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#83 Vikki Cronin: A holistic and realistic approach to healthy living
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In this episode of the Kate Hamilton Health Podcast, I chat with the inspiring Vikki Cronin. At 50, Vicky has transformed her life from unhealthy habits to becoming a holistic health and fitness expert.
We dive deep into her journey, discussing how she overcame her past struggles to achieve balance and well-being. Vicky shares her insights on how nutrition, mindset, and self-awareness play a key role in long-term health and offers practical advice for women, especially those navigating perimenopause and menopause.
Whether you're looking to start your own health journey or just refine your habits, Vicky’s tips will help you make lasting changes.
We also explore the power of journaling, behavior change, and how meditation, sleep, and stress management are all essential pieces to achieving a well-rounded, healthy lifestyle. Vicky’s holistic approach to coaching provides a roadmap for anyone looking to take charge of their health, no matter what stage of life you’re in.
Key Questions Discussed in This Episode:
- How did Vicky transform her unhealthy lifestyle into one focused on fitness and well-being?
- What is a holistic approach to health, and how can it impact your mindset?
- What are the biggest challenges when starting a fitness journey, and how can they be overcome?
- Why is self-awareness so crucial for creating lasting change?
- How can journaling help build effective routines and stay consistent?
- Why is sleep a cornerstone of health, especially during perimenopause and menopause?
- What role does resistance training play in maintaining a balanced lifestyle?
- How can nutrition empower women during perimenopause and beyond?
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with friends who might benefit. For more health tips and updates, follow me on Instagram and TikTok @katehamiltonhealth.
Music by LiQWYD Free download: hypeddit.com/link/xxtopb [http://hypeddit.com/link/xxtopb] Promoted by FreeMusicPromo [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbycji-eySnM3WD8mbxPUSQ] / @freemusicpromo1
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Transcript
Introduction to Vicky Cronin
00:00:09
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Kate Hamilton health podcast. So in today's episode, I chat with online coach Vicky Cronin. Vicky is a fabulous 50 year old woman who as an online coach is in incredible shape. Not only does she preach this healthy lifestyle, it is very much done in a holistic way. It is not all about restriction. It's not all about obsessive training.
Vicky's Lifestyle Transformation
00:00:33
Speaker
It is about working on your lifestyle as a whole.
00:00:37
Speaker
And she promotes this amazing lifestyle. And we just have the most amazing conversation about all things, about her own background, which led her to her own fitness journey from being someone who, you know, drank regularly, was a smoker to giving up that. Moving to joining a gym, starting on her own fitness journey in her late 30s to lead her to qualify as a coach and then working as a coach for the past seven years.
Managing Stress and Menopause through Habits
00:01:01
Speaker
we have an amazing conversation around relationship with food with behavior change and you know where to start with clients and you know why this is so different for everyone we talk a lot about sleep a lot about stress meditation and we talk about lifestyle and what exact lifestyle habits should we be putting in place to live this balanced healthy lifestyle and then that also leads into a conversation we have around perimenopause and menopause and how this healthy lifestyle that we're leading now is laying the foundation for our experience of perimenopause and menopause and we also talk a little bit about you know people who are listening who are starting
00:01:41
Speaker
in menopause or post menopause that it's never too late to introduce these lifestyle habits and how you cannot put a price on just waking up feeling amazing each day that that can happen at any stage of your life. We talk a little bit about training, building muscle and how that is possible at any age.
00:01:58
Speaker
And that you can lose body fat regardless of what misinformation you may be reading online. It is possible. She is proof of that. She is amazingly motivational and I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I have.
Evolution of Vicky's Coaching Approach
00:02:16
Speaker
Vicky, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me on Kate, looking forward to the chats. Yeah, no, really looking forward to yeah getting stuck in now. And before we do, do you want to let everyone know? I always start my podcast this way, a little bit about you so that we, you know, get a feel for what you do and what has kind of led you to to where you are today. Okay. Well, I'm Vicky Cronin.
00:02:37
Speaker
currently going on to the name Vicky Cronin coaching on Instagram on social media but I probably would have been known as the macro coach for many years so I'm coaching now seven years and when I first started coaching I started to coach as the macro coach purely because I think it was a lot to do with the food the recipes And macros, really, literally. And I suppose people are saying, what are macros? But again, carbs, fats, proteins. And that's probably when I first started coaching where I was. But I'm seven years in the in the industry now. And as the years have progressed, I've evolved, I suppose, to a more holistic approach to coaching.
Mindset and Flexible Dieting in Coaching
00:03:18
Speaker
in terms of encompassing everything and primarily the mindset, really, which is probably the number one driving factor in terms of fat loss. Last year, though this year, actually, I completed my menopause specialist course as well, purely because I'm there myself. I am in the throes of perimenopause. And a lot of my clients, I suppose, will veer towards me because of my age. So I found I was coaching a lot of women.
00:03:46
Speaker
in perimenopause as well. And I wanted to upskill to go along with that. So like any other coach, I started coaching from my own personal journey back in 2014, 2015. I don't know if you remember, but back in the day, it was chicken and broccoli diets. It was the basic bro food, do you know, you had to stick to this, that and the other. And I went, it's never going to work for me, never going to work for me. So I kind of embraced the If it fits your macros at the time, which then has kind of year towards a more flexible dieting approach. And I started to get more interested in food and creating food that I knew I'd enjoy would help me to stick to.
00:04:28
Speaker
calories. I suppose many years ago when I first started I didn't know about calories. You know for dieting I was the classic yo-yo dieter, the juice diet, the special K diet, it's the egg diet, you name it. We've all been there at some stage. I found the passion for creating food and calorie tracking and what the results that could yield me and then I went on to say okay I want to help other people.
00:04:53
Speaker
So that's kind of where I started, like many other coaches do, I suppose. We have the the personal history
Vicky's Journey and Career Fulfillment
00:04:58
Speaker
with it. But seven years now, doing what I've been doing when I have to say while it's tough, some days it is still a very rewarding job and will never regret changing my whole career, my whole outlook. Amazing. So have you been coaching for seven years or was seven years when you started your own fitness journey?
00:05:17
Speaker
No, coaching for seven years. This is my seventh anniversary this month. Yeah. So it's hard to believe, like it certainly wasn't an avenue I was ever going to go down back in the day, but it just worked for me. It fell into place. And it's just something I've become very passionate about. And there is no better feeling that when people come back to you and say, I feel so much better. I have more energy. I'm sleeping better. My clothes are fitting better. I'm regaining my confidence. It's a very rewarding job. Probably.
00:05:47
Speaker
10 years since I started my own journey, but I'm now coaching seven years. So when you started your own journey, as you said, you were, you had been the OEO dieting. Did you join a gym? Was that kind of like the first step or what, what was this first step on you being like, okay, what was the game changer for you?
00:06:04
Speaker
Okay. The game changer. So the little bit of the history with where I was in 2014 is I was a very heavy smoker. I was going to all my exercise classes and I was going to the gym for classes only. I had never entered a the gym floor as such. So I'd go to my class and I'd come home. I'd crack open the bottle of wine, pour out the the couple of glasses, have my cigarettes and used to be kind of scratching my head going, look, I'm exercising. So what's, what's happening?
00:06:33
Speaker
And then in November 2014, I decided, right, the cigarettes had to go. I had two choices given to me by the GP at the time. Quit smoking or go on an inhaler. So at 39, coming up to 40, I went, okay, something has to give. But prior to, I suppose, the November 2014, every time I tried to give up cigarettes, it was the weight gain that came with it that just threw me and went back smoking. So I had to kind of make the decision I'm going to give up cigarettes, but I'm going to accept the weight gain that comes with it to make the the deal stick with regards to no smoking. So I did that, gained the weight a little bit, not overly now. And then in January, 2015, I signed up with a personal trainer. I learned the ropes in the gym. And as they say from there, the rest was history. I got the nutrition in line.
00:07:28
Speaker
fell in love with resistance training, absolutely fell in love with it and could see my body changing, could see the differences, you know, and stayed off the cigarettes, got into the gym, got into a just a healthier lifestyle, ditched the wine. It's probably borderline nearly an alcoholic if I think back, like I was drinking seven nights a week, you know, that mom reward thing, kind of long day.
00:07:52
Speaker
back with the wine, but just overhauled my lifestyle really then in 2015. So just as I hit 40. I think that there's so much value in what you're saying there, because there'll be a lot of people listening to this who can really relate to this, you know, whether it is with the smoking or with the wine or with both. yeah Every time you fail at at a give up attempt,
00:08:12
Speaker
It, you know, it knocks at your confidence a little bit further, but I think that the trick is like, as I've been saying, I used to smoke as well, particularly when I was drinking, I used to drink quite regularly as well, so that I could smoke. The easiest way to do it is you're replacing it with something else. And the problem is, I suppose with the weight gain, we tend to replace it with food. Whereas I think when you step into this lifestyle and, you know, even if it wasn't straight away when, when you gave up.
00:08:38
Speaker
stepping into that lifestyle probably made you never want to go back because you're like, Oh my God, I love this. What else can I do? It was the feel good factor that came from it. It was just, you know, the improved energy. I think I actually took up running as well at the time, not a runner now, but I, again, like that, I did two half marathons and my first half marathon was just after I'd given up smoking. I trained for that. And again, that was to kind of keep me on the straight and narrow with staying off the cigarettes because smoking and running cardiovascular fitness, they definitely don't really gel. So, you know, it was the more I did, the better I felt, the more it made it stick.
00:09:15
Speaker
And then I kind of got to the stage where I kind of went, okay, the wine was so that I could smoke. The smoking was so that I could drink wine. It was all related. So I really had to focus on giving up cigarettes, but also the reliance on the, the glass of wine or the two glasses of wine or the wine o'clock on a Friday. I was a demon five o'clock on a Friday down in the glass after glass, then the munchies. And you know, there was just so much with my lifestyle that was wrong heading into my forties.
00:09:43
Speaker
You know, I have to make the changes. Something I have to give for health really. And it is the biggest, the best decision I have ever made and I will never regret it, ever. And isn't it funny how it's phrased, giving up something. When you're not really giving anything up, you're actually gaining so much more. Absolutely. And I think this is a huge reframe that people need to kind of get to. Is that okay? It's not what you're taking away. It's what you're giving and what you're adding to your life.
Understanding Food Relationships
00:10:11
Speaker
improved energy, improved sleep, improved mood, improved body, call a spade a spade, you know, you feel better in your skin, your confidence is higher, you know, so you're gaining so much more than you're losing. Everything gets easier. So let's talk a little bit about you you were then the macro coach for a while. So really kind of bodybuilder style lifestyle where you're tracking your protein, carbs, fats, your calories, you were saying everything was very kind of chicken and broccoli, and then you were like, I want to change this up and get meals a bit more interesting. Yeah. And I suppose like when I would have started as many did with the, you know, the PT, my PT at the time, who like, I will always be grateful to him for getting me started. I think we actually had a couple of weeks of keto, which was a nightmare. Like, you know, no carbs, all of that. And I remember going, okay, I can't do this. This isn't sustainable. So that went out the window pretty quickly.
00:11:04
Speaker
Then we went on to a meal plan, but it was basic. It was chicken. It was right. It was broccoli. And I went, this is too plain, too boring. I'm never going to stick with it. So I started adding spices and creating different things. So I kind of went OK. And then he said, do you know what? There's an app called MyFitnessPal. Why didn't you start using that? So I did. And I just literally went, OK, so it's more than just macros and calories. It's about making food enjoyable.
00:11:31
Speaker
that you can look forward to it. you know And then I just became so invested in creating food and food recipes, et cetera. Started my Instagram page, which was really documenting my own journey for a long time. Yeah, it was just initially macros. And I suppose even when I first started coaching, I thought that's all that was needed. Here are your calories, here are your macros. And you know little did I know, after a few months, then I discovered, oh, it goes way deeper than this, way, way deeper.
00:12:00
Speaker
Yeah, no, absolutely. And that's kind of what i I want to ask you a bit about now, because I think it's very common, I think, when people start coaching, isn't it? Particularly, you know, if the individual who is coaching enjoys tracking calories, enjoys, you know, the the structure that gym life and having good balance with food has. But when you give someone calories and macros and you give them a workout programme and you tell them exactly what to do and they can't stick to it.
00:12:25
Speaker
That's where it gets deeper. And that's where it gets interesting. And that's where I love to coach as well. It's like, it's not that simple. We're, we're complex beings. Life is complicated. How can we make this work as best as possible for the individual? And again, like that, you see Kate, I suppose everybody, you, me, you know, Mary down the road, we all have behaviors and habits that we've spent years building and those habits are hard to change. So this is where, you know, it it gets into that deeper level.
00:12:55
Speaker
Is it down to the training that we did, you know, or the nutrition courses that we did where, look, you know, you give somebody a calorie deficit, you send them off on their way, grand, they're fine, but they're not because they don't know what to do. Life will throw things at them. You know, they'll have busy lives. They'll have kids, they'll have work, they'll have stress, hormones, everything.
00:13:14
Speaker
It is the deeper, the deeper side of coaching. I think that is where we all need to be. And, ah you know, again, that's only with experience. You get to learn that when you first start out, you just do think, here's your program. Here are the calories. Bye-bye. And away you go. But then your first week of the first check-in that you get from your client, you're going, okay, this needs a lot more involvement in terms of mindset.
00:13:38
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So
Coaching Strategies for Sustainable Habits
00:13:39
Speaker
what do you recommend? So in general, when some obviously every client is different, a client starts with you. And obviously, you know, you're going to give them nutrition and and training. But where do you go there with the client next? Do you know what I suppose in In reality, Kate, really, we send out everything with the, you know, this is what you do and you give them, I always give baseline meal plans just to implement some structure. But again, that's not something I like them to stick with. I want them to learn as they go. And that would be the use of tracking my fitness pal, etc. But it's probably not until they get stuck in. So week one, really.
00:14:14
Speaker
And then their first check in where you identify, OK, this is a struggle, you know, they're struggling with their sleep or they're struggling with their time availability or they're struggling with, you know, the relationship to food and how they view food. Again, what you'll get and I presume you'll get the same is that they're labeling, you know, I went out and I felt so bold or I i cheated or I, you know, I had this meal and it was it was a bad meal or, you know, so it really is like When you're starting out with the client, you get the basics and you give them the basic structure, but it's really not until the first week or two or into it that you start to really see, okay, what's going on in the background? What are their main struggles?
00:14:57
Speaker
And that is like a week to week thing. And it's a step-by-step process. And I always say to my own clients, we don't want to overhaul everything. We don't want to overwhelm or change too much. It's a learning curve for them, but it's also a learning curve for me. The longer we work together, the more you get to know somebody, the more you can reframe things for them and give them the rationale that's needed behind things like that, in particular with food labeling and, you know, how they view the food. Good, bad, we just want to,
00:15:25
Speaker
try and get strip it right back to the basics and just get them to some structure with their nutrition. I think one thing that a lot of people struggle with, and I would go as far as to say that most people struggle with in some way, shape or form, is relationship with food. What are your thoughts on kind of reframing your your relationship with food? So I think to reframe the relationship, again, people are probably saying, what is relationship? to food And the relationship to food is how you use food. Do you use it to soothe, to comfort in terms, you know, in times of emotions? Do you use it when you're stressed? Do you use food if you're tired? So again, that comes under the banner of relationship to food. The other thing is how people view food. food Like I said, they're labeling it. So like a bar of chocolate is bad food.
00:16:13
Speaker
but a stick of broccoli is good food. So they're attaching a label to the food. So again, we have to go back and kind of just correlate it to food is fuel, calories in, food is your calories in. And, you know, there is a balance to be had in terms of how, how you eat and what you eat. So like, again, 80% nutrient dense food, meaning 80% of your calories from primarily nutrient dense food, but you should be.
Dealing with Emotional Eating
00:16:42
Speaker
you are allowed to have soul food, which is comfort food, something that you enjoy, like a bit of chocolate, a couple of biscuits, you might be a glass of wine person. So it's about the balance and achieving that balance is the important thing. And, you know, we have, again, like I said, the biggest thing that I find with people is the habits that they have built up over years and years.
00:17:06
Speaker
you know the the comfort food if you're tired reaching for the chocolate or if you're stressed reaching for the munchies. Like even I found myself this week was quite a high stress week but I found myself kind of reaching more that little bit more for things that I normally wouldn't be bothered with. So again these are all behaviors that we all have but the differences I suppose with myself now and what clients learn is other coping mechanisms outside of reaching for the food and that's where the work is needed it's your use of food and it's people's use of food which you know we're at the stage in society now where it's click of a button or you walk into the local garage and you're just met with a hot deli counter or you're met with you know the chocolates all over the front
00:17:54
Speaker
of the in the supermarket so it's readily available so it's learning to Think about your actions, why you're acting, the way you're acting, or why you might be using food, and just put that pause, reflect, wait, think about it. I think that's the key of where the where to start is self-reflection. Because if you're not aware that you're doing something, then you can't change it. And it's it's never going to change. And this is why we often end up in these these same cycles over and over again. And I do think when clients start working with me, on the first week, I will be like, you need a journal and you need a pen.
00:18:28
Speaker
You don't need to spend hours journaling, but you need to be able to put pen to paper. And some people aren't, aren't pen to paper type people. You can do it on the notes on your phone. You can voice note yourself, whatever, but you need to start so noticing
Awareness and Journaling in Habit Change
00:18:39
Speaker
your patterns. And I think a huge part of it as well then is detaching guilt from it. So it's like, I reach for chocolate when I'm stressed or I'm drinking wine after work every day, or quite often then people load this guilt on top of themselves. I'm a terrible person on failure. I can't do this.
00:18:55
Speaker
And that's where we end up stuck. So I think when we can kind of reflect and be like, these are my patterns. I want to change these patterns. First of all, why am I doing this? If you don't know why you're doing something, then it's very, very hard to change it. Oh, listen, and Kate, that's the first thing. It's awareness. You have to learn about yourself.
00:19:16
Speaker
your patterns, your behaviours, your defaults, I suppose, you know, like that my default would have been a Friday evening wine and at the end of a long week or whatever. So I knew that was a pattern that wasn't working for me or wasn't suiting like that, you know, the way we turn to food for comfort.
00:19:32
Speaker
You know, is that really ever going to solve what needs to be solved? So you need to acknowledge what the actual problem is, what's causing you to be emotional. What are we comforting? And like, that's huge because that needs to, long-term, we need to, we need to resolve that, like, because we can't continuously live in a way where we have to comfort ourselves all the time with an an ongoing insecurity or an ongoing stress.
00:19:57
Speaker
And like the other side of it is the chances are you'll comfort yourself with the food, but five minutes late, then you're attaching food guilt to that. Then because you're beating yourself up over going, my favorite expression, balls deep into the chocolate press and you're kind of five minutes late, you're going, well, wow, that didn't fix what's really wrong with me. Now I've added guilt onto that because I've over consumed and just, you're just caught in that vicious, vicious circle of comfort eating guilt.
00:20:27
Speaker
more comfort eating and it's until you become aware and you acknowledge what the root cause is and what your defaults are and then change the default actions like that. My biggest one would be if I'm stressed uptight and it's I guess it's all my clients. I'm always seeing it on Instagram as well. Walking.
00:20:45
Speaker
get out for five minutes, get out for 10 minutes, move from the environment where you're about to go balls deep into something, change that environment, move somewhere different, come away from it, go upstairs, read a book, you know, but again, it's if you're aware.
00:21:00
Speaker
of your action and the default action that you have when you're kind of looking for a comfort in terms of food, you can actually then change that action. And that's the key. It's learning about yourself. It's the gap, isn't it? It's like recognizing the emotion when you're in it or recognizing the wants to go to the corporate and grab everything.
00:21:18
Speaker
But before you do, and I think, I think it's like you're not telling yourself you can't have what you want to have. Cause you know, I think sometimes when you tell me, you know, don't think about a purple elephant. What are you going to think about? Like it's all you're going to think about. But if you create the gap and you be like, I can come back to these biscuits, but before I do, I'm going to go have a shower or before I do, I'm going to go for a walk or before I do, I'm going to drink this pint of water. It just gives you a second then to decide to make a better decision. And that's it. You see, we go for the instant gratification. We go for the instant kind of.
00:21:47
Speaker
Soothing, whereas if you actually say, okay, my favorite one is just 15 minutes, walk away for 15 minutes. And if in 15 minutes you still want to go and have whatever, okay, you've made a conscious decision to do that, but rather than acting straight away in the moment, you know,
00:22:07
Speaker
you're not thinking, so move away just 15 minutes and I guarantee 80 to 90% of the time, you won't go back after that 15 minutes if you just stop and think, okay, is it going to fix my problem? Is it going to make me feel any better? How am I going to feel after I've eaten this? Is it actually going to solve my problem? The other one that I always think, and it's ah it sounds kind of silly, but Check in with yourself, your physical self and your hunger and kind of just stand back and go, are you hungry for this? Is your stomach rumbling? Do I like, why am I reaching for this? So again, awareness of the why. And if you step back and kind of say, well, I'm not hungry. I've had my lunch half an hour beforehand, so I know my belly is satisfied. So, okay, I'm not hungry for this. So there's something else going on. What do I need to do here? And that is generally move away, distract yourself, phone a friend, you know,
00:23:04
Speaker
Take, as you said, take out a pen to paper, write it out. Yeah, and slow down, like slow down and just sometimes we're rushing and you're like, you're grabbing things and you're like, you haven't, like you said, stopped and just checked in with yourself. How am I feeling? And I was talking to someone about this last week, I think we were discussing even just, you know, if we get up in the morning and it's like rushing around first thing, usually we're getting kids to school or we're rushing out to work or whatever, you know, we're always go, go, go, go. And we're in this heightened kind of sense of stress. We don't ever stop.
00:23:33
Speaker
I know I don't personally, I've started to stop in the morning and actually just look at yourself in the mirror and just be like, how are you feeling today? It was Adele Johnston I was talking to and she made the point that some people cannot look at themselves in the mirror and that's okay. You don't have to look at yourself in the mirror, but like sit down for, I think, how long did she say? like take a few minutes, sit down and just like, how how does your body feel today? How do you feel today? Emotionally, physically, and we don't do that. Just breathe. Do you know, I think like you said, and it's not just you, it's not me. Everybody is running at this fast pace all of the time. I don't know where where it has come to how it has come to this but this is just the way society is running now we're always on the go go go and we're just not present so like that I'm a demon I get up before everybody else in the house here and I will have 30 minutes before I look at my phone I sit down I have a cup of coffee and I went
00:24:29
Speaker
And breathe into the day. Just taking that moment to sit. As you said, it doesn't have to be looking in the mirror, but just to sit with yourself and kind of think, okay, what's today? What's ahead of me today? How did yesterday go? And just, you know, be present with yourself. It makes such a difference. Yeah. And at the minor discomfort of getting up that little bit earlier.
00:24:48
Speaker
is worth it. Yeah, mind or discomfort. It's funny, I'm the same. I get up very early in the morning, usually to get a bit of work done before the kids get up. But um yeah I do like to take to have that coffee and and take that little bit of time for myself as well. And that quiet house. But it is the case of the alarm goes off and you're like, oh, fuck.
00:25:07
Speaker
so such records copy that time already I put my phone over the other side of the room so when the alarm goes off I have to physically get up to turn it off. good comments You actually have to physically get out of bed for him. Otherwise I'm going to wake the whole house up and then I won't have the morning to myself.
00:25:23
Speaker
yeah my husband does laugh at me because he kind of says I bolt out of the bed when I wake I bolt because if I don't get up when I wake up I'll just fall back to sleep and then the day just goes completely and utterly backwards and he says you're like a shot out of the bed But again, my my body clock is set, regiment really at this stage. So it's like half six, boom, up, downstairs, dressing, going on coffee, boiled kettle, routine. I think that's it. I think that bolt is so important. And I think that's where you know people i want to get up early. I've been trying to do it for years and it's the snooze button. When you hit the snooze button, you're falling into a trap. and I will hit, even even though I know that I want to get up at that time, I will still hit that snooze button if it's in reach. but i have but but Once by the time I get up and actually get my phone, I'm awake. I'm over it. With regards to the people who are prone to the snooze button, I remember talking to a client about that and she was like, you know, she wanted to try and get her morning activity because she, again, with work, with time availability, she was struggling in the evenings.
00:26:23
Speaker
So she said, okay, I'm going to get up earlier, but she kept hitting the snooze button. So that's a great shout is to move the phone so you can't do that snooze thing. And once you're up out of the bed, you're up. You know, it also solves the issue of scrolling in bed. We're getting poor quality sleep because we're on our phones in bed. Before I get into bed, my phone is over the other side of the room. So when I'm in bed, all I can do is read or sleep.
00:26:45
Speaker
Yeah. So it takes away that issues. And like, and I do think you're right. Like you said that your body is so conditioned, you get used to getting up early and you know, like you'll naturally, if you get up at five, six AM, whatever time you get up. pass your body will eventually naturally get tired at 9 p.m. to go to bed and you'll become an early to bed person. it It gets easier to get up. These little tricks definitely help hugely. You know what, again, like that sleep hygiene, sleep routine, that is just something that people, again, it's a huge struggle for people and it is like sleep is your grounding foundation to your whole
The Role of Sleep and Meditation
00:27:18
Speaker
day. A good night's sleep is what will make such a difference to how your day goes in terms of mood, in terms of food, in terms of activity. so
00:27:27
Speaker
Sleep, sleep hygiene, sleep routine. It is crucial, crucial. And I'm a demon for my sleep routine. And I'm a demon with my clients. I'm always saying you need to go to bed earlier. Stop watching the extra episode of Netflix. Scrolling on the phone. Again, I have a set rule for myself is that there is no scrolling an hour before bed. Absolutely. Phone is out of my hands because your brain becomes ah awake. You're thinking of things then. So like that, you said reading.
00:27:56
Speaker
It's just, it just takes the central nervous system, takes everything down that little notch. And it's just, it's a routine and you're, you're letting your body know it's time for sleep. Then your circadian rhythm falls in line and you're waking naturally, you're waking refreshed. And like meditation is another thing that I'm a big fan of. And I'm telling you, okay, five years ago, I didn't know what meditation was, would never have thought about it. I always thought it's a hippie dippy thing to do.
00:28:23
Speaker
But my God, do I notice just the difference if I don't do a nighttime meditation? I don't settle to sleep as easy. I don't have a quality sleep. To me, I think it's the Holy Grail. And certainly for females, I know you're going to talk more about perimenopause, but you know, sleep is a big factor.
00:28:38
Speaker
the anxiety and, you know, the more wired brain, but meditation absolutely works a dream to take that just to calm the busy mind. It's fabulous. I 100% agree. And i what I love about meditation is once you start exploring meditation and you realize you don't have to be sitting cross legged with your fingers. and yeah yeah know You know, there's so many different ways to do it. Like what I would sometimes do like that one, leave my phone over to the other side of the room, but I'll start a guided meditation, listen to that going to sleep. So there's so many amazing guided meditations, like there's great apps, you know, like Headspace, Cam, the Chopra app. There's loads of different apps that we you have to pay for, but there's loads of great meditations on YouTube that you can access for free.
00:29:22
Speaker
But you don't have to do a guided meditation. Like what I was saying first thing in the morning, like that's sitting and checking in with yourself. Like I sit down, I close my eyes, I do some breathing exercises and I really just do a head to toe body scap and see how I feel. That's meditation. Walking can be meditate. It Yeah. It's a personal meditation really. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Training can be meditation. Anything that you're focusing on a hundred percent that you're not thinking about anything else.
00:29:49
Speaker
Like, and that's why, you know, people find running so therapeutic as well, because if they're focusing on their breathing and they're, but you know, it's so, there's so many different ways to do it that really, I suppose if we define meditation now, correct me if I'm wrong, we're talking about focusing on one thing and connecting with ourselves really, and letting thoughts pass by. Absolutely. I have this thing and it sounds kind of a little bit batched and a little bit mad.
00:30:12
Speaker
is an imaginary flick. So you know, if you've got a busy mind at the end of the day, and you've still got things going on in your head when you get into bed, I do what it's like an imaginary flick. And in my head, I'm flicking these things out of my head. That's not guided. That is my form of meditation. I just go in and go, okay, tomorrow, tomorrow, move it on, move it on. And it was my dad, a wise old man, he always said to me, he said, always remember when you get into bed at nighttime,
00:30:40
Speaker
You can't do anything about these things when you're in bed. Just the next day, move things to the next the day or get the pen to paper, write it out, what gets written gets managed.
00:30:51
Speaker
clears the head, move on with your day. When you come back to journaling here, and journaling doesn't have to be dear diary, journaling can be writing writing a list. And i like, this was one a huge game changer for me for stress, was whatever was on my mind. I don't have to solve it, but it gets written down and then I can forget about it for the next day. And quite often my list moves from day to day, am I might only get one thing off of it each day. yeah But that's okay. Yeah, because you know, it's written, you know, it's going to get done at some stage. And I'm the same as you. I'm not into journaling to me now a little book and whatever. Dear diary, as you said, I'm pen to paper. I probably have bits of paper.
00:31:29
Speaker
lying around with to-do list. Like even at the weekend, I'll do a to-do list of what needs to be baked, what needs to be made, what, you know, do I need to go to the chemist? Do I need to, I'm just writing it out and it's just, it helps. But then again, this brings us back to when we're talking about fat loss and structures and routines and habits, these kinds of little things, they help.
00:31:52
Speaker
structure, you know, pen paper, meditation, your sleep routine. This is why with coaching, there's so much to be looked at. And you asked me the question earlier about when clients come on board. This is what I meant by it takes a few weeks to figure out where they're, you know, things that they need to work on might be more structure. It might be more writing things down. It might be their sleep routine. It might be, you know, small little things like making adjustments to bed earlier.
00:32:22
Speaker
exercising in the morning, morning walks, things like that. There's just- Yeah. You have to figure out where their strengths are, don't you? Like you figure out where the client's strengths are and where, what they're falling short on and work on that first. Cause obviously we want to keep doing what we're doing well and then just layer it, layer it up.
00:32:38
Speaker
do one thing at a time to bring it back to sleep because we' we'll kind of tie this in now as we come in to kind of talk a little bit about perimenopause. Sleep is everything. Sleep is going to make your stress more manageable. Sleep is going to make your organization more manageable. It's going to make it easier for you to lose body fat. It's going to be make it easier for you to eat well, to control cravings, to yeah exercise more efficiently. So like sleep is the foundation of everything. Now I know there are people listening.
00:33:01
Speaker
who either are struggling with sleep due to perimenopause or are struggling with sleep because of small babies or whatever. the end There's lots of different reasons where it can be a little bit out of our control. This is where it's a little bit nuanced for us to come on, I suppose, and say, you've got to sleep, you've got to get a good night's sleep. But like, as you said, there are parents of small kids, like you get into bed at night with a small child, you never you're never guaranteed to get a full night's sleep once you have kids. So it is a little bit nuanced to say, you know,
00:33:29
Speaker
you have to get your sleep right. Not everybody can. I can because I'm 50, my kids are 22 and 20. So like the chances are most nights, I know I'm going to get my full night's sleep. So it's easy for me to say it, but it's not, you know, again, you have to meet clients where they're at. And then yeah like that, if they have small kids, they know they're going to be disturbed during the night. Okay, you need to try and go to bed earlier, or you need to try and sleep when the child sleeps or baby sleeps. And you need to kind of look at what you can do to improve your sleep. This is it. we've heard
00:34:02
Speaker
Yeah, they like I find the one key thing that is so important, and I but you know i work with a lot a lot of women who you know are mothers of young children as well. It's the discipline, it's getting the balance right, between and it's very hard. and like you know My youngest is six now, he sleeps a night, he's slept a night for a good few years, so I'm good, I'm good i'm sleeping well.
00:34:19
Speaker
and my my old is fourteenly So, you know, so I'm in a nice position now and you know, that baby time goes so fast, you know, in a lot of ways, yeah it's to get that balance. but Like realistically, if your child is waking up through the night, most nights you need to go to bed when they're going to bed. That's easier said than done. That's difficult because then if you've got a partner who wants to spend time with you or you're so stressed all day that it's your only alone time.
00:34:43
Speaker
It's very hard to give up that time, but I think you need to be strict with yourself. This is where the planning and scheduling and I think, you know, okay, baby goes down at seven or eight. That's fine. yeah Have a little bit of time with your partner, have a little bit of time by yourself, but set an alarm and for bedtime and go to bed at nine o'clock and just, you know, it's it's hard to do, but just do it. It makes such a difference.
00:35:07
Speaker
And it's worth it, but and like I get what you're saying there as well, that, you know, when the kids go to bed, moms, dads, they feel that they need that couple of hours then afterwards, but that couple of hours would be far more beneficial in bed, asleep, rather than episodes of Netflix. And I know you need the downtime and you need the unwind, but maybe cut the unwind to a certain timeframe or to a limit. So maybe 45 minutes or an hour, half the chats, watch an episode of something.
00:35:35
Speaker
but get to bed, like you said, set the alarm clock, okay, that's it, that's my cue to go, you know, and it's just addressing the little things that will make the big big improvements to your overall lifestyle and your feel-good factor.
00:35:49
Speaker
Yeah. And I think once you discuss that with the person that you live with, you can, you get into a routine that works for both of you. Like, for example, like I get up at 5, 5am, 5.30am. Like I said, it's a struggle. I have to put the phone over the other side of the room to get up, but I have to go to bed early. And it's creeps in sometimes. I'm like, oh no, I'll just stay up with Dave, my husband, and I'll watch, you know, I'll watch an episode of Netflix or whatever. And it creeps into me suddenly only getting five or six hours sleep.
00:36:14
Speaker
And I cannot function on six hours sleep. I need seven hours sleep to feel good, at least seven hours. But I spoke to him about it and I said, look, midweek, I think I need to just go to bed when I put Kai to bed. So my six year old, he's a bit of an ideal, but I get him to sleep by about nine. And I'm like, I need to go to bed once Kai goes to bed. And he was like.
00:36:34
Speaker
yes grand if you go to bed i watch the programs i want to watch and then friday and saturday night we sit up together. But we chat a bit as well yeah we watch a program but a lot of the time when we're sitting with our partners we're just watching tv or we're scrolling on our phones we're not really connecting so now i actually i look forward to a friday or saturday night and i sit down we have the chats or whatever and then we'll watch something together.
00:36:54
Speaker
And it's more special rather than being a day in day out and I feel better for it. So I'm not saying everyone has to do with the way I'm doing it. That's just an example, but definitely figuring out, okay, what could I do better so that I'm optimizing my sleep? Because it really is like, it is a sense of cliche, but it is, just it really is the foundation to everything else falling into into place.
00:37:13
Speaker
And I'm a demon for harping on about it. My clients are probably shit sick of me talking about it, looking at their sleep on their track was going, oh no you know, when you tell me you're tired in the air.
Healthy Habits for Perimenopause
00:37:25
Speaker
And you've had five hours sleep. I know why you're tired in the afternoons. It's got nothing else to do with the fact that your sleep was so just not in a great position. So like it it just is. And if you're listening to this sleep, it really sets you up for the day. It just makes the world of difference. And you know it in case you probably felt it as well yourself.
00:37:45
Speaker
When you've had a shit sleep, everything is 10 times harder. Everything. Work is harder. Cooking is harder. Walking is harder. Everything is just the struggle, boss. So sleep. I'm a demon. I'm so focused on my sleep. Yeah. Your clients will love listening to you talk about this on this episode for so long. so The fact that the two was talking about this brilliance, they'd be like, oh, here she goes again. But mine will be the same. But look, in relation to perimenopause. So like my.
00:38:14
Speaker
My position on it really is obviously, you know, we're meeting clients where we're at. I work with, as as well as working, you know, with mothers, with young kids, I have a lot of of clients that are, that are in Perry menopause working their way through it. Some, some and clients post menopause. So we have a lovely community where the ladies really help each other out. But I think.
00:38:34
Speaker
Why the emphasis on sleep and stress iss good is so important is because if you can come into this stage with as little, keep, with your courses all levels as low, not as low as possible, but you know, down and not heightened and you know, you have your stress managed before your body starts going through perimenopause. You're putting yourself into a better position to deal with what's coming for you, depending on that. As we know, everyone experiences it differently.
00:38:59
Speaker
Yeah and again lifestyle factors would be the biggest influence there so like that if you're a female and I keep going on about it as well even on Instagram if you're a female in your late 20s your early 30s mid 30s Now is the time to be acting in terms of lifestyle coping mechanisms, bringing on good healthy lifestyle habits like walking, like going to the gym, like fueling your body well, you know, prioritizing again, and coming back to sleep, but coming back to prioritizing sleep, looking after just stress management. You know, again, we're always quite
00:39:37
Speaker
we're in fight or flight mode a lot of the time we have to learn to kind of pull back like that do what we said earlier sitting down in the morning taking the time so before you ever get to perimenopause phase if you're in your 30s now is the time to be laying these foundations because it makes such a difference when perimenopause hits you like a ton of bricks. Now I'll be very honest and say I do firmly believe that my lifestyle made such a difference to my own perimenopause journey. Absolutely huge difference. I've been, I would put my hands up and say I'm a lucky
00:40:12
Speaker
person, but am I lucky or was it because of the work I did beforehand? You know, now it was my lifestyle has definitely helped being resistance, training, walking, sleeping. But I love that what you're saying here, that this your lifestyle, which you only adapted really when you were coming up towards 40, so in your late 30s when you gave up smoking and drinking and and started this lifestyle, so This is lovely for me to hear as like as a 38-year-old, anyone else in their late 30s or early 40s who may not be there yet. I need it quite a healthy lifestyle and I'm confident that I'm giving myself the best chance as I do to head into that stage of my life. But if someone listening is you know similar age to myself or younger,
00:40:58
Speaker
And they don't live a healthy lifestyle yet. By the sounds of it, it's definitely not too late. No, and this is the cue to do it. This is the kick in the ass. Get on it and start looking at your lifestyle. And I suppose, look at your lifestyle with a critical eye, really. Look at your alcohol consumption. Look at your food consumption, your nutrition, you know,
00:41:22
Speaker
Be open and honest with yourself. What does need to change and what can you change in baby steps? Not saying you have to overhaul it or anything, but, you know, the critical eye. And again, we said it at the very beginning of this, awareness, you know, being aware. I was aware back in my late thirties, I was drinking too much. Spade a spade. You know, my life revolved alcohol.
00:41:46
Speaker
to ah to an extent. So like I became aware of that and I went, okay, that had to go. But with perimenopause, if you've made these changes before you come into this phase of life, it will definitely stand to you because then you don't have to break the habit with alcohol then. And again, alcohol caffeine, they are the two driving factors to the vasomotor symptoms like hot flushes and night sweats. So your sleep is going to be impacted. You have a couple of glasses of wine to soothe you.
00:42:14
Speaker
you then go to bed, you wake up then with a hot flush or night sweats, the vicious cycle continues. So if you've changed your habits prior to your perimenopausal years, it will absolutely stand to you. It'll make such a difference to your symptoms and how you feel.
00:42:31
Speaker
I love this and ah what I love about what you're saying in relation to what lifestyle factors do to put in place. I've spoken to a lot of people on this topic in recent months and it's always the same lifestyle habits and there's nothing mad. No one's like, oh, you have to start running 10k a day or you have to.
00:42:48
Speaker
give up carbohydrates or you have to start eating raw fish or, you know, something mad. It's like, no, it's like, get a good balanced diet in place. Get your movement going, sleep, stress. Like these are all things. And it's like, I know anyone who listens to the podcast at this stage, they're hearing this information that like, you know, what needs to be done and it can be done by all of us. There's nothing discriminating about any of this no stuff that we're talking about.
00:43:13
Speaker
absolutely and the basics this is the thing the basics that work in your 20s and your 30s they do work in your 40s and your 50s Is it more difficult? A little bit. And the reason being is, again, symptoms may cause low motivation. You know, your sleep mightn't be good. You will be suffering maybe with the the night sweats or hot flushes and things like that. It is harder. And I will always be the first person to acknowledge that. But it's doable. And again, what will stand to you is the lifestyle changes beforehand, building the habits into your life before you hit this stage.
00:43:49
Speaker
Now, when you hit the perimenopause stage, you can still incorporate these habits and bring them on. and I mean, 70% of my client base now are females in perimenopause and menopause. They're introducing these lifestyle habits. They're feeling good as a result of it. Like I did a 21 day menopause blueprint. It wasn't a challenge. It was just giving information to women. So I think I had a group of about 33, 34.
00:44:17
Speaker
All of them at the end of it said they felt better. Their energy had improved. Their cravings were less. They were fuller for longer. They were more active. and you know So they were all the basics. I i just gave them the basics. Reduce caffeine a little bit. Reduce your alcohol consumption. you know Just pay a little bit more attention to your nutrition like fruit and fiber and fruit and veg.
00:44:39
Speaker
They were small little adjustments, but they made a big, big difference. And they were all women in the throes of perimenopause. So, you know, while we're you're saying if you're in your 30s, make your lifestyle changes. If you're beyond your 30s, you can still do it in your 40s and your 50s. It's just the want has to be there and it's worth it when you do.
00:45:01
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I see it time and time again with all these wonderful clients that I'm working with that are introducing things that they haven't done before in their forties, in their fifties, they're introducing the these habits. And, you know, I have women that I work with that are post-menopause in their sixties that are introducing resistance training. My own mother started resistance training at 66, like it's, you know, there's, it's never too late.
00:45:24
Speaker
to add in different habits. like I think it's just so empowering you know to hear it from from different angles. There is this fear of perimenopause and I think it's because social media has just gone absolutely wild recently. Everybody's talking about it and we went from nobody talking about it to suddenly it's a hot topic and everybody's jumping on the bandwagon but it's building a fear of it and it's building a self-fulfilling habit And I think like that women just see it as, okay, the blame game, it's all my hormones. This is what's wrong. It's all my hormones. But a lot of it is down to your mindset and powering through. And like, you can thrive. This is an an inevitable phase of life. We're all going to go through it. If you're a female, you were born with a womb with ovaries.
00:46:18
Speaker
You're going to go through this phase of life and it's not that it is something to be feared. Is it easy? No. Is it hard? No. It's middle ground. It's you it's your mindset around it and not falling into that self-fulfilling prophecy. It's going to be shit. I'm going again. Wait, this is going to happen. Is it Menobellie? Is it a trend ah trending hashtag?
00:46:40
Speaker
You know, again, where did that come from? Yes, there's redistribution of body fat, but it's not necessarily always in the belly for females. For me, it's my hips. Now, my hips were always my hips, as my mother-in-law would have said to me. But, you know, it doesn't have to be, you're not going to necessarily gain all the weight in your stomach.
00:47:00
Speaker
your lifestyle and your symptoms will drive you, yes, maybe to eat more, move less. But this is why you need to counteract it. So it's not a given that you're going to gain weight in menopause. And I think people kind of women accept that and then they just go along with it. Whereas. Yeah, I agree. They kind of give it. Yeah. Nearly give up being like, what's the point I can't, and i I get a lot of women that I would go on calls with before signing up for coaching and they will be like, I'm in menopause. Can I lose? Can I even lose weight?
00:47:33
Speaker
that some people are being led to believe that they actually can't do it at us that age and i'm like oh my god i've so many case studies to prove that you can don't worry it can be done and it's so empowering but i also think in relation to body fat i think it's really important to note and a lot of a lot of people will know this anyway you know from the age of 30 onwards we're losing muscle mass by but a certain percentage of muscle mass every year from age of 30 onwards. It accelerates from 60 onwards. up So this is why resistance training is so important. But like what the thing I think people don't really talk about, it's yes, we're losing muscle mass, but we're not becoming tiny little frail.
Benefits of Resistance Training
00:48:09
Speaker
Like we're getting smaller with what's happening. It's being replaced by body fat. So unless we use the muscle we have, we're going to lose it and it will be replaced with body fat.
00:48:21
Speaker
So that that like that's another really driving factor to the why risk resistance training is so important. Apart from the fact that it's amazingly empowering and like you're going to feel like a boss doing this. And it's not about building muscle. A lot of women are like, oh, but I don't want to get bulky. I don't want to build muscle. It's like, you don't need to build muscle. Even if you weren't building muscle, you still wouldn't be bulky. But using what you have is going to protect It's going to make a huge difference to any inverted commas, middle age spread. Yeah. Because you're, as you said, it's muscle, you know, it's your, the more muscle you have, the less body fat you'll have. And we can still gain muscle in your forties, in your fifties. Like don' you don't, you don't stop gaining muscle. Yes, it slows. You know, you lose it, but what's that expression? If you don't use it, you lose it. yeah So like.
00:49:11
Speaker
you you have your grounding foundations, or you have whatever muscle mass you have, but you can still build a little bit on that. Like, absolutely yeah shrink into this little person that has no muscles left. If you keep using these muscles, you'll keep your muscle, you know, you're not going to just lose it. It's not a steady decline in your muscle. Keep using it, lift the weights. And like,
00:49:33
Speaker
This is the other other thing and I'm might like with resistance training, it's not your 2KG dumbbells. You need to be putting on that progressive overload. You need to be training with intensity. That's the the harsh reality with it. You know, you need to be putting the intensity into your training too. And like women in their forties and fifties, they tend to veer towards the classes, you know, the circuit based classes, yeah which are great.
00:49:57
Speaker
Again, cardiovascular fitness, it's movement, it's brilliant, but ideally we really, females need to be in the resistance training section of the gym two to three times per week. Really, that's the reality. The classes are brilliant for fitness. They're brilliant to get you in there, but you need to move away from the classes and then just spend a couple of days.
00:50:20
Speaker
lifting the weights and building that muscle to retain that muscle then as you age and protect your bones. It's just, it's the way the body is built. You need to protect your bones. What's going to protect your bones? The muscles around them.
00:50:33
Speaker
It's hugely important. Absolutely. It's so important. And I think like, you obviously I'm a huge fan of getting out to the gym, getting out of the house, making it really a part of your life. And it can be so empowering. There are some people who may not be ready to go to the gym or maybe not be in the position to go to the gym. You can do this at home. If you're training with dumbbells at home, you can get all everything you need from that. But those dumbbells have got to be heavy. You're not going to do it. Like you said, with your three, no, you might need three kilo dumbbells for your lateral raises, you know, or maybe your overhead presses perhaps.
00:51:03
Speaker
But depending on your strength, but they're not going to cut it. You're going to need something heavier. If you are going to train at home, you'll need to be okay with the fact that you will be investing in heavier dumbbells as time goes by. Yeah, it's great to get you started. Again, the smaller dumbbells are fantastic to get you going, but you will find you know You're flying them up and down and there's no resistance then. You're not putting any load on the muscles. So yes, you will have to eventually get to a point where you're going, okay, I either move to the gym or I buy new dumbbells or get the adjustable dumbbells where you can increase them as you go.
00:51:38
Speaker
But yeah, females, unlike a lot of my clients, train at home. They're not into the gym. they like They've got their little set up in their spare room or their garage or whatever, and it's sufficient, but at least they're in there two times a week. Yeah, no, Vicki, I literally... God, I think I got this. I made the biggest progress in my strength through lockdown. I had heavy dumbbells at the gym, let us borrow dumbbells and stuff when we went into lockdown. But I like, but are you just using dumbbells and the fact that I had nothing else to do except train, I got so strong and you know, really that's slow and controlled. And that's another thing I think that's so important to say with resistance training, especially if anyone's new to us, it's not about doing it as fast as you can.
00:52:18
Speaker
slow and control it. So if you're doing a goblet squat that you're one, two, three, hold it at the bottom and not all the way down at the bottom, you know, at that point of tension and then up strong. Or, you know, if you're doing like, I remember doing like, you know, working on my pushups during lockdown, but doing reverse pushups where it's like starting in like a a high plank position.
00:52:38
Speaker
I'm not talking this so people can visualize what I'm talking about. And slowly lowering myself to the ground, holding myself in that bottom position for a second. so At first, I couldn't help myself in that bottom position. But building that strength by slowing everything down, there are ways to progressive overload at home. If you don't immediately have access to the heavier weights, you can add more reps. If you're doing a workout where where it says 12 to 15 reps, and you don't have heavier weight, so let's go back to a squat.
00:53:05
Speaker
do 15 squats with your whatever dumbbell you have at your chest. slow it right down, count to three on the way down, hold it for one or two seconds at the bottom, come up strong, do 15 of them, if you can still, like I actually even thought that I'd say even without weight, that would kill, but you know, if, if not, if you're like, I could keep going at the 15, don't just stop, keep going until it fucking hurts. I know. If it's written down, if it's written down on your sheet, 12 to 15 reps, well, I'm only supposed to do 15, no, if you've got more in you, keep going.
00:53:40
Speaker
or else you then that's your sign that you need to get heavier weights. When you've gotten to the stage, as you said, you're doing slow control, you're doing pause reps, you're doing one and a half reps. This isn't causing any strain, I suppose. You have to kind of feel a little bit of pain. and Not that that expression, no pain, no gain, but you have to feel a little bit of, o this is hard. like I often see people in my local gym and they're literally, it's like they're swinging out of a monkey tree with the lap pulled down and I'm going,
00:54:10
Speaker
You need to increase the weight because you're, you know, you're not getting anywhere here. You're doing the same reps in the same way. Yeah. You got to keep pushing, especially heading into your later years. It's so worth it. So worth it.
Vicky's Recipe Ebook and Nutrition Philosophy
00:54:23
Speaker
And it's just so empowering as well. So that feeling, you know, of, you know, it's giving you something for you. Let's just talk a little bit about your, you've an ebook with recipes. Am I right?
00:54:34
Speaker
Again, another anniversary, so I didn't realize that. My ebook, I actually released at this time last year. It only came up on Timehop. So yeah, there's about, is there nearly 350 pages? So it's um basically a recipe book that I compiled from years of creating food. I love my grub. I will always say that. I love my grub. I love my homemade snacks. I love, you know, anything oat-based. I couldn't eat a bowl of mushy oats to save my life.
00:55:02
Speaker
but give me oats to bake with all over it so yeah I released the recipe book a year ago and then that got such good traction I decided to bring out a printed copy so they sold very very quickly and the demand is there for more But unfortunately, time availability is not on my side with regards to packaging them up. I'm a sole person. There's only one of me. But um the e-book is really beneficial for people because it shows the variety in foods that you can have. You can be dieting. Don't like to use the word diet, but you can be aiming for a fat loss, but eating good tasty food.
00:55:41
Speaker
without having to eat chicken broccoli and rice. You know, you can have good food. It's all macro calorie tract. You know, I was going to say with the macro coach background, I'd imagine you have your the macros and the calories are all there for for people in the book. all um Which is why I always find it funny. I by put up a story on Instagram. If I've got a new recipe or I've just made something and straight away, my DMS are hopping recipe, please. And I'm going.
00:56:05
Speaker
I've just made it. So all my recipes have to be typed up into my phone. They have to be entered into my fitness bar. It's like, there isn't that immediate, okay, I'll send you in two seconds. They generally have to be written up, typed up. Please test it. You've no idea how many recipes I affect in the bin. Like not everything makes it and works out. You know, again, you have to try. And sometimes I fail and I, they end up going straight in the bin.
00:56:31
Speaker
But the recipe book is all taste tested and none of it is done by chat GPT. It's all come out of my own kitchen. Is it my third ebook at this stage? But it was definitely my biggest ebook. And I was I was proud of it. So will I do more? I don't know. I don't know. But as long as it helps people to see the variety and the flexibility with food when dieting for a fat loss, then that's all I wanted to do is give them that flexibility.
00:56:59
Speaker
And I love that it's authentic, that it's stuff that you actually have cooked, that you've eaten yourself, that you believe in yourself, you know, that makes it relatable, you know, that it's like, okay, I want this because she, you know, she looks like this, she eats this, she feels great. And I want to try her recipe. So no, I think that's amazing. And finish up one last question. and I ask everybody this
Defining Health and Lifestyle Choices
00:57:20
Speaker
question. What does the word health mean to you? It's, health for me is having a zest for life. I suppose getting up,
00:57:27
Speaker
out of bed in the morning, feeling as good as I can possibly feel at my age. I don't like to be ageist, but look, spade is spade. Turning 50 this year was like, I felt great, you know, and health to me is being able to move my body, the ability to move my body.
00:57:48
Speaker
Health to me is being energetic and just being mentally present. I suppose in my own life, so health to me is also obviously down to fueling my body with good food. I know the difference when I have like that, I'm heading away tomorrow for a few days. I know I'll feel like shit when I come back.
00:58:08
Speaker
because my food won't have been good, but health to me was that feel good factor from what I give my body. So I have my little bit of chocolate, but I absolutely have my fruit. I have my veg, I have my protein. So overall health really is just feeling good, feeling positive about life and just having that zest and that will to get up and using my body, being able to use my body. Like you can't put a price on that, getting up and feeling good. And I think that, yeah, that's such a good answer, that zest.
00:58:37
Speaker
And like I said, I think back to when I would have been having the few drinks at the weekend, you know, when you wake up and you're hungover, you're wishing your day away because you just want that horrible shitty feeling to end. Whereas when you're looking after yourself, you're exercising, you're eating well, you're not drinking as much.
00:58:56
Speaker
You want to enjoy that day. You don't want to wish that day away and go to bed. And, you know, I can't wait for it to be over. Whereas you just have that zest for life and you've got the energy for life. And that's what's important. You know, thinking to my future self, and it was one of my clients said it to me that what we're doing now with terms of training in terms of walking or cardio or whatever, it's for our older lady selves. It's so that we can chase our grandchildren. It's so that we can go up and down the stairs. It's so we can do the supermarket at 90.
00:59:26
Speaker
carry the bags ourselves, you know, yeah it's your future self. So health really is now, but it's also your future. Future you and doing what you're doing now for that reason. Perfect way to finish is feeling really, really motivated now. And I'm like, need to get myself to the gym.
00:59:43
Speaker
vi Thank you so much for and coming on and talking to me today. This has been such an amazing conversation. I really, really enjoyed chatting to you. I really enjoyed chatting to you, Kate, and thank you so much for having me on. It was a nice change to be on the other side as opposed to recording my podcast. It was nice to be on the other side of it, so I really appreciate the fact that you took took me on today so yeah good to meet you. And the last thing actually where so if people want to read you Instagram Vicky Cronin coaching is it? Instagram is that Vicky Cronin coaching all together V I K K I C R O N I N
01:00:20
Speaker
croak coaching on Instagram. And they'll access everything there, then your books, your podcast, everything, is it's through the link there. Yeah, my recipes, my my thoughts, you have to put up. but That's what I always say with my Instagram. I'll give you the recipes, lads, but I'm also going to give you the TED talks. I'm going to give you the mindset work as well, so it can't always be free recipes. But it was just so lovely to chat to you, Kate. It really, really was. Thank you so much, Vicki. Talk to you soon.
01:00:52
Speaker
I just want to say thank you so much for listening to the podcast. It really means so much to me that there are people out there actually listening to what I have to say and to the conversations that I'm having with others. So thank you so much. If you are enjoying the podcast, could you please make sure that you are subscribed? And if not, if you could hit that subscribe button, it really does make that much of a difference. Also, if you would like to leave a review on any of the episodes that you listen to, that you particularly enjoy. I would love to hear what you have to say. And also, if there's an episode that you've enjoyed, please do share it on your social media, in your WhatsApp groups, with your friends. If you're sharing it on your stories, please tag myself in it and whoever I'm interviewing. This it would be greatly appreciated.
01:01:34
Speaker
Also, if you're interested in working with me and my wonderful team, please do you contact me about applying for coaching. So you can contact me at Kate Hamilton Health at gmail dot.com or on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, all Kate Hamilton Health, and you will be able to comp apply for coaching. We can organize to have a chat and see if it's a good fit for you and get you moving towards your goals.