerous territory where because and we'll go into it you completely blew up like yeah as if it was overnight then you're in a dangerous territory where you're starting to get positive reinforcement i'd imagine yeah right at the beginning it was all positive it was oh my gosh your body this is body goals like I had a very ripped body and it kept you know I kept looking like that for months

on end um and yeah I grew really quickly like within a month you know but each day I was growing like a thousand followers and that went on for like four months or something. And my TikTok blew up. And at the beginning it was very like, oh my God, this is dream body. And then I had lost even more weight at one point, just cycles of life and kind of feeling more anxious. And then suddenly I had this kind of new kind of, kind of a new stream of comments and it was all like this isn't healthy what is this like all of these stuff and I was like oh my god what do you mean like I was so in denial of having an eating disorder it wasn't the fact that I understood what they were saying and saying no I didn't know I had an eating disorder so people like you've got

an eating disorder I was like no I don't and they're like oh okay then like or like really or I don't believe you or you're lying to us I was like I wasn't lying I had no idea so did you have so I'm guessing no is the answer to this question but I'll still ask so at the time were there signs that your friends and family noticed like did you get comments and were you still in denial or you know what what was kind of the experience of your friends and family around you after seeing this dramatic i had lost one of my best friends in that summer oh god i know because she said she had worried she was worried for me and i was like no you're not allowed to be like i'm fine i'm fine and she was like no like i'm generally worried for you and I pushed her out and the

month I started recovery it was the first person I reached out to I was like I'm so sorry and she's literally my best friend now like she's come for a sleepover tonight like she comes to my tours she's she's my bestie um and so my friend said a few things um my mom and my family like my mom said a few stuff but I was always so kind of, like, shrugging it off. I was like, no. And I almost took it, if we really take it in, like, not a twisted way, but I took it as positive reinforcement that my body was changing.

Oh, my mum's noticed. Okay, good. You've lost enough weight. Let's lose some more. Like, let's make her worried. Because, you know, maybe I was lacking attention. I'm not too sure. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, we're, like, I like I'm just like kind of throwing it out there but no no no but there's there's

it's what's behind it and not many people always talk about like yeah no attention from parents is a big thing yeah how did your I know your mum was a yoga teacher right how was how did that sort of like impact you is she always like it's very interesting she is so unaware of the eating disorder stuff so she's not one of those kind of almond mums that you know we heard you say before banana my mum's a banana chip mum yeah like she's like literally like a banana chip mum um canola i didn't even know but um she never talked about diet culture in terms of herself she never was trying to lose weight in fact she was always trying to gain weight she was quite like a small yeah woman um and so she never did that but she really liked her healthy foods so growing up sugar was a bad thing you know one ice cream on the weekend very kind of limited things there was

no it was all natural foods now looking at it where i am now i'm like okay it really wasn't the worst thing in a way she was kind of just looking out for her child she was very interested in kind of the research of health and you know you wouldn't go keep like feed your kid a load of lollipops for dinner naturally you care about your child you want to give them some protein carbs veggies all of that stuff so I can see now at the time I had built this big relationship good food bad food right cocoa pops nutella any sort of junk food is bad food and then you've got the healthy food and so what that meant was every time I went around a friend's house when I was younger I was that kid that would eat so much of all of their food if they had a chocolate stash oh my god that was done by the time I had left their house if we had a sleepover with friends

I would have used the whole jar of nutella because I knew I wasn't going to have any of that for like months on end um and so it kind of created this thing my mum didn't do that purposely and I know that and it's taken me a long time to un unteach that basically if that's a word unlearn oh yeah unlearn okay cool amazing um and then so you you've got your socials going you've also got the eating disorder you're in denial yeah socials are blowing up and then was it an acceptance first and yeah it was kind of transition into recovery or it was kind of that as I said like giving up so it came to a point where everything was becoming too much I was binging and throwing up too many times my day my thoughts were just spiraling and I was like okay I can't actually function again it was really hard for me to make not hard for me to make this decision but alongside me becoming obsessed my body I became obsessed with my videos and doing

well and growing and you know that when you start growing you then expect it every single day and I was growing that much and a part of me thought that I was growing because I had abs and that I looked a certain way and so I was like oh my gosh so you're telling me I've got to make a personal journey of putting on weight and being okay with that and not dieting and then a career kind of journey of one slowing down my videos or changing my narrative but also two not being the same thing that I thought got people in at the first place my body and yeah so I kind of just like it was really hard but I came off socials and I remember going to Gymshark and I was like I'm struggling so much I need time off and they were like that's fine and I took I think two months I didn't turn

up on socials and I just fully hid away the reason I did that was because I was so ashamed about the weight gain on my face and body going from like wearing sports bra and shorts in every single video having ripped abs I said I'm not coming on socials and I gained a load like I gained a load of weight and then I was like what do I do how do I turn up like imagine looking so different and it was so quick I think I gained 15 kilos in two weeks like it was it was a lot and there is no to anyone who's listening there is no right or wrong or your journey is so personal I went through binging and I and I stopped the throwing up part because that was the first step in my recovery like right I'm not going to do the second part

obviously binging was an emotional kind of coping mechanism for me then and so I'd gained weight a lot and I didn't know how to process it and I really just had to cocoon myself for two months no phone I had to baby myself luckily we're still in lockdown era kind of so you it was very normal to just hide yourself for two months yeah it wasn't necessarily nowadays where you're like where are you like what you're doing um so did you have like professional help throughout that period yeah so I got a eating disorder specialist actually through Gymshark which oh fantastic yeah I really they were they were straight on it I was like I need therapy and the first thing she said to me was like you don't need a kind of recovery eating plan which people go on you know let's do things

a nice way let's gain weight in this and we'll talk about a few things she was like you have so much trauma you need like full on normal therapy like this is not even about an eating disorder anymore because within the call I opened up to her about you know I've been through this this and this and she was like oh my god no wonder you have an eating disorder no wonder you've been through depression and these things because you've had so much going on in your life I have never had any support with that so the first thing was finding a really good therapist and yeah started my therapy journey and that's really where things started to shift yeah because I've had therapy every week I'd say for the last two years there was a gap in the middle when I changed therapist

and that was a really important part for me because I kind of outgrew I don't want to say outgrew my first therapist but it wasn't working for me it took me a while for me to realize and then the one I have now we've probably been doing it for like yeah two years now I think every week yeah because I was gonna sort of mention that about how I know you've been quite like open and honest about therapy and having therapy and the benefits of it and that sort of thing and I think like it's just something it's something that I really believe like everyone should go through and I completely understand that it's not something that's like viable for a lot of people I myself have also been getting weekly therapy for um two years and mine was actually and I've said it before in videos but um certainly in

the UK I didn't have the means at all to pay for it but I really really needed help I was at a complete rock bottom and to the point where I couldn't even navigate where to go like what direction to sort of move in to like get myself better um and there's actually charities out there that you pay what you can afford and I could only afford five pound per session and so that's what I would pay but what charity was that um so it was local to my council but there's a lot out there if you go to your anyone listening in the uk um if you do reach out to your gp there they can refer you and then you can get help and like i'm just so thankful that i did it and i am like a lot you know in a much better position now and i've worked through so much stuff but like yeah i just really wish it was something that if anyone has the means to sort of spend some money on themselves i really would say 100 do you have anything um obviously that this isn't always like

an option that people can go for because of like financial like limitations but is there anything else sort of practice wise that you've taken from therapy that you could sort of recommend to people if they were trying to um you know beyond just i mean eating disorder recovery but just like yeah just like general kind of mental health reflections or yeah like have you so journaling is great and understanding that your journal is there for you you're not obliged to write in it every day it's not a chore as soon as you make it a chore and that you have to write in every morning then you start kind of not liking it and if you miss one day you'll be like right that's me for the week I can't journal I use my journal as a support system for me when I'm really

really struggling it's there for me I will go to it I'll write down all my thoughts and that's really helpful one of the things that my therapist really taught me was, you know, it's this idea of when you're down or you're triggered, you know, and you're so anxious or something has really set you off, whether it's a comment or an experience or a situation, you're in a unregulated space. You're a bit everywhere. And a regulated space, you're nice and calm. No matter if your to-do list is the same you see it in a different way you're like I can do this I feel calm it's how you feel after exercise exercise is a way of regulating your body and so what she did at the beginning and I don't have

this list anymore she made me physically write out a list of things that made me feel good and regulating things things like having a shower having a bath listening to music and shaking you know shaking your ass having a little dance going to the gym going on a walk standing outside eating some food you know doing a face mask and watching a movie so you write down these lists even like deep breaths and depending on how triggered you are you go through that list until you feel better so let's say you come in from whatever you've done and your your anxiety is high you are ready for a two-hour doom scroll do you know what i mean when you're right you know what i mean like you could scroll on your phone you can't look after yourself you're in this weird

kind of anxious space first thing right we're gonna shower even worse we're gonna bath if we need to really soak you we're gonna shower right get that soap on you hot water flush it all off okay skincare okay comfy clothes nice and relaxing put some food on okay now maybe do some deep breaths or journaling um you know can we do any dancing in the shower kind of thing and you go through that list and you'll find yourself calm down you'll just slow down and to get into that space is where you're in more touch with yourself you can understand what's going on you can look at things better things aren't so like overcrowded i don't know yeah because i think the purpose that I certainly see

with journaling and therapy is that they both offer this space this like kind of like space to get everything that's floating around in your head down onto like paper or out right and it's like it gives you this kind of skill to be able to like reflect and I see that in you massively and I think that I mean not to put words in your mouth but i i wonder that must have had a big impact in your recovery and you growing as a person and you being so mature and like all these things that we're talking about i feel like journaling and therapy and like looking at yourself and understanding yourself and why you work the certain way you do why experiences have like had an impact on you from when you're a child from your dad like everything yeah it all like a lot

of reflection has gone on yeah right and it really helps so just because you don't have the means to sort of to have therapy like there's definitely other things like yeah so I remember it really surprised me when you told me that you I mean how how early was it into your social media journey you had gymshark reach out to you i think a month just like bonkers yeah yeah that's completely i got signed within six weeks i think yeah it was crazy utterly surreal um i did want to like i know this is going back to childhood a bit but i i've i've seen or i've heard you mention about like kind of thinking oh you know I want to be a PE teacher oh I maybe want to be a PT yeah and about how you've kind of reflected about how in ways you actually in a roundabout way are doing those things and those things that like

made you think oh I might want to pursue that you're actually doing and I really wonder because I feel completely the same, wanted to be a PE teacher, wanted to be a doctor because I wanted to help people. And in ways I am kind of doing that. And I wonder, like, do you feel with the rise to kind of like, I guess fame, that is what it is. But like with the rise to fame that you had

and, you know, your journey and your path, with all of it the messy parts and everything do you feel like this was like your calling and like do you feel like this is what you were sort of meant to be doing yeah I think I said when I was younger that I want to be a PE teacher but I want to do something more I kind of want to do some lectures or like do some talks. And so now that I think about it, I'm like, it makes complete sense. Because I'm doing that, but on a scale that you can fit.

It's not just how many people you can fit in a room, but how many necessarily views or whatever you can get. You're kind of unstoppable in a way of how many people you can share share your message with and so looking back yes it makes total sense but it was so weird because I could have never have guessed it because as I said earlier like I wasn't really on socials when I was younger I didn't watch youtubers I didn't know so I think in a way it kind of helped my account when I started because I had no idea what you were supposed to do so I did what I wanted to do yeah I so see that I so see that in in even your content now how is your balance with social media now like it feels as if like work life um more so like you balancing sort of like

other people's opinions and the noise that comes with being a content creator it's definitely I've gone through waves depending on what my growth has been like so when I kind of plateaued for a year I became really kind of comfortable I was like okay like I'm I'm really comfortable in this space and then when I I grow, I'm like, oh, there's a lot more faces or there's a lot more kind of ears around. And, you know, opening up recently, I have struggled because there has been quite a lot of growth. And in a way of kind of like not self-sabotage,

but I've pulled back because I'm scared of the growth because I've started taking it into account a little bit whereas I know in my true kind of regulated non-anxious self that I don't really care about that stuff and in Australia I had quite a few videos that went like really really viral about my personal life and if you know you know and it made me really anxious because I was like why do people care so much this is so scary like like you've got like commenting really specific things and that was when I was kind of told by a few people in my life you can't be checking that stuff anymore and since then I have not checked stuff on TikTok which is so new for me because

I used to check TikTok the way I used to check Instagram like oh how are some posts doing what the comments about nowadays I'm like I post and I leave the app and that's very rare for me like oh so that's not been the case for you up until no like recent I would never do it in a negative way I'd never sit there kind of oh my god what are people saying about me because i won't lie my community are amazing and they've only ever got positive things to say but when i had a few videos go around about my personal life it definitely caused a shift and i was like oh i don't want to see any of that now like that's kind of that's kind of scary i don't know um but yeah I think the important thing is that it's not really about

what's out there and the comments you're getting it's where you're at in yourself and how you're receiving them yeah and so I don't think anything has necessarily changed recently. I think in myself, I've just been a little bit lower. And so things are able to come in more. And so I've kind of been scared away. And so I've kind of been like, right, I'm not going to post it. I'm not going to say anything online. I'm just going to hide in my little shadow. But already like today and stuff, I felt a little bit better.

And I feel like you're just coming. I'm coming on the rise again. within that my perception will change and so nothing's ever actually changing in the outside world it's just kind of where you're at in yourself yeah and knowing that that's what you can manage and not what you think's going on outside yeah I heard something recently I don't know where I heard it from but they were saying like I think they were referencing you know social media and saying, it's not your business to know other people, like to,

you know, care about other people's opinion. I've completely and utterly butchered that. We get the vibe. It was like, but it was like, it's not your business. Like other people's opinions are not your business.

Yeah. That was it. And I thought that was so true. It's like, you know, you're choosing to share that and that's fine and it's you don't need other people's my therapist always says you're being you and you can't you have to be unapologetically you cannot apologize for being yourself and things will get you in a

twist when it wasn't yourself like let's say you post a video and you're not quite happy with it it's not quite you but you post it that's when you'll feel the twist because you're like oh that wasn't quite me and it hasn't done well you post being you and yourself and you've tried your hardest it doesn't matter what happens post kind of like you putting it out um so I think that's definitely something that's helped me like if I'm being myself that's what you can ask for yeah for sure do you think of yourself as like if you were going to name like do you think you're quite a resilient person like especially having been sort of exposed to like intense social media at such a like i don't know young impressionable age i know what you mean like do you have coping mechanism you know as someone who's a new creator

i still very much battle with this a lot like i'm definitely in the phases you've spoken about passing i see yeah and do you get affected by is it present comments being like are they judging you or is it you're taking it into your own head um other comments being rude i think it's more about i it's not necessarily about comments it's more about performance yes and that's where i try to really be this is why i'm asking you about resilience because i try to be really resilient and i don't look at things like that and I try to just really get back to the core of like why am I doing this yeah I'm not doing it for x amount of followers or x amount of things and I think you know I've really tried to like work on like authenticity and like my authentic code and

stuff like that and that looking at views and figures and stuff like that that doesn't align with that so I just wondered like do you do you think of yourself as a resilient person having kind of gone through quite a lot with social media being on a real journey especially when I am in contact with other like influencers and not necessarily you but like other friends and I kind of see the way they cope with things I'm like oh my god you can't take that personally you have to have this and it's like even just small things you don't have a personal phone how do you ever switch off from socials you you don't switch off at a certain time you're working all day yes you're doing like

I've had to learn that throughout the years and there is no handbook of how to do what we do. And I think a lot of people keep quiet about it because there is this whole kind of thing of like, you're working for yourself. You've got a great life. And we do, we are so privileged. We're probably one of the most privileged people on earth to be able to do what we want, create what we want. But it doesn't mean that we aren't hard on ourselves, especially if we're high achievers, we're going to want to perform and create and achieve, achieve, achieve. And in the process of me doing it for three and a half years now, I've learned several things which have helped me kind of. I don't know, create boundaries.

I think it's about creating boundaries. I was so going to say boundaries. Yeah. Listening to you just then, you are so like like like you really do have set boundaries in place and I remember you saying in fact I perhaps it was in that very long taxi car ride but I remember you know at the time I did not take any days off and that is not a flex that is like a perhaps a slight addiction to the new world that I'd found myself accidentally in and it's very normal you said you said to me like no no you need to be taking time off and you

need a separate phone and you kind of were just passing on I probably overloaded you a bit much I think I like what overwhelmed you I was like you need this you need that you need yeah but it was really clear to see for me to see then and to see now that you do have really strong boundaries in place yeah and you do protect that you have to though yeah i think i just wanted to add like with the whole you're so like you can't complain because you're an influencer and you are so lucky and you've got things so easy i completely get that and I get people's understanding what I feel that has been honestly a bit like has been a struggle for me and was something that I think is a struggle with being sort of in the world of social media is that it's a real am I

swearing on this podcast it's a head fuck like having that many people's opinions yeah like you know about your daily life however much you choose to share like it's not normal it's not something we've evolved to like have to deal with you know and I think that's probably like the challenges when you are feeling more vulnerable suddenly like those voices get even louder and 100% I remember there was a year when it was when I first moved to London and this is like post recovery like still kind of in it but my content isn't all around it I my new obsession you know it wasn't exercise it was productivity and I had such a fear that people thought that I got this easy and I got the job easy and that I have an easy life that I thought okay I'm gonna work twice as hard or just my absolute max capacity to prove to people that I'm

working the same as they are in a corporate job if not more to make them accept me and be like please accept me as like a human like I promise you I'm not just like an influencer that gets all this like easy like I would post all my stories my daily schedule and I would start at like 6am and finish at like 9pm and be like right then I'm able to switch off and read for 10 minutes and then go to bed and and I was actually doing everything I said but I was doing it so that I could show people I was working hard and one of my biggest steps forward was doing less work to protect myself to understand that quality over quantity if I take a step back you know this evening if I take a step back yes in reality I could edit a video and put a post up but I have two events tomorrow that I want my energy

to come through so I'm going to take this evening off I'm going to get delivery I'm going to eat I'm going to watch a film and I'm going to go to bed so I can re-energize for my events tomorrow and again I have a gap in my events tomorrow I could edit a video that I need to get out or I can rest so I can have equal energy for both events and my true self can come out and those are the things that I prioritize and then it's like okay Monday you'll get on it I don't care if you have work but after 5 p.m you're going to switch off and so you can rejuvenate for your next day and so it's always thinking about the long term the consistency that can i do this tomorrow yeah um really understanding what actually needs to get done in the day can you do anything more but i've become so good at stopping that part of my brain that goes not enough you know yeah

because every day you could sit down at the end of the day come to five six p.m what about making one more video i know what about making one more video? I know. What about doing one more thing? Why not replan what's at front of the hour? No, this is my time. Like really having that boundary with yourself and knowing that that's your time to rejuvenate. And it's going to take you so much further.

Yeah, it's like you see your time and your downtime as non-negotiable yeah and I think that's so powerful and that's something I absolutely need to work on and I am working on in ways but then also like I definitely go through like cycles of just getting burnout because for me it is that piece of like oh am I am I enough am I doing enough am I I, you know, being enough? You are more than enough. Yeah. You are amazing. You are. You're smashing it. And the thing is that anyone else on the other side of the camera, you know, it could be for both of us, but definitely for you, like, they're going to be like, are you crazy? Like, you are amazing.

You're doing this. And one thing that Sam actually told me when I first first started gymshark i remember i started getting really overwhelmed and i i was growing i think i reached like 100k or something and i was like sam like people are asking for this recipe and this workout and he said people will always want more anna and that stuck with me my whole career is that people will always want more and it's not a bad thing it's not a bad thing that you're not delivering it it's a good thing that they even want it that they care but you do not have to deliver to everyone you know if you think about your favorite creator someone you really look up to and you would go oh my god

please share me your glute workout and they haven't done it you don't want them to actually feel bad if they haven't done that for you you're even like oh my god they like i can't believe they saw my comment do you know what i mean but you don't have that opinion over them and people don't have that opinion over you if they're asking for things and you don't have the time to deliver no one's actually getting mad they just want more from you which is essentially a good thing yeah no for sure I think it's really lovely that like what I'm hearing as well is that you've taken action to slow down yeah in a world that wants you to be faster oh my god do more and like even with your recent trip to Australia and like you know this like period of your life you're in where you're you know posting less and stuff like that

like I don't see I mean perhaps you do have fear but I don't see a fear in you of like oh my gosh but I'm not posting dailies I remember in that conversation we had like you know a long time ago now like you saying girl what are you doing posting like multiple times a day like just slow down you don't need to like you have we have a fear that you're gonna fall off that no one's gonna care about you yeah and all of these things and I totally get it and I used to not be able to do any of that I think it was when I took the two month break off my socials and that was so scary I had no idea when I came back on that I would have people support me and to this day when I go

to events 50% of the people go I followed you three years ago and I'm like you're crazy like you stuck around like that's crazy um but honestly slowing down and it's exactly what you said in a world that they want you to like do more I think it's such a power to slow down yeah and be like it's okay actually I'm chilling and I think I do it because I know how I get like when I don't slow down and the last two weeks has been a representation of that if I just take a moment to reflect on myself I as you should as I should you know we are podcasting but every day there has been a to-do list which I haven't been able to get done and I still switch off at 5 6 p.m you know maybe six have my dinner and stop but while I'm stopping I'm anxious about my to-do list the next day because I have a feeling

that will never go away and all I want to do is the things that I love I don't want to do finance I don't want to do admin I want to create videos and feeling like I can't do it do that and feel like I can only do the things I enjoy once I've completed the to-do list it's quite a cycle to be in because the to-do list never stops in my world and I'm sure in your world too and I think what I've started to understand is you have to create time. Have to understand that not everything's going to get done. And also reassure yourself. Be that voice for yourself that it's okay.

Like, just take a moment to breathe and be like, you know what? Things aren't going to come crashing down. I'm pretty sure I set that deadline myself. You said that to me earlier. You're like, who set the deadline I thought I did I did I am working to this like I'm making a video at the moment and every day it doesn't go out I'm like silly goose oh bless QC's here sorry but actually I think about it I'm the one who wanted out three days ago. No one knows the video exists.

And like, so it can go out any day. Yeah. I think for me, it's like this fear that like, it's gonna, everything's gonna, I'm, I'm so like, I'm so aware of how fortunate I am and how I'm living my absolute wildest dreams at the age I am. And it kind of came by chance. And I think it's a fear that it's going to leave as quickly as it came. Yeah.

And I think as soon as I get it into my head that that's not the case, you know, then that will make some progress. I think what helped for me is when I started having in-person events, you understand that people are coming a short way a long way to come see you in person and that is the element that calmed my brain that was like yeah you know what it's not just numbers these are people I know and they have connections and the way that you're helping them they're helping you like it's just you have a relationship and no one just yeah maybe five percent or one percent of your following goes down because they're just random people but everyone else they followed for a reason and unless you do something disastrous and something really like wrong in the world people aren't gonna leave

and that's just I guess that's my kind of like view on it but people out there like you don't post for a week they'll watch they'll watch what you watch when you post we give all the people we follow so much grace you know but we don't give it to ourselves so um okay so having said all of that how on earth do you balance training we haven't even touched on training I know and like you've definitely been I would say like living the hybrid sort of lifestyle yeah hybrid girly um for quite some time how do you possibly balance fitting that into your life and do you give yourself grace with are you more rigid and structured with that

or do you know not at all grace you know I do give myself a lot of grace and I think it's even interesting you hearing me like not hearing me hearing you describe me in a way of like hybrid and all that stuff because I'm like really like I'm out here just kind of doing my thing like when I think hybrid and i think of those people online you know training in that way i'm like they have got some intense routines they are out there training loads of times a day or like lots of times a week doing all of these specific workouts for me the only part that is specific at the moment is my marathon training so i do three runs a week i follow that everything else i'm kind of free balling it yeah you know if i'm

do some pull-ups one day if i kind of want toballing it yeah you know if I'm doing some pull-ups one day if I kind of want to train with a friend another day if I want to do a bit of high rocks I'm doing that but I I'm not going to come out here and say okay I do four strength training sessions a week and three running sessions I don't so if I was going to ask you what is your training split yeah would you say whatever I damn like? Yeah, literally. Like whatever I fancy. I am in a process of getting a high rocks coach to basically plan my three other sessions of the week. So three running, three gym.

And so it's just a bit more structured. And normally I'm really against that. Like if you stalk my profile, I'll literally, most of the time I'll be like, I don't follow a plan. I don't need it. That is great. Apart from when you are actually training for things I do need it and the fact that I'm doing high rocks competition in Berlin I do kind of need it so that's why I'm going on to

it um but yeah kind of a relaxed approach and what's so interesting is that although my accounts are based on fitness I will prioritize editing over going to the gym so I will cut my gym sessions short so I can edit an extra video or get more work done and behind the scenes well no not behind the scenes to an audience they could think oh my gosh she all she like all she needs to do in her day is go to the gym like your job is literally go to the gym I'm like are you no oh my god I do like 40 minutes in the gym rush out sit in a coffee shop for four hours straight go home and eat lunch do do another like do do do do another few hours of whatever yeah obviously I switch off in the evening and I don't need to be like a hella productive queen all the time but my my life isn't just like strolling to the gym oh no what I do

love about Australia is the fact that no one is in my time zone. Or at least like people I work with. And so I do stroll into the gym and I'm like, you're telling me I've got like a whole hour and a half? Or however long I want. Like I don't last more than an hour and a half because I just get hungry. But like it's such a different lifestyle over there. Whereas in London I'm just like, go go yeah it's funny because I always say to people like the irony is that I'm a gym girly who doesn't have time to go to the gym yeah literally literally you know I've I struggle a lot at the

moment trying to fit my sessions in is your preference like so do you so like help me get into your head so a week of training like as you are right now before you get a higher risk coach yeah um is that just like you go as and when you like in the day and do you just think oh today I want to do some biceps yeah quite literally yeah okay um and so sometimes I'll train twice a week sometimes I'll train three times a week depending on how many events I'm doing like this week I've got marathon training which is three runs a week plus two run clubs because I've got I'm on tour at the moment so that's two extra 5k so I'm running five days out of the week but I'm having to skip one anyways because I hurt my ankle so we are only doing four but anyways I think I've gone to the gym like twice this week um very short I go

in there I tend to do upper aware that I need to train legs as well for my running but that is literally like one or two exercises so it is very kind of free ball do some pull-ups do some upper body exercises there is no kind of set plan I'm not doing a specific number of reps or sets or exercises and so I'm just doing it to kind of keep me happy the process of going to the gym really makes me happy and so even if I have a run in the evening sometimes I will do the process of the gym and then stretch for 20 minutes like I'll get a coffee put a cute outfit on well put a cute outfit on go get coffee go to the gym stretch just kind of like being in the environment headphones on music playing you know maybe do like a really light session leave within half an hour and start my work and I'm in such a better mindset and that's the way that I use

exercise now I use it as a tool and then in terms of running it really teaches me a lot about myself and that I can always do more than I think it teaches me discipline because I need to do three runs a week and if you skip most of your runs you're suddenly not training for a marathon and so it's kind of having those I guess that's why I like the hybrid style of training is because I'm able to kind of use the gym for one reason and use the running for another reason I love like this I think it's so funny I've gone through such so many different like transitions in sort of like my mindset towards like jumping on the bandwagon all the rage is running right now all the rage is high rocks but something I really love about it is this kind of like new attitude towards exercise that it seems everyone

has where it's a lot more sort of like um goal oriented in the sense that i don't know in ways hear me out it feels like we're going back to like our childhood years yeah like having working towards something and having fun and like socializing performance goals even it just feels like people have moved very far from aesthetics which of course if that makes you happy cool yeah it just seems really lovely that like it feels like people are really focusing on like how can how can i feel better body yeah how can i what can i do like how can i move my body in a way i definitely think that's true and i think you know you can tell because if you look at kind of videos you're not necessarily using your body as the reason why

you're doing it whereas i think in the past let's say if you do a what i eat in a day video people will put their body first and you're like right that's the goal they're gonna eat in a certain way if i copy it i'll look like that or here's we're gonna i'm gonna show you my body and then we're gonna do a certain workout and you will look like that whereas now i feel like the workout itself is the priority you know it's how you're feeling on the run it's the fact that you were running with a friend and they were laughing and and eating an almond croissant after you go on a run do you know what I mean it's that kind of energy that I think is like really good about the community at the moment I agree yeah okay we have to talk then all the madnesses that are going

on where you're at now with High Rocks in Berlin Anna on the run uk tour all that jazz like doing the absolute most like yeah tell us has that been sort of something that's has that come from being in australia like i feel like were you doing different sort of training yeah so i you were training with ollie wasn't it yeah so i was doing high rock sessions in the summer once a week but really social as like a friend's thing like all of our friends went I never really thought about doing a competition I was just like I'm just it's a workout class I get to see my friends yeah it was like a Thursday after school club or something I know honestly I wish I lived in London yeah it was really cute and so that's kind of where high rock started and then I went to Australia and it was in October

it was really weird on this really small island in Australia that there is no signal there is no nothing like you go there and you camp there was a camp next to us and there was a guy called Ollie who I'd previously met before at a Gymshark event he was like oh my god Anna and I was like hello like do I know you and he was like yeah we met before and on that kind of one day of like hanging out a bit we were like should we do High Rocks together and we came off the desert island and booked High Rocks competition and we're like right let's do Berlin next year and so that's how High Rocks came about um and then running I've kind of been running the whole year now yeah but not training for anything crazy like I've been I've done quite a few races in 2023 I did a half marathon race a 10k

a 5k so I was always working towards something but taking on the LA marathon was definitely like a big goal well not a big goal I did not think I was going to be doing it but when I was offered do you want to go to LA I was like yeah and then I kind of realized I had to do the marathon so who who offered it um runner the company have the company you an investor yes amazing tell us a bit about that um yeah I just started like working them as a partnership and obviously it was coming to like paid partnerships and we couldn't really like come into like agreement with the paid partnerships and I was just like it just doesn't make sense for me to do it at a certain rate um and then kind of came up with this idea of taking equity within the company and I was like okay this is new this is scary I'm like

a female like I don't know about this stuff just a girl I'm just a girl oh my god it's my favorite saying I'll get beat up and be like I'm just a girl we were in screw fix buying some lights but I'm just a girl but it's like I'm just a girl and so I was like cool fun I'll take it on um anyways fast forward to a couple of months ago well actually last summer they were like would you like to run the LA marathon and I was like LA yes and then I realized I'd signed up to another marathon now I've done one before and that was the worst thing I'd ever experienced my whole entire life oh my god I never thought I would do one again I thought at least five years here I am a year and a half later but you know what I have really enjoyed the process have you it's kept me really happy really like I did 30k the other day and like I felt

strong and I was like how I see you out here and I'm like I'm like why do i feel strong in the 30k that's weird what do you what do you do what do you mean when you run for that long like so i have just started and i'm like okay love her but like after 5k i'm ready to get my coffee and pastry yeah and so i'm just wondering like well what do you do so in my 30k i ran 21 with a friend okay so big chunk of the beginning with a friend and i actually chunk of the beginning with a friend and i actually think yeah yeah okay because we're running this at a conversational pace okay so we're having a big old catch up chatting about stuff you know there are points of silence but that's kind of nice at points just catching your breath yeah thinking your thoughts and then the

last 9k really went quickly well long as in i was getting stitches and I was out of breath and I was pushing myself. But when you've done 21K, 9 is like just the ending. So home straight at that point. And I don't listen to music on my runs. So I was just listening to the birds tweet, listening to my voice out of breath. Like, yeah. But I'm just focusing. I'm focusing on technique I'm being

present I'm trying to hit my pace so there's a lot of things to focus that keeps my brain busy I like to do a lot of calculations in my head so I like maths right do you yeah and so like I like calculate things that don't need to be calculated on my run if I run at this pace for this long how long would it take me to get to here and if i run to there will it how long and it just keeps my brain busy and in a happy way not a toxic yeah yeah just like a happy you have like maths like numbers she's a little maths girl out here i love it wow okay no me and maths could never like i literally do try and do like a little bit of bar maths and i am done i'm done for i've started doing crossfit and like using a 15 bar with the ladies bar yeah it's throwing my oh it's throwing your right out

i'm just like i'm just a girl i'm just a girl and i need a 20 bar please somebody help me um okay cool so like your journey into running like do you have any tips for people that are getting into it yes oh my god i could totally spell i just like and i'm sure tips for people that are getting into it yes oh my god I could totally spell I just like and I'm sure so many people are listening thinking I want to be a girly just running saying that 9k is literally nothing yeah I'm sure we all have that in us but it feels like so intense so I want to know like how did you get to that point yeah how did you i don't know get to a point where you just like i would say the first thing is don't compare yourself to people online when you're training for different things distances look different to everyone so take me six months ago

if someone had said run 25k i'd be like excuse me what nowadays because i'm training 30ks i'm like okay yeah i can do a 25 so don't compare yourself you know if you're out there running 5k's and you see someone go oh yeah 10k was easy and you're like but that's really hard for me no oh yeah of course it is you're training 5k's and that's completely okay like everyone starts in different places so firstly don't compare yourself to people online um the next thing is run slower than you think. The times where I wasn't making any improvements, you know, maybe when I was like 18 and I was like trying to get on some runs and I'd only run 5k, I could never run it under 30 minutes. And it was because every run I was maxing

out. I was trying to run my fastest. So even if the beginning was a jog, I was sprinting by the end. Now, when you you're running you've got different heart rate zones if you go into your anaerobic zone so zone three you are training a different part of your body so if you keep your heart rate lower you are training the aerobic part of your body which is what you need when you're running so people are out there thinking oh if i just run a bit faster i'll lose more calorie like i'll burn more calories I'll lose more fat I'll get fitter surely if I run faster I will be able to run faster in the future but actually the science shows that when you run slower you're building your aerobic systems to in the future be able to run faster it's kind of weird but basically my tip is to run

slow in your runs keep your heart rate lower and, like for me personally, I'll keep my heart rate below 145. So 145 beats per minute. If I'm doing an easy run, just to make sure that I'm in the kind of comfortable range. And if you don't have like a heart rate tracker, being able to hold a conversation means you're in the right zone. If you're not able to hold a conversation, you're probably actually running a bit too fast. And so just to slow it down. and that has shown like major improvements yeah i i um have been saying like even on my literally could count on two hands like the amount of runs i've done but even i've been saying to people when they say sid so happy you're joining the

running like yeah and i say you know running how I'm doing at a slower pace gosh it's so pleasant compared to like my sort of understanding of running prior to that which was just holding loads of bags and sprinting for a bus and so it's like because I was just thinking no I can't run because all I was ever doing was sprinting for a bus carrying loads of bags so it's like yeah actually I can completely understand what you're saying with that you know another tip is running with people when you're running with a friend or a run club time will fly like nothing else you are not thinking about the little like aches and pains you're not thinking about the fact that you're out of breath unless you're really out of breath it's obviously we're gonna become apparent but just it goes so much quicker

so if you're struggling to like run a bit longer and slower you know go to a friend and be like right I want to run a bit further today can we keep it slow can we just chat the whole time and you'll realize like you can keep going um and so that's like a really you know good tip yeah well good tip you know i have to i have to shout out do a shameless plug for our gym girls locker room run clubs that we're doing we have them every month in london london and manchester and you know it's so this is a world that i'm not at all involved with um however i've been attending them and it's i think just it is so powerful like running with a group of women and realizing it's so empowering but not only that it's like you do just feel like

you get carried along with the group you know the vibes yeah exactly pure vibe running on pure vibes but it's so interesting that like you know there'll be girls that go that have never ever done a 5k and yet they're able to do it just because they're with a group. That is probably one of my favorite things is because I have a run club too. And you have people come and they go, that was my first ever 5k. And I'm like, see, you can do more than you think. And that's what running has done for me. You know, when I look at my run that I've got in a few days, it's 34 kilometers.

I could go, well, it's been a while since you've done that, like over a year. Like, can you do it? You come to the day, you prove to yourself you can do it. And you go home thinking, OK, I can do more than I think I can do. And that's what happens when you run a bit further every time. You're just showing yourself and you take that into other areas of your life and go okay well I think I can't do this in my career or business but I didn't think I could do like 20k or I didn't think I could do this or and you show yourself you can and I don't know it's a

really good cycle it seems like I've definitely see that like running is such a like mental challenge but I definitely noticed that so early on with exercising is that it really like if you're showing up for yourself with whatever form of exercise you're doing you there are so many transferable skills and you are just proving to yourself that okay if I'm able to do that outside my comfort zone if I'm able to challenge myself if I'm able to reach that goal then I am so easily you know able to do that in other areas of my life completely it's just it hypes you up yeah absolutely what's um so like what's next with like run clubs and with just life all things Anna right so I guess when I was in Australia around Christmas time I wasn't in England and so things were kind of like getting

booked up for the next few months and so from January to the end of April I'm quite busy I've got quite a lot of stuff going on probably why I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed right now because I said yes to what's funny is that I thought I said no to a lot of things and I'm like how is there still so much this girl is in demand yeah girl um but yeah so I'm currently doing a run club tour I'm marathon training I what else am I doing I've got the LA marathon in March I've got high rocks competition Berlin in April yeah but yeah I think even just like making videos and stuff is like a full-time job and so the fact that I'm kind of training for something big and on like tour at the moment with events it's just really hard like it's I'm like but I normally spend all my time making

videos so now you're taking away 50% of my time and I need two days recovery post events how do I how do I fit it all in no honestly I don't know I haven't worked out if you haven't worked out I haven't worked out we're getting there no it's very exciting I'm so excited to follow you with whatever you do um because we love you okay well I think that isuinely, thank you so much for coming. I think it's always just like, honestly, anything you do, anything you say, it's just like so, there's so much to take from it. I think you're a really, really special person. You're going to make me cry.

Oh, it's fine, I can. Because you probably feel it, but when people say like, oh, you've helped me or what you do is great. There's a part of you that goes, what do you mean? What part? Like, how? And obviously I hear other people say it, but even you do is great there's a part of you that goes what what do you mean what part like how and obviously I hear other people say it but even you say it right there I'm like my brain's trying to navigate but like what what do you mean do you know what I mean and like it just it just means a lot especially like the week that I've been going through like I don't know yeah I didn't know I just you're you're someone I so look up to. No matter how hard or whatever struggles you're going through,

it's so clear to see how much of a dent you've made in the fitness industry. And I just know that you've made such a big, huge impact on so many people. And I am so honoured that you are our first guest. I feel honoured to be your first guest. No, I really, really do appreciate it. Where can people find you if they don't already follow you? Anna Archer Fitness is pretty much all my socials. I'm on YouTube as well, Anna Archer.

And then my podcast is Inside Anna's Mind. And yeah, that's me. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.