About Us

Amanda
Welcome! I’m Amanda and the other inspirer behind The Move with Motivation is my mum Sheila. I grew up in the small town, and now live in Hampshire where I have started a little family with my wonderful Partner, Ryan and our two crazy pets which I am sure will feature in this blog as well Bieber the Shihtzu and Benji the kitten.  When I am not chasing or cleaning up after them, I am in the kitchen cooking or outside walking, running, swimming, cycling or doing a workout.
Since I can remember I have always loved being in the kitchen cooking up a storm or being outside in the fields, woods or by the beach.  Now in my 30’s after many challenges along the way I took up triathlons 2 years ago after never really finding myself in any other sport or activity. I also love testing delicious and nutritious meals to refuel my body and look after my family to.
In 2017, I did my first triathlon and loved it I found something that reignited my passion for training, sport and motivating others around me to keep moving not only that but it also completely changed my relationship with food.
I love food however I previously had an eating disorder and also suffer with food allergies which means I am a veggie, however with that aside I love experimenting with loads of different recipes and I am also inspired everywhere I turn— whether it be through travel, dining out, reading magazines and browsing the web, television, books, or learning first-hand through friends and family.
I do not only feel this way about food, but I also feel this way about exercise, I have always been a sporty girl, through swimming, cycling, running, weights, HIIT workouts and many more different activities. I am not someone who sits still very well, and I have learnt through my previous jobs in sports and education how much I love mentoring those around me of all the benefits, food and exercise can bring us.
To me, food and exercise is more than just what fuels your body. Food brings joy in our lives because with food we make friends, we share special moments with our loved ones and exercise can complement this by bringing out those endorphins and putting us in a better state of mind and also helping with productivity as well as creating a fun community with others. Sharing my recipes and passion of fitness with others makes me happy, which is why myself and mum have started this little blog. We hope that with what we have both learnt along our journey will inspire you to move with motivation.

Sheila
Hi I am Sheila, I live in Surrey with my husband Ray, and have 2 wonderful daughters, I wanted a family as soon as I got married in 1977 and had many years of infertility, and then in 1987 after 4 attempts of ivf, I had Amanda, followed by Charlotte in 1989 also by ivf.
I have had many operations during my life and my weight yoyoed during these years, I have had both knees replaced , one 5 years ago and the other 3 years ago.
I have never been totally unfit , but in 2015 I got my first Fitbit, and although it took several years after this, I always tried to have a daily walk, After my first knee replacement. Amanda took me away to Lanzarote, where we had walks , swimming in the sea and healthy meals(with the odd alcoholic drink).
Around this time Amanda began to challenge me weekly, with the FitBit , I wouldn’t have called myself competitive, but I obviously am, as I had the urge to win each week and started walking before I went to work , although we were both doing well and quite evenly matched. After my second knee replacement, I continued walking and lost around 5/6 stone just by cutting down on the amount of food and the walking definitely helped. At the beginning of 2019 after being made redundant I joined an over 60’s fitness group, and loved it, and even started to jog, slowly, after going to stay with Amanda she helped me progress with this and she suggested starting the 0-5k NHS app, which I love, I found it so hard to begin with and haven’t rushed, I think I did week one for a couple of weeks , and carried on doing each week as long as necessary, I am currently on week 7 and can jog/run ( I love saying run) for 25 minutes non stop , and the feeling it gives me is just wonderful, I would never had thought I could achieve this , but with Amanda’s encouragement and motivation I have gone from strength to strength.
I can cook, but I wouldn’t say I love it, if someone offers to cook I’ll always go with that option, and Amanda cooks such inspiring meals, (if she lived closer I would be there for tea )
I love chocolate and gave it up for a whole year hoping I would not want it anymore, but have come to the conclusion that a little bit of what you fancy does you the power of good.
I hope that I can inspire others with the motivation and inspiration that others have given me along my journey and I will endeavour to show you both my good and bad days as not every day is the same and sometimes you need to have downtime and not feel guilty about doing this, as life is for living and doing the things that make you happy .