Women's Health Coach

One of the hardest things about transitioning through life is the changing relationships we experience. Social health is such an important contributor to our overall health and wellbeing, and has been greatly impacted by lockdown. We will always have friendships and support networks which fluctuate as our life circumstances change; and that is ok. However, we all need support.

As a child, many of us had a parent or parents who were (most of the time) in our corner. We had teachers. Other family members. Perhaps coaches or instructors. And we saw friends every day.

As we leave school, for most of us this is when it all changes. Some people leave home away from family. Often our social circles change. And many people drift away from friendships through hobbies, interests or activities.

Sometimes these transitioning periods in our lives are when we experience the most emotional turbulence. When we move to a different location. When we change jobs. When we have a family. When we retire. At these times and always, it is so important to have people on your team who can offer you support and serenity.

It is also frequently during times of transition when people commit to making a fitness, health or wellbeing change. A fresh start. A new beginning.

Take a minute to think about who is on your team or in your corner. If you would like any help or support to manage the chaos and turbulence of life, drop me a DM. Our team of coaches are always here to help 😉🙏

Robbie and I decided to make two big changes this past week which have had an amazing impact on our mental and social health and wellbeing. The first is that we have gone back to the 90’s… and bought a house phone!

I don’t know about anyone else, but I have found these last few weeks of Lockdown harder than the rest of Lockdown put together. I am not sure if it is because the end of Lockdown is in sight, because it’s harder to establish a clear work / life balance when working from home, or because there are so many different practices going on with regards to Lockdown rules (both personally and professionally); however I have recently felt particularly down after spending any amount of time on my mobile and wanted to address this.

Even pre-Lockdown, I would stand at the front of a lecture theatre full of students all sitting next to one another with heads buried in phones. Just yesterday I walked past the park where a group of children were all sitting together, each on their individual phones. The mobile phone is one of the most amazing inventions, yet at the same time it is consuming many lives and has a lot to answer for with regards to mental health and wellbeing.

Even though one of our priorities at Aristos is to help people improve their social relationships and sleep hygiene, I was not always practising what we preach. So, on Saturday I made the decision to make every Sunday an ‘unplugged’ day, which would allow me to spend our family day being truly present with those around me.

When I mentioned this to Robbie, he suggested we go one step further and buy a house phone so we can turn our phones off out-with working hours, and what a difference it has made to our head space this week! We go to bed having been away from our phones for several hours, and leave them off until we have spent some quality time with each other and the boys each morning. We are only a few days in, but I wish we had done this years ago.

Any guesses what the other change was this past week? I’ll tell you some more about it in another post… 😉

I have avoided posting any of my personal thoughts or opinions about the COVID-19 lockdown as I don’t think that social media is the place. However, we have now lived in a state of full or partial lockdown for one whole year; with businesses closed, social isolation, and adverse mental health stats skyrocketing. Whilst I still endeavour to withhold any political opinions, I do think there has been a bias in terms of the COVID-19 health stats which have been actively promoted and shared with the public. I have watched with hope that the extreme measures put in place this past year would somehow include strategies to address one of the real underlying issues in this country. Yet here we are, one year on; and as vaccines slowly begin to revive communities, I fear we are no further forward in terms of our fight against one of the other epidemics that has been ongoing long before COVID-19 was ever a thing. That epidemic is obesity.

There is a wealth of research emerging which shows that obesity is associated with a higher risk of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission as well as poorer outcomes from COVID-19 (Foldi et al., 2020; Malik et al., 2020; Yang et al., 2020). Studies in the United States have shown that having a BMI over 30 increases the risk of being admitted to hospital with covid-19 by 113%, of being admitted to intensive care by 74%, and of dying by 48%! Public Health England reported similar numbers for mortality, with the risk of death from COVID-19 increasing by 90% in people with a BMI over 40 (Public Health England, 2020)!!! Similarly, a report from Italy suggests that 99% of deaths were in patients with pre-existing conditions including those which are commonly seen in people with obesity, such as hypertension, cancer, diabetes and heart diseases (Palmieri et al., 2020). These stats are staggering.

The UK has the third highest death rate from COVID-19 globally and the fourth highest prevalence of overweight at 63.7% (almost 2/3 of the UK population). The United States has the next highest death rate and has 67.9% of the population overweight (Wise, 2021). Think about that for a minute. You are in the minority in the UK if you are a healthy body weight. That is terrifying.

Authors have acknowledged that the age structure of a country, as well as its relative wealth, political response and reporting capacity, has an impact on covid-19 cases, hospital admissions, and deaths; however findings seem to be independent of these contributory factors.

The author of the World Obesity Federation’s report, said: “We now know that an overweight population is the next pandemic waiting to happen. Look at countries like Japan and South Korea where they have very low levels of covid-19 deaths (Japan 8590 and South Korea 1678 deaths compared to UK 125,000 deaths) as well as very low levels of adult obesity (Japan 4.3% and South Korea 4.7% compared to UK obesity rate of 27.8%). They have prioritised public health across a range of measures, including population weight, and it has paid off in the pandemic.”

I can’t help but wonder if the NHS would need protecting if we were a healthier nation, and really do hope that the last year of Lockdown will bring about a change in terms of how people perceive their health and wellbeing. However, this will only happen with an increased awareness and understanding of the facts, as well as an effective support system. Losing weight is far from easy; but neither has the last year of isolation, home schooling and facemasks. And like hand sanitising, weight loss is one action that everyone is capable of, providing the right support and guidance is in place.

If you would like support with your own health or weight loss journey, we are always here to help. Book a free intro chat to find out at www.aristosfitness.as.me/womens-health-intro 🙏

Hi 🙋‍♀️ I’m Kirsty Price and welcome to my Women’s Health Coach page!

I have always been a little resistant to set up a personal ‘work’ page, however over the last few years I have become fascinated by how different the male and female health and fitness journeys are, and how little support / guidance there is available in some key areas for practitioners and women in general.

The health and fitness industry is still in its infancy, with a lot of mistakes to be made and many conflicting beliefs, usually deriving from a lack of knowledge and understanding. This has led to a lot of poorly informed advice and recommendations being made, both on social media and in practice.

In addition, the research and the professionals working in the industry have traditionally been largely dominated by males. Whilst I have the upmost respect for some of these individuals, they cannot possibly begin to understand the impact that some aspects of female physiology have on our health, wellbeing and fitness.

This, along with some personal experiences I have had in watching people close to me struggle with mental health, disordered eating, physical illnesses and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic, have made it abundantly clear that there is an ever increasing gap in the knowledge and understanding relating to health, wellbeing and fitness.

I have a few main goals that I would like to achieve, therefore I also hope this page will help to keep me accountable. If I achieve my goals and the people I love and care about have an opportunity to read evidence and practice based information, then this page will have done it’s job. It might also save .aristos from having to listen to my women’s health chat 😂😉

So here are my future ambitions:

1. To have one of the best holistic health and fitness businesses in the world, which serves to support and educate its members, and help them figure out what health / fitness looks like for them as an individual;
2. To build and support the best team of professionals, who truly care about helping people and are dedicated to informed practice;
3. To start a mental health charity, to link the work of counsellors, the NHS and the fitness industry, with a particular focus on youths and young adults;
4. To complete a PhD in fitness, nutrition and the menopause, to help inform the current guidance available for practitioners.

So I hope you enjoy this page, and here's to making a difference 🤞💛