“I help women who have fallen out of love with exercise, their body and lost a bit of their spark, get to a place where they look forward to exercise, understand how to move and live in harmony with their inner cycles for the stage of life they are in. I help them sculpt a strong core, feel stronger, use their hormones for better living and ditch their guilt.”
Aligning Movement with our Inner Cycles
I believe we all deserve to live a life full of movement, rich in choice, to be our healthiest, happiest most energised self and accept that this evolves and changes as we mature.
You know you want to reconnect with your body and show it some love and affection but haven’t got a clue where to start or who to ask for help.
I’m on a mission to inspire busy women all over the world through movement that blends purpose with playfulness. I want women to connect their body with their soul, for a lifetime that’s vibrant and energised.
Well hello, I’m Jem and we need to chat!
I’m passionate about helping women build a sustainable lifestyle that’s unique to them and I do it through the art of conversation and creative movement. Exercise is built into my DNA and I believe that we were all born to move, just as nature intended.
Sometimes we might lose our way as our careers take off, we have children or mature, so my intention is to support women to reconnect with movement, find peace with their body and create a sustainable lifestyle that’s unique to them.
I’ve learned that fitness is so much more than our outer shell and how a woman’s body needs to move differently during different cycles of our life, months and days.
I want every woman to feel this deep connection to their body and sense of self.
“Training with Jem has changed everything. I’m training in tune with my body & hormones for the first time in my life and it feels amazing. She knows when to push me and when to rein me in which means I get the most out of my sessions.
Her way of training is so different to anything I’ve ever done. I’m loving the balance work, my core is transformed'.
Claire, Age 40
“I've worked with Jem for over 3 years now in various guises; 1-2-1 training, classes Methodology X, diet and lifestyle. She really gets women, how our bodies work, what we need in our busy lives. She is always learning something new.
One of the most powerful things she has taught me is 'we are not just small versions of men' and the importance of getting to know your cycle (not spinning) and how powerful it can be for your entire health & lifestyle.”
Maxine, Age 44
Live Programmes
If you prefer working out at your leisure from the comfort of your home, why not join one of my powerful live or on demand programs.
Welcome to the Hormone Rhythm Blueprint, I am so excited you are curious and open to learning more about your body and my wish for you after our time together is that you can go away and start to implement a more cyclical way of exercising and working out. This area is designed so if you are tracking your cycle already you can jump into that stage of your cycle now for the workouts, but do watch the workshop sections in the correct order.
Explore the range of varied workouts below, and remember the best thing to do is always listen to your body, and don’t worry if the workout you fancy that day doesn’t naturally sit with where you are in your cycle.
Learning to listen to your body will be one of the biggest gifts towards your wellbeing to keep you enjoying varied movement over the length of your cycle!
Enjoy my love.
The first thing I want you to remember is that your cycle is unique to you and what I share with you is a typical pattern, which you then work around how you experience YOUR UNIQUE CYCLE.
Some of the stages below may vary in length for you depending on your UNIQUE cycle, so remember SMALL CONSISTENT changes will support you in living, exercising to a more cyclical rhythm - this is a LIFESTYLE practice you can constantly tweak. You are NOT EXPECTED to do it all at once.
What you need to know!
Your hormones at Day 1 of your bead are at their lowest and from this point oestrogen & testosterone levels will slowly increase. During your blead you may be feeling vulnerable, tired and that you want to withdraw inwards.
Try to find pockets of time to rest, unplug, cancel plans, ask for help with cooking dinner, school runs and generally find a way to move slower. Its almost like you want to abandon all responsibilities and retreat on holiday to help make space to receive the downloads for the months ahead.
Remember the 1% shift can make all the difference, just do 1 thing towards supporting your body, whatever feels right.
This is the season to withdraw inwards to rest, restore as you blead, just as nature withdraws during winter to replenish so its ready to grow crops for spring.
As your blead eases its a great time to gradually increase your weights and intensity of your workouts, but go gently there’s NO RUSH. Easing yourself out of winter gently will likely support you as you get ready for the pace of spring.
Its important to listen to your body and how it feels with regards exercise. Taking some time to rest and recharge is important but equally movement of some form can support you during your blead, choose gentler forms of movement, body weight or pilates/yoga pace workouts in the early stage of your blead.
Getting outside into nature for a walk can be a good mood booster too. Basically this isn’t the time to thrash out an intense session, the dip in hormones towards your bleed makes it physically harder to perform at this point, so always have an eye on technique and form.
As your bleed eases off you are likely to be feeling more optimistic and energetic compared to earlier in your bleed and the workouts below are designed for when you are feeling your blead is easing. Stay with the gentler workouts from the late luteal phase early on in your blead if they feel what your body needs.
This is the time to up protein and healthy fats in nutrient dense foods. Foods such as red meat, kale, kidney beans are great sources of iron which we loose during our period. Consider drinking a glass of vitamin C when you eat iron rich foods to support iron absorption.
Other foods to consider are dark berries such as blueberries & blackberries along with seafood that is rich in Iron & Zinc as we loose both these minerals during our blead.
This is often described as the coldest part of our cycle so you may choose more warming food.
1 tablespoon of sunflower & sesame seeds can support you during the first ha;f of your cycle, so add to smoothies, or sprinkle on salads.
When it comes to work this is a great time to really evaluate/analyse projects, review the month just gone and try to listen to your gut and trust what our intuition is telling you. Set your intentions for the month ahead and what you want to achieve.
With relationships its a great time to ask for help to give you pockets of time to relax & slow down indulging in self care along with alone time.
What you need to know!
This week you are likely finishing your bleed and hopefully feeling more energetic and optimistic as your oestrogen & Testosterone levels are still rising. Your hormones, particularly oestrogen is now reaching its peak in your cycle as you move towards ovulation around day 12-14.
Oh the feeling that Spring is on its way………..If you want to bring in some new habit forming as your blead eases its a great time to use this natural ‘boost’ during your Spring to focus on bedding in some of the new habits you may want to put into your lifestyle.
This season can feel like a great season to start to move forward with things, start new habits, try to introduce a new food, build new routines, and enjoy the gloss of oestrogen. Yet being mindful to not overcommit, its good to ease yourself into Spring, remembering the 1% shift, just move however feels right for your body and time commitments.
As far as your exercise is concerned this is the week to start to increase any weight load you are lifting and push yourself with more HIIT, harder based style workouts like the one below (but obviously being mindful you feel ready to push more).
Physically & mentally at this point in your cycle you typically find harder sessions easier than if you were to do them the week before your period.
Your metabolism is slower in these first stages of your cycle so you might not be as hungry and you don’t need as many carbohydrates as you did before your blead so bringing in fresh, light and vibrant foods at this point supports this stage when hormones are on the rise.
Priming your gut (and microbiome) with probiotic rich foods prior to ovulation can be really beneficial so early on in this stage you may want to add in kefir, kimchi & sauerkraut.
Also while oestrogen is lower early on in this phase (and in the previous phase) you may want to add in more phytoestrogens (plant based food that mimics natural oestrogen). Think colourful salads, broccoli, lettuce, avocado, stringbeans, carrots, olives and the foods above, serving with protein such as chicken, trout & eggs.
This can be helpful in perimenopuase if your oestrogen levels are low, but be mindful you may not need these foods as much when your oestrogen levels are higher later on in this phase and your cycle.
Other foods such as eggs, oats, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, berries, grapefruit for breakfast can be a good option.
When it comes to work this is a great time to get creative, comminate and have important conversations with team members, clients, your boss or partner. You are likely more articulate and can think clearer, feel more confident with higher levels of oestrogen.
Its a great time to do something new with a friend or family member and be sociable and playful. Its also the time you may feel more sexual so enjoy this feeling with your partner.
Based on a typical 28 day cycle you are likely to of reached ovulation and this phase in your cycle sees progesterone levels starting to rise which can lead to: increase in basal body temperature (this happens just after ovulation) so you feel hotter, your sweat may be different, your blood plasma thickens, your breathing rate increases (making exercise harder).
To help pinpoint when you ovulate you may notice a change in the thickness of your discharge and how much you produce and your basal body temperature increases, some women actually feel a pain in their ovaries. Try to make a note of when you think you are ovulating in your diary or tracking app.
Typically when you ovulate you are in Summer, think of this season as when everything is out in bloom, you have lots of energy and are the powerhouse of productivity! You can be all thing's to all people and get into flow with ease, this is when you can go harder with your workouts. The important thing in this phase is to not overcommit for your coming Autumn & Winter phases.
At some point you will notice the gloss of oestrogen starts to wear off.
This phase you are still able to push hard after ovulation before progesterone levels start to rise, but as you move towards the end of the phase you may notice the symptoms mentioned above kick in making the workouts feel harder. That’s ok, just adapt your workout to take into account your physiological changes.
Be mindful at this point you are more at risk of getting injured, so be careful particularly if you are trying new things.
Think HIIT, heavy weights and if your feeling fatigued quicker move to drop sets where you start with your heavier weight and switch to a lower weight during your reps.
Your metabolism will start to speed up as you move through this phase as your body nauturally builds the lining of your womb to house a fertilised egg. You might notice this towards the end of this phase rather than earlier.
This phase is typically a hotter phase still so think raw cooling foods such as spinach, pepper, tomato, leafy greens and berries. For protein Salmon and tuna are great and red lentils, quinoa a great grain.
1 daily tablespoon of Flax seeds & pumpkin seeds can support this phase too, add to smoothies or salads.
Early on in this phase to may be feeling articulate and its still a good time to be visible and have important conversations, be mindful to not overcommit for the coming month whilst you are in this phase and take on too much.
As you move this phase you may notice your energy naturally turning inwards with your attention moving towards getting things done.
This week you are nearing your blead and are likely to start noticing changes in your body and emotions as your hormones (oestrogen & progesterone) really start to drop off.
Moving into Autumn just like the season things start to naturally slow down in nature, become more vulnerable, getting ready for winter. You may start to notice some of the physical side effects of progesterone reaching its peak & then the sudden drop in both oestrogen & progesterone just before your blead.
Quite often if you haven't looked after your needs in your Spring & Summer (or the month before) you may experience higher levels of PMT & inflammation now. Having said that some women are more comfortable in this season and can see their shadow side with ease as it starts to awaken. There are lots of factors can contribute to your symptoms but please know you should never suffer, so sea help and get curious about wat could be causing things.
Its really interesting to start to notice when you transition from one season to the next, it can often feel like a day where you are for no reason really tired, irritated or upbeat. Its very individual, some women love hanging out in autumn/winter and find a slower pace and going inwards suits them and struggle when they move into Spring because they know what seeds they have planted in winter and its now time to start the work which on a transition day may make them feel overwhelmed!
You will likely find workouts harder as you move through this phase, so move to more drop sets in the earlier stage, lower weights and restorative self care practices if you find this season challenging physically & emotionally.
As far as your exercise is concerned this is the week to reduce any load you are lifting and increase the reps, focus on form & technique and don't try to force a hard workout. Instead consider prioritising getting out into nature and consider activities that stimulate your parasympathetic system such as yoga, pilates & meditation.
Your metabolism naturally speeds up now, so you do need more calories. Topping up your slow release carbohydrates brown rice and healthy natural sugars such as roasted root vegetable and sweet potato is a great way to support and reduce sugar cravings at this phase of your cycle. Along with getting adequate protein such as turkey, cod and greens you may wish to add foods such as chickpeas, apples, walnuts as these help flush out oestrogen in our liver.
Keeping alcohol consumption lower can support your mod but it also promotes detoxification of oestrogen in your liver, i.e. clearing out excess oestrogen, the liver will prioritise clearing alcohol first so be conscious about alcohol intake generally as it does impact us & our hormone balance.
As you move more inward be sure to allow time for slower social activities, activities that nourish you rather than drain you where possible so you can allow for time to do things that you may have been putting off, like tiding, sorting stuff out, organising your wardrobe, life admin, child admin or something that is irritating you.
You may start to notice things around you that need doing, completing and have an urge to bring work tasks and tasks in the home to completion as much as possible.
Its a great time to wrap things up as much as possible, I view this phase as getting ready to go on holiday (you just have to get it done) and your period as the holiday.
Try to ask others to help you complete things or support doing things around the home to support your changing hormones.
This is your guide, your moment to start to tune into your body and make small changes each month based on what she tells you. She is always changing and the more you can support her now the more she will thank you in the future.
I hope having this has helped you feel more connected to your bodies rhythms and I look forward to your continued journey to living & exercising like the woman you were born to be.
Much Love
Jem x
Welcome to the Hormone Rhythm Blueprint, I am so excited you are curious and open to learning more about your body and my wish for you after our time together is that you can go away and start to implement a more cyclical way of exercising and working out. This area is designed so if you are tracking your cycle already you can jump into that stage of your cycle now for the workouts, but do watch the workshop sections in the correct order.
Explore the range of varied workouts below, and remember the best thing to do is always listen to your body, and don’t worry if the workout you fancy that day doesn’t naturally sit with where you are in your cycle.
Learning to listen to your body will be one of the biggest gifts towards your wellbeing to keep you enjoying varied movement over the length of your cycle!
Enjoy my love.
The first thing I want you to remember is that your cycle is unique to you and what I share with you is a typical pattern, which you then work around how you experience YOUR UNIQUE CYCLE.
Some of the stages below may vary in length for you depending on your UNIQUE cycle, so remember SMALL CONSISTENT changes will support you in living, exercising to a more cyclical rhythm - this is a LIFESTYLE practice you can constantly tweak. You are NOT EXPECTED to do it all at once.
What you need to know!
Your hormones at Day 1 of your bead are at their lowest and from this point oestrogen & testosterone levels will slowly increase. During your blead you may be feeling vulnerable, tired and that you want to withdraw inwards.
Try to find pockets of time to rest, unplug, cancel plans, ask for help with cooking dinner, school runs and generally find a way to move slower. Its almost like you want to abandon all responsibilities and retreat on holiday to help make space to receive the downloads for the months ahead.
Remember the 1% shift can make all the difference, just do 1 thing towards supporting your body, whatever feels right.
Season: Winter
This is the season to withdraw inwards to rest, restore as you blead, just as nature withdraws during winter to replenish so its ready to grow crops for spring.
As your blead eases its a great time to gradually increase your weights and intensity of your workouts, but go gently there’s NO RUSH. Easing yourself out of winter gently will likely support you as you get ready for the pace of spring.
How to Move
Its important to listen to your body and how it feels with regards exercise. Taking some time to rest and recharge is important but equally movement of some form can support you during your blead, choose gentler forms of movement, body weight or pilates/yoga pace workouts in the early stage of your blead.
Getting outside into nature for a walk can be a good mood booster too. Basically this isn’t the time to thrash out an intense session, the dip in hormones towards your bleed makes it physically harder to perform at this point, so always have an eye on technique and form.
As your bleed eases off you are likely to be feeling more optimistic and energetic compared to earlier in your bleed and the workouts below are designed for when you are feeling your blead is easing. Stay with the gentler workouts from the late luteal phase early on in your blead if they feel what your body needs.
How to Nourish
This is the time to up protein and healthy fats in nutrient dense foods. Foods such as red meat, kale, kidney beans are great sources of iron which we loose during our period. Consider drinking a glass of vitamin C when you eat iron rich foods to support iron absorption.
Other foods to consider are dark berries such as blueberries & blackberries along with seafood that is rich in Iron & Zinc as we loose both these minerals during our blead.
This is often described as the coldest part of our cycle so you may choose more warming food.
1 tablespoon of sunflower & sesame seeds can support you during the first half of your cycle, so add to smoothies, or sprinkle on salads.
How to navigate Work & Relationships
When it comes to work this is a great time to really evaluate/analyse projects, review the month just gone and try to listen to your gut and trust what our intuition is telling you. Set your intentions for the month ahead and what you want to achieve.
With relationships its a great time to ask for help to give you pockets of time to relax & slow down indulging in self care along with alone time.
What you need to know!
This week you are likely finishing your bleed and hopefully feeling more energetic and optimistic as your oestrogen & Testosterone levels are still rising. Your hormones, particularly oestrogen is now reaching its peak in your cycle as you move towards ovulation around day 12-14.
Season: Spring
Oh the feeling that Spring is on its way………..If you want to bring in some new habit forming as your blead eases its a great time to use this natural ‘boost’ during your Spring to focus on bedding in some of the new habits you may want to put into your lifestyle.
This season can feel like a great season to start to move forward with things, start new habits, try to introduce a new food, build new routines, and enjoy the gloss of oestrogen. Yet being mindful to not overcommit, its good to ease yourself into Spring, remembering the 1% shift, just move however feels right for your body and time commitments.
How to Move
As far as your exercise is concerned this is the week to start to increase any weight load you are lifting and push yourself with more HIIT, harder based style workouts like the one below (but obviously being mindful you feel ready to push more).
Physically & mentally at this point in your cycle you typically find harder sessions easier than if you were to do them the week before your period.
How to Nourish
Your metabolism is slower in these first stages of your cycle so you might not be as hungry and you don’t need as many carbohydrates as you did before your blead so bringing in fresh, light and vibrant foods at this point supports this stage when hormones are on the rise.
Priming your gut (and microbiome) with probiotic rich foods prior to ovulation can be really beneficial so early on in this stage you may want to add in kefir, kimchi & sauerkraut.
Also while oestrogen is lower early on in this phase (and in the previous phase) you may want to add in more phytoestrogens (plant based food that mimics natural oestrogen). Think colourful salads, broccoli, lettuce, avocado, stringbeans, carrots, olives and the foods above, serving with protein such as chicken, trout & eggs.
This can be helpful in perimenopuase if your oestrogen levels are low, but be mindful you may not need these foods as much when your oestrogen levels are higher later on in this phase and your cycle.
Other foods such as eggs, oats, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, berries, grapefruit for breakfast can be a good option.
How to navigate Work & Relationships
When it comes to work this is a great time to get creative, communicate and have important conversations with team members, clients, your boss or partner. You are likely more articulate and can think clearer, feel more confident with higher levels of oestrogen.
Its a great time to do something new with a friend or family member and be sociable and playful. Its also the time you may feel more sexual so enjoy this feeling with your partner.
What you need to know!
Based on a typical 28 day cycle you are likely to of reached ovulation and this phase in your cycle sees progesterone levels starting to rise which can lead to: increase in basal body temperature (this happens just after ovulation) so you feel hotter, your sweat may be different, your blood plasma thickens, your breathing rate increases (making exercise harder).
To help pinpoint when you ovulate you may notice a change in the thickness of your discharge and how much you produce and your basal body temperature increases, some women actually feel a pain in their ovaries. Try to make a note of when you think you are ovulating in your diary or tracking app.
Season: Summer
Typically when you ovulate you are in Summer, think of this season as when everything is out in bloom, you have lots of energy and are the powerhouse of productivity! You can be all thing's to all people and get into flow with ease, this is when you can go harder with your workouts. The important thing in this phase is to not overcommit for your coming Autumn & Winter phases.
At some point you will notice the gloss of oestrogen starts to wear off.
How to Move
This phase you are still able to push hard after ovulation before progesterone levels start to rise, but as you move towards the end of the phase you may notice the symptoms mentioned above kick in making the workouts feel harder. That’s ok, just adapt your workout to take into account your physiological changes.
Be mindful at this point you are more at risk of getting injured, so be careful particularly if you are trying new things.
Think HIIT, heavy weights and if your feeling fatigued quicker move to drop sets where you start with your heavier weight and switch to a lower weight during your reps.
How to Nourish
Your metabolism will start to speed up as you move through this phase as your body naturally builds the lining of your womb to house a fertilised egg. You might notice this towards the end of this phase rather than earlier.
This phase is typically a hotter phase still so think raw cooling foods such as spinach, pepper, tomato, leafy greens and berries. For protein Salmon and tuna are great and red lentils, quinoa a great grain.
1 daily tablespoon of Flax seeds & pumpkin seeds can support this phase too, add to smoothies or salads.
How to navigate Work & Relationships
Early on in this phase to may be feeling articulate and its still a good time to be visible and have important conversations, be mindful to not overcommit for the coming month whilst you are in this phase and take on too much.
As you move this phase you may notice your energy naturally turning inwards with your attention moving towards getting things done.
What you need to know!
This week you are nearing your blead and are likely to start noticing changes in your body and emotions as your hormones (oestrogen & progesterone) really start to drop off.
Season: Autumn
Moving into Autumn just like the season things start to naturally slow down in nature, become more vulnerable, getting ready for winter. You may start to notice some of the physical side effects of progesterone reaching its peak & then the sudden drop in both oestrogen & progesterone just before your blead.
Quite often if you haven't looked after your needs in your Spring & Summer (or the month before) you may experience higher levels of PMT & inflammation now. Having said that some women are more comfortable in this season and can see their shadow side with ease as it starts to awaken. There are lots of factors can contribute to your symptoms but please know you should never suffer, so sea help and get curious about wat could be causing things.
Its really interesting to start to notice when you transition from one season to the next, it can often feel like a day where you are for no reason really tired, irritated or upbeat. Its very individual, some women love hanging out in autumn/winter and find a slower pace and going inwards suits them and struggle when they move into Spring because they know what seeds they have planted in winter and its now time to start the work which on a transition day may make them feel overwhelmed!
How to Move
You will likely find workouts harder as you move through this phase, so move to more drop sets in the earlier stage, lower weights and restorative self care practices if you find this season challenging physically & emotionally.
As far as your exercise is concerned this is the week to reduce any load you are lifting and increase the reps, focus on form & technique and don't try to force a hard workout. Instead consider prioritising getting out into nature and consider activities that stimulate your parasympathetic system such as yoga, pilates & meditation.
How to Nourish
Your metabolism naturally speeds up now, so you do need more calories. Topping up your slow release carbohydrates brown rice and healthy natural sugars such as roasted root vegetable and sweet potato is a great way to support and reduce sugar cravings at this phase of your cycle. Along with getting adequate protein such as turkey, cod and greens you may wish to add foods such as chickpeas, apples, walnuts as these help flush out oestrogen in our liver.
Keeping alcohol consumption lower can support your mod but it also promotes detoxification of oestrogen in your liver, i.e. clearing out excess oestrogen, the liver will prioritise clearing alcohol first so be conscious about alcohol intake generally as it does impact us & our hormone balance.
How to navigate Work & Relationships
As you move more inward be sure to allow time for slower social activities, activities that nourish you rather than drain you where possible so you can allow for time to do things that you may have been putting off, like tiding, sorting stuff out, organising your wardrobe, life admin, child admin or something that is irritating you.
You may start to notice things around you that need doing, completing and have an urge to bring work tasks and tasks in the home to completion as much as possible.
Its a great time to wrap things up as much as possible, I view this phase as getting ready to go on holiday (you just have to get it done) and your period as the holiday.
Try to ask others to help you complete things or support doing things around the home to support your changing hormones.
This is your guide, your moment to start to tune into your body and make small changes each month based on what she tells you. She is always changing and the more you can support her now the more she will thank you in the future.
I hope having this has helped you feel more connected to your bodies rhythms and I look forward to your continued journey to living & exercising like the woman you were born to be.
Much Love
Jem x
