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Far 2 Fabulous
Join Catherine & Julie, your feisty hosts at Far 2 Fabulous, as they lead you on a wellness revolution to embrace your fabulousness.
Julie, a Registered Nutritional Therapist with over 20 years of expertise, and Catherine, a former nurse turned Pilates Instructor and Vitality Coach, blend wisdom and laughter seamlessly.
Off the air, catch them harmonising in their local choir and dancing to 80's hits in superhero attire. Catherine braves the sea for year-round swims, while Julie flips and tumbles in ongoing gymnastics escapades.
With a shared passion for women's health and well-being, they bring you an engaging exploration of health, life, and laughter. Join us on this adventure toward a more fabulous and empowered you!
Far 2 Fabulous
From Anxiety to Serenity: A Journey through Mental Health
Episode 19
Julie and Catherine, get candid about their mental health odysseys, and it's all in honor of Mental Health Awareness Week. As we swap tales, Catherine reveals her skirmish with anxiety, the beacon of hope medications offered, and how acupuncture, reflexology, and even the invigorating shock of cold water therapy have been cornerstones in her arsenal for mental serenity. Julie, on the other hand, provides an intriguing contrast, with her genetic predisposition to anxiety and depression. She offers insight into the unintentional yet proactive measures she's taken that fortify her neurotransmitter pathways, a testament to the subtle power of genetics in our mental health landscape.
This heart-to-heart conversation also serves up a feast of thought on how our diets directly influence our mental wellbeing — a 12-week study proving as our prime exhibit. Waking up to mornings that nurture the mind is another treasure trove we uncover, with practical nuggets like savoring the day's first coffee and the mindful avoidance of digital pitfalls. As we share our personal morning rituals, we highlight the importance of movement, meditation, and even a splash of matcha, underscoring the profound impact these have on setting the stage for a resilient day ahead. Our chorus of experiences converge on the notion that it's the simple, daily choices we make, like joining a choir, that echo loudly in the halls of our mental health. Join us as we navigate these pathways and perhaps, find your own stride in this symphony of mental wellness.
Here is the link to the food and mood study mentioned (it's actually called the Smiles trial).
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For more information about Julie Clark Nutrition, click HERE
For more information about Catherine Chapman, click HERE
We look forward to you joining us on the next episode.
Welcome to Far Too Fabulous hosted by Julie and Catherine.
Speaker 2:Join us on a mission to embrace your fabulousness and redefine wellness. Get ready for some feistiness, inspiration, candy chats and humour as we journey together towards empowered well-being.
Speaker 1:Let's dive in. Hello and welcome to this week's fabulous episode of our Utterly Fabulous podcast.
Speaker 2:Could you say fabulous one more time please?
Speaker 1:I was just feeling fabulous, so I decided to put it in a few times amazing.
Speaker 2:Well, that's hopefully what we're going to leave you with today. It's mental health awareness week, and so we thought that this episode, we would have a look at our own mental health journeys and what we do on a day-to-day basis to keep us mentally healthy, yes, resilient, mentally resilient yeah, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:So if you've listened to our very first episode, which is actually the most listened to episode of all of them, so do go back and listen to it. I spoke about my dance with anxiety. I was acutely anxious about eight years ago now and I was eventually very proactive about it. In the depths of it. I had talking therapy. I took medication, which I know for some people is something they like to avoid, but for me it really gave me the chance to see the wood for the trees. And then I looked at things like acupuncture, reflexology and all sorts of other amazing therapies, and it will be no surprise to you that the thing that kept me the sanest if that's the word was movement is movement. When I was in the depth of anxiety, when I was doing like teaching a class, for instance, or running, that was when my head felt the clearest, I felt the least anxious, and the consistency of that movement still to this day is what keeps me together.
Speaker 1:Quite frankly, yeah, I think there's so much research now and studies that it's very obvious that movement helps our brains and our mental health. Of course, there's lots of other benefits to move in your body.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely the other things that I used then and I use regularly now is cold water therapy. I remember and again I think I've spoken, I spoke about this on the cold water therapy. I remember and again I think I've spoken, I spoke about this on the cold water therapy episode that I'd seen that Dr Chatterjee had taken a lady that had been on antidepressants for a very long time and they'd started this cold water therapy and I was blown away by the response and it took actually it took many, many years from watching that episode for me to actually get into the sea, but now that is part of my almost daily routine either to get into the sea or to get into my ice pod that I've got in the garden, or to just use a cold shower as part of my cold water therapy yeah, it's another one again that's got lots of research and studies behind it now.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, moving and cold water immersion very, very significant for keeping you balanced, I guess absolutely surprise us, julie, with what you think's good for mental health.
Speaker 1:Well, I was saying to you that when I ran my genetics, there's a there's a report. The company that I use runs several reports and one of the ones is the nervous system and it looks at the pathways for how you produce and metabolize your serotonin, your dopamine, your GABA. These are all neurotransmitters and my pathways are not very good. I have a lot of genetic variants on those pathways but I've never and I'm I'm very grateful this, but I've never had any anxiety that I can think of in my life. The only time that I've ever felt, I guess, not anxious but more nervous, would have been when I was competing. I always used to get nervous before competing, but never anxiety, and I've never had low mood. I've never been depressed at all.
Speaker 1:And when I look at the, when I look at my genetics and I see the, the things that I can do to help those pathways work better, I realized that I was doing them without knowing that and it's things like exercise comes up, getting out in the fresh air, like vitamin d, certain nutrients really, really help, and of course, I've got to mention diet overall anyway, because, again, like movement and like cold water immersion. There's a lot of studies looking at this and there was one particular amazing study, which I think is called the food and mood study. I'm going to have to find the link and put it in the show notes because it was so amazing. But they basically managed to prove that they could put people with severe mental issues in remission by following a healthy diet for 12 weeks. And that's amazing, isn't it?
Speaker 2:incredible, isn't it? And it's exciting and it's empowering as well. And then I do appreciate when you're in the depth of anxiety and depression and somebody says it's all right, you're gonna, we're gonna eat to you. Well in the next 12 weeks. You want to poke somebody's eyes out. I absolutely appreciate that. Yeah. However, the being able to do that yourself is is empowering and it's very exciting yeah, and it wasn't a really tough diet to do or anything.
Speaker 1:It was everyday foods. It was a higher intake of vegetables. It was switching to whole grains. Refined sugars were very low, but they weren't completely excluded. Omega-3s were high, but again it it wasn't a difficult diet. In fact, when I looked at the study, I thought that is doable for most people. Yeah, that's what I was thinking as you were saying that yeah, yeah, amazing. So I'll definitely find that study and put it in the in the show notes, because it was amazing and really makes you think about that. I think, especially if you're looking at, uh, children I know I often bring this back to children, but I do work a lot with children and a lot of you've got children that are having some issues is the diet is really key. It's so key and a lot of children are on a very high sugar diet, which is impacting their gut microbiome, which we come back to again. There's a huge link there, because that is where your serotonin is actually made and it's a vicious cycle, isn't it?
Speaker 1:between that, between that sugary start you're often to the day, and maybe their behavior, and then how people react and behave around them, and it just goes round and round in circles, yeah exactly, and I think if you, if you are suffering from depression and you've got no motivation, it's very hard to get out and move and it's very hard to make healthy food, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah, but knowing that the benefits are on the other side, there you could definitely start with a cold shower, right?
Speaker 2:yeah, absolutely. And I know and I and again I'm going to tell you and I said this in the cold water therapy episode I don't turn that shower onto cold and go oh yay, I'm gonna get in that cold shower. I don't relish very often I don't relish getting in that cold pod. However, I do it and I know that the other side of it I'm going to feel amazing yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And with the cold shower I'm sure we've mentioned this before is that you start off by having your normal warm shower and then you turn it down to cold and you just get your mind, your mind, ready. You do a few deep breaths that's what I do anyway and then you do the okie-dokie dance, don't you? So that you're not plunging yourself in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, make a little love, and then you jiggle into the shower. Yeah, or I put my I have my choir songs on this morning and I was trying to sing to those which are actually because it takes your breath away. I wasn't doing very well, but you know, it gives you something else to think about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, the cold water is a key one, but I think if you are someone that is suffering from depression in particular, and that motivation is really missing, it's getting some help from other people that can. That can support you, maybe make your meals for you or get you up and out. An accountability buddy always works, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:yeah, absolutely. That's exactly what I was thinking is get some, get some help with yeah with the food prep. Get some help or some help with yeah, with the food prep. Get some help or some accountability with somebody and say, oh, did you have your cold shower today? No, come on, let's do it that sort of thing. Same with movement If you need somebody either to move with, so this will bring us on to really good.
Speaker 2:On to community, because that is a huge, huge part. Community, because that is a huge, huge part of was a huge part of my recovery is having that community around me. My family were instrumental in me being able to recover fully from anxiety. That said, I wasn't very vocal at the time about how I was feeling and I think that that would have helped me so much more. I hid it from anybody that was outside my close family circle, like a like a dirty secret really, and I and I feel like maybe times have changed even in that, even in that short sort of seven or eight years, I feel like it's started to open up again and maybe I do it differently if it ever happened again. But shining a light on that, telling people how you feel, and then often people say yeah, that's how I feel too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, I think being able to be open about it is definitely easier now and it's an important thing to do. One of the things that I've always done, with my kind of I guess my mental health in mind, is how I start my day. This is such an important one for me and I know it's important for you. I do not get straight out of bed and go into the crazy busy routine of things. I always do my meditation first. That's the first thing I do when I wake up. Actually, I drink my water. My water's there. I drink my water and then I do my meditation. It's not very long, it's seven minutes. With um jay shetty, I do j meditation. It's not very long, it's seven minutes with Jay Shetty.
Speaker 1:I do Jay Shetty's meditation every single morning. It's really unusual for me to not do that, and so that's one of the key things for me is how I start my morning. I don't end my day by looking at my phone, as you know. I've spoken about that as well. I'm very precious about my sleep, as most of you now know. But, yeah, I don't listen to the news or look at my phone first thing or do any of those things. I have everything switched off, but I just do my meditation.
Speaker 2:What do you do in the morning? I know you have a routine too, don't you?
Speaker 2:Yes, so in the morning I often start it running after the children, since, talking to Julie, I don't start it with a coffee. I go downstairs and whilst my coffee is brewing, I make myself a hot water with a couple of drops of lemon essence Very nice, and I make sure that I drink that first. I am always then up for at least half an hour before I have my first cup of coffee and often then the kids have gone because they they get up, run around like lunatics for about half an hour and then they're all out of the door. Yeah, so I can actually savor that cup of coffee and just sit quietly and just really, really enjoy it. We were talking just now to a friend of ours about getting our eyeballs out into the sunshine, yeah, and really waking ourselves up, and she she said, to get your um, look at the, not literally look at the sun, but look at the.
Speaker 2:Definitely don't pick up a screen. My phone is charging down in my office so I don't have that next to my bed. I literally can't be trusted. I know that I can't be trusted if I plug it in. So if one of the children's out on a sleepover or something I often have my, I bring my phone next to me and if it's the weekend often, and I start scrolling whilst I'm laying in bed, hours can disappear. I cannot be trusted. I can't trust myself. I know that there are all sorts of research and money and all sorts of stuff that goes into keeping me on that and it works very, very well.
Speaker 1:It's so addictive. That's the thing, isn't it? It's so addictive, but when? When you have got to have your phone by you at night if you've got children out and about. I understand that I have mine set to no notifications it's on sleep mode, but that the numbers for the children and my husband, because he works in the evenings as a dj, so if he needs to call me my phone will ring. Yes, then, so you can do those settings, can't you?
Speaker 2:yeah, no, that's a really good idea. Yeah, so you don't have all the social media notifications and all that sort of stuff pinging, you just have it as a as a normal phone exactly, and the screen is black and white on my phone when I turn sleep mode on, and so it's not even.
Speaker 1:It's really weird how unappealing it is when you haven't got the colors there.
Speaker 2:That's really interesting yeah yeah, well, that's it. Yeah, it's a good, that's a really good tip. And whilst we're talking about phones and social media and stuff, that is such a huge thing to be aware of that, looking at everybody displaying their their best selves and being aware that that is not reality. And I feel very sorry for our children that are now growing up looking all these pictures of perfection and thinking that that's what they should be aspiring to that that's normal.
Speaker 1:I like the saying don't compare your insides to other people's outsides, which is what social media is, isn't it? It's just all the outside stuff. You have no idea what's going on in those people's lives. You don't know what's going on in the background of that that picture, what filters they've put on, and yet there we are comparing ourselves to that. So yeah, don't compare your insides to someone else's outsides. I love that.
Speaker 2:I'm going to remember that as long as I can, yes, so the rest of my routine and I will I often try and put these I habit stack. These is is movement, is meditation and is immersion. I added another one. I added the matcha onto it so that, nice, that's part of my, my m's, that that I try and that I habit stack daily and these probably, for listeners, feel like we're bordering into sort of all this, all the health stuff that we normally talk about, but I think that self-care is a huge part of the resilience and making sure that your mental wellness is as good as possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, self-care is huge and I think we might have to do an episode on self-care, because people get confused about what. Self-care is huge and I think we might have to do an episode on self-care, because people get confused about what self-care actually is, and it's not just taking yourself off to the spa for the day, although that would be nice, that would be nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've done that for a while. That would. Anybody wants to gift us a spa day?
Speaker 1:we'd like to do that please it's very much like to do that. Check out your spa and report back. That would be lovely. Yeah, so self-care is is such a such an important one. So, yeah, I'm just trying to think other other things I do because they're so automatic I don't always necessarily realize that they're that I'm doing them for my mental health, because they're just things that I do, because they're part of my identity. Yeah, so the exercise just happens because I enjoy it. For a start, that's an important one is finding something you truly enjoy. I know one that we do. It's a singing, isn't it singing? It's choir. We do enjoy it and we do go every friday lunchtime and sometimes I've got so much to do. It would be so easy not to go and I come back from there and then I still got some work to finish off, but I just I don't miss it.
Speaker 2:I think it's a non-negotiable non-negotiable is exactly what I was thinking. And then you come back and you are far more efficient.
Speaker 1:This is true, yeah, absolutely so. Yeah, we sing because it's something we enjoy.
Speaker 2:We know it's beneficial for many reasons the social aspect the connection, everything, few times that I've thought about this and we are going to talk about this in more detail in an episode upcoming. But respecting your boundaries, stating what they are and respecting them, is huge for yourself, for your self-preservation yeah, and it's, and it's easily overlooked, isn't?
Speaker 2:it you know, especially when you are in the busyness of being busy, you just don't realise that you need to say no to things and you don't and just accept it and absolutely it's a huge one, especially when, if you're in the depths of depression or anxiety and you possibly think that you're, you know, one of the worst people in the world, to then be able to think about putting yourself first and creating those boundaries and then upholding them. I I mean, I appreciate it's a really really hard task, but again, part of the recovery. Maybe it's a bit further down the line, but it's a. For me it's something that I am aware of and I work on daily yeah.
Speaker 1:The other thing, of course, that we've we've not mentioned so far is the breath work. Oh yeah, because that is so key to allowing your body to be in that parasympathetic nervous system, and when we are anxious, we're in the sympathetic nervous system and we want to switch out of that. So breathing using things like eft you know I love EFT can help that. The singing does the same, because we're looking at the vagus nerve. Go back to that episode. That was brilliant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right, yeah, breath work, eft, bringing yourself do, and you get to actually physically do things to bring yourself into that parasympathetic. I nearly have to put my teeth back in, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it is something that anyone could do. Yeah, the breath work you could do anytime, anywhere, and even if you are really, really struggling, you could still do. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think even that's probably easier than doing meditation, because often with meditation, if it's not a guided one, you are essentially doing nothing. And that's quite hard because I know with the anxiety it just felt like something was just whirring all of the time and very, very difficult to switch off, Whereas with you're doing the breath work or if you're doing EFT, you're actually doing something, you're occupying your mind, so you don't get a chance to sort of disappear into that vortex of thought.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I think when we're looking at the key, I think the key actions you can take to support your mental health, I've got to talk about nutrition, because you need certain nutrients to make everything work. Your gut is important, so if I have someone come to see me who's got anxiety or depression or anything else going on with that mental health spectrum, then I usually will run that genetics report to see what's going on the gut. I always will do the stool test and look at what levels of nutrients they've got, because if they've got low zinc, for example, and high copper, that's an issue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that's absolutely huge, is the yeah, the gut and how that's working for you and it is. It's just making sure that these things are working for you and letting go of any blame from before that maybe you you haven't looked, you feel like you haven't looked after yourself, drawing a line under that and being able to reframe it. That's a big, big, big thing. And then sort of stepping forward into into new ways, creating these new healthy habits, having a community around you that encourages and supports that, because often when you're feeling low, perhaps you'll find people that feel the same as you and perhaps that's not very helpful. Perhaps you need people around you that can support you and start to to to raise you up so that community is really, really important and just setting those daily habits that will support you yeah.
Speaker 1:So we're doing these, these things that we said every day. They're automatic, we don't really have to think about it, but we know that that they're having an impact on things like our mental health. But if you are struggling, then the first thing to do is to ask for help, tell someone about it.
Speaker 2:It yeah, yeah, speak about it, it's. I mean, it's simple for us to say, and I know that it's not simple to do, but please, that is your first step to speak about it. Say it out loud, Shine a light on it, because the longer it sits in that dark place rotting away, the more power it has over you.
Speaker 1:Yeah absolutely, absolutely. I think that's a good place to finish. Go back to your pillars. Like we've said, all of these things are key, but your first I think your first step is to speak about and get help absolutely.
Speaker 2:If you want to continue this conversation with us in our facebook group, please do. We would love to carry on talking to you there and if there is any support that you need, reach out and maybe we can signpost you in the direction as well. But if these things are affecting you, just know that we are sending you huge, huge, huge amounts of love, that you are super, super special and um and you're worthy of looking after yourself and loving yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very well said, Catherine. We'll see you on the next episode. Bye-bye.
Speaker 2:Thank you for keeping us company today. If you enjoyed the podcast, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. Your support helps us on our mission to reach 1,000 women in our first year, so share with your friends and family. You might just change a life.
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