Pulling off a 10 mile run was not a big deal for Premila. 

She had always been active and enjoyed running marathons, cycling long distances as well as lifting heavy in the gym. 

So when she turned 50, she was disappointed that her genetically induced cholesterol levels were still a tad bit too high for her liking. 

However, she still believed that by eating well and exercising regularly she could improve her cholesterol levels without any extra guidance. 

It all changed when she heard that a friend (who was at a similar age and as fit as herself) had some minor heart troubles when he was on a hilly bike ride. 

That’s when she realised that she didn’t have all the pieces of the puzzle to unlocking optimum health. She knew then that she needed guidance from the experts to drastically improve her health. 

So without wasting any more time, she signed up to RNT. 

1. What were the series of moments that led to your “trigger” moment to begin your journey with RNT? 

Last year, at 50, I realised I needed to overhaul my health strategy. I’d struggled for a year and a half before hitting this milestone to achieve my basic health goals.

Although I have always been very active, my genetically induced cholesterol was still sitting at a level higher than I was totally comfortable with. In all honesty, it was not critically dangerous but I just wanted to reduce it as much as I could to set a new baseline. 

However, I thought I would be able to do this myself without any support or coaching. At the time, I didn’t really believe in coaching. I assumed it was the same as working with a personal trainer. I imagined that I would have a great session with my PT after which, I’d be on my own for the rest of the week. Which is why I was never open to the idea of coaching, and didn’t really appreciate the value it would bring. I definitely didn’t realise it would be such a huge enabler in reaching my goals.

With that assumption towards coaching, I felt fine to train on my own as I’ve always done.  I thought: it’s not rocket science, just train and continue to eat nutritionally dense food, that’s it. 

It all changed when I looked at the photos we took at a friend’s birthday dinner. 

I was shocked at how I looked: I thought I looked massive and awful! I didn’t think I looked like that - it didn’t look like how I imagined I looked. 

Although I was surprised, my appearance wasn’t enough to review my strategy as aesthetic goals have never been a huge priority for me.  

For me, it’s always been about performance. As long as I can throw out a 10 miler and lift heavy, I was happy. So looking chubby wasn’t the deal breaker for me, it did bother me to some extent just not massively to do anything about it. 

Then I learned that a friend I had cycled from London to Paris with had some minor heart issue during a hilly bike ride. Him and I are at a similar age and he is really fit like me so this was really unexpected. And that’s when I started to worry. 

I was training to hit a half marathon PB at The Royal Parks. I was aiming for a sub 2 hour time. But when I heard what happened to my friend, I immediately cut back on my training and switched to a more moderate approach. I stopped chasing the sub 2hr goal believing that it wasn’t sensible given I felt out of shape, had peri menopausal symptoms plus cholesterol issues. Suddenly, chasing a PB didn’t seem sensible at this point in time. 

It’s worth stating that I work in risk management and so I did a risk assessment of my health, and the outcome was I needed a radical change in my approach.

That’s when I finally decided that I have to join RNT. 

2. What were your biggest problems before starting RNT? 

My biggest problem was probably my health deteriorating bit by bit. I felt like I was losing control of the situation after I hit the massive milestone of turning 50. 

Although I went to the gym, attended fitness classes, strength trained and ate nutritional foods most of the time I wasn’t at a place I felt I deserved to be at. 

3. What has the process been like, and the biggest challenges and obstacles? 

Process has been good! Much better than I expected. Online coaching really works.  The accountability helped me feel supported. 

4. What almost kept you from joining? 

The money was a big limiting factor as was being out there amongst other people. I’ve always been a lone wolf, training solo all my life. So putting myself out there was really daunting at first.