Why is Pilates Good For You?
What is Pilates good for? Pilates is a core strengthening exercise programme. However, there is more to Pilates than just abs exercises. Your core is a group of muscles that wrap around your torso like an old-style corset. However it is often better to think of your...
3 ways to improve your Downward Dog
Downward Dog is one of my favorite poses in yoga. Mainly because it is so versatile. It is a deep stretch up the backline of the body and can also be used to strengthen to your upper body. It can be performed during the warmup part of your yoga practice as well as a...
Is it time to take your menopause seriously?
The menopause is a phase, and that phase has many phases within. Some you will breeze through barely noticing and others will feel like walking thru mud with wellies on. The truth is we are all busy women, and we often don’t have a lot of time for looking after...
Why is it so hard to lose weight over 40?
Once upon a time, you were able to skip lunch for a few days and easily fit into your Friday night dress. Why is it so hard now? Well, a lot has probably changed since then. You may have more responsibilities now. If you think back then, it was probably quite a...
3 Ways to Improve Low Back Stiffness
Low back stiffness can occur for many reasons, but it is often because we spend so much time sitting. If you are a desk junkie, here are three ways to improve stiffness in your lower back. These movements can be performed a couple of times throughout the day, perhaps...
51 Tips for a Healthy Happy Menopause
Menopause Tips Why 51 Tips? There are 51 menopause tips as 51 is the average age of the menopause! The menopause happens to every women, we don’t know when exactly, but it’s usually when you are too young and too busy to deal with it! The menopause is more...
How to Keep a Food Diary in your Menopausal Years
You’re a busy lady, me too, it’s easy to keep a tally in our heads of what and how we have been eating. However, if the pounds are sneaking on and not coming off taking the time to keep a food diary is one of the simplest and cheapest methods to help you lose weight....
How To Practice Self-care With Work Deadlines
Is your self-care to do list stressing you out? I set myself a deadline for complete the paperwork for my Yoga Teacher Training. It was more work than I thought and instead of extending the deadline, I worked harder, to the point where I stopped regular self-care...
End Of Year Reflections
This blog started as a quarterly, then as birthday musings and finally an end of year blog. This perfectly sums up the last 6 months for me. It has been a funny old year; it has not been a bad one. The last 6 month in particular since the August eclipse have had such...
My Favourite Books in 2017
I love reading; it is one of my favourite pastimes along with learning! Below is a list of the favourite books that I read in 2017. They are in no particular order and a mix of fiction and non-fiction. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth...
Preparing for Yoga Teaching Training
My Yoga Teacher Training course is coming up soon. I have never been on a Yoga course but I have attended many fitness courses, so I have a decade’s worth of experience to draw on. And I do love planning and getting organised! Let’s start with the practicalities of...
Never Say Never
In the last decade of teaching Pilates I have always said that I would never teach Yoga. So, you won’t be surprised from the title when I say I have booked into a Hatha yoga course! Why now? I have been researching ageing well for the last year and discovered the...
Menopause meh
Menopause Meh Meh is a menopause symptom that is not often talked about. It would not be classed depression but a lack of oomph and love of life. It is not as high profile as hot flushes and there is limited research into it, but it still a challenging menopausal...
Practice Makes Perfect?
Practice Makes Perfect? Practice only makes perfect if you are practicing perfectly! Pilates classes are one of the few exercise environments outside Personal Training where you will be personally corrected if your alignment is off or you are performing the exercise...
Eat What Makes You Happy!
This is not a message that you often get from the fitness industry but enjoying your food is a big part of eating well for life! I am assuming that if you are reading this, you interested in being healthy and that includes what you are eating. You do not sit around...
Young at Heart
Want to know how young your heart is? Public Health England has created an online calculator to work out what your heart age is compared to your actual age. You can take the quiz here. It asks for your blood pressure and cholesterol levels. If you do not know them,...
Lunch Hour?
When I started working over 25 years ago, (eek) a lunch hour was not only an hour, but was respected by team members. No one interrupted you unless it was a real emergency. Fast forward to today and lunch hours are quite different. It is not often an hour....
Grit
Grit I have been reading Grit by Angela Duckworth. Working in the fitness industry for over a decade has made me curious about why some people give up and why some people show up day in and day out. The book is not fitness specific, and discusses grit or resilience...
Perfect Posture
Everyday life has a big impact on our posture. One of the simplest daily self-care habits you can develop is an awareness of your posture doing different tasks throughout the day. When you are standing waiting in a queue. When you are working. When you on using your...
Daily Self-care Habits
If you are looking for some inspiration for daily self-care habits for Wise Women here is a wee list! As we get older, looking after ourselves can feel like a full time job. However simple, quick daily habits can take us a long way in helping to maintain a healthy...
When You HAVE To Change
Change has been on my mind as it has popped up a few times for me recently where I have had to change because of circumstances out with my control. I think it worth looking at how you react around change as it gives us a good heads up around the changes the menopause...
Carbs And The Menopause
Carbs And The Menopause You can become more sensitive to carbs in your menopausal years. Combined with a sensitivity to stress and it easily leads to an expending waistline which is hard to reduce. ‘Eat less, exercise more’ no longer works and often has the opposite...
Quarterly May 2017
Last quarter was all about learning with three mini courses. This quarter is all about letting that information percolate and sink in. I have also been working on, online course structure and wrote about that here You may have read on my previous blogs about...
Unhurried
Unhurried Unhurried is a word my Yoga teacher uses which sums up where I’m trying to get to just now! I am at the tail end of a summer cold. I can’t remember the last time I had one, but it has been fairly stubborn and lot’s of rest has been required...
Self-care As A Business Metric
Whether you are an entrepreneur or an employee, on a regular basis you will review your work performance. These tend to be business metrics, which does not tell the full picture of how the way you are working affects your health and wellbeing. In order to meet your...
Healthy Eating In Hotels
Healthy Eating In Hotels I was away for five days on a Pilates course. Which meant staying in a hotel and eating out for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Fab you may think, but my everyday food choices at home were not available so it was time to research beforehand and...
Exercising For Health And Ageing Well
Most of us have grown up with the ‘no pain no gain’ mantra and exercising as only a means to manage our weight and to burn calories. As we get older, our thoughts turn to our health and ageing well. Exercise can play a big part in this but it means changing exercise...
What Makes A Healthy Meal?
What makes a healthy meal is not what I want to talk about. However, what makes a healthy meal for you is! There is so much information available to us these days, but it does not seem to help us to be any healthier. Most menopausal women struggle with both their...
