Amanda's Wellbeing Podcast

Today I chat with veterinarian and fellow animal lover, Dr Chris McComiskie, about pets. Australians love their pets; 61% of households own at least one pet, 40% of households include a dog, making them Australia’s most popular pet, followed by cats.Chris and I discuss all the ways pets can enhance your wellbeing from providing companionship and routine to improving your mental health. Scientific studies have even shown that children growing up in households with dogs can positively impact their immunity. We also touch on the important roles of working dogs in our communities.USEFUL LINKSEastside Vet: https://eastsidevet.com.auMy review of “Apples for the Mind” by Dr Tom Nehmy: https://amandaswellbeingpodcast.com/tom-nehmy/Podcast episode with Dr Tom Nehmy: https://amandaswellbeingpodcast.com/tom-nehmy/HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT THE PODCASTPlease tell your friends about the podcast and share it with them.If you could rate and review the podcast on iTunes, that would be super helpful.Purchasing a book from my website

Today registered nurse, Meg Paech, and I discuss caring for others, especially our elderly population. After two decades of interesting and varied experience ranging from ICU to community care that has taken her all over the world, Meg has established Yellow Door, a company that provides tailored in home care.Many of Yellow Door's clients are elderly, people who want to maintain their independence and live at home. Some of them need a little help e.g. personal grooming and companionship whereas others are approaching the end of their lives and require palliative care. Yellow Door also provides respite care for people looking after loved ones. Meg talks about providing appropriate care with dignity and compassion. She also discusses supporting family and friends facing death of a loved one by explaining to them what dying looks like and using reminiscence therapy.As Australia’s population ages,* the care Meg and her team provide at Yellow Door is vital to honour and support elderly Australians who have often c

In today’s episode I chat with triple Olympian, Jaime Fernandez OLY, about the twists and turns in his journey from remote Arnhem Land to the Australian Institute of Sport where he trained in rowing. Jaime acknowledges all those people who, during his sporting career, showed him care and concern from footy peers to teachers and coaches and helped propel him along the path of sporting excellence.Jaime paints a vivid picture of what it felt like to represent Australia at the 2000 Olympic games in Sydney in the Men’s Eight final. My heart was pounding just listening. I’ve attached a link to a YouTube video of that race - compelling viewing!We discuss Jaime's role at Rowing Australia where he oversees the high performance program as Deputy High Performance Director. He gives us some insight into what it takes to represent Australia in rowing including the phenomenal amount of training required, the mental fortitude, commitment, and support from a team of professionals. Also, at Rowing Australia there is always an

In today’s episode, I chat with passionate and involved supporter of the music and arts industries, Anne Wiberg. Anne has extensive experience in the arts festival space including Director of the Adelaide Fringe Gala, Music Programmer at the Darwin Festival, Programming Director for the Ruby Awards and the list goes on. These days, Anne has her own consulting business, Wiberg, where the focus of her work is on music programming, program producing and event management. Anne is also the Chair of the Board of Directors of Music SA, a not-for-profit organisation that is committed to promoting, supporting and developing contemporary music in South Australia.In addition to all of this, Anne started her career as a social worker so who better to chat with about the link between music and wellbeing than Anne! How music can influence your mood and the therapeutic use of music are the themes of our chat today and we gain some insight into Anne’s favourite pastime, DJing! Definitely harder than it looks :)As someone dee

Today’s episode is a timely one in light of the stresses most of us are facing during the Coronavirus pandemic. I chat with Pamela Chimenti about meditation, mindfulness and being present.Pamela is a yoga and meditation instructor with the International Yoga Alliance. She is also co-founder of The Mindfulness Group, an organisation that aims to improve health and wellbeing through mindfulness, and she’s the author of "The Language of the Soul: Mindfulness from A to Z, Your Roadmap Within".Pamela and I discuss the benefits of meditation and mindfulness including what they can bring to you life. She provides some practical tips about ways to be present and mindful and how to set up a daily mindfulness practice. Pamela is very intuitive and believes the answers we seek to many of life’s problems and riddles are already within us, if we take time to listen to and nurture our souls.I hope you enjoy my chat with the generous and warm Pamela.Links referred to in the podcastThe Mindfulness Group: https://www.themindf

This week I chat with Accredited Sports Dietitian and researcher, Alan McCubbin, all about hydration and sodium status of endurance athletes.Even if you’re not an endurance athlete, Alan is a very interesting person to listen to for an insight into how scientific research works, for example, how do you study cramp when people cannot simply cramp on demand? How do you recruit people to run on a treadmill for 5 hours?During our discussion, Alan delivers some fascinating facts about sweat, we talk about different sweat rates between people, the role of the kidneys in maintaining fluid balance and much more. We take an in depth look at measuring and replacing fluid and sodium in endurance races and training and where the science is at in this area. One thing is for sure, Alan is at the cutting edge in this field of research.Useful linksAlan’s practice, Next Level Nutrition: http://www.nextlevelnutrition.com.au/cms/Next Level Nutrition Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nextlvlnut/Alan’s Social Media handle:

In this episode I give a general overview of protein - what it is, some of the important roles it has in our bodies, how much we need and which foods contain protein. Did you know that protein forms the building blocks of our immune system and that most enzymes, that aid in the thousands of biochemical reactions in our bodies, are proteins?There is so much to know about protein! This episode is the first in a four part series. Keep an eye out for my next three Five Minute Food Facts episodes about protein intake and athletes, protein for people on plant based diets and protein requirements as we age.Links mentioned in the podcast:Essential amino acids: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/essential-amino-acids#definitionYouTube video about epigenetics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYJ_nd9glvwHOW YOU CAN SUPPORT THE PODCASTPlease tell your friends about the podcast and share it with them.If you could rate and review the podcast on iTunes, that would be super helpful.Purchasing a book from my website is an e

In this episode of Amanda’s Wellbeing Podcast I chat with Advanced Accredited Sport Dietician Stephanie Gaskell who is currently working on her PhD about exercised-induced gastrointestinal syndrome at Monash University.Sports nutrition is a vast area and one where our knowledge is expanding all the time. Today, Steph and I focus on how to fuel for endurance events or long training sets. Steph explains the physiological reasons why it is beneficial to take carbohydrate on board when we are exercising for prolonged periods of time e.g. over two hours and what form that carbohydrate should take for the best results. Of course, eating during an event is not always easy and, as you can tell from the topic of Steph’s PhD, can cause gastrointestinal issues for some athletes which can at best be uncomfortable and, at worst, derail an entire race. That obviously comes into our discussion as does what to eat immediately before and after an event.Steph is an accomplished endurance runner herself with some impressive rac

Today I have an entertaining chat with Lyndall Vandenberg, South Australian State Manager of OzHarvest.OzHarvest, an organisation founded by Ronni Kahn AO, collects quality excess food from commercial outlets, like supermarkets, hotels and restaurants, and delivers the rescued food directly to more than 1,300 charities across Australia. Each week OzHarvest rescues 180 tonnes of food from over 3,500 food donors. You might be surprised to hear some of the statistics surrounding food waste in Australia e.g. 4 million people in Australia experience food insecurity each year. The need is real and OzHarvest is playing an enormous role towards addressing this need.Lyndall has never stopped exploring, nor has she been afraid of seeking and implementing change in her life. Lyndall's career started in hairdressing but she knew this did not fulfil her so she moved towards her passion - food, fresh produce and community - and has never looked back. She's worked at farmers' markets, in food styling and photography and at

Today I had the genuine pleasure of interviewing Farrah Furtado. I can truly say Farrah is one of the most inspiring people I have met; when it comes to wellbeing, she walks the talk. Farrah is deeply immersed in yoga, yoga teaching, meditation, fasting and breath-work plus she shares her knowledge with students from all over the world at her yoga school in Portugal, Bend It Like Buddha, and online. She also nourishes her creative side by writing and film production. Farrah has written several books including her best-selling book,The Journey Metamorphosis: Yoga Teacher Fundamentals, and her movie, Atha Gamma, won a plethora of awards.We chat about Farrah's childhood in Canada with her immigrant parents from the Azores, Portugal and about how after years of working at a high pressure job in fashion in Taiwan, her health started to suffer prompting a re-examining of her lifestyle. Farrah chose this point to dive head first into yoga teacher training and it seems, she found her vocation. We chat about the numer

“Sport set me up for life."Today I chat with Dr Amber Halliday OLY. Amber and I talk about her professional sporting career first in rowing, where she won numerous gold and silver medals at the Rowing World Championships and represented Australia at the Olympic Games twice. Amber then moved to cycling, training at the South Australian Sports Institute, where success came to her swiftly. Barely a year into the sport and she’d won the Women's Tour of New Zealand.In January 2011 disaster struck; Amber was in a cycling accident (during a race in Adelaide) which caused traumatic brain injury and several broken bones. We discuss Amber's journey to recovery which included learning to walk and talk again and how, in a moment, her entire identity, that of an athlete, was shattered and she had to reinvent herself. That she did with incredible success and hard work. Amber obtained a PhD in positive psychology with a focus on adolescent mental health and wellbeing and has now launcher her coaching business, She Thrives i

Today I chat with Katie Sarah, an extraordinarily accomplished person. Katie is the first woman in the world to have completed the Seven Seven, that is the Seven Summits (the highest mountain peaks on each of the seven continents) plus the seven volcanic summits of each continent. She is now edging towards the Explorer's Grand Slam.Obviously, Katie's achievement includes the one-and-only, mother-of-them-all, Mount Everest which she summited in 2010 from the northern side (i.e. Tibet). We chat about all of that including what Katie faced on summit day, what motivates her, her training and preparations and some of her other expeditions, like Denali and Mount Elbrus. A strong theme that come through is Katie's ability to set a goal and diligently and patiently work towards it e.g. Katie knew, after her first trip to Mount Everest in 2007, that to successfully summit, she needed to improve her mountaineering skills so she set about acquiring the necessary skills.We also discuss the links between being in the grea

Most of us know that dietary fibre is good for us, especially for our digestion. What we may not have a grasp on is how much do we really need, what does that amount look like as food and what does dietary fibre do in the body that makes it so good for us? If you’re interested in the answers to these questions, tune in to my Five Minute Food Facts (5MFF) podcast on dietary fibre and I’ll explain the answers, and more, for you.If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact me at: https://amandaswellbeingpodcast.com/contact-us/Links referred to in the episode:National Health and Medical Research Council - dietary fibre recommendations: https://www.nrv.gov.au/nutrients/dietary-fibre5MFF Antioxidants: https://amandaswellbeingpodcast.com/antioxidants/5MFF Vitamins & Minerals: https://amandaswellbeingpodcast.com/vitamins-and-minerals/

When Paul graduated from Nursing in the 1980s, he started working in renal (i.e. kidney) care. His career, which has included further study and eminent research roles, has remained focussed on caring for patients with kidney disease. Currently, Paul is the Director, Medical and Clinical Affairs, at Satellite Health Care in California, an institution that aims to improve the quality of life of dialysis patients. Paul has conducted extensive research into this area including resistance exercise for dialysis patients and laughter and humour therapy, and it is laughter therapy that we dive into in today’s discussion.Laughter therapy is a structured treatment carried out by a laughter therapist - it is not simply a comedy style routine. It does not need to be limited to dialysis patients and could (and does) have application to anyone suffering from chronic disease. Laughter therapy is, in essence, an exploration of the link between mind and body and how laughter, which is known to improve mental wellbeing, also e

This week I am excited to welcome back athlete, coach and author Nick Muxlow to chat about his latest book, "Journey to Kona: How to finish your best Ironman triathlon, qualify for Hawaii and have fun doing it”.This is a great episode for all triathletes (even if you don’t aspire to race Kona) because Nick shares his considerable knowledge about triathlon training principles. In order to train effectively, it is important to understand the different training techniques, such as using training zones and why you’re doing so. Today we take a closer look at triathlon swimming techniques, training intensity (i.e. zones), pacing and the all important, yet often overlooked, triathlon mindset. Nick also explains the mechanics of qualifying for Kona and the Roll Down ceremonies.There is loads more useful information in Journey to Kona that we have not had time to cover today. To find out more, you can buy Journey to Kona (via Nick's website or by clicking on the link to my book review).Nick was my first ever podcast g

Today's guest, Ness Stonnill, founded Job Pair, an organisation that helps individuals and businesses make flexible work (including part-time, job sharing and working from home) possible.This podcast is a topical one for Coronavirus times as we go into detail about how to work from home successfully.Ness openly shares her story that led to the founding of Job Pair. She had worked in high pressure senior executive marketing roles in Adelaide and Sydney that eventually caused her to burn out. This manifested as extreme exhaustion and auto-immune disorders. Ness embarked on a long road to recovery that encompassed working on both her physical and mental health. A couple of things that really resonated with Ness were Autogenic Therapy, a self-healing therapy, and discovering Brene Brown (in particular Brown's book “The Gifts of Imperfection”) who she credits with helping change her mindset. Looking inwards and focussing on wellbeing enabled Ness to imagine how she wanted her working life to look - flexible and pr

Today I chat with Sarah Lee who generously shares her inspiring story. Sarah was diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2017 and what she did whilst living through the treatment is truly remarkable. When her oncologist said she should get some exercise, like walking around the block, Sarah knew she could do better than that so she set herself challenges like hiking up a steep trail every week, she decided to run to her chemotherapy treatments and then Sarah challenged herself to run the City to Bay (12km fun run). The challenges just kept getting bigger. Imagine deciding to take up running during, not after, cancer!Sarah has accomplished amazing feats, like running two marathons, but more than anything, Sarah has achieved equanimity. She is happy; she has changed her mind set and approaches life with vigour and compassion. Sarah is generous by nature and she wants to support others who are facing breast cancer so she is fund raising for Breast Cancer Trials. (A group of world-leading breast cancer doctors and

Today I have an inspirational chat with Beck Butler, endurance athlete, adventurer and owner of dedicated trail store, BKT-Trail.Beck's enthusiasm for all things trail - running or hiking - is contagious. She shares some crazy stories of her Marathon de Sables (MDS) experience. In case you have had your head buried in the sand (ha ha) and have not heard of the MDS, it is a multi-stage race through the Sahara desert (250km in 7 days) in the searing heat where you have to carry everything - all your clothes, food, equipment and sleeping gear. What stands out in Beck’s recounting of her ultra endurance stories is not so much the physical pain or her achievements but the friendships forged.A few years ago, Beck left her legal career to set up BKT-Trail. BKT-Trail is more than a retail space, it is an inviting and friendly meeting place for trail enthusiasts. BKT-Trail stocks all the brands Beck loves like Saucony, On Running, Salomon and Ultimate Direction, and specialises in super light weight gear. We shoot the

Today I chat with John Stamoulos about Breathwork. Breathwork is a safe, non-invasive breathing technique known as conscious connected breathing that works on many different levels, for example, at a physical level it relieves tension and stress from the body and at an emotional level people connect to and release suppressed emotions which activates a natural healing process that can ultimately lead to self-mastery.On his website, John says; "Breath is life. Breathwork opens the door to experiencing more of life in the present because it resolves the influences, traumas and stored emotions of the past."Another component of Breathwork is working with affirmations and John suggests two; “I choose love” and “ I choose peace”. I like these for their simplicity. John explains how to work with affirmations.Breathwork can be done in private session or a group setting. Here is a link to John's website to find out more: https://www.johnstamoulos.comJohn’s facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/johnstamoulosbreathwork

This week I chat with Adrian Barei, founder and owner of Podium Physio, a boutique physiotherapy practice in Adelaide with a special niche in professional bike fitting. Adrian and I discuss common cycling injuries, the importance of complementary strength work for cyclists and the benefits of a professional bike fit. Who knew you could attend a four day conference entirely dedicated to bike fit / optimisation? I certainly didn't.We also chat about Adrian's 13 year career in athletics as a pole vaulter, during which he represented Australia four times.This was an informative discussion for me and I hope you find it so too.If you want to contact Adrian or book in a bike fit (highly recommended), here are the links to Podium Physio:Website: http://podiumphysio.com.auFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/podiumphysioaus/?fref=ts