Real Health with Karl Henry

In recent weeks, the Real Health show has featured some great food experts from Neven Maguire’s cooking tips to the Happy Pear’s plant-based diet.Food, eating and your diet is one of the best ways to keep healthy and stay in control while so much is going on in the world outside and my guest for this week’s episode is a firm believer in food to help with your mental as well as your physical performance.Daniel Davey first came to prominence as the performance nutritionist with Leinster Rugby and Dublin GAA followed by his book, Eat Up Raise Your Game, and on this episode he talks to me about wellness, performance and even mindset around food.Explaining the importance of process and repetition, we’re discussing food but so much more as well.“Have you got a process?” he asks. “Building a very simple process that is something that you can go to and repeat very effectively every evening is where you build success and I don't mind saying that's what I've learned again from high performance.” “As a young practitioner, I was afraid of repetition and I was afraid of talking about repetition because people's automatic response was always 'I want something new, can we do something new or a bit more exciting?' That's not where the progress comes from.”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.

January 2021 was a tough month, there’s no doubt about that. Continuing on from the previous year it’s been a tough journey for most people to deal with. But, we can still find happiness midst all the turmoil, stress and uncertainty.There are little things you can be doing every day to make sure you’re reaching your happiness quota and I’m delighted to say that my guest on this week’s Real Health, Dr. Clodagh Campbell, is a wellness psychologist who is going to help us all get happier with her seven simple steps to achieving more happiness in your life.With advice on the importance of maintaining your social connections during isolation to factoring in your moments of happy time throughout the week, Dr. Clodagh Campbell believes this is when we need to be looking after ourselves the most.Plus she explains why journaling is so beneficial and how you can start it today.“It's not necessarily forcing yourself to do it every day,” she tells me. “But if you can focus on practising gratitude through journaling or focusing on positive emotions and writing about how you're feeling or processing your emotions, all of this has been proven to boost our happiness, to lower levels of anxiety, depression, stress. It's a simple way that we can look after ourselves from the comfort of our home in private and we can fit it in to any part of our day.”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:www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Neven Maguire is someone whose approach to cooking and food I’ve admired for a long time. From his hugely popular restaurant to his TV shows and books, his focus is all about healthy and wholesome recipes for the entire family.He joins me on this week’s episode of Real Health to talk about life during lockdown, having to close the restaurant and why in his free time he’s rediscovered his love of dance music and DJing!Neven also has some great cooking SOS tips and advice to make sure that you’re eating easy, healthy and tasty family meals while at home – including the recipe for his one-pot chicken and chicken rice favourite.“Keep it very, very simple is what I say to people,” he tells me. “Get the basics right. It's giving people the confidence, that's the key. Equipment, and then food and then how you shop, it's the whole journey.”To win one of five copies of Neven’s latest cookbook, ‘Midweek Meals’, just listen to the interview and tell me what Neven’s favourite dance track is by replying in my Instagram feed.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:www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s guests certainly need no introduction, as famous for their morning swims as they are for their healthy produce - and they’re back in January focusing on a Happy Health Plan using a plant-based diet. The Happy Pears, David and Stephen Flynn, join me to explain all the benefits and bust some of the myths about it.They also have some great tips and advice for eating and introducing more healthy foods into your daily routine.“First thing is if you do want to change your habits, get the stuff you don't want to eat out of your house,” they tell me. “That's number one because in moments of weakness, stress, you will resort to those things. “Number two is beans and we’re not talking about baked beans. We’re talking about tinned beans like kidney beans, butter beans, chick-peas. These are inexpensive and they're one of the highest sources of fibre in our diet.”Away from food, the Happy Pears also talk about why for them, 2021 is all about slowing down and how they have only two goals.“One was to slow down more and the second was to meditate more. And that was it. Nothing else. Because if you get those two right, there's enough habits in terms of trying to achieve and whatnot that they'll probably still prevail.”Their book, The Happy Health Plan, is available 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:www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If your finances are all over the place and out of control, it’s very difficult to focus on other aspects of your health. You can get tied up in your financial issues letting your health and diet suffer as a result.With that in mind, my annual Financial Real Health episode is back this week and I’m joined by Eoin McGee, the financial advisor, TV presenter and best-selling author of ‘How to be Good with Money’.Eoin explains why, in a time of pandemic and stress, it’s so important to control the controllables and focus on what you can manage. “Years ago, I was listening to Brian O'Driscoll speaking at an after-dinner speech,” Eoin tells me. “And he talked about 'I don't care what happened in the past five minutes of the game - I'm only worried about the next five minutes’. That has stuck with me for quite some time and more than ever let's just worry about the stuff we can control and that then filters down to everything”.Eoin also gives me his most important tips for financial health and how to get your finances under control, plus where you should be looking to invest your savings and how you can make savings in your household budget too.Despite the uncertainty around the pandemic, he urges us to look optimistically to the future and why you should also use this time as an opportunity for the years ahead.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:www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s January and with many of you making resolutions for change over the coming weeks and months, one of the most common is around weight loss and looking and feeling better.My guest on this week’s Real Health is Dr. Rangan Chatterjee who is a hugely successful broadcaster, author and influential GP in the UK and Ireland with his Feel Better, Live More podcast a regular chart topper, and he has a new book out called Feel Great, Lose Weight, long term simple habits for lasting and sustainable weight loss.Dr. Chatterjee gives his three daily tips for healthy living, explains why January resolutions invariably fizzle out, discusses the importance of reflection on what we’re doing right and where we can improve, plus he tells me why he thinks food has just become something to fill a hole in people’s hearts.“Particularly for the times in which we're living at the moment,” he says. “Where we struggle to see our friends, to see our family, hug our friends, I would say make sure you spend at least five minutes a day connecting with another human being.”“Often we're craving food in the evening when we're really craving connection - we've got a hole in our heart and we're trying to fill that hole with sugar and I'm saying, if you make sure you connect with another human each and every single day as much as you can, you will find that actually you compensate less with other lifestyle choices that you're trying to avoid but you don't realise are simply your effort to fill that hole.”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:www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Happy New Year to you all! It’s 2021 and fingers crossed we can all put the tough year that was 2020 behind us with more hope for the year to come.And if you’re thinking of making changes to your life – be it personal, professional, physical or mental, then this week’s Real Health episode will set you on the right path. James Clear is a world-renowned expert on habits and decision making as the author of one of the fastest-growing email newsletters in history and his articles at jamesclear.com receive 10 million hits each year with his work frequently appearing in publications including the New York Times, Forbes and Business Insider. He is also the author of the hugely successful Atomic Habits which is about transforming your life with tiny changes in your daily behaviour.In this interview, James has some great advice on how to make your 2021 resolutions more productive and focused, he explains why you must start with behaviours that are small and easy to do and he says, if you’re to take anything away from his advice, make sure it is the two minute rule.“Take whatever habit you're trying to build and scale it down to something that takes two minutes or less to do,” he says. “I had this reader, his name's Mitch and he lost a lot of weight, over 100 pounds and when he started going to the gym, for the first six weeks he had a little rule for himself where he wasn't allowed to stay for longer than five minutes. And it sounds ridiculous right?”“But if you take a step back, what you realise is that he was mastering the art of showing up. He was becoming the type of person that went to the gym four days a week even if it was only for five minutes and I think this is a much deeper truth about habits that people often dismiss or overlook which is that a habit must be established before it can be improved.” 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:www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s Christmas Eve! This week’s episode is another in my Life Lessons series and it is with one of my favourite radio presenters and someone I’ve been wanting to interview for a long time.John Creedon has been a mainstay on RTE Radio 1 for the last thirty years with his mix of music and chat and he has also presented TV shows and written books during his long career.He is a favourite of Irish people up and down the country and with his new book called ‘That Place We Call Home’ out now, John joined me on the show to chat about needing a sense of belonging, how he made it from factory worker to RTE presenter, plus why spirituality is so important to him and just what he’ll be doing on Christmas Day.As for the advice he would give to his younger self, he says he is where he always wanted to be and one should never give up.“It won’t stop you worrying,” he tells me. “But I can tell you there will be a few blows along the way. Just be yourself.”Stay healthy and safe and have a wonderful Christmas and do keep in touch with me for more postings on Instagram and Twitter @KarlHenryPT.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:www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So, Christmas has been and gone and I hope you’ve had plenty – but not too much – turkey, ham and stuffing and been able to put your feet up and enjoy some downtime.We’re nearly done with 2020 and can put it all behind us but before we do, I’m joined by someone who has a very particular challenge for 2021.,From the Den to TodayFM and back to RTE on the radio and TV on Saturday nights and with a re-launched Den as well, Ray D’Arcy is someone I grew up with and still love watching the Den since its return.I talk to Ray about his life growing up in Kildare – including a stint in the FCA (!), find out how he got his big break in presenting and we discuss re-finding sport and fitness in his 40s when he discovered a love of running.As it’s New Year’s Eve, we also discuss plans and resolutions for 2021 and one of the challenges that Ray has set himself and which he’s looking for 1,000 people to join him in is Ray’s Marathon Challenge in aid of LauraLynn’s Children’s Hospice.Clock up 26.2 miles – be it running or walking – every week for 52 weeks, can you do it? A marathon a week for the entire year during 2021, that is the challenge and to register and find out more go to RaysMarathonChallenge.ieI want to wish you all a happy and healthy 2021 and do keep in touch with me for daily postings on Instagram and Twitter @KarlHenryPT.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:www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With a week to go before Christmas, I thought, we could either do a show on fitness tips, getting healthy or how to work on your mental health but then I decided why not just have some craic and enjoy ourselves in the festive run-up?Who better to interview than two Tipp lads who have taken over the Irish podcast charts by storm and with TV shows, books, merchandise and whatever else you’re having, they’ve become something of an Irish institution - Johnny McMahon and Johnny O’Brien, aka the hugely successful 2 Johnnies join me on this week’s Real Health to tell me about their plans for Christmas, why they miss their live shows so much and discuss the pressures and criticism from social media.And body image for men, they tell me, is becoming more of an issue.“A lot of people don't talk about body image, you know it's a thing that is kind of associated with girls and Instagram and that kind of stuff and there is a pressure to look good and that pressure is equally as much for men as well.”As for Christmas? For once they’ll actually be turning off their phones and putting the feet up.“Christmas Day is going to be nice, it's going to be spent with the family. We'll probably re-watch our show ten times the next day and we'll chill out and turn off the phone and just relax, it's going to be nice to spend it with people who put up with us at our worst and at our best.”Stay healthy and safe and do keep in touch with me for daily postings on Instagram and Twitter @KarlHenryPT.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:www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.