About — Georgia Radley Nutrition

Q+A with Georgia Radley

How did you become involved in coaching?

My desire to coach came from my own experience transforming my life, my body, and my confidence, through training and nutrition. It all when I joined my local CrossFit gym in 2014 as a shy 17-year-old who wanted to lose weight, and one day compete (I’ve always had a competitive streak!). I found so much more than weight loss - I found friends, community, and confidence…and a desire to help other people find these things too!

I started gaining my qualifications from 2015 onwards (CrossFit Level 1, Personal Trainer Level 3, Indoor Cycling) and coaching classes as well as 1:1 personal training sessions. I loved working with people in this way, but felt a desire to level up my knowledge and skills to ultimately be able to have a greater impact on peoples’ lives, which led me to pursue a degree in Physiotherapy. I’m not practicing as a physio now, but through my 1000 clinical hours on placement, my research project on motor learning, and all the anatomy, physiology, psychology and sociology modules, my degree gave me invaluable experience and knowledge that I continue to apply in my coaching.

Towards the end of that degree, I started working towards my Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification, which I completed, then set up Georgia Radley Coaching (formerly Georgia Radley Nutrition) at the start of 2022.

It’s not been a straight path to this point, but I love that these detours have ultimately made me a more experienced, well-rounded coach, with a unique skillset!

Top: 2014, about 2 months into CrossFit

Middle: 2016, one of my first competitions

Bottom: 2022, at Wodapalooza in Miami, one of the biggest international CrossFit competitions!

Who do you work with?

Honestly, anyone and everyone! There can be a misconception that because I’m an athlete as well as a coach, I only work with elite-level athletes, or people who do CrossFit, or weightlifting. But I actually started training as a complete beginner, working over years to an elite level, so I understand what it’s like to feel really shy and intimidated even setting foot in the gym. So I cover nutrition, training and mindset work for all levels. Everyone’s journey is different and I meet you wherever you’re at. From menopausal women, to weightlifters…from ultramarathoners to people who’ve never exercised - you can read about some of my amazing clients’ success stories here.

What are the biggest challenges your clients face?

Very similar to the challenges I’ve faced myself, and probably ones you can relate to as well! You’re busy, so struggle to find time for the gym or prepping healthy meals. You have kids or a partner who influences your food choices. You struggle with discipline, motivation, and accountability. Maybe you simply don’t know where to start, or feel like you know ‘what’ to do but just can’t seem to actually do it.

For some of my clients, we start with the basics - building healthy habits and routines, learning what good, sustainable nutrition looks like (aka ditching the fad diets!) and establishing an exercise routine, which can include online video coaching to learn new exercises.

For clients further along their journeys, sometimes the challenges are more specific - for example: nutrient timing to maximise performance, the mental and physical aspects of competition preparation, overcoming plateaus, and maintaining a healthy relationship with training, nutrition, and body image.

These are just some examples - you can read about some of my clients’ stories here, or contact me if you’ve got questions about how my coaching can help you.

What are the best and worst parts of coaching?

I wouldn’t say there are ‘worst’ parts - there are definitely more challenging parts! But, I’d say it’s up to me as a coach to overcome these things, which is why I really emphasise building trust, and open, non-judgmental communication right from the outset. Every coach has experienced a client not sticking to their training programme, not tracking their food, not completing their check-ins, or generally not communicating. It’s impossible to coach when you don’t have information to work with - but I really look at this as my responsibility as the coach. If you’ve not stuck to your training programme, I want to know why - was it too hard, did you not enjoy it, are you going through a tough time in your life? So one of the core foundations of my coaching is to always set up a non judgmental platform to start with. And if you had a bad week, tell me about it. Because if you've had a bad week, there's a reason you had a bad week, and we can delve into it - figure out what what's caused it and how can we move forward from that.

The best part of coaching is just getting to see people reach and even surpass their own goals. To be able to play even a small part in that for someone is such a privilege. And it’s not just about helping you reach a goal, it’s about pushing you to achieve something you hadn’t even considered you might be capable of, and seeing your confidence just shoot up as a result. Those moments are really special.The best part of coaching is just getting to see people reach and even surpass their own goals. To be able to play even a small part in that for someone is such a privilege. And it’s not just about helping you reach a goal, it’s about pushing you to achieve something you hadn’t even considered you might be capable of, and seeing your confidence just shoot up as a result. Those moments are really special.

Quickfire personal questions time! Favourite…

Food?
Chocolate (Cadbury Dairy Milk)

Film?
Juno (soundtrack, Michael Cera, Allison Janney - what’s not to love?)

Song?
All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)

Place?
My bed…or if we’re talking travel, probably the Rocky Mountains!

Thing to do outside of training?
Walk my dog, cuddle my dog, play with my dog, take photos of my dog, talk to my dog

Sporting achievement?
In CrossFit, making it to the NoBull 2021 CrossFit Games. In weightlifting (so far!), getting Bronze at my first British Championships, and getting picked for the national squad!

Pictures:
Top left: me + Barney at 2 months old
Top right: my team at the 2021 CrossFit Games
Bottom: British Weightlifting Championship 2023 W-76kg podium (1st: Sarah Davies (Olympian); 2nd: Bella Brown; 3rd: me!)

Tell me about the values behind Georgia Radley Coaching.

So as an individual and through my brand, I want to help people become their healthiest, happiest and most confident selves. Whether that looks like lifting weights for the first time, or pursuing elite levels in sport, the major value that underpins all the work I do is ‘happiness comes first’.

From starting as an absolute beginner and working my way to an elite level, I found out first-hand how easy it is to lose sight of enjoyment, even when you’ve achieved things your former self could never have imagined. And that doesn’t just apply to sport - it’s the same with a weight loss journey: if you're doing it just for weight loss, you aren’t deeply in touch with your ‘why’, and you're not enjoying any parts of the process, then you're much less likely to be successful and you’re also not suddenly going to wake up ‘happy’ once you reach an arbitrary ‘goal weight’.

So that's why within my coaching, whether we're working on nutrition, training, or both, we look at the mindset side of things alongside the practical side of what we're doing. It’s not just about having a goal, it’s about understanding why it’s important to you, finding satisfaction and a sense of achievement through the process, and continuously reflecting on the goal too.

Hi, I’m Georgia!