Laura Warren, from Miskin, near Cardiff, a mother of two is celebrating this week after it was announced that she has won the Pitman Training 2018 ‘Working Mum of the Year’ award as part of Pitman’s SuperAchievers awards.
This award is for a mother who epitomises the dedication required to juggle a busy home and family life alongside achieving personal career ambitions and Laura won after securing support from the general public, as well as the judges vote.
Laura Warren started her career as a PE teacher but has since gone onto become a gym owner, network marketer, world class athlete and Fitmuma UK founder.
Fitmuma has become a global success – a membership-based fitness planning website, aimed at mothers struggling to find the time to eat healthily and exercise properly. It offers an all-round guide on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle with home exercise videos, exercises classes with nanny’s, retreats, food plans and more – all part of Laura’s mission to support mums in their health and wellness.
Laura said:
“I started Fitmuma, to help make mums feel happy, energetic, confident, motivated, and to get them leading a life that they want. We will show them that motherhood is not an excuse for not following your interests and loves or keeping healthy. We show mums that instead of feeling guilty for investing time into themselves, they need to feel proud of investing time in their mental and physical wellbeing.”
Laura has played lacrosse at international level for GB and Wales; she has competed in 5 world cups and world games with children in tow! Her fourth World Cup was played when her first son was only 8 months old. By the time the fifth World Cup came around, she had already given birth to her second son. With her sons now 2½ and 5 years of age, they are developing alongside a healthy lifestyle. Laura lives according to her motto; “taking care of yourself, is taking care of the family.”
Laura says;
“Being a mum, partner and self-employed business woman can make family life very manic and stressful… but for me, it is the exercise that helps. I have learnt what works and doesn’t work for mums as I have worked with them for over 13 years in my gyms and now through Fitmuma. I know all the tricks to fitting health and exercise in a super busy schedule and also how to do home workouts that get the kids involved.”
Laura has recently launched into a new venture for Fitmuma after discovering that there were no local retreats just for mums that were affordable. So this year, Fitmuma has launched a retreat programme that covers pregnancy retreats, mum retreats and also retreats for mums when the kids are older. The next retreat is ‘a Muma to be Retreat’ on Sunday 20th May from 10-4pm at the Vale Resort, Cardiff. A ‘Muma and baby’ retreat date for June will be released soon. For more information please visit http://www.fitmuma.uk/retreats/
Laura is also launching a Jump into June charity initiative where she’s recruited 30 mums to make 30 lots of 2 minute home workout videos, which will be sent to those who donate as part of her charity challenge. All the money raised from Jump into June will go to the charity Wish Upon a Star.
Winners of Pitman’s SuperAchievers are determined by a combined judges vote and the public vote. This year’s judging panel included Catherine Asta Labbett, a Psychotherapist and Founder of Girl Tribe Gang, a fast growth female networking community for women who have aspirations to be their own boss; she says; “I love her BIG goals and her empowering ethos that “taking care of yourself, is taking care of the family”
The judging panel also included and Claire Young, entrepreneur, media specialist and government advisor who appeared on series four of BBC’s The Apprentice alongside Lord Alan Sugar, she says;
“Laura has successfully adapted around her lifestyle, and career, to varying circumstances – having children for example – having spotted a gap in the market which potentially could benefit millions of women. I admire her courage in moving forwards to a digital platform, reaching a much larger audience whilst having a young family. She has used her passion for fitness to create a business with modern day vision.”
Claire Lister, Managing Director at Pitman Training Group, said:
“We are honoured to be able to highlight such incredible stories, across a really varied set of professions and showcase those who are striving to achieve. Each year, I look at the entries submitted, and it inspires me to see what people are achieving through hard work and ambition.”
