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00:00:01
Dr Juliet McGrattan
63 Plays5 years ago
Continuing with out getting to know you Interviews. Dr Juliet is Author of Sorted:The Active Woman’s Guide to Health. Director
@261ClubUK. Health expert @261Fearless @Womensrunninguk &
@ukrunchat. Med Editor @NetDoctor & Runner.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to this episode of the UK Sports Chat podcast. I'm Joe Williams, and today's guest is Dr. Juliette McGrattan. Juliette is an author, author of Sorted, The Active Women's Guide to Health.
00:00:16
Speaker
She is also a director at 261 Fearless Club, which is a global women's running community. Juliet is also a health expert and writer for both Women's Running UK and UK Run Chat, and is also the medical editor at NetDoctor. Enjoy this episode and get into know Dr. Juliet.
Adapting to Pandemic Life
00:00:41
Speaker
Hello, Juliet. Thank you for joining us.
00:00:44
Speaker
Hi Jo, thank you very much for asking me to come and speak to you. Yeah, it's really good of you. How are you? Yeah, I'm fine. I'm fine. Thank you. Just adjusting to this new world we find ourselves in, but all good. Yeah, this new routine. I've had to push myself to not sit in my comfies all day and actually have a wash and get into some kind of a routine. It's very easy not to, isn't it?
00:01:13
Speaker
Yeah, it is. I guess I've got three kids at home and they have got sort of timetabled lessons, so it has encouraged us to get up and have breakfast and at least start the day before 9 o'clock, which is good. Yeah, definitely. My two eldest have been doing the same. They've been very good actually. I've been quite pleasantly surprised with them. Yeah, me too. I'm amazed. My eldest has had his GCSEs cancelled, so it's a little bit harder for him to
00:01:42
Speaker
keep motivated, but they're all doing really well. So is he year 11? Yes, he is, yeah. So my eldest is year 10 and he's not in that same position, but he was commenting on friends who were leaving and they're not sure where it was going to impact them. Yeah, I've got a son in year 10 as well and I think actually that's a really hard year because
00:02:06
Speaker
They're still trying to prepare for exams next year, and there's a lot of the syllabus they will be covering at school, so he's actually got probably out of all of them the most intense work online at the moment, but we're just Model 3. Yes. Same for everybody, isn't it?
00:02:21
Speaker
Yeah, and it keeps them off the Xbox a bit, doesn't it? Especially when I've borrowed their headset to speak to you. To come on here, yeah, they're useful. So how are you and the family using your exercise time that we have then?
00:02:38
Speaker
Well, you don't want to be a child of mine, really, do you? You know, stuck in the house with a mum who really likes fitness. Well, we're trying to go out every day. Obviously, I think it's really important to get out, get some fresh air, well, while we can. So as a family, we're walking the dog. We're very lucky. We live very rarely.
00:02:56
Speaker
So we can literally two minutes from the house and we're by a beautiful river with nobody else around. So I'm very, very grateful for that. So we're doing that as a kind of a family. And then I'm really trying to make the most of the fact that I can still run. And I don't want to go too far, too fast, whatever. I don't want to get injured or make myself unwell. So I'm just doing little 5Ks and the odd 10K on the roads around here.
00:03:24
Speaker
and I'm also doing an awful lot of online classes. I'm hoping to come out the other side of this with a really strong core and really strong glutes that actually fire up
Exploring Online Fitness Classes
00:03:34
Speaker
when I run. Yeah, brilliant. We've started the online classes. There is lots of them and there's some really good stuff on, isn't there? There is. I lead one for our running club and then I join in
00:03:49
Speaker
a couple of others, including a ladies ballet, which I used to go to years ago and with kids and life and clashing with other activities I've not been for years. But this week I started back at Ladies Ballet, which caused a lot of entertainment in the family. My son said, oh, I'm bringing popcorn. I could sit. And my daughter finds it hilarious because she's such an amazing ballet dancer. But it's great. It's a good chance to do something different, try a bit of yoga.
00:04:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's nice. Are you dancing around the house with your daughter doing the ballet then? Well, she's just laughing at me while I try to do it. Yeah, I can't pretend to be very good, but it's very nice and it takes me back to my seven-year-old self smiling away and makes you feel happy, so it's great.
00:04:34
Speaker
Yeah, we're quite similar. We use our family time the same, so we'll take the dog out for an hour and all walk just close to home. We're quite near River River, funnily enough as well, literally. I can see it looking out the window.
00:04:51
Speaker
Yeah. And then I've been doing some garden strength work. I have milk cartons full of sand because I don't have weights and I've got a bit creative, but I must admit, I'm enjoying that as well and keeping a routine, which is good.
00:05:08
Speaker
We did buy, well, my son got a set of weights for Christmas and it turned out to be a really good purchase because it does help and it does make a difference. I guess we're pretty set up like that because we don't live anywhere near any gyms or anything like that. So we've always had, we've got a spin bike and say we've got some weights and there's all sorts of things. We've got Swiss balls and mats and we haven't got a home gym. It's all just crammed in the corner of the living room, but it's turning out to be pretty helpful
00:05:39
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And like I've seen people getting really creative online, there's bottles of water and picking up anything that's heavy or a bit of weight that they can throw around. Yeah, I saw, I think it was Nell McCandry and she had a rucksack that was heavy and she was using it like a kettlebell and I thought that was pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, very good.
00:06:04
Speaker
So we've known each other for some years now. You've written for UK Run Chat as our resident GP in our health section on our website. I don't think I've ever told you this, but we have two blogs which every single month are our highest hits and they're both two that you wrote. Oh, there you go. That's good. Can you guess which two they are?
00:06:30
Speaker
You remember? Oh, gosh. Yeah. Oh, I can remember the ones I've done. Let me think. I get a lot of people asking about the giving blood one. Is it that one? Yeah. Yeah. So that's one of them. Is it? Oh, okay. Good. Cool.
00:06:49
Speaker
Oh, runners with balls. I remember that one. And they're literally like hundreds and hundreds of hits above everything every single month. So there you go. Oh, well, I'm glad to be useful.
00:07:07
Speaker
Yeah, very, very good. So I know that you've transitioned, haven't you, from being a GP into a new career?
Career Transition to Health Writing
00:07:19
Speaker
Yes, it was several years ago now. I was doing part-time GP work and became, I guess it really started when I discovered how amazing running was for health and wanted to share it as widely as possible. And gradually my interest in that
00:07:37
Speaker
kind of took over and I could see that's really what I wanted to do and my medium for getting that message out there certainly initially was through writing so I began writing. Women's Running Magazine was the first one and I still contribute to that and this was I think oh gosh
00:07:55
Speaker
don't know how many years ago now, 20, maybe six years ago, six, seven years ago. Um, and yes, just slowly, slowly develop that started doing blogging, started writing stuff for you guys. Um, and gradually over time it grew. And then I wrote a book and, and, and suddenly it became clear to me that that was, that was what I wanted to do. And, and I felt in a way that I was making more of an impact. Like you say, you write one feature and then it gets viewed by
00:08:24
Speaker
hundreds of people, and that health message is very widely spread compared to maybe speaking to somebody in a surgery once, you know, for 10 minutes. And there's lots of reasons, longer complicated reasons why I left, but a lot of it was really just feeling frustrated and wanting to do more.
00:08:45
Speaker
It's been, it's been amazing. It's not, I mean, financially stupid thing to do, but you know, that's, you know, there's more to life, isn't there? So. Yeah, definitely. There is. It's been an adventure and a journey and I've learnt a lot and I'm still learning a lot, but it's, I don't, I don't regret it for a second.
00:09:04
Speaker
No, that's brilliant. And like you say, there is much more to life than money. And you certainly are reaching far, far more people. Just those blogs as one example. So when did you interest in Running Star? Have you always been sporty? You mentioned ballet when you were younger. Have you always ran? No, I was a huge dancer.
00:09:24
Speaker
Well, I was a huge dancer, like all through my childhood, up to kind of 18. I was really serious. My daughter laughs. I went to what is now on CBBC is School for Stars. It's a dance school and drama school in London. And that was my passion. And I was never really sporty. I always enjoyed being outside, but through university, yeah, I went to the odd
00:09:52
Speaker
mobility class and I joined the Orienteering Club just because they went to great places around Scotland and I got to go and I just walked all the courses and just enjoyed the countryside. I enjoyed a bit of outdoor skiing and snowboarding and stuff like that but nothing, you know, I wouldn't have said at all that I was sporty and I still don't consider myself sporty but I discovered running, well I tried it a few times and the most
00:10:19
Speaker
important one I think was in the year 2000 when I decided I was going to do half marathon. I was a junior doctor at the time and I just thought, right, I need to get out and do something healthy because I was working so many hours and I thought it was awful. My husband at the time, he did the same thing and he went on to the half marathon. I only ever got to about five miles. My knees hurt.
00:10:44
Speaker
And I just abandoned it. I thought, this is awful. And I never even went and tried the whole marathon. It's really common, you know, when people start, that they dislike it. Oh, it was so out of breath. I just made all the classic beginner mistakes, you know, too far, too soon, too fast, too soon, wrong shoes, no kind of build up. It was just, yeah, classic textbook mistakes. But then I started again just after my daughter was born.
00:11:13
Speaker
So she is now 12, so it'll be 12 years ago. And it was a local village race that's on every year. It's a 10K and I just stood there and watched it and thought, I'm going to do that next year. And with my friend Nicky at the time, I think you've met Nicky actually. We started off walking, running a little bit, walking, running a bit. And the following year we did the 10K and that was the start of it really, because it is a really tricky one. And I just thought, wow, I never thought I could do that. If I can do that, I'm sure I can
00:11:42
Speaker
do more and it went from there and I've never looked back. I don't know how I ever managed without it now. Yeah, we had Catherine on a community member last week and she said the same. Really, really similar. It's like an emotional journey, isn't it, when you start off because it's
00:12:00
Speaker
It is. I think, did I not need it? Is it the coping skills that it gives me now? I need them more or did I, I don't know, it's interesting. I was sort of pondering it the other day. What is it? Was it just that I needed it at that time? I had three kids, three preschoolers there and I needed space. I needed time to think and be on my own. And maybe it was just that perfect recipe at that time. I think everybody has their own sort of story, don't they?
00:12:29
Speaker
why they started and what runnings brought them. Yes. Does your husband still run? Yes, he does. He stopped. He didn't do much after that half marathon and then he fell in love with his bike and he was cycling a lot for many years and then he kind of, I think it was a 24-hour
00:12:50
Speaker
bike thing. He cycled round and round a racetrack all night, which actually just completely put him off. After that, he said, you know what? I think I'm going to stop cycling. He began running and he's great. I used to be able to beat him. I can't get anywhere near him now. He does a bit of both now, but it's been really amazing to watch him fall in love with running as well.
00:13:13
Speaker
Good, good. And just to point back on your dancing, is dancing a sport? I consider it a sport, is it not a sport for a next dancer? It's interesting isn't it? Because I know there's a clinic that helps
00:13:32
Speaker
people who have trouble with relative energy deficiency in sport. And they have a clinic and I'm sure the clinic has something to do with sport and dance, like they put it separately. So it's not in the Olympics, is it? I mean, not all sports are in the Olympics, obviously.
00:13:52
Speaker
It's movement, it's physical activity. You can enter competition, so it should be, isn't it? But I've got a feeling it's classified as something slightly different, but I might well be wrong. They're so fit, though. You look at... Dances. Insanely fit, yeah. Yeah. They're like gymnasts. They're strong, they're fit, they can run, they can do everything. It was just interesting to hear you speaking about it.
00:14:22
Speaker
Yes, I cast myself as a dancer but not sporty. Yeah. So you mentioned a book.
Juliette's Books and Writing Journey
00:14:32
Speaker
You've had a book. I've had a book and yesterday I'm celebrating. Yesterday I submitted my second book to Bloomsbury which is going to come out this time next year and you guys are going to love it. Tell us about your first one and then just quickly and then what to expect in the second.
00:14:52
Speaker
So the first one came out in 2017 and it was called Sorted the Active Women's Guide to Health. And it was really kind of an accumulation of my knowledge on women's health and not running, but all sports and the barriers that women face when they try to keep active or get active. So things that can just be very small niggles, but things that can completely stop them doing it. And it was a very GP hat on.
00:15:17
Speaker
discussing some very quite taboo topics to help women feel able to either solve the problems themselves or to know when to reach out and get some help from a health professional. So I was really pleased. It did really well and I've had so much amazing feedback from it. So that was wonderful. Yeah, that was 2017.
00:15:42
Speaker
And the new one? Yeah, I would say like childbirth took about three years for me to get over it enough. And the memory of the trauma of writing it. I mean, I did, I loved writing it. I enjoyed it, but it was an awful lot of work and I'd never written a book before. And I learned a lot of lessons. I made a lot of mistakes. So I was very determined that if I was ever to do it again, that I would do it differently. And I plucked up the courage last year to send in another proposal to Bloomsbury to say, what about this idea?
00:16:12
Speaker
My family, I didn't actually tell them at the time, but I told them afterwards and they were like, hmm, we're not sure we really want you to do that. I said, no, I promise it'll be different this time. I would be much stricter and turn it off in the evenings and I won't work at weekends and blah, blah, blah. And I'm very pleased actually that I did stick to that. And this next book is purely for runners, so men and women. The title isn't 100%
00:16:40
Speaker
confirmed yet with the publishers. I won't actually say this, I'll let you know as soon as I can share that. But yes, so it's going to be a question and answer format health guide for runners covering all the kind of questions, some of the things in, like you say, in the blogs that I've written about giving blood and iron and testicles and all the rest of it. So yeah, I'm really excited to share it with you. And it should be out this time next year, May, April next year, March, April.
00:17:10
Speaker
Sounds great. Yes, I hope so. I'm celebrating because I finally got it in yesterday. It was really good news. Your first book was The Active Women's Guide and you talk about breaking
Empowerment Through 261 Fearless
00:17:24
Speaker
barriers. So tell us about, you work with 261 because that's very much aligned with that, isn't it? Yes. So 261 Fearless is a global women's running network. So it's all about
00:17:39
Speaker
bringing women together, uniting them, empowering them really, because we all know that once you become a runner, you discover what you can do in life as well as what you can do in running. So it's all about helping women to become active through running, but also bringing them together in communities where they can support and encourage and help each other, because very often,
00:18:04
Speaker
The intention's good, but it's hard to stay motivated. Or you have a lot of fears and you just need someone to literally take you by the hand and go, come on, we'll do it together. So it's all about enabling women around the world to help each other to become and stay active and share this kind of, yeah, it's a community on the local level, but also on a national and then on a global level as well. It's an incredible thing to be part of at the moment with a global pandemic as well.
00:18:32
Speaker
Yes, and 261 is the backstory to that. Do you want to tell that one? For those of you who don't know? It's very hard to tell it quickly, but I'll try. It was founded by Catherine Switzer, who's the iconic marathon runner in the 1967 marathon in Boston, when her bib number was 261 and the official tried to throw her out of the race.
00:19:00
Speaker
And she carried on and she realized she had to finish to show that women could run because in those days it was just felt that women weren't actually physically capable of running a marathon. And she's gone on to use that moment for good to show actually, we are all capable of being fearless in the face of adversity or challenges. And the most recent thing from it is that she's turned that number into this global network.
00:19:28
Speaker
because women were writing to her and telling her they tattooed 261 on their arm and it made her think, wow, I need to do something. It's very powerful. Yeah. Yeah. There's that very iconic picture of her being pushed around during the race, which is shocking. And that was in the days before social media. You can only imagine how quickly that photograph would spread now if they'd had social media. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So
00:19:58
Speaker
Have you got any personal running goals this year and have they changed with everything that's going on?
Running Goals During the Pandemic
00:20:04
Speaker
Did you have any events lined up? I was very fortunate, actually, because the event that I had planned happened just before Corona really hit. I did the Vitality Great Half in London. I decided because of the book target in the spring, I decided not to do a spring marathon this year, the first time for many years that I haven't done that. I thought adding that to the book pressure might just be one thing too many.
00:20:27
Speaker
So I decided that I was going to drop down and do a half, which I did, which I really, really enjoyed. I've only ever done, believe it or not, about three half marathons. Yeah, so it was such a great distance. At the last couple of marathons I've done, I've got halfway and thought, I should stop now. This would be a really good place to stop. And I've really enjoyed it. I can't wait to do another one. It felt, yeah, long enough.
00:20:56
Speaker
to really be challenging, but not so long as to completely destroy me for some time afterwards. And not so long that the training was too time consuming either. So yeah, I'm all for the half now. Brilliant. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. They are the biggest reasons for me as well, definitely. But it's in and around the family and it doesn't destroy you, but it is really, really hard still. Yeah, big fan of the half. Have you got a favourite event that you've run?
00:21:29
Speaker
Oh, gosh. Well, there's nothing like your first marathon, is there? You never forget your first time. That was London with my friend Nicky. I guess probably the thing which is going to last in my mind and it tags on to the 261 story is that in 2017, so two years, 50 years after Catherine had first run that Boston marathon, she went back and ran Boston again. She was 70.
00:22:00
Speaker
And I ran it with her, which was, well, I started with her because we had a group from 261 going together. And then I trained pretty hard for it and I thought, I'm just going to crank up the speed here a little bit. So I headed off and it was very hot, much hotter than I bargained for. And the wheels completely fell off and I ended up really, really slowing down. But actually it turned out to be an amazing thing because
00:22:25
Speaker
I got to about mile 25 and I heard this voice behind me going, do you hear it? And it was Katherine Switzer. So I ran the last mile and a half with her. And I tell you what, turning down onto Boylston Street, you come to this
00:22:40
Speaker
corner and you turn into Boston Street, which is the finishing straight with the queen of the Boston Marathon, with all the TV cameras, with an insane amount of noise. But she's an elite marathon runner and there must be something in you that never leaves you.
00:23:00
Speaker
my goodness it nearly killed me trying to keep up with her in that i was on my knees anyway but i thought there is no way i'm not going to cross this finishing line with you i had to dig really deep but that that um that was an incredible experience and i think that probably is going to have to go down as one of my all time or all best all lifetime all best lifetime experiences yeah what a fantastic story that is really really fantastic yeah that was amazing
00:23:27
Speaker
That's the humbling thing about marathons and half marathons. I think people, unless they've been
00:23:36
Speaker
really good in their teens and twenties, very, very high level. You can start and you can always improve. You can be a young lad or a young lady and you're racing against people who are far older than you and they're beating you easily. It's such a mix. It's such a humbling
00:24:02
Speaker
Past time. I remember getting overtaken by SpongeBob when I was running the London Marathon.
Marathon Experiences
00:24:09
Speaker
And my inexperienced running head was like, I can't be overtaken by SpongeBob. And I go running after it. But you've no idea who's inside that costume. No, I've been overtaken by numerous rhinos and all sorts of things. How they do that over those distances in a costume, I really take my health to them.
00:24:28
Speaker
No, I think you're right. It is very humbling. And I think one of the good things as well is that when you start late, because I mean, I started late, I'm still getting better at a time when lots of people are finally getting slow. I dread the day when I start getting slow, but I guess maybe then I'll have a different attitude to it. But it's really amazing how much capacity you've got to keep improving even as you get older, which is really encouraging. Yeah, it is definitely.
00:24:58
Speaker
OK, we've got a few of our quick fire questions that we're asking each of our guests now. Are you ready? Oh, I'm rubbish at these. We're gone. Road or trail running? Road. Road. Morning or evening? Sorry, just simple answers. OK, morning. Go back and tell me. No, I was just going to say, I love running off road, but I just like to know when I put my foot down that it's going to stay where I put it. So I do most of my running on the road.
00:25:27
Speaker
Good point, good point. Morning or evening running? Definitely morning. Morning. Music, yes or no? Never.
00:25:38
Speaker
Never. Never, ever. I have never, ever run with music, ever. No, and I don't... I think it comes from when I first started that one of the reasons I wanted to run was because I wanted peace with three preschoolers. I just wanted nothing. And it's my time for thinking and I can't work with music on. I mean, I love music, don't get me wrong, but it's not for me.
00:26:04
Speaker
fair enough. It's unusual now, isn't it? I understand how music can be motivating and I'm sure there are times when it would have helped me, you know, maybe later on in a race when you need something to keep you going but I've never tried it. Whenever we get asked a lot about people who've lost their mojo and it's usually one of the first things
00:26:28
Speaker
along with finding a favourite route. But it's one of the first things that people recommend to stop doing. So don't listen to music, find your favourite route. It's interesting that so many people use it.
00:26:40
Speaker
I guess because I run on the roads as well. I just, I know you can have the ones that bone conducting that you can still hear, but I just feel too vulnerable. I'm a bit of a scaredy cat. I like to know whether any, I can, anybody's rummaging around in the bushes or I'm doing it. Cool. Okay. Do you use an app or a watch? Um, I have a Garmin, uh, quite a basic level Garmin and I, yeah, you upload that onto my Garmin Connect.
00:27:11
Speaker
Peanut butter, smooth or crunchy? Crunchy. Crunchy every time on me. Dogs or cats? Dogs. Dogs. Teas or coffee? Tea. Decaf now though, I've given up, I've given up caffeine. You've given up?
00:27:28
Speaker
How are you feeling after doing that, did you get the headache? No, I was surprised actually. I wasn't a huge, I wasn't a big heavy coffee drinker, but I drink a lot of tea because I work from home and it's kind of a little break, get up, move around. But yeah, no, it's been great. I don't miss it at all. And I don't have that afternoon dip, which is fab. Yeah. Sorry, I'm not a very quick fire.
Quick-Fire Preferences
00:27:51
Speaker
Netflix or Amazon Prime? Netflix.
00:27:58
Speaker
Have you discovered anything good that you didn't know was there? Trashy stuff to keep my mind off things. Working mums. Fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. Brilliant. I'll pass that one on to Lucy. She's looking for more at the moment. Beer or wine? Wine. Wine.
00:28:28
Speaker
Red or white? Depends on the time of year, but this time of year, white. Brilliant. Pineapple on your pizza, yes or no? As a child, yes. Now, no way. No way. And finally, what's your favourite non-running hobby? Well, I might say ballet now. No, baking, baking, probably. Cooking, cooking, baking.
00:28:58
Speaker
I like doing it with my kids. My daughter is a mean baker and that's probably crank up the music in the kitchen, get the cuckoo book out and just lose myself for a bit, yeah. Yeah, very nice. I've actually, it's the first time ever I've watched the great British Bake Off this year, have you? And they've got the celebrity one on at the moment. I've watched an episode, one of the series quite near the beginning, I think, and my daughter was a
00:29:27
Speaker
big fan of Junior Bake Off. So that was always on, but yeah, they're great fun, aren't they? Keep you inspired. Cool.
Conclusion and Social Media
00:29:38
Speaker
Well, just tell us where, before we wrap up, where everyone can follow you and ask you on your social media channels and your website and that kind of thing. Yeah, oh, thank you. So Facebook, Twitter mostly, Instagram, that's just my name, Juliette McGratton.
00:29:54
Speaker
And then I've got a blog, juliettemcgratton.com, which has been very quiet because of the book, but in the next month or so, it's going to be fired up again and raring to go. And then please come and find out about 261 Fearless. There's 261 Fearless and there's 261 Fearless UK, which is what I run as a community interest company in the UK. So on all the usual channels, come and say hello. We'd love to talk to you. Wonderful. Brilliant. Thank you very much for joining us, Juliette. It's been lovely talking to you.
00:30:23
Speaker
You too, Jay. Thank you very much for having me on.