Health is Like Tennis, You Need To Focus on More Than Just Your Serve.

You can have a powerful serve, but if your footwork’s off or your focus fades, the match can slip away. Health is a lot like that. We often focus on one part, maybe eating better or exercising more but forget that it’s all connected. True wellbeing comes from the full game: the balance between how you eat, move, rest, breathe, manage stress, and connect with others.

If you’ve been feeling low on energy, motivation, or simply not yourself lately, it might be time to check in with your body and see which parts of your “health game” need more attention and practice to feel good.. and increase your chance to win!

Nutrition - Your Fuel for the Match
The right fuel sets the tone for your performance both on and off the court. You wouldn’t show up to a match if you’ve not eaten in the lead up. Nutrition isn’t about perfection or counting calories; it’s about giving your body what it needs to stay energised, focused, and satisfied. When you eat regularly, try to include a variety of colourful foods, and listen to your hunger cues, you create a stability that keeps you strong through every set of the day. If your energy crashes and cravings take over, or you feel constantly “off,” it might not be about eating less, but eating smarter.

Movement - Getting to the ball
Tennis isn’t static, it’s dynamic like good health. Movement keeps your body capable, your mind alert, and your mood balanced. Moving more doesn’t always mean training harder, it can be as simple as stretching between meetings, walking instead of scrolling or during a call, or warming up before a match (or anything). Consistent, enjoyable movement is what builds endurance and confidence in both sport and life. Getting fit and strong and maintaining it is essential, so movement includes giving your body what it needs. You can’t turn up to a court expecting to play without a racket and ball, just like you can’t continue enjoying an active lifestyle if you’ve not brought the right gear.

Stress Management - The Mental Game
Anyone who’s played a tough match knows that mindset matters. You can have the best skills in the world, but if your head’s down or the big emotions are impacting decision making, everything can go downhill. The same applies to daily life. Chronic stress can drain energy, disturb sleep, affect digestion, and even change how your body uses nutrients. Learning to recognise when you’re tense and needing to take a moment (whether through breathing, mindfulness, journaling, or simply taking a break), can change everything. It's the pause and the physical or mental reset you need to take after a bad line call before the next point begins.

Breath - The Hidden Advantage
Your breath is one of the most powerful (and underused) tools for your health. It can calm your nervous system, lower stress, improve focus, and even influence your energy levels. Most of us forget to breathe properly, usually we rush, hold our breath, or stay in shallow chest breathing all day. A tennis player uses breath to stay relaxed, learning to inhale when the opponent hits and exhale when making contact with the ball. This helps to reduce tension and fatigue. Taking a few moments to slow your breath, especially during stress, is like calling a strategic timeout: a small action that changes the entire game.

Sleep - Rest and Recovery
No one performs their best running on empty. Sleep is when your body repairs, rebalances, and stores the energy you need to take on tomorrow, and you next opponent. When sleep suffers, everything else does too including mood, metabolism, motivation, even willpower. Creating consistent sleep habits (winding down, limiting screens, keeping a regular routine) is one of the simplest yet most powerful ways to improve your health. This recovery is the foundation for performance.

Social Connection - Your Support Team
No one succeeds alone. Behind every player is a coach, a training partner, and someone in the crowd cheering them on. Connection is a vital part of health. Meaningful relationships and a sense of community help lower stress, boost resilience, and make life more enjoyable. Whether it’s catching up with a friend, joining a class, or simply chatting with people who share a common interest, these social connections keep you grounded and motivated. And let’s not forget its role in wellbeing and longevity, in addition to the having support and feeling part of a team.

Checking-In
When was the last time you stopped to reflect on how all these areas are working together for you? Have you ever run it past an expert to double check that what you’re doing is helping you reach your goals? Maybe you don’t know yet what those goals are…? If not I think a Health Audit can help! It’s an open, friendly and professional conversation focusing on you and your lifestyle behaviours. It’s an opportunity to look at your whole picture: what’s working, what’s missing, and what small changes could make big differences. It’s an interactive session and assessment that will give you personalised and reliable actions. Health isn’t about being perfect, it’s about awareness, balance, and learning how to play the long game. And keeping with the theme, it’s why tennis players never stop working on those forehands, backhands, volleys, returns, serves, smashes, dropshots, etc, to continuously improve every part of their game!

Sometimes the best move you can make is getting someone to coach you from the players box, guiding and supporting each aspect of your game. And don’t forget to breathe and check your preparation/alignment before you take your next serve!

Why Your Breath Could Be Your Most Valuable Health Tool

Most people think of breathing as automatic. It just happens. We rarely think about it unless we’re struggling to breathe after a hard workout or trying to blow out birthday candles. But the crazy thing is, breathing isn’t just a background process. It’s a powerful tool for improving physical and mental health and unlike many health hacks, it’s free, always available, and doesn’t require an app subscription!

Now that I’m certified as a breath coach, I’m on a mission to help people understand how something as simple as breath can change the way you feel, move, and live.

What Does the Respiratory System Do?

Our respiratory system brings oxygen in, moves carbon dioxide out, and fuels every cell in our body! Gas exchange is this system’s primary function; however, breathing has a very close and special relationship with the nervous system, especially the autonomic nervous system, which controls things like your heart rate, digestion, and stress response. This connection is exactly where things get interesting.

Breath and the Nervous System

Your breath is unique because it’s both automatic and controllable. You can’t just slow down your heart rate by thinking about it, but you can slow your breath. And when you do, your body responds.

Think of it like this:

• Fast, shallow breathing (often from the chest) keeps your body in a sympathetic “fight or flight” state. You might feel anxious, tense, or reactive.

• Slow, deep breathing (from the diaphragm) activates the parasympathetic “rest and digest” state, helping you feel calm, focused, and in control.

Why Do We Need Breath Coaching?

Good question. After all, we’ve all been breathing since birth, right?

Here’s the thing… most adults don’t breathe efficiently. Due to posture, stress, and lifestyle habits, many people default to chest breathing, over-breathing, or even mouth breathing, which can disrupt oxygen exchange and keep us in a low-grade state of stress.

Breath coaching helps you retrain your breathing patterns using evidence-based techniques, like physical therapy for your lungs and nervous system.

The Benefits of Better Breathing

Here’s what the science tells us:

Mental Health

• Slower breathing reduces anxiety and improves emotional regulation

• Breathing practices increase focus and cognitive performance

Sleep & Recovery

• Techniques like box breathing that really reduce the rate of breath can support better sleep and help reduce insomnia

Performance & Fitness

• Breath control improves endurance, supports recovery, and can even help reduce lactic acid build-up

• Athletes can learn to manage fatigue and focus better under pressure

Heart & Blood Pressure

• Diaphragmatic breathing helps reduce blood pressure and improve heart rate variability, a key marker of resilience

Immune & Respiratory Health

• Nasal breathing filters air, humidifies it, and supports immune defence

• Breathwork can support people with asthma, COPD, and long COVID by improving lung efficiency

Small Change, Big Impact

Breathwork doesn’t need to be complicated. Just a few minutes a day can make a real difference. Your breath is more than just oxygen in, carbon dioxide out. It’s a direct line to your brain, body, and mood. Whether you’re managing stress, improving your fitness, or just trying to sleep better, how you breathe matters.

As a qualified breath coach, I can help you assess your breathing habits and give you simple tools to improve your health, energy, and resilience, one breath at a time.

Want to experience it for yourself? Let’s breathe together in a free Discovery Session, get in touch to set up a time. It will be a transformative 20 minutes!

Tuesday 24th June, 2025

Peeking Through the Keyhole at Ageing

Let’s talk about ageing. That thing creeping up on us like a nosy neighbour. It doesn’t knock loudly at first. It just sort of lurks and whispers things like, “You sure you want to squat that low?” or “How about a nap instead of a walk?”

Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand that ageing is a privilege and not everyone gets to do it. While our lifespan (how long we live) is something to be grateful for, our healthspan (how long we live well) is where the magic really happens. And that’s something I am hugely passionate about.

Lifespan v Healthspan

Lifespan is your body’s timeline or the number of candles on your birthday cake. Healthspan is living in good health and actually enjoying the cake, not just sitting there with back pain and trying to remember if you took your pills. In other words, it’s living long versus living strong.

Many people spend the last 10–15 years of their life managing illnesses, mobility issues, or feeling like their body’s warranty expired straight after they retired. But with the right lifestyle choices (and I mean realistic, achievable ones), we can delay that decline, peek through the keyhole and say: “Hi Ageing, I see you but I’m a bit busy doing lunges, laughing with friends, and making a nourishing salad. Try and catch me in a decade or two.”

Why I Became a Health Coach

I became a health coach for many reasons, not because I think people need to live forever, but above all because I believe we deserve to feel good for as long as we’re alive (ultimately by giving your body what it needs, being physically and mentally strong, and reducing our risk of disease). I see people give up on their bodies, not because they wanted to, but because no one ever taught them that feeling better is still possible, after kids, after age 40, after age 65! We charge through life, juggling work, family, burnout, and screen time like it’s an Olympic event, then wonder why we’re tired, sore, or mentally frazzled. Meanwhile our bodies are quietly whispering: “Hey, a little support here would be lovely. Maybe some sleep, some veggies, a good stretch?”

And when we listen, even just a little, the body responds. It doesn’t need perfection, but wants consistency, care, and a little respect, the same way you’d treat your flourishing houseplants or treasured pets.

Aging Gracefully

I’m not here to say we can outrun aging, even sprinters can’t, but I am here to say that we can push back, not recklessly, not with denial, but with intention, with laughter, with wholesome food, movement that empowers us, and daily habits that keep us connected to life.

And science backs this up! Strength training, nourishing whole foods, connection, quality sleep, stress management, joyful movement, these are the key players in extending our healthspan. We’re not talking extreme diets, biohacking your DNA, or bathing in seaweed, we’re talking simple, sustainable, doable, evidence-based lifestyle behaviours that help us feel good now and protect us for later.

In Conclusion

My passion for being a health coach comes from wanting people to live well, prevent lifestyle diseases, and feel good. To have more energy, fewer symptoms, and a body that allows you to keep enjoying what you did when you were younger. If ageing is knocking, you don’t have to let it in, politely say come back later because you’re fully booked doing the things that make you feel alive.

Monday 23rd June, 2025

Why I’m Focusing With Body Systems (And Why You Should Too)!

I’m both excited and nervous to be sharing my first blog. I’ve never been the most confident writer, but I’m always up for a challenge and pushing past barriers… so here we are.

When I first discovered my passion for health and nutrition, I focused a lot on what people were eating, how much they were moving, and how or why this impacted their health. And while those things absolutely matter, I realised there was so much more to the picture.

Health advice is everywhere, and to some extent the messages are getting through. Many people do know they should eat more fruit and veg, that they should exercise, avoid smoking, and limit alcohol. But knowing doesn’t always translate to doing, and it is because while it sounds simple, it is far from easy! Even those who are interested in health or seek help can struggle to stay consistent. So maybe another meal plan or workout schedule isn’t the answer…?

What really fascinated me during my dietetics studies was human physiology and what happens at a cellular level. Learning this inspired me to take a closer look at my own lifestyle choices, and I think this is actually what many people are missing. People need to understand why their bodies respond a certain way, why they feel tired even after a full night’s sleep, why their cravings are out of control, why stress seems to undo all their progress in a single day.

I don’t need to tell you how overwhelming and conflicting the health space can be. I’ve experienced that frustration myself, which is why I’ve been looking for simpler, more meaningful ways to help people improve their health, like my earlier Healthy Habits Programme.

We live in a world that doesn’t make it easy to be healthy. Our behaviours are often a byproduct of our environment, but I believe there are ways to undo some of that and take back control through small, consistent changes. So I took a step back and asked… ‘What if instead of looking at our external environment (things we have little control over), we instead turned inward and focused on our bodies… they systems, the signals, the needs?’

That’s what led me to create my new pilot health plan around the 11 body systems, covering everything from the digestive and nervous systems to the immune, endocrine, and muscular systems. Each one plays a role in how we feel, function, and show up in our lives. And the incredible thing part, they’re all connected!

Why the Body Systems Matter

If you think of your body like a team sport, every system has a position to play. The cardiovascular system can’t thrive if the respiratory system is struggling. Your mental focus can dip if your gut is inflamed. And your metabolism? It’s not just about calories, it’s impacted by hormones, muscles, sleep, stress… you name it.

Understanding how these systems work and how to support them can completely shift how you approach your health. Instead of reacting to symptoms or chasing trends, you start tuning into your body with curiosity and care. It’s a more mindful and compassionate approach to health!

One Month, One System

I wanted this plan to feel simple and manageable, not overwhelming. That’s why I’ve given each system its own month to shine. Just like a good workout plan builds strength and mobility over time, this journey is designed to build health momentum gradually. You’ll focus on one system at a time, layering habits and awareness as you go. Each month is like a building block, valuable on its own but even more powerful when stacked together.

By slowing down, we create space for lasting sustainable change.

How This Helps You

Whether you’re trying to feel more energetic, manage your weight, reduce stress, improve sleep, or just feel more in control of your health, starting from the inside out really makes a difference.

This approach gives you:

• Clarity: You’ll learn what’s happening in your body and why it matters.

• Focus: With just one system to explore each month, there’s opportunity to grow without pressure.

• Progress: Small steps add up over time and lead to big shifts.

• Connection: You’ll start noticing how food, movement, mindset, sleep, and connection influence each system and how to respond in ways that actually help.

What You Can Expect

Each month in my Body Systems Health Plan you’ll get practical tools, quick tips, and mini challenges based on one body system. We’ll explore how diet, exercise, stress, sleep, breathwork and even relationships affect that system and how you can support it, even on your busiest days.

We’re starting with the respiratory system, because it aligns with my energising summer theme, and I’ve just become a certified Breath Coach!!

So if you’ve ever wondered why you feel off even when you’re “doing everything right,” or you’re just ready to reconnect with your body in a more meaningful and mindful way, this is for you. Let’s go deeper and start inside!

Saturday 21st June, 2025