GYM GIRLS LOCKER ROOM - The Ultimate Gym Girls Podcast RETURNS

Episode Date: December 10, 2024

S2EP1 - WE ARE BACK BABY! Did you miss us? We missed you. In this episode, Syd and Ellis (Syd's sister and right hand woman) give you an update on their lives, including Syd's ADHD diagnosis, half-marathon, Ellis starting the gym and their latest reflections. They also discuss what to expect from series 2 of the podcast (spoiler alert: it's GOOD). Hopefully this episode brings you up to date and excites you all for what's to come. Hope you enjoy and remember to tune in every Tuesday for a new episode. 💘 join the GGLR community: INSTA - https://www.instagram.com/gymgirlslockerroom/ FACEBOOK COMMUNITY PAGE - https://bit.ly/3TqhxDG TIKTOK - https://www.tiktok.com/@gymgirlslockerroom/ 📲 find Syd on socials: INSTA - https://www.instagram.com/sydgrows/ TIKTOK - https://www.tiktok.com/@sydgrows/ Want to work with Gym Girls Locker Room? Email us: [e-mail] GYMSHARK - 10% off code: SYDNEY10 ESN - 10% off code: SYDNEY

Hello and welcome back to the Gym Girls Welcome podcast hosted by me, Sydney Cassidy. Oh my god, guys, first episode of season two. I am really excited. And also before I get into things, I have Ellis with me, who is my sister and she's also part of Team GGLR. How are you doing? It's been a while. I know. It's been a hot minute. I know. The first season was really just like to see what works for us.

So many of you girls said that you like love listening to it, like in the gym, on your dog walks, on your runs. I don't know why you're working in your office hours. And so we realized, hang on a minute, nobody is actually watching it. So we are actually filming this or recording this rather from the comfort of our own home we have been working tirelessly behind the scenes um filming this season over over the summer and we've really got like the best guests like season one was like sensational and season two is just like somehow topped it even more we've got like the biggest names in fitness that you girls

are gonna love to hear from but we've also got like people that are educators on topics to do with like women's health and I dived into kind of like being neurodivergent with like with like a coach and um just had like really interesting conversations and like it was honestly I don't know at times very emotional and I really beneficial for you oh yeah so beneficial like honestly I finished the episodes and I'm just like basically parroting back to like anybody that I come into interaction with like in the next 24 hours I'm like so I also just like recorded this podcast and like I found out and I don't know about you but that's what I look for in a podcast like give me the information give me the facts give me the statistics let me absorb it all so yeah I'm really really excited

for that but then also what we've been working on is merch which is unreal and also has been like such a grind it's um yeah it's been it's been tough work but really really really excited for that to be launching soon so um i'm hoping by now we would have announced it if we haven't then surprise yeah um you girls will know from season one that like i like to make life complicated for myself i don't know i feel like sometimes i like to like suffer for my art which i'm not saying is a good thing but like you know in the same way we built the flipping podcast set with our own bare hands um we also designed everything ourselves. We like, we have been involved with the whole process of making this merch for you guys. So it's been like a complete and utter like labor of love.

And I'm just like sick of staring at it at this point. I want you guys to see it. Like, I'm really, really excited. If you did want to make sure you don't miss out, do sign up to email alerts. We don't spam you. In fact, I'm the one on emails. You know, we really do this.

Like, this is real grassroots shit here. Like, I will be the one sending the emails and I haven't actually yet sent one. So don't worry, you won't be spammed with emails, but you can sign up to them at www.gymgirlslockerroom.com we also just had we're kind of recording this off of the back of our event that we did which was our biggest event we if you don't know and you're listening um gym girls locker room isn't just a podcast and it isn't just like a facebook page and like a community online we also do irl free events we just had like a really kind of cool special day it was unlike our usual format where we have like workshops this one was more about just like finding your girls when making friends finding your community and just having like the ability to kind of just like have fun

be silly train together and i think everyone enjoyed themselves yep so yeah i don't know it's just been really cool oh my, this is actually breaking news. Okay. Because I was looking at our first episode that we filmed when it was the first season. Tell me. And we were saying about how I'd never went to the gym before. Yes. But I have started.

Yes, you have. I haven't been in a while. But in, wait, in summer, I was going a lot. And then I just stopped. I think it's the weather. And I just couldn't really be bothered anymore. I feel like also when you try and commit too much, you end up just doing nothing. And that's kind of what happened with me.

You overwhelm yourself. Yeah, biting off more than you can chew. Yeah. I started off going with my friend. I feel like that's maybe another reason why I stopped because we were going every other day with each other and then she just like stopped because she had too much work on and I did keep going by myself but then like I guess like the accountability it just wears off after a while and you stop and like I go out with my friends a lot and I guess I just was kind of doing that instead of actually going to the gym.

That's the trouble with accountability or like having a gym buddy, gym partner, is that like they're amazing when you've got them and when you're both kind of like encouraging each other. But when you don't and when they're not there, you're just like it just gives you such an easy out and I remember like when I first started I actually didn't really have like too much tolerance for training with like a friend because I just used to find it annoying because it would like disrupt my flow like I'm trying to be committed and then like I feel like that's a whole different battle in itself you know being I don't know just yeah I don't know but that's fair I different battle in itself, you know, being, I don't know, just, yeah, I don't know. But that's fair. I think I understand because something I've done since we probably checked in was I've really, really committed to running and girls, would you believe it?

This girl who literally does no cardio. I did a half marathon. I've literally been loving it um we'll go into like my whole sort of journey with that in a second but just like on what you were saying like I do definitely feel like my I can see that already I've been like tailing off because the seasons are changing and suddenly I'm like oh well I don't feel safe running at night but it gets dark at literally like 4 p.m so that means that and the sun rises at like what nine so that means I either need to like do it in the middle of the day or maybe the latter and I'll just choose

not to go everyone's been talking about this winter arc but the winter really just makes you want to just like snuggle and stay in just to eat comfort food like that is so fair if you don't know the winter arc is this kind of thing that's gone like crazy on social media where it's basically this idea that like the last three months of the year october november december are like the times to really like lock in focus really get yourself off to like a good start before the new year because like it's going to be different for different people but I find it really helpful certainly with the gym you know you're not out in the cold I think the running challenge is going to definitely test me on that but definitely in terms of going to the gym like I do find myself just

like focus more like you know see the vision you've got your sweats on you're like headphones on it's dark outside but you're still showing up to the gym like I don't know I just something about training in winter just like really gets me in the best kind of way so yeah I do that and you know I'm really happy everyone else has got on board with that but um that reminds me as well I remember you always used to say back in the day like if you want to start gym start before the new year because it's quiet and then you'll have some knowledge before it gets really busy and overwhelming in January yeah honestly like if you've fallen off or whatever like now is the time to get back on it like over the holiday season like just to be comfortable to find a space that you enjoy being in to like have a degree of familiarity before like inevitably

their numbers like hugely increase like not to put you not to put you off but like everybody starts going to the gym in January and it's just like if you I genuinely think that if you want to make tangible like changes then you should start sooner just kind of from a logistic point of view as well as kind of just also not putting off things. Also, when you mentioned about your running, it made me think like, back when we were recording the podcast, you were just heavily strictly on lifting. And I bet there's clips of you going like, I'm never running. Oh, yeah, definitely. I funny, it used to actually be something like I take pride in. I think I kind of I've got something about me where I always like to actually be something like I take pride in I think I kind of I've got something about me where I always like to be a little bit anti anti like I don't know

there's something in me where I just really like to sometimes resist you know what everyone else is doing which I'm not saying is a good thing or necessarily a bad thing but I don't know it's just something I've always been like like you know whatever the the mainstream are doing I'm like no I want to do my own thing but um yeah and I always used to take pride in being like I'm a like gym purist and I I do power lifting and I do lifting and like I don't do cardio and then I don't know like it just I just realized from like having people around me that like inspired me and kind of opened my realized from like having people around me that like inspired me and kind of opened my eyes up to different forms of training that like actually your heart is a muscle and it's a very important one and like you can be like training your muscles you can get

like the biggest juiciest glutes and whatever and like you can have like gorgeous like sculpted shoulders but like if you're actually not just working on like your heart health and making sure that it's like you know because it is really like that number one muscle that is so so important um then like really what have you what have you got if you don't have that but also i just like really wanted to just walk upstairs and not feel like out of breath and stuff like that fine for your life yeah honestly but I don't know it's been really really nice and it started off like really naturally no pressure I actually probably just started it because my friends were doing it a lot and we obviously had like the run club at the gglr run club at the time when I was going to like the run club things I was like oh well I can't

really exactly just stand on the sidelines and so I would join in with these like 5k runs which felt like completely completely out of my comfort zone like kind of unachievable but then I'd kind of somehow make it through every time and yeah I just kind of kept going with those and then during summer it was just like gorgeous like I live in for anyone that doesn't know I live in Manchester which is a small city up north in the UK and it it's just like when we actually do have good weather it's so vibey and there's like such a lovely fitness community here and like there's canals like all the way through the city so I would go on's like such a lovely fitness community here and like there's canals like all the way through the city so I would go on these like runs and it was just like really

pleasant and then I started seeing changes in myself and my body and I loved like when I tell you I loved the mental challenge that comes with running and doing like endurance sports as opposed to just like lifting like there's a challenge that comes from trying to lift the biggest like heaviest weight that you physically can but then there's also like pushing yourself beyond your limits for a prolonged period of time that comes with like running or like any endurance sports and like I just really enjoyed the pain of it like I just really enjoyed it and I also like started to see it in a way where like for me running had always been about being like tiny and being like I don't know I just I can't even really express how I used to think about running whereas now I really see it as like a cool like athletic thing to do like a performance thing and

I like that side of things um I also like for the first time ever you know had a training plan with it so I feel like that really really helped, because everything was done in a really, like, manageable, attainable way, and then, yeah, just randomly, I was like, okay, yeah, sure, I'm gonna do a half marathon, and actually stuck to something for once in my life, I feel like normally I'm not very good with, like, rules and compulsory things that you need to do but I actually like stuck to it did my three runs a week for I think it was like four months or something maybe three or four months and then I did it and I literally I don't want to say breezed through the race but I really surprised myself like all anybody had said to me was like oh my god you need

to like make sure you really pace yourself because like you don't want to burn out and so I think I was like kind of overly cautious with it and um yeah I just had like a really fun time the whole time like really fed off of being like around the crowds and like it was just so fun so I feel like yeah since I last checked in with you guys I definitely have been on like this whole like kind of running journey and just really really wanted to like commit to actually showing up for myself like in terms of like health and fitness and I think I'd been settled enough I took I took enough time and I gave myself enough grace with like a lot of life changes I'd been through

moving getting a dog a boyfriend and all that sort of thing I think I over the summer reached a point where I was like right okay I want to step up i want to really like test myself so that's what i did in a nutshell um yeah had fun with it enjoyed myself loved watching the olympics i think all of us can say that we were like pretty much glued to it like the gymnastics gymnastics i was so awestruck by that was amazing it's my own biles incredible sensational it made me want to get into gymnastics yeah honestly i wanted to ask you um actually because alex was interested and curious so i'm sure the audience will be as well how how does it actually feel for you watching the like fitness and has your perspective on fitness changed throughout watching your my

journey and that sort of thing yeah just the fitness side or your job as well just however you want to answer it oh my god i mean i think because i've never done a lot of exercise growing up you've definitely like made my outlook on fitness a lot more positive like whenever you speak about it it's always like this is going to improve your well-being so much like mental health physical health everything um and like it's just quite like I don't know inspiring I guess to just watch you try out loads of new things and yeah I don't know yeah I feel like people whenever they ask you or like at the event people came up to my boyfriend and were like how how does it feel to see Sydney like this and he's like I don't know because I it's a tricky question I don't know her he like

obviously and you obviously know me like that but I think because you're around me so much on a day-to-day basis you actually see like a very different side to me you know they're two they're the same people you know Sid grows is me but I would say Sid grows not to get all deep because I could really go off on a deep one about this but like something we've spoken about even in the past few months whilst we've not had the pod is like just the difference between like Sid Grows and Sydney and you know for you guys at home listening like your online version of yourself and your real self most people like will show everyone around them like their social self but then like peeling the layers back there's

also like your private self and your secret self so these are the like versions of you that are still you but you don't let so many people see them and stuff and so yeah I wonder if you know when people ask you oh what do you think about all of this it's like well I mean for you you've known me before as well so you know I don't know I'm going on a tangent here I don't even know where this is going it's feeling like a therapy session um but yeah okay do we want to discuss any other things do you have any current obsessions music influences learning anything new over summer high rocks like which still like was just gaining momentum and blowing up and um if you guys aren't familiar with High Rocks, it's essentially this like race format that has completely taken over.

It feels like the whole entire globe. Everyone and their nan at this point has probably done the race. I mean, I haven't actually done it yet because I think I'm a perfectionist and I'm like, no, I'm just like never ready I mean girl you're gonna never be ready with that attitude but it's an eight kilometer race but it's divided up into one kilometer laps and then after the lap is a station and there's eight

stations so you like set off you do one kilometer then say, for example, I'm not sure what the route, the route is, but it's like ski. Then you go straight into the next kilometer run. Then you go into like a sled push. Then you run sled pull. Then you go again. And then it's like lunges. And then the finale is like a hundred wall balls, which is just insane. But it's really up there with like the

most intense cardio like it's full on and over the summer we saw a huge wave of everybody signing up to these going all over the world and doing them and getting you get a cool like uh velcro patch afterwards as like an achievement thing and um everybody's like posting their times and stuff like that and um kind of at the point of us recording this I think something worth talking about which is like so cool friend of the podcast Lucy Davis if you haven't listened to that podcast like I urge you it's like one of our best podcasts um Lucy Davis has just competed at Manchester High Rocks I was actually watching a video she posted about it it was just it wasn't actually in their

plan for them to do that race but she kind of just did it on her birthday it was her solos debut um the race usually has either a solo which is you doing it yourself, mixed. So it will be like doubles in the sense of like two boys, two girls, or it will be a mixed like couple. And she did the solo one as like her debut and absolutely smashed it and got a high rocks world record, which is just like so cool. And feel like I don't know people that I'm really inspired by at the moment are all these people that are just like really just doing

incredible things and really kind of putting emphasis on like performance and like achieving things which I think is really cool because um I think for so long it's always been about like maybe aesthetics or maybe just like going to feel good but I think actually going to like feel the competition is really fun like that's something that I really enjoyed about the half marathon that does make me kind of like curious about trying other races is like especially if you are somebody who grew up as like either a competitive person or a um child that like competed in a lot of sports like I think as an adult you don't really get to like tap into that kind of energy that much and I think it's really really cool even as like a bystander and just as somebody watching to see like all these people that I'm

friends with and that we all sort of know through social media doing like incredible things like the speed projects where people are running that is just insane miles and miles and miles across like America what are some other things so would you do high rocks ever yeah i i would like to my only thing with it is that and this totally totally isn't it isn't an excuse but i have pcos um which shout out to the pcos girlies because i know loads of us do um but i have pOS and I feel like my PCOS flares up when I do when I when I put myself in situations of like high amounts of stress so like if I'm if my like nervous system is really activated or like I'm really stressed with work and I'm like obviously not sleeping and not eating right like I tend to like experience my symptoms more so then but also I've noticed when I do really intense

cardio if I did like I don't know just like before when I've done like chrox training sessions I don't know if it's best for me so I'm not sure um like even when I do faster runs I just feel I feel like I don't know if it's cool if it causes a flare-up in me I'm very comfortable doing like tempo runs where it's controlled or like doing a run where it feels like it's at a decent pace but then the moment I like step into kind of doing a pace that feels out of my comfort zone for a prolonged period that's when it starts to be like an issue so I don't know to summarize I'd like to do a high rocks but maybe I need to do a little bit of research and if there's any high rocks girlies that do have PCOS feel free to give me a DM and let me know because I would love to I'd love to give it a go um Daisy one of our friends

as well also just competed in an Ironman I know Lucy Fit also did think, I don't want to get it wrong, either a half Ironman or an Ironman either or is sensational. So, yeah, it's really cool, like seeing everyone kind of like try different new things. I'm very here for it and I love that. What is something that you like want to do more or less of right now like let's start this series with some intentions maybe maybe in the finale we can just like hold ourself accountable also i want you girls at home to like just have a moment to think about something that you want to hold yourself what's something you want to let go of and what's something you also want to let in of does that even make sense anything anything i mean if it was health and fitness and well-being related that would probably be like helpful but anything would be good eating healthier

okay i remember last season i said saving money i still need to do that okay people pleasing um i feel like those yeah they're solid is that because you don't feel like you're doing any of the above or you want to be better at that or just better at all of it yeah what about you uh well hang on a minute also what do you want to let uh what do you do you want to let go of that what do you want to let in like what do you want to welcome maybe like just like doing more okay like i look back at like the last couple months and i'm like what have I done like maybe just like planning more fun things to do I don't know yeah what about you I it's funny you say that because I feel like you do so much you're like so busy all the time at the moment true

something you've done I would say in the last like summer period is you've like definitely expanded your friendship group oh my god which maybe actually might be worth you sharing because we speak about it a lot making friendships as an adult is freaking hard so hard um and actually wait so have I so maybe we could actually I think we should actually should we go into that now or should I just say what I want to let yeah go on yeah what you what do you want to let go of and i think i just really want to let in the energy of just remembering that i am that bitch oh my god i know thank you thank you everybody no i been really, I've been struggling with myself, but I think kind of in a way where like I'm,

hmm, I feel like I'm, I've been going, I've been going through quite a few like big moments which we definitely go into detail on throughout this series but like i got diagnosed with um adhd finally finally finally oh my god girl boss slay also um i am buying a house which is unreal and is low-key all because of you girls so like forever forever grateful but um what i was gonna say about that is just like i've just been really struggling with like essentially having a disability and kind of coming to terms with it and then also feeling like the pressures of just having two businesses having like adult responsibilities and big girl life yeah just like all these big girl like things

that you know happen as we get older and I think like I've been really like hard on myself about the fact that I am having like struggles oh my god i'm getting upset actually let it out i don't know i just feel like i'm like balancing a lot it's like i'm trying the hardest i can you know like i don't really know what more I can do. I have a lot of, like, awareness about the struggles I have. And, like, I get help with it. Like, I have therapy and all that sorts of stuff. And I'm on medication. But, like, I think I'd just rather...

I'd just really like to let in that, like, it's okay, Sid. Like, do you know what I mean? That's what I really admire about you though like everything that you are struggling with you notice it and you check you try and change it like as soon as and then you try and find solutions for it if I was going through something I'd probably just put it to the back of my mind move on yeah but like you you're really you really are trying and it shows yeah but I think it's just like I just want to like I would just like to have a bit more like acceptance of myself just like fuck it if someone doesn't like it then see you later yeah like

yeah like I don't know I just feel like I'd like to just be able to you know work on these things that I struggle with but also be able to accept that like they are just a part of me and that if you don't like it then you can keep on moving yeah um so yeah that's something that like I would really like to just welcome in what else would I like to welcome in I definitely agree with you about like doing more things I think I'd like to just like do more bits and pieces like here and there and like be proactive like a lot of my friends want to meet up but maybe don't make the first move and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing because I equally don't make the first move but I maybe put some more things like in my calendar um just like stuff to look forward to yeah and I maybe one last kind of thing I'd really like to be like more

boundaried with work I have accidentally let that slip and we have had some like big deadlines coming up but I would like to be able to just like you know get to like a decent time in the evening and be like okay cool close the laptop we're done enjoy the rest of your day um because you know is it it is a weird thing absolutely loving and being obsessed with what you do for a living but it is very important to be able to like have an identity beyond that you know so like enjoy your evenings do things you love anyway back to what you were saying because i feel like that's a very like interesting and also relevant for the girlies talking point making friends in your 20s it's so hard context yeah to me first so I actually had like no friends I like especially coming out of lockdown uh or like the people that I was friends with before I they weren't really my kind of people I just rather like kept to myself I mean

I did borderline have like social anxiety as well and just didn't want to come out or anything. I had one good, good friend. Oh, you also didn't go to university. Did you say that? Oh, yeah. So I didn't go to university. So I was literally just working from home with no extra, like no hobbies, no nothing.

I was just sitting in my room 24 7 for like probably a year and that's like university is like it's a really helpful time because that's when you can like you meet all of these people in one place when you're probably at a point where you're already outgrowing like your old friends so you kind of had maybe reached that point where you were like outgrowing like your old friends so you kind of had maybe reached that point where you were like outgrowing people yeah but yet you're still in the town that you grew up in and you're not fine you don't find a space to like welcome new people in also something i think is worth knowing about no noting about ellis is like whilst me her sister lives online and like if i wanted a date i'd probably go online if I

wanted to make friends I'd probably go online if I wanted to find someone to go dog walking with I'd probably go online Ellis is like the opposite auntie and she's like no that's strange and like you know I just don't feel safe doing like anything online I'm like absolutely not I'd rather just meet people in person so then kind of a way in which people maybe would find new people you didn't feel comfortable doing that so then suddenly you find yourself in a situation where you're like okay I actually don't have any friends and I don't know what to do. Yeah. Then what happened?

It's kind of hard because all the friends I'm now friends with now, they're from school, like, that I haven't spoke to in about four, five, six years. And then we've all of a sudden became, like, best friends again. Where were you when you saw that friend? At the pub. Oh, beautiful. What you're talking about, like, reminds me of this book that i read that i really recommend it's called um the defining decade and it's by meg j it's basically why your 20s matter and how to make the most of them and it's

like not supposed to scare you it's supposed to be like hey you guys are in your 20s this is like a really special point in time where like your brain is giving you a chance like the way it's actually forming and the way that like certain things happen during your 20s in your brain is like a real opportunity to like grab with both hands don't let it pass you by there's like this narrative that like um people say like 30 is the new 20 culture and whilst like yes i guess in some ways like you can do a lot more things in your 30s don't like let your 20s pass you by because like you know there's like really important things that could happen there anyway the reason why

I bring it up is because there was a point there was a thing that I um read in the work section and it's called weak ties and about the unique value of people we do not know well and it was talking about how like in terms of like meeting the love of your life getting that job that you really really want um like literally anything you're not gonna find it from like your immediate circle you'll actually find it through like the people that you literally are just like acquainted with anyone that's like not a friend of yours they're a weak tie and so in the context of you like finding new friends is like going to these things going to these like random parties where like you're not gonna know anybody there because actually that's a space where like you're gonna

probably find people in the book they talk about like different examples but like there was this these two people that separately went to a party literally one of them knew the girl who invited her because she was like a spin and she went to like her spin class and had already said no to so many invites she was like oh fine I'll go the other one was this guy and he just like turned up I think with a friend or something and then they like met and like hit it off they put themselves in a position where like they were in an environment that was like a little outside of their comfort zone a little outside of like where their familiarity is like where their existing like

friendships were found and like that sort of thing and that's like where there's a real opportunity to like make those friends or get that job like it was like this crazy statistic about like the amount of people that get jobs based off of recommendations now like most people that are getting a job got it because somebody recommended them or somebody knows somebody that knows somebody so like just yeah i don't know in the context of friendships just like put yourself out there in um expose your screen time to me oh yours must be bad as well oh probably sometimes i hit the 12 hour mark i'm not gonna lie really yeah okay mine has actually kind of surprised me sid mine was 14 hours yesterday

14 hours how long did you sleep for day before that nine i feel like that's an average 10 11 11 i think this is why i'm going blind i'm not gonna lie yeah i need to get some glasses Day before that, nine. I feel like that's an average. Ten, eleven, eleven. I think this is why I'm going blind, I'm not going to lie. Yeah. I need to get some glasses. Yeah, Alyssa's, like, very concerned about the fact that, like, I don't know, you have, like, blurry vision. Yeah, like, I was standing in Sid's kitchen and I was looking at her and she was in her living room and she was blurry. And I'm scared I'm also going cross-eyed. I know that they do say for people that use computers,

that, like, to help for your eyesight to kind of be at its best, really what you should be doing is, like, if you are working on the computer loads, take a moment, you know, to have a break where you do focus on something in the distance. Because otherwise you're just, like, looking at something in front of you. So close. Especially if I'm working on my phone. I haven't actually been for an eye test in so long i think

maybe this is our sign all of us to go and get our eyes tested okay mine is like three hours 42 what yeah oh seven hours 42 five hours 57 i think. God. I've tried to really work on being more productive with my time and efficient. I have like a perfectionist like trait in me. So it will be very easy for me to just be like faffing around with the same like TikTok. But I just can't be doing that you know like I can't be editing the same thing so like I've really been like a lot more productive with that so with that um don't really use my phone in the evenings so that's like a whole chunk of time where I used to use it don't do that now then also during the day like I just get a task done and then I try to make a conscious effort to like come off of it but I also I don't know if you guys know but maybe you do maybe you don't I don't know

at the event it was so lovely to hear so many of you girls saying you're loving it from me but I have started doing weekly vlogs on YouTube which um to begin with felt really strange because it's like a completely different like part of me that I'm like sharing you know suddenly it feels like really daunting because it's like actually my life um but I've been really loving it and it's really allowed me to kind of do stuff with my week where like normally just kind of like laziness would hold me back honestly um now I'm like oh no I want to do something like in the least like toxic way possible I'm like oh no like I gotta have something for the vlog um so I feel like it actually holds you accountable holds me accountable in a way but with that like I the reason why I never really gave YouTube a good crack is because it's like you know back then it used to be like a 20 minute video and it would take me like three solid days of like hyper focusing in on this bloody video to like make one video and then you've got to start the

whole thing over and like again and I was like you know I know that I really would love to have like a space where like I can create longer form content because I think the YouTube audience is just so different like I'm such a YouTube kid like I grew up watching and still do watch YouTube of literally all different genres but like I just love in a world where like we're everybody's you know trying to take get like everybody's attention span I like the idea of people actually sitting down and watching a video like with their dog or whatever so I was like okay I really want to do this but like how how can I do it in a way that's like, again, more productive, like more manageable and sustainable. And so I figured, oh, well, why don't I just do stuff that I'm already doing, which would

be vlogging. And it's been doing really, really well. And I feel like it's such a lovely space. It's a lovely community. And like, I always on like a, I upload on a Sunday evening and then like on a monday i'll usually like reply to all the comments and um yeah but obviously now that i'm doing that weekly like something had to change and i was like okay we have to get more productive with our time like yeah i also love watching your vlogs oh do you yeah i do i think it'd be nice to like reflect back on mum puts them on the tv

does she does she oh and they watch it together really yeah oh i didn't know that that's so cute i love that like when people meet me in person they're like do you watch the youtube they're like please make them longer and i'm like girl they're already 40 minutes and like I love that I think that's so special like it feels like you're really building a relationship with people so yeah anyway that's my monologue about why I love YouTube if anyone if anyone does want to follow me and like join the journey like or subscribe sorry that's not follow is it um then please do because it's a really lovely space over there and I feel like it's honestly just giving like facetime bestie vibes so and do you have any new year's goals one I'd really like to have is to journal like I know journaling is so

good for me yet I just don't do it I I get like so in my head, not in my head about it, but like, you know, again, the perfectionist in me is like, oh my God, but like, the last time I wrote in this journal, I was like here and now I'm here. So I'm going to have to like

catch them up on everything. Them, them, them, my journal, literally me. And it's like, no, girl that is literally not what it's about journaling is like a space to just get like the here and now out it can be scribbles it can be drawings it can be like a few sentences a few goals a whole fat essay it can be anything but like I think I guess perfectionism like gets in the way of it and so then I end up not writing really anything but when I do do it it I feel so much better and so much lighter and um you know the thing about journaling is that you get all

these thoughts that are like swimming around in your head and you just get them out into a way where it just like you know allows you to kind of understand it a little bit better and like a lot of the time when you do have these like worries and thoughts they're just they feel so intense and so hard to track because they are just like floating that's how I like to describe it then like once you get it out you're like oh okay well at least I've kind of written this out in a way where like I could actually start to like understand it at the very least acknowledge it maybe even work towards breaking it down and like working on it because like something about me i'm so fascinated by like the subconscious and like how so much of like the subconscious like rules how we live our life and

they say it takes about 15 minutes for you to tap of journaling for you to tap into your subconscious wow so like obviously that's not you just going at like a million miles per hour but like sitting there dedicating 15 minutes fully present yeah or like even like say when you're meditating like i just find that really fascinating that like actually there is a part of you that is able to access that that part of you of yourself and of your brain and of your like deepest like rooted like not necessarily like traumas or whatever but just like thoughts that maybe you can't access properly I find it fascinating that like actually well guess what you can yeah that's so interesting because like also think about like how busy you are and like how you aren't accessing that for so long yeah that must be so beneficial I don't know about you girls but

like I feel like I really struggle to be present I feel like being becoming an adult was like the biggest and like leaving university even though like I'm still talking about it and that was literally like years ago but hey we're all on our timeline. I feel like that was the biggest slap to reality for me. Like I really, I've still really struggled with it. And so like just having a space to be able to write and like process all of that, I think is really important. So I would really like to keep it. I'm literally like selling it to myself.

Yeah, I probably still won't do it. But like, I would like to do that. I literally like selling it to myself yeah i probably still won't do it but like i would like to do that i actually i said this in my vlog the other day um i was watching holly brooks vlog who if you don't know is like a uk creator that's currently living in america and she was saying that like kind of the same thing wants to write in her journal more doesn't and so then so what she's been doing is as soon as she wakes up all she does is write a list of three things she's grateful for and like does it as a kind of gratitude journal and I guess like that's kind of habit forming that's kind of that first step of just getting into the headspace of oh I get up and I do this

and this is my routine um and I thought that was really cool I was like oh damn the angle she was coming up was like oh I want to do I want to do like my gratitude journal because like I think it helps you kind of just like have a moment to reflect on like oh there's actually maybe there's a lot of things going wrong, but actually there's a lot of things going right as well. Mm-hmm. Also, yeah, go on. Oh, no, I was going to say, also, just, like, being present again, and, like, I feel like sometimes with me,

I just feel like I'm, like, on autopilot. Wake up, log on to work, work, get off work, go out, go to sleep, and, like, you don't, like like fully just sit with yourself for a bit yeah and like check in like how am i feeling yeah i actually have just started therapy again i don't know why like i'm such an advocate for therapy any of you like girlies that like want to get on your sort of like journey to like better sort of wellness um with anything that you're really either going through or just like i don't know just experiencing i just genuinely could not recommend it more it's so helpful i think it's so such a shame that it's so expensive and it is inaccessible but I do think like everybody if

you have like even a little bit of disposable income I genuinely think it's like one of the best things you can do for yourself but I stopped therapy um I don't know why like maybe I just I'd had it for like two years like I think there was a part of me that was like I rely on it too much I need it too much like I I felt like i couldn't like make any decisions by myself or like there was something like inherently like wrong with me for like having therapy for that long but then i've come back to it it's just really nice to have like that space like exactly what you're talking about just a space to like check in with someone and even just catch up on your week and be like how do I feel about this like how do I actually

feel about this you know I think like awareness is like the biggest thing you know my therapist always says that like awareness is like the the biggest kind of biggest and maybe sometimes hardest step to make most people like will spend their life unaware of like their own habits or bits and pieces and I think if you've if you've done that and if you're able to recognize that in yourself then like pat on the back girl you know you're doing great sweetie I've never been able to get into journaling but one thing like I've tried to keep up with and done is like reading like I love it but I feel like I'm just like I'm really am like all or nothing yeah I'll read a

book in like three days and then not read one yeah you just started reading didn't you yeah and then told me and I said oh yeah I said I've started like reading i've got this book that i really recommend which i did actually go and buy i haven't read it yet because i'm still finishing my other one but it was actually one that alex recommended as well which is the everything i know about love everything yeah by dolly alderton which apparently is a classic i had a guy side note i had a guy in waterstones he was like he served me like this older guy he was like uh he was like do you know this book i was like he served me like this older guy he was like oh he was like do you know this book i was like yeah like my sister recommended it and it's like what got her into

reading he was like it's fantastic she's an excellent writer very humorous very funny and he was like she's got some funny um like perspective perspective on things and i was like damn okay she was funny but also that book made me cry oh I can't wait yeah it's really good I really want to sink my teeth I love like I love and like what I've really been like searching for is like that feeling of just being like completely immersed sinking your teeth into something um but yeah so you started reading you called me and then you said I'm already I think you said like something like I'm already 90 pages in i said oh okay when did you start reading she said yesterday i was like wow none of us cassidys do things by halves do we we're like all or nothing black or white like

yeah so and then you finish the book and then did you buy a new one yeah i have you watched normal people no sid but i've got the book version of that because apparently the book's really good so i need to start it once i've stopped once i've read the first page i'll be reading it but it's actually reading the first page where i'm just like not doing it yeah i think it's but i think really the crux of like what we're talking about is like habit forming yeah exactly yeah because I I read that book in like three days because I was reading an hour before bed I was doing before bed but then I'd do it like I'd get into bed at the point in which I'm tired so then I'd read like two pages I'd be like I'm tired I'm going to bed

and so that wasn't working for me but I have been trying to get in a little bit earlier you know the one thing I'd really love which I feel like would be really unreal would be to trade out some tv time yeah with reading but I don't know it's like hard to like do that you know I mean and then I'm like what do I do I know this is like okay this is really this is I feel like the older generation would hear this and be like oh my god it's so so disappointing that this is what we've come to but like do i just like sit in an empty do i sit in a room with like the tv off and read i don't know like something about that just like feels weird and i don't know why i think i'd i don't know if it's like i need some maybe i could make goose and x me my dog yeah i can't do that i need something going on i listen to music or like i'll be downstairs with someone just like having background i need that

yeah or i just get distracted or get bored yeah i also want to read i want to read the book you were talking about earlier but also the book you were talking about something about tabaki oh no you can borrow it if you want i need to i can't i'll get overwhelmed okay yeah one book yeah yeah that was a book um called i want to die but i want to but i think it's called i want to die but i also want to eat tabaki and don't worry it it doesn't need like a trigger trigger warning i was about to say trigger alert it doesn't need a trigger warning or anything because it is not about anything to do with like being suicidal or anything like that but it's just about a girl that's struggling with her mental health and she basically tracked it's very like real

and relatable and you will like see so much of like yourself in like her words and she basically like documented all of her conversations with her psychiatrist um i thought it was really good my honest review is like i didn't know if it necessarily like had so much help in it and then i actually went on to goodreads and that was like some of the criticism is that like the psychiatrist didn't really give very good advice sometimes or like she kind of was just like a bit sassy sometimes but anyway i'll let you guys read that and you can see what you think but i did like it overall i did also just post a reel about me um reading trying reading on a treadmill and it's

been very polarizing i i will be honest um yeah i'm not sure how people feel about it but yeah I guess it's a good were you running or walking it's a good point for discussion um so I was actually for the sake of the video um I kind of did both so I got the book out of my bag and then I you know set it up and then I started walking and then I did a run but I was actually in there for a training run so then I put it off because like yeah I was not about to be running and I don't know if I could do it the reason I did it is because I had actually I'm not gonna say who because I don't want to like spoil who the guests are but I had a very very cool guest on um for this podcast for season two um that will be coming up soon and she was talking about how she's really got into like running and reading and i was like yeah but like how does that actually

work like you know and she and she just said like i actually can run whilst i'm reading so i thought i'd give it a go and i thought it'd be an interesting topic of discussion for people on social media and i was very much right you know people feel very strongly opinionated about this um but yeah some feedback points i did see in the comments was like people were saying because i i don't well i want to start off by saying i did i don't think i could do it because i tried and it is walking i think yeah maybe i don't know i felt a little bit like self-conscious of it and i felt a little bit maybe this isn't me problem but I felt a little bit like people would be looking at me like who does she think she is bringing a book into the gym which maybe is I don't know do you know

what I mean it's giving I don't know if I've got the confidence for that I don't think my eyes could track the lines because I already struggle with like looking at the line yeah that's what those people were saying. And then people were saying like, oh, you've got to get a Kindle and like whack the font size up. And then you can like see it because it will be bigger like text. Some people were saying like,

no, I wouldn't be able to do that with a book because if I, people were saying if I used a book, it would have dissolved by the time I finished on the treadmill which made me laugh yeah some people were saying that they use um they they find it easier to do it on a stairmaster because you're not like bobbing up and down too much I see that um you can also like hold on with your elbows yeah some the main criticism with people was people were like because I also had um headphones on at the same time which I would like to just give like a disclaimer for that because I was wearing headphones one because you know believe it or not not all reels and tiktoks

are like you know actual fly on the wall yeah like I was doing it for a video like it was a discussion point so that was partly it and also because I was training like I was doing it for a video like it was a discussion point so that was partly it and also because I was training like I was listening to music but but also the headphones are noise cancelling so as someone who struggles to block out like all the different sounds like it was helpful most of the criticism was like girl you're doing too much like because I was like running reading and I had headphones on it was like i did i did reply to one of the comments i was like well yeah i'm nearly finished with the defining decade and so like that was like very like heavy so like now i'm like okay i need to

bounce you need a light-hearted one yeah i want to like read a book or something read a book lol uh i want to read like a fun little like fiction girly yeah yeah well that was fun yeah and i'm so excited for us to i don't know get back into podcasting i'm so excited it feels a lot better like doing the vibes i would say are much better yeah i agree more chill is that what you're gonna say about recording right right here and now or were you saying about pre-recording pre both pre-recording so much better but also like being here on your sofa and like not being in a set i don't know it's more like fun and i feel like we're like closer with the audience yeah i i think like i get why people

don't video the podcast and we won't be doing that further forward like further now because I feel like I can just like really speak candidly and not be conscious about how I'm looking and I remember Anna Archer she I remember her telling me that like she just said I don't want it to be videoed I want it to be like I just want it to be videoed. I want it to be like, I just want it to be audio, which is what people have come here for. So we do have episodes that are already pre-recorded and like ready to go. And then we're gonna probably,

I think the way we'll probably do it is that we have like these real time episodes, like the one we've just recorded today that you've just listened to, where we'll kind of have a check-in and maybe we do like a q a episode um i know we've got some of the girls episodes um with my friends that you guys loved um so yeah i'm really really excited for season two i've missed you guys so much and like i feel like i'm like ready to come back and have like really fantastic conversations and um

yeah so if you guys have any feedback or anything do let us know if you got this far thank you so much for listening to us rambling but hopefully it was like a nice little I don't know wherever you are I hope it was like a nice little bit of company um it's good to be back with you guys and um if you could give us a five star rating on like whatever you're listening to it would mean the world like genuinely it would mean so much and it also just means that we can like find and tap into more um spaces where we can find our audience to join our community and yeah wherever you're listening i would love to see where you guys are so um take a photo where you are right now and um tag us on instagram at gym

girls locker room which is where you can find us it's where we have all of our alerts about like future events and it's where the merch will be kind of advertised and you'll be able to like stay up to date with that you can find me on instagram as it grows and ellis is a ghost of the internet she is i i don't want to speak for you but i doubt you want yeah no this is like no okay absolutely not i'm so mysterious she's so mysterious thank you so i am so excited for the rest of the series and i hope you are too thank you so i am so excited for the rest of the series and i hope you are too thank you so much for listening see you next week