There’s a particular feeling to this week.
The tan is still there. You’ve slept. You’ve read a book that wasn’t about anything (maybe it was about dragons and faeries 😂 IYKYK).
And you can suddenly see your life from slightly above it, all laid out, and it looks so doable.
Back to routine feels genuinely exciting from here. Fresh diary, fresh start, and you know exactly what you’ve changed.
But here’s the question I’d gently ask. Are you making plans with today’s energy? Because today’s energy is rested.
Today’s energy has capacity. And the woman who has to carry those plants out is the one in late October, on a third cold of the term, in the dark, at 6pm, with a work deadline. She’s the one who needs the plan to work.
And she’s usually not the one it was designed for. That gap is what I’ve been working on for the past year. Not fitness. Something else. More very soon.
Hit the 🩷 if this feels familiar btw…. You won’t be alone x
Gemma Kelly Wellness
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Wellness Coaching for Women https://linktr.ee/gemmakellyfitness
25/08/2026
✨ PILATES NEW TERM IS BACK! ✨
We’re back for a brand new term of Pilates at the amazing 🤍
Mondays 7pm
Thursdays 7.15pm
Spaces are already very limited because so many of my lovely regulars are returning (thank you, I love you guys too! 🥹).
Right now, I have:
✨4 spaces left on Mondays
✨ Just 1 space left on Thursdays
Term spaces are available to book now, with pay-as-you-go spaces opening next week if there are any spots left.
My classes are welcoming, friendly and suitable for all levels, come to move, strengthen, breathe and give yourself an hour that's just for you.
Comment PILATES below and I’ll send you the booking link, or you can book via the link in my bio or my website.
Can’t wait to get back on the mat with you! 🤍
22/08/2026
Quarter to five this morning. Wide awake, everything aching (thanks to a good PT sessions yesterday) researching perimenopause and inflammation like Claude was going to hand me an answer.
You’ll have seen the other photos. The runs, the good lighting, the split times. What you don’t see is this bit, and this bit is most of it…. For me anyway.
Yesterday I trained legs with my PT after 2 weeks holiday, then ran my fastest home loop in years. Today I feel like I was hit by a train, everything hurts.
But that’s not what had me on my phone in the early hours. It was the voice that says it shouldn’t be this hard. That wishes my body felt like it did ten years ago. And underneath it, the quieter one asking, is this just how it is now?
I don’t have a tidy answer for that. I’m not going to pretend I’ve made peace with it either. That is my endless work.
What I do know is what I was really looking for at 4.45am. Not information. A time machine. That I know doesn’t exist.
If this is you too…. Here is what actually helps, and it isn’t glamorous.
The Epsom salt bath, the camomile tea over a glass of wine, the early night, the protein within half an hour of training, the red light, the ice bath, the going to bed instead of squeezing another hour out of the day. That’s not the soft bit that happens after the training. That is THE training, and I couldn’t have done it at 32, because at 32 I didn’t think I was worth the time. I thought the aim was to run on empty. The goal was to look and be busy. I grew up believing that unless I was running, I didn’t matter.
So the photos are real, the bit after is real and the worry is real too.
The hardest part is feeling that you are alone in this, worrying alone, chatting to Ai about your issues alone…. I’m working on something about that. Keep watching. More soon.
I don’t post skincare on here… maybe I should do more but I’m so wary of recommending things to women who are already being sold enough. However, when I find a brand I love, particularly smaller brands I think it’s important to share.
I found two years ago when my skin had completely had enough (see reel for photos of how bad it got), I stripped my routine back to almost nothing. I wanted fewer things, and I wanted to know what was actually going on my face (which goes into your body too btw).
Two years on, Glow Serum still comes everywhere with me. It’s the one thing I’ve kept using through a holiday flare-up, sun, and daily SPF, because it doesn’t add to the noise and actively soothes my skin as well as keeping my holiday glow.
They also gifted a discovery kit to every woman at our recent Wild Women retreat, which tells you something about them. Small brands don’t have to do that ✨
If you want to try it for yourself. Comment STARSEED and I’ll send you my link, which gets you 15% off.
17/08/2026
I wrote this on holiday after weeks of watching the skinny conversation creep back in, and after noticing the pressure land on my own body too. I’m tired of it!
The full journal / article piece is on my Substack, link in bio or comment READ and I’ll share the link.
If this lands for you, I would love to hear your take in the comments.
And if you know a woman who needs to hear that her body was never the problem, send it her way.
🩷
08/08/2026
Still finding the words for last weekend.
Ten women came to the forest. Some arrived nervous, some arrived tired, all arrived carrying something. And over one day together we breathed, we moved, we danced, we ate wonderful food, and we plunged into very, very cold water.
But the bit I keep coming back to is watching each woman stand in her strength.
Saying it out loud.
Feeling it in her body.
There is something that shifts in a woman when she remembers what she is made of, and we got to witness it ten times over.
Thank you to every single one of you who came, shared, laughed, cried and cheered each other into the ice. You made the day what it was.
And if you’re reading this wishing you’d been there, we have something for you.
Mind Body Breath, our weekend retreat, is happening 24th September at St Michaels Resort in Cornwall. A whole weekend of this feeling, by the sea.
Link in bio or comment SEA and I’ll DM the link directly to your inbox
Love G & C
Xx
Cat Paterson
I filmed this thinking I’d write something empowering about training for strength, not aesthetics.
But that wouldn’t be the whole truth.
The whole truth is that I was doing these ab exercises partly because I looked at my stomach before going on holiday and didn’t like it. Because somewhere along the way I absorbed the belief that a woman’s stomach should be flat, and even after YEARS in this industry, even teaching women EVERY week that their bodies are for living in, not looking at… part of me still believes it.
I catch myself comparing. I catch myself shaming. I know better, and I still do it.
I’m sharing this because I think a lot of us are walking around pretending we’ve made peace with our bodies when actually we’re just quieter about the war.
So here’s what I’m practising instead. Not pretending the thoughts aren’t there, but noticing them.
Asking: who am I actually doing this workout for? What would change if I trained because of what my body can do, rather than what it looks like?
A strong body will carry you through midlife. A flat one won’t do anything for you at all.
If this lands with you, I’d love to know. Are you training for you, or for a standard you didn’t choose?
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