Just As Well, The Women's Health Podcast - Megan Grubb: "Stop trying to shrink yourself"

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you thinking about senior living for yourself or a loved one? Choosing the right community is important. At Amica Unionville, we offer personalized care that evolves with seniors' needs and 24-7 support and security for peace of mind. Plus, Amica Unionville residents never need to worry about cooking or cleaning so they can focus on enjoying social activities and rediscovering passions. We're ready to welcome you. Don't spend your time on a wait list.

Book a visit now at 905-947-9990 or at amica.ca.ca.ca.com slash Unionville. Canada's Wonderland is bringing the holiday magic this season with Winterfest on select nights now through January 3rd. Step into a winter wonderland filled with millions of dazzling lights, festive shows, rides, and holiday treats. Plus, Coca-Cola is back with Canada's kindest community, celebrating acts of kindness nationwide with a chance at 100,000 donation for the winning community and a 2026 holiday caravan stop. Learn more at Canada's Wonderland.com. Hi, I'm Gemm Atkinson. And I'm Claire Sanderson, the editor-in-chief of Woman's Health. We've just recorded just as well with Megan Grubb.

Who is lovely? She was. She was... Very attractive as well. I mean, she looked beautiful online. But I'm genuinely, I look at every guest because I'm always interested to see how people look online versus how they look in real life. She is stunning.

She's got her own app, her Beyond app. She's got a following of over 3 million. And she's kind of like created this wellness hub, this place for all women to go. regardless of what stage of life they're in. And she wanted to be inclusive because she said that fitness may not be the most inclusive industry. So her app focuses on the mental benefits of training. Yeah, not just aesthetics.

And she's very careful about the language that is used on there. She said they would never use sort of dictating words like shredding or cutting. And they have a calorie thing, she said on her app. So you can turn your calories, it's automatically off. So you can only track calories if you turn this function on. Because she said it can be quite triggering for people. What I loved about her is I related to her when she said she's not a runner. She was telling us she did a half marathon and she absolutely hated it.

She did. She did hate it. So she's a girl after my own heart because both of you and I hate running. Yeah. She's got a little girl who's two. So she's very much in the juggle with things. But yeah, she was just kind of very refreshing in her approach to the training. industry to the benefits of strength training and we mentioned in the chat regarding the whole

saga at the minute with quick fixes with women wanting to shrink themselves like you said celebrities in front of our very on eye shrinking in size i liked her thoughts on that and people should listen to to hear what she and we had to say um about that because societally the good work we made around body positivity or just body neutrality seems to be somewhat diminution because there's this widespread need to be smaller and suddenly we are at a place where skinny is being hero worshipped again. So, yeah, I love talking to her about that. I found that really interesting.

Hopefully you guys find it interesting too. Enjoy this episode of Just as Well. Welcome back to another episode of Just as Well. Today's guest, Megan Grovey's joining us. She's the founder of Beyond App, which helps women with fitness through all stages of life, which we're all four at women's health. She's a fitness trainer with over 3 million followers across platforms, which is just insane. She's also a mother herself, so she knows firsthand just the juggle mother's face,

which I think makes you so relatable in this space, in this wellness space when it comes to helping moms. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. It's massive that you're here. Can you take us back, first of all, your personal journey, the beginning. How did you initially, like, fall in love with fitness? What drew you to it? I mean, I first went to the gym in my first year of uni, and I didn't stick to it.

I was just in that time of my life where I liked to party. But at the same time, I think what made me realise I wanted to was I went on a girl's holiday in Malia. and it was the first time I kind of noticed myself, notice body shapes and my own insecurities in my body. And that was sort of where I first thought, okay, I would quite like to try and, you know, get a bit fitter. And then when I turned 18 in my second year of uni, I started training. And I basically wanted to lift weights. but at the time there wasn't that many women doing it and it was still in that era where

I mean it's still a little bit now some people still think it but it was massively like if you lift weights you're gonna look bulky there was a few people online that were talking about it that were women lifting but there wasn't really many at all but because I had seen that I thought okay I'd quite like to try and lift and get stronger

and obviously at the beginning you know a lot of it was driven by aesthetic goals and you know wanting to change the way I looked a little bit and then yeah gradually I got really into it and I really enjoyed the lifting side I found a gym I really liked and I like the people there so I found you know I wanted to go back and also my now husband went there but at the time I had a crash on him so that motivated me to go to that gym because I thought I might see him there so that was another drive

to be honest of you that's kind of how I got into it personally and over time I developed confidence in going into the weights area because still at that point it was really really male dominated but I was just really keen to try and get

into it to be honest it's funny you say what started your idea with fitness was seeing other people's bodies and your bodies on the beach we spoke about this literally today didn't we not on on the podcast but how you look at other women you go through a phase in life where you do start noticing other bodies and depending on what area you're from or what decade it is like we were saying growing up we were surrounded by like

the cape moss victoria secret models which neither of us are shape like at all yeah so you have kind of an outside pressure i think of what society expects you to look like yeah and this whole, oh my gosh, I need to change this, I need to change that. I think the joy with weight training is that the focus is on strength as you need to lift heavier today. I want to get this PB today. It's not like a punishment whereby cardio you're trying to shrink yourself. Obviously it's good for your heart health, but ultimately you think I'm going to burn more calories the more cardio I do. Was that something you found in strength training that you felt empowered as opposed to feeling you needed to shrink? Yeah, so I think a big reason I actually did stick at it in the

that second try at going to the gym was the fact that over time I really noticed how much it was helping me with anxiety because I was struggling quite a lot with anxiety at the time and I was at a music school as well and there was a lot of big characters there and I wasn't really one of them so when I went to the gym

it was so separate from music that it was kind of my escape and I slowly noticed that it did really help manage my anxiety a little bit in that time I felt like it took away whatever was going on in my head and you know any uni anxiety I had as well as personal anxiety and it was just so separate so I really liked the way it was starting to make me feel so originally I wanted to go to you know shape my body and I think that is you know very common

that's often a starting goal isn't it but I noticed then how much it was helping me mentally and how much more productive it was actually making me and more disciplined with other areas of my life as well. I think it massively helps that. As Gemma mentioned, you've now got in excess of 3 million followers across social media, which is huge and more than some very famous celebrity. So I don't know if you like the term influencer, some don't, some prefer content creator. What's your preferred... I mean, I don't. I don't really. mind to be honest. You don't like.

Okay, was the goal to be a star on social media then? Or is that something that evolved organically? Yeah. So what happened with that was I was also a PT. So once I'd done about a year of weightlifting, I decided that I loved this. But I also loved how it was making me feel. I loved that. I was very aware that it wasn't making me look much.

making me look manly and bulky and I wanted to show other women that. So that's why I then wanted to take my qualification and become a personal trainer because I also loved the community in the gym that I was at and I loved the PTs there too. They like helped me. So I wanted to try and do that in the gym as well. So I did that, took my qualification and then I became a P.T. there whilst I was at uni doing music and I quickly realized how hard it was to fit in everything essentially because you know most people when they go to a personal trainer they

either want first thing in the morning or last thing at night and so I was doing that whilst at uni and band practice because I was at music school and I just realized I couldn't fit in much and I wanted to do more so I then started posting on Instagram workout videos because I thought I actually wanted to build an online client base because it would mean that I could have more clients. I could fit more clients in and I could just, you know, gather out. Yeah, exactly. And it was moving that way a little bit as well.

And, you know, the London gym scene is very competitive as well with PTs. And I was at, you know, your chain, typical gym. So you couldn't really charge a lot of money either. and I just couldn't fit in that many people. So, yeah, I basically started posting my workouts, and I think I was right place, right time, because it was when video first was introduced to Instagram. So they kind of just randomly took off.

I wasn't expecting it at all. And, yeah, then it kind of fell into influence, if you want to call it. Yeah. So that was where it all began. And people, I guess, they come to you, like you said, all stages in life. because obviously you're still so young anyway and you look incredible but you're also a mum

so I always think for me I've got two kids Claire's got two kids having fitness and health advice from someone who's been through similar is always so relatable for me it's like someone you know the first thing I said to my midwife is have you had a child because when I was in labour and she was saying to me I've said before you'll be fine I was saying if you've not had a charge

you don't know that you don't know what this pain's like have you found a lot of new mums come to you for advice yeah no i i have now obviously because i my daughter's now too um and when i was pregnant and you know i was i'm this fitness person online i didn't really know what was going to happen with like myself but also what i shared what i would because i didn't also know at the time what you could and couldn't do um i feel like there it wasn't, there still isn't that much information really for pregnant women and fitness and what you can and can't do. At the time I was really unsure what was going to happen with everything with my audience, but I think because I have kind of gone through all these different life

stages, you know, particularly on my YouTube channel where I share a lot of my life as well, I've sort of grown up online and then the people who watch me kind of have two because they sort of gone through similar phases in their own. life so that was a bit of a comfort but yeah it was a bit of a minefield at the time as to like what I could do in my fitness journey whilst pregnant and then what I wanted to show you know because it's daunting isn't it when when you're trying to train in pregnancy and we were saying there isn't enough things it's misinformation isn't it's you know you shouldn't run or you shouldn't lift heavy or you should we had a had a guest on recently um from hatch athletic and she's

a pre-postnatal physiotherapist but also a trainer and she was saying a lot of that information about what women shouldn't do when they're pregnant in terms of fitness has been completely debunked but when you're pregnant you are paranoid aren't you and you are anxious fearful and anxious and your hormones are going all over the place but you were able to go and get your pre and postnatal qualification pt qualifications though so yeah you were able to right okay i'm not listening to the nonsense i'm going to go out there and get this training for myself yeah yeah so i wanted to start, firstly do it for myself and then to be able to put out the correct information because I quickly notice, you know, even just my general workouts that I was doing and sharing online

at the start of my pregnancy. I was getting a lot of people commenting like, you can't do this, you can't do that, you're going to hurt your baby, you shouldn't be doing this. And it's like very overwhelming when you're pregnant because you kind of know you sort of can but then at the same time there's always that niggle. It's like, can't? Yeah. You know? And, and And also, am I putting out the wrong information? You start to doubt yourself. So I really wanted to gain confidence and, you know, knowledge so that I was actually being correct with everybody, but also in my own fitness, you know?

Yeah. And what do you find, well, what did you find then was the, what was lacking most about the education around pregnancy? Is it the case of like, because a lot of women are told, you're eating for two, put your feet up, do nothing. And in some cases, I mean, if you have terrible morning. sickness, I imagine the last thing you want to do is work out is to be horrible. But movement is good for pregnant women, for their mental health as well to get out, to do things. But

a lot of the time we're told not to. Yeah, I know. And I think, you know, if you're not high risk and you haven't been advised not to exercise, every pregnant woman is going to benefit from doing some kind of movement. It doesn't need to be, you know, anything really intense. I mean, it shouldn't, I mean, I don't want to say shouldn't, but it's, it doesn't need to be high intense. It just, you know, movement is going to help you with brain fog. It's going to help you with your emotions and, you know, your hormones are all over the place when you're pregnant. And the most important thing I thought when I was pregnant is just making sure you're listening to your body. If something doesn't feel good, don't do it, stop it. But also if there is a

day where you can't do it and you feel like you just can't, that's okay. But, you know, when you can walking even is just great you know and and I think it's quite an old school view for pregnant women to just eat for two and lie about and it's just going to mentally like you said just it's not going to be beneficial and it'll be harder post pregnancy yeah as well if your body's especially if you're used to train in a movement and then for nine months you just do the opposite you know restarting it all again especially on lack of sleep you know with a new baby and it feels so daunting as well going from nothing back in after all that time I'm convinced my two births straightforward births were made easier because I was in shape I agree yeah when I went into them

I think even like mentally feeling strong from pushing yourself during your pregnancy to keep moving mentally you you develop an even higher resilience and like also just trusting your body and like being in tune with your body because you're moving and you're taking care of it I found then when I went into birth I felt more confident that like I know my body you know you never know what will happen in birth but at the same time like I can do this I've I feel strong you know I'm sure I recovered quicker as well I'm sure I know everyone's birth story is different but yeah for me I'm sure that I was you know up and about going for walks the following day yeah because I was in I was fit you know I was healthy and strong and I'd

strength trained up until a good six or seven months. I don't think I even showered for about five days. I was just like a potato with this screaming child on me. How was your postpartum recovery? Was it what you expected? I assume because obviously of your job, people are expecting, I hate the word snap back. I can't bear it.

But it's like people expect you to snap back if you've been in the fitness industry. A friend of mine isn't in the fitness industry. She doesn't train at all. she had her daughter within three days she was back in her jeans it was just her body type and she got hounded online abuse for setting the wrong example for being back in a normal clothes and she was like I have not done anything it's just my body it took me a long time I'd always trained but it took me a good nine 10 months to be back lifting like I was

and I got grief for that for doing it too slow I know so it's I mean you can't win either way but how was your experience? Yeah, I mean, I feel like I was fortunate with it, to be honest, because I, for instance, didn't have a C-section and I know the recovery is a lot harder then to get moving afterwards. To be honest, it feels a bit of a blur at the time, and like when people ask me this question, I'm kind of like, it was at the very start, a phase

where I was just like in the blur of sitting on the sofa with my, baby so I wasn't really thinking about my body that much not how it looked so much I didn't really go and look in the mirror very often um but I did get up and walk quite a lot I do remember you know going for it I've got dogs as well so they needed to be walked and I just put her in the carrier and walk and that I started to get more confident again so yeah I don't know it's it's I I feel like that that first bit is a bit of a blur but I do think strength training through my pregnancy help me feel stronger, quicker afterwards because there wasn't a gap where I wasn't, you know, keeping myself relatively strong. Yeah, so it all feeds in.

Tell us, I'm really interested in your app, the Beyond Platform. It sounds amazing. Can you tell us, for those who aren't aware of it, what it is, why you started it and what it is that's available on there? So I started it after lockdown. I did live workouts every day during lockdown on my Instagram and kind of the community there encouraged me to then create somewhere afterwards. But I wanted to do a place that felt like a safe space for women and their fitness, you know, no toxic language. There was, at the time there wasn't many fitness apps that put your mental well-being first and it wasn't you know we didn't have words like shredding and cutting and you know things that often can make some people feel I don't know triggered I guess

you know even our intimidating isn't it you're like yeah what that means and a lot of pressure and you know even our food section we had a button where you could turn the calories on or off because and it's predominantly off you have to turn it on because for some people that is really triggering It just, you know, every person is so different. So I wanted to create a space where you could go on there and not feel any toxicness from fitness because there is still a lot online. And then gradually it's sort of become a place

where through all these different life stages I've been through, and have learned from, I've created space on there for, you know, to help women in those phases in their lives. So pregnancy, postpartum, we've got mum and toddler classes on there that I've taught. We've got yoga, we've got Pilates, we've got, you know, cycle tracking feature because I think tracking your cycle, you can really see where your energy levels are and, you know, how strong you might feel in the gym.

And that can be very helpful for women who are like, why do I feel like I don't have any strength this week compared to last? Have I lost all my progress? No, it might just be where you are in your cycle at that point. So it's just, I wanted to create somewhere where women could feel supported and championed for their fitness, whoever you are. Do you think fitness and the wellness industry does have an inclusivity problem? Yeah, I think so.

I mean, I don't really look at that part of social media that much, to be honest. But yeah, definitely. You know, there's so many trends that go around as well. So people jump on them and then it changes again and then people feel pushed aside from the trend that's gone, you know, and I think it's better than it used to be, but it's still definitely got a lot of bad, the fitness industry. But there's great people, you know, that are drowning it out more now. It's whether it's the fitness industry or is it fitness on social media like they're, are they intertwined? because you do a lot of work on body image and you've spoken a lot about your own body image

and body, do you like the phrase body positivity? I don't know, or is it body neutrality? There's so many phrases out there. But what's your take from the women in your community and yourself on women's views societally on their bodies these days and the pressures that's put on them through social media? I mean, I feel like that's something. something I try not to share too much in my community.

We focus a lot on strength. Like you're saying, you know, that's the thing I love about weightlifting is, it's a lot of it is about how strong you are, how capable you are, how well you perform. And you know, I've recently done like a high rocks and a half marathon and those kind of areas in fitness are really heavily focused on performance,

which I like because, you know, I think, like not always but the Pilates trend at the moment that is a bit of a problem in some cases where people are trying to get this Pilates body which is incorrect anyway because your genetics will tell you what your body is going you can't you can't get a Pilates body you know and and yeah so I don't know I think I try not to focus too much on body shapes on my Instagram and my social media I like to focus on how it's helping you mentally and how it performs yeah I think there is a switch I found like the guests yourself included every person we've had in this chair of always championed strength

training yeah and I there wasn't any of that when I was growing up it was slimming world and weight watchers and shrinking yourself Yeah, whereas now, I think not even from an aesthetic point of view, women are realizing the health benefits, you know, the bone density, your muscle mass, how it's better for your glucose spikes, the more muscle you have, you how you metabolize things, how you sleep, how your skin, how you feel. All of that is crucial, especially as women go through, you know, the perimenopause and then intermenopause. So we need muscle, not only to feel good and to look good, but to actually thrive and for like survival, you know what I mean?

You need to have muscle mass. And I'm always asked similar to you is, will I get bulky though? Will I, I think they're going to, they think they're going to look like the women on stage. You know what I mean? It's hard enough for men. But that fear has been taken away, I think, by people like yourself who are showing you can still lift a really heavy weight. And you can still look how you define as feminine. You know, you're putting the message out there, which I think's great.

But I think we're on this worrying stage at the moment where Skinny has been a hero worshipped again and people are trying to get smaller and are compromising their muscle mass in some cases and I feel a lot of the good work that was done with the body positivity or the body neutrality movement where we were celebrating different body shapes on size it seems to be slowly disappearing a bit

and you see quite high profile women who are quite literally disappearing before our eyes and we've both we've all got girls actually mine's nearly 10 or will be 10 about the time this comes out Me is six

Winnie is two it's a worry being a mum I know it is yeah and I think the reason I think it's so important to focus on strength as well is like if you want to look at it

in an aesthetic way I think you know when you look strong it's like you look healthy and powerful and that's what you like I would always want you know my daughter to strive for not to to shrink themselves because you can often just look frail you know and you could end up frail yeah and it's

not healthy at all yeah um you see slightly older ladies and in fact my mother um blesser had that slight hudge you know and that's when you've lost your muscle mass and everything starts sort of go forward as opposed to to to go back yeah to stand backwards And I think with all this movement around, you know, jabs, there's no evidence what is going to do long term. And I've found it as one of my friends, she won't even have me say it, she tells everyone, she's using it and she's lost a lot of weight, she's lost a lot of muscle mass.

She hasn't just dropped body fat and maintained or at least built muscle. everything's gone and you know she's told me her gums have receded her hair's coming out a little bit yeah she looks older in the face because all the all the fat's gone

and this and that and she's getting acid reflux and I've said you're sure you want to carry on with this because all this is happening just for you to be smaller but because she had such a has I should say

such a bad relationship mentally with food this is her only way in her eyes of having her confidence back of feeling good and it's so upsetting because it's desperate time for people who are in desperate situations and quick fixes

but I just wish there was people out there saying if you want to go down that route please please prioritise strength training and please please prioritise protein intake at least do that alongside not just a quick for everything you know but the worry with it is as well isn't the point it suppresses your appetite.

So you're not eating anything? So how are you going to perform and lift weights? Are you going to get vitamins, minerals, hormones? You can't. You're going to be... You know, you're not fuelled. Yeah, I've read various, like, a select personal trainer saying they've had to adjust their plans for their clients because they simply don't have the energy to do...

Yeah. ...at the intensity, to perform at the intensity they were previously. Is it worth it? I wouldn't, I'd be frightened to death, but I'm in a different head space in terms of what I know is good for my body and how, and how I view food. You know, I try and think of it from someone who is so, so insecure and so hating themselves and their appearance and for years and years they felt like utter shit. And someone said, this will help.

They'll be so tempting, wouldn't it? Yeah. But then I'd, I don't know, I'd just wish someone was saying, well, it could help. but also this will help and this is better long-term and this will give you energy and this will make your skin glow and your hair glow and your nails grow and this is the longer option.

It takes longer, but it's a more safer option and it's a more beneficial option. But you're speaking from a place of privilege of being a slim white woman of means that has a grip on her own eating and training, whereas that's not a privilege bestowed upon some people. No, yeah, that's what I'm saying. A lot of people have such issues with food and that's what's the shame. And I think, you know, even my friend,

she's lost a lot of weight, she still struggles with food. And I think if more education was given to people in schools, in terms of nutrition and sports, and, you know, when you do biology, you don't really do about that in biology, you should, the human body, how it thrives, how it works, how you need strength and power and agility and all this. that for me is so much more exciting to learn about that in school. And then you'd leave school thinking, oh my God, what can I do to perform better, to feel better, not what can I do to look good in a bikini? Well, it's not just school, it's doctors as well.

We had Dr. Hazel Wallace on the pod. You know, she's a qualified medical doctor. She's now transitioned to work exclusively in women's health and nutrition. But she said when she was a medical student, not nonexistent. There was no nutrition. She had about six minutes, she said, didn't she, on nutrition? Yeah, no, nutrition lessons, doctors don't hear. So there's no preventative use of nutrition to ward off all these diseases and obesity that societyly is endemic.

Because doctors are not even qualified to talk about it. She retrained, didn't she? Yeah, she retrained, yeah. Whereas we all knew, we all know, nutrition is, food is medicine, if you eat right. Yeah, it's the most important. Yeah. And then you can feel when you're exercising, then you can be a better mum and a better...

Yeah, a better business lead in yourself. You know, you're trying to juggle everything. And we all know that I'm a sugar fiend. I really try not to eat sugar because when I do, I then go head first, you know, I can't stop at one. It makes you feel crap afterwards, doesn't it? Like, you just, you feel filthy after. Like, why did I do that?

It's hard to and you have a bit, isn't it? Yeah, it's like, you know, walking to the train station later, shall I buy a bar of chocolate? No, don't buy a bar of chocolate. Then I go through this whole dialogue in my hand and have to force myself to walk past the shop and not buy the bar of chocolate.

Really? Yeah, because... But I find it easier if I have a bar of chocolate at the end of the day and I'm satisfied. Oh, yes, yeah. I love diet chocolate. You can't use it. Do you? I've got it in my bag, it's 100% black.

Really? Oh, I love it. Is that a taste of chocolate anymore? It's just like raw chocolate. cow but it's it's so nice because if you've got sweet craving um but yeah I offered you some and you looked at me like shit you were like absolutely not I'm gonna have a dairy milk back to what you said about you know schools I think people have a better chance later in life if they have a better foundation from an early age I think which we didn't have you know

even um fitness in schools was very heavily sport based yeah and like I hated fitness my whole life until I was 18 and I think you know that if you're not into sport then you're not going to like fitness and that's what you think fitness is for a long time when you're younger isn't it so I think you know schools could be doing more fun like dancing types of fitness a bit more like hit but not hit you know what I mean where they can just have fun with it and then they're going build a more positive feel towards exercise from a young age and that's why I love to move around my daughter now and she sees that I enjoy it and women can be strong and you know I think that it's really a really important thing in schools that they should do more of this research

and I hope I'm not misquoting this research but there is research that children brought up in a house where the mother is seen to exercise and engage in movement are more likely to exercise and engage in movement themselves than if the dad does. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so we are more influential to our children than the father. Really? Yeah. And it's also, this is a fact, isn't it?

We had it checked that girls, is it over 50% of girls stop sport at age 14 because of how their body shape changes yeah and they no longer want to be in like the netball skirts or the whereas if like you say if schools told them the reasons why their body changes at that age because it's it's hormones it's you know it's all these things happening they'd have an understanding of it and think okay this has happened it's normal this is fine let's carry on doing what we love but instead it's a panic it's not talked about no is it and you know my daughter So she did two boot camp classes in the summer holidays. I didn't have that when I was six at all,

but it was one of the schoolmums messaged me. And she said, oh, Emmy's doing a boot camp. Does Mia want to come? And I asked her, she went, what's boot camp? So it's like we do at home in the gym. So she was like, yeah. And she'd come home from me and she was like, mum, I've done wall squats, I've done this.

And she was showing me everything that she'd done. And she absolutely loved it. And that was just a local gym. And the trainer had said, I've got a daughter, I've no childcare. So I'm bringing her to work with me. I'm making it a kid's boot camp. Oh, that's so cute. Yeah, and she absolutely loved it and she's six.

Well, it's good for their energy as well to let it, let it off, isn't it? Yeah. Even from that young. In our local park, we've got that outdoor gym equipment, you know. All right, the silver stuff. Yeah. Some of it is completely pointless. But some of it, actually, there's one where you're sort of, you're pulling down,

but then pulling almost your body weight up. So you can really, it's, actually, it's, actually I lift weights and it's quite, you know, it's, you can see how you can get a work out of it. So me and my daughter, Nell, we walk to the local park and we go on every one of these pieces of equipment and some of them I have to say, like the cross trainer thing is just like, but it's movement, isn't it?

Yeah. But we do, we try and do 50 reps and there's like a rowing thing there and stuff. So we try and do it twice all the way around, but she loves it because she thinks she's doing the same as mommy then. And I think that's what you need to do, just try and include your kids. in movement, but in a fun way. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah. I think it's so important, particularly with girls. Because I remember my memory of exercise when I was young was like, oh, god-awful cross-country. Oh, hazynickers. Hasted it.

Stopping after 100 metres and walking out of protest that you're being made to do it. Yeah, yeah. I think it's, yeah, it's being forced as well but then you build these sort of feelings towards exercise, don't you? You're like, no.

No, I'm not going to like it. And it's true. putting them all in the same thing, despite everyone being different shapes and sizes and abilities, you're all expected to run the cross-country. I mean, I used to cry. I used to pretend I was on my, I said, I'm on my period, so I can't do it,

and he'd be like, you've run that last week and the week before. I know, I'm just a long one. I'm not an issue. It's not ongoing issue. But it's like this, even now as you're an adult, you need to find the form of movement that you actually like or you won't be able to stick to it. So when you're a kid, you should be able to choose

which one that you want to do. there should be options like yeah people always ask us what type of training should we do and yes my answer

strength training but really it should be something that you enjoy and you just if you're going to go if walking is your thing walk up steps instead or walk a bit quicker

you know but just you have to like it you have to like it otherwise you're going to give up yeah and you'll start to see it as a punishment which then you know is not what you want

because you're not going to be able to get yourself to go and form that long-term habit in your life. Because you mentioned that you've done a high rocks and a half marathon. I hated the half marathon. You were just saying you hated your marathon. She did a marathon and she said it was a worst day of a life.

You know, people say it's your best London marathon, best day your life. Oh, I know, loads of people do, you know. Absolutely not. I've had much better days than that. Same. Well, my moment's half. I can't imagine it. What way do you want to do that? Well, I sign up to a high rock because I was quite interested in doing that

because, you know, it's a mix of weight. and sort of short, quick running, which I prefer, I think. So I had to kind of get myself into running a little bit for that to get a bit speedier because I'd never really done it. And so I did that. And then I was kind of like, because I worked towards this goal, I sort of was in a bit of a buzz of just enjoying working towards something that was like an event, I guess.

So my best friend said to me, like, do you want to? to try and do a half together and I was like okay we'll try and then I was really into it but then I think I got halfway through my program before you know it was it was happening and I just hated it and then on the day it was so hot I stupidly picked a trail run so it was awful it was just yeah I thought it was going to be scenic and pretty and it was just not but then it was just not easy at all to, you know, the conditions weren't very good. So, yeah, I mean, that's not an excuse. I actually just didn't like it anyway.

Did you feel good after you'd done it? No. I'm glad I've done it and realized that it's not for me. And, like, I'm okay with that, you know? Yeah. 10K is enough in terms of distance. I'm not interested in doing more. I think you see, like you said, so many people online, you know,

marathon running is such a thing, particularly this year, I think. Yeah. And so I guess that I got pulled in through that and I thought, oh, I must like it too because everyone likes it. But then I just didn't. And it's okay not to, you know, enjoy it as much as you see other people. 10K is my limit. I will never run more than 10K. And every year I do that 10K because it's charity.

And as soon as I get to 2K, I think, why have I agreed to this shit again? I hate it. But I just plod around. And the frustrating thing is, is my fellow, he's a fantastic runner. just through hobby he's not like professional he's doing the new york half actually in the new year he casually went for a running tennarife a few months back we were on holiday he left me by the pool with my margarita and he casually went for a run he was gone nearly two hours and he came back he'd done 14 mile through the hills and he was fine he came back walking chill and he just and he showed

me his app and he'd not stopped he'd done it and i said to him why have he done that like he really annoyed me and he said oh it's beautiful and it really triggered it triggered me that he'd just done that and I think like you say you either like it or you don't and people say yeah but you should you should just keep going and you'll learn to love it but

I don't see the point where you can do things you love anyway yeah no you don't have to like everything when I last year after London hated it hated every minute didn't want to talk to anyone at the end got home like couldn't eat you know you're supposed to really feel well no I can't eat, my husband kept

and trying to put food in front of me and I was like, just get away from me. So I'd just about managed to get some flapjaps or something in to refuel, but I couldn't, you know, so we went home, drove all the way home to Winchester, where I live, and went up to the, I thought I'd have a bath. Even though a shower was probably better,

I thought I need a bath. And I took my sports bra off and I, shit you not, I had the outline of a sports bra cut into me. Really? I took it off and off. Why is that stinging? Why is that stinging?

I looked in the mirror, and it was cut there. I've got pictures I can show you. I want to show them one here. It was literally cut into me. I just thought, this is mental that people are doing this. People do, I understand. Everyone has a reason for running and they have charities and it means so much to them.

But those who just do it for fun, I always think that's madness. Yeah. I mean, I sit next to... People lose toenails. I always sit next to runner's world here. at Woman's Health, Men's Health, H.Q, and runners' world sit next to us. And they just, you know, they literally do half marathons for the morning commuting. They run for 13 miles to get in.

And then they all go for a run at lunchtime. And then they put a call-out every month to do the Runner's World Run. Do you want to come? No, no. So I had the people from the company. I don't want to run anyway, let alone with you lot. Yeah, yeah, no. That would be intense.

But walking's good, though, as well, isn't it? isn't it? For those who are listening thinking, oh, I do want to get outside, but I'm scared because I can't run. There's nothing better, I don't think. Oh, nothing better than walking. For everything, I walk everywhere. You know, even in the bad weather, you just put your raincoat on,

there's something about being outdoors and. Yeah, no, and I do get, that's the thing for a lot of people who like running, like my husband's obsessed with it and he says it's just his time to, like he sees it's like meditation. And you hear that a lot and I personally don't feel that really. But for some people, is the case you know and they just get that time to switch off for themselves and you know just like we get that from weightlifting that's what they get it from and what works yeah so what's next

on your fitness bucket list then not a marathon by the sounds of it I am actually doing a 10k race um so next week actually but then I'm going to do one more high rocks and then I think I just feel like I want to be back in the strength training place then I might I just miss it because I think when I was doing running and not so much high rocks but more so when I was training for the half I was trying to be careful with my legs not getting too sore and shin splints and stuff so I was sort of taking down the weight lifting a little bit and not really pushing myself in that way and I kind of missed that buzz you know when you're increasing like your squat and I love that feeling when you really get you know your PB and I just

do want to do a bit more of that once I've done this high rocks I'll be back on that train I think and what are the plans moving forward for you in terms of your app are you going to add anything more where do you see like your your business in like the next five years what will be the ultimate goal for it um I mean I guess just the thing I love about the app is um it's so community based so you know anything that I'm training for I sort of create a program for myself on there for people to do alongside me. So all the challenges I do with the girls on there. And so I just wanna keep doing that.

You know, I would like to add a section for menopause for women who are going through menopause to help in that way. And just keep developing it for women going through different phases in their life because I just want it to be somewhere that you can go as a woman, whatever phase you are at.

And there's something there for, whether you know even if you're a student and you've only got 20 minutes or a mum and you've only got 20 minutes just quick high quality workouts which are going to you know give you that little boost I just want it to to keep on building on that I'm not sure exactly what that is yet but I'm going to I do want to keep yeah just keep expanding yeah and it's good like we say like 20 minutes because a lot of people are so short on time in this busy busy life you know with commutes and kids and relationships so it's good to have like a wellness hub so to speak a platform like yours where it's all there in the living room if they need to yeah exactly so

oh well before you go we have some quick fire questions that we ask all our guests um this is just a lot of fun that me and claire just like to do for no reason really nosy with people's answers but we are stacking up invites because we are inviting ourselves to people's houses for dinner Okay. So what are you going to cook us? Oh, some kind of pasta dish, my favourite. Oh, nice. Probably either vodka pasta or a sausage pasta.

Oh, both of those. Vodka pasta. Yeah, it's so easy to make as well. Is it got tomato, is it like a tomato sauce as well? Tomato-y based, but it's quite creamy. So you put quite a lot of cream in. Nice. And vodka.

Parmesan. I'm assuming the vodka gets burnt off, though. Does it leave? Yeah, it does. It's not actually alcoholic pasta. I can't have to get bladdered on past. Yeah, imagine. What's the last thing that made you belly laugh?

Oh, probably my daughter being silly. She conducts actually at the moment. So she's got a little percussion set and me and my husband and her will do like a triangle or a Maraca or whatever. And she'll go, stop and tell us when we can go again. So cute. You should say she's two?

Yeah. My little boy's two. He's right. It's a good age, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, yeah. It's a mix at the moment. Tantrums, but also when they're getting the little personalities. Yeah, it's very cute.

Gemma was showing me a video earlier of Tiago singing to Benson Boone. Oh, really? He loved Benson Boone. He was very theatrical and he's singing like Easter. Oh, that's so cute. Yeah, he loves him. You're going to a desert island for a year, but you can only take one thing. What would it be?

Pillow. I think we've had that one before. That is sensible, I think, the pillow. Yeah. So you've had a pillow, a ball, a skipping roll. A ball? A ball? We had a lioness on.

Really? Yeah. Oh, okay, that makes sense. Yeah, she said the ball, keep a sane. We've had kindles. We've had mozysy spray. Yeah, we need to do a social, Instagram reel and all the answers we've had for that. Yeah.

Yeah. You can choose one type of exercise to do forever. more, what is it? Probably a hip thrust. Yeah, I like a hip thrust. Do you use the machine or do you take the bar over to a bit, like a bench thing? No, well, I usually train at home, so just bar maybe. Yeah, because I don't know how to use that machine.

You know, you see, what's it called? Yeah, I can't, I feel like now I'm too old and long in the toothache you go up to someone and get them to help me. I'm just like taking the bar over to a bench. Lazy hip thrust. that is the machine. Yeah, you don't need the machine.

Coffee or wine? Oh, wine. Not good with caffeine, really. And is it red or white or rosy? White. Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand, always. Oh, nice. And what's one thing

someone listening today could do to make themselves feel that little bit better? Make sure we carve out 10 minutes for yourself. Whatever that is, if it's a bath, if it's watching your favourite programme, Just making sure you're giving yourself you time, even if it's small, if you're a mum and you haven't got much,

it's just so important to recharge your own battery, to be the best mum you can, to be the best partner, friend. You know, you need to look after you too. I've lost count of the amount of times I've pretended to need the loop for that reason as well. I just said, I'm just going to home to the toilet. I just sit on the toilet lid, obviously, and just go,

oh, literally just for some peace. two kids, the dog or Gorka, there's always someone, so the toilet is my safe space. Do you lock the door, though, to stop them coming in? Yeah, I have to, because otherwise they all come in. Like, lemmings. Well, I think, when I'm having a bath, like, my 13-year-old will come in and go,

oh, sorry, and he's like, seems affronted that I haven't got any clothes on in the bath. There are other toilets in the house. Or my daughter will come in and sit in the toilet and talk to me, and it's like, no, go away. Just go away. Just leave me. I don't care what you did in school. Oh, Megan, thank you so much for joining us.

It's been a real pleasure. Before you go, just remind people where they can find you on instars and webpages and stuff. Yeah, so everywhere is Megan Grubb, GwGWB, basically, and then Beyond is my app. Brilliant. Thank you very much and good luck with it all. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, I'm Gem Atkinson.

I'm Claire Sanderson. We're the host of Just As Well, the Women's Health Podcast, but today we've invited another podcast duo in with us. We have, indeed. We have invited our colleagues from Runner's World and the host of the Runners World's podcast. We have Rick Pearson. Welcome, Rick.

Thank you very much. And Ben Hobson is in with us today. Thanks very much for having us. You guys host Runner's World. I'm not a runner in any way, shape or form. We actually hate running here. I've done a 10K because I was forced to for charity. But it is something I know it's good for you

and I know it's something I should maybe try and improve. Do you guys on your pod give tips of how to maybe get better for those who are as good as you? Yeah, there's lots of that. So I think we're a mix of kind of tips for everyday runners along with inspiration of runners who've been going for ages and hopefully can inspire others to kind of log some mile. So yeah, I think if you're kind of somebody who thinks, oh, running's not for me, they're like half hourly shows once a week, very, very kind of, yeah, not elite in any way and hopefully really enjoyable.

and we think that actually running is a lot more fun than some people might think. You could listen to it whilst running. Absolutely, yeah. We have not of our listeners do, yeah. And Claire just told me you guys run into work just because you can. Yeah, but half marathon distances as well. What? Well, yeah, we, sometimes.

Oh, yeah, we do love it. I mean, that's the thing. We love running and we kind of have to, we live it all, we love it all doing it. So it kind of like fits in with work and we have to do bits and pieces for work, which kind of like mean that running every day is. It's a good rumour that, Claire. I think it's nice to spend that around. It's absolutely not true at 10 miles, but yeah, we'll round up.

Just 10 miles. But you told me, I remember, Rick, we bumped into each other in the kitchen a few months ago and you'd gotten lost or something on the way in. Was it you? What was it one of your colleagues? You got lost, so you ended up running much further. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I occasionally try and turn a route into more of a trail route.

So I quite like getting off the roads, basically, which is a challenge in London. And I probably added a couple of miles, yeah. But it's a nice, I mean, I think the nice thing about running. is, and again, a bit of a myth is that running is actually really energising. I think if you run into work, you're actually full of energy for work. It's not something that knackers people out. Actually, the more you run, to it, to a,

you know, there's a ceiling. But I actually think that it can really invigorate and enliven your life in general. Because you do the runners' world wrench. We do a runch once a month. Thank you very much, yes. Yeah. Yeah. That's a 5K. That's running and that's running at lunch. Oh, nice.

That's good. They lead our colleagues around St James. We do a woman's health, wellness walk that's more civilised more doable for me and and they do a runners world ranch yeah yeah first colleague go for a go for a run around um st james's clark park but ben so you have guests as well as you guys sharing your knowledge we realize very early doors that us talking about running was very boring so before we bet get some people who are actually interesting on some really really good uh interesting runners so we get like we'll

have like people people have no famous people come on and talk about their running and they love it singers comedians creatives in general like how running fits into that lifestyle where it's like on the run they get ideas for songs or comedy routines or things like that through to coaches elite runners and then people that you might not have heard of but have like an incredible story um and the things that really inspire them to go running and hopefully you know helps us to sort of like convey the message of running and like why it's not just about performance but about a simple lifestyle change or just finding a better way of living or just doing something unique to yourself that pushes a boundary.

That's all that side of running. And what day of the week is your podcast released on? Every Tuesday. Oh, there you go. So we've got Ben and Rick on a Tuesday. Yeah, followed by us on a Tuesday. It's a day podcasting. Yeah, you can listen to Runners World in the morning while you're running to work

and then stick us on while you're on your lunch break. Absolutely. And we can find you on all your usual podcast. them. YouTube, we're on that too. And then, yeah, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, everything else. Just search Runners World Podcasts and that's us. That's what we're going to do. I think we need to do that and go for a bunch of them.

Oh, terrible. You've got previous in this. You've done marathons. Oh, but I didn't enjoy it, Ben. You didn't enjoy it, though. That's the thing. You did it. And that's the thing.

You were listening to the wrong podcast, Claire, clearly. Yeah. Maybe I wasn't inspired enough. Well, thanks for coming to see us today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.