Q&A With Lauren Tickner

I’ve been following the lovely Lauren from @_laurenfitness for quite some time now. She actually appeared in my most recent blog, Fitness YouTube Motivators.

I’m amazed every day by her shear motivation and drive that she manages to spread to all of her followers. Not only this, but she also helps to educate individuals with facts and fitness advice – which she backs up with evidence, may I add (so important!)

Lauren is a student studying at the University of Bath and amongst her studies she run’s a YouTube channel where she shares all her fitness knowledge to others. Oh and not to mention the fact that she’s recently becoming an affiliate for the well known fitness clothing company, Gymshark. Damn, the girl must be busy.

Luckily, I managed to whip up some of Lauren’s time so we can all have a nosey inside her life and get to know her a little better…

Let’s start with getting to know your journey a little. What made you want to get into this lifestyle? Was there a certain moment that you can remember when you were like, I need change – like, right now?

In my early teens, I was overweight. Admittedly, not by a lot – yet I was unhealthy. I gorged on junk food as well as DETESTING exercise. I remember eating entire big bars of dairy milk chocolate (melted) almost every day after school, which I followed with either plain pasta and cheese, or pizza. My mum always offered me what she and my dad would be eating, yet I always declined: I was incredibly fussy and liked to stick to what I knew.

Even at the age of twelve, I remember being incredibly insecure about my body. I would always edit photos to make myself look smaller. And I always felt so large next to my friends. It wasn’t only my body I was insecure about: I caked make-up on my face even at this young age because I hated how I looked and would always tell myself I was ugly. By the time I reached fifteen years old, this became increasingly problematic, particularly as I was bullied at school for being ‘fat’. The boys in my year mocked me and called me ‘Maccy Ds’ due to my size and due to the fact that I had a shiny forehead.

This, of course, made me hate myself even more. And it led me to take extreme measures. I cut my calories to a ridiculously and dangerous level, and began doing excessive cardio as it was the only way I believed weight could be lost. I became obsessed with the number on the scale. If one day went by where I didn’t wake up lighter, I punished myself through extra cardio or even fewer calories. I didn’t realise I had a problem. Until the panic attacks hit me.

Throughout my GCSE year, I was not capable of lasting an entire day at school. My panic attacks were debilitating. I was no longer able to be a ‘normal’ teenager. If you’ve ever had a panic attack you will know what I mean.. but each time a wave of dizziness came along, a panic attack came with it. And each time, I felt like I was dying. But even that did not stop me on my quest to be ‘skinny’.

A few months later, once I reached my ‘goal weight’ – I was still not happy. However, luckily, the people around me saw the damage I was doing to myself, and confronted me. This really hit home and I decided that it was time to change.

I remember googling ‘how to gain weight healthily’ and the first thing which popped up was weight training. So, slowly but surely I eased off the daily cardio, and switched across to lifting weights. I was SO nervous to begin with, but I asked the trainers in the gym for a little help, and after about ten months, I was off the cross-trainer completely. But, little did I know, I was training too often. I thought weight training 7x per week to absolute failure on each set was the way to go. On social media, I would always see memes with slogans such as ‘go hard or go home’ ..and I took them a little too literally.

Slowly but surely I educated myself through endless hours of research and I began to realise that I was doing FAR too much. Since then, I have learned how to train properly, and I now only train 4x per week, while consuming well over 2000 calories per day! I am healthy and HAPPY, and I am getting strong AF 🙂

Where does your inspiration come from?

My inspiration comes from within. I ALWAYS want to be the best I can be.. whether it be in or out of the gym, I want to be better than my former self.

You have quite a big platform on social media. What do your followers love to see the most of? E.g, transformations, workout videos, etc..

My followers seem to love it when I show them the reality behind social media. Often, I think people are fooled by ‘perfect lighting’ and poses.. But I like to show people that it is exactly that: FAKE! Of course, I post posed and well lit photos, but I like to show the other side of things, too: what goes on behind the scenes, and what real life looks like, even for those who are seen as ‘fitness people’ – we are just normal people, too!

What does your current training schedule look like?

I train 4x per week.. All of my sessions are full body sessions, as that is the most optimal use of my time at the moment. My training is powerlifting style and I am absolutely loving it! I can bench over my body weight, and deadlift well over 2x my body weight!

Do you have any fitness goals?

I want to be able to squat 2x my body weight, as well as being able to do 12 pull-ups in a row (my current PB is 7). But with fitness goals, I guess I just want to make sure I am constantly loving what I am doing.. and if that ever changes, I will change what I am doing! Enjoyment is really the most important thing to me!

Just how hectic is your life? What does a typical day look like for you?

Let’s just say I have my fingers in many pies.. haha! I’m a full time University student while doing all the fitness YouTube and Instagramming, and the actual fitness!

Each day varies for me.. because, some days I have lectures at 8.15, whereas others I won’t have any until the late afternoon, so really I have to work around that. Nevertheless, every single day there are a few tasks that I know I will HAVE to get done that day:

University work/lectures
Content creation (filming/editing YouTube videos, taking IG photos, writing IG thumbnails, making Snapchat/IG stories)
The never-ending email list :’)

Then, on the days that I am training, I will go to the gym for around 1 hour. I also like going on walks, so some days I will go on a walk for an hour or so if I have time. I love switching on a podcast and just strolling: I find it a great way to switch off and relax!

How do you cope with your frequent YouTube videos? Surely it must take up a lot of time?

It takes a LOT of time! Each video takes me 4+ hours to upload.. but I LOVE doing it! I see how much value it brings to people and I get so many messages saying how my videos really help positively impact their lives.. so that in itself is enough for me! I just want to reach and help as many people as I humanly can.. so even if my video helps one person, I am happy!

Favourite quote?

You make your own luck.

Your favourite food right now?

SUSHI!

Where do you see yourself in two years time in terms of your vlogging etc…

Where do I see myself in two years time in terms of vlogging..? Oohhh! Well, I definitely plan on continuing vlogging! I will be in my third year of Uni, so I’ll still have a whole year left. To be honest, I just hope I am reaching and inspiring even more people. I aim to help SO many people realise that there is so much BS in the industry which is causing them a ridiculous amount of unnecessary stress! And I know that #StrengthFeed is going to be not only a very well established hashtag, but also a very well established brand. Watch this space!

You can find more of Lauren over on her Instagram @_laurenfitness and on her YouTube channel.

Fitness Youtube Motivators

Superdry Sport Range: New Online Exclusive

You may also like

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply