Just As Well, The Women's Health Podcast - How To Fall In Love With Fitness

Episode Date: January 9, 2020

The gyms are packed, the streets are lined with joggers and good luck bagging a spot in an exercise class. Whether it’s for weight loss, getting out in nature or the endorphins, doing more exercise is on the minds of many at the moment. But as the fizzy pep of the new year wears off and reality bites, it can begin to feel like a chore. So how can you find a form of exercise you really enjoy? How do you get yourself out of bed for a workout on the days when your brain has other ideas? And how can you turn good intentions into the habit of a lifetime? In this episode, Senior Editor Roisín Dervish-O’Kane discusses all this and more, with Dr Tara Swart, neuroscientist-turned-executive advisor and author of The Source (£8.99, Vermillion) and Nesrine Dally, Muay Thai boxer and Nike trainer.  Join Women’s Health on Instagram: @womenshealthuk Join Roisín Dervish-O’Kane on Instagram: @roisin.dervishokane Join Dr Tara Swart on Instagram: @drtaraswart Join Nesrine Dally on Instagram: @nez__healthhub Have a goal that you want us to put to the experts? Record a voice note telling us your name and your goal then send it to [e-mail], putting ‘GOING FOR GOAL’ in the subject line - and your goal could be the subject of a future episode.  Topics:  Why do so many people fail to keep their fitness resolutions? How do you find a form of exercise you enjoy? What is neuroplasticity and how can it help us reach our goals? How do turn a new hobby into a habit?  How do you stay motivated when you don’t want to train? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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New Season now streaming on Paramount Plus Hello everyone and welcome back to Going for Goal, the new Women's Health podcast that's here to help you make good on the goals you want to achieve in 2020. I'm your host, Senior Editor Roshin Derbyshokane. Each week we'll be taking a goal that's important to many in the women's health community and, with the help of leading experts, providing you the listeners with the tools you need to make that goal happen. If you didn't catch our first episode, all about healthy weight loss without crash dieting, do give it to listen. and hit subscribe on Apple, Acast or wherever you get your podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. This week we're talking exercise, specifically falling in love with fitness. Because if you don't enjoy your workouts, then you're just not going to keep at them,

no matter how beneficial you know they are for your mental and physical health. It's tempting to say, right, I'm going to hit the gym three times per week when you're all hyped to get back on your health and fitness game after the Christmas break. But if you hate that sort of workout, then good luck. dragging yourself out of bed for that 7.30 a.m. session come mid-February. We know this is a massive issue for people, women's health staff, has included. Let's now hear from one women's health reader, Ila. Hi, my name's Eila. My goal for 2020 is to get into fitness. I feel like I try and do this every year.

I'll sign up to a gym, either close to home or near my work, and I'll tell myself I'll go about three times a week, and I just don't go, and I waste so much money. I really want to get into a routine with exercise so it doesn't feel like such a chore because when I am exercising, I feel so good about myself. Can you tell me how I can go about this? Thanks to Isla for sending in the voice note

and inspiring today's episode. If you want to do the same, all you need to do is record a voice note with your name and your goal and email it to women's health at women's healthmag.com.uk Putting going for goal in the subject line. But don't worry about noting that all down. the info will all be in the show notes. So here with me today to help you find a form of exercise

that you actually enjoy and arm you with the tools you need to turn your plan into a habit are Dr Tara Swart, neuroscientist turned executive advisor and author of the source. Hello Tara. Hi, Rashin. And Nesreen Dali, a moitai athlete and Nike trainer. Hey, Rashin. Thank you both so much for coming down today. Dr. Swart, your background is in neuroscience. So you know all about the mechanics of the brain. With that in mind, what are women like Ila and I hold my hand up here as well, the rest of us, getting so wrong with our January fitness goals? Well, first of all, I'm holding my hand up as well. So it's a common trap that people fall into.

I think it's partly because we set such lofty goals. If you're going from doing no exercise to joining a gym and saying you'll go three times a week, that's quite a big change. So specifically for Ila, I would have said, build up doing some exercise outdoors or at home till you know that it's actually worth paying for the gym subscription. And the physiology of this is that when you do exercise that you enjoy, you actually get additional benefits in the brain that are just good for you generally, but also make you more motivated. So in an experiment with three groups of rats, there was a group of rats kept in a confined space, a group of rats that were forced to exercise. a group of rats that were forced to exercise on a treadmill for a certain number of minutes or hours per day and a group that could roam around freely get on various forms of exercise equipment whenever they wanted to for as long as they wanted to. So the two exercise groups both got the benefits of oxygenation and their blood flow to their brain and their body,

but the voluntary group also released a growth factor called BDNF or brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which actually contributes to growth of new neurons. And any habit, like going to the gym regularly, is about building up a pathway in your brain so that that becomes your default, so then it's easy. And the reason that we fail is that it takes a lot of hard work to get the pathway to the point that that's normal for you and avoiding the gym isn't your default pathway.

Yeah. Oh, it's fascinating to know what's actually going on in there, isn't it? That's amazing. So the takeaway from that then is basically you will be more likely to stick out something if you enjoy it. Definitely. And you get that, not only do you get that reinforcement from enjoying it, but you get almost chemical reinforcement within your brain.

Yeah, and to build up to that slowly. So maybe try some different things, like, you know, do a dance class or yoga, and then find the thing that you like and then build up the frequency. Yeah. Brilliant. Thank you. And Nessarine, you're a brilliant example of someone who probably found your thing with fitness. and it's been a game changer for you. What does Moitai give you both kind of physically and mentally? Moy Thai really does give me just a feeling of empowerment and strength. And it's just really like a release and an outlet for me.

So I feel like when I go into the gym, I just walk in there and whatever worries I have, just leave the minute I step into the gym. And all of us that are in the gym, we're all the same. It doesn't matter. We're all, you know, we've all got gloves on. We've all got pads on. And, you know, we're all the same person. So it kind of, it's a really humbling experience. And when you're in there, just focusing on the skill and focusing on the technique just takes you away from everything else. So it's just such an invigorating feeling being in there. And it's just, yeah, it's almost like I kind of think of it as like meditation, but like dynamic meditation because your brain is just, it's forgetting about all the worries and all the kind of things that are going outside. And you're just focusing on that one thing that's in front of you and just trying to be good at that and get better at it. Fantastic.

Because yeah, yeah, you need to focus, don't you? You do, yeah, you do. Want you're in a fight situation. Exactly. You've got to be mindful. There's a lot of things to remember as well. So I think that's what I love about. So I always tell people to try and learn a skill

because actually you're more likely to stick at it because you want to get better at it, whether it's dance, whether it's riding on bike, whether it's swimming or Brazilian jiu-jitsu or whatever, you know, just try and learn something new. So you can actually, that's probably going to give you more chances to stick at it because you want to get better at it. You want to go to the next level.

You want to learn the next thing on there. That's a great job. And can you pinpoint the exact moment that you fell in love with Muay? Pretty much the first session that I did. just because I felt like, wow, what a humbling experience. I went into that gym as a fit individual who was studying sports science, you know, extensive background in sports and at a competitive level as well. And I just felt like it was actually really difficult for me.

And I looked around the gym and I saw so much inspiration. Everybody was moving their body in such an amazing way. And they all looked so amazing. I just thought, do you know what? I want to be good at this. I want to look like that. I want to look, I want to do that kicks like that and punches like that and, you know, have that kind of body movement.

I thought it was fantastic. And I think that first session I just realized, actually, do you know what? I found something that's really going to challenge me. And I want to be, I want to be better at it as well. And, you know, being a bit competitive helps because it was, as I said, a humbling experience. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, do you know what? I'm going to stick at this and I'm going to make sure I get good at it.

I love that. So find something. Get inspired. Okay, now we're going to move on to how listeners can actually reach this goal. Nesarine, you've heard from Eiler just now. Yeah. So we've talked about getting inspired and finding something that you feel motivated to do. But what tactics can she take up in January that will set her up with a habit that she can sustain for the rest of the year? I think the answer is probably in the question. So try not to think of it as January. So we need to think of it as a lifelong, you know, change of habits, isn't it?

And just breaking that year down. So just start really, really basic to begin this. So just start with your week, you know, break it down into what things you're going to do that week and how you can build it around your habits that you already have. I always think setting yourself performance goals are really important. So maybe that could be, I want to be able to walk for a now without getting out of breath. I want to be able to run a 5K, you know, without stopping. I want to be able to walk up the stairs without any knee pain, you know, so set yourself those performance goals. So you've actually got something to work towards and you can actually break that down into right. So in order to run a 5K, what do I need to be able to do? Okay, so I need to be able to fit in X amount of runs a week at

you know, at this different pace and, you know, just really break it down so you've got all of that in place for you. And Tara, how does your brain not get overwhelmed by all of that? Well, I think NETS hit the nail on the head by saying focus on performance goals, because from the neuroscience point of view, it's the other side of the coin, which is what's your intention? So just saying I'm going to go to the gym three times a week isn't actually a goal. So if it's, you know, you've quite rightly identified some things that you may have noticed, like, when I walk up the stairs, I get pain in my knee. But maybe it's, maybe it's for a wedding, maybe it's for a holiday, maybe it's because you want to, you know, wear a certain item of clothing.

Or, you know, that it's going to contribute to your mental performance, your fertility. So I think identifying what's really behind the reason that you've chosen that goal makes a massive difference. And then, as we know, people who start goals in the January have often already stopped by February. And but one of the things that I find with my coaching clients is that when they've set a goal like that and then they fail to meet it, they think that's it, I failed. But it's about mental resilience means that when you fail, fail in quote marks, that instead of beating yourself up and saying that it's over, just start again when you can. For me, with all my travel, that knocks me off my schedule. Yeah. But instead of saying, okay, well, you know, I travel a lot and so I can't keep going to the gym, X and

number of times, I just start again when I can. And that's what you call discipline. And if I can just say a quote here. Yeah. So ride the wave of motivation, let it begin you on your path of where you want to go. And when that wave dies, let discipline swim you to the shore. So do you see what I like it? Yeah.

Yeah. I really love that because I think people are under the illusion sometimes that people like myself who are fitness, you know, experts and trainers and stuff like that. We've got motivation all the time. We're not motivated all the time. But it's discipline that gets me going to that training session. It's discipline and it's the fact that I love it. And quite rightly, as you said, it's that intention.

The intention is everything. But that discipline will mean that you will go to the gym no matter what you're feeling that morning. But you might just change your workout. You might just be a bit more intuitive. Instead of doing a heavy lifting session because you don't feel, you know, you don't feel like you're in the right headspace. Maybe you just go for a 20 minute run. And, you know, you change, you know, have a structure in place,

but you just be a bit flexible with it because we're human beings, we don't always wake up feeling on top of the world. so we need to be intuitive with our exercise and make sure we, you know, thinking about how we feel and, you know, just listening to our bodies and our brains. I like that. So it's being disciplined in terms of thinking, right, I am going to do something today. I have pledged to work out this much, but being intuitive and a bit more flexible on the kind of the micro detail. Yeah. Great. Thank you. And because now more than ever, there's so many, there's so many things on offer.

do you think in January it's a good idea for people to say, I don't know, try to like pick and choose, say if they download class pass or something and pick and choose these different workouts or from a neuroscience perspective, knowing what's going on the brain, is it actually more sensible to think, right, say I want to get good at one thing and practice that for a certain amount of time? So with what we know about neuroplasticity, if you're already on a regime and you do some form of exercise regularly, then to boost your neuroplasticity and take you to the next level, absolutely mix it up. But if you're struggling to even get into an exercise routine, then personally I wouldn't suggest mixing it up. I would choose something, do it regularly, get yourself feeling like you're a bit better at it and that you, you know, you've got momentum and then think about mixing it up. So not to overwhelm yourself. Yeah. Okay. I like that. And what about, what about like thinking about what you enjoyed when you're a child? Is that a way to kind of

So, you know, say if someone's like fallen out of love with fitness a little bit, how do they, how do they even get an inkling of what might inspire them, that what might light that fire in the way that Nezarin was talking about with Muay? I would say you could look at that both ways. Yeah, you could say that you could look at your childhood and see the things that you enjoyed. So for me, I did a variety of sports, but I was more of an explosive athlete, so more sort of sprinting as opposed to sort of long distance. But then again, if you look at my childhood being an ex-swimmer,

you wouldn't have put me in a ring doing Muay Thai, so that's where you may be slightly limiting yourself because I get a lot of women that come down to my class and they're like, do you know what, I've not done any martial arts. I don't really think this is even, I'm like, it's fine. Just take a deep breath. Just enjoy today's session and just listen to me and you'll be fine. Like try not to overthink it. Because I think a lot of people sort of even just box themselves out of certain things. Oh no, I won't do that because I'm not very, I'm not very aggressive. My classes aren't aggressive at all. We're learning a new skill. We're having fun. We're having, you know, and I think we need to just be a little bit more open-minded with it than to just say, okay, what did I do as a child? I did play a bit of rugby. So maybe I'll just get back into that. I think, you know what? There's maybe more to it than that. Because we change and if we're talking about forming an emotional connection with this workout to keep you going with it.

That might have, as you say, that might well have changed in the past five years. That might have changed in the past five years. Okay. And actually on kind of linked to that point, Nesreen, something we hear a lot about is gym intimidation. What advice do you have for any listeners who are intimidated by starting a class because they think, A, they won't look like everyone else or they think that they might not be able to be able to. to perform at the same level. I would say one thing I tell a lot of people is to go with a friend. I think it takes the pressure and it means that you can both have a bit of fun with it.

So if one of you falls over, you know, it's just not. Have a giggle. Yeah, just have a giggle about it. You need to take the pressure off yourself. If you're going there to have a gym workout, I would say if it's not in a class setting, definitely go and maybe have some kind of induction with a fitness instructor or person trainer so you've got some guidance and you don't walk in there and just think, what on earth am I going to, what is that machine?

What am I going to do? It's intimidating even for me if I go into a new gym and it's a different setup and I'm not familiar with the equipment. I've almost got to process that myself and that's me 13 years in the industry, let alone someone that's walking in there for the first time. So I think if it's a class setting, maybe go down with your friend and if it's a case of you just wanting to go down to the gym for a workout, maybe just have a little bit of structure and intention prior to getting into the gym so that you are there and you're on a mission and you know exactly what you're going to do and you're not left there feeling a bit lost. Yeah, great advice. Thank you. Tara, do you have any tactics that you'd like to add? I agree with both of you. I would say that if you stick to things that you did when you were a child, then you are limiting yourself.

From a neuroscience point of view, because negative emotions actually have a more powerful effect on our brain than positive ones, I would turn that round and say, what did you always want to do that you didn't get to do? What's the sport that you never thought, you know, a bit like Moytide, that it wasn't like a thing that girls. did when you were little, you know, that kind of thing. I actually don't like going with friends because I feel like I'd rather go somewhere where no one knows me if I'm doing something. That's a fair point. But I do, you know, I try to mix it up a lot as well. And I would say if I had to like choose a thing, then I'm, I think of myself as Zen.

So yoga was a very natural fit for me Pilates as well. But I, you know, when I first did spin, I absolutely love. loved it. And when I first did boxing, I absolutely loved it. So I think exposing yourself to new things, but, you know, not when, not like five different things and you're not really in a routine. But, you know, once you build up, you can try different things. You know, Zimba was another thing that I tried and really loved. But when I first went there, I was the most malcoordinated person in the class because everyone else had been doing it forever. But there were some complex moves. Yeah. I remember, yeah, there was a lot of hip-shaking going on. I remember the, you know, when you see

the progress. When you go to the class and you're like, yeah, I know this song and I know the moves and everything, that makes you feel so good. Exactly. And if you stopped at that first hurdle, you would have never known how great you would have been. I get people that come to my class all the time and they're like, Nez, my coordination is terrible. And I said, look, if you don't know you're left and right, you'll know it by the end of this session, at least. And, you know, if you just stop at that first session when you come and you come and you come back, really couldn't remember the combinations, if you never come back, you're never going to get that sense of achievement. And what you'll find is when you come back, you will get better and you'll remember the combinations and they'll go

faster and you'll have more, you know, you'll be more powerful than you were last time, but it's just keeping that consistently to see you there, yeah. And surely almost bringing that back to the neuroscience, probably every time you, as you say, you nail whatever move it was in Zumba, right, or you lift a certain weight. Do you get, do you get like feel good chemicals or like just something fun going on in the brain that reinforces that feeling that keeps you coming back? Yeah, I think when you either exceed or meet a goal that you've set for yourself, that has a very rewarding outcome in the brain. I'm just remembering that before my wedding, I did boxing, and it was good for stress release as well as. And I, you know, I'd done yoga for 15 years at that point. And on

International Women's Day, I was invited to this class that was a boxing lesson followed by yoga. And the two friends that knew me said, rather annoyingly, you're probably going to be a really good at this because they knew I was doing both. And, you know, for me, I didn't grow up doing, I did do sport at school, but I wasn't really good at it. So to hear people saying that you're going to be really good at both of these things in a sporting scenario was actually so rewarding for me and motivating. Yeah. Yeah. When you think about how much, if you didn't see yourself as a sporty person back in the day, how you've, how you've evolved. Yeah. There's so many people that find fitness in their adult life. I've met so many people that have come to me on our initial sort of

consultation, they're like, I've never done anything before and I've rented the marathon and I've never run a single mile before and that's it. And, you know, they just start from zero, but there's nothing wrong with that and they actually find that they love running, you know, and they didn't, they had no idea and they find that out at 35 years old, 40 years old, it happens. And something that we've reported on in the Mag as well is often people have such bad experiences at school from sport and if that's their introduction to exercise. So yeah, like you say, sometimes starting afresh, finding a new thing as an adult makes a lot of sense. I'm intrigued to know what you think about annual gym memberships that Eila mentioned.

Many of us spend significant amounts on them because we think that the financial obligation will keep us accountable. But given that a 2019 survey found that in the UK alone, we waste over £4 billion per year on unused gym membership. I know, yikes. That argument doesn't really seem to stand up, does it? Tara, I'm interested to know what do you think, has the same? this obligation as motivation? How does this work? I mean, from a brain point of view, that that should work in a way because it's a negative motivation because I've already paid. So if I don't go, then I essentially lose that money. But it clearly doesn't work. Your statistic is shocking.

And also, I know that it doesn't work. Because I know so many people that don't use it. I have had annual gym subscriptions at times of my life where I've been in the same place, in a more regular routine. I don't now because I travel so much that I'm not in a place regularly enough for that to work. So there are good alternatives. And I think you need to be realistic about yourself and whether you are actually using it or not.

And even if it means paying a bit more per month because you might not be doing it in six months' time, I actually think that's better. Because in the modern world, things change so much and we need flexibility. So for instance, if I, you know, if I buy five or a month's worth of classes for a yoga thing or a spin thing, then I'm more likely to use those up because it's a shorter term commitment. But if I do, you know, if I commit to something for a year, I don't even know where I'm going to be living in a year. Do you know what I mean?

Interesting. Yeah. Or if you've got individual things that you get fined for if you don't show up for the class or whatever. You lose the class if you don't turn up. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Nezreem, what do you think about that?

I don't think people go to the gym in the same way that they used to. I think there has been a shift now, and I think more of us are going to classes. You know, there's loads of different apps now that you can use and just attend any class in your local area. For me, I would say, you know, the gym space is really often a place with people that are quite confident with what they're doing in terms of their gym program. Now, that's intimidating if you don't know what to do. And that might just take you to the treadmill and just do that for half an hour, which is fine. but does that meet with your fitness goals is the question. So that's where I would say if you are going to a gym,

make sure that you have a program in order. And even if you just invest in maybe one PT session or two PT sessions with someone at the gym, and you use that to actually give you a bit of structure and guidance so that when you go there you actually have something that you are following, but you understand why you're following it. Do you see what I mean? You're not just doing deadlifts because Bob told you to do deadlifts.

Now you're doing deadlift for this reason, you know? You understand and there's intention, as you mentioned earlier, behind exactly what you're doing. Again, you say it's that whole idea of finding your why. Yeah. And you're going to have to do that in order to keep showing up. And probably your why isn't because you love running on the treadmill watching Good Morning Britain, as I did this morning.

Okay, cool. So now let's talk about making how we make this sustainable. Tara, again, you touched on the concept of neuroplasticity earlier. How long does it take to work? Like we hear this 21 days banded around as this is how long it takes to make a habit. Like, is that right? And what does the research into neuroplasticity suggest? Yeah, I mean, we hear 21 days and we hear 66 days and probably some other numbers as well.

And then like for sustainable behaviour change, I'm going to say now that it isn't time-bound. It's more to do with the intensity of the effort that it's going to take to create the pathway for that activity. And I like to use the analogy of learning a language. So how many languages do you speak? Ontario, the weight is over. The gold standard of online casinos has arrived.

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Okay, let's just cut that bit out. No, that can stay in. It is what it is. So we'll cast aside the option of brushing up another language. So let's say you wanted to learn Spanish. Yep. If you downloaded an app and you started working on it, you know, half an hour most evenings for a few weeks, you know, the chances are that within a month you would no longer be doing that and you wouldn't really be able to speak Spanish.

If you signed up for classes and you went every week, you did your homework and there was a test at the end of six months, you'd probably be at least very well able to go on holiday to a Spanish-speaking country. Yeah. So it's kind of like that. It's how many times you repeat it, how long you keep doing it for. Yeah. You know, that leads to the creation of the pathway in your brain that means that's who you are now and that's what you do. Yeah.

Fantastic. Until it, I love your analogy, and we've spoken about this before, when you talk about, it's really stuck in my mind when you were talking about originally you make that pathway and it's this dusty, it's this dusty, it's this dusty, dirt road in your brain but then eventually the more you do it it becomes this kind of smooth tarmac surface yeah and that's the same with i was going to say going to the gym but that's not necessarily what we're talking about it's the same with your fitness goal yeah so you become somebody who thinks you know if i want to go for a 5k run i can do it if i you know want to commit to some really intense periods of moitai then i can do it yeah what i find helpful is fitting it around all my other habits that I have

on a daily basis. So you know after, for example, after having kids, you know, my littlest one is only five months so I'm still on my journey back, yes. But I've managed to kind of keep up some kind of regular routine of training because I've made sure

that my training session more or less happens at the same time every day. And that's why I stick to it because I know once I drop off my eldest, I have to go straight away and get my session done at 10 o'clock and I've tried to commit myself to that. some days it doesn't work but most days it does and I have that is my intention and my intention is very clear and it's also very high on my priorities higher than like doing the food shop sometimes

and that's why I think I succeed at achieving that goal because I prioritise it above like we've run out of toilet roll needs by a toilet roll that'll do I can just I need to go to that just fine exactly exactly but do you see what I mean it's just you know you have to you that has to be high on your priority list as well. And as you say, it's making that, because you can say something is a priority. You can be like, this is really important to me. I want to do it. But if it's not physically mapped onto your calendar or your day, then does it mean much? Yeah. Interesting. Okay. And then when we're talking about goals, of course, there's so much, when it's your personal goal, by nature, it's quite individual. But pursuing a fitness goal needn't be solitary, like a

solitary endeavour. How could finding her fitness tribe help someone like Ila to stick with something? Because it sounds like doing it on her own really hasn't sparked whatever fire or enthusiasm she wants to have. Well, I think even if she just joined a running club or something of that kind of sort, you know, where you join a social network of people that are from all different backgrounds, but you come together for a common goal just to get fit and have fun whilst doing it. I think it makes it a lot more enjoyable. And, you know, it's just, I think it's a better idea than just doing it by yourself. I completely agree. I know it's a luxury to get personal training, but when I needed to be really disciplined, I booked appointments with the PT because I wouldn't not turn up to something

that I'd arranged with someone else. Yes, there's the accountability piece again. The other thing about personal training, I think there's an illusion that you need to train with your trainer once or twice a week. I have many clients that check in with me once a month and, you know, I write them a program to keep them going for the next six weeks or the next four weeks. So I think, you know, some clients, they can, they can only afford to see me every two weeks and that's absolutely fine. So, you know, I give them stuff to do in between, but it is that accountability. They know that they're going to come and see me and they don't want to come and get a bit of an eye roll so that, you know, they make sure that they've actually done all their bits in between. So I think there's also that.

It's just, I know, I know personal training is a luxury, but there are ways that you might be able to embed it into your day-to-day, you know, life without it affecting your purse too much. Okay, and then finally, final word to both of you, what piece of advice do you have for listeners who want to achieve this week's goal of falling in love with fitness? If you could crystallise what we've discussed into one takeaway point, what would it be? The thing that really made a difference for me was understanding that something like prioritising fitness like Nez has just said she's done even with such a young baby and the fact that it's connected to neuroplasticity, actually gives you other benefits than just the benefit of doing the exercise. So, you know, when you prioritise exercise like Nez has, then actually you get other stuff done.

You're less likely to run out of Lerol because actually you're mentally sharper. Yeah, exactly. What about you, Nez? I would just say the cliche, which is we'll kind of sum up this whole thing, of just following your intentions of what, you know, follow what you love and do the exercise during the week that you enjoy to do. And look, there might be the odd session that you find harder. and, you know, I went for a run yesterday and was clearing my head and just remembering how hard running is when you're not at your fittest.

But it's the mental side of it that just giving me that clarity. And I came home and I just felt so relieved. I felt so much lighter and it's just remembering that. So just persevere through all of it and just remember that actually at the end of it, sometimes, you know, sometimes exercise is difficult and sometimes getting to the gym is difficult. But if you can persevere and you have that discipline in place, you will keep going no matter what. and it will become a lifelong habit and a lifestyle. So just thinking of it as a long game, so thinking of how you're going to get to point B,

which we may never get to, because as I said, it's a lifelong thing, but we set in place those mini goals and we just chip away at them every week. Even if it's just as simple as this week, I'm going to try and fit in a one-hour walk after work, just to kind of de-stress because I'm having a really difficult week

and I don't fancy going to the gym. That's fine. Be intuitive and maybe find some alternatives for when you're not feeling 100%. But just stay committed. committed to what you set out to do, which is, you know, improve your life and improve your, you know, your health. Fantastic. Tara's anything you'd like to add. Yeah, I'm just looking at Nez's skin and I'm remembering that that's another really good reason to exercise.

Very glowy. Oh, thank you. But all very glowing, all around the table, not including myself in that. Okay, thank you again for coming on to going for goal. And thanks to all of you for listening. That's all from me for this week, but there's so much good stuff coming up. So please subscribe at Apple, Acast or wherever you get your podcasts to make sure you never miss an episode. You can also get in touch on Instagram. We're at Women's Health UK and do tag us in your posts and stories using the hashtag going for goal. Until next time.