Real Health with Karl Henry

On this week’s show I’m joined by Laura Jordan of Style Savvy.ie. Laura is an expert style consultant on a mission to show people how to shop with confidence. We’ll be talking about the relationship between image and confidence and how everyone can feel more self-assured in the office. "I am passionate about making people feel good and look good…there is a huge correlation between self image, self esteem and self confidence, in terms of personal and professional achievements, whatever they may be to you."Remote working has had a huge impact on how people dress for work and Laura explains how to set the right tone even when you’re on a video call. If, like me, you hate shopping Laura will guide you through building a ‘smart wardrobe’ and show you how to audit your clothes in three easy steps because ‘most people wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time.’ There are so many useful tips and tricks in this episode, I really hope you enjoy it. For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to:https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-real-health-podcast/‘The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare’See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2007 Dermot Whelan, arrived at a comedy festival in an ambulance after having a panic attack en route. Realising this was not a sustainable way to travel to future gigs, he decided to become a meditation teacher and learn how to de-stress without annoying the emergency services. Back then Dermot felt awful. He was waking up in the middle of the night with a pounding heart and a frantic mind. But in this episode, he tells me how learning how to meditate and become more mindful brought a sense fulfilment he had never experienced before.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week’s show I’ll be talking about the six key principals to finding happiness with Prof Brendan Kelly: Author of The Science of Happiness. Brendan is here to answer the big life questions like: Will having a baby make you happy? Are women happier than men? Will earning lots of money satisfy you? Do politics and religion really matter? Prof Kelly is a consultant psychiatrist at Tallaght University Hospital and professor of psychiatry at TCD. His book is a psychiatrist’s exploration of how to be happy and he believes the six key principals to achieving happiness are: (1) seeking balance (trying to achieve moderation in all things); (2) focusing on love (for ourselves and others); (3) deepening acceptance (accepting what we cannot change and changing what we can); (4) practising gratitude (starting with the realisation that we are lucky to be alive); (5) avoiding comparisons with other people (which are the root of most human unhappiness); (6) believing in something that matters to you, be it politics, religion, philosophy, football or even the emotional lives of minor celebrities. In this episode you can learn how to employ these strategies to increase your happiness levels. Brendan’s approach is full of humour and positivity and he really breaks the science down to make it accessible. It’s a great listen and I hope you really enjoy it. For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to: https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-real-health-podcast/ ‘The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare’See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week’s show I am talking to Derrick Evans, AKA Mr Motivator, who many of you will remember from his lycra clad TV workouts in the 1990s.As well as his TV work, Mr Motivator has sold millions of workout DVDs, run an eco-tourism resort in Jamacia and has now turned his attention to "the forgotten groups" with the launch of his ‘Mr Motivator Club’ here in Ireland.The Club is suitable for people of all ages, fitness levels and abilities.Mr Motivator tells me he is a firm believer in making exercise enjoyable, ‘I want people to understand if exercise isn’t fun don’t do it...the only muscle that should ache after exercise is your laughter muscle. And if it’s not aching there’s something wrong with the teacher.’At 68-years-old Derrick has impressive keep fit regime of his own; ‘every day I do 68 press-ups – one for each year of my life. I have no intention of getting “old”’Through sheer perseverance Derrick managed to secure a slot as GMTV's fitness guru in 1993. ‘I knew there was a gap in the market and that ITV needed someone like me on TV, so I kept going down to the ITV studios and insisting that they give me a chance. At first the advertisers didn’t want a black man, they wanted a white lady with two kids. But I persevered, and that was that.’‘The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare’See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s show is part of our ‘Life Lessons’ series with some of Ireland’s most famous personalities and my guest today, Mairead Ronan, is certainly no stranger to the Irish TV and radio landscape. She has been working hard in the industry for nearly twenty years. Mairead started her career on The Ray D’arcy Show, hosts Fittest Families, won Dancing with The Stars in 2019 and now presents her own daily radio show on Today Fm. On top of all that she co-owns a hair-styling equipment business called FARO. Mairead talks to me about the ups and downs of the last year: ‘I feel like I'm in no position to complain, because both myself and my husband are still working full time. But also, for a huge chunk of the last 12 months, we didn't have childcare. Mairead found it challenging to mind her kids while presenting a daily radio show. ‘I had to still perform like you normally would and present the radio show but we didn't have that pillar of support, which is our child minder Kay. And I just found that extremely difficult.’See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Real Health episode is one of my Top 10 Tips episodes, looking at not only how to get yourself motivated, but to stay motivated and keep yourself fit and healthy in the coming weeks, months and years.How to stay focused when times get tough is an important skill to learn and sometimes starting a health kick can be hard while keeping it going can be difficult as well. But after twenty-two years, I’ve learned lots of tips, tricks and tools that work and will help you on your Real Health journey.From vision boards and doing it together to rewarding yourself and having your why, the ten tips in this episode are practical and easy to implement and I promise, they do work. So, see which ones you can start today – even starting just one will help - and watch how your motivation grows with each step you take.Keep in touch with me for daily postings on Instagram and Twitter @KarlHenryPT and don’t forget to rate, review and follow the show on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to:https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-real-health-podcast/ The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mental health, self-talk and the voices in our head….it seems these are issues that are gaining prominence in our lives the more the lockdown continues and it’s been a popular issue in recent weeks here on Real Health.And for this week’s episode, I wanted to go in-depth on the topic of the conscious mind and the conversations we have with ourselves which can have such negative effects on our lives and the people around us. But, if harnessed correctly, it can also be a very powerful and positive force too.My guest is Ethan Kross, an award-winning psychologist who is one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the conscious mind and has participated in policy discussion at the White House. He is also the author of Chatter, the Voice In Our Head and How to Harness It, and I speak to him about how Covid has been the ‘perfect’ chatter event affecting our mental health and find out how negative chatter impacts our life.But the voice in our head can also be of benefit to us and Ethan takes me through some of the ways that we can harness it, including using distanced self-talk.“You could coach yourself through a problem like you're giving advice to another person and actually use your name to do it,” he explains to me. “When you use your own name to refer to yourself, it changes the way you relate to yourself, as you're coaching yourself through the problem and it's another thing that a person can do on their own.”Keep in touch with me for daily postings on Instagram and Twitter @KarlHenryPT and don’t forget to rate, review and follow the show on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to:https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-real-health-podcast/The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Let’s talk about getting older.Of the many changes that Covid and the pandemic has inflicted on society, one thing it has brought into focus is the risks older people face - especially as we’ll all be there someday.And the truth is, for most of us, we don’t want to think about ageing or what it will be like to care for an elderly relative.Well, this week’s Real Health is all about Getting Older (for People Who Don’t want To Talk about it) and it’s also the catchy title of Dr. Lucy Pollock’s new book. She is a consultant specialising in the care of the elderly and over the next thirty minutes or so will be answering questions such as: · Should Dad be driving, and if not, who can stop him?· What are the secrets of the best care homes?· When does fierce independence become bad behaviour?· And who decides what happens when we become ill?Keep in touch with me for daily postings on Instagram and Twitter @KarlHenryPT and don’t forget to rate, review and follow the show on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to:https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-real-health-podcast/ The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Never has mental health been as important. Be it mindfulness, meditation, walking…..we’re looking for as much expert information these days on dealing with our mental difficulties of living life in a pandemic.But what about preventative measures? Just as we eat well and exercise to prevent the body getting unhealthy, can you do the same with the brain? My guest on this week’s Real Health is Kimberley Wilson, a psychologist who believes that we need to consider the brain in a more physical way just like the heart or liver.Kimberley is also the author of ‘How to Build a Healthy Brain’ and is the host of the Stronger Mind podcas and, backed up with science and studies, she talks to me about the importance of exercise on our brains and how physical movement can stop our brains shrinking. She also explains why our IQs are dropping over time due to poor diet and how stress affects our brains and inhibits our actual growth.“One of the things I really want people to understand,” she says. “Is that stress isn't something that's just 'in your head' because for people it feels like this ethereal, not real thing, ‘I can just push it away and I'll be fine’. But you need to understand that stress turns on your stress hormone and your stress hormones are incredibly powerful. Your stress hormones can turn off your growth hormone, they can stunt the growth of children. We know the same thing can happen when women get very, very stressed that their periods can stop or their cycles can become very long and stress hormones have an effect on the brain.”Keep in touch with me for daily postings on Instagram and Twitter @KarlHenryPT and don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to:https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-real-health-podcast/ The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We could all do with a bit of therapy right now but although stuck at home, we still seem to be time-poor, so how about some five minute therapy to help us all cope with the stresses and strains of life at the moment?My guest on this week’s Real Health is psychotherapist Sarah Crosby, aka the Mind Geek, who is a bit of an Instagram sensation with her daily bite-sized snippets of mindfulness wisdom and her new book, Five Minute Therapy, is also out now.Sarah has some fascinating insights and advice on how to cope with life during the pandemic. She explains why re-parenting ourselves can be such a vital and important process; how we can deal with negative relationships and assess the people we have in our lives; why attachment is our relationship blueprint; and why we need to make sure our self-talk is kind and light.“Walking through Dublin city centre at the height of the lockdown and being able to hear your footsteps, there's something really daunting about that,” she tells me. “What we're left with is ourselves right now. Without the distractions of everyday life we're having to sit with who we are, having to sit with our choices, with our relationships which we can't really distract ourselves from anymore and how we're speaking to ourselves around that is going to really form how our mental health is feeling right now.”Keep in touch with me for daily postings on Instagram and Twitter @KarlHenryPT and don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to:https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-real-health-podcast/ The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.