The Feed My Health Podcast
Welcome to the Feed My Health Podcast, where we redefine what it means to thrive as a midlife woman.
This is your space to explore sustainable health, balanced nutrition, mindset shifts, and habits that actually fit into real life—kids, careers, and all.
Hosted by Rosalind Tapper, a high-level coach and mentor for women ready to take the lead in their own lives, each episode is packed with expert insights, practical strategies, and inspiring stories to help you feel unstoppable💫
Whether you're navigating perimenopause, balancing family and work, or simply trying to find you again, this podcast will empower you to:
✨ Build a body and mindset you’re proud of
✨ Break free from yo-yo dieting and quick fixes
✨ Balance health with the joys of life, guilt-free
It's time to make yourself a priority without sacrificing what you love. Let's do this together. 💪
🎧 New episodes every Monday. Tune in and take that first step to becoming the leading lady in your life!💫
The Feed My Health Podcast
I got interviewed for my own podcast!! Get to know the REAL me.
What if everything we've been taught about getting healthy has been needlessly complicated? For Rosalind, discovering the power of sustainable health approaches transformed not only her personal wellness journey but launched a mission to help families thrive without restrictive diets or complicated regimens.
Rosalind's path wasn't linear—from childhood walks she once resisted to early fascination with juicing as a teenager, health was always in her peripheral vision. However, life had other plans first. Pursuing music performance at university while pregnant with her first child set the stage for a balancing act that would eventually lead to exhaustion and weight gain. Despite providing nutritious meals for her children, her own health took a backseat to the demands of motherhood and entrepreneurship.
The turning point came not from a dramatic health scare but a simple realization: there had to be a way to improve health without cooking separate meals for every family member or following unsustainable diet plans. This insight drove her to pursue formal education in nutrition, learning the science behind effective, family-friendly approaches to wellness. What began as a personal solution evolved into a coaching practice helping women lead health transformations that benefit their entire families.
Unlike the quick-fix promises and aesthetic-focused messaging dominating the health industry, Rosalind advocates for sustainable changes that work within the context of busy family life. Her approach resonates particularly with women in their 30s and 40s who are tired of cycling through restrictive diets that separate them from family meals and social occasions. By simplifying nutrition and movement into practical, enjoyable habits, she's helping families build health foundations that last.
Ready to discover how sustainable health can transform your family's wellbeing? Subscribe to hear more stories and practical strategies that make health accessible for everyone at the table.
👉 We don’t just help you lose weight - we help you keep it off for good. If you’re serious about breaking free from quick fixes, my team and I will transform your daily habits so your results last a lifetime.
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Kind of finding out where fitness started for you. So growing up, was fitness something that was a part of the household, or is it something you discovered on your own?
Speaker 2:It was never part of the household Completely, something that I discovered on my own, I would say. The only thing that I can think of that really would have kind of sparked where I'm at right now and how I do things with my kids with regards health and fitness is me and my sister were dragged on incredibly long walks most weekends, kicking and screaming, and little did I know how much of a foundation of my life that would become yeah, how come?
Speaker 1:what was the? What was the idea behind, if it wasn't fitness related? For your family, was it just time together?
Speaker 2:I think, possibly. I think so. My parents were my stepdad and my mum. Both worked very full-time corporate style jobs. They weren't around a lot, so me and my sister had a childminder for years and years and years. So potentially it was a family thing, but I do remember it being my sister, myself and my stepdad a lot of the time, and I think that was because he gave my mum a bit of a break at home. That's my understanding now. I didn't. I don't think I realized it at the time, but I don't think there was any other reason behind it other than that.
Speaker 1:To be honest, was sports ever anything that you were interested in like when it came time for PE in school? Were you?
Speaker 2:were you? It was the classic guess who was picked last?
Speaker 1:um no, I also was picked last, by the way.
Speaker 2:No, I'm exploring myself and actually our school wasn't the kind of school that really was big on sport.
Speaker 1:I went to what's called a Steiner school. Yeah, I have no idea what that means. So you've got me. I was like a hunk.
Speaker 2:So essentially, if you imagine a typical state school set up where you're quite quickly thrust into the world of learning and all the rest of it, a Steiner school basically kind of does the opposite, where they try to encourage children to learn through play before they actually learn how to read or write properly and they don't do things by the book. So parents have to pay to go. But it's not like a private school in the way that most people typically see a private school. They were always quite poor and actually the children who went were relatively poor, but it was driven by the values behind it mostly. So sport wasn't actually a massive component of it. We weren't actually allowed to kick things like footballs around in the playground Like balls were forbidden. We weren't actually allowed to kick things like footballs around in the playground, like balls were forbidden. So no, sport wasn't a massive, massive part of my life at all. In fact I would go so far as to say I probably hated it.
Speaker 1:Oh really so what was the, what was the thinking behind this goal, then? Are your parents interested in like unique outlooks or like sounds like a psychology idea or something?
Speaker 2:yeah, so interestingly not. I grew up and still, even now to this day, believe they're very pro-education. They actually left their jobs to to set up their own private tuition and helping kids get into private schools. And you know science, maths, english, so I'm not really entirely sure what the thinking process was behind it. The only thing that I can think of is my sister went to a typical junior school and was having a bit of a hard time there, and so they decided to move her across to this school, which was based on smaller class sizes, you know like that, and they just sort of asked me when I was about five or six do you want to go along as well? And I love change Like that for me is the most exciting thing. I will move house as often as I can, just because I love the new experiences. So, of course, when I was six, I'm going. Yeah, that sounds great, but for me the school didn't suit me very well. I don't think.
Speaker 1:But my sister did really well there. Do you remember when you noticed that it wasn't suiting you quite well? Is that something that you look back on now, or did you come to a point when you were maybe a teenager or something?
Speaker 2:I knew quite quickly, because I went into it knowing how to somewhat read and write and my friends weren't going to learn to read and write for a good several years. So I remember when they first started learning letters, I had to stand at the front of the classroom with a it was, imagine like old school chalkboard holding a stick. I'm not that old, by the way, it's just that it was a very oldie worldie type school, yeah. But I was holding a stick, like pointing out the letters to my friends, because there wasn't really anything for me to do at that level. And that was the first time when I thought oh, this is really interesting. Actually I know more than most people, but I actually think that that set me back quite a lot, because I sort of sort of made myself smaller to fit in. As opposed to what I believe kids should do is be put in an environment that kind of challenges them. It was the complete opposite way around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, have you ever heard the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell?
Speaker 2:I have heard of that. Actually, yeah, I've not read it, it's quite popular.
Speaker 1:In it he talks about the month you're born and how that can affect certain social groups, and one of them is like. It gives an example of the canadian hockey team. Like all of the professional hockey players in canada typically are born within a range and it's like the first three months of the year. And the idea is that, or the argument he makes, is if you're born in a certain month of the year, you're just slightly bigger at a much younger age and that compounds over you know a certain amount of years and even though it might have only been an inch or two when you were six, the confidence you got from being slightly better than everyone else might have pushed them on to become like great. And then there is the counter argument to that, where some of them are born in december and they are warriors, you know like they're typically a different, let's say, are they like all together?
Speaker 1:And I had a similar experience because in school in Ireland the calendar year is September I think it's the same year you get to be honest but my birthday's in September. So I was the oldest in my class, apart from a handful of people, but I did notice that that handful of people were like above the rest of the class in terms of like, maybe only by a couple of months at the start, but because we were picking stuff up a little bit quicker, a little bit quicker, a little bit quicker. By the time we got to like 12 years old, we felt like smart kids. You know what I mean and so I can. I can relate to that a little bit. But this is this is a much bigger gap where I can imagine it was a bit aiding.
Speaker 2:It was yeah, and I think just like reflecting on that now. I've never really thought about it in this way before, but it does make a lot of sense now when I think about when people speak to me about, oh, you've bought this new top or oh, you've got this, I immediately feel incredibly guilty. Yeah, like I shouldn't have the thing, or I feel embarrassed or like I'm what do I? What have I done to deserve having this thing? Like, for example, we bought this little robot hoover? Yeah, when my mother-in-law came this weekend and she was like, oh, what's that new fancy gadget? And I felt immediately guilty, even though I've spent my own hard-earned money on it, I just felt immediately guilty and I think it now when I think about it. That whole concept of not wanting to feel better than people is really like it's obviously quite a dominant thing, and so it's a lot easier for me to sort of go oh, I'll just not say anything and I'll just be really meek and mild about stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's actually. It's huge in the UK and it's huge in Ireland as well, but I think the term comes from the UK of tall poppy syndrome. Do you know that concept? Oh, no, the idea is that the tallest poppies get cut down first, and in Russia they call it crabs in a bucket.
Speaker 1:So if you put a, bunch of crabs in a bucket and they try and get out the other crabs, pull them back in. So it's the same concept, but I think it's a normal-ish thing. But yeah, if you're in the crowd there's almost not a bucket I could fill. Just out of interest, curiosity, because I come across people like this all the time and I don't think about them, but other people do.
Speaker 1:And the person who made that comment do they typically make comments like that? Or did you do? You think you took it the way it was intended? Or because my grandmother, for example, she's very particular and she obviously grew up in an era where, well, I don't want to say it was normal, but it was more normal for, like, spouses to actually have violence. You know, I mean like no, that's I. Not that I'm going to back at each other, but there was the context that that could happen in that time. So my grandmother's very passive-aggressive. She'll say she'll cut you in two with a smile. You know what I mean. So yeah, I might be projecting, but I'm worrying. Is that person meaning to make you feel that way?
Speaker 2:I think it's a generational thing and I think that she values security, and what she means by feeling secure is having money in the bank and a secure job and a very constant setup that you just know is reliable. So when I came into her world, I kind of rocked the boat a little bit as a daughter-in-law, because I'm very much like change. How can we do things better? You know, let's push this person to be their best version and I'm very like that and they're just thinking, oh my God, this is a red flag. You know, sirens are going off, she's spending money on this, she's doing that that I don't know. I'm not sure about this, I'm not secure about that. So I'll project my worries, yeah, onto others and I know it's so frustrating because I can see that happening all the time. But, yeah, my default is to sort of go in to myself and go, oh no, no, you know, I had some spare cash lying around, or you know that sort of situation.
Speaker 1:I actually I can relate to that a lot, but I can also relate to being the other person as well, and I don't know if you have this experience with, uh, with any close friends, but we all have our types, you know. I mean, and we tend to mingle in similar circles and I don't know how many times I've seen a friend just get heartbroken by someone who is like not aware of themselves in a certain way, and then they find someone who is aware of themselves in that way, like the way you're explaining that. You know you're like this. I've warned friends off amazing girlfriends because I'm like this is the same thing, and then it's just not. You know what I mean. So maybe they've seen a trend emerge that you're now breaking. You know to give them that and out for what I just tried to put them through. Yes, but I have actually quite a similar personality to what you're describing, where it's like enjoying the creativity, enjoying the novelty of things, and it does have a dark side, but if you kind of manage that, it's good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and when it does have a dark side.
Speaker 1:But if you kind of manage that, it's good. Yeah, we can. We can harness the light of it. So I get the sense whenever I talk to someone from the uk that class is a much bigger thing than I understand. In ireland it's like it's always much more obvious and in ireland the middle class is kind of non-existent. If that makes sense, like it's very obvious, there's either working class people who live in council states or there is fully private schools. I'm kind of guessing here, so forgive me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like a middle class upbringing or that your parents are artsy, that it was like you're much more well off than I'm imagining. But if that's uncomfortable for you, let me know. But is that something? I'm on the right track there, if I'm guessing?
Speaker 2:I would say more, maybe more. So the latter part of living at home. Yeah, when we first, when me and my sister were born, we both were born, um, in London and my parents were at university, so you imagine, like flat broke nothing, nothing. They divorced quite quickly and then my mom and stepdad moved over to Derbyshire to what I understand was like the only house that they could really afford. So it wasn't particularly like in a nice area, but it was the best of what they could afford and they worked because they had to and they paid a childminder to look after us because I guess it was better than them not working. So I wouldn't say that we like we didn't go on lavish holidays. Our holidays were like camping in the UK or like going to Wales. We weren't like we didn't have everything that we could ever want. It's really not. We weren't indulged or anything like that.
Speaker 1:There wasn't't like excess cash I think I'm being spent together. That were your parents, would your parents, grandparents, be considered more like working class. But your parents have kind of true, true education, kind of transcended that a little bit, but they still have, still have all the, all the hallmarks of working as family, but just a little bit like bar jobs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can take that.
Speaker 1:I have family members like this, I think I'll probably end up a bit like that one. It's where I got the idea I got to go to college. I'm actually the first person in my family to go to college. I think because of my being there by a few weeks ago, we're the first generation at least to kind of have a decent education. So, yeah, I'll definitely have financial scars that I'll have to try and not pass on, but that does tend to kind of paint a picture around health and fitness where I mean working class families just don't have the luxury to be able to think about it.
Speaker 1:I think some people get lucky with sports, like it's very popular in the white community anyways, like it's a cheap babysitting and it's also a way of keeping the kids entertained. You know, but I didn't like football that much, I didn't like any of that stuff. So I was kind of at home all the time and I'm in my mask. Was that the situation for you? Did you not enjoy the sports? Were you not shown to them, or was it more of just the case of like you just had different things going on or different hobbies and stuff?
Speaker 2:I think it was a combination of the school not really being into sports that much, it wasn't like the crux of everything, whereas a lot of schools these days that's you, you know quite the dominant subject. But also I think my parents probably felt that there were other areas that were more important to focus on. So, for example, me and my sister both had music lessons. We did swimming lessons, I think, because I think potentially we must have said, oh yeah, that sounds like a great idea and then we did that like two or three times a week. It felt like we did things like ballet class and stuff like that. So we were doing things outside of school, thankfully, because the kind of school that I went to there was a lot of children that were very cotton-walled, yeah, and when they turned into teenagers they just had like mental breakdowns because they didn't know how to handle themselves in the outside world. So I am very grateful for that.
Speaker 2:But in terms of, like, the health and fitness there was, there was never really a moment, I don't think, where I thought, oh, I'm really into fitness, it was more. I now understand that it's part of the bigger picture of a healthy lifestyle and I think that health for me came from wanting to age really well and like I was obnoxiously aware of that from a very young age. Okay, and this death, this definitely broke the mold, because I didn't grow up in a family that was particularly vain or you know, my mom didn't put makeup on. There was no real kind of focus on. You need to worry about your health, but for me, I think I just picked up the girl magazines and looked at the skincare and thought you know what? I just want to look the best I can look until the day that I die and avoid medication as long as possible. And okay, so what do I need to do to do that?
Speaker 1:yeah, I actually. I say this quote to clients all the time and uk clients understand that way more than us clients. But when that model said that nothing tastes as good as skinny feels, I feel like it shook the world yeah I.
Speaker 1:I heard a man in his 60s quote that to one of my clients the other day when I was listening to a sales call and I was like, oh my god, it hit everyone in Irish but it still doesn't feel like that's what you're caring about at all. To be honest, you said obnoxiously young you were thinking about this. What age were you starting to think about aging?
Speaker 2:I remember being around about. I want to say I was probably between 9 and 13 when I was really involved in reading about health, but from a very surface level perspective, like how to look after your skin, and I remember buying a juicer when I was probably about 12 or so and starting doing the whole grief with your own money or yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, with my own money, because it was really funny, because my stepdad used to say oh, what's that pond water you're drinking today?
Speaker 1:then yeah, do you know when you picked this up?
Speaker 2:no, I don't don't.
Speaker 1:Do you?
Speaker 2:like it. No, I don't know. I mean the only thing and I feel like I'm clutching at straws a little bit with this is that I genuinely do think I'm clutching at straws a little bit with this, to be honest, but my stepdad got diagnosed with kidney failure around about this time I think it was around about this time and it had a massive impact on our lifestyle.
Speaker 2:He had to eat very different foods. He had to boil his food to within an inch of its life. It was very all-consuming and I often wonder how much of an impact did that have on watching somebody taking maybe 10 to 15 tablets every single morning and every single evening? How much of an impact that actually had on the way I think about what can I do to prevent this being my reality?
Speaker 1:What makes you say that you're clutching at straws when you come to that conclusion?
Speaker 2:Because I feel like there needs to be a defining moment, like a moment where I go ah, this is it. This is the reason, and I feel like I've got quite a bad memory when it comes to my childhood, but I also when I've got quite a bad memory when it comes to my childhood, but I also when I've, when I've experienced situations that I myself don't like or I'm not comfortable with. I really try very hard to block it out, so it's hard to to know if that's the reason why I'm so interested in health or it was just part of a bigger story.
Speaker 1:I think people in medicine talk about this a lot and it's like one of the reasons why cures to things are so hard to find is because there's not really yet. Like humans love the idea that there's one reason why something happened and it's never true. Like the fact that I say never, there's definitely something. You know what I mean. But like when they figure out what causes cancer, let's say, and then it's just like it's actually like 500 things and also like your body is just either doing that or not doing that and you're accelerating it or not accelerating it. And it's like on a long enough time horizon, if someone lives to be, let's say, 200, everyone will get at some stage right, not to give you health anxiety, but like the idea here being there is no cause of things.
Speaker 1:And I love psychology, so, like the best psychologists in the world are always saying like there's the conscious and the unconscious or whatever, and that probably isn't a moment that changes your life entirely, but it probably is something that brings the unconscious to the conscious. You know, I mean, if anything ever feels like uncomfortable that you sometimes like step away from it, and then we were talking about helping. So I think I stepped away. So I'm joking, but it is interesting to me that health becomes a topic that's in your head before fitness, let's say. Is that where you kind of start to think about, like, not necessarily working out but living a more active lifestyle, or does that come much later?
Speaker 2:that came much, much later. Yeah, um, I, I always joke actually, that I that exercise is one of my least favorite things to do. Yeah, and that is aside from walking, and that's a different story altogether. But with exercise, even today, it is a complete mind challenge for me to do it. It is a complete mind challenge for me to do it, and so that's why I devised a way to get the biggest bang for my buck when it comes to what I do every week with my exercise. And ultimately, that's now what we do in our program, because some women love to exercise, but the majority don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when I mentioned that we have similar personalities. I fucking hate exercise. I mean I need video games, I need like I need novelty, I need lots of instant reward. I need all that stuff. Otherwise I'm not interested. And exercise, like some people describe it as being instantly graph on and that they feel progress over time really quick. I just don't Like I need to be in the gym for four weeks before I'm actually enjoying it. So it is a real slog and I don't hear other people talk about that. So it's nice that you don't love that part of it, but I'm interested to find out if you make yourself do that or if you just find other ways of being active and then do the boring bit on top of that. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so I put a lot of emphasis on my walks. I really wasn't a person that liked walks. Like I said, my memory of walking was being dragged along canals for miles in the rain like come what may. So for me I never had a great experience with walking. And then when I found myself like pretty overweight in my early 20s, I did all the research trying to figure out how. Like all I cared about was how to get rid of it. I didn't care about health yeah so much so at that point so.
Speaker 1:I think disconnected in your mind. Yeah, two things yeah, completely.
Speaker 2:My priority at that time was how can I be the best mom, the best partner, have the tidiest house, make it look like I've got?
Speaker 2:all of my shit together and everything that I actually truly valued very much fell by the wayside until I was really overweight and the thing was it felt like I was under a bit of a magnifying glass, because most people at my age who were still at uni or have just left uni weren't thinking about how to like, what was the best cleaner to polish their kitchen with, or you know what size nappy should I be buying they. They were thinking about getting a job and, you know, going out and socializing. So I was very sort of, oh my God, I need to sort this out because I look, I don't look like I'm a 21, 22 year old. I look like a frumpy, overweight mom and I didn't want to do that at all. So I was thinking about how can, what exercise can I do to burn the most calories?
Speaker 2:That was the mindset behind it all. So I did it all, begrudgingly, did it all. At that time walking wasn't even it wasn't even on my radar as a thing to do. I just thought you walked. One year needed to get out your car, to go to the supermarket and get back in your car and to go home. That I didn't didn't compute, that that was an actual means to anything, if that makes sense, which sounds so daft I fully agree.
Speaker 1:I think about that all the time. Actually. I remember we got taken on a hike as a school tour and I was like this fucking we're gonna go for a walk and we did like sponsored walks in school as like a fundraising thing catholic school thing, I think but after that like I was like walking's fucking class, like I loved every bit of that. We're like off the side of a fucking cliff and I was like looking at the ocean. I was like fuck everything else, I just want to do this.
Speaker 2:All the time it was class yeah, and that's it, like back at school, like our school trips were going on walks, like we'd go to the peak district or we didn't go to. You know, kids these days are going to theme parks and paintballing and all this sort of stuff and we went on walks and so it always felt like such a chore yeah like a punishment. Actually, it felt like a punishment.
Speaker 2:And then, when we had the kids, I suddenly then became very aware that I wanted them to be as healthy as possible yeah and I think that's where I had a bit of a full circle moment, because with my first child, when she started eating solid food, I wasn't buying like the baby pouches and the jars of ready-made food. I was like, right, what's the healthiest things that I can be giving her so that she's got really good sort of I don't know what the word is but like well-climatized taste buds, to like proper food. So, yeah, you'll be having like natural yogurt and pureed vegetable, and I'd spend hours like making everything so fresh and healthy for her. And so it was. It was very, very important at that point that the kids understood what it was, what it was to eat healthily, the difference between less nutritious food versus nutritious food and being active, but all whilst I was not doing any of those things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so how did you learn this stuff? It like it sounds like you had a more rudimentary understanding of it from your own upbringing. Were you just vigorously researching?
Speaker 2:we were brought up on, everything was made from scratch and because we didn't have loads of money, it was what can we eat? What's the best that we can possibly buy with the money that we have? So we did not grow up on fast food, ready meals, anything that was kind of packaged. We didn't have things like crisps. We didn't have things like biscuits, and at the time as a child you're thinking, oh, this is awful, like everybody at school's got these. You know, know the crunch corner yogurts. You have those in Ireland. You know where you're thinking yeah.
Speaker 2:Or like the chocolate bars and food like that was very scarce. My childminder actually she my childminder was incredibly overweight, like one of the largest women I think I've ever met in my life actually Terrible, terrible diet. And I remember even her being like you know, if I had an accident, if I fell over, I cut myself. She was very unempathetic but she would sort of say if it was really bad she'd say, oh, do you want one of her husband's like special biscuits, and it was like a club bar. You, you know, like a, do you have those as well? Yeah, I love club bars, but we were never allowed anything like that at her house, ever.
Speaker 2:This was like the one occasion. So we learned that when things were really bad we'd get the thing that we. That was like forbidden. You know what I mean? Yeah. So I think, going back to your question, like I think that the reason why I had all of that knowledge was because, ultimately, that's what I'd grown up around like how can we make this, this portion of food, spread out as much as possible?
Speaker 1:what can we put in it to make it, to bulk it up, and where do you shop, and things like that that's actually, um, I've not spoken to anyone who has a similar experience where someone is so formative but they're not a relative in that way. Like how do you reconcile those two things? So your parents outlook on nutrition, health and stuff, like that is one way, but a person you spend a lot of time with just seems to be completely the opposite. Right, like, what are you thinking at that point? Is that even a conscious thought of yours, or was it just weird, you know?
Speaker 2:I mean like no, that's strange are you referring to my childminder and eating?
Speaker 1:yeah, so like was it the one childminder for the majority of the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:Kids tend to learn their habits from their parents or the person they're around the most. Yeah, but you definitely get values from your parents, right? So if you have your values from your parents, but then you're seeing the habits that are not aligned with that, like can be conflicting, I guess.
Speaker 2:I think I probably knew deep down that the way we were being brought up was probably the best way, like the right way, but in that moment, as a child, you don't think that, do you? You do want the chip cob for lunch and you do want the crappy food, basically. But I think I knew. I think I've always had quite a lot of awareness, like I'm quite an observer of people and so I can put two and two together and see this person eats this kind of food and looks this this particular way. It has this demeanor and outlook on life versus these people that eat this certain way, and I think I was very aware yeah, not, not to.
Speaker 1:I'm trying not to accuse you of being judgmental, but it's going to sound that way, right? But what I specifically mean is it's very hard not to judge someone if you know what they're doing is wrong at a young age, because we're a little bit crueler when we're children, I guess, and I think I would develop quite a cynical view of that person. And then they have also authority over me and I'm like fuck you, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:Yes, I know, Like I was probably a rebellious kid, I guess it might be obvious. Actually, like what was that? Like to have to listen to someone and to be aware kind of that this person might lead me wrong. If I'm listening, like is it something that popped in or am I just reaching?
Speaker 2:No, I don't think she really had that much of an impact on me, because I didn't really enjoy my time with her or I didn't look up to her or, you know, see her as a role model. So it was more. You're in the situation where you have to be looked after by this woman who lives her life this certain way and whilst you're there, you have to conform to her rules and eat what she gives you. Because I was a people pleaser, you know through and through. But I also knew that I didn't want to live like that and it, you know, I was very aware that that's not how I live. So she didn't have enough power over me if you know what I mean for that to have an impact.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my best friend is actually in a kind of similar situation where both of his parents worked and he had a child minor just for like two hours after school because he lived right next to the school so he could make his way back. Like I'm talking, his school was basically the school was the front garden of his home.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean yeah and so he would go straight from there to his childminders and he hated this woman like they would scream at her. You know, and but his dad was a chef and the childminder would only basically give him chicken nuggets and chips or frozen pizza and a young kid like between 8 and 12, he fucking loved that you know like uh, I don't know if you know this idea of a chicken nuggets and chips kid like, but that was him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did not care at all, like hadn't tried most foods until he was much older. But when I met him, when he came to my house, we were like proper working class, single mother, household ordering food almost all the time because she's just working two jobs, and he had the most insanely unhealthy food ever and I feel like they turned him into a bit of a junkie on uh, on fast food for a while. So I'm imagining different scenarios. On the path you went down. It sounds like you learned the lessons that your parents understood, whereas my friend rejected them entirely. So I'm getting the inverse story here and I'm enjoying learning about it. The producer thing. Can you see that idea in any other things that you did around that age, or is that like a real moment of teenage years?
Speaker 2:I actually can't. I can't think of any other situation that was like that at that time. I don't know where the juicer idea came from. Maybe I read something in a magazine.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:No idea. But the key thing there is it was never to lose weight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was just health.
Speaker 2:Yeah, weight was not on my radar at all.
Speaker 1:Like are you conscious that it's health, or is it just an interest in juice that you're not really sure about?
Speaker 2:I think it was health. Yeah, I think at the time the juicing thing had become quite popular and me liking change and liking like novel stuff, I probably just clung on to that Very much. Like I bought a spiralizer and whatever else you know, like a ninja bullet and you know the thigh master. Like I bought everything because it was going to be the thing you know that was going to revolutionize my life.
Speaker 1:It sounds like you're you know that telemarketing channel, tv channel. Yeah, sounds like you're their number one fan.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, the first time I discovered QVC.
Speaker 1:Yeah, QVC, that's cool.
Speaker 2:I bought a shock. What do you call it? Like a steamer, you know, like a steam cleaner, yeah, and I was sold by this woman on the TV. I thought this is amazing. And then I saw the price, and then I could see that you could split it up over three payments while I was in. I mean, it was the first and last time I've ever bought anything on it, but that, for me, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:That's like the Amazon of that split payment thing does, like they have to study brands, Like there's something about monkeys that they need to figure out, that we just fucking love splitting up. Someone did this to me before. I think it was some fucking supplement brand. It's, you know, Athletic Greens.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like obviously the most advertised fucking thing ever. I was like when I first got to Barcelona I hate cooking, like I just can't stand. It's very overwhelming for me, I find Because I'm shy first of all, and because there's actually so much to learn that like what you're talking about there, like doing all the research and understanding it and making sure that your children are well fed I'm only looking after me at the moment and I maybe I need to care more about myself, but I wanted to just eat chicken wraps for dinner every day. I just I just wanted like that was like the easiest thing in the world for me to do but a little bit of cheese, a little bit vegetables, wrap it up, mayonnaise, calorie dense, all dense, all that stuff.
Speaker 1:I'll eat lunch. Like I was having this thing deliver me lunches each day so that I didn't have to cook them, and I was like I'll fill in around that and just have wraps. But I was like I haven't eaten anything Korean in months. I'm going to get scurvy or something. So I was worried about it.
Speaker 1:I was like all right well, once I supplemented I took all of them and I think it's the most advertised thing I've ever seen in my whole life and they have that. It's like a hundred euro a month. It's a ridiculous price point, but they do it daily and they're like less than a coffee per day and I was like for all my greens, that's amazing. I was so sold and then I did it for one month. I was like this sucks, like sold, and then I like did it for one month. I was like this sucks and also there's no, there's no nutritional breakdown of it. So she's like this could be anything. There's no guarantee that I'm getting literally anything here. They could be just it's gonna be power juice and I don't know yeah but yeah, I was really sold on that fucking daily price.
Speaker 1:I felt really stupid. I'm wondering where does this this? Then I'll probably chase and take you, because I've been everywhere, I've done all the hobbies. And when do you like, when do you start bouncing around? What are the ones that you jumped to in teenager years?
Speaker 2:it's a great question. Younger years probably didn't really do that a lot, but when I I mean to be fair, I did go to four different colleges. Why well?
Speaker 1:quite simply because I didn't.
Speaker 2:I was like chasing ucas points like I was chasing I didn't. I was like chasing UCAS points Like I was chasing qualifications to get to university and so what I needed to do, the courses were all kind of in different places, so I was quite happy to go to all the different ones. So that was that. And then I think most recently, like in adult life, it's changing environment, so moving new places, and I love going out and exploring new places where we live. I don't like being in my house all the time. I like talking to new people. I think I just enjoy change.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I looked into this once because I love change, but then I can't stick to anything. So there's like a dark side to that as well for me. And I read once that the most dopamine you get from a thing is when you're first learning about it, and then it kind of tails off at a nice slope for most people, but if you have ADHD it like tails off, like you know. So it's a commentary with ADHD, which I have, where you prefer to start new things than to stick with things long term, if that makes sense, yeah, but I think it's common in everyone. Like the idea of learning a hell of a lot of new things all at once was very enticing, but moving around a lot. So you said you were born in London, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Where do you live now? North?
Speaker 2:Yorkshire and where was all the points in between? So we moved from London to Derbyshire. When I was a baby then we had several houses there in the same town. From there I went to university. That was back in London, love, hustle and bustle, so for me that was just like the only place I ever wanted to be. Then moved to back to Derbyshire, which is where my husband is from. Well, it would have been Nottinghamshire. We had about four different houses in Derbyshire, nottinghamshire. Then we moved down to Somerset and then we moved here how long do you think you have?
Speaker 2:Well, I have this idea in my head that the house that we live in is our forever home. In that I imagine you know. Like what do you call the film? Have you seen or heard of the film Father of the Bride?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:No, well, they have this one gorgeous family home that this daughter is brought up in. They always have these little nostalgic memories where dad and child are like playing basketball outside, right until she's a grown woman, getting married, having her own baby. But the family home is the constant thing, it's where all the memories are. So I have this dream really that this house is where our kids will bring their kids and that will be the constant and I love that and I think maybe it's because I don't feel like I've had that constant, even though it's my own doing. I think I do value kind of familiarity and like that nice tradition. But I would love to have several other properties in places that I would love to live, so New York and London yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when you moved back from London, was that when the when your first kid was born? Yes, yeah was there a sense of like responsibility there as well?
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh my God, yeah, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:It makes sense, it's like it's like the right thing to do and the thing that, like the child or the childish version of you, would love to have things that you know you need to stay in there and the responsible thing to do is to build that home that you want to have long term. I think that that reconciles nicely in my head at least. But in terms of your first kid and doing more of that kind of stuff, making sure that she has the healthy palate and stuff like that, how is that process like what? What else is going on in life at that time? Are you working or is just your husband working?
Speaker 2:So I was in my second year of university when I was pregnant with Ava and then I mean, it all worked out really beautifully because I had her in the July of my second year. So I was back in Derbyshire for essentially the summer holidays from university, so it worked out really well. But there was all this kind of internal dialogue of I'm not going to be able to do this, I'm not going to be able to study, I'm not going to be able to finish my degree, all of the rest of it. There was moments where we thought maybe we shouldn't have her so much going on. A lot of that was fueled by what would people think? What would be the right thing to do? Everybody would think that I was really irresponsible, even though we'd made this decision to have this child and we both were incredibly ready to have a child bear in mind when I went to college for four years so I was two years older than most people that were there this there was still that kind of fear of making the right decisions and can I actually do this? And it was all driven by what everybody else thought. Yeah, internally I absolutely knew I would figure it out. Yeah, but at that at that moment I just sort of thought well, everybody else's thoughts are more important. And that was kind of essentially how my 20s went. Most decisions were fueled by, or thoughts were fueled by, others rather than what I actually believed.
Speaker 2:Then third year came along and Ava would have been about two months and she ended up being the youngest child to ever be enrolled in a nursery. Amazing, and that was incredibly difficult. But I would commute every single day to London from Derbyshire to get there for nine o'clock in the morning and have to leave Ava for three, four days, sometimes overnight. That wasn't fun. And then when I finished university because I was very career driven I wanted to be a pop star.
Speaker 2:That was the thing that I was so set and focused on. So suddenly I'm at home with this baby thinking I'm gonna show people I'm still gonna do this thing. There was never an option for me to just be a stay-at-home mom not that there's anything wrong with that, but that just wasn't for me. What ended up happening was I ended up living the life of a stay-at-home mom and then having my own business in the evening, teaching people to sing. So I was actually doing both things, which is then ultimately how I ended up becoming quite overweight, because I was actually just exhausted and very miserable and very lonely.
Speaker 1:What did being a pop star? When did that happen? When did that become a thing that you were thinking about? Were you always a pop star? When did that happen? When did that become a thing that you were thinking about? Were you always a pop star or did it? Did it click in?
Speaker 2:yeah, always, from being very small I was, I mean, and I think most kids did this but like making up dance routines in my bedroom and like recording the radio and all of that stuff, it it was always something that I dreamed about. Yeah, cool.
Speaker 1:I love that Dylan. Dylan also like had a huge fascination with music and thing. I think his his main idea was like everyone says, this is impossible to make money from. Yeah, I bet I will, like I can yeah, and I was like yeah, but there's like a million easier ways to do it, and that comes with so many downsides. Was there a moment that you like reconciled the downsides of it, or was it taken from you? Does that make sense? So you say no, I'm still going to do this.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I'm still going to do this.
Speaker 1:Was there a moment where are you still going to do this? Oh yeah, I'm still going to do this. Was there a moment where are you still going to be a pop star is basically what I'm getting at. Is this the jump? I'd do that.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think I'm going to be a pop star.
Speaker 1:Would you turn it down if it was offered?
Speaker 2:No, that was a great question.
Speaker 1:Yeah, only one hit away.
Speaker 2:No, I would absolutely not turn it down. I think I think I hit a weak spot in my beliefs at that point because when I had Ava, you got like picture the scene right I'm in this two bedroom, two up, two down bedroom house with a baby in a car seat and I'm practicing my performance pieces and all I mean. Ava was an incredible little performer. She's even got a little YouTube channel because of what she was surrounded by all the time. So I was like always on a mission to to perform and to sing and all the rest of it.
Speaker 2:And then it got to a point where I was because we had a small child, mark had to stay at home with Ava whilst I went and out and sung in pubs and things like that.
Speaker 2:So I had no help and I'm lugging amps and speakers and all that stuff on my own to dark, dingy places in the back end of Leicester and all the rest of it, not coming home until maybe half past 12, getting paid peanuts, and every now and again there might be the odd person that's not propping up the bar and actually listening.
Speaker 2:And it was very, very challenging to I think, emotionally challenging to leave my little family unit to go and pursue this thing. That was not going to be a sure thing. I think if I'd have had people who were behind me sort of saying you can absolutely do this, I think probably I wouldn't have stopped it. But it was a lot more challenging than I anticipated. Challenging than I anticipated and the irony was that in my third year at university, we had a choice to either, as as part of your dissertation, to either compose three songs and perform them or write a thesis on teaching music, and I was like there is no way in hell I am going to teach anybody how to sing. And lo and behold, that was the thing that.
Speaker 1:I ended up doing for four years. What moment did that decision become clear to you?
Speaker 2:What I didn't want to do, or that was the thing I should do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when does that come to a point? Both things, I guess, Like I guess they happen around the same time.
Speaker 2:I'm going to be brutally honest. The reason why I never wanted to teach anybody how to sing is because I felt that there was a stigma around. The reason why people teach is because they they're not good enough to do it. Yeah, it felt like this sounds really, really egotistical, but it felt like by me saying I'm gonna be a teacher was me saying I'm not good enough to be the performer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I would actually sit in my my lessons with people and want to be the one singing the song. I didn't want to be the one teaching them how to hold the mic and you know all of the rest of it. So that was the reason why I never wanted to teach. But the reason why I never wanted to teach but the reason why I ended up doing it was because I was actually really good at it and it was actually a really great way for me to have a purpose, still do something in the field that I'd bust my arse to, to finish with a child and and be in that field and be able to be with Ava all day and work in the evening. It just felt like that was the best situation at the time.
Speaker 1:Okay, when does this start to change for you? So at this point, imagining you would have gained, busting your arse down multiple different things. But is it during the teaching that that becomes a problem for you, or was it happening the whole time, during the singing and the going to pubs and the late nights and stuff like that? Is there a turning point there, or is it just ongoing?
Speaker 2:The weight gain? Yeah, yeah. Is it just ongoing? The the weight gain? Yeah, yeah, it was ongoing. Yeah, because I never felt like I had a break. I always felt like I was on the go, looking after making myself look like the best housewife ever, and then, as soon as Mark would come through the door, I'd go off to work yeah so it was. It was just a constant. I'm on my own trying to spin plates. I just found that food just became the thing that we enjoyed and did. It was a sport, if anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your brain would have thought you were out of war as well, just feeling stressed and things going on.
Speaker 2:It would have been like Rosalind we need to eat way more.
Speaker 1:We're about to be in battle and I'm trying to figure out. Then, when does this, when does this change? When do you like? Is there a person you met, or was there a moment in life where you were like, okay, just has to stop?
Speaker 2:after we moved. So the reason why I stopped the singing teaching was because we moved house and so all my clients out obviously were no longer there and I didn't. I never had a passion for it because it was never anything I wanted to do. So it was quite easy to give that up. But what I realized was I needed to do something. I wanted to do something and I didn't want to have a boss. I wanted to be my own boss. So I had lots of other jobs, businesses that I'd created along the way, so trying to be a makeup artist, I had a little cat nanny business, I did a little cleaning business.
Speaker 2:Like I've done all these things and I think somewhere in the back of my mind, health was always you know, when it's like innately what you're interested in, it never really leaves you. I think it was always kind of in the back of my mind and then, alongside just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and trying all these new shiny ways to to fix it, I think I think genuinely there was just a moment where I just thought enough was enough. I remember being pretty heavy, like I would stand on the scales. I was never one of these people that would avoid scales or avoid the mirror. I just did my very, very best to cover up what I looked like.
Speaker 2:So I just remember just standing on the scales one day and thinking this cannot continue. There has to be a way. And this wasn't even the thing. It wasn't even me thinking I can't get any bigger, it was more. There has to be a way. And this wasn't even the thing. It wasn't even me thinking I can't get any bigger, it was more. There has to be a way that I can lose this weight enjoyably and still be able to go to the pub on a Saturday with the kids and have a, you know, a chips, gammon and egg, whatever the thing was at the time that we used to like, eat normal food with my kids and show them that dieting is not the thing that mums do. And that's when I just kind of thought right, I want to learn how I can make that happen.
Speaker 1:What does the first step of that look like for you?
Speaker 2:Well, because I'd spent a long time researching like the ways that weren't the right thing to do. So all the fad diets and famous people's meal plans and all the rest of it. I knew what not to do. So I knew and that was I was really grateful for having all of that like preliminary research and I wanted to know fact, like I wanted the science. So the first thing that I did was enrolled in a second degree in nutritional therapy, which was online aced all of my assignments like super aced, them all. It was very, very, very rewarding. But I wouldn't. If I was gonna, if I was gonna, feed my body, I wanted it to be with stuff that I knew was gonna be the right stuff. I didn't want to spend any more money on stupid protein shakes and all the rest of it so then, am I right in saying you haven't been coached yourself?
Speaker 2:you would have went right to the driver's seat yeah, I hadn't been coached, and I think that that is the thing that gave me a lot of limiting beliefs is that I was basically self-teaching myself on how to do to do everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, I mean everyone does, you know chicken or egg, I'm not really sure who came first to coach or the person who self-taught them, so you know, um, but have you spoken to other coaches? And kind of just like, uh, I mean, we're in the same position, myself and Dylan, like we haven't run a coaching business, obviously. So there came a point a few years in where we were like are we just making shit up, like is this right? So we like done a mentorship with some agency mastermind who is just stupidly rich or whatever, or stupidly successful, and we're just like, yeah, this is just all of our shit in different languages, like in different, more cringe language, I would say like much more business person vibes.
Speaker 1:You know like people. Second, although they would never admit that, you know what I mean. So did it come to a point where we had to like kind of figure that out? Are you still going through that, or did you find a way of putting those doubts to rest?
Speaker 2:I now know from all of the proof of how many of amazing transformations we've had and how many women's lives have been changed, that what we do is really flipping good and actually, like I've been a little bit naughty, because in the time that I've been a coach, I've hired coaches not for the benefit of myself but to do a bit of research, you know, a bit market research, just to see what people are doing, and I can quite safely say that what we, what we offer, is above and beyond yeah, I can also tell you it's idiots all the way up, and that's not in coaching, that's in everything.
Speaker 1:I think there's this idea I had for a long time anyways, that eventually I will meet the adults and that all the people pretending to be adults are going to look very foolish to me.
Speaker 2:I I love that.
Speaker 1:I've met very wealthy, very successful people and they're still I don't want to say idiots I'm playing into an idea there but they're no more competent and no more disciplined or intelligent in any way. It's just when they do something wrong, they fix it, and they have 10 years of experience of doing that. They fix a problem, which creates a new problem every single time, and then they fix that problem and that creates a new problem and all of a sudden they're changing things that no longer affect the clients and they're just in a good place. So, yeah, limited beliefs are good. They're not they're not often fun, but Limit beliefs are good. They're not often fun, but the people who seem to have really successful businesses in my experience, they haven't shook that and that kind of keeps them adherent to improving things over time, which is the key, to be honest.
Speaker 1:Like I mean, just yesterday we were speaking with Karen about changes he wants to make that he's really passionate about and that we're like that's going to be a lot of work for us. He's like, yeah, please do it. And we're like, okay, cool, because the more people care, the better. Like he's already really really successful in my mind, but he's still as focused on improving things as anyone else I've ever met. So, yeah, I think it is all the way up. I would never stop believing that, but I still have admiration for people who are doing things the way I think is the right way. But yeah, I actually I don't think it's a bad thing to hire a bunch of coaches either. Like, I think that shows a maturity around it, even though it can feel a little bit childish.
Speaker 1:It's more of a maturity around it in my opinion yeah I guess you can repackage that either way, depending upon the mindset around the ball.
Speaker 2:To me that sounds like the right thing to do, to be honest yeah, and I also I also think as well, like in in any other industry, how do you know that your product is great if you don't go and eat in a right, if you're, if you sell burgers, and you don't go and try out McDonald's burgers to make sure to see what they're doing differently? I think that's actually quite foolish.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it would be very silly, right? It makes complete sense to me. What do you want? What do you want to have happen from this brand or from creating content or from running a business? Is there a goal you have in mind?
Speaker 2:Big picture or from running a business. Is there a, is there a goal you have in mind? Big picture? I want feed my health to be known as a brand that helps families predominantly, starting with the woman, because I feel like the woman is the, the driver in family realize that health is the most important thing and that it actually doesn't need to be as difficult as people think that it should be. So I want it to be like the go-to for sustainable health and vitality is there anything about your industry that you think needs to change?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think that we need to focus more on sustainability and doing things because we want to wake up every morning and love our lives, versus we only focus on health for a short amount of time in the year to get a quick win, and everything that we're doing is so unsustainable because we want a quick win, that we we don't do it long term. And so what I see a lot is people selling quick fix stuff because it's attractive and it's appealing and that's what everybody thinks that they want, and I think yeah, I essentially think that we need to be focusing more so on long-term health in a sustainable way.
Speaker 1:Is there anything that you feel that you're seeing that other people are not seeing, so something that's just unique to you? I mean, sometimes I feel a little bit like chicken and metal about sales calls and about the way that people think about sales calls or marketing. I think a lot of people think about marketing as this like Jedi mind trick, where you're tricking people in and it's like no, you're just talking about trick. Where you're tricking people in and it's like no, like you're just talking about the thing you're doing and it should be good so that people want it, whereas like there's this Wolf of Wall Street hand waving thing where it's like I'm gonna do the most sexy line ever and it's gonna work and everyone's gonna be like tricked. As soon as we get into tricking people in sales America, we're fucked, you know, I mean, that's my opinion anyways, and yeah, I think people sell books by making it sound way more sexy and piss me off. Is there anything that you feel a little bit like chicken selling?
Speaker 2:shred, shredding and cutting and stuff like that. I think maybe when I was 20, I would have bought into that in 20, I would have bought into that. In fact, I definitely would have bought into that. So that works really well. The challenge that I have is that women in their 30s and 40s are being sold that as well, and I just think that's not really what people want.
Speaker 1:That makes complete sense. What made you feel like you needed to act on that? When was the moment where you were like I need to help other people do this as well?
Speaker 2:When I realized how simple it was. Yeah, and actually, like, one of the biggest questions I get is am I going to have to eat differently from my family? Yeah, and this was the whole point of me creating my business was, you know, we were a family of five. There is no way I was going to be cooking five different meals for five different people.
Speaker 1:Did you feel angry when you realised how simple it was, that people had overcomplicated it? Or did you feel inspired that, oh my God, this is so simple. I can help other people do it?
Speaker 2:I probably felt angry with all the money that I spent on stupid stuff that is great marketing and I had the wall pulled over my eyes because I would like to say that I can see. I think now it's made me more skeptical of marketing. If I'm honest, I, like you, try and read through it between their minds. But honestly, it was more driven by an excitement of, oh my god, like if I can do this with three young children, literally anybody can what do people say offhand that you might not even recognize about yourself just often?
Speaker 1:and it's not like um, you have any pretty eyes or you can sing really well. It's like oh, wasn't the way you said, this made me feel reassured. Or you're funny. Like funny isn't might be one, but is there anything that people commonly say to you?
Speaker 2:yeah, motivating, and that I make people feel that they, that it's possible for them.
Speaker 1:Last question I have for you If someone hears your name right now, what do they think of?
Speaker 2:Somebody that's very organised.
Speaker 1:I couldn't be further from the truth. For me, in fact, probably someone, that's very disorganised.