As part of our series, How Can Collagen Help You?, we’re meeting Rebecca from @resetwithrebecca. If you’ve suffered from gut health issues then you’ll be interested to hear her collagen journey. But belly trouble aside, this is one exceptionally determined, barrier-breaking woman. We’re sure you’re going to love finding out how Rebecca reset as much as we did - enjoy!
A round-the-world ticket out of town
When Rebecca became a flight attendant for Virgin Atlantic, it was her ticket to the world. It was also her ticket out of home, and an end to never feeling like she was quite fitting in.
When Rebecca and her sister were young girls, their father walked out on the family. McDonalds and microwave meals became the norm as the girls’ mum worked hard to make ends meet. Rebecca began to put on weight and to lose self-confidence. She retreated into the home and would spend her spare time in front of the television snacking. Treats were fairly readily available, perhaps literally sugar-coating the fact their dad was no longer in the picture. With her father gone, her mum became especially protective, adding to Rebecca’s reluctance to leave the house.
When she did venture out, however, she went way out. Her mum had been in the Merchant Navy and encouraged her daughters to think beyond their horizons. The three would go away, sometimes as far as America, and the travel bug in Rebecca grew bigger and bigger.
Leaving for London
Moving to London was a big step. Huge. Herculean.
It was one thing to travel now and again with her mum and her sister, but packing up and heading to the big smoke all by herself, away from the normalcy, routine and sanctuary of the family home? Well, that was ground-breaking.
Into the smart, red flight attendant suit she slipped, and realised very quickly she was on display. Now surrounded by the most spectacular-looking women from far-flung, exotic locations around the world, life was certainly different. Rebecca began to lose weight. She soon realised, however, that she’d moved from one cocoon into the next. Being a flight attendant was not a good opportunity to meet and socialise with anyone other than, well, flight attendants and pilots. Work hours alone meant that the only free time she had was when the rest of the world was at work.
So, she moved back to the North-east, closer to her mum and sister, and began commuting to work.
Bubba on the way
Within a year Rebecca had fallen pregnant. Just 23 years of age and now a single mum, she realised she had to make some big changes. If she were to handle the sleepless nights, and call on more energy reserves, then she needed to better look after herself, and her newborn son.
If she didn’t, who else was going to?
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Going back to school
Rebecca began to make incremental changes.
But in Rebecca’s words, you don’t go from relying on McDonalds to making fresh salads overnight. It’s a gradual process and it takes a long time to get it right. With the arrival of her second son, and now in a stable and positive relationship, Rebecca enrolled at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and began a quest towards a new nutrition, and a new way of life.
Although still working as a flight attendant, Rebecca had a hunch that this could lead her towards a new pathway. Regardless, however, she wanted to learn this for herself. She wanted to eat her way to health, programme new, positive habits, and be the very best version of herself that she could. She was pumped for positive change. And it came. Rebecca couldn’t believe how much she enjoyed the course, how hungry she was to learn everything she possibly could.
Resetting - as a professional health coach
Rebecca graduated and became a professional health coach, whilst still retaining her position as a flight attendant.
She soon discovered she was good at this. She was very good. Clients would regularly enquire about adding personal training sessions onto their health and nutrition coaching. They were always surprised to hear her qualifications didn’t extend to physical training. She looked like a PT, they would remark.
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It was when baby number three arrived that Rebecca thought, I’ll never have this time again. She enrolled in a Personal Training Level 3 Diploma. One baby, two young children, a professional pilot partner; Rebecca’s plate was full. It was a challenging time, she was fully flexed, but she pushed herself and she got through. She had a dual qualification, and she was ready to help others reset, just as she had proven to herself.
Helping mummas post bubbas
Rebecca organically found her clientele sweet spot.
Her own personal journey has given her a unique insight into how a change in body and mind results in bigger, more fundamental shifts. She is immensely passionate about helping women essentially find self-love, particularly after having babies (be that recently or years down the track). She knows first-hand what it’s like to prioritise your children; give them the very best and leave yourself with the left-overs. She knows what it’s like to go through childbirth and the changes it makes on the body. She knows what it’s like to balance child rearing with every other responsibility life hurls at parents. Her Reset with Rebecca programme is 100% bespoke to each of her clients, and looks at their overall health and wellbeing.
It identifies firstly the changes they want to make and see, the negative habits that sabotage these goals, and then the diet and exercise that needs to happen to help achieve the outcomes. Rebecca is quick to point out that she resets, she doesn’t fix. This is because the women who come to her are not broken. They don’t need fixing. They just need new direction, tools, knowledge and purpose.
When you want to reset, where do you start?
Sometimes, Rebecca thinks, people go to extremes to lose weight because they think it must be complicated in order to work.
In reality, it’s very simple. Eat properly, move more. But that simplicity is a bit like transitioning from McDonalds to salads; it can’t happen overnight. And it always helps to have a mentor. Rebecca remembers the woman who first introduced her to weight lifting. Prior to that, she thought it was strictly for men; women didn’t push weights. Now she understands that with muscle comes metabolism, and with metabolism comes the need to feed the body good, clean fuel. But that’s just one piece of the puzzle. So much of it is mind over matter. As Rebecca says, you can eat all the broccoli in the world, but if you’re not nourishing your career, or your relationships, or other important parts of your life, then you don’t really have health and well-being.
Pumpkin pie, butternut squash & bean tacos, healthy peanut butter & fudge brownies, apple spice porridge traybake - these and other incredible collagen recipes now on our blog!
It can be a little daunting on approach. However, Rebecca helps break it all down into achievable, realistic targets with the long-term goal of sustaining positive change, not just being a temporary flash in the pan.
Collagen and gut health
Rebecca first cottoned onto collagen when travelling to the US for work.
It was all the rage there and she figured she didn’t want to feel the FOMO. But her flights to the US decreased and the product was very expensive, so she stopped taking it. Then, some time down the track, she stopped taking the contraceptive pill. Her body did not respond well at all. Her stomach distended and became permanently bloated “like a hard egg”. It bubbled and gurgled and made itself heard - and felt - regularly. It was painful, uncomfortable, it stopped her from wearing certain clothes. It really took its toll.
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Rebecca recalled the potential for collagen to help the gut, and so she began researching online. She came across Edible Health and was impressed with the reviews, so decided to try it out. Her gut troubles improved remarkably, to the point where she now takes her daily serve religiously with a double espresso every morning (first thing, before the kids wake up, so it’s done and dusted and she’s set her day up right).
She’s become so convinced of collagen’s role in maintaining her health and wellbeing, that she’s even putting occasional serves in her mother’s coffee! She gifted her sister a tub of bovine collagen as part of her 30th birthday present, and she often shares her product with clients.
Although she is still working as a flight attendant, Reset with Rebecca is where her real passion and potential to make a difference lies. She’s seen first-hand what a reset can do, and she wants to help as many women as possible find that button.
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