I was exhausted with mood swings, bad skin, and bad gut health from overexercising. But it’s all cleared up since I gave my body a break
Zoe Antonia, a 26-year-old content creator and women’s health coach, explains how stepping away from intense exercise improved her health and her relationship with her body.
I was always into sports growing up and was very competitive at school, doing athletics, cross country, and a bit of ice skating. As I got older, I started going to fitness classes with my mum. Then, at 19, as people started talking about training their legs, bums, and abs on social media, I got into weightlifting.
I would go to the gym four or five times a week, spending up to two hours there each session, mostly by myself. It became the centrepiece of my day. And I did cardio as well, either a long run on a treadmill or 30 minutes on the Stairmaster. It was very rigidly structured and could be very boring.
New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.
The main goals were obviously to change my body – to get a big bum and that lean gym look – but also to feel strong and disciplined. I enjoyed the sense of accomplishment from looking in the mirror and seeing my bum grow, and from the discipline of showing up every day.
But I was constantly chasing progress and trying to prove I was enough. I was a fitness influencer at the time, so the gym was part of my brand and my identity. I felt like I had to keep going to keep up with others on social media, and because if I quit, I would be weak.
In the autumn of 2023, I started to feel resistant to going to the gym. I was no longer enjoying it.
I thought I was doing everything right – going to the gym five times a week, taking all the supplements I could, and having the healthiest diet. But I started to get loads of health issues during this time: I had really bad digestive problems, my acne was flaring up, and my PMS was really severe.
A few holistic health practitioners I saw mentioned overexercising as a possible problem. At first, I was in denial – everyone else online seemed to be doing similar workouts and it was working for them.
But over the next summer, I got busier and wasn’t able to go to the gym as regularly. I gradually started slowing down my workouts and started doing some other workouts that made me feel amazing, too. This made me realise I had massively lost touch with my body, with my mind and my ego overriding what my body was telling me. I was pushing my body harder and harder, totally ignoring signals like hand tremors and breakdowns in the gym. And it was no longer fun.
The NHS’s official guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week – while a lot of people do not achieve that, overdoing it can be bad for your health too.
Overexercising has been linked with anxiety and mood changes, and stress, which can affect everything from your skin to your gut health.
The last time I set foot in a gym was August 2024.
Since then, all of my symptoms have gone. My skin has cleared up, my period symptoms no longer affect my day-to-day life, my food sensitivities have gone (I can eat dairy now), and I wake up with energy every day. I feel a lot more connected to my body, and I’m so much more relaxed.
My new workout routine is much more relaxed – and I have time to do new hobbies.
Now, I do home barre workouts three times a week – they’re 40 minutes at their longest, and the heaviest weight I lift is one kilogram. Compared with the 120 kg I used to lift for hip thrusts and the hours I used to spend in the gym, I have really dropped down the intensity of my exercise.
I have also started doing a lot more walking. I go on a 30 minute walk every morning, which allows me to get outside into nature, and feel more grounded and present.
Zoe says she feels better about her body now she’s stopped analysing it all the time
Quitting the gym gave me more time to take up hobbies that are still active, but much more enjoyable – I now figure skate once a week and try to do a commercial dance class once a week, and I love the social aspects of these hobbies.
This new exercise regime is focused more on feelings – the way things make my body feel, meeting other women at my classes, and enjoying the gracefulness and expressiveness of ice skating and dancing.
I think about food, exercise, and my body much less now.
I used to eat five meals a day and had to eat so much to sustain my workouts and build muscle. I save a lot of money on groceries now, and my life doesn’t revolve around food and exercise any more.
I definitely feel a lot more confident in my body, too. I’ve definitely lost my bum, and I feel a lot leaner, but I feel so much more relaxed. I was so scared to lose the body that I’d spent so long building, but now I actually prefer my body a lot more.
A lot of people follow a lot of fitness influencers and try to copy their lives, but I think people forget that they’re getting paid to do that. I was literally eating, training, resting, and recovering like an athlete, just to get ‘summer body ready’ for a girl’s holiday.
Now, I’m trying to change direction with my career and come out of the health and wellness industry because it’s just becoming very toxic. I don’t label myself a fitness influencer any more, and I just show myself living my life, having fun, going out with my friends, and doing the things that make me feel good.
I feel better about my body because I’m not analysing it all the time. And my life is more enjoyable because now I’m prioritising connecting with myself and other people – and just having more fun.
I think that if I went back to the gym, I wouldn’t be as strong as I used to be. But I now have a different type of strength, from holding my bodyweight. Strength doesn’t always have to mean more control or more intensity – sometimes there is strength in allowing yourself to rest, too.
We live in this self-optimisation culture, and we forget about connection and presence and other metrics of health. But what’s the point in constantly striving for picture-perfect health if you can’t actually let yourself enjoy it?