Just As Well, The Women's Health Podcast - Gabby Logan on Midlife Wellness, Power Moves + the Perimenopause

Episode Date: February 23, 2021

Few people embody a positive, powerful and balanced approach to living well during midlife quite like broadcaster and host of the Midpoint podcast, Gabby Logan. At 47, the mum-of-two feels as good as she did in her 30s, and is passionate about women her age - and older - truly owning their place on TV. As she’s very much doing right now, hosting the BBC’s coverage of the Six Nations. The way she sees it, she’s become more experienced, more skilled in those intervening years - and, as you’ll find out, she’s really fine-tuned the way she maintains her health and wellness too. You’ll hear about her fitness regimen, what it’s been like parenting in a pandemic and why it’s really important to her to prioritise her gut health. But what really sets this conversation apart is how open Gabby is about less well-trodden ground, including how she’s taking HRT since learning she’d entered the perimenopause and why the alcoholism that runs in her family has made her extremely mindful when it comes to drinking. Expect inspiration aplenty from this conversation - no matter what age and stage you’re at. Join Gabby on Instagram: @gabbylogan Join Claire on Instagram: @clairesanderson Join Women’s Health UK on Instagram: @womenshealthuk   Topics - Gabby Logan on feeling empowered in midlife - How she exercises to boost her mental health - Why Gabby started taking HRT after entering the perimenopause - What it’s like raising teenage twins in lockdown - How she looks after her gut health   Like what you’re hearing? We'd love if you could rate and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, as it really helps other people find the show. Also, remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, so you’ll never miss an episode.   Got a goal in mind? Shoot us a message on Instagram putting ‘Going for Goal’ at the start of your message and our experts could be helping you achieve your health goal in an upcoming episode. Alternatively, you can email us: [e-mail] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Few people embody a positive, powerful, and balanced approach to living well during midlife. quite like broadcaster and host of the Midpoint podcast Gabby Logan. At 47, the mum of two feels as good as she did in her 30s and is passionate about women her age and older, truly owning their place on TV, as she's very much doing right now, hosting the BBC's coverage of the Six Nations. The way she sees it,

she's only become more experienced and more skilled in those intervening years. And, as you'll find out, she's really fine-tuned the way she maintains her health and wellness too. Hello, I'm Roachine Devichael and this is Going for Goal, the weekly women's health podcast. On this show, we call on top experts to share the tools you need to make good on the health goals that matter to you and chat to our favourite celebrities and wellness heavyweights about what they do to feel and function at their best. And this week, it's Gabby's turn to chat editor-in-chief Claire Sanderson through her feel-good habits and health goals. You'll hear about her fitness regimen, what it's really been like to parent in a pandemic,

and why it's so important to her to prioritize her gut health. But what really sets this conversation apart is how open Gabby is about less well-trodden grounds. It's a really great listen. Hope you enjoy. Over to Claire. Hi, Gail. Hi, how are you? Yeah, very well, thank you.

How are you? Yeah, I'm good, good, very good. It's a very pertinent question to ask, actually, because we are in lockdown at the moment. So when someone says, how are you and it's just a good response, really, how is life for you at the moment? I've been quite busy actually because sport came back about June, didn't it last year? That's when the first live sport started.

So I started doing a lot of telework from then on really because the normal seasons have just kind of all merged and clashed. And so we've had one week I did rugby athletics and football in the same week. So it's all been quite a mishmash of stuff. It's not really kind of taken any regular order. But that's fine. And I've been going to grounds and getting to see live. for and having conversations with people other than my children and my husband. So I feel quite lucky, really, so I can't complain. And we've got, we live in a rural area. We've got a bit of space.

I know we're, you know, kind of very privileged to have, you know, stuff to do. And I've got a nice gym at home. So I do feel very lucky. And I feel very privileged that, you know, that we are, we've got teenagers as well, by the way. So I haven't got like kids under five, you know, and seven-year-olds that need constant attention. So I know it could be very different. I mean, the uncertainty, the anxiety, everybody kind of has, you know, to some degree, definitely I've had a bit of that. But yeah, I'm okay. You've just described my life that I have an eight-year-old and a five-year-old. Right. So, yeah, top trumps. It's so stressful. I give me work any day. Yeah, I just, I went for a walk this morning with a friend of mine who is a teacher,

son and my son are best mates and she teaches at his old school and she teaches year fours and she had parents evening on zoom last night and everything and I was asking her how it was as a teacher, you know, and are the parents being responsive kind of, you know, she said it's so interesting. Some parents, they want more, you know, they want, they want kind of can you organize our playtimes on Zoom? You know, she's going, well, no. Others don't seem to be doing anything. You know, she said, we'll just have to deal with it. You know, it's just when they come back, we'll have to see where they are really. So your children are older.

You have twin, a twin boy and a girl. How have they coped? Have they been homeschooling or they sat on Zoom all day? Yeah, they've sat on Zoom all day. And they've had, it was funny. When we went back in this time, my son had moved his computer to the dining room the first time so that they didn't have to work in the set

because they've got a kind of homework room, which normally is fine to share that space. But if you're going to be on a Zoom all day long, you can't share that space. I mean, I know that with my husband. I've just kicked him out of the office. His office is up just around the corner here where the dog's lying. You can see behind me.

And he was just on a call. And I said, you're going to have to get off. I'm about to do a podcast. And the kids separated in the first lockdown. And my son took the dining room because I wasn't going to be having many dinner parties, was I? So he took the dining room and he loves it. It's a really gorgeous big dining room.

And so he's kind of like got this massive space to himself. And when he moved back in in January, he said, oh, I'm a bit nostalgic. I feel like I'm coming. So the thing I worry about with them is they're looking at a computer screen. all day long, aren't they? You know, he goes off and works out at lunchtime. She's lucky because she's got horses, so she'll go every day she hacks at lunchtime. So she's living the dream for a horsey person, you know, because she gets to do more riding than she's ever done. So she's really lucky. But the social aspect of being a teenager is gone, hasn't it? You know, they've had almost a

year with that whole kind of social life disappeared. And that part I do worry about. Because the younger generation, I think they've got more of innate mental resilience in that they're more in tune with mindfulness. Some of them practice them at school. I think that you said in a previous interview that your children do at their school. But equally, they've been thrust into this unprecedented, very overused word this year, I know, but this unprecedented situation. And I do worry about the long-term impact that's going to have on them. For instance, anxiety about being in crowds and being in social situations.

Is this something that you discussed with you or two? I'm not so much worried about that. I mean, I suppose when kids, my son is incredibly sociable. So after I speak to you, and he finishes his school day, he said, can you run me down to Beaconsville, which is our little local town? And he said, I'm just going to go for a walk with a friend, which I'm happy from to do, you know,

to go walking with their mates and to go for a bike ride with their mates because otherwise they don't. But he would do that every day because he's very good at being proactive about his social life, if you like. Whereas my daughter, because of she's busy with school and horses and stuff, I had to kind of almost force her to organise a walk at the weekend. I said, get somebody to, you know, because I could see her getting kind of a little bit down and a little bit unmotivated. And she just needed that kind of, you know, somebody else to be with unless she's less sociable. You know, she's very, you know, she loves going out, but she's more likely to want to work and finish off her homework.

And she's very studious and conscientious. And I think school provided a really great place for her to socialize as well. So I do worry at the moment. I think afterwards they'll be out there. I think mine are the kind of age where I think they just want to get out, don't they? They want to be doing their sport. They want to be doing the social stuff. The thing that I think that concerns me is kind of younger kids who aren't able to express that, I suppose.

They're able to express that. But younger kids don't quite have the vocabulary, do they? And I don't mean they haven't got the words. They just don't know why they're feeling something. Whereas mine have been very good, as you say, the whole kind of. kind of mindfulness conversation that goes on at school and around the media and social media, they're good at saying, I feel rubbish today, which is great. And it sounds like you have a very communicative household. So you have these conversations

with each other. You encourage your loved ones to be open with each other. Oh yeah, definitely. And we, you know, we regularly, we have all our meals together anyway, but in lockdown, obviously we do. And we'll sit at the dinner table and have a chat about their day and what's going on and try and I'm trying to put things. in for them to look forward to as well. So I'm trying to book a week away in the summer, just in the UK, obviously. I'm struggling to get a house at the moment, but somewhere that they can bring friends. And I said, you can bring two friends each. And that took an hour of conversation last night because they were so excited about it. And I realized then, actually,

I need to do more of this. I need to put other things, even if it's day trips, just things to look forward to, to think about. And when I told the other parents that their kids, you know, had been inviting and stuff, the parents were so excited for the kids. Because I think it's just what I realized last night when I was getting these replies, we all need that, don't we? We all need to have something to look forward to. And even if we have to cancel it. The parents are excited for themselves, I think. I've seen so much of my kids, I can't wait to get rid of them.

One of them did say, one of them did reply with, are you mad? Taking six, 16-year-olds, they'll all be then. They'll all be 16. And they all think they're going to have this riotous summer post-GCC summer. So, yeah, maybe I am a bit mad. But I'd rather be kind of like, you know, on top of them and know what's going on, you know, if we go away, than me thinking, oh my God, they're away somewhere. What are they doing?

Yes, exactly. True story, I went to Magaloof. At 16. I don't know how my mother left to me. With 14 girls from the South Wales valleys. Oh, my gosh. Were you part of a reality show or something? That sounded insane.

There was no such thing then, but we should have. be. We should have been. I'm not going to let my kids hear this podcast because they'll go, see, Mom, we should. My daughter won't be going away when she's 16 to Magaloof. Absolutely. I want to be in your family because my husband, last summer, I think, had a bit of a midlife crisis and sped thousands on camping equipment because we couldn't go away. So we now own so much camping equipment. You can rent it. He's this summer, he's planning all these camping trips. So I'm like, don't get ahead of yourself. The minute we're allowed abroad, we are going. Well, I just think it's so risky to book an abroad holiday this summer, isn't it?

So I just thought last summer I spent about a week of my life unraveling trips, you know, and trying to get refunds on flights because it was my mum's 70th. I'd booked this amazing house in New Yorker. I'd never done anything like this. I'd paid for flights for my sister to come from America, my brother and his girlfriend. Mom, I'd done. And of course, I'd done them all separately. I'd done every single one of the bookings kind of to get the best prices.

done like, you know, a block booking. So I had caterers and all sorts. And I still don't know if I've been refunded by American Airlines. My sister's flight. But I thought to myself, right, I'm not going through that again. We need places we can get in the car and go. In the end, we went to Scotland last year in the car. And we've done Scotland too summers running. So I know the kids are a bit Scotland doubted for their summer holidays. So just to have some, I don't know, see the sea. When you live inland, you just want to see the sea, don't you? So that'd be nice. So your podcast is called the midpoint and your tagline is that you're middle-aged and ashamed. So what's to be a middle-aged mean to you? What does it mean to me? It means different things all the time because I'm always interviewing and chatting to people in that period of life who have such different perspectives. And so I'm so glad I've done this project. I started it at the beginning of the first lockdown because it was something I'd wanted to do for a while and I had the time. And I'm just loving it. I'm loving it.

the creativity that you can kind of just go and do something on your own. You know, I'm not doing it with the BBC or anybody else. And it's given me a real kind of reason to read around the subject, to get very knowledgeable about various areas of kind of this period of our life in terms of the physical side of things, the mental side of things. And so it's, I suppose what it means to me right now is it's quite empowering, you know, and I feel like it's a period where this has given me confidence to try other projects off my own back, you know, and to feel that I can do stuff that's you know, I've been wanting to do, it's been burning up inside me for a while.

And so the freedom that having teenagers brings as well, because obviously their independence is growing and in a couple years' time, they'll be gone. And so, yeah, I feel quite free. That's what midlife feels. And you've had some really interesting guests on there. You've had Davina McCall, who is a friend of Women's Health Factory,

she's been on our cover and Mariela Fosterp. And one of the things they've spoken about at length is the menopause and the perimenopause. And that's definitely a conversation that wonderfully is gaining pace and gaining more amplification. Would you mind sharing your perimenopause story? I know that you started experiencing. Yeah, yeah. So just going back just slightly.

So the midpoint isn't just about that because I wanted, because there are podcasts, you know, that are kind of very much more focused on women's issues. And I wanted to do a podcast with men and women. So I tend to flip-flop. So it's 50-50. One week, it'll be a male guest. one make a female guess. And the reason I wanted to do that was partly because of the men are perversely, because I feel like it's a conversation that is growing kind of in its volume and

more people are talking about it. But also, you know, men work alongside women. Men are married to women. And I think men need to also know what's going on because we need to kind of have that empathy and understanding of what's happening to our partners and our friends and our, and men also have physical changes. You know, they don't happen in quite the most dramatic way that women's kind of do in terms of the rate of drop-off of the hormones. But I just did not understand fully what was happening or going to happen to me. I'd be honest, you know, before I started in this area. And that's partly why I wanted to explore it. And so what I did was in Mariella's episode, she talked about this doctor. I don't even remember, she talks about going to see a doctor and having it explained to her

and having her blood's done. And after the podcast, I said, could you give me the name of the doctor? And I booked an appointment to go and see this doctor that she'd raved about. I mean, it could have been any doctor, but I just kind of, you know, when you like a referral, don't you from somebody and you like to know somebody who's trusted somebody. And so I went and had my bloods done for the first time ever in terms of hormone checking. And basically, I was almost, I'm almost, I'm probably never going to have a period again, basically. So I'm kind of almost through that part of my life, which I had no idea, first of all, that could tell that from the bloods. You know, I was like, what? How can you know that? And she said, you might have one or two. And because I hadn't had

very dramatic symptoms. I didn't realize I was even perimenopausal and because I had IVF, she explained that your menopause can come earlier and I also didn't know that. So I was getting all this kind of knowledge and information very, very quickly kind of, you know, explaining things about me and what was going on. And she said, look, your hormones are kind of like way down, you know, to where they should be and actually the reason you're feeling so tired is this. The reason why your skin is feeling dry as this. And, you know, and so just explaining how the hormones work in relation to my body and what was going on. And so I made the decision that I would use some bioidentical hormones because she explained the risks and what, you know, what they were and the benefits

and what they were. And I think everybody's decision is completely individual. You know, you, whether you want to do that or not is totally up to you. But I felt like, well, I'm not feeling the best version of me that I can feel right now. And I don't want to kind of, I don't want to just kind of, myself to slow for no reason, do you know, just because it's, you know, I'd like to feel better. And it wasn't, it's such a steady kind of feeling that you don't notice almost that your energy might have dropped off or that you're, you know, you feel like I'm falling, feeling asleep at three o'clock in the afternoon or whatever it is that is happening to you. So, so that's where I am, really. And that's been about six months since I saw her. And I feel, you know, I feel really

good and I'm very lucky because I haven't had a lot of the more aggressive symptoms that you get with the menopause. I haven't had night sweats or kind of, you know, feeling itchy skin, like some of the things that sound really quite aggravating. So I too take HRT and I started having the symptoms when I was about 39. And I was completely unaware that this was even possible at that age. You know, I had my last child when I was 37. That's clusters. early. That's classed as early, I think, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. So the perimenopausal symptoms can start, and it can go on for years. They can go on for like 10 years or something. But I too had the blood test, which said,

my estrogen was a sixth of what it should be. My testosterone was low. But even as the editor-in-chief of women's health, I hadn't heard the phrase, perimenopause. And that was, you know, I'm 42 now, so it was some time ago. And the conversation has definitely gathered pace. And I think as a brand like woman's health, we're talking about it. You and I are talking about it now. And people like Davina, and Mariella and Meg Matthews. And I do believe the more women of our generation in their 40s who start owning the aging process, the better.

Because, for instance, you work in TV, there was a time not so long ago where there was a shelf life for TV centers. And Susanna Reid gave an interview recently where she said that she thinks that ship has sailed and she thinks there's no longer a shelf life and older women are owning their place on TV. Is that something you would agree? with or? Yeah, I mean, this is part of the reason why I wanted to look into this as well, because

I and the inside didn't feel, you know, dramatically different to the 32 year old me. So, you know, yes, I've got more lines and, you know, yes, I, you know, I, of course, I'm not, you know, I'm not looking exactly the same as I did when I was 32. That would be, unless I was, you know, incredibly lucky, that would be fairly unique, wouldn't it, to look exactly the same as you did in your early 30s. But I also felt like I've got more experience and there's more I want to do and I'm better at my job. And so all those things that you kind of are plus points for being a bit older. I just didn't want to stop work just because of being a certain age. And being able to keep those conversations going on live television and all those things requires obviously mental dexterity and

cognitive ability. And so when I was reading about some of the effects of menopause were to do, you know, kind of to do the slowing off of the cognitive overload, which Davina talks about on the midpoint podcast, and you say, okay, I need to look at this because actually I'm doing live TV for hours and hours on end, I can't just forget something in the middle of a conversation. So, and I think that applies to a lot of women in high-powered and high-performance jobs where, you know, they suddenly disappear from boards or from being the CEO because they don't quite get there because of this period of their life that can cause confusion physically and emotionally and mentally. So for me, it's really important that women keep pushing through, you know, so and get those

top jobs and are still in politics and are still in, you know, front-line business and still in whatever the profession is, you know, that it's not because. because of what happens to them in their menopause that they disappear. That would be a travesty, wouldn't it? We've got all this ability to help with our wellbeing and we're not giving the information correctly so people don't necessarily take it. So you've obviously been a lifelong devotee to wellbeing.

You were a competitive gymnast. You competed in the Commonwealth Games for Wales and then when your career was cut short when you were 17, you then continued other types of fitness throughout university and beyond. And you've said that it made you better at everything then and you're really pleased that you took that route when you could have taken a different route.

So you're now in your late 40s. What does wellness look like for you now? Wellness is intrinsically tied up with fitness, you know, for me, in terms of my mental well-being is definitely boosted by the pheromones that come from my physical well-being and working out. And so at the moment, I'm doing a lot of online stuff because, you know, that's the way the way it is and doing some really nice classes. And I've got, I've got back into training with a trainer. I trained for years, a guy who called Mel Dino, I used to train

with. I've been doing a few sessions with him online and a few hit classes. I might do some yoga, go for a run, doing loads of walking. And it's definitely helping me get through this period. And also the energy that's created, you know, from that movement, I find is very positive. You know, You can't sit at your desk all day in front of a Zoom. And you've got to get out and get some fresh air as well. Even if the weather's rubbish, I don't mind. I just get out and make sure you've got the right shoes on and go and breathe the air. So that's really important to me, the physical side of wellness.

And then there is the side obviously that is about being in the moment, I think, is probably the best way to describe it, you know, and to not look too far ahead in terms of it. I mean, I know kind of you want to have things to look forward to, but at the moment we're so out of control, I think. what's happening is within none of our grasp, is it, our control. So you have to release that idea that you can control this. And I think if you're somebody that's always been in control of what you do and, you know, very organized and all that kind of thing, there's quite, it's a bit of a

bit of friction, isn't there, between what you'd really like to happen and what is happening. So to achieve more balance and to achieve better wellness, I've had to learn to just kind of go, okay, I'll hold my hands up. You know, what's happening around me is, is nothing that I can affect and what I can affect is my own well-being, which then trickles down into my family. So it's been an effort. That's annoying. What? You're a muffler.

You don't hear it? Oh, I don't even notice it. I usually drown it out with the radio. How's this? Oh, yeah. Way better. Save on insurance by switching to Bel Air Direct and use the money to fix your car. Bel Air Direct, insurance, simplified.

Conditions apply. And you're a great advocate for gut health, aren't you? and how your gut is your second brain and can massively influence your holistic well-being. Yeah, I've always known that, you know, and I think if you feel like you've got IBS, if you feel like you've got gut issues, there is something else going on.

You know, that's not how you should feel. And so many people live with those feelings, not knowing really, because it becomes almost normal. And something either is going wrong in your diet that's not good for you or there's stress in your life or there's something else happening. And the gut is so powerful in that respect to kind of how it reacts to our body and how it reacts to the release of cortisol or kind of, you know, the chemicals that we release when we're scared or frightened or nervous or anxious, you know, it comes back to that feeling in the stomach.

You talk about butterflies in the stomach and, you know, those kind of childlike kind of expressions actually tell you a lot about what's going on. And so in terms of my kind of the passion for it, if you like, I met somebody locally who was doing juices. She was making really great press juices. And then we kind of came up together with a drink, which basically she's the brains behind it. But we discussed a lot what is needed out of a sports drink. And it's called TYG, train your gut. And it's basically probiotic sports drink.

There's so many sports drinks, as you know, are loaded with sugars and nasties and things that are kind of not actually helpful for the gut. and when you train hard, you do release a lot of stress in your body because that's what you're doing. You're effectively stressing your body. So how to get that stress down quickly through something that helps you kind of restore that balance in your stomach. So yeah, it's definitely an area that Kenny also, my husband, has had gut issues all his life. He's because his mum's a celiac and he's always been gluten-free. But what he's noticed more and more is it's not just the gluten. There's other things that are starting to affect him.

So he's been doing some investigating on his own kind of to try and work out if he's got some kind of or something. So we're very, I'm very careful about when I'm cooking as well, you know, to make sure that you want exciting food, but not food that's going to aggravate him. So we kind of have to get that balance. So it's something that I definitely think about a lot and I'm, I listen to my gut. And you, you drink mindfully because there's, there's alcoholism in your family. So you have a mindful approach to how much alcohol you've consumed. Yeah, I do. I think, I think when you have experienced addiction and alcoholism around you in the family, I think it, changes your relationship with alcohol. You can go one way or the other sometimes. You know,

you either go kind of completely without it or, you know, you follow the family kind of path of, you know, perhaps too much. And so I've seen that in both, you know, in people I know and families that I know where alcohol has been there. But I don't want to, I don't want to give up completely. I might do one day, but right now I like having a glass of wine or a gin and tonic, you know. And it's really, I said to Kenny actually, I said this morning because we had a glass of rosé with dinner last night and both of us felt really rough this morning because he made a salad. It was his turn to cook and he made a salad. Can you believe that? In the middle of January. And so I said, I said, oh, this feels very summary. So he went, should you like a glass of whispering angel? And I was like,

all right then to make it fully feel like summer. And this morning I felt quite rough. And he said, I said to him first of all, I said, should we just stop drinking until we're allowed to go out to a pub? Should we make that the kind of, you know? And he was like, that could be ages. I was like, and, but I don't want to stop being able to enjoy it. Do you know, that's why I'm mindful, because I don't want it to become something that controls me. And I think that's, when you're around alcoholism, I think that's becomes very apparent that the person has lost control. I don't drink very often at all. I'm more of a chocolate girl, but I do love having a glass of Shandy watching the Six Nations because I'm a passionate Welsh rugby fan. And I understand you are,

even though Kenny played for Scotland, but you still support Wales. Yeah, well, I'm my dad's Welsh and I representative Wales at the Commonwealth Games. And so my team are Wales and always have been. And yeah, so there's a bit of friction at times on that one. I mean, Scotland had been getting a bit better in them. I mean, they won the last one, obviously,

back in lockdown in November, it was the last match of the 2026 nations was delayed and they won in Wales for the first time in, I think, 22 years. But Wales generally have been on top for a while against Scotland. so I haven't had to worry too much. Yeah, we're on the decline a little bit, aren't they? We'll see. I think transition.

I think we call it transition. That's what we call it. Right. That's what we'll call it. So what about the twins then? Are they Scotland fans? They're Scottish. Yeah, I tried.

I've tried. But Ruben's very, yeah, he's really committed to Scotland. And he really, he's very proud of that. And he's quite envious of Kenny's, like he'll say to me, where we live is a lovely part of the world. They've got loads of friends. but he said, you know what, I haven't got that daddy had when he grew up. He said he was in Scotland. He had all his like cousins and everybody around him

because he's from a big family of like boys and rugby players and, you know. And he said he's got this romantic idea, I think, of living in Scotland of what it's like, because Kenny lived in the shadow of the Wallace monument near Stirling Castle. It's real braveheart country. So I think Ruben's got this kind of image of, you know, the more running through the fields kind of, you know, in kilt, which wasn't quite like that. But yeah, he's very proud of his Scottish roots.

because my kids support Wales I've run that argument in our house even though I'm married to an Englishman and to be honest he sort of supports Wales as well now because I think he can see how much it means it means to the Welsh and the singing well there's much more fun at the principality

than you do at Twickenham let's be honest I try to go to all the Wales home matches and the singing and the fact that the stadium's amazing stadium's right in the city centre you know and everyone's queuing to get at the perhaps at 8 o'clock in the morning and everyone comes down from the valleys.

It's a shame and it's not going to happen this year. What do you think is going to happen this year with sport? Well, obviously, the Six Nations is going ahead without fans and it will be strange, but I think it's important to get it played. I think you can't postpone it because the sporting schedules is you just bump into another, whether it's the British and Irish Lions or it's the leagues, you know, you just bump into another event. So they've got to get it done.

And if they can get it done, obviously they should because it's important for the unions to get, you know, the TV rights and all of that stuff. It's just, it will be for me, you know, the really, the one tournament where you just go, you know, not having that singing, not having that. But it is what it is. And then we've got to hope that, but, you know, next year it will just be better than ever, won't it? You know, 2020 will be the best sporting year ever because everybody's going to be just so happy to be back in stadiums. I'm permanently drunk watching sport.

With your shandy. I don't know, Claire. My name. My shandy. I know. I love a shandy. You're making me, because it's so first-crenching as well, isn't it? A cold shandy on a lovely, a lovely hot day. But the Cynastika is generally not too hot, though. No, it's just something about standing outside a pub or Caroline Street, you know, with a shandy in my hand. That's the Six Nations to me. Your image. Yeah. So this podcast is called Going for Goal. What are your goals for 2021?

one? To get through it. I think, I genuinely think my goals are to to keep kind of everybody in my house, you know, as a kind of, I don't know, I feel like that matriarchal thing has become more important to me in lockdown because I feel like I've got to keep everybody together and, you know, you're keeping them sane and happy. And I'm talking about the kids, obviously, although Kenny comes into that as well. And so I think keeping them going is really important to me. and driving them and hoping that they, you know, because they're going into six form in, you know, in the autumn, they're going to new schools.

There's so much transition going on in their lives. And to keep going with, I've loved doing the midpoint. I want to do a third series in the spring, and I want to kind of grow that into something a bit bigger as well and try and kind of create a community around that. And that's been really, I've really loved it and I've really enjoyed the reaction. Because I don't do a lot where I get a lot of reaction from women.

And what's been so lovely about this is the women getting in touch with me because I do sport and it tends to be, men and they tend to be saying things like, why did you ask that question? Didn't you know it was off-suff, you know, so it's so nice to get feedback from women who are enjoying the conversations. And so, yeah, I think I'd like to just keep going with that. And keep, I'm 50 in two years. So I'm 48 in April. And I'm seeing that kind of landmark there, you know, when you kind of go like, okay, physically I'm, I work out a lot. I'm, you know, I'm fit and healthy. I feel fit and I've got to put something in the diary, I think, from a point of view of physical goal.

I've got to get some new physical goals this year, I think, to maybe half marathon or something just to keep myself, you know, really kind of motivated. Because I think 50 does feel like a point where you go, oh, I ran, you know, I ran a sub two-hour marathon, two-hour marathon, two-hour marathon, I ran a seven-hour half marathon, yeah. A goal world record. That's just a small name. Yeah, a sub two-hour half marathon. I think something like that would be a really good goal.

A triathlon, because that's the ultimate challenge. I'm just a rubbish. I love swimming, but I'm just, I'm rubbish at Front Crawl. I'm a breaststrokeer. And you don't see many people breaststroking a triathlon. I did a swim in a triathlon a few years ago. And I was the only one, it was open water. I started doing backstroke. And Kenny was on the riverbank, and this guy went, what's that stupid woman doing? And Kenny was like, who? And he went, her.

He said, when you lie in your back in a triathlon, it means help. And so Kenny was going, Gabby, turn over. So, yeah, that didn't go so well. Right. Right, top tip then. No backstroke in an entire floor. Also, you can't see where you're going. So you're whacking.

And there was like all these women in the water. And they're probably thinking, what the hell is she up to? So I really need to learn how to do front crawl properly. That's what I need to do. Right. Well, on that note, thank you so much for joining me today. It's been an absolute pleasure.

And, yeah, good luck for 2021, whatever channel. Jersey it throws us. Thank you so much, Gabby Logan. I hope whatever age and stage you are at, you took heart and inspiration from that chat. What a wise and generally just really lovely sounding woman. You have been listening to broadcaster and host of the Midpoint podcast Gabby Logan, interviewed by Women's Health, editor-in-chief Claire Sanderson. As ever, if you want to comment on anything that we've raised in this episode, get in touch. All the details of how to do so are in the show notes.

And if you've got a goal in mind and you want to know how to achieve it, let us know and we could be helping you get there in an upcoming episode. Likewise, if there's a celeb who you'd love to hear on the pod, get in touch because we are all ears. That's all from going for goal this week. We'll be back next Tuesday. Bye for now.