In the eighteenth episode of season three of the Her Spirit podcast BBC Breakfast Louise Minchin and BBC Triathlon presenter Annie Emmerson talk to Professional Triathlete Lucy Charles-Barclay.

A former competitive swimmer, Great Britain's Lucy Charles-Barclay made the switch to Ironman triathlons and is now a regular contender for top titles.

In 2014, Lucy Charles-Barclay decided to enter a triathlon after a 10 year competitive swimming career that included an Olympic Trials final for Great Britain. Never mind that she had no triathlon experience and had to actually learn how to ride a bike, Lucy threw herself in at the deep end of the toughest triathlon discipline of all – Ironman – and amazed by finishing Ironman UK.

Her talent shone instantly in Ironman and it took Lucy less than a year to become an a double world champion in the Female 18–24 age group, winning both the Ironman and 70.3 titles in 2015.

After turning pro in 2016, again it took her just one year to achieve her first professional victory. She won the 2017 edition of Ironman Lanzarote by demolishing the field in a course record time.

Now the British phenomenon has achieved several podium finishes and it seems just a matter of time before she claims her first full Ironman World Championship title.

Lucy only learned to ride a bike in 2014 and almost ended up doing her first Ironman on a mountain bike!  It's a brilliant insight and conversation with Annie and Louise into her life as professional triathlete and how she has overcome many challenges over the last ten years. 

Her Spirit believes in inspiring EVERY woman to become fitter, stronger and healthier. We believe your Mind, Body and Fuel are intrinsically linked and taking small achievable steps will lead to big changes.

Her Spirit http://www.herspirit.co.uk supports women of all shapes to sizes to achieve goals you never thought possible and have your #BestYearYet.

These podcasts have been made possible through the support of Boots. Boots believes everyone has the right to feel good it which is why they offer a huge wellness range to help you look after yourself, from the inside out.

So from brands like FitBit, Aromatherapy Associates and Vital Proteins to LoveHoney, The Gut Stuff and Headspace, Boots has something to help you stay on top of your health, all year round.

Shop Boots’ wellness range in selected stores, at boots.com or via the Boots app.

At Her Spirit, we’re building a FREE global community designed exclusively for women’s activity.

Join us to connect with like-minded women, discover events, and find local groups that inspire you to move more.

✨ Find your tribe. Achieve your goals. Thrive together.

👉 Join the movement at https://www.herspirit.co.uk/

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In the seventeenth episode of season three of the Her Spirit podcast BBC Breakfast Louise Minchin and BBC Triathlon presenter Annie Emmerson talk to The Sleep Scientist, Dr Sophie Bostock.

The Sleep Scientist was launched by Dr Sophie Bostock with the aim of helping more people to sleep well, and thrive. Sophie is a scientist and speaker with a bias for action. 

Sophie has always been intrigued by why what makes us feel good and function well. She studied medicine at Nottingham University, followed by an MSc in Entrepreneurship. After several years in consulting, she completed a PhD in Health Psychology at University College London (UCL), investigating why happiness protects against heart disease, and how to improve wellbeing at work.

Sophie's research pointed to sleep an unsung hero of mental and physical resilience. She spent the next 5 years working on Sleepio, Big Health's award-winning digital sleep improvement programme, first as a research scientist, then UK Innovation Lead. She has published research in collaboration with the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute in Oxford, and international researchers, demonstrating the impacts of better sleep on mental health and performance.  

Sophie became a passionate advocate for the importance of sleep, and evidence-based therapy. Sophie was awarded an NHS Innovation Accelerator Fellowship in 2016, and helped to make Sleepio available on the NHS to a fifth of the UK population. Sophie has been invited to deliver talks for Tedx and Talks@Google, and regularly features as a sleep expert in national media.

When not sleeping, eating, rowing, climbing, swimming or windsurfing, she provides keynote conference talks, consultancy and coaching for teams and individuals interested in improving their sleep patterns to boost wellbeing and performance.

On 13th June, Sophie will be setting off with 11 other intrepid rowers on board Roxy, a brand new ocean rowing vessel, which almost has... well.. almost enough room for all of them to sleep on. Sophie will be tracking her sleep, or lack of, during the trip.  Many of the crew will switch over each week, but 4 of them will be on board for all 1650 nautical miles. We imagine they will all know a lot about sleep, and lack of it, by the end of it.

If you would like to done just go to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/SophieRows she is raising money for The British Heart Foundation as her Dad had a triple heart bypass operation a few years ago. 

It's a great conversation about the importance of sleep and attitude to life and understanding what is important. 

Her Spirit believes in inspiring EVERY woman to become fitter, stronger and healthier. We believe your Mind, Body and Fuel are intrinsically linked and taking small achievable steps will lead to big changes.

Her Spirit http://www.herspirit.co.uk supports women of all shapes to sizes to achieve goals you never thought possible and have your #BestYearYet. This podcast is part of Mental Health Awareness Week and the Her Spirit 21 day walking challenge.

These podcasts have bee

At Her Spirit, we’re building a FREE global community designed exclusively for women’s activity.

Join us to connect with like-minded women, discover events, and find local groups that inspire you to move more.

✨ Find your tribe. Achieve your goals. Thrive together.

👉 Join the movement at https://www.herspirit.co.uk/

It’s time for You

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In the sixteenth episode of season three of the Her Spirit podcast BBC Breakfast Louise Minchin and BBC Triathlon presenter Annie Emmerson talk to Emmy Brunner.

Emmy is a Personal Empowerment and Transformation Coach, Psychotherapist, Hypnotherapist, CEO, Author and Speaker with more than 20 years of experience in both the business and clinical worlds. She believes that we’ve all experienced trauma in our lives and that what we refer to now as ‘mental illness’ is actually our response to those traumas with my clinical work framed by this belief.

Throughout her career, she has discovered remarkable patterns in the ways women are conditioned to respond to life challenges. It was this insight that inspired her to create a bespoke coaching program designed to empower and free you to fully step into your power, elevating you to your highest potential. She truly loves sharing everything that she has learnt with other women and watching their lives transform in the most incredible ways.

In 2019, she released my debut e-book, Trauma Redefined – an easy-to-digest short read with a foreword by singer-songwriter, Gabrielle Aplin, designed to help you take control of your journey to better mental health. Her next book is out later this month "Find Your True Voice".

It's a very open and honest conversation about anxiety, depression and eating disorders. Emmy goes into how she works with so many of her clients and that many women don't have the confidence to back themselves  and we don't trust ourselves to achieve more.

Emmy stresses the importance of self care, being kind to yourself and nurturing yourself. If you want to focus on your own self development, it is so important to reflect on your own internal narrative. At Her Spirit we use out 7 day reflect diary which is an important tool to use.

Out of work Emmy loves Bruce Springsteen and being active, from boxing - yoga - swimming she loves how it empowers her and motivates her young daughter to join her on her adventures.

This weeks podcast is supported by My Menopause Centre https://www.mymenopausecentre.com/.  Come and join us for a LIVE Q & A on Wednesday 28th April at 8pm. For more information go to www.herspirit.co.uk and go to the events section for login details.

We believes in inspiring EVERY woman to become fitter, stronger and healthier. We believe your Mind, Body and Fuel are intrinsically linked and taking small achievable steps will lead to big changes.

Her Spirit supports women of all shapes to sizes to achieve goals you never thought possible and have your #BestYearYet.

These podcasts have been made possible through the support of Medichecks www.medichecks.com and Sport England www.sportengland.org. 

Medichecks offers an easy and affordable way to check your health from the comfort of your own home with their simple and personal at-home blood tests. From hormones and nutrition, to cholesterol and diabetes, there is something for everyone. 

At Her Spirit, we’re building a FREE global community designed exclusively for women’s activity.

Join us to connect with like-minded women, discover events, and find local groups that inspire you to move more.

✨ Find your tribe. Achieve your goals. Thrive together.

👉 Join the movement at https://www.herspirit.co.uk/

It’s time for You

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In the fifteenth episode of season three of the Her Spirit podcast BBC Breakfast Louise Minchin and BBC Triathlon presenter Annie Emmerson talk to 4 time Olympic medalists Rebecca Adlington OBE.

Becky first got into swimming at the age of 3 when her parents wanted her to learn a life skill. She fell in love with it straight away and knew that I wanted to be a swimmer. She has two older sisters who Becky has always looked up to and who inspired her to become competitive but she didn’t think that she would ever become a multiple Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European medallist. Becky has competed in four Olympic finals, over two Games, winning two gold and two bronze medals in Beijing and London respectively.

Since retiring from swimming, Becky has enjoyed challenging herself and exploring different avenues, including taking part in a variety of TV shows – From I’m a Celeb in 2013, to The jump in 2016 and Masterchef in 2017.

Becky has also been part of the BBC punditry team since 2013, and covering The Olympics in Rio 2016, World Championships, Commonwealth Games and European Games.

An extra special bonus in Becky's career came when breaking the World Record in the 800m freestyle in 2008. The record was 19 years old, the same age Becky was in Beijing; it was the highlight of her swimming career and a stand out moment for her personally. She still can’t believe she gets to say "I get to say I’m the greatest swimmer that Great Britain has ever produced!"

She feels  incredibly privileged to have been part of Team GB at our home Olympic Games in 2012 "To experience the whole atmosphere, spirit and camaraderie of London is something I will never forget"

Becky's motto of the 2012 Olympics was to ‘inspire a generation‘, a legacy which inspired her to set up my own learn to swim program. This has become her greatest challenge in swimming  and her mission to see every child in the UK leave primary school being able to swim 25 metres. She is very proud to say that there are now 10,000 children a week learning to swim ‘the Becky way’ on our programmes across the country.

Becky talks to Annie and Louise about the recent arrival of her son Albie in early March, with her partner Andy and the brother to Summer her first child. She talks about her struggles during COVID to stay active and what swimming means to her during her times as an Olympic years and founder of and is a partnership between Becky and Total Swimming Ltd, one of the UK's largest and most innovative private specialist swimming companies in the UK.

These podcasts have been made possible through the support of Medichecks www.medichecks.com and Sport England www.sportengland.org. 

Medichecks offers an easy and affordable way to check your health from the comfort of your own home with their simple and personal at-home blood tests. From hormones and nutrition, to cholesterol and diabetes, there is something for everyone. 

For more information on Her Spirit and "Your

At Her Spirit, we’re building a FREE global community designed exclusively for women’s activity.

Join us to connect with like-minded women, discover events, and find local groups that inspire you to move more.

✨ Find your tribe. Achieve your goals. Thrive together.

👉 Join the movement at https://www.herspirit.co.uk/

It’s time for You

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In the fourteenth episode of season three of the Her Spirit podcast BBC Breakfast Louise Minchin and BBC Triathlon presenter Annie Emmerson talk to 3 x Winter Olympian Sarah Lindsay.

Sarah is a British short track speed skater who has competed at the Winter Olympic Games on three occasions. Lindsay made her debut for the Great Britain team in 1996 and from 2000 was British Ladies Champion for nine consecutive years.

A three-time Olympian is now a personal trainer like no other. A European gold medalist, 2x world silver medalist and 10x British speed skating champion, Sarah is an inspiration to anyone looking to reach their full potential. 

After finally retiring as an athlete in 2010, Sarah made the transition into full time coaching and crossed over into the personal training industry. She has steadily become one of London's most recognised female personal trainers, and the incredible results she achieves with clients are a reflection of her innate ability to inspire people to achieving their own personal best.

Sarah has trained the likes of Ellie Goulding, Nick Grimshaw, Mel B, Pixie Lott, Christine Lampard, Professor Green and Sheridan Smith to name a few. 

Passionate about health and fitness, Sarah truly practices what she preaches and has a unique ability to inspire, empowering her clients to take control of their lives.

Sarah talks to Annie and Louise about the importance of being strong for everyday life.  She also talks about the living a healthy life and eating well.

These podcasts have been made possible through the support of Medichecks www.medichecks.com and Sport England www.sportengland.org. 

Medichecks offers an easy and affordable way to check your health from the comfort of your own home with their simple and personal at-home blood tests. From hormones and nutrition, to cholesterol and diabetes, there is something for everyone. 

For more information on Her Spirit and "Your Best Year Yet" go to http://herspirit.co.uk and come and join us for one of our challenges this spring and summer https://herspirit.co.uk/our-programmes/

We believes in inspiring EVERY woman to become fitter, stronger and healthier. We believe your Mind, Body and Fuel are intrinsically linked and taking small achievable steps will lead to big changes.

Her Spirit supports women of all shapes to sizes to achieve goals you never thought possible and have your #BestYearYet.

At Her Spirit, we’re building a FREE global community designed exclusively for women’s activity.

Join us to connect with like-minded women, discover events, and find local groups that inspire you to move more.

✨ Find your tribe. Achieve your goals. Thrive together.

👉 Join the movement at https://www.herspirit.co.uk/

It’s time for You

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In the thrirteenth episode of season three of the Her Spirit podcast BBC Breakfast Louise Minchin and BBC Triathlon presenter Annie Emmerson talk to founder of  MegsMenopause Meg Matthews.

Meg turned fifty and began to experience the first symptoms of the menopause. She was shocked at the lack of support and understanding shown to women during this time in their lives and made it her mission to break the stigma around the menopause.

An icon of the nineties Brit Pop scene, Meg Mathews is a former music industry PR, events planner and designer turned entrepreneur and advocate for the menopause.

For the past few years, Meg has continued her mission on female empowerment and supporting women through the menopause. Her overall goal is to educate the general public more about the menopause as it is a greatly underrepresented subject and is not talked about enough in the media.

Meg talks to Annie and Louise about life growing up in Guernsey, growing up in South Africa and the great outdoors and being active from an early age.  She talks about the colourful 80's & 90's Brit Pop scene and life as a very well recognised IT girl and how the media has not always been kind to her.

She has recently moved to Cornwall and has instantly immersed herself into the community and has loved getting to know the local open water mermaid swimming group.  Meg is a massive advocate of open water swimming for her anxiety and has regularly taken cold showers every week over the last 10 years.  She describes it as her daily cold water swim as her re-set and that for up to 6-8 hours she feels real calm.

Meg was diagnosed with osteoporosis relatively young aged 47 after she broke her wrist in a fall. She was both shocked and frightened to receive her DEXA scan result as she had seen how this devastating illness had affected her mother, who died of the disease.

These podcasts have been made possible through the support of Medichecks www.medichecks.com and Sport England www.sportengland.org. 

Medichecks offers an easy and affordable way to check your health from the comfort of your own home with their simple and personal at-home blood tests. From hormones and nutrition, to cholesterol and diabetes, there is something for everyone. 

For more information on Her Spirit and "Your Best Year Yet" go to http://herspirit.co.uk and come and join us for one of our challenges this spring and summer https://herspirit.co.uk/our-programmes/

We believes in inspiring EVERY woman to become fitter, stronger and healthier. We believe your Mind, Body and Fuel are intrinsically linked and taking small achievable steps will lead to big changes.

Her Spirit supports women of all shapes to sizes to achieve goals you never thought possible and have your #BestYearYet.

At Her Spirit, we’re building a FREE global community designed exclusively for women’s activity.

Join us to connect with like-minded women, discover events, and find local groups that inspire you to move more.

✨ Find your tribe. Achieve your goals. Thrive together.

👉 Join the movement at https://www.herspirit.co.uk/

It’s time for You

Join us at herspirit.co.uk | Instagram | Facebook | Get the Her Spirit App

In the twelfth episode of season three of the Her Spirit podcast BBC Breakfast Louise Minchin and BBC Triathlon presenter Annie Emmerson talk to former international athlete turned broadcaster Jeanette Kwakye.

Jeanette  started out in athletics aged 15. Born and bred in East London, she began running for her local club Woodford Green with Essex Ladies. She soon realised her potential and worked her way through the junior ranks to compete for Team GB in her first major junior international in 2002, where she gained a bronze for the 4x100m relay. 

Soon after this she attended Loughborough University where she studied Politics and Economics. Graduating in 2005 with a second class honours, Jeanette then focused all her efforts on training for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Jeanette was a multiple British champion over the 100m and 200m. Her highest ranking achievement being the 100m Olympic final in 2008. The first British woman to achieve this feat in 24 years. 

An unfortunate series of injuries were to keep Jeanette out of the London 2012 Olympics, despite maintaining her position as British No. 1 across 100m during 2011. 

Having since retired from athletics, Jeanette, now a qualified journalist currently works for the BBC, Sky Sports and Channel 5. She reports and presents on Olympic sport for BBCSport and has covered European, World and Commonwealth Games.

She has also worked for Channel 4, been featured on the One Show and published by the Guardian and other national publications. 

It's a great conversation about elite sport and life experiences, shared moments and being influenced by Angela Rippon at an early age to follow a path into broadcasting.  An early career at Radio Berkshire helped to shape Jeanette's broadcasting career into one where she has a regular slot at BBC Radio London and covering sports from boxing - track & field - swimming.

We love her attitude to life and realising it "Follow the passion and build a career around it" and that she approaches life to know that nothing is certain and nothing is a given.

As a mum of two she is a massive supporter of girls and sport and having dropped out of sport in her late teens, she came back to become British No.1.

These podcasts have been made possible through the support of Medichecks www.medichecks.com and Sport England www.sportengland.org. 

Medichecks offers an easy and affordable way to check your health from the comfort of your own home with their simple and personal at-home blood tests. From hormones and nutrition, to cholesterol and diabetes, there is something for everyone. 

For more information on Her Spirit and "Your Best Year Yet" go to http://herspirit.co.uk and come and join us for March's "Mix It Up March" challenge or the Tour de Her Spirit on the 27th March at 10.30am.

At Her Spirit, we’re building a FREE global community designed exclusively for women’s activity.

Join us to connect with like-minded women, discover events, and find local groups that inspire you to move more.

✨ Find your tribe. Achieve your goals. Thrive together.

👉 Join the movement at https://www.herspirit.co.uk/

It’s time for You

Join us at herspirit.co.uk | Instagram | Facebook | Get the Her Spirit App

In the first of two anniversary episodes of the Her Spirit podcast BBC Breakfast Louise Minchin and BBC Triathlon presenter Annie Emmerson talk to Claire Danson, Deborah James, Stacey Copeland and Maxine Peake.

All four guests talk about there challenges over the last twelve months from Stacey Copeland's retirement from boxing, Maxine Peake's acting industry suffering catastrophic affects,  Deborah James battles with bowel cancer and the 3am feeling of loneliness and Claire Danson adapting to a life as a para-triathlete.

It's an episode all about female support, fun and laughter and the power of togetherness. It includes so many great ways to look at life over a challenging year and making sure you have  many "positive petrol tanks" around you.

These podcasts have been made possible through the support of Medichecks www.medichecks.com and Sport England www.sportengland.org. 

Medichecks offers an easy and affordable way to check your health from the comfort of your own home with their simple and personal at-home blood tests. From hormones and nutrition, to cholesterol and diabetes, there is something for everyone. 

For more information on Her Spirit and "Your Best Year Yet" go to http://herspirit.co.uk and come and join us for March's "Mix It Up March" challenge or the Tour de Her Spirit on the 27th March at 10.30am.

At Her Spirit, we’re building a FREE global community designed exclusively for women’s activity.

Join us to connect with like-minded women, discover events, and find local groups that inspire you to move more.

✨ Find your tribe. Achieve your goals. Thrive together.

👉 Join the movement at https://www.herspirit.co.uk/

It’s time for You

Join us at herspirit.co.uk | Instagram | Facebook | Get the Her Spirit App

In the first of two anniversary episodes of the Her Spirit podcast BBC Breakfast Louise Minchin and BBC Triathlon presenter Annie Emmerson talk to Dr Nighat Arif, Dr Zoe Williams and Prof Greg Whyte.

Twelve months on from the start of season two hosted by Louise and Annie, they talk to Nighat, Zoe and Greg about life over the last year and predications for the years ahead.

An informal but very informative discussion with three of the UK leading physical activity and medical professionals about their own personal experiences. They discuss the impact that COVID has had on them and the nation.

Medichecks offers an easy and affordable way to check your health from the comfort of your own home with their simple and personal at-home blood tests. From hormones and nutrition, to cholesterol and diabetes, there is something for everyone. 

For more information on Her Spirit and "Your Best Year Yet" go to http://herspirit.co.uk and come and join us for March's "Mix It Up March" challenge.

At Her Spirit, we’re building a FREE global community designed exclusively for women’s activity.

Join us to connect with like-minded women, discover events, and find local groups that inspire you to move more.

✨ Find your tribe. Achieve your goals. Thrive together.

👉 Join the movement at https://www.herspirit.co.uk/

It’s time for You

Join us at herspirit.co.uk | Instagram | Facebook | Get the Her Spirit App

In the ninth episode of season three of the Her Spirit podcast BBC Breakfast Louise Minchin and BBC Triathlon presenter Annie Emmerson talk to Mimi Anderson.

Mimi is one of the world’s most inspirational female distance runners, having made an incredible journey from stay-at-home mother of three to multiple Guinness World Record Holder. With hard work and determination Mimi has shown that it’s never too late to fulfil your dreams and achieve the impossible.

Pushing herself to the limits has strengthened Mimi’s resilience and taught her its importance in boosting her mental and physical health, especially having suffered with the eating disorder anorexia for 15 years. Hearing Mimi speak about her amazing experiences with honesty, humility and humour, will leave you inspired to seek out personal challenges of your own and be much more aware of how to develop your own resilience and well-being.

Mimi Anderson is an endurance athlete who found her love of running at the age of 36 very quickly discovering her ability to run silly distances by taking the Marathon des Sables in 2001 a race billed as “the toughest footrace on earth” with just over a year’s running under her belt.

Mimi has taken part in extreme races around the world running across Deserts, mountains, enduring the freezing temperatures of the Arctic the heat and humidity of the Peruvian jungle and the extreme heat of Death Val- ley in America setting course records, World Records and on occasions beating the men!

As well as taking part in races Mimi enjoys organising her own adventures; in 2004 she ran from Paris to London starting with the Paris Marathon and fin- ishing the 300 plus mile run with the London Marathon. In 2014 Mimi, who was co-founder of Freedom Runners, ran 1,223 miles across South Africa to raise awareness and funds to support an initiative that addressed feminine hygiene management and education in that country, providing 400 girls with re-usable feminine hygiene products enabling them to remain in education. In September 2017 Mimi took on an epic run to try and break the female world record to run across America a distance of 2,852 miles. The run was brought to an abrupt end due to an injury after running 2, 217.2 miles in 40 days, on track to smash the record. She is well known for her “doubles” tak- ing on some of the worlds toughest endurance races and not just doing them once but running back to the start once she has finished.

Mimi talks to Annie and Louise about life in lockdown, her new challenges, learning to love swimming and her journey into triathlon in 2020.

These podcasts have been made possible through the support of Medichecks www.medichecks.com and Sport England www.sportengland.org. 

Medichecks offers an easy and affordable way to check your health from the comfort of your own home with their simple and personal at-home blood tests. From hormones and nutrition, to cholesterol and diabetes, there is something for everyone. 

For more information on Her Spirit and "Your Best Year Yet" go to http://herspirit.co.uk and come and

At Her Spirit, we’re building a FREE global community designed exclusively for women’s activity.

Join us to connect with like-minded women, discover events, and find local groups that inspire you to move more.

✨ Find your tribe. Achieve your goals. Thrive together.

👉 Join the movement at https://www.herspirit.co.uk/

It’s time for You

Join us at herspirit.co.uk | Instagram | Facebook | Get the Her Spirit App