The Irish Balance Podcast

Episode 32: GP Life, Pregnancy, Fertility and Menopause with Dr. Laura Lenihan

Welcome back to a brand NEW episode of The Irish Balance Podcast! I am so excited to share this week's guest - Dr. Laura Lenihan, who is a GP (general practitioner) currently working in Galway, Ireland. Laura runs the page @drlauragp on Instagram and is a breath of fresh air to follow for practical, empowering health information. Laura shares her backstory to becoming a doctor and why she chose to pursue general practice, and we then dive into a number of important topics - pregnancy, fertility, the HPV vaccine and menopause. I really hope you guys enjoy this episode - do let us know what you thought and give Laura a follow on social media! You can find Laura's website at www.drlauragp.com. 

Episode 31: Menstrual Health, Sport and Nutrition with Esther Goldsmith and FitrWoman

In this week's episode, I interview Esther Goldsmith, sports scientist with FitrWoman (@FitrWoman). FitrWoman is the world's first app to provide daily training and nutrition advice tailored to menstrual cycle hormone changes. The app aims to helps you track your menstrual cycle and provides personalized training and nutritional suggestions tailored to the changing hormone levels throughout your cycle. Menstrual health doesn’t crop up much in day to day conversation or on social media, but it’s so important that we normalise discussing it, to know what IS normal and what is not. I'm a proud FitrWoman brand champion, and I was very excited to collaborate with the FitrWoman team via Esther to bring you a podcast episode all about periods! Esther has a Masters in Applied Sport and Exercise Physiology, and completed her dissertation on the female athlete. In this episode, we discuss the basics of the menstrual cycle, and dive into how exercise and nutrition affect and can be affected by it. Happy listening! 

Episode 30: Choosing Your Career with Angela Burke

In this week's episode, I chat to Angela Burke who is @theintegrativecoach on Instagram. Angela is originally from Galway, and has a background in Commerce as an undergraduate, and in Career Development and Coaching as a postgraduate. She now runs her own career coaching business based in Dublin, with the goal of helping people to live the life they desire, by securing the jobs and ultimately building the career that enables them to do that. We chat about the challenges of career choices at school-leaving, postgraduate and adult level. It was such an insightful conversation and I hope you guys take value from our chat! 

Episode 29: Diet Culture and Self-Compassion with Robyn Taaffe

This week on the podcast I am delighted to have registered nurse and evidence-based nutritionist Robyn Taaffe, founder of The Lifestyle Clinic in Dublin, as my guest. Robyn runs the Instagram page @thelifestyle_clinic as well as her busy nurse-led lifestyle medicine clinic in Dublin. She advocates a non-diet approach to food and nutrition in her clinic, as well as placing equal importance on movement and self-care. In this episode we discuss what diet culture is and how we can spot it, relationships with food, weight stigma, and the importance of self-compassion. I absolutely loved recording this episode and I hope you all enjoy it too. 

Disclaimer: In this episode, Robyn and I discuss various issues around diets, food relationships and food restriction. If you listen to this episode and identify with any symptoms of concern discussed, it's important to consider seeking in-person consultation and advice from a healthcare professional such as your general practitioner or a registered nutrition professional. 

Episode 28: Social Media, Alcohol and Mental Health with Joe O'Brien

I'm delighted to bring you guys the highly anticipated Part 2 of my mental health podcast episode with Joe O'Brien, mental health researcher working at Spectrum Mental Health and creator of the fantastic @headfirst0 Instagram page and Head First podcast. In this episode, we discuss social media, it's possible effects on our mental health, and the questions we're all wondering - how addictive is it, and what does problematic use of these apps look like? We then move onto discuss alcohol in Ireland, looking at the quantity we consume and the pattern of consumption in this country. We discuss how alcohol can impact our mental health, the importance of being aware of Ireland's low risk weekly guidelines for consumption (i.e. maximum limits we should not exceed!) and the stigma surrounding drinking less and/or abstaining entirely. I hope you guys enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it! Be sure to tag myself and Joe in your Instagram stories if you listen, and let us know what you think of our chat! And of course, give @headfirst0 a follow on Instagram, you'll be glad you did!

Episode 27: Life Updates, Sedentary Behaviour and Why We Need to Move More and Sit Less

The Podcast is back! I'm excited to be bringing you guys a brand new episode sharing some life updates from me personally and work-related, as well as a little recap on who I am and what my message as a doctor is! The main focus of this episode is sedentary behaviour and physical inactivity, looking at the research on the topic of sitting time and of course, sharing some simple steps to build movement into our day.

Episode 26: Movement for Enjoyment and Redefining Fitness with Nathalie Lennon

This week on the Podcast, the focus is on redefining how we think about fitness and figuring out ways to make sure our movement and exercise is both enjoyable and sustainable. My guest is personal trainer, fitness influencer and nutrition coach Nathalie Lennon (@nathalielennon_ on Instagram), who is also a good friend of mine and an all round positive, inspirational powerhouse of a gal! Nathalie's message is centred around focusing on the mental and physical health benefits exercise can bring us, and ensuring the activity we do is enjoyable and sustainable. We also discuss in our chat a little bit about the importance of avoiding comparisons with others on social media, as well as tips to help you overcome fitness challenges such as a lack of time, money for gym membership, and feeling under-confident or motivated to give something new a go. I hope you enjoy this week's episode! This is the last on my series for a little while - I'll be back with more episodes over the summer soon, but I'm taking a short break from recording to move my life to the West of Ireland and start a new job - exciting! Thank you for tuning in each week and I can't wait to bring you more soon!

Episode 25: Yoga for You with Ruth Delahunty

This week on the Podcast we are chatting about YOGA! I've been practising yoga for over a year now and have had many questions from you guys about how and why I got started. I've brought the topic to the Podcast to hopefully help you guys give yoga a try whether at home, in a class or both, and also to bust some common myths and confusion about yoga (spoiler alert - it's not possible to be 'bad' at yoga!). This week's guest is yoga teacher Ruth Delahunty, who is also a graphic designer, mom of three and creator of Yogaru (@yogaru_ireland). Yogaru is centred around Ruth's 108 Asana Yoga Sequencing Cards, which aim to help simplify and de-mystify yoga, and bring us all the 'feel good' factor from our practice whether beginner, intermediate or advanced. I hope you guys enjoy this episode, and feel inspired to give yoga a try yourselves after listening! As always, let us know if you listen - find me @theirishbalance on Instagram and Ruth @yogaru_ireland. 

Episode 24: Focusing on Food for Life with Fiona Staunton

In this week's episode of the podcast I'm chatting to Fiona Staunton, Ballymaloe-trained chef, Home Economics teacher and creator of Fiona's Food for Life (@fionasfoodforlife). I met Fiona earlier this year and was delighted to attend one of her fantastic cookery demonstrations a few weeks back. I've brought her on the podcast to share her ethos with you guys - 'Cook, Eat, Nourish' - all about showing us how to make cooking healthy, tasty and nourishing meals and snacks in a simplified and more accessible way, with a bit of fun in there too! Let us know if you tune in and enjoy the episode (tag Fiona and myself @theirishbalance, or drop a comment), and if you haven't already, subscribe and leave a rating on iTunes so I can bring the Podcast to more and more people! Happy listening! 

Episode 23: Realistic Self Care with The Reset

In this week's episode, I chat all things realistic self-care with Vicky (@theflourishingpantry) and Lauren (@the_nutritionist_foodie), friends of mine, female entrepreneurs and co-founders of The Reset Retreats. We chat about why the girls started their retreats business, and then dive into why self-care is more than a buzzword, and why it's so important to find simple accessible ways to integrate self-care strategies into our daily busy lives. This is one of my favourite podcast episodes on my series to date, and I know you guys will take a lot of value from it. We even bust self-care myths! Do let us know if you tune in, and definitely check out The Reset Retreats if you're interested (@thereset_me).