RESULTS!

When I first met Julie, by most people’s standards, I was fit but I didn’t feel great.  There’s a lot of exercise history in my body – body building, marathons, triathlons including an Ironman, dance (I even taught salsa for a brief while), and climbing but going into the menopause highlighted some areas of overtraining and weakness in my body  Most significantly, my left knee was unhappy from years of linear movement from all of the running and cycling.  An MRI and a ‘top sports physio’ indicated that I’d have to wear a brace when exercising and that I might even need surgery one day.   Additionally, my body just felt disconnected as if my limbs just weren’t speaking to each other – everything felt a bit disjointed.

Three months later and I can’t believe the difference.   My knee pain has drastically improved and I’ve ditched the brace.   My body feels connected and movement feels fluid.  My climbing (including trees!) is going from strength to strength and I’m now hanging out in the bouldering caves with dudes half my age!   I feel a regained sense of confidence not just in my body but in myself in general.  I was pretty unhappy and stressed at the start of the programme.  We were coming to the end of the pandemic and I was still reeling from some big life events.  The unique style of movement snacks seemed to bring play and joy back into my body and it made me slow down and become more conscious and mindful.  At first, I hated slowing down and realised just how revved up I’d become over recent years but eventually I started enjoying taking my time, practicing the moves, enjoying the small victories and feeling the changes in my body.  Oh…and an added bonus – I’m losing belly fat even though I seem to be eating more and exercising less ferociously.  I’m excited to continue the journey – thank you Julie!’

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Dr. Nerina Ramlakhan,

Neurophysiologist & Sleep Expert

I definitely move better, with more ease

I feel like I recover better and am sleeping better. I also thing my skin looks better.

I’m stronger and have more energy plus that energy is more balanced throughout the day.

The last one is a little vague but I feel like there are so many things I want to do and can do now. Maybe a renewed sense of freedom or the breath of fresh air that I mentioned in the call.

I was in a bit of a rut or maybe a downhill slide and everything about the M.A.P.S. helped me to turn that around. Before I started, I felt like all my old movements running, biking … were just leading to injury and I didn’t know where to turn.Some days something about the movement snacks helped me to do something I didn’t feel I could do before. Or maybe it was something you mentioned like eating a protein, carbohydrate and fat each meal.
I also think the movement really helped my shoulder to recover quickly. It’s not fully healed but I think it would have been much less so if I hadn’t been working on strength and mobility before and after.”

—-Niki Neviaser Markoff, 

Yoga Instructor

May 2022

My goal was never to lose weight. It was to become stronger and wiser in both my movement practice and my nutritional health. That’s important to note because some people are really seeking a quick way to trim down. I was looking for a way to deepen my movement practice, so I can truly sustain it for the rest of my life. Before beginning Julie’s Reclaiming Strength program, I already had a strong foundation in movement for its own sake and in nutrition, but, as I learned (and continue to learn) parkour, I was very concerned that I just didn’t have enough foundational strength and mobility to avoid injury in the future. I also knew that I was lacking something in my nutritional habits. I just wasn’t sure what.

Julie’s input on nutrition/eating practices has been a game changer for me in terms of overall satiation, balance, and, frankly, self-care. The advice that fat should be on my plate–along with carbohydrates–was the best permission slip ever. Just as critically, she wisely advised that gearing my eating habits around my hypoglycemia had some utility, but in doing so, I was ignoring some key practices that would help sustain my body throughout training and through perimenopause. This was huge for me. Instead of eating a giant bowl of Grape Nuts (a sugarless, wheat-heavy, grainy cereal loaded with fiber) every morning to feel satiated and in balance, I could focus on proteins–but not in an extreme/fad diet way–in a way that gave me a balanced plate. Protein. Fat. Carb. Whereas I used to crave something sweet almost nightly, those cravings are rare now.

Having greater satiation also has increased my capacity to eat more mindfully and be less owned by cravings. When I do have cravings, I have more space between stimulus and response. Reclaiming Strength overlayed beautifully with my own meditation practice. The two supported and echoed each other which helped me operationalize so much of what Reclaiming Strength was providing.

Movement! At different points in my movement journey, I would workout till exhaustion with hour-long workouts. Then I’d be hungry and tired and sore the next day. I figured that’s what it took to progress physically. And, this was becoming a speed bump in my movement practice. As my job has become more demanding and time less available, I would skip movement all together because I didn’t have movement practices already programmed out for myself (didn’t even know where to begin on that), and I figured I couldn’t really make a difference with short workouts. What could I accomplish with 10 minutes? This was de-motivating.

But, Julie’s training approach comes from a whole other movement philosophy that is backed by some pretty accomplished movement practitioners. Training sessions with fewer reps per set do make a difference. You don’t have to be sore to be effective. Ten minutes matters–and, no, it doesn’t have to be ten minutes of grueling high-knees. This has given me hope and a foundation on which to build and sustain my movement practice. There are far fewer nights where I actually have an excuse not to move. Even if I only do 10 minutes, it counts. I’m still training my mind to wholly accept this philosophy, but it’s easy to go with it because it’s inspiring me to move more. I already tried the alternative–which was to move less. And that’s not where I wanted to be.

The movements Julie has curated and developed for Reclaiming Strength use all of my body in interesting ways. And they can be done outside….In fact, she encourages outdoor movement which was already a priority for me. At the end of her practices, I always feel refreshed and rejuvenated. Because the practices are shorter with fewer reps per set, I can focus on each move. Whereas I’ve often listened to music to get me through a workout (focusing on the music more than the move), I now listen to music to complement the moves, to allow me to slow down, to feel through each movement, to get curious about slight changes in movements. And these movements are so much more interesting than anything I’ve seen in mainstream exercise programs. I also love the idea of using the movement practice to activate both sides of my brain. There is a lot happening with each practice.”

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Teresa Duhl,

Dec. 2021

I was looking to change up my training and have long been inspired by Julie. In particular I wanted to work with a female preferably close to my age. When she opened up some spots I approached her to see if we could work together. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with her so far. We’ve set some goals which I feel are achievable in the long term when previously I felt they might not have been. She has given me more confidence in what my body can do and challenged me in good ways

I love the variety and I particularly like that the training challenges my brain as well as my body. I’m feeling stronger and motivated to see where it can take me, in all aspects of my life. I find Julie to be interested, engaged and fun to work with and her support goes beyond what I had initially expected.”

Michelle Muldoon,

Movement Education and Restorative Exercise.

When I first signed up to Julie’s 1:1 programme I was feeling a bit disconnected with my body and with movement in general. It was getting me down that I was having to buy clothes a couple of sizes bigger than I normally would and I’d lost the spring in my step. I’d also fallen into bad eating habits during the winter lockdown here in the UK. While I still found it inspiring to watch others move, I’d lost most of my desire to move myself. I was working ridiculously long hours (often while the others I lived with slept) and always felt tired. I was sleeping badly and I didn’t even know how I’d have time to fit Julie’s programme into my life! But once I’d started, I found the discipline of checking in every day with the app and with Julie, soon brought back my urge to move. Although at the very beginning I found it all very challenging and (sometimes slightly overwhelming) it soon got a lot easier. After a few weeks I felt like I was on an upward spiral. The more I moved and the more I understood the choreography of the moves, the more I wanted to move and the more joy it gave me. I got more efficient at moving and it was easy to fit it into my daily routine. Once I’d mastered the movement snacks I began playing with them, stitching two or three of them together to create my own moves that flowed into each other. That felt like a big achievement/ milestone for me. I was starting to own the moves!  I made an effort to move even if I was away from home, and got really creative with them adapting to the differing environments I was in. Sometimes this was a big challenge – especially if I wasn’t in a place I could throw a big stone, or somewhere I could hang from bars. But I enjoyed the challenge of finding other ways to move appropriate to my environment. Family and friends started showing an interest and joining in. It began to be a shared experience, (sometimes collaborative) and a very sociable, joyful thing to do with others.

But the benefits of the app and following the daily programme turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg when I think about how the whole 3 month experience impacted me. The thing that makes Julie’s 1:1 program absolutely unique is Julie! She brought a very positive and uplifting force into my life. I would look forward to texting her updates on my progress because no matter how negative I was about my achievements, she’d always see the positives in what I’d done and respond with compassion and joy. It was just what I needed. I was on a very emotional journey and Julie was there with me every step of the way.

It was also the very little things Julie mentioned that had the biggest impact and long-lasting effects. Suggesting I trained barefoot in the park was a game changer for me. I remember I loved it so much that first session that I walked all the way home from the park barefoot. Grinning from ear to ear and feeling very connected to my environment. Julie questioning why I needed to take my exercise mat to the park had a similar impact, and ditching it lead me to feel simultaneously freer and more connected.

Now I’m in a much better place, making positive efforts to re-introduce movement into my daily life. I’ve made new active friends and I’m filling my life with adventure once more. I’ve  started climbing again and I’m enjoying finding new ways of integrating movement into family life. Movement snacks don’t necessarily happen every day for me now, but I’m not worried as I’m much more active in everything I do. Best of all I’m in a good place with my sleep patterns and diet. I feel fully nourished, connected with my body, and have a lot more energy. I’m also feeling more ambitious with my movement-related goals than I ever imagined I would. That spring in my step is back!

Thank you Julie for giving me the tools to stay healthy and happy. It’s a valuable and long-lasting gift 🙏”

Layla Curis,

Artist

When I started my work with Julie, I was focused entirely on the physical benefits. I wanted to get stronger and feel physically better. Little did I know that this process would start physically and morph into an all-encompassing program.

Julie has a caring and humorous approach that helped ease my anxiety about trying new and different things. The positive feedback and consistent encouragement empowered me to make necessary changes in order to live my best life.

While I have made great tangible physical progress in the See and Do program, the positive changes to my internal dialog and sense of self-worth have been the biggest reward!

Thank you again, Julie!

~Jananne Settle,

I already knew Julie as I had done some prior live trainings with her. I adored working with her.

I signed up for the private coaching as I wanted to intensify my natural movement work and the freedom of having Julie program me personally was a treat I could not resist

The coaching program was fabulous – Julie set me up with daily targets that were set  with both of us in agreement.

The scope and breadth of challenges meant I was always focusing on something new and gaining resiliency and flexibility in both mind and body.

I would check in with her almost daily about my experiences and progress and she adapted the trainings accordingly.

I found having Julie available with new material being sent my way very stimulating inspirational and motivating.

I got stronger, increased my resiliency and moved forward in all my goals.

I highly recommend working with Julie Angel – you will gain in many surprising and unexpected ways, stepping more and more into your authentic potential.”

Niedra Gabriel,

Yoga & Pilates Instructor