Clean Eating Alice's motivational tips

Passionate about all things food and fitness, Alice Liveing – or ‘Clean Eating Alice’ as she’s more popularly known – is a personal trainer (Level 3 REPs accredited) and author of two bestselling book ‘The Body Bible’ and ‘Eat Well Every Day’. Alice regularly trains at Fitness First gyms and has partnered with us to promote fitness and nutrition as a combination for improving overall wellbeing.

If you’re finding it hard to feel motivated, or a looking for a little inspiration to keep you on track with your fitness target, discover exactly what drives Alice to achieve her own goals.

What first inspired you to get into fitness?

Well when I was at dance college a few years ago, I was quite unfit – I'd even say the worst in my year! I was getting my reports back after my first year and all of them said that I was lacking strength. I really didn't want to be a weak dancer and as I'd worked my butt off getting into college in the first place I didn't want to waste my opportunity. As a result, I decided to get strong. That was my goal. So I started weight training and then ended up falling in love with it.

What keeps you inspired to train?

Many things inspire me. I like to have different goals, be it short term or long term. It might be a photo shoot or event that I want to look good for, but also just feeling good drives me. I love the way that training makes me feel. I feel energised, fit and strong, and I don't ever want to lose that.

I train with lots of different people, which helps to keep things exciting. I always want to keep learning, growing and developing, so I find new inspiration in lots of things really.

What are your tips for sticking to training plans – it's so easy to slip sometimes...

The first place to start is to write down your goals. That way they're on paper and you know exactly what you want to achieve.

Having a realistic plan of how you're going to achieve those goals is necessary too. You need to think about how you're going to get there, what steps you're going to put in place. Sometimes a big goal can seem a really long way off, so break it down and think about the path you're going to take in order to get there. Short term goals will lead to bigger goals in the long run.

Focus on a gym-based goal too (like hitting a certain amount of reps or beating a time) rather than an ascetic goal, such as losing weight. You can't wave a magic wand and make something disappear, like an un-toned stomach, but you can work hard in the gym to achieve core strength.

What's one piece of advice you'd give to anyone starting to train or beginning a fitness journey?

I would say start slowly – don't run before you can walk. It's easy to lose motivation if you start something in at the deep end and then struggle. Start with small steps. If you've never gone to the gym before, start by going to the twice a week, try some classes, and then gradually build up your confidence.

Training with a buddy or a friend, who will keep you accountable, will encourage you to get down to the gym. I'm always more likely to go through with a training session if I've said to someone, "yeah, I'll meet you at 7pm and let's train together", compared to me just training by myself.

Finally, who inspires you?

All sorts of people inspire me, but one person in particular, someone that I really look up to in terms of what she's achieved and how great she is, is Serena Williams. I think she's amazing and is a massive inspiration in terms of a real fitness idol. I watched this documentary about her and it really revealed the strength in her character – that blew me away. She's awesome!

For more fitness tips as well as recipes from Alice, visit our Clean Eating Alice hub page. You can also follow Alice at @clean_eating_alice on Instagram.