I’m happy that I’m so fearful of being judged for having celeb parents. It’s made me work a lot harder and learn to protect myself against negativity. Even if they came to me and said, ‘we want you in the Richard and Judy book club’, I’d say no, we’re not doing it.
My dad came to my book signing. At first, I wasn’t sure he should. I didn’t want it to be about that. He said, ‘please, let me be a dad and let me come’, so I did! I can’t let my insecurity rub off on him. He was there to support me and it was lovely.
I have a constant fear that people are going to look at me and think, ‘Oh look, another Z list celebrity trying to cling on in there through health and fitness, what a loser.’ I’m guilty of thinking that too. But for me, and my reality, it could not be a more ill-informed and inaccurate assumption.
I was an anxious and insecure teenager and twenty-something and I started running to help me manage that.
I didn’t want to go on medication. I’d been in CBT [cognitive behavioral therapy] for years and I wanted to do everything I could to tackle it without taking any pills.
Now, I am strong, capable and completely resilient and that all came from practising physical strength. Strong is not the new skinny. To me, Strong is self-empowerment.
My friend recently told me ‘I liberated myself through self-control’ and that’s exactly it. I liberated myself and it feels so good.
I started training and learning about nutrition 5 years ago. It sounds dramatic, but I fell in love with it. It was exercise that was fun and made me feel great. Certain training did more for me mentally than physically. It made me realise I can work hard and not give up. I quit my job in telly and, within a year, I was a certified personal trainer.
At that point, I had a qualification, a passion, a blog and clients and it started to snowball. I love writing but couldn’t for love nor money get a book deal. Every publisher wanted a celebrity ‘change your diet’, ‘bike ride to work’ story, but that’s not what I do.
I’m all or nothing – get in shape or go on holiday and have a buffet for breakfast lunch and dinner and don’t care. That’s who I am, but nobody wanted that. Eventually, I was approached about writing a body transformation book. Now, that’s exactly what I do. Flash-forward and I’ve got a best seller.
I did it and achieved it. I’ve changed my body to an incredible degree. I have tens of thousands of clients and I’m obsessed with my job. It’s not something I’m doing on the side of a reality TV show to make money and stay relevant.
For me, it’s got everything to do with feeling structured, disciplined and in control of myself and my life.
I fell into it. It wasn’t a Monday, it wasn’t a New Year, New Me and I wasn’t doing it to prove something, it just happened.
All my certificates are at home in London and I joked to my boyfriend that I should go back and get them to show any critics. He told me, ‘this is a chip on your shoulder, nobody cares!’ He’s right – he gets it.
Chloe Madeley will be at Edinburgh Wellbeing Festival on Sunday 28th January. See www.edinburghwellbeingfestival.com. Her book ‘The 4-Week body Blitz’ is out now
By Katy Johnston
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