Busy Woman's Guide to Wellbeing

Trauma can play a huge part in many of our stories, in how we feel about ourselves and in how our lives play out. It can lead to anxiety and inflammation within our bodies, and even physical pain.  So this week I’m joined by author Samala Bygraves, to get clear on the role of trauma in our lives and how we can go about healing that and in the process improving our mental, emotional and physic...

It can be really easy to find excuses not to do a workout: I’m too busy,  I’m too tired, I’ll do one tomorrow,  I need to make dinner… I’m not saying those excuses aren’t valid, but sometimes we are creating an excuse so we just don’t have to do the workout. If you are in that energy of not wanting, then this is the episode for you. Listen to it, remember the messages and come back to it anytime y...

All of us have a mixture of feminine and masculine energy within us. We express ourselves through these energies in our day-to-day lives, as well as in the way we judge ourselves and our actions or our non-actions. This also feeds through into our health and wellbeing. Our culture and society puts the masculine energy on a pedestal, while the feminine energy appears weak, lazy and undesirable. In...

www.powerupyourperimenopause.com   For way too long the menopause has been seen as a horrible, scary ageing process full of hot flushes and mental and physical decline. We go into this phase in denial, pretending that our bodies and brains aren’t changing and trying to carry on as normal. I want to do everything in my power to make sure that we totally flip this and instead start to see this life...

I used to have this thought that would go round and round in my head that, if I could just lose those last 7 lbs, everything will be okay. I truly believed that 7 lbs was the difference between me feeling too big and me feeling ‘just right’. Losing them would make my confidence bloom and my self-esteem grow. In this episode, I talk about The Myth of the Last 7 lbs and how it affects our confidence...

Today we’re looking at fitness in midlife, what the key elements of that should be, and what to do if you’ve struggled to exercise the last few years due to stress, busyness, aches and pains, lack of motivation, or not knowing where to start. Because exercise and movement are absolutely non-negotiable at this point in your life, it’s more important now than ever that you do things that are going t...

I have a theory that feeling good isn’t as easy as it seems. Many of us have to learn how to feel good because our default is to feel anything but good most of the time. That’s why we keep going back to more stress by saying “yes” too often, and why we don’t exercise even though we know it will make us feel good. The fact is that feeling good takes training. What You Will Learn in This Episode: -...

Final call! Join the free Fatigued to Fabulous Challenge starting on September 18th! https://chickfit.lpages.co/f-to-f-sept Weight gain is part of the experience for a lot of perimenopause women, as well as the struggle to lose weight. I know that the question on everyone’s lips is “how do I lose this weight when the old ways aren’t working any more," so today I'll talk about the science of this p...

When it comes to fitness and wellness, making everything smaller so we can get the things that we want for ourselves is something I fully encourage all of my clients and members to do. Aiming for smaller steps in everything can help to take away the overwhelm, and give us a doable and sustainable action plan. In this episode, I will give you some practical tips on how you can make everything small...

September 18th: Join the free Fatigued to Fabulous Challenge! https://chickfit.lpages.co/f-to-f-sept   When we start to notice the early menopause changes, I like to see this as our body giving us a little nudge. Usually at the start, it’s nothing to give us too much cause for concern, things just feel a little bit different. Some women have had less subtle signs and gone to their docs, only to be...

We all promise ourselves we’re going to do certain things, make a good start and then find that our good intentions have fallen by the wayside in no time at all. It can often leave us wondering what’s wrong with us. Is it the lack of willpower? Is it because we don’t have enough time? Is it because we weren’t focused enough? Is it because we didn’t find the right diet or fitness programme or train...

September 18th: Join my FREE challenge to take you from Fatigued to Fabulous https://chickfit.lpages.co/f-to-f-sept/   Welcome to the first of five mini-episodes that are coming your way every Wednesday for the next few weeks. I’m going to be giving you some bite-sized chunks of mega valuable information. This week I’m starting with the question that seems to be on everyone’s lips right now - am I...

I am a huge believer in planning.  By getting clear on what I want and then making a plan for how that’s going to happen is the only way I ever achieve anything in life. If having an amazing autumn of fitness and feeling fabulous is on your list, then this episode is for you, because I’m going to help you think about how to make a plan that’s really going to work for you. What You Will Learn in Th...

I notice I have a tendency to silo certain parts of my life and look at them as separate entities. But over the last few years, I have learnt that there is a much better and more effective way of getting what you want, and that is to actually start looking at your goals in individual areas of your life in relation to all of the other parts of your life.  If you can do this effectively, then you ca...

I started meditating a couple of years ago, and now it’s a regular fixture in my life. Meditation helps you slow down and find some calm and peace. It can also help you process your thoughts and feelings. In this episode, I’m going to encourage you to welcome meditation into your life with a simple 10-minute meditation. Before we start, just a couple of prep tips. Try to find a quiet and relaxing...

Summer offers us an opportunity to take extra good care of ourselves. The light, the sunshine and hopefully some holiday time are the perfect opportunity to take some time out and relax both body and brain. The more time we create for self-care, the more calm and productive we are the rest of the time. When we don’t prioritise this, it can feel like the wheels are coming off! What You Will Learn i...

I always think that the summer is a brilliant opportunity to take a step back, evaluate what you’ve been doing for your body and mind so far this year, and then use that as a springboard for the autumn. It’s also a great time to change the intensity, do something different and give your body a little bit of a change / rest! What You Will Learn in This Episode: - Is it time to change the pace a bit...

A lot of us feel selfish for putting ourselves first. And when we view our own wellbeing and spending time on ourselves through the lens of being selfish, it’s going to be incredibly hard for us to ever prioritise that. Every time we do a workout or any other wellbeing practice, it’s going to feel like something we really shouldn’t be doing, something that takes away from the other people and thin...

Moving our bodies in ways that make us feel strong, capable and good not only helps us feel amazing and grow our confidence, but it also translates into all other areas of our lives. We need to change the conversation, find ways to move away from the same old narrative of weight loss, and see how we can find real joy in movement and fitness and look after ourselves in different ways. In this episo...

Fitness and wellbeing can often come at a distant last place when there are so many other things asking for your attention and time. But the fact is that most of us would like to include fitness in our lives, because we know that looking after our bodies is important to so many aspects of our wellbeing. In this episode, I’m going to give you some of my top tips to getting fitter when you’re feelin...

Our identities shape our view of the world, the way we approach challenges, the way we interact with others and how we perceive our potential. We have certain identities around our worth, what we can achieve, what we like and don’t like, what we do and don’t do. Sometimes, when we try to upgrade our habits or achieve our goals, something invisible seems to hold us back. In this episode, we’ll talk...

Do you find yourself saying, “I’ve not done much because I haven’t been feeling very motivated”? It’s really common and we all do it. We can feel motivated one week and totally tired and unmotivated the next. This can lead to frustration and an on/off approach to our fitness and wellbeing. In this episode, we’re going to talk about motivation and how to create our fitness mindset for a regular, lo...

There are some life phases and transitions in a woman's life in which it would help us to pay special attention to nutrition. In this episode  I'm joined by Caroline Hill, a freelance dietitian and owner of “Caroline Hill Nutrition”. Together we dive into a couple of areas of the early postnatal period and the perimenopause. We chat about what we need to pay attention to and share some practical a...

Do you tend to think of your period as something that works against you? Do you get annoying symptoms, mood swings, pain, a lack of energy, a lack of willpower? In this episode I’m going to try to change your mind about that. The annoying symptoms will continue to exist, but there is amazing potential that you can harness within your menstrual cycle. I’ll help you understand its ups and downs and...

We all avoid discomfort - usually by keeping ourselves busy and buying our way out of anything that does not feel comfortable for us. But if we want to grow, to achieve, to develop, it’s necessary to get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable. In this episode we'll talk about why we avoid discomfort, why it's important to welcome it into our lives and how to do that in order to make progress towar...