It is my pleasure to introduce myself to the wider SheInspires Community. My name is Louise Walden-Edwards, I was the winner of the Woman in Fitness & Wellbeing SheInspires Award 2024 and also UK Coaching’s Online Coach Of The Year 2024.
There are many facets to my career, who I am and what I do but essentially I am a former British and International Ice Dance Champion, who represented Team GB for many years before turning professional and then performed in some of the World’s most prestigious Ice Shows.
Now, I am a busy working mummy to two beautifully chaotic little boys, who are 4 and 6 years of age. I am a Sports Commentator for Eurosport, Discovery Plus and Warner Bros. TV Networks. I am the founder of VO:ICE Fitness and Wellbeing Academy an online, inclusive and non-discriminatory platform, which helps people all over the world “Shout Their True Potential”. I also work voluntarily with non-profit organisations such as the World Inclusive Skating Association to mentor and train their skaters and coaches, many of which have a variety of additional needs. I host two YouTube Channels where I produce free to access content to help break down the barriers associated with Fitness and Wellbeing and I am beyond passionate in general about helping people to be themselves and live their best life.
My own story hasn’t all been plain sailing and having had a period of sudden illness back in 2016, resulting in several abdominal surgeries which ended my athletic career and then an emergency c-section in 2021 following the birth of my second little boy, I have experienced first hand how difficult, lonely and overwhelming it can be to take steps in the right direction to improve your own physical and psychological wellbeing. These adversities however inspired the creation of my Online Academy and The Micro Mummy one of my YouTube Channels, which consists of bitesized workouts to help people take the first step in the right direction on their fitness journey.
So…a few weeks ago, I made contact with Gulnaz to inform her “I had a vision” and I wanted to ask her if she would consider a collaboration to help and inspire “people”, most importantly the SheInspires Community, to exercise and take care of themselves. I explained I had the what but needed help with the how…
The NHS currently advises that individuals between the ages of 19-64 years of age “do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity a week”. That statement in itself at face value seemed overwhelming to both Gulnaz and I, however if you divide that 150 minutes by the number of days of the week, that is just over 20 minutes a day, which seems much more manageable to us both.
The NHS also suggests that “Adults should do some type of physical activity every day” but “exercise just once or twice a week can reduce the risk of heart disease or stroke”, so whilst we have our advice of 150 minutes per week or around 20 minutes per day, we can also appreciate that even if we don’t achieve that but make at least some steps in the right direction, we can still make improvements to our health by doing something rather than nothing at all.
What is our plan to help address this? By breaking down the barriers associated with exercise, the excuses, the reasons and the limitations. With the help of Gulnaz and the SheInspires team, we want to provide manageable and efficient solutions to get people moving, get people exercising and to demonstrate that even if you feel you don’t have the time or the means, it can be done.
How are we going to do it? By producing a series of short workouts that will be free to access, require no equipment, can be followed in the comfort of your own home and can be accessed at your leisure. We will also try to provide complimentary, quick and easy, healthy meal suggestions and some hints and tips to help maximise exercise potential too.
It’s often said that the first step in the right direction is the hardest and along with Gulnaz & SheInspires I would like to empower, inspire, motivate and assist as many people as possible to take their first step towards changing their life with exercise and “Shouting Their True Potential”.