Ep 4: In conversation with Charlotte Holmes

Foreign.

Welcome to the All Is Wellness Podcast with me, Emma Naylor. Join us in open and honest conversations with wellness professionals and industry experts. Welcome back to the All Is Wellness Podcast. This week's guest is the wonderful Miss Charlotte Holmes. Charlotte is a model, former Miss England, a yoga teacher, a group fitness instructor and a personal trainer. She appeared in Britain's Next Top Model, where she finished third after being told by one of the judges she wasn't slim enough to be a model. She later appeared on Ex on the Body SOS with Vicki Patterson as one of the lead trainers. She's one of the founding trainers on the Fit app, where her love for teaching allowed her to train people from the comfort of their own home. Her love for yoga started as a tool to offset the HIIT training and distance running. After three London marathons, one in Paris and Great North Run full of injuries and niggles, she hung up her trainers for good and turned to yoga to heal in both body and mind. Fast forward to 2020 and she became head of yoga for Virgin Active UK with a hope to inspire everyone to get out of their heads and into their bodies more often. Learn to love exercise and move for your mental health. Charlotte. What a resume.

Wow. I mean, you say all that and it's really funny because you say Miss England and then Head of Yoga and they seem to almost not. It's like they shouldn't go together. Right. It's almost like a contradiction.

No, absolutely. I mean, I have known you how long? For a few years, obviously. We met after the Ibiza retreat. I know we got on so well so quickly and I knew so much about your story, but I never knew that you were told during Britain's Next Top Model that you were not slim enough to be a model.

Interesting. And I mean, Gosh, that was 10 years ago now. So, yeah, I did the series six and it was a. It was a really awesome experience. But, yeah, came third and got kind of got kicked out and one of the judges just really had it in for me and just didn't. I was kind of too athletic. Bear in mind, this was a while ago and actually back then, unfortunately, the industry was a little bit tainted and. And fitness modeling wasn't really a thing then and it became a thing and that's kind of where I thought I fell into that bracket eventually. So I found my niche and I found my love and my passions collided. So it was fine. But at the time, yeah, it was very much, you aren't actually in the right shape to do just, you know, the catwalk stuff, which was kind of okay as well. I was fine with that. But it was an interesting, it was an interesting time in my life.

Yeah. And then obviously I was reading about X on the beach. I read that part. Not reading Body SOS with Vicki Patterson.

I wasn't on X on the Beach.

Just to clarify, Shah has not been on X on the beach, but talk me through. Obviously we saw that on mtv. How was it, how was it filming? It must have been such an amazing experience.

It really was. And it was a real shame they only did the one series because it could have been really cool. Essentially, Vicky herself has gone through, as I'm sure you'll know if you followed her life and her story and her work. She's gone through fluctuations in, in her weight, she's gone through fluctuations in her love for different types of exercise and it's taken her a long while to kind of come to this body confident place that she is now, which is a really nice place to see her. But it was a really great show that she hosted and essentially it was getting lots of different people, people from all different walks of life across the country together to learn different ways that they can exercise. So for example, I had three, three people that I were looking after, two guys and one girl. All had very different backgrounds, very different fitness goals and their experience with exercise and their relationship with their own bodies was, were all very different as well. It was really interesting for me as a trainer getting to put together 12 week programs for each of those people and just how different those programs look. And it just goes to show, fitness is not one size fits all. You know, exercise and wellness and all of that stuff is very much a personal journey. And yeah, it just really highlighted to me getting to do that show how personal it is and how different we all are. And yeah, it was a fantastic show to be a part of. And I'm just sad that we didn't do another six series, to be honest.

Well, let's hope they, let's hope they bring it back because I do remember watching it and like, as you said, it was really interesting because I think growing up, seeing the fitness industry and seeing, you know, certain workouts, often it's a one size fits all. You should run to lose weight or you should do this to, you know, unwind from work. But I think as you said, everyone has very, very different ways. You know, for me, doing yoga, first thing in the morning, I fall asleep. It's so relaxing. Whereas for some people, they absolutely love it. It's such a Great way to start the day. I prefer running in the morning. People prefer running in the evening. And I think it's so important to fuel your body with stuff that makes you feel good, not what the person next to you thinks is good for them, for sure.

And I think that's where this whole idea of becoming more mindful, implementing mindfulness into your day, helps you to reconnect with your body and then essentially helps you answer that question, right? What do like to do? How do I like to move my body? Because most people don't really know, you know, how often have you actually sat? Well, what. What exercise would I like to do? 9 times out of 10, people are doing the exercise to punish themselves for something they've eaten or to. Because they, you know, because they've set themselves this ridiculous goal and they think they have to do that, or they're aiming to look a certain way and they think that doing that sort of exercise will bring them happiness. And I think actually that this is the one good thing, and this is a big statement. This is the one good thing that Covid and isolation and lockdown has brought about is this renewal of love for slowing down, this renewal of the idea that we can do less and actually get more from that. We don't have to cram a load of stuff into our day. We don't have to do exercise every day. We don't have to do HIIT classes 10 times a week. We can slow down and take a bath and read a book and go for a walk. And that is all equally as beneficial for our health. And remember, that's both. That's our mental health and our physical health. And health has become an overall thing rather than, I think, before COVID It's very much, oh, no, being healthy. You have to do this fitness class. And this fitness class looks like this.

No, absolutely. And I guess just kind of touching on that. You know, since you mentioned Covid, how do you think lockdown has affected people's both mental and physical health?

Well, I mean, people are exercising more, right? People are have the time, they're working from home, they've got more time. They've got more time to. To play around with these different things. And essentially, I think we went through this weird cycle at the very beginning of Lockdown one. Everyone was forced inside. And we spent a few months being forced physically inside, but also, interestingly, being forced inside our heads. And I know that lots of people struggle with their mental health during lockdown one. And a lot of people were forced to face demons and struggles, which is tough, right? It's a tough time. But what it has hopefully brought about for a lot of people is that need to move for your mental health. So it's like, okay, I'm all by myself for all of this time. What can I do to make myself feel better? And it's access to these apps, these websites, the stuff that we can access on our phone that can help us to implement these little moments of mindfulness throughout the day to help us feel better. And if nothing else, I think that this time has allowed people to do that. It's allowed people to do that and it's allowed people to see that it's a really important thing. It's something that we should have been doing before. It's something that we should be allowing time for.

It's.

It's a really essential tool for. For humans to stay mentally and physically well. Your mental health is a big part of that. It's just shone a light on that, I think. And that's a really great thing. And it's a really important thing. And like you say, yoga isn't for everyone. Perhaps not, but there's something for everyone, right? There is some sort of movement that you can do that will make you feel good and explore that. Right? What does that look like for you? It doesn't have to be what your mate does. It doesn't have to be what you see on Instagram. It doesn't have to be anything. But what is it for you? How does that look for you? And spend some time working that out. And once you figure that out, actually, you know, the world's your oyster because then you start to move and it feels good and it makes you feel good. And ultimately all of those secondary goals like fat loss and muscle gain and toning of the body and, you know, all of those things, those aesthetics that maybe initially you thought you wanted to. To work for will will come, but move for your mind move, because it will make you feel good and feel better and that in turn will spur you on to do more, right?

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think that there was such a big focus, and I think you just mentioned it there on kind of the weight loss, the muscle gain. And I think that during the first lockdown, we all kind of went through this phase, including myself, of saying, I'm going to run every day and I'm going to use this lockdown to get really, really fit and healthy. And then the second lockdown came and I was sort of like less motivated. And then the third lockdown I seem to be eating everything in the house because it's like, I feel that, you know, when is, when is lockdown time going to be over? And I feel like there was all these focuses on, well, what have you achieved during lockdown? Well, actually I've achieved staying sane and actually trying to live a normal life. And I think that there's so much.

Hey, do you know what? That in itself is a massive achievement. So you take.

Yeah, and I think that's the thing is I think there's, you know, I found myself definitely looking at social media more because I'm at home more. You know, that kind of scrolling and looking as when you're in an office or when you're kind of working and you're in meetings, you have less time on your own. I'm at home pretty much the whole day on my own. And I think that I definitely find times where I'll scroll and I'll look and I'll find myself saying, wow, this person's achieved so much during lockdown. Wow, look how much weight they've lost. And actually I can't compare their journey to my journey because everyone's experience of lockdown has been so different. And there's things that maybe I've worked on that, you know, you may not be able to physically see, but mentally I know that I've worked through them. Or as I said before, it could just be that I've actually stayed sane and I've worked on my job and you know, I've released X, Y and Z and I've actually been able to just really focus on that. So I think that talking about mental and physical health is, is so important. And it's not just about what we post on social media, it's actually about the journey that we've had. You know, we've nearly been going through this for a year. Like, I first thought the first lockdown was going to be two weeks and we were going to be done. I was so naive to think that that's how it was going to be. And there's also that flip side of, oh, a year on why did I not take advantage of all this time? And it's that horrible kind of back and forth battle with your own head saying, I should have done more, I should have done less. Why didn't I do this, why didn't I do that?

Is that not an interesting battle in itself though? Think about it. We did. We've gone through three, we're going through the third three lockdowns, right? And it's been like this ebb and flow of lockdown, release lockdown, release lockdown. Okay, I'm sure, I'm sure eventually we won't be in lockdown anymore, right? That's bound to come to an end. But if we think about this, let's say that it was going to be a forever thing, what would you do differently? Would you look at your workout regime differently? Would you look at the way that you trained differently? Would you look at the way that you ate different? Would you look at your day to day differently? What would, what would you do to maximize the out of lockdown time versus in lockdown time? It's just an interesting way to look at life because ultimately there's going to be peaks and troughs in life of busy times, times when you've got more time in your hands, there's going to be peaks and troughs in terms of success and failure, in terms of happiness and sadness, in terms of all these things. And actually you can start to implement wellness in terms of healthy body, healthy mind into your life, no matter what the ebb and flow is, then you've got something you can hold on to, right? Then you've got something tangible that you can take on forever. Because actually that's what we need. That's what we need as humans is something that we can do every day or, or once a week or whatever, but something that we can take through any point of our life. Whether or not we're happy or sad or, or rich or poor or love or heartbroken, we're going to take that because we know that it makes us feel good and it's personal to you and it's going to work for you and that's what you've got to hold on to. That's what you've got to find. So if you can find that little bit, that nugget, that golden nugget of your mental wellness and however that looks, it might be physical, it might be not. But how can you implement that into your daily routine to make sure no matter where your life's going, no matter what's happening externally, you can come back to that internally and that's always going to be there for you.

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think you just sort of saying that triggered a sort of thought of, you know, what have I learned during lockdown? I think the main things for me that I'll take away is one, for me, a morning routine is now a non negotiable. And I think I always avoided having a morning routine because I just thought I don't have the time, I just need to get up and go, go, go. Whereas now, because I don't have that commute and I'm pretty much not leaving my house to go to London at all, you know, to go to go to whatever it is, meetings, whether it's to go to the office, whether it's to work from a co working space, I have this kind of extra hour and I've therefore allowed myself to have that morning routine. And I now know that moving forward, that for me is a non negotiable. If it means I have to wake up an hour earlier, so be it. You know, for me it sets up my day. And when I have those times where, you know, I've overslept or I've gone to bed a little bit later and I don't do that morning routine, I feel that effect for the rest of the day massively. And I think the second thing for me is community. I think that it's made me realize how important it is to be able to connect with people because obviously we haven't been able to connect. I mean, I haven't seen you for months, but I've spoken to you so many times and you know, even on Instagram or on the phone or on FaceTime, I feel like we've been able to connect. And I think for me it's made me realize that the power of social media and technology can be amazing if we use it in the right way. Not to use it to say I need to compare myself to what this person is doing, but to actually go, I can connect with people and I can find like minded people to connect with virtually if I'm unable to see them in real life.

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

And I think that hopefully moving forward people are going to take, you know, as you said, those really small golden nuggets and say, this is something I learned during lockdown. This is a non negotiable for me. And moving forward, whether we go back into lockdown, stay out of lockdown, life's good, life's bad. Things seem easy, things seem hard. These are non negotiables that I'm going to implement into my life every single day for sure.

And that's got to be like, that's just a good life lesson, isn't it? I think it's just, it's shone a light on Covid, shone a light on those things that should have been important before, but they're definitely important now. They're definitely important because your mental wellness, your mental, well Being your mental health is that has to come first because if that starts to fade and that starts to get affected your there are going to be struggles elsewhere. So get that as a top of the priority list for sure.

Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean just again sort of making it relevant to lockdown. What have you been doing that you found has kept you sane and happy and healthy during lockdown?

I have, I mean I would like to say I've done something really fabulous like learn how to cook or I don't know, like can do a one handed handstand. I've actually been really enjoying just extra long walks with my dog have been my thing. Yeah. Getting to, getting to walk almost walk aimlessly with Peggy. It's been really lovely just to kind of say well do you know what, I've got time and I'm just gonna take the time say no to something else and go for a walk with my dog. It's been a really just, just her and I, you know that's been my, that's been my thing. That's my non negotiable, that'll be my nugget taking, I'll be taking out for sure.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's an, I mean I, I as you know I got a dog just when was it? December. And I've done exactly the same. It's just, you know, rather than it being a tick box exercise to say must take the dog for a walk, it's actually being able to say on a Saturday or on a Friday morning or whatever day it is, just walk and just be with your thoughts and be with your feelings rather than going well I need to walk her for X amount of time because I have to get to this meeting and I have to see this person. I have to do that. So. No, absolutely. I totally resonate with that. So obviously as we spoke about seeing people using movement and mindfulness during lockdown has been such an amazing way that so many people have coped. Do you think people will carry on doing that or do you think we'll go back to normal life as if nothing ever happened?

I'm hopeful that we will continue those habits. I really think that there's been lots of people won't but I think actually if you felt a benefit from it, there's no reason why you're not going to keep it up. I definitely will be and I'll be encouraging you know, everyone I know, my friends and clients and you know, colleagues and stuff to be keeping it up as well. I think there's just Been this kind of global sort of awakening in a way where people have gone, wow, that. That didn't matter. That wasn't important. Oh, God, I could have said no to that. I didn't have to do that because, look, we've managed to do almost nothing, and I'm fine. And maybe I'm not fine, maybe I'm not fine all the time, but. But I'm fine, you know? So I'd like to. I'm hopeful that we. That we will. Yeah. I'm hopeful that people will continue on with those. With those good habits, I guess. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think that. I think that, as you said, a lot of people will realize that they've made space for things or they've been forced to make space for things that maybe they didn't prioritize before. And actually, until you've done something, you don't know how amazing it makes you feel. You know, for example, something that I've been doing, which is absolutely wild to even say I've been doing, it's not that wild, but, you know, it's locked down. Everything seems quite wild. I've been doing. It's so funny to say I've been doing dance workouts on YouTube. I never, ever would have done that. I thought, I have to do hit, I have to do spinning, I have to do all.

And are you having the best time ever when you're doing them?

Yeah, best time ever, honestly. I mean, my cats and my dog look at me like I'm a little bit crazy, but I feel so good and liberated. And it's not one of those workouts, as you said, that I'm doing because I feel like I should be working out and punishing myself or going, I want to have a big breakfast and therefore I need to do a HIIT class and burn X amount of calories. I'm doing it because it feels. Feels good and it's fun to move that way.

Yeah. And you've just hit nail the head because this is why. Why you should move always. Unless you're an athlete and you're training for something in particular. Right. That's different. You have a training schedule. If you are a human being with a normal job and you're not training for anything, your movement should always feel good. It should always make you feel good. Even a hit class can make you feel good. Right. But it shouldn't be because you're punishing yourself. If you're doing an exercise and you're. And you're dragging unenjoyable, that's Not a workout. That's silliness. That's just stupidity. It's a waste of your time. It's a waste of your time. Find a movement that feels good, do that, do more of it. Do it all the time.

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think that that's again, a massive thing that I've taken away that I would go to the gym at 5 o' clock in the morning and by about 3, 3 o' clock I'd feel exhausted because I'd be doing something and pushing my body past boundaries that I shouldn't be. That I should be going. Actually, Emma, you need to listen to your body. You don't need to do the fifth hit class of the week, or you don't need to do two sessions in one day. And having that taken away from me, I've had to be, you know, I don't have weights in the house, I don't have a spin bike in the house, I don't have all the equipment at a gym. So I've had to think outside of the box and think actually what makes me feel good. A thousand burpees does not make me feel good. But dancing to a YouTube video does make me feel very good. I need to do more of that. No, absolutely. So just to kind of finish off, what would be your one piece of advice on anything for our listeners?

Oh, write a priority list. Yeah, write a priority list. What do you want to get done in your day? What are your priorities for your day? And look at the list, look at the list. Because I tell you what, it's an interesting one. You start to write things down and you start to go, oh, yeah, that and that and okay, and then put them in order. Right? Write the list and then put them in order of which is the first, the most important thing and which is the least important thing that you've got to get done that day? And you'd be surprised. I think you'd be surprised. Now, the list that you'd write versus the list you'd written before lockdown, perhaps you look at it and actually the priorities are maybe a little bit muddled up.

Yeah.

But write a list of stuff you need that you want to get done in a day and in a list of priorities. Move the mindfulness and the movement up the list. If it's at number one, you're doing good, and if it's not, move it up the list. Yeah, and try that for a few weeks, see how you feel.

No, absolutely. Well, listen, Charlotte, thank you so much for being on this week's. Podcast. I've absolutely loved talking to you about mindfulness. You know, I always come to you to talk about things like that, so it's so great to be able to share that with all of our listeners. You can head over to Charlotte's Instagram, which is Ms. Charmes, to try out one of her virtual yoga sessions and find out how you can work with her. Thank you so much again for being the guest on this week's podcast.

Thank you for having me.

We hope you enjoyed this week's podcast. Please leave us a review. If you did, head over to our Instagram page, alliswellnesspodcast, and let us know what you think. We look forward to welcoming you next week for more open and honest conversations.