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00:00Julia Bradbury has walked us through Britain's most beautiful landscapes on programs like
00:04Countryfile. And she's taken us to the ends of the earth on shows like Planet Earth Live.
00:08And for years, she's been championing the healing power of nature and movement.
00:13How am I living? How much time am I spending sleeping well, eating well,
00:18being with the people that I love? How much time am I spending exercising? How much time
00:23am I spending journaling? But in 2021, Julia's life changed overnight. A breast cancer diagnosis
00:29forced her to confront something she never expected. Despite all her walking, all her time
00:34outdoors, all the things she thought she was doing right, she wasn't actually as healthy as she
00:39believed. But it's how she reacted to the diagnosis that mattered most. I just looked up and I said
00:44to myself out loud in the garden on my own, waiting for my kids to come back, which I was
00:47desperate,
00:48I was desperate to see. I am going to make sure that I am outside in nature every single day
00:53of
00:53my life from this point until the day I drop down as a yoga granny at 103.
00:58Today, she's going to share how she went from TV presenter to wellness guru and why her most
01:03recent expedition to Antarctica taught her more about the power of the human body and mind than
01:08she ever could have expected. Julia Bradbury, TV presenter, author and wellness queen. Can we say
01:14that? You can say that. Definitely. I'll take that from you. Thank you. Lovely to be here. And I know
01:19you and I have spoken about how we wanted to sit down and have this talk. So here we are.
01:22Absolutely. I mean, you and I met on a panel and we were talking about food for the planet,
01:27how to eat better, how to take better care of our surroundings, of each other, of ourselves. And
01:31I think that's something that has really run through your whole career because you've always
01:35talked about this, this idea of, you know, thinking about the planet. You've walked all over it. You've
01:41made all these amazing shows. But I also know that you've spoken a lot in the past about these kind
01:47of
01:47personal experiences that really triggered you to really start paying attention. And I really want to
01:52ask you about those and those specific tipping points. So I wonder if maybe you could explain
01:56to me a little bit about certain moments in your life that made you think, right, health is really,
02:01really serious for me now. Okay. Well, I think like most people, when you sit down and you sort of
02:08start to write out your health journey, it's much more complicated than you might at first think.
02:15And also not many people do it. So I do it now because I've become very interested in the world
02:21of functional medicine and functional medicine practitioners specialize in getting to the root
02:27cause of disease and issues. So rather than going to see your GP say, saying, I'm not sleeping or I've
02:34got headaches or I've got something wrong with my stomach. And then they try and work out what's the
02:37best pharmaceutical drug to give you for that, to treat you for that, because they've got 10 minutes,
02:42they need to get you in and out. It's more of a deep dive into, okay, well, why aren't you
02:46sleeping?
02:47Are there some other reasons? Are there some emotional reasons? Are there some physical reasons?
02:51What time do you finish eating? Are you drinking? What foods are you eating late at night? Are you
02:56exercising very vigorously late at night? All sorts of, you know, really pertinent questions.
03:01So I've started doing this more in later life. But I think in my 30s, that's when I started to
03:08lean
03:08on nature, really as a crutch in adulthood. I've always been exposed to nature. I'm very lucky. I
03:14have a very lovely dad, who took me walking from this age, you know, when I was a tiny little
03:20girl,
03:20and I went to school in Sheffield, and we used to go walking in the Peak District all the time.
03:23And they were really special times for us, because it was father and daughter bonding time. But also,
03:30it was this exposure to huge, lovely, big, rugged landscapes. And now I know that he was exposing
03:38my microbiome to good things, my gut bacteria, because you breathe in very healthy microbes when
03:44you're in the great outdoors. And when you go to different places, and you're surrounded by
03:48different trees and vegetation and soils, that exposure is very good for your immunity as well.
03:55So as well as building our own relationship, he was building up my resilience. And also what he
03:59was doing was seeding in my DNA, a deep love of nature that would stay with me for my whole
04:04life
04:04and continues to be here now. When I was in my 30s, I was struggling emotionally, I was having some
04:09really tricky times at work. And I had some personal stuff happening as well. And it as as I was
04:16talking
04:16to a friend about this yesterday, problems never come at once, do they? You expect in life, maybe,
04:21that the tough times will come, and it will, this will happen, and then you'll deal with it. And
04:25then maybe something else will happen, and you'll deal with it. But actually, sometimes, very often,
04:30they all pile on to each other. It's like something goes wrong personally, and then something happens
04:33at work, and then there's a financial thing. And then there's something in the house that, you know,
04:37burst pipe. And you're sort of left with this overwhelm going, why is this all happening now?
04:42And you have to really adopt these coping strategies. So this was happening to me in my 30s.
04:47And that's when I, as an adult, realized that being in nature and walking was incredibly helpful to my
04:53mental health. That you can go outside, and you can walk, and you can move your body. And we now
04:58know
04:58that the science of physiology proves that this is the case. First of all, you put your mind into a
05:03different place. Your mind actually moves into a very calm state when you're moving through nature,
05:10when you're looking at fractal patterns, when you're looking, when you're, when you're walking
05:14through a green space. Human beings understand green more than any other creature on the planet.
05:19So naturally, you are calming your nervous system, your parasympathetic nervous system.
05:25So that's number one. And then the movement itself is also having a calming effect on you.
05:30And you're nodding your head. I know you, I know.
05:33Because everything is revealed to me on a walk.
05:34Yeah, it is, isn't it? It's like, it's, I see, I walk past the trees, and I really notice them
05:40in my
05:40peripheral vision. Maybe you're walking up a mountain, and I notice how I'm on an upward incline,
05:45and then maybe you get to the top, and you look out at that view. All of this is deeply
05:50soothing for
05:51the mind. When you're looking at clouds, for example, or when you're looking out at sea, your eyes and your
05:56brain engage in something called soft fascination. And that is that beautiful thing where you're not
06:01doing anything, you're not thinking about anything, you're not using any of your cognitive
06:07abilities. You're just being and watching and receiving the messages from nature. And very few
06:14of us do that regularly enough.
06:16I love the term soft fascination. That's really nice.
06:20So that was the first time, that was the first trigger point, if you like. I don't really call
06:24it a trigger point. It was a moment of realisation. And really, all I was doing was keying back to
06:29everything I'd instinctively learned as a little girl walking across the peak with my dad.
06:33I think another moment for me is when I came back from my mastectomy. I had a breast cancer
06:40diagnosis in 2021. And when I came home after that, and we can talk about how I prepared myself
06:45for that, because I did some unusual things in the lead up to all of that, and post. But when
06:52I came
06:52home, I sat down in my garden, my children went back from school, it was an October day, the sky
06:58was blue,
06:58the sun was shining. And I have this beautiful table. And it's made out of a Nicaraguan hardwood.
07:04And I actually planted sister trees to this table in Nicaragua when I was filming many,
07:11many years ago. And how I ended up with this table is a long, long story. But it was meant
07:15to be mine.
07:16And I love it with all my heart. So I was feeling the wood underneath my fingertips. And I just
07:21looked
07:21up and I said to myself out loud in the garden on my own, waiting for my kids to come
07:25back, which I was
07:25desperate, who I was desperate to see, I'm going to make sure that I'm outside in nature every single
07:31day of my life from this point, until the day I dropped down as a yoga granny at 103. And
07:38it was
07:38a promise I made to myself. Because on occasion, even though I've always had this deep seated love
07:44of nature, and even though I've made all these wonderful programs and walks, and obviously understand
07:50the value of it, sometimes life gets busy. And you'll know this, you don't go out, you might be
07:56stuck writing all day by your by your laptop, if you're writing a book or an article, or maybe you're
08:01in a TV studio, and you get to the studio when it's still dark, and you leave when it's still
08:05dark.
08:06So there is no time outside, unless you build it into your life, and create something that I've coined
08:13nature snacks. Now, when I'm having those days, which I still have, I'm still busy, I still
08:19have that, you know, those crazy, chaotic lives that many of us do. I've got three children,
08:24they go to different schools, I've got a career, I'm writing books, I'm cooking, I'm cleaning,
08:28I'm doing all of those things that we have to manage. But now my promise to myself comes to
08:34every day, because I build in these nature snacks. So when I'm sitting for an hour and a half at
08:39the
08:39laptop, I have a little chime that goes off going bing, it's like time to go outside and have a
08:43little
08:43walk, or time to go outside and just sit under a tree for a moment and do some breath work.
08:48Whatever it is, it's time to go outside, time to go outside and walk the dog. And I pepper my
08:53day
08:53with those moments.
08:56I also want to ask you whether nature helped you in those difficult moments that you've mentioned
09:02throughout your life. You mentioned that you went through surgery for breast cancer. I mean,
09:06that is something that no one is ever prepared for. It's really heavy. But was that something that
09:12was a little bit easier to weather because you had this relationship with the outdoors,
09:16and you did things like breath work? Were there other coping strategies that helped?
09:21100%. When I came home, I was obviously quite immobile. You know, you've been through,
09:26as you said, this very, very big operation. I mentioned before that I prepared myself for it.
09:32I did look into all the details. I wanted to know what's going to happen to me. Where am I
09:38going to be
09:39cut open? Which muscles will be affected? What happens when you're in surgery? All quite gruesome
09:44stuff. But I wanted to know. And I did what's called prehab. I got myself strong. I really worked
09:50on my upper body. I worked on my arms. I mean, they cut through your pectoral muscles. You know,
09:54you're sat upright. It's a big old up. So I was as prepared as I could be physically. Emotionally,
10:02I was a mess. Because you're in the unknown. I certainly was in the unknown. I had no idea
10:07what was on the other side. What happens when your breast is removed? And even if you're having
10:14reconstruction, how does that feel? And what sort of pain are you in? And can you move? You don't
10:19know. I mean, people can tell you, the surgeon can talk to you about their experience of other
10:24people going through that. But you just don't really know. So the emotional side was harder to get
10:29a handle on before the operation. After the operation, I can tell you, when I was still
10:35in the hospital bed, I felt just utter relief. This thing that I didn't know was going to happen
10:41had happened. And there I was. And I couldn't really feel properly because I had still had
10:45painkillers. But I was through it. And I knew that what had to happen had happened. So the
10:49relief was, oh, it was like a... It was palpable. And it was just such an emotional shift for
10:57me. And then I started doing gentle movement from... I started going up and down the stairs
11:04in the hospital. I was moving. I wanted to move as quickly as possible. I started rolling
11:08my shoulders. That was all I could do. You know, I could do yoga stands. And then I was
11:12literally down to rolling my shoulders. And when I got home, I was in the garden every
11:17day, walking really slowly. And I have two gorgeous trees outside my bathroom window.
11:22I have a horse chestnut tree and a London plane. And they're big, mature trees. And they're
11:27lovely. In October, they're not looking their best. But still, these trees were my
11:31friend. And I still do this every morning. I sit on my windowsill and I do breath work
11:36and I get the morning light in my eyes as a way to kickstart my hormones and also start
11:41the day as gently as possible so that I'm not running on cortisol all day. And I sat every
11:49morning, perched on the window ledge, safe because there's a little balcony underneath
11:53there and just spoke to the trees. It's like, how are you doing today? Yeah, I see you've
11:58got a new branch there. And yeah, I'm okay. I'm in a little bit of pain, but I'm managing
12:03and oh, look, there's a little sprouty bit happening. And those trees are my friends to
12:08this day. I love those trees. And I still look at them every morning. I'm like, hi, how
12:12are you? And they absolutely helped me get through everything. 100%. Alongside a very
12:19loving family, a brilliant sister, a wonderful mum, gorgeous children, a supportive partner.
12:24I'm very, very fortunate. And I know that. And that's part of my gratitude work every
12:28morning. But the trees are there for me. And what I love about nature is that it's steady
12:35and it's sure, but it's always changing. And it's a really good lesson for us all.
12:39If you think that life is steady as she goes, and there'll never be any ups and downs, and
12:45there'll never be a winter, and they'll, you know, you won't have a summer again, look
12:49at nature, because that's what our lives are like.
12:51This is why I love a transitional season. I feel like it always reminds you that nothing
12:56is permanent.
12:57Yeah, I do love a hot climate. I love that. I mean, I'm half Greek, so I do love the
13:01heat.
13:02But you're absolutely right. To see the changes, to walk. I mean, I'm enjoying life at the
13:08moment with blossoms and wisteria.
13:10Oh, it's lovely outside.
13:10And for me, I mean, I love a blossom. In fact, I did a post last week having a bit
13:15of a tough
13:15time, and also had to come into central London and find a parking space, which in itself
13:19is really torturous. I managed it, and I managed to find a parking space underneath a little
13:25blossom tree. And I saw that as a little sign, a little glimmer. They're called glimmers
13:30when you have, you know, something, your life's not going really well, and there are these
13:34little glimmers of hope and joy. So I parked underneath the blossom tree, and I gave it
13:37a hug, and I did a bit of Qigong shaking underneath it, and there were people walking past on the
13:41street going, a little bit like that. And I was like, you know what? This is my moment.
13:45I need it. I haven't been outside today. This is it. This is my nature snack, and I'm going
13:49to make the most of it.
13:50Oh, that's wonderful. I really like the idea that, I mean, so many people have come on this
13:54podcast and talked about this, and the idea that hugging a tree can really sort you out.
14:00Mm-hmm. There's been quite a few people that have mentioned it, especially when we talked
14:04about our tips. And I know that having written this amazing book full of tips, you have so
14:09many. But I also do want to ask you for a few, if I may, because I know that you're
14:13somebody
14:13who, you know, you had a really great sense, as you were saying, of what it was like to
14:18commune with nature, the importance of being outside, you know, being healthy in particular
14:22ways. But you also had, like, a really full-on TV career. As you say, a family, you know,
14:28illnesses that affected you that you weren't expecting, was there a bit of a cliff for you
14:33where you realized, oh, maybe I'm not actually as healthy as I thought I was. I could do more.
14:39Oh, yes. I mean, after the breast cancer diagnosis, and I call it that, it's the, I don't own it
14:45anymore. It's, I've been through it, and I've come out the other side. After that, that is
14:50what instigated this turnaround. That's what I really, that's when I really started to look
14:55and go, right, what is health? Because I thought I was pretty healthy. I think I got resilience
15:02and sturdiness confused with health as well, because I could push through anything. People
15:09often comment that I have an energy, and they go, oh, they talk about, Julie, your energy,
15:13gosh, I wish I had your energy. And that energy has been very powerful for me, and has helped
15:18me achieve things, and has helped me with multitasking. But it's, as well as being a superpower,
15:23it's a weakness, because I wasn't ever listening to my body. I was never, I didn't think about
15:28sleep. I just got, I, you know, if I needed to finish one show, get on an airplane, and
15:34go and do another, that's what I did. And I could do that for weeks and weeks and weeks
15:39at a time. If I needed to have an early call, I don't like, I'm still, I still like slow
15:45mornings, I can, I can say, but if it's an early call, and a late night, the night before,
15:48whether it's social, or mostly it would be work, and I would do it, I would push through
15:52it. And I think the most important thing I have learned about health that I would impart
15:58to anyone is, health is really learning to understand and listen to your body, and actually
16:04take stock. Go back to the functional medicine maxim, which is root cause. Actually spend some
16:12time and look, how am I living? How much time am I spending sleeping well, eating well, being
16:19with the people that I love? How much time am I spending exercising? How much time am I
16:24spending journaling? How much time am I spending reading? I mean, there's, there are great stats
16:28around reading. If you read for six minutes a day, it has a profoundly positive impact on
16:34your mental health, and your cognitive skills as well. Don't, and people say, oh, I don't
16:39have time. Six minutes before you fall asleep. That's an amazing hack right there. And it's
16:45a hack, and people don't think of it as that. And people are, less and less people are reading
16:49as well, because they're scrolling, not reading.
16:51Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of quite terrifying data, isn't there, about the drop in literacy
16:56rates, and the drop in the amount that people read. And I myself notice it because I've got
17:03a bookcase full of books. I'm always buying books. And then, do I get around to reading
17:08them? You know, it's, I really need to push myself to make sure I write 10 pages a day.
17:13Yeah.
17:13And then I feel good afterwards. So I'm really happy that I did it. But there is a little
17:17friction, isn't there, sometimes, where we think to ourselves, oh, I can't do that for
17:21myself, when actually, you probably can.
17:24Yeah, and it's about prioritizing things. I got, I asked Oliver Berkman, the writer of
17:314,000 weeks, to put a section in Hack Yourself Healthy for me, to write a piece about that,
17:36because this is his wheelhouse. How do we make time for those things? Because we're all too
17:43busy. And as he so rightly puts it, there is never enough time in the day to do everything
17:50that you need to do in modern life. You will not finish your to-do list. You will not respond
17:55to all the emails. You will not return all the calls you need to do. You will not fill in
18:00all the papers that you still have on that desk. It just doesn't happen. So on the basis
18:05that you understand that, what are you going to sacrifice to make space for those things
18:11that you know are going to help you be a healthier, better, happier person? And what
18:16are those things? I spoke to a fantastic therapist called Aneta. And one of her brilliant questions
18:23that I put in the book is ask yourself, what makes you happy? And what can you do more of
18:31to create that happiness in your life every day? It's a good little journal prompt, isn't it? It's
18:36a very good little journal prompt. And it's a good thing to think about. Is it a person? Is it
18:41spending
18:41time petting your dog? Is it that cup of tea in the morning with the sunlight? What is it? And
18:48make
18:48sure you do it. And get up earlier if you need to, or juggle something around if you need to.
18:56I wonder if you've got any other, I mean, I would love to ask you for more of these tips.
19:00I know
19:00everyone should just read your book. But aside from reading a few pages, thinking about, you know,
19:05how do you want to spend your day? What else can we be doing? Well, movement is incredibly important. And
19:13I have a routine for my week now. And the routine changes, because obviously, on a certain day, I
19:20might be somewhere different. But I try to make sure that I do these things. I do resistance training
19:25with as heavy weights as possible twice a week. That's really important for everybody. Certainly
19:31for women of a certain age, I'm 55 now, very important when you're postmenopause. It's good for
19:38bone density. But there's something else that we have learned in the last 10 years,
19:43which you might have covered before on the podcast about our muscular system. It's not just about
19:50aesthetics. Yes, you know, your muscles look a certain way. But structurally, they're very
19:56important. But they also, when you're exercising, you pump out things called myokins into your blood.
20:02And myokins are nicknamed hope molecules, because myokins are helping you build your immune system.
20:08So exercise is helping you be able to get in and out of a chair when you're older. It's helping
20:14you
20:14lift children. It's helping you walk the dog. It's helping you to be able to continue with
20:19independent living for as long as possible, so you can carry your shopping, so you can get in and out
20:24of your car when you're 90. And hopefully, you're still all there, and you've taken your Omega 3s,
20:28and your brain is still alert. Where do you want to be? Do you want to be sitting in a
20:33chair with
20:33people doing things for you? Do you want to still do all of these things? If you still want to
20:37do all
20:37of these things, you need to exercise and you need to be strong. And strength is glutes and quads.
20:43So it's squats. It's sitting up against the wall. It's running up the stairs. It's making sure it's,
20:50you know, it's having heavy weights and lunging down. It's working on this part of your body.
20:55So I make sure that I do that twice a week. I rebound, which I love. They're like these little
21:01tiny... I mean, that's fun. That doesn't seem like a chore. But it's brilliant. Jumping on a
21:05little trampoline. So good for you. Excellent for your lymphatic system. Your lymphatic system is all
21:09over. It's particularly around here, but I mean, you know, large swathes of it here. It helps with
21:14drainage. And your lymphatic system doesn't have a heart, apart from your calves, which they say.
21:19You know, you do your calf raises, and that helps with pumping your lymphatic system. But it's helping you
21:24purge waste from your body. And rebounding is brilliant for that. Also, good for bone density,
21:29because you're bouncing. You're doing the jumping. And it is, as you said, really good fun. I just put,
21:34I used to love clubbing when I was in my 20s. I put the best music on from then, and
21:38I just
21:38bounce. And 20 minutes has gone like that. So I make sure I do that. I like a bit of
21:43yoga.
21:45And for me, the everyday stuff that I do, which people don't like the phrase non-negotiable,
21:52but for me, it's non-negotiable. I meditate every day. I do breath work every day.
21:56I get the morning light every day. And I do that. I either stack them all together.
22:01So if I've only got five minutes, I do it. And I do it in the morning, and I do
22:06it at night.
22:07And again, if it's five minutes, that's great. If I can do 20 minutes and 20 minutes and bookend my
22:11day,
22:12brilliant. But I do it because that's now who I am. And James Clear says it beautifully,
22:19if you miss a habit once, it's a mistake. If you miss it twice, it's a new habit.
22:24And I think for me, it's helped to ask myself the question, who are you? Who do you want to
22:30be?
22:30What type of character are you? What kind of person are you? Are you the type of person that meditates
22:35every day? Are you the type of person that exercises to keep yourself fit and healthy and strong?
22:39Are you the kind of person that eats the best food that you can to really feed your body
22:45in the best way to maintain your health and be there to look after your children?
22:49Or are you not? And for me, it's a yes, I am. Yes, I am. Yes, I am.
22:53Yeah, it's a good question to ask yourself though, isn't it? Like, how healthy do you want to be? How
22:58strong do you want to be? Who do you want to show up as? I put little reminders in my
23:01phone sometimes
23:02to remind myself that I want to be the best version of myself. And that helps me sometimes,
23:07because sometimes I cannot be asked. Yeah, and you need those problems. I was with Marissa Peer,
23:12the incredible therapist, this week. And she's obviously, she misses positive thinking. She's
23:18like, I matter, I'm lovable, I'm irrelevant, I'm significant. And I loved her great life. She said,
23:23write it everywhere, put it on the widow, put it on the mirror in the morning. She said, write it
23:27in your
23:27knickers. Of course. Put it where you're going to see it. And the mind is incredibly persuadable.
23:35You can really teach your mind some things. Thoughts are not you. Absolutely. I couldn't
23:40agree more. And we actually did our first ever episode of this podcast on mindset. So I think
23:45it was a really nice way to open up into the subject. But there's so much to explore with it.
23:51I really want to ask you about some of your travels. And also about how having been through
23:57big health scares, but then also having this amazing sense of agency and identity and pushing
24:04forward with your health and, you know, really taking charge of things, what that looked like for
24:09you. Because I think for lots of people who might have been through a really significant identity
24:15shifting surgery, they might not have just then gone to Antarctica on a big expedition.
24:20Yeah, I didn't actually just go to Antarctica. It was four or five years later.
24:27But I think it makes people a lack of confidence, right? That means they might not do it at all.
24:31So I definitely felt that. And I really want to talk about this because I felt very vulnerable
24:37and scared before my diagnosis. And afterwards, I think I distracted myself with all of this.
24:44It was like, right, health, what is it? How can I identify it? What can I do to it? And
24:48I wrote two
24:49books and met incredibly interesting people. And in the last two years, I've really been addressing
24:55the emotional side of things and going, am I just hiding behind all this? Have I turned the research
25:00onto me and I'm not actually handling it and dealing with it? So I think I'm learning and growing in
25:05that
25:05way. But I genuinely didn't feel if you'd have said to me three years ago, here's this opportunity
25:13for a new series in Antarctica. It's all set. You could go next month. I've got no, I'm just not
25:21ready.
25:21I don't want to leave my family. I don't want to leave my children. I'm not ready to leave home
25:25for 24 days and just not be with them for weeks and weeks. Because when you have been through
25:33something serious, for me anyway, my own personal experience is you want that closeness. You want
25:38that security. You want that love. And that helps. I think that helped build my strength to get the
25:43books done and do all the other work. But it wasn't until very recently I was like, yeah, I can
25:48do this.
25:48I can take on a big adventure again. And I can look in my children's eyes and say, I really
25:53don't
25:54want to leave you for this number of days. You know I don't. But it's my job and I need
25:58to do it.
25:58And it helps us with our lives. And also, I want you to see that this is what your mum
26:04does. And this
26:05is what you can do. And that was the important thing for me. And it was, it was a really
26:09big shift.
26:10And actually I, I, it was a new production team that I worked with who I love. Hi guys. They
26:14were just,
26:15we got on so well. And we thank goodness because we were literally like living together on a,
26:20on a ship for 24 days. I even shared a tent with one of the producers one night, but we
26:25were sleeping
26:25on a, on an iceberg. So it was cool. We, we, we were on this iceberg and Ross, the producer,
26:33I sat down and I was taking in this incredible scene. The sky was pink. There were icebergs all
26:40around us. There was a humpback whale just blowing in front of us that kept breaching and
26:47then going back down and then breaching and going back down. It was midnight and it was still light
26:52because that's how far south we were. So it was a scene that I will never repeat in my life.
26:59And I sat down and took it all in. And then Ross sat down and he went, I'm just going
27:02to film you
27:03for a bit. I'm sure. Okay. And he started asking me these quite personal questions. Like,
27:07how are you feeling now, Julia? What, you know, what's, what's going on? What can you see?
27:10And ultimately I started crying on camera because I said,
27:15I'm so grateful to be here because I never thought I'd be brave enough to do something
27:21like this again, to take on this adventure. But I'm also really sad because I've traveled the world
27:26and I've seen all these incredible, beautiful places and I don't get to share it with the people
27:30that I love. No offense guys, you know, you're lovely, but I go back and I tell the stories,
27:36but it's not the same as being with your loved ones. But nevertheless, it was an incredible
27:42experience. I'm very grateful. Yeah. It made me really tingly when you were talking about that.
27:46I mean, the idea of just being there and soaking it all up and being grateful for the body that
27:50you're in. Yeah. That's huge. I think for anyone. I wonder if you have any travel tips for staying
27:56well too, because obviously you're a very well traveled person, but travel is one of those things that
28:02can really knock your wellness habits off. Oh, flying is a disaster for you. Yeah. So I really,
28:09the first thing I do when I land and I did a post about this is I ground and I
28:13hug trees and I get to
28:14the closest bit of green that I can. So I did that when I landed in Chile this time. And
28:20I also make
28:21sure that I'm hydrated and that's where I think electrolytes can play a role. And I also think there
28:26are certain binders. So things like activated charcoal or milk thistle, they can play a role
28:31in sort of getting rid of toxins and flights are dirty places. You know, that air is not great for
28:37you. There's a lot of bacteria floating around there. So I try and sort of cleanse myself in a way.
28:42I do travel with supplements and I'm one of those people, I do believe in supplementation,
28:47but I believe in a balanced, healthy diet and you get what you can. But the fact is,
28:52a lot of our foods are not as enriched as they could and should be with vitamins these days
28:57because of the state of the planet and our soil. So I travel with supplements and I had bone broth
29:03with me. I had, what else did I have with me that was real lifesavers? I had lots of organic
29:09crackers
29:09and seeds with me because, you know, breads and buns and all that I try to avoid and clogging. And
29:16so I
29:17walked, I mean, that cruise, I was on a cruise boat. That's the only way you can get to Antarctica.
29:23You go on a big boat and then little boats take you to the shores. And that deck, I think
29:29I wore a
29:29hole in it. I was walking laps after every meal. They had an onboard gym. I made sure I did
29:35my
29:35resistance training. I kept up as much as I could to make sure that my body was resilient.
29:40Yeah. I mean, this sounds familiar to me. When I travel, I have not a whole suitcase for food,
29:45but I have a little bag that's just for my stuff that I need. And I don't eat plain food.
29:49I take
29:50the food with me. Take it. I mean, plain food. I speak to a lot of wellness experts who are
29:55not
29:55fans of airplane food. No. Why would you be a fan of airplane food? I mean, look how it's cooked
30:00or prepared and how long it's been there and the ingredients. No.
30:07Not for you. Not for me. No, not for me. You could take an avocado and a jar of nuts
30:11with some
30:11yogurt. You're done. I have these bars, these protein bars that are healthy, clean beef or
30:20turkey or something. And there you go. That's my little tray. Much better than the other tray
30:25that's coming my way. I love the plane snacks. That's a good tip. Especially for a long-haul flight.
30:30Yeah. Yeah. And keep drinking. Yeah. Ideally not out of a plastic bottle.
30:35I love this. This is music to my ears. I want to ask you for a little bit more advice,
30:41if I may.
30:42Yeah. We always ask our guests what their one tip for feeling well enough would be. Yeah. And
30:48I know that you have so many tips and we've already spoken about so many of them.
30:53And I think that lots of people are a little bit overwhelmed sometimes. They go online and they see
30:59a big long list that says, if you want to glow up, you've got to do all these things. And
31:04you know,
31:04there's a list of things that you have to do physically, things you have to do to your skin,
31:08things you have to do for your relationships. And it's overwhelming. And they just shut their phone
31:12and think, I'm not going to do any of that. Yeah. And then it means that nothing changes.
31:17And I think we all have it in ourselves to make little changes. And you're someone that's written
31:21this brilliant book that says you can do it. And by the way, you can do it, but you cannot
31:28and shouldn't be expected to do it all. All at the same time.
31:31I talk about this a lot because people say to me on social media, I haven't got time and
31:35you're always doing all these new things. I'm like, yeah, I'm doing these new things because
31:37I'm experimenting. I'm writing. It's my job. It's what I do now. I don't do them all every single
31:42day of my life. And I certainly wouldn't expect you or anyone to do them. It's about curating things.
31:49What are your problem areas? What do you want to do? What do you want to achieve?
31:53And then work on those and start really small. So for me, I've never been brilliant in the mornings.
31:58I'm a night owl and that's how I'm sort of chronologically set. So my mornings are important.
32:06So my hacks and my advice revolve around the mornings. So get up slowly. And when I say get up
32:12slowly, I don't mean get up from between nine and 12 o'clock. I mean, physically move yourself out of
32:18the bed slowly. So when you wake up, when your eyes are awake, I like to take some breaths.
32:23And I like to just register. Hello. Good morning. I'm awake. I'm here. Thank you very much. A little
32:29bit of gratitude to start that day. Feel where I am. Just give myself a minute for my body and
32:36for me
32:36to recognize that I'm awake rather than jumping up. And, you know, the body then goes into cortisol,
32:41and the heart rate goes doom. It's like, just let everything, let the body system
32:47come to you. And so I do that for a minute and then I get the morning light when I
32:55can. And I
32:55mentioned earlier, I get the morning light because when you get that light in your eye,
32:59that spectrum of light in your eye, first of all, it starts to reduce your melatonin because
33:04your melatonin has helped you sleep. It's been rising through the night and then it starts to
33:08ever way. And the morning light helps with that. And this is what we call the sleep hormone, right?
33:12This is the sleep hormone, melatonin, the sleep hormone. And the reason this works is the morning
33:16light, that spectrum of morning light goes through your retina and goes to a part of your brain called
33:20the SCN, which is the super charismatic nucleus or nuclei. And that's the control center that starts
33:27talking to all the hormones, including cortisol and melatonin and others. Your cortisol naturally rises
33:33in the morning because it's our evolutionary response to get ready for the day. And so
33:39this is a nice way to help that balance, if you like, the melatonin going down and the cortisol coming
33:45up. And that's why the morning light for me is a non-negotiable, even if it's two seconds because
33:51I'm late and I've got to get down. It's just... And if it's winter, lamp.
33:57That was my next question.
33:58Get the lamp. Lux lamp. I use a lamp. Yeah, I use one of those. I don't love them,
34:02but for me, I feel that it's better than nothing. Because I guess if you're waking up
34:06and it's still dark... It's also a bit depressing.
34:08It can really bring you down, can't it? Yeah, it can. So, and you do...
34:13It does create the same hormone exchange when you're looking at a lamp as well. So I do that
34:19and I stack it with then doing my breath work and I do a bit of chanting. That's the woo
34:22-woo bit.
34:23I love it. I do that too. Yeah. And I have positive affirmations that I say to myself. And that's
34:29something that I've introduced since my diagnosis. Yeah.
34:32It's every day I'm the one that tells myself, you're okay, you're good, you're kind, you're loving,
34:37you can release things and pressures and you're strong and you're feeding your body. All of those
34:41kinds of things. I give myself a little pep talk in a day because, you know, who else is going
34:45to do it?
34:45Well, that's it, right? And I do think that sometimes it takes a big shock or change in
34:50our lives to get us to start speaking to ourselves nicely. Other times we just twig and realise,
34:55oh, no one else is going to be nice to me if I'm not nice to myself. Yeah, yeah.
34:59It's a really huge piece of important advice that I think we should be giving people really young.
35:04Yes. You should talk to yourself like you would talk to someone you love.
35:07Yes. Yeah, it's a good one. And then in terms of easy hacks that don't take time,
35:12I have a shot of olive oil every other day, extra virgin olive oil, great for cholesterol,
35:16good for brain health, good for gut health, very high in polyphenols.
35:19You just drink it like a shot?
35:20I just drink it like a shot. It's meant to be taken with food. So normally for me,
35:25it would be around breakfast time anyway. What I do is I give it to the children like that
35:30because I want them to have that polyphenol count and it's around their breakfast as well.
35:35So yeah, it's just an easy way. It's a quick way just to get them to line it up.
35:38And they're like little tequila shot glasses like, come on, girls, come on, boy.
35:41And we do that. So that's a really good, easy, simple thing and a nice thing.
35:45And a lady came up to me on my book tour and said her cholesterol had
35:47just completely plummeted having done that. So that was a good side effect for her.
35:52And walking backwards, something I've spoken about a lot. Walking every day is great.
35:57So I would say, you know, fit in walking every day, walk to the tube, walk to the bus,
36:00get off the bus early, walk up the stairs, walk, walk, walk, walking movement, number one hack.
36:06And now what you can do is you can switch a little bit of that. And if you can fit
36:10in 20% of the time,
36:12maybe even just 10% of the time walking backwards, really good for hip flexors, very good for the
36:16knees, exercising different parts of your body. And also, I learned very good for anxiety.
36:23I've never tried it. And this is something I now need to add to my list of things to try.
36:27Your list of things to try. And I was told the reason that it's good for anxiety by people who
36:32messaged me. And I was saying, look here, it's good for all these physical reasons. They said,
36:36and it helps anxiety because then I started doing my research. Again, it's something that flips in
36:40the brain. And I, this is my personal hypothesis. When you walk backwards, obviously, to begin with,
36:47you're quite anxious about, are you going to bump into anybody? Where are you going? As you become
36:51more confident, you start to rely on your instinct more. And we all know that if we can, if we
36:58can
36:59trust ourselves and learn to rely on our instinct, that's good for our mental health.
37:04Yeah. Well, instinct is one of my favorite things to talk about when I talk about wellness,
37:08because I'm always talking about the little voice inside and kind of listening to your body and
37:13trusting your gut. There's a lot to be said for all of that. So I feel like this is the
37:17next big
37:17challenge for me. I need to learn how to walk backwards every day.
37:19You will. You're going to smash it. You're going to be, in a week, you're going to be
37:22speeding along. Okay, I'm going to let you know how I'm doing. Okay, good. Thank you.
37:27My last question would be, if you were going to give one person one tip, but just feeling well enough,
37:32not perfect and helping them start out on their journey, what advice would you give them?
37:37You have to tell yourself that you're well enough. You have to think yourself well enough
37:44and you can do that. So just say a few lovely little things to yourself.
37:52I'm healthy. I'm strong. I'm well enough. And I'm capable. Because none of this means life is
37:59going to be easy and you won't go through tough times. But there's a great way to frame things.
38:06When the tough stuff is coming your way, you can say to yourself, gosh, it's fortunate that I'm
38:13capable of handling this, isn't it? Isn't it lucky that I can handle this and I can deal with this?
38:20I'm well enough.
38:22I love that. Julia Bradbury, thank you so much for joining me for Well Enough.
38:25Oh, it was a pleasure. So good. Can we do it again?
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