AS AN award-winning fitness blogger with almost 200,000 Instagram followers, Newry woman Maeve Madden is an advocate of the 'strong not skinny' school of thought.
The 30-year-old former dancer and model tends to shy away from diets, preferring to eat healthily and often, and exercises four to five times a week, mainly with weights. Her goal is to lead a balanced, consistent lifestyle that allows her to feel better, look good and most importantly, makes her happy.
It's a far cry from her days as a fashion and commercial model in London when she lived on salad, fruit and water and viewed carbohydrates as the enemy. In an attempt to stay thin – like the models who graced the magazine covers – she also worked out obsessively, even dropping down to below seven stone at one stage.
Looking back now, the award-winning blogger and author recognises that she was in the grip of an eating disorder.
“The agencies I worked for never told me to lose weight but when I did, they would comment on how amazing I looked,” she says. “I never considered myself thin, though. All the girls were as thin as me, if not thinner. The Russian girls were naturally tall and lean but some of the models had to work that bit harder to compete.
“I remember exercising an unhealthy amount. In fact I over exercised and I wasn't fuelling my body properly. I wasn't educated at the time about nutrition and lived on salads and fruit.
“I weighed myself obsessively too. I was starving all the time and was tiny; seven stone; even lighter. I was never diagnosed with an eating disorder or disordered eating, as I prefer to call it. I never went to see the doctor about my weight. But with hindsight, I definitely had a problem.”
Maeve always had an interest in fitness. At the age of four, her mum brought her along to an Irish dancing class, hoping it would help her overcome crippling shyness. Maeve recalls the first competition she took part in and how she cried on the stage. But when she saw the other dancers pick up medals, it triggered her competitive streak and she soon found her confidence. She even danced with Michael Flatley in his show, Celtic Tiger.
A knee injury in a car accident meant Maeve was unable to join the show on its next tour so rather than sit and mope around at home, her mum suggested she call up a few universities and see if she could land a place. Maeve had never planned to go to uni, but accepted an offer to study international business in London, followed by primary school teaching. Realising neither really appeared to her as a career choice, she took up modelling instead while considering her future.
From her teens, Maeve had suffered with a number of gynaecological problems including polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which caused acne, hair loss and anxiety, among other symptoms. She also struggled with IBS, which led to bloating and intestinal discomfort. These conditions weren't helped by her poor eating habits but began to improve when she decided to take back control of her health.
What prompted a change in direction in her fitness journey was joining Instagram and seeing other models and bloggers promoting strength through lifting weights.
“These women looked amazing,” she says. “I'd always thought weights were for men and spent my time in the gym doing loads of cardio. Little did I know how wrong I was.
“I was working with a personal trainer at the time and asked him if I could lift weights too. He said 'every day for the past few years you've been running 10K on the treadmill. Now you want to lift weights?' but he sat me down and told me what I needed to be doing. He told me to eat oats, sweet potato. I hadn't touched a carb in five years!”
Maeve changed her eating habits and her fitness regime and gradually, began to put on weight. Since her modelling days she's gained at least 25lbs. Her diet is 70 per cent plant based now but if she wants a treat like chocolate, she won't deny herself. Living in London means she has access to many healthy restaurants and takeaway options and regularly orders deliveries of her favourite salads. But she also enjoys cooking and shares her recipes on Instagram as well as her exercise routines.
One of the reasons Maeve has won so many followers on Instagram is because her blog is so relatable. She shares her bad as well as good days, posting photographs of her bloated stomach or tightly fitted clothing. It's important to her to be as honest and open as possible.
“Life isn't perfect,” she says. “So many bloggers portray their life as wonderful. When you scroll through social media, everyone is a billionaire or a Victoria's Secret model. But that's not reality.
“I work in an industry where I can take 100 photographs but only post the one that looks the best. No-one sees the other 99 that don't look as great.”
Herself now a qualified PT, Maeve, who has written a book called Beat Your Bloat, was back home in Northern Ireland recently to pick up a gong at the 2019 Northern Ireland Health and Fitness Awards. She was named Health and Fitness Influencer of the Year.
She'll be back in Belfast next month again to host a women's wellness boot-camp at the Olympia gym on November 23, discussing everything from healthy eating to hormones.
“To win the Health and Fitness Influencer award and be recognised at home was amazing,” Maeve says. “When I began my fitness transformation and my body changed shape, I started losing modelling jobs. The sample sizes no longer fitted me so I stepped away from that world. I didn't enjoy the pressure.
“I used to look through magazines and see these skinny women and want to be just like them. But they were unhealthy and unhappy.
“I wouldn't ever want anyone to look at my Instagram page and feel like that. I'm not perfect; no-one is. That's why I like to share the bad stuff too, the PCOS, the bloated days. I have these issues and that's why I train and try to live a healthy lifestyle. But I want to be happy too. That's the message I want to get across from my blog.”
