In this episode India talks to GB Olympic athlete Michelle Griffith Robinson about her journey with movement, from training to the highest level in London, competing for GB as a Triple Jumper to retiring as a competitive athlete to carving a new career as a Life coach and mentor in Devon. Michelle shares her honest approach to coaching, how important accountability is to keeping up selfceare, and how fortunate she feels to have moved her family to the country side for the sake of her children health and wellbeing.
Find Michelle on Instagram - @michellegriffithrobinson / @fitfamilyrobinsons
Michelles website - https://michellegriffithrobinsonoly.co.uk/
If you have any questions or would like to suggest a guest please get in touch! You can email India via indiapearsonclarke@gmail.com or send a message via Instagram @india_outdoors / @finandflow / www.indiapearson.co.uk
~All photos credit @adjbrown ~
~Music - Caleb Howard Almond ~
You can find this episode on iTunes, Spotify and many other podcast platform
If you have any questions or would like to suggest a guest please get in touch! You can email India via indiapearsonclarke@gmail.com or send a message via Instagram @india_outdoors / @finandflow / www.indiapearson.co.uk
~Music - Caleb Howard Almond / @oakandalmondcarpentry
In this episode India talks to GB Olympic athlete Michelle Griffith Robinson about her journey with movement, from training to the highest level in London, competing for GB as a Triple Jumper to retiring as a competitive athlete to carving a new career as a Life coach and mentor in Devon. Michelle shares her honest approach to coaching, how important accountability is to keeping up selfceare, and how fortunate she feels to have moved her family to the country side for the sake of her children health and wellbeing.
Find Michelle on Instagram - @michellegriffithrobinson / @fitfamilyrobinsons
Michelles website - https://michellegriffithrobinsonoly.co.uk/
If you have any questions or would like to suggest a guest please get in touch! You can email India via indiapearsonclarke@gmail.com or send a message via Instagram @india_outdoors / @finandflow / www.indiapearson.co.uk
~All photos credit @adjbrown ~
~Music - Caleb Howard Almond ~
You can find this episode on iTunes, Spotify and many other podcast platform
If you have any questions or would like to suggest a guest please get in touch! You can email India via indiapearsonclarke@gmail.com or send a message via Instagram @india_outdoors / @finandflow / www.indiapearson.co.uk
~Music - Caleb Howard Almond / @oakandalmondcarpentry
India 0:05
Hello, and welcome to the start a ripple podcast. I'm your host India Pearson. And I believe ripples are made when we connect movement with nature, not only for our mind and body, but also the environment to this podcast is a platform for me to chat with inspiring folk who feel the same and have some fascinating stories to tell from their experiences. I hope the conversations that come from this podcast will encourage you to get outside, move, dream big, and see what happens from the ripples you create. Time to introduce my guest.
India 0:43
Michelle Griffith Robinson represented Great Britain for two decades as a triple jumper competing to the highest level, including the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, and became the first woman to jump over 14 metres in the Commonwealth. When she retired in 2006, Michelle realised just how much physical fitness is attached to a positive mindset, and combined her passion for fitness and personal growth as a trainer and life coach, both for private clients, and a dame Kelly Holmes trust. After moving to Devon, three years ago, Michelle realised the power nature was having on not only her own health, but her families too, and is now an advocate for the great outdoors, especially tracking on x more. She says, I want to be a role model for my children and inspire others to achieve their dreams. I know that making time for self care and well being is an integral part of living a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
India 1:48
Michelle, and welcome to the start a ripple podcast. Thank you so much for having me, India. It's Yeah, really excited. Thank you. Okay, so I'd like to start with where your ripples began, if you could tell us a little bit about your background and how you came to where you are today.
Michelle
So um, I love the name ripples as well, by the way in the I think it's a fantastic names. Where does your ripple begin? You know? And where did it start? For me? Well, my ripples began as a 12 year old little girl from Wembley at the running track.
Michelle 2:20
Nobody to look after me on a Sunday morning, my mum's to refuse to let me stay at home and have tea and toast and watch cartoons. And so she said, No, we've got to get out, you got to keep active and even back then, you know, it was such a important thing for my mum, for all of us to be active, physically active, you know, having three older brothers as well. She always endorsed like going to kung fu going to karate playing football playing cricket. And the same with me. So she's like, no, you're no exception to this, you're going to get out. And then fortunately for me, I found my niche very early on. So from 12, I was at the track. And my mum still says today that's the best pound she's ever invested in me. And that's where the journey began. So that's where my ripples began.
India
Yep. And then you went on to compete for GB.
Michelle 3:05
I mean, you know, I often say to be glad I, I didn't know that I was going to end up being at becoming an Olympian and, you know, representing my country for over two decades, I didn't know that. But what I did know was that I had a passion and a purpose. And when you find your passion and purpose quite early on, it makes life makes life quite nice. To be honest with you, you've got direction, you know, and I think that's one thing that we all know, we need, we need direction. So I always knew what direction I was going, because I had my sport. You know, I always had a community there. So little did I know when I was 12, that I was going to end up going to the Olympic Games and World Championships Commonwealth Games, and being the first woman to jump over 14 metres No, in the triple jump. I didn't know that.
Michelle 3:46
So I Yeah, I was gonna say I'm lucky. I'm lucky for the experiences I had. But I created that lock myself. Yeah, I can completely agree with that. And I actually feel like I found my purpose or or started to find my purpose in my late 20s. And I forget quite jealous actually, of people who find their purpose a little bit earlier on. But in saying that I've had people on this podcast who were spoken to me about finding their purpose later, and they're in their 50s. So I think it's really interesting how we can discover at different stages in our lives. But what a wonderful feeling when we do find that purpose.
India 4:24
Now, you obviously spent many years training to compete, whereas many of us just trained keep it healthy. So I'm really interested interested to know, what did your training regime look like? I think for me, you know,
Michelle 4:42
and you are right in saying most people trained to keep fit.
Michelle 4:46
As an Olympian, as a as an elite performer, as a high performer. Your training is very tailored, you know, it's not just oh, I'll get up and see what the weather is like today. No, you already know what your schedule is gonna look like. So it would look anything like from six
Michelle 5:00
days, we can be training and might have a day off. Some days, I'd have two sessions on one day, I have a physio appointment in between that I'd have a massage twice a week, I'd have to also do like ice buckets and you know, to recuperate, to replenish the legs, again, it involves a lot of sleep, a lot of rest, a lot of downtime, a lot of being very meticulous about, you know what, I'm not going to go shopping now, because I need to preserve my legs for the session. So your life is very much surrounded by your athletics, my sport was my thing, my main thing. So if you imagine a circle, and for our listeners out there, a circle was me in the middle my life track and field, and everything else around it would have to work around Michelle and the track life. And I think that's one thing, when you see the lights of Dina Asher Smith and, you know, high performance people like herself, you, you have to really give her the credit, because it's so many sacrifices that you have to make in order to become x. And that's in anything in life, you know, become a, you know, a surgeon or plastic surgeon to become a teacher, you have to, you have to sacrifice you have to put in the time.
Michelle 6:08
So my week for training was weights, running circuits, lots of lots and lots of fitness stuff. days where I didn't want to do it, because I can't just pretend and say, Oh, yeah, oh, every day I was up for it novels and some sessions, I was sick, I'm vomiting. Because that's the end result to be the very best you have to do. And put in the hours. I think it's interesting hearing you talk about the fact that you needed a lot of rest, because as a spectator, you don't see that side. And I don't think you appreciate it either. And I can imagine, you know, those times when you did have free time, and you could have gone out to spend it with friends and family, you had to rest and you had to make that choice. And I imagine that must have been quite a hard thing to grasp at times, especially in your 20s where you do want to be going out and having a really nice time and drinking cocktails and going to nightclubs and bars. And and actually you have access to because you know you've built up a little bit of a name so you can get into these places. But you have to make a couple of decisions. And I must say there's a few times that I would bring up a couple of my friends who I won't name, or Olympic champions now and say come on to do it. Yeah, let's go. It's gonna stick you on make sure no one's watching no papers in the traffic. So but that would generally happen on a Saturday night after we competed on the Saturday it was a it was a new play. So you know, there was, you know, this is I would say the commitment is the one thing that I need to really get across.
Michelle 7:35
When you don't see the you don't see the backstory behind all these high performing athletes. You don't see it? Yeah, yeah, we just need to surface you know, the winning the medals. There's so much more that goes into that. So how did you find the transition then, from training as a competitive athlete, to training yourself? Keep yourself to stay healthy? What happened? Yeah, great question. I would say that. First of all, I have to let everybody know that whilst I was still competing, I was I set up a personal training company. And I set it up as a solo person. And I started it 22 years ago. And it was it was Incidentally, when my funding got stopped from National Lottery that was funded by National Lottery, and then all different funders, and wasn't performing. So I my funding got stopped. I set up a personal training company. So I already then had a base of something to do. Because if you can imagine when that phone stops ringing, when you stop competing, it's quite a lonely place. And that's something that I have encouraged people, especially athletes, current athletes now that are looking to retire after these Olympic games this year. I say to make sure you find your niche, so that when that phone does stop, you don't spiral into deep depression, because it does happen a hell of a lot is something that the people have spoken about. But it happens a lot when you get dropped or when you your your career can end through injury. You then think what's next. So for me, I have to add that in I know it wasn't the exact question you asked, but I have to add that in, find your niche while you're still doing your sport. Find it find your next thing, what's your next thing you're going to do next? So for me, I found my personal training. So it was easy then for me to start slotting in to keep in fit naturally. So when I retired in 2006, after the Commonwealth Games in Australia, I already had a solid platform of what does training look like for me. So then I started doing 10k runs half marathons, five K's something that I was never ever interested in and I was never gonna do because I'm a triple jumper, no need to run 30 metres a hop step and jump into a sandpit. No, so I started finding different things. So I changed my my training completely. I also took up kickboxing, um, and that was to, again to stimulate another side of me, you know, I'd always been, you know, doing circuits and stuff and I was relatively fit. I also had children so
Michelle 10:00
gave me another stimulus to lose weight and other things think, right? I want to be fit, fit for purpose, you know, I was never one of these people who needed to be a size eight, size 10, I want to be fit, I want to be athletic, I want to, I want to be able to get out there and run my best version of me. You know, I want to be able to stay in my lane. I don't watch what anybody else is doing. If I can go and run a 10k, and I can run it in 17 minutes. Brilliant. That's my best, my best. You know, if I want to try and take up surfing for the first time, that's me trying something different. So it's all about encouraging people. And this is reason why I come on these podcasts all the time, go and find you find what makes you float, try something different. And you'd be surprised what comes out of it. Yeah. And I think when I first wanted to ask you this question, I was looking at it from a physical point of view.
India 10:50
But listening to your answer that has made me realise it was more about the mental side of it, and grasping that side. And obviously we need to move for our physical body. We need to move from trying to and it can be really easy to forget that so easy to get it to be blurred.
Michelle
And you know, when people talk about physical, physical health, you know, I talk about physical and mental health being in good physical and mental health. You know, and that's not about, you know, having a saying, Oh, yeah, you know, I'm doing I'm eating salads every day. And you know, I'm just having the keto diet, or I'm just doing this or I'm cutting out this. No, what are you doing to replenish your mind?
Michelle 11:32
And that's about trying something new. Yeah, and having the courage to do to do that to try something new, because it can be really scary trying something new. You know, you've never surfed before, let's say you go down to the beach, there's loads of pros in the water. You think what am I doing? You got to give it a go. Because you never know where it's gonna take. You never know where it's gonna take. You never know what new experiences is gonna, it's going to add to it also as well, what it then does, and which is another thing as well, which I realised as well in my late 40s.
Michelle 12:02
It allows you to meet new people. Yeah, again, because there's now a new set of people that got that I've loved surfing that I've loved you know, I'm going out in open water swimming. So I promised a friend of mine called Jude from here. We're both porn on exactly the same day, October the sixth, we're both going to be 50 in October. And she sent me right for our 50th birthday. I was like, I think it's a school day. So I think they'll both be working. But around that time, I'm going to go home and do an open water swimming. Yeah, yes, I've made that path. Because it's something that I wouldn't ordinarily do. Yep, it'll take you out of your comfort zone. And it will feel so adventurous, adventurous and rejuvenating and invigorating. And, and all those things that make you feel alive, feel buzzing. And when you talk about movement, you know, movement doesn't have to be going in the gym, going, you know, dancing could be a movement, listening to music and dancing around your kitchen like nobody's watching. Movement, feeling alive. You know, and I had a very old client who unfortunately passed away last year. He was very old. And his words to me was in his strapline, to me was movement, his life, movement, his life.
India
Oh, I love that. Wise words there. And now I know that after competing as a professional athlete, he retired and Kate became a personal trainer, but you also trained as a life coach. So I'd love to hear more about more about this, why you decided to become a life life coach? And what is your approach to guiding people on a journey through life?
Michelle
And I started mentoring when I retired in 2006. My best friend Marcy, I said to Michelle, you'd be amazing as a mentor. Why don't you you know, start giving back to UK sport and different organisations, some of the life lessons you learn by mentoring young people mentoring women girls, as I absolutely so I started mentoring, which was fun, fabulous, really, really good. I'm really enjoying mentoring. And I and I actually work for Dame Kelly Holmes trust, which is from Dane County homes. And I've gone through the whole ranks with Kelly and it's so lovely to see, our relationship is so beautiful because we've known each other since we were little kids. She was 17. I was 15. I went on my first Youth Olympic Games, Olympic games with Kelly when I was 15 being a little scrawny little whippersnapper with Afro parts. And Kelly guided me, you know, and so it's so nice to see how 35 years on we're still very good. And I work for her charity, the Dane County homes dress. So we're talking about the duncan hunter trust that is given back to young people. So it's a mentoring programme that works between for the age of 16 to 25. You're always giving back to young people's call a give back team at the same time is upskilling retired athletes like myself or current athletes that are due to retire so that they could they've also built up a book of a bank of resources so that they can take that into the real world as well. So the denken home Trust has been incredible use fortress, incredible to help young people but also athletes as well. So I went into mentoring and then the
Michelle 15:00
denken home just paid for me to do my live coaching qualifications. So I painted to do my live coaching qualifications. And I've been doing live coaching. I've been doing it for years anyway.
Michelle 15:10
So I've been doing it for about six, seven years now, I absolutely love watching people's journeys. Travel. I love watching people grow as individuals, and what tools do I give them, they've got all the tools, the difference between coaching and mentoring.
Michelle 15:28
And I always have to say this to my clients, my new clients that come on board. Mentoring is I'm sharing some my experiences and acting as your like your travelling companion. So I'll then give any, I might give an input and say, You know what, India? You know, when I did this, I did this. But coaching is completely different. Coaching is I ask you, open questions for you to answer. And for you to unlock all your answers is you that's got the key to the door. I just say how does it make you feel? And then you start to relax, you'll start finding your own answers. So coaching has been so powerful for so many people I have, actually over the pandemic, it's been the busiest time I've I've had, I've been doing so it's been incredible. I've been doing so many live coaching workshops, you know, I do coaching workshops for for Pfizer, actually,
Michelle 16:18
for their apprenticeship schemes, I've done some stuff for Nike, you know, some of their master trainers, I've done live coaching workshops, and just about looking at them as individuals, what's next for you guys in your growth. So you know, I think there's a massive thing and having a life coach, I've got a life coach myself. I've also got another like I mentioned my best friend Marty, who holds me accountable. As like my mentor, I've got a couple of best friends that I you know, I really home into, you know, that that will, when I'm going through challenging times, which I have done as of late, they'll turn around and say, Well, what about your self care? So it's about, you know, really utilising some of my skills and finding people that can be supportive to me. And I just feel that life coaching does give you that I'm not a psychotherapist, or a psychotherapist, that's something completely different.
Michelle 17:07
Yeah, so I have, I have a psychotherapist who have me as a life coach as well.
India
Yeah. And life coaching is something I keep hearing more about. And I only ever hear positive things about it too. And you know, you're using the word accountable. And I can totally get that it's another support system. And obviously, it's great to have friends and family there for support. But I think it's important to have someone who isn't either one of those, as well, for a different point of view, new perspective,
Michelle
Fresh eyes and call it fresh eyes. So fresh eyes. And yet again, just the questions of you know, how what, why, you know, why do you feel that way? Tell me why when are you going to do that? So you said you're going to do X? So can you give me a date on that? What are you going to do that? Oh, I'm going to do it in a couple weeks. Okay. So be more specific then. And how realistic is it? So I'll be quite challenging in my approach in terms of, you know, you said you want this Indian, you said you want to go and swim, that you know, the ocean, when you're going to do that, how you're going to start it. Give me some dates and times who you're going to check in with. Because sometimes we were very, very eager. You know, look at January 1, yeah, I'm gonna hit the gym, I'm gonna do this dinner. And that dissipates very quickly, because you're not held accountable. Yeah. And it can be so easy to duck out.
India
You know, this morning, I woke up at 6am to watch the sunrise, but I was lying in bed, when my alarm went off. I'm not going to get up, I'm not going to get up. I'm not going to get up. It took a lot of effort for me to get myself out of bed. And obviously, I'm so grateful that I did. But I set myself that challenge the night before. But it's this weird, isn't it? You know, we stopped ourselves doing the things that we want to do?
Michelle
Absolutely. You know, I've got a friend of mine who started going out running and then you know, she's been running for the last seven, eight weeks now. And I said to her what's been the spark and you change in that. And now all of a sudden, you don't even need anybody to tell you. She just said I've just told myself, I deserve better.
Michelle 19:12
How many starts from within me? Yeah, and I deserve better. Yeah, being kind to yourself, not being kind to yourself. I think there's no better thing I deserve better.
India 19:23
Now, I know that throughout your life, you've moved from London to Canterbury and then Canterbury to Devon, three years ago. So you've slowly moved further and further away from London, towards the countryside. And I'd love to know how you know that affected the way that you train now that you're in the midst of nature has affected your work as a life coach, and also how it's affected your family life to know what how do you gain from these moves and what have you lost?
Michelle
Well, I think I think my biggest thing was moving out of London 11 years ago was it was a big thing for me because of being in London.
Michelle 20:00
Born and bred, I had done a stint in the Middle East as well. So I was never adverse to moving around being with my husband Matt, who's a former Welsh rugby International.
Michelle 20:09
He's always been up for like moving around and trying different things. You know, he's like a nomad. I'm like, Oh my god, where's he moving? Now?
Michelle 20:16
We've been 10 years in Canterbury, or just shy of 10 years in Canterbury, that was very different again, because you've got a lot more beaches and everything else and, you know, Margate on your doorstep and everything else. So that was very different. You've got deal. You've got the most idyllic places around there. So I slowly, slowly had the mindset of you know what I'm okay to move. And then when this Devon thing came about, and I call it the Devon thing, and my husband moved for work, I was very apprehensive. And I remember my husband's work saying to me, honestly, it's remote. Right? How remote Matt, you know, because I had to really challenge you how remote you said it's remote baby. And he was absolutely right is incredibly remote. And I think that it took me a while to adjust to that. In terms of you know, you have to really drive out 15 minutes, 1015 minutes to get to near with Tesco or Sainsbury's or whatever. So that in itself was a transition.
Michelle 21:08
But I think the turning point for me, where I really truly appreciated how lucky and blessed I was to see another part of the world. And I call it the world, the country.
Michelle 21:19
lockdown.
Michelle 21:21
lockdown made me think to myself, so we live in a boarding school, we're very fortunate we live in a beautiful boarding school, where you have acres of land, lots of green it by x small, you know, which I'd really love walking. So it was fantastic. I think that made me really truly appreciate what I had around me, not just for me, I've got three kids as well, 714 and 17. But how blessed we were to live in a countryside to have fresh air, to have Woodlands to have trees. And not to have smoke.
Michelle 21:54
From a health point of view, it also helped enabled my son's asthma has increased and got better since being down here as well.
India
Yeah, I mean, I mean, the power of nature is amazing. And you know, I live by the Kent coast, I'm really lucky to live by the sea. And I take my dog on a walk by the beach every day. And I've had so many friends and family members messaging me over this time saying the first thing we do, we'll do when we can is come down to visit you we just want to see to see and I probably not appreciated how much of a healing effect it's had on my mind and body during this time. Absolutely. Yeah, it's so important. So now that you're in the middle of the countryside, how are you incorporating nature into your daily exercise regime? You know, you going out for runs on the moores, are you using the beach in the sea, how has where you've moved changed the way that you move?
Michelle
In terms of the moores, we will go out on long walks, and I'll go out on the runs around the hills and the hills around here are serious and they're deadly. They're serious. Oh my god, the triangle, which is what we call around here is deadly. So yes, being outdoors is huge. You know, being in the first lockdown with my son, and we've just set we would actually turn and say, right, we've got 45 minutes in between lessons or whatever, we're going out to the woods. We build little dens I mean, the dens weren't What didn't amount to anything but memories for him. But just digging up mud and being outside, whatever the wherever. And I think that to me is being able to raise a black family in the countryside. For me, I feel a very proud mummy. Because I quite I couldn't quite easily have stayed within my comfort zone because communities are very limited here in terms of black culture is very limited down here.
Michelle 23:47
But I feel blessed that I can dip into London when I want to to see my friends and family. But I also can come home to the countryside and breathe and give my son and my daughters a different outlook of life that you wouldn't necessarily have had. We have plans tomorrow, just go to the beach and just walk the beach. We play bat and ball cricket. We may do yet nothing, buy a bag of chips and sit on the beach. We went and got pizzas and just sat sat there nothing extravagant. Nothing over the top, just in just trampy clothes, just joggers. But just being able to appreciate nature. But giving those lessons to my children
Michelle 24:27
is incredible. One of the things that I do and I'm actually hoping somebody will listen to me and give me a bike I need a new bike.
Michelle 24:35
What the best bike go he's got a Froggy bike that we invested in him. And I need a new bike and me and my son go bike riding and actually, that's the connection that me and him do together and I love it. Yeah, I think it's really special when you can find something to do with a family member or a friend. I love that. You know, it's it's your special thing and the things that you'll see together and the memories you'll make together.
Michelle 25:00
be one that will last last a lifetime.
India 25:04
Yeah, I guess you will need a good bike, if you've got all those hills need a really good bike. So if you know anybody that wants to give to me a bike with a good bike to the summer to keep doing those hills and my son, but I love it and I would not have had that experience and I've been in London. Yeah, so you definitely feel that, you know, being in nature during this period has really helped your mental health and beyond, I would definitely say that being where I've been living where I've lived in the last for the last three years. I I feel very, very fortunate. The benefits has had on me, my well being and my outlook on life. And it can be really scary, you know, moving away from your community. And I guess it can't be you would have been only an hour's train ride from London, so not too far away. Moving to Devon, you are you are further away, but I think it can be about the perspective you take on it. You know, yes, you are a three to four hour car ride away, but you can use that time to listen to a podcast and, and just have a little bit of me time in the car.
India 26:07
And yeah, you know, I know there's gonna be a lot of people wanting to make the change
India 26:12
after after locked down, and and it can be scary, but you're walking proof that it's worth it.
Michelle
And I would say to me every day, the week somebody rang me the other day and said to me, you know, we're looking to move to Devon, somebody else wrote me and said, Michelle, you know, what's your opinion on you know, moving and moving out of London. I said, Do it whilst you're young. So you can appreciate what's around you before when we used to hear about Devon and Cornwall when I was younger, but it will be people going to retire your children see there's different sides of things your train journey away. They can have the city lab and generally young people want the city life anyway to go back to university for work and everything else. I said, but for grown up children, there's no better place for me than being outside of London. That's just me my personal point of view. I want my kids to be able to grow up you know, with with trees with nature, appreciating what's outside being able to get out, you know, and I will tell anybody and everybody knows me I don't like rain.
Michelle 27:05
wellies, I've got my raincoat. I've got my proofs. And I'm just like, my husband's like, nobody's ever died from rain bed. Get on with it, though such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. There you go. And now you have obviously been embracing nature over the last three years since living in Devon has that given you a new perspective on looking after the planet looking after the environment? You know, we are in a little bit of a climate crisis right now.
Michelle 27:32
I'm going to be very honest of you, India from having my three younger children, they keep me very aware of what's going on. very aware, my son, we had a lady come into school to a school I like I said, I work in a boarding school. And she spoke about the plastic and it my son was five and a half years old. And to think that 18 months later, he still talks about that. He then spoke about face masks, you know, you know, look, Mommy, what can we do? We need it, we need it, we can't keep using this stuff, and just throwing it away like that. You know, I've recently done some work with ball Gen one of the women's companies that are working because they do a lot about sustainable fashion. And I think I'm so much more aware of it now. But my kids future, you know, I raise respect on 15 October, but for their future, we need to start thinking about how is this damaging the earth that they're going to be living on. But for my grandkids, I'm so I'm so much more aware, because of my children. My children are so sharp and passionate about it. And I think that's, that's a blessing. This is Gen Z generation. They're so passionate and vociferous about so many things. And they've got every right to because it's going to affect them and their children. Yeah, I mean, they're wise enough to know that they don't want the planet to be ruined for their future. And you know, and actually it gives me so much faith in the future because this generation once I change a unit before I used to do something simple as Mr. Skippy peanut butter and then we did a research on it four or five years ago about the palm oil
Michelle 29:08
again, since I'm sure they've improved it since then. So you know we use we use paper not on meridian or whatever. But just that knowledge of mum that if you use that the amount of orangutangs it kills and that I just love that knowledge that kneel on the simplest thing so even not even going outside in your own home making those small little changes how much that can impact that's what it's all about the small realistic changes you know, more changes so like going into the into the shop and not buying stuff in plastic trying to be you know, watching your badge, what you buy. We've always bought a lot of organic stuff anyway. But fortunately for where we live, we do a lot of stuff farm shops, that's such a nice way to shop isn't it? It's by local to my locals make sustainability for them. You know, we've got eggs down the road and if I could take a picture of it. Well you just leave a pound and you pick up your six eggs. Yeah proper free range eggs from you.
Michelle 30:00
Supporting the man down the road, the farmer down the road as well. And great for your kids to see exactly where that food is coming from.
India
Absolutely. Yeah. So So I know that you, you've been talking a lot about your kids. And I know that you've got some ideas and how you can share with the world how your family keeps fit with a YouTube channel that family Robinsons, and they've already set up an Instagram account. And if you could tell us a little bit more about this.
Michelle
So basically, um, you know, I mentioned earlier on in the conversation that my husband's a formal Welsh international rugby player. And obviously, I'm an Olympian as well. So we've got some three, three incredible children. And I'm going to say that quite quite proudly, though, very talented children and very much into sport and activity. And I would say it's learning environment, you know, they see us doing stuff together. So we had the benefit of working with a company called the Qatar Olympic Museum in Qatar. And we did some, some little videos for them. And from that, we just said, You know what, let's start for Instagram. You know, let's do some get some videos out on there. So basically, it's just us being active as a family. And because that is an area that I'm so passionate about because of the mental well being on children more than ever, you know, we are about just being active. So we have our an active family with a fit family Robinsons, and we enjoy kick we enjoy working out together, we enjoy kicking a football together playing rugby together, there's always some there's always gonna be somebody that's throwing a tantrum that wasn't there. No, I didn't get out, you got out. I can do more press ups in new. So it's a healthy and competitive environment that we we want to encourage our kids to really keep being active. Because we understand from the levels of of that we we've got to make myself map that how much being active has a positive effect and positive impact on your mental wellbeing. And it's great that you can share with other families, you know how you keep fit, but also how you have fun and I know the biggest thing I say to people you know, despite the bike and plug in to get a bike. We just don't have a baton ball. Yeah, yeah, we do in Baton ball. The other day we went into my mom's there was we did have couldn't find a baton ball. My husband managed to find something in the garden, wrapped it up in some cellar table or some masking tape that mom had hanging around the house. And we use it we use a spoon and went to the park and we played it there. We had 48 minutes. It wasn't quite 15 minutes. I remember looking at the blog saying, Come on. We got to get back now for an hour of fun. Yeah, and that's the things you know, we must really start again putting less emphasis on materialistic stuff or more emphasis on make do what you got. Make it fun.
India
Yeah, so important. And it snowed here actually a couple of weeks ago, and it never snows because we're by the coast and we wanted to go sledding but we didn't have a sled. So we took a bodyboard which would normally you know, we'd be taken out to the sea Well, we took up the hills instead and we and we had a great time
Michelle
improvisation sustainability as well. Yeah. Again, talking about that making do some of the life lessons that we need to encourage our children as well. Not everything is going to be perfect guys make do what you got. What can you do with that piece of equipment to make it work for you and kids not thinking the only way they can run is by having the best Nike trainers? India, that's one of my biggest things. Yeah, we have to as adults, encouraged them to see no barriers. I can't go and play the exam got a tennis racket, okay, but let's try and compromise here. What can we do? What can we make good with? So that the reason why we started with primary Robinsons was to show families the importance of just having a bit of fun. And like we said, like my my oldest client said to me, God rest his soul. Movement is life. Movement is life.
India
What a quote. And so I asked this to all my guests, looking back at the ripples you've made in your life, what is the biggest lesson you have learnt in keeping your mind and body healthy? vulnerability is strength.
Michelle 33:53
When you're down,
Michelle 33:55
admitting when you're sad, admitting when you need that extra support.
Michelle 34:02
I think talking would be my biggest thing, communicate.
Michelle 34:06
And I would say I would urge our listeners out there to when they get off this podcast from listening, check in with somebody check in just give him a call. How you doing? And it's uh, yeah, fine. No, no, really? Tell me how you're doing.
Michelle 34:23
Because as British people, we have that stiff upper lip, we we don't want to show our emotions, because it means that we're weak. Remember, vulnerability is a strength. Yeah, that's so beautiful. And so true. And, you know, sometimes it can be the people who you think are the strongest, or the ones that you need to check in with most. Absolutely. And I think that's really poignant. To talk about that. So how do I look after myself? if I'm being honest, the last few weeks I had a bereavement. My stepfather passed away. I haven't been looking after myself. I had the forefront of my mum.
Michelle 35:01
Just thinking how's my mum going to cope and manage? And it's my mum that turned it back around on to me and said, Michelle, you've got three kids, young kids and a husband. You have to keep the ship sailing. Yeah. Go and look after you. I'm going to be alright. I've got 280 I'm going to be fine. Yeah, I bet she feels better knowing that you're looking after yourself. There you go. Because they're not silly. parents aren't silly. If they see you down, then you're almost fueling to that fire. Yeah, you're almost fueling to their their hidden anxiety. Whereas if I'm like, right, Mommy, that's it. We're up. And I'm not saying we're going to forget about my step, because that's not going to happen, but you got to be realistic. And there's gonna be days where she has very bad days where I feel very sad. I've lost my stepdad through COVID. And I'm going to feel desperately sad. But I also know that I can't change that outcome. But what I can control is what I choose to do next.
Indai
And what a way to end an awesome episode. Thanks so much for sharing. Michelle loved hearing your story. And if anybody wants to follow your journey, where can they find you?
Michelle
I'm at Michelle Griffith Robinson on Instagram. Fit family. Robinson's on Instagram for my family. Robinson Oh, why on Twitter, and Michelle Griffith Robinson on Facebook as well. My website is www dot Michelle Griffith Robinson o l y. I got those O Iy letters.
Michelle 36:31
About four or five years ago, which was really, I felt really blessed that you know every Olympian was given Oh, why? So it's www dot Michelle Griffith Robinson. Oh, y.co.uk. But you know what, guys? I often say to everybody at the end of every podcast, thank you for listening. Thanks for tuning in to me in India. Thank you for having me on. Most importantly, you'll find me if you need to find me, but find you.
Michelle 36:55
Make sure you find you. Yes, make sure you find you.
India
Thanks so much, Michelle, and I can't wait to keep following your rentals through life. Thanks so much for listening to the starter report podcast. If you like what you heard, please do subscribe and rate and review. It helps other like minded souls find this podcast. If you want to get in touch, the best way to find me is by Instagram. I'm at underscore India or you can look up my wellbeing hub, fin and flow.
India 37:31
Thanks so much again and speak to you soon.