Uninterrupted

There was a time when Cass Olhom could barely do a push-up on her knees and walking into a CrossFit style gym intimidated her. Now the rising star trainer of Kayla Itsines’ Sweat app is showing people around the world how they can do power cleans, barbell rows, and overhead lunges all so that they can build their own strength through resistance training – and we’re not just talking physical strength, we’re talking mental strength too. Because there is something empowering about discovering over time that you are stronger than you thought you were.

In this chat, Cass, who also has a bachelor’s degree in nutrition, talks about how learning to get uncomfortable in the gym, helped her grow out of her comfort zone in other areas of her life, her simple secrets to setting goals and hitting them, plus how to fuel your workout sessions through your nutrition to get the best results.

This podcast was produced and hosted by WH editor-in-chief Lizza Gebilagin (https://instagram.com/lizza_marie/)

With special thanks to: Cass Olholm (https://www.instagram.com/cassolholm/)

For more from Women’s Health Australia, check out https://www.instagram.com/womenshealthaus/, https://www.womenshealth.com.au/ or find the print and digital editions of the magazine at https://www.womenshealth.com.au/subscribe-to-womens-health-australia-magazine.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagine tipping yourself over the handlebars of a mountain bike while at full speed. Now, imagine you're doing it to become the first woman ever to land a front flip on a mountain bike. It's an extraordinary feat by any measure, but for triple-threat-on-two-wheels Caroline Buchanan, it's just another day at work.

Here we get into some big stuff with Caroline, who's a mountain bike and BMX world champ and Olympian. She talks to our executive editor Kara Byers about what it's like to dominate in traditionally male sports, why rejection is a gift, what it takes to tackle your fears head on and succeed, and how actually, you don't necessarily need to find a role model or someone who's doing what you want to be - because you CAN be what you can't see. 

CREDITS:

This podcast was hosted by WH executive editor Kara Byers (https://www.instagram.com/karabyers/) and produced by WH editor-in-chief Lizza Gebilagin (https://instagram.com/lizza_marie/)

For more from Women’s Health Australia, check out https://www.instagram.com/womenshealthaus/, https://www.womenshealth.com.au/ or find the print and digital editions of the magazine at https://www.womenshealth.com.au/subscribe-to-womens-health-australia-magazine.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When we catch up with Stephanie Miller – or Steph Claire Smith, as you know her – it’s the morning after a less-than-restful night with her teething baby, Harvey. Yep, a lot has changed for the fitness and wellbeing entrepreneur over the past year or so. Making the Australian Financial Review’s list of the 100 wealthiest Australians under the age of 40 aside (Steph is worth an estimated $36 million, thanks to Keep it Cleaner which she co-founded with best mate Laura Henshaw) she does her best, like so many of us, to juggle parenthood with work, life, lockdowns, exercise and everything else. Here, she talks to our Commissioning Editor Alex Davies about trusting your gut, especially when it comes to her "first baby" KIC, her journey back to exercise after giving birth, and the power of the word ‘no’.

SHOW NOTES: 

Check out Steph and KIC on Instagram at @stephclairesmith and @keepitcleaner

CREDITS:

This podcast was hosted by WH commissioning editor Alex Davies (https://www.instagram.com/adavies234/) and produced by WH editor-in-chief Lizza Gebilagin (https://instagram.com/lizza_marie/)

For more from Women’s Health Australia, check out https://www.instagram.com/womenshealthaus/, https://www.womenshealth.com.au/ or find the print and digital editions of the magazine at https://www.womenshealth.com.au/subscribe-to-womens-health-australia-magazine.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We'll be back next week with new episodes! In the meantime, enjoy this chat with actor Teresa Palmer.

In it, she talks about her pregnancy loss, how she and her husband Mark got through his experience of postpartum anxiety, and the way she’s navigating life through the pandemic. Plus:

·     What she’s learnt about herself from being forced to slow down during the COVID-19 lockdowns

·     The guided meditations she does with her kids

·     The journaling app she uses to do a daily brain dump

·     Why she thinks we need to move away from the term “miscarriage” and talk instead about “pregnancy loss”

·     Cultivating moments of self-care in her day (“They are fleeting!”, she laughs)

·     Tiger King (because, isn’t everyone?)

·     Letting go of our expectations of motherhood

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While we're on a break, we're revisiting some of our most popular episodes, like this one with nutritionist Lyndi Cohen.

How can you feel more energised every day? What’s the secret to unconditional confidence? Why are detox teas just the worst?

We talk about all this and more with our latest guest, Lyndi Cohen aka the Nude Nutritionist. In addition to her work as a dietitian and author, she’s also a fierce advocate for body positivity and transparency in a world full of confusion about what it means – and takes – to be healthy and happy. After experiencing firsthand the impact of diet culture, she’s made it her mission to help us all look beyond the scales and live richer, happier lives for it. In this chat with WH Features Editor Alex Davies, Lyndi shares her body-pos inspiration, why there’s no such thing as “good” and “bad” foods, plus the self-care strategies she turns to in challenging times.

Check out:

Lyndi’s Instagram account

Her program Back to Basics

Lyndi’s favourite body positive Instagram accounts:

Jameela Jamil

I Weigh

Ashley Graham

If you’ve been affected by the themes in this episode, book in for a chat with your GP. For support around body image issues and eating disorders, contact The Butterfly Foundation’s national helpline on 1800 33 4673 or email [email protected]. For mental health support, contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While we're on a break, we're revisiting some of our most popular episodes, like this one with meditation teacher Caitlin Cady.

Caitlin Cady is a recovering perfectionist-turned-meditation teacher, who admits her own obsession with overachieving was making her “more burned out than a roach in Snoop Dogg’s ashtray”. Yeah, she might live in Byron Bay but she’s not your usual meditation teacher. For one, she loves hip hop as much as she does Tibetan singing bowls. She also owns a bar in Byron and a street mag, and the reason we’re speaking to her today, she has a new book, Heavily Meditated: Your Down-to-Earth Guide To Learning Meditation and Getting High on Life (Hardie Grant, $29.99) out now, where she proves “Meditation doesn’t have to be boring as shit or narrated by an annoying looooong draaaaawn ouuuuut meditation voice”. And she’s done all this while raising three kids under the age of six. “It’s a straight up circus at my house!” she tells us.

So how does she do it all without letting her perfectionist and overachieving sides take over? Well, you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out.

In this chat, Caitlin covers:

·   How living imperfectly leads to a much cooler life

·   Why “change happens when you get fed up with your own b******t”

·   How she healed herself after suffering from eating disorders, depression and Lyme disease

·   A simple breathing meditation you can try

·   How to get into a flow state

Great sources she mentions in the chat:

·   Insight timer for guided meditations and timers

·   Be Focused pomodoro timer to get shit done

·   Caitlin’s website, caitlincady.com, for more meditation resources

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While we're on a break, we're revisiting some of our most popular episodes, like this one with Dr Nikki Stamp.

Why is self-compassion so vital? Is the life of a surgeon just like we see on Grey’s Anatomy? Can you actually die of a broken heart? Yep, the latest episode of our podcast Uninterrupted is a juicy one. Joining us at Women’s Health HQ is heart and lung surgeon Dr Nikki Stamp.

In addition to her work with patients as one of only 11 female heart surgeons in Australia, Nikki is a fierce advocate for female health. Not to mention the author of two books: Can you die of a broken heart? as well as her new one, Pretty Unhealthy: Why our obsession with looking healthy is making us sick, which investigates why, despite our love of all things wellness, our health as a society is declining.

She’s here to talk about all this and more, including why we need to show our tickers some love.

Plus:

·   The reality of life as a surgeon (you’ll never believe the TV show it’s actually like)

·   How to set goals in a healthy way

·   Simple strategies for taking care of your heart

·   How to be your own health advocate

·   Self-compassion and what positive body image really means

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While our team is on a break, we thought it’d be nice to revisit some of our most popular episodes, starting with this one with actor Elsa Pataky.

Want to feel physically and mentally strong? Learn to genuinely love exercise? And see mistakes as precious learning opportunities, rather than something to fear? We talk about all this and more with our latest guest, actor, mother of three and all-round superwoman slaying in the wellness space, Elsa Pataky. From growing up as an only child in Barcelona, to getting her big acting break on the Spanish version of Beverley Hills 90210, this serious yoga-lover (who also speaks five languages) has always valued freedom and creativity over living life inside a safety net. After moving to Santa Monica to follow her career dreams, she struggled with loneliness and used exercise as a powerful tool to cope with some of her lowest moments. But when she met her now mega-star husband Chris Hemsworth, her dream of living a wild life surrounded by nature was finally realised. And, since swapping the bright lights of Hollywood for the chilled vibes of Byron, she hasn’t looked back. In this episode, the self-confessed fitness junkie chats to us about pretty much everything, including her secret to a happy marriage, the 80/20 rule that guides her health, and why she’ll never feel guilty for smashing three donuts in one go. She also reveals why she believes nourishing your body (rather than dieting and deprivation) the only way forward for a happy life. And how actually embracing failure can lead to life-changing personal growth. As she says in this candid chat: “You need to live every moment, including the ups and downs, and learn from them. The mistakes I’ve made in life got me to where I am today.”

For more from Women’s Health Australia, check out https://www.instagram.com/womenshealthaus/, https://www.womenshealth.com.au/ or find the print and digital editions of the magazine at https://www.womenshealth.com.au/subscribe-to-womens-health-australia-magazine.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just as we were cautiously opening up to the idea that our worlds were opening up again as we learnt to live with COVID-19, Omicron has crashed the party-that-just-got-started and has overtaken the news and our social feeds and our conversations. Cases are surging. Records are being smashed – and not in a cool, sports-kind-of-way. There’s also talk about whether lockdowns might be on the cards again.

It is anxiety-inducing.

If you’re feeling that too, We’ve dug out an interview with clinical psychologist and CEO of Smiling Mind, Dr Addie Wooten. We spoke to her when the pandemic first broke out for an episode called Your Head Needs A Break From Bad News. and her advice was great back then and works just as well now. Here she talks about how we can stay informed but why it’s also worth focusing on the good things in life for the sake of our mental health.

SHOW NOTES:

Your Head Needs A Break From Bad News episode

Smiling Mind app (https://www.smilingmind.com.au/smiling-mind-app)

If you need extra support right now contact:

Lifeline (https://www.lifeline.org.au/) or 13 11 14

Beyond Blue (https://www.beyondblue.org.au/) or 1300 22 4636

CREDITS:

This podcast was produced and hosted by WH editor-in-chief Lizza Gebilagin (https://instagram.com/lizza_marie/)

With special thanks to: Dr Addie Wooten of Smiling Mind

For more from Women’s Health Australia, check out https://www.instagram.com/womenshealthaus/, https://www.womenshealth.com.au/ or find the print and digital editions of the magazine at https://www.womenshealth.com.au/subscribe-to-womens-health-australia-magazine.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Make-up is just make-up, right? It doesn’t really have the power to change the world, whether that be your inner world and how you feel, or the outer world. I mean, it’s just about aesthetics.

Or is it?

Imagine going to a make-up counter and discovering that out of all the foundation shades on the shelves, there was nothing that matched your skin tone? If you've been privileged enough to never have experienced this, it makes you feel almost invisible and left out. Like you don’t matter enough to be given an option.

In today’s episode, our commissioning editor Alex Davies speaks to two Aussies who know that make-up does have the power to change the world. Tali Mason and Shaanti Wallbridge became friends as kids, after their parents connected while adopting them from India to Australia. They’ve now taken their friendship next level, by going into business together as the founders of All Shades Matter Cosmetics. Their goal is to close the gap in make-up shade variety, specifically for people of colour; and to provide an inclusive foundation that caters to a diverse range of skin tones.

In this chat, Tali and Shaanti reflect on the struggles of finding foundation matches while growing up, and the impact that had on their confidence; as well as their passion for inclusive beauty and – above all – helping people to feel “thought of, validated and empowered”.

After all, as Shaanti says, “We’ve got a country that is so diverse and multicultural, why aren’t we catering for that?”

SHOW NOTES: 

Keep up with All Shades Matter over at https://asmcosmetics.com.au/ and @allshadesmattercosmetics on Instagram

CREDITS:

This podcast was hosted by WH commissioning editor Alex Davies (https://www.instagram.com/adavies234/) and produced by WH editor-in-chief Lizza Gebilagin (https://instagram.com/lizza_marie/)

For more from Women’s Health Australia, check out https://www.instagram.com/womenshealthaus/, https://www.womenshealth.com.au/ or find the print and digital editions of the magazine at https://www.womenshealth.com.au/subscribe-to-womens-health-australia-magazine.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.