Alexandra Cane: ‘Fitness helped me out of a black hole’

After suffering severe panic attacks that led to her being hospitalised, Love Island’s Alexandra Cane says taking care of her health has given her a brighter outlook on life

alexandra cane

by closer |
Updated on

After leaving the Love Island villa in 2018, fan favourite Alexandra Cane was left battling extreme anxiety and panic attacks so severe, she was admitted to hospital. The star revealed she would often feel like she was sinking into a “black hole”.

While Alexandra was praised for empowering viewers with her “curvy” figure on the hit show, the 5ft 7 star – who was then 11st – described the time as a “lull in my life” and “turmoil in my head”. After exiting the villa, where she was coupled with Dr Alex George, Alexandra says she fell into a cycle of takeaways and late nights, while using alcohol as a coping mechanism.

Opening up about her mental health struggles, the 29-year-old says, “It got to a point where I’d just fall asleep crying and I would have an overwhelming fear of dying. It was horrendous. I felt like I had no purpose.

“I had reached breaking point and I knew I had to do something about it. I already knew that exercising and maintaining a healthy body helps promote a healthier mind, but I was shocked at how, after getting my workout routine sorted, my panic attacks went away.”

Alexandra also swapped her coping mechanism of booze binges for exercise, resulting in her slimming down to 9st and a size 6 last year, and says she has finally conquered her demons. She’s gone on to hit back at trolls after they accused her of capitalising on her 2st weight loss, saying, “I got myself out of a horrible place into a happy place doing this and I want to share how I’ve done it.”

She adds, “It’s easy for us to see how people change physically after working out or cleaning up their diet, but I really cannot go on enough about how it improves your mental health. The endorphins that flowed through my body after exercise just made me feel positive every day.

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Alexandra in the love island villa in 2018 ©ITV

“Having a consistent exercise routine had a positive effect on my relationships with people around me, too. I used to be so bitter and negative when speaking to people. I was projecting how I felt on to others. But once I started feeling good about myself, I started trying to uplift the people around me, too.”

Alex initially felt demotivated and lacking in fitness, admitting she was often left in tears and even had a panic attack before a personal training session with her PT, Aaron Phillips, who encouraged her to push through until she started enjoying it.

Check out: Love Island 2018 stars - where are they now?

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Closer - Love Island cast 2018 WATN SLIDER

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Love Island cast 2018

From Love Island 2018 winners Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham to Casa Amor's Savannah Darnell and Kaz Crossley, here's what all the islanders are doing now...

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Kendall-Rae Knight

Kendall was initially coupled up with Niall Aslam but dropped him like a rainbow fish shaped potato when Adam Collard slithered over. She was dumped by the scaly one when Rosie Williams caught his eye and ended up being the first person to leave the Love Island villa.

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Kendall-Rae Knight

Fast forward a few days and Kendall had already forgotten Adam after a hot date with Love Island 2017 star Kem Cetinay. Go, Kendall. She has since gone on to become a Boohoo ambassador (a Love Island alumna rite of passage), she launched her own range of fake eyelashes and has partnered up with underwear brand With Love Lilly. Oh, and she had a nose job too.

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Niall Aslam

Niall left Love Island of his volition and the nation (well, us anyway) cried into our cornflakes as he was 100% our favourite man to win.

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Niall Aslam

Niall later admitted he left the villa for reasons relating to his Asperger syndrome. He was then spotted on a magical night out with fellow former Islander Rosie Williams. Niall was mugged off once more when he wasn't invited to the Love Island Christmas reunion!

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Hayley Hughes

Hayley was initially coupled up with Eyal Booker but the pair did not hit it off. She later tried to make it work with Charlie Frederick but, alas, the pair were dumped on day 13. She's perhaps best known for sharing her insight on Brexit.

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Hayley Hughes

Hayley has subsequently spoken out about her abusive father and her mother's brave escape from him. She's also defended the Brexit commentsshe made in the villa. Oh, and she even dated DJ Tom Zanetti who played at one of the villa's pool parties. Hayley took to Instagram to tell fans, 'I believe the most important relationship we have is the one we have with ourselves'. You do you, Hayley.

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Charlie Frederick

Charlie lasted a heady five days in the villa. He coupled up with Hayley but was left frustrated when she failed to return his ardor.

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Charlie Frederick

Within days of leaving the Love Island villa, Charlie was posing for #spon #ads on his personal Instagram account. Fast work, fella. It also looks like he started a trend because his two ex-girlfriends Lucie Donlan and Arabella Chi went on Love Island 2019 and became pals.

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Rosie Williams

Rosie entered the villa with Georgia Steel on day four and was drawn to show villain Adam. Despite her giving him a hand based sex act, he moved on to Zara McDermott and tried to pretend it was Rosie's fault.

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Rosie Williams

Rosie was dumped from the villa on day 20. She then had a late night McDonald's with Kem, and a lovely day out with Niall. In a bizarre turn of events, she was also snapped with the Chris Nothman who plays Mr Big in Sex And The City ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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Eyal Booker

It's our strongly held belief that Eyal is one of the fittest Love Island contestant ever. We wouldn't want to be caught in a camp fire chat with him, mind. He had two unsuccessful relationships in the villa and was booted out when Meg Barton Hanson pied him off in favour of Wes Nelson.

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Eyal Booker

Since leaving the villa Eyal's been hanging out at festivals with Caroline Flack, and has talked of re-igniting his music career. Awks. He also had a stint on Celebs Go Dating but still didn't find love. Oh, and he took part in Celebs on the Ranch, alongside reality TV legends Bobby Norris and Louie Spence. Eyal has actually found love with Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Lisa Rinna's daughter Delilah Belle Hamlin.

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Zara McDermott

Zara lasted ten days in the villa, in which time she went for Adam despite witnessing the way he treated Kendall. She didn't spend time getting to know any other islanders, which is the reason they gave for dumping her.

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Zara McDermott

Zara may have lost out on £50,000 but she won at love - for a time. She said she'd wait for Adam and despite snogging yet another woman in the villa, when he was dumped he and Zara made things official. They broke up shortly before Valentine's Day 2019 after he reportedly spent a night in a hotel room with two women. She's now dating Made in Chelsea's Sam Thompson.

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Savanna Darnell

We had high hopes for Savanna when she entered Casa Amor. Sadly, she failed to capture any of the boys' imaginations and she was sent home before making it into the main villa.

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Savanna Darnell

Savanna has released a single called Bye Bye and we have to admit that it's quite catchy. She's also appears in the new Disney Aladdin movie and she's currently touring the UK as a dancer in Thriller Live Musical.

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Jordan Adefeyisan

Jordan tried to make things happen with Georgia Steel in the villa. She stayed faithful to Josh Denzel...and we know how that ended.

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Jordan Adefeyisan

Since his five day flash in the villa, Jordan has mainly been hanging around looking hot by walls. Lovely stuff.

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Dean Overson

Oh, Dean. He set his sights on Megan but didn't stand a chance against fitlord Alex 'Glasses Alex' Miller.

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Dean Overson

After his brief stay in the villa, Dean started hanging out with fellow dumpee Jordan in northern clubs . He's since posted a lot of 'blue steel' photos on his Insta page for spons and ads.

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Charlie Williams

Charlie was (perhaps) put in Casa Amor as blonde bait for sex lobster Dr Alex. She failed to light his fire and he pied her in favour of Grace Wardle. More on her later.

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Charlie Williams

Since her brief stint in the villa, Charlie has mainly been working on her Instagram game.

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Alex Miller

Alex 'Glasses Alex' Miller scored very highly in our sexiest Love Island contestants line-up. Sadly, he paired up with Megan, which is probably why he was dumped after finding himself in the bottom three least popular couples.

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Alex Miller

Since leaving the show, Alex has mainly been looking HELLA sexy on Instagram. We're still big fans. Alex also reignited Love Island feuds when he left the official Love Island group chat just months after the show finished. Awks. He also now sells rude videos of himself on an adult site...

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Adam Collard

As the villa's King Snake, Adam did incredibly well to stay in the Love Island for 33 days. That's 33 days of mugging Kendall, Rosie, Zara and Darylle off. Bless them.

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Adam Collard

He and Zara McDermott split after seven months when he reportedly dumped her by text. He then appeared to send a BRUTAL message to his ex via Instagram. Ouch. He regularly posts topless pics of himself so, there's that.

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Ellie Jones

Ellie was never going to be popular in the villa - she entered as Jack Fincham's ex, putting Dani Dyer's nose right out of joint. She ended up in a very odd partnership with Sam Bird before being dumped from the show.

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Ellie Jones

Ellie doesn't appear to have done much since Love Island and has yet to address her apparent support for jailed far-right activist and former EDL leader Tommy Robinson. Yuck. She's since split from her Ex On The Beach boyfriend Bobby Ballard after branding him "too controlling".

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Darylle Sargeant

Darylle lasted seven days in the villa after being chosen as Adam's lucky fourth (not counting Megan) lady in Casa Amor.

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Darylle Sargeant

She's since had an absolute hoot on Love Island: After Sun and been to see The Dreamboys, where she apparently met and charmed Jake Quickenden. Not a bad life TBH. She's also started up her own microblading business.

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Grace Wardle

Grace was pretty quiet when she entered Casa Amor which she put down to a lack of vitamins. Sure, Grace. Sure. She was dumped after ten days which is actually not a bad run.

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Grace Wardle

Since crashing back into reality, Grace has kept us up-to-date on Instagram - and is the owner of her own hairdressing company in London.

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Frankie Foster

Frankie got together with Samira Mighty and she was devastated when he was revealed as the least popular man in the villa and booted out. Not devastated enough to follow him straight out though.

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Frankie Foster

Frankie was rumoured to have cheated on Sam pretty much the moment he left the villa. The pair have now split. Frankie has since returned to personal training.

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Samira Mighty

Samira was in Love Island from day one but was initially paired with Dr Alex (bleurgh) before entering a slightly odd coupling with Sam Bird. She followed Frankie out of the villa, four days after he got the boot.

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Samira Mighty

Samira's gamble did not pay off. Oh dear. But since she left, Samira has been out and about living her best life (well, apart from when she was turned away from Dani Dyer's fashion line launch).

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Sam Bird

Sam and his suspiciously small eyebrows started life in the villa with Samira, before returning from Casa Amor with Jack's ex Ellie Brown on his arm. He then swooped in when Georgia was left broken hearted by Josh, but we weren't convinced they had the 'real deal'. Bizarrely, the couple chose to split up in order to stay in the villa. But days later, they proved doubters wrong by choosing to walk out of the villa as a couple.

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Sam Bird

Sam did the media rounds with Georgia for three months before they split in October 2018. Sam claimed Georgia's ex was the cause of the break up, something Georgia denies. As for those teeny tiny brows, he's since had them preened and re-shaped.

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Georgia Steel

Illustrating a whole new definition of 'loyal', Georgia kissed best pal Laura Anderson's boyfriend Jack Fowler. But before this fall from grace, we have to admit that Georgia was a good friend to the girls in there. She was left apparently heartbroken when Josh Denzel dropped her for Kazimir Crossley - but she quickly perked up again with Sam Bird.

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Georgia Steel

Following a questionable decision to break up with Sam in order to stay in the villa, the pair then proved their loyalty by walking out together a few days later. Georgia has since admitted to The Kiss, which is big of her. She's also denied cheating on Sam, who she has now split from, and they were still arguing about it at the Christmas reunion. Georgia returned to our screens with her pet rabbit in Celebs Go Dating and she appeared on Celebs On The Ranch alongside Eyal. After kissing Hollyoaks star Malique Thompson Dyer, she went on to date a conman and then claimed he stole her money.

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Jack Fowler

Quite frankly, we were relieved when physically flawless Jack came in and 100% took Laura's mind off muggy Wes Nelson with one flex of those biceps. But the pair didn't work out, and he cracked on with surfer chick Laura Crane. Yes, it is a bit awkward that both girls shared the same name but it didn't stop him.

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Jack Fowler

Despite proving himself to be a totally 'hot dad' in the baby challenge, he was booted out with Laura in the final week. They have since split - but Jack got us hot under the collar once again when he returned to our screens in Celebs Go Dating.

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Laura Crane

Surfer chick Laura had a short stint in the villa but managed to grab the attention of coupled up boys Jack Fowler and Dr Alex George. She chose Jack and the pair made a BEAUTIFUL couple.

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Laura Crane

Alas, Laura was booted out of the villa quicker than you could say 'surf's up'. But at least the pair got to spend time with their little Aubrey in the baby challenge. Aww. Laura and Jack have since split up. In November 2018 Laura was rushed to hospital where she was later diagnosed with the life-threatening infection sepsis. She's now dating Made in Chelsea's Tristan Phipps.

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Dr Alex George

Dr Alex had an odd ride in Love Island. At first an object of pity, he then revealed himself to be hella entitled when Ellie Brown rejected him, and was a cad to the only woman who cared for him, Alexandra Crane.

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Dr Alex George

Alex took over from Dr Hilary Jones on Good Morning Britain when he was on holiday for a week. He's become something of an Instagram sensation, incredibly, and following a bunch on PAs he has returned to the NHS.

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Alexandra Cane

Alexandra genuinely seemed to fancy Dr Alex which just goes to show that there's someone out there for everyone.

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Alexandra Cane

Dr Alex and Alex were not meant to be but she's been having a lovely time at celeb events. She also became an ambassador for Protein World, Boohoo - surprise surprise - and bizarrely, Pot Noodle. We didn't see that one coming. She also spilled the tea on what really happens inside the Love Island villa.

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Wes Nelson

It's fair to say that we were NOT fans of Wes Nelson in the villa after he dumped our sweet princess Laura Anderson in favour of Meg Barton-Hanson, who we actually quite like too.

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Wes Nelson

Since leaving the villa after somehow coming fourth, Wes moved in with Megan. He kept himself in the public eye with a drama-filled appearance in Dancing on Ice 2019. Wes and Megan broke up in early 2019, before he moved on with fashion influencer, Alicia Roddy. They've since split.

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Megan Barton-Hanson

Megan was probably one of the most unapologeticLove Island's love rats of all time and to be honest, you go girl!

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Megan Barton-Hanson

Since leaving the show, Megan has become a huge talking point in popular culture. From defending a woman's right to have plastic surgery to openly discussing mental health problems - this girl is flying the flag for women everywhere. Arguably, she's come out with the best prospects. She andWes split in January 2019.

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Kazimir Crossley

Kazimir Crossley did not win many friends when she stole Josh's heart from the Georgia. She's since said that Georgia was 'horrible' to her in the villa.

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Kazimir Crossley

Kaz had the last laugh on the show as she and Josh came in a very respectable third place. She's subsequently returned to her job as a make-up artist and is an ambassador for Boohoo. Rumour has it she's dating Love Island 2017 star Theo Campbell.

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Josh Denzel

Josh entered Love Island on day eight and entered a never-quite-right partnership with Georgia, before dumping her for Kaz.

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Josh Denzel

Since leaving the villa he's appeared on Lorraine as a business correspondent. Sure... He stayed with Kaz until January 2019, after the pair embarked on a tropical holiday. He's returned to his previous job as a presenter and has been travelling over the world for it.

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Paul Knops

Paul Knops was a latecomer to the Love Island party, entering the villa on day 43 when he coupled up with Laura Anderson. He waited about five seconds before revealing he'dsnogged Britney Spears in a steamy music video.

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Paul Knops

Paul has since been to Burning Man and posts frequent, smouldering, pics of himself on Instagram. He and Laura have broken up and he was SAVAGEabout it. He's also spoke out on whether Love Island is fake or not...

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Laura Anderson

Laura had one heck of a journey in Love Island. She eventually took second place because we could ALL feel for her.

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Laura Anderson

We didn't hear much about Laura to start with other than about her new hair andnew face. But then she got together with another Love Islanderin a coupling we did NOT see coming, Fair play to Laura, he's an absolute studmuffin. The pair broke up after just a few weeks but have since reunited.

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Jack Fincham

Jack was paired up with Dani Dyer on the very first day of Love Island and a sure fire love thing was born.

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Jack Fincham

Since leaving the show, Jack got his feet well under the table with the Dyers. Frankly, we don't blame him. He moved in with Dani, bought a dog with her and even spent Christmas with her. Drama struck when Dani announced they split in December - but alas, she took back her words just a few days later and confirmed it was just a silly argument. But the pair split for good in April 2019. Weep.

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Dani Dyer

Dani captured the nation's heart on Love Island and went the full distance, winning the show after a whopping 59 days in the villa.

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Dani Dyer

Big things are predicted for Dani, including an acting job with her dear old dad, Danny. And her clothing line for In The Style broke records for the brand as fans rushed to buy her frocks. Go, Dani! She's also reunited with her ex-boyfriend Sammy Kimmence.

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Ellie Brown

Ellie entered the Love Island villa with Zara McDermott. She had the misfortune of coupling up with Dr. Alex, before turning to billionaire Chelsea boy, Charlie Brake.

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Ellie Brown

Whilst Ellie and Zara's friendship has gone from strength to strength, we can't say the same for Ellie's love life. Although she moved in with ultra-rich Charlie, their relationship soon came to a bitter end - which was televised on the Love Island Christmas Reunion. Oh, the joys of reality TV.

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Charlie Brake

Charlie was a late arrival to the Love Island villa and only got to chance to couple up with feisty Geordie, Ellie Brown before he was booted off.

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Charlie Brake

Other than bickering with Ellie, Charlie didn't make much of an impact during his time in the Love Island villa - but once the heir stepped returned to UK soil, all hell broke loose. Charlie was linked to TOWIE's Ferne McCann, which thus sparked a huge fight between pals Zara, Adam and Ferne at the glitzy NTAs. Charlie opted for another Love Island fling - but not before returning to his TOWIE type-on-paper, when he snogged Amber Turner.

Now her love of working out has led Alex to launch her own fitness fashion brand with MILA, as well as an online fitness programme, Alexandra’s Happy Body, which includes a series of 10-minute HIIT routines. She regularly posts routines for her followers to do at home, like her popular “chair cardio”, using just kitchen equipment.

She says, “I do my workouts pretty much every day because it doesn’t take long and I can do it in my living room. I usually split it, so I’ll do one 10-minute session in the morning, and one 10-minute session in the evening.

“It’s not much, but I feel amazing afterwards. Doing a morning session really sets you up for the day, and you make healthier decisions because of it, such as eating better.”

Alex – who is single and no longer has contact with her ex, Dr Alex – admits her nutrition has also played a vital role during lockdown, joking that the only thing she sees consistently is “my fridge”.

Before Love Island, she admits to not having a good diet, saying she would indulge on chicken wings daily while working in an American-style bar and grill.

Now, she reveals, “For breakfast, I’ll have porridge with oat milk and blueberries or raspberries. For lunch, I’ll have chicken, turkey or fish and green vegetables, and the same for dinner, plus fruit or a bit of chocolate.” However, although being more active has helped Alexandra clear her head, she also says the pandemic has taught her the importance of slowing down when life feels overwhelming.

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“During the first lockdown, I learnt that burnout is real,” she says.

“You cannot be a machine all of the time. I fell off a treadmill a few weeks ago and it put a complete pause on all of my training and I had to rest. I was nervous because I’m so used to being a machine – but it was life-changing. It’s about trying to find that balance, which I know can be really difficult during everyday life, where we are so consumed by our jobs, family and responsibilities.

“But you can’t go all guns blazing forever, because you will crash. Body confidence for me is about accepting your body in all of its states. In times of stress, in times of fitness – we need to accept the things we don’t like about ourselves and learn to embrace them. It’s about practising self-care, because you deserve it.”

Alexandra has launched her own fitness brand with MILA. Visit www.themilatribe.com

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