Dave & Adele Stickland - The Whole Package

We live in a world encumbered with contradiction. Where having almost anything delivered to our doorstep is easy, just a click away; but where the stress experienced in staying ahead of the game, often leads to burnout. Remarkable technology makes for an era of super connectivity and yet somehow, many have never felt so lonely. We strive for a brighter tomorrow but often, we forget about a brighter today. Introducing Adele and Dave Stickland, who like many of us, have experienced the ‘daily grind’ but who, through making some positive changes, seem to have found the balance to living a healthy and fulfilling life.

Adele, a best-selling author, nutritionist and fitness instructor, and Dave, a CrossFit enthusiast and healthcare expert, make quite a team. Although they don’t officially work in partnership, the services that they provide work so well together, they bring a holistic offering to the table of health and well-being. No contradictions there.

Dave, originally from the Cotswolds, described himself as a ‘poorly boy’ who spent a lot of his childhood in an oxygen tent with asthma; the medication not being that great at the time.  During his 20s and 30s, he lived a little, as you do, with ‘booze and fags’ and everything else that the invincibility of youth brings. It was after the birth of his first child, that he started to realise that he was mortal and decided to clean up his act.  

He said,

‘Thankfully, it coincided with meeting Adele, a fitness freak, who was a great influence on me, and I have climbed a steady path, from the age of 35 to now, so over 20 years, to increasing my health and fitness levels’.

Adele, originally from London, described her youth as ‘party-on time’ whilst she was studying law, going out every single night and loving it. She went into advertising, working for Saatchi & Saatchi as a Marketeer, but gradually the intensity of the industry led to a ‘couple of burnout experiences’. She said,

‘I got fed up with the advertising world when Ben was born; I was still taking phone calls at 10 o’clock at night and I just couldn’t cope’.

Dave and Adele, who met on a skiing trip in Val d’Isere, had a heart-to-heart one night over a bottle of wine and he suggested that she do what she wanted to do and become a fitness instructor. Her initial reaction was,

‘Don’t be ridiculous, I’ve got a company car, company pension, and a damn good salary, why would I go and do that?’

But she did and hasn’t looked back.

Adele’s fitness role has evolved, starting in Pilates, she now covers a wide spectrum of fitness and nutrition. She said,

‘I don’t think you can be a fitness instructor without a breadth of experience, because it’s not just people coming to you about cardiovascular, they want to know about nutrition. They want a holistic view to their health, so I started my online platform, Get Gorgeous, where I do one-to-one coaching’.

Adele has also written a best seller, called Gorgeous! How to Look and Feel Fantastic Every Day, which is a simple mix of practical advice on how to find the ‘true you’. Adele now also delivers wellness in the workplace solutions to help businesses tackle stress, which the World Health Organisation sees as one of the biggest issues for 2020.

Dave, a private healthcare expert at WPA, which is a not-for-profit health insurer, described himself as a ‘champagne socialist’ as, at first, he didn’t fully understand the need for private healthcare. As much as he loves the NHS, he soon realised the value, saying,

‘I quickly understood it was about protecting people from being vacant from their businesses. People who might be self-employed, small companies with 2 or 3 directors and 10 to 20 staff who just couldn’t afford to be down, waiting in NHS queues’.

Its value was brought home further when he was able to fast track his 13-year-old son via private healthcare. He had blocked adenoids, hampering his hearing and impacting on his schoolwork, but instead of having to wait for months to be treated, he was seen within 48 hours by a top ENT consultant.

As much as he loves his role, Dave prefers to concentrate on keeping people well and out of hospital. He is involved in CrossFit, a lifestyle characterised by effective exercise and sound nutrition, which has taken his fitness to another level while enabling him to belong to a fantastic community of like-minded people. Starting just 18 months ago he can now lift over two and a half times his bodyweight. One of Dave’s goals is to compete on a world level in the 60 plus Masters, World’s Strongest Man. He said,

‘I’m two years away from that!’

To follow Dave and Adele’s progress, follow @davesticklandwpahealthcare and @AdeleStickland on Linkedin.

Interviewed by Joff Alexander-Frye
Written by Stella Nicholls
Images supplied by Dave & Adele Stickland