Speaker 1: Oh Gada, Welcome to healthy Ish. Thanks for joining us
Speaker 1: on the podcast from body and Soul. I hope you
Speaker 1: are feeling healthy ish. I am your host of Felicity
Speaker 1: Harley and joining me in the studio is our digital
Speaker 1: editor Holly Berkman, and we are chatting through the three
Speaker 1: hottest stories from our Health of the Nation survey. Yes,
Speaker 1: the stats, the subjects, and a few more worrying topics
Speaker 1: that we want to share with you this week.
Speaker 2: Holly, Hello, Hi, how are you?
Speaker 1: Thanks for coming back on healthy Ish.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me back. Now, how's your well?
Speaker 1: Are you healthy ish?
Speaker 2: How's your I'm healthy ish. I think I have been
Speaker 2: hitting that dance bean salad for last year a lot. Still,
Speaker 2: you know, I was crazy about it and it's slotted
Speaker 2: right back into my life. Coming back into the office.
Speaker 2: It's so good. It's so good. Still. I'm getting back
Speaker 2: into the polates after a bit of a Christmas break.
Speaker 2: Stomach muscles are hurting from five days ago, but I
Speaker 2: think that's a good thing. How about you? Yeah, I've
Speaker 2: been well. I'm back on the running train. I actually
Speaker 2: went last night in so hot it was like twenty
Speaker 2: nine degrees in Sydney at six point thirty. It was
Speaker 2: really muggy, really hot, and I just thought have to, like,
Speaker 2: I have to just get in the runs now because
Speaker 2: this half marathon loves women's hukey half marathon is looming.
Speaker 1: And it was.
Speaker 2: Awful, Yeah, horrible, yuck, like like I.
Speaker 1: Felt sick at one stage and it was about seven
Speaker 1: k's and I was going to stop, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I just keep on going, run really slowly, and my
Speaker 1: self talk got me through.
Speaker 2: That's good. That's better than my self talk. My self
Speaker 2: talk is usually like girl, this is horrendous. Oh don't
Speaker 2: take a break. What the hell are you doing to stop?
Speaker 2: Just walk? And I was like, no, no, but you
Speaker 2: did it going And boy, do you feel good today?
Speaker 1: I do you?
Speaker 2: Yeah? They hydrated or fine, that's a little bit. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Anyway, The big thing in a Body and Soul HQ
Speaker 1: this week has been the launch of the Health of
Speaker 1: the Nation survey.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's our second year of Health of the Nation.
Speaker 2: We're back, We're bigger and better than ever, and it's exciting.
Speaker 2: I think there's been some really great insights out of
Speaker 2: the report.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so sha share with the's something that you found
Speaker 1: well interesting, something's been trending give us the stats.
Speaker 2: So my pick for this one. It's not the lightest story,
Speaker 2: but I think it is really interesting and that's that
Speaker 2: more than half of Australians worry about their weight. It
Speaker 2: made me a little sad. I think, you know, I
Speaker 2: think misinformation and dieting culture is as we know, it's
Speaker 2: been a big thing over the last I don't know,
Speaker 2: I guess since social media really boomed, but diet culture
Speaker 2: has always been around and I think this stat really
Speaker 2: represents what that's doing to Australia, so that their weight
Speaker 2: is always on their mind, and that doesn't necessarily mean
Speaker 2: that that's translating to healthy practices either. Kick their health
Speaker 2: and fitness app who are partnering with us for Health
Speaker 2: of the Nation. So their co founder and CEO, Laura
Speaker 2: Henshaw provided some comments for this story, and she said
Speaker 2: that it's a combination of the constant comparison and unaccredited
Speaker 2: advice that floods social media, and once you're sucked into
Speaker 2: that diet culture algorithm, it's a very slippery slope to
Speaker 2: get out of. And we're seeing so many toxic trends
Speaker 2: on TikTok that are glamorized as wellness, but in many cases,
Speaker 2: it's just restrictive eating in disguise. And we've spoken about
Speaker 2: so many of those TikTok trends on here, which we
Speaker 2: eventually banned because they were too insane. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: think it's also just the fact that we're on our
Speaker 2: phone so much and there's so much time spent looking
Speaker 2: at ourselves and critiquing ourselves as well, that it feeds
Speaker 2: into this really toxic weight centric I find.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because similar numbers of people in Australia are
Speaker 1: obese and nowaight overweight. So on the one hand, we're
Speaker 1: worrying about our weight, many of us are obas and overweight.
Speaker 1: Where's the kind of middle point where we worry and
Speaker 1: still have to create healthy habits to get in that
Speaker 1: healthy weight range, but also live life and for it
Speaker 1: not to be overpowering and overbearing. Is every time we
Speaker 1: look at social media for.
Speaker 2: Example, exactly, it's about, you know, finding a way to
Speaker 2: live healthily, but it doesn't take over your life. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And Laura also says that the Butterfly Foundation released a
Speaker 2: study last year that found the rate of eating disorders
Speaker 2: in Australian's age between ten and nineteen has almost doubled
Speaker 2: in the last decade, terrifying at a rate of eighty
Speaker 2: six percent, which is actually it's really awful, really awful,
Speaker 2: So I think, you know, how do we combat that?
Speaker 2: I guess another one of the big stats out of
Speaker 2: health of the nation is that people are so unsure
Speaker 2: about health advice and what they should follow on what
Speaker 2: they shouldn't. So I think, you know, from my standpoint,
Speaker 2: it's about creating content and sharing content that's expert advised
Speaker 2: and trustworthy and really clear. But then it's also, I
Speaker 2: guess on a personal note, trying to curate your social
Speaker 2: media feed, so you're just seeing things that are helpful
Speaker 2: and not harmful and taking time away from it altogether.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, interesting, interesting stat. But I think all those
Speaker 1: comments of Laura were spot on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's great with that stuff, so is Steph. But
Speaker 2: it's yeah, it's sad to see that stat. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: knowledge is power.
Speaker 1: Exactly, and it's something that I'm very mindful of having
Speaker 1: a young daughter who's not nowhere near that demo yet,
Speaker 1: but just being aware of displaying positive body messages and
Speaker 1: body image measures and also habits around food.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: The one that I found interesting was the amount we
Speaker 1: spend on fitness, and it's kind of got me thinking,
Speaker 1: is how much is too much to spend on fitness?
Speaker 1: So The Health of the Nation found that gen Z
Speaker 1: so those bab betwet ninety ninety five and twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: spend more money on keeping in shape than any other demographic.
Speaker 1: They spend on average one hundred and seventeen dollars a month. Interesting, yeah,
Speaker 1: so let's go up. So the millennials spend one hundred
Speaker 1: and sixteen ninety five, so five cents less less Gen
Speaker 1: X has spend ninety six twenty one, and baby boomers
Speaker 1: spend seventy one seventy four. So the oly you get,
Speaker 1: the less you're spent. They're also more likely to visit
Speaker 1: wellness retreats. Of the one in ten Australians who have
Speaker 1: done so, sixteen percent with gen zs. That's contrary to
Speaker 1: the fact that they're also the generation whose health and
Speaker 1: wellbeing is being most negatively affected by the cost of living.
Speaker 1: What do you spend on fitness?
Speaker 2: I was just thinking about this. I don't know if
Speaker 2: I think one hundred and seventeen a month is a
Speaker 2: huge amount. I don't think it's that's pretty low. Like,
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure I spend about I have a class
Speaker 2: past membership which is about seventy dollars a month, but
Speaker 2: I do run out of the creditors, Yeah, do run
Speaker 2: out of credits. Is going to have to add more
Speaker 2: on so, but I don't know. I often also book
Speaker 2: into ad hoc classes and they're what like thirty five
Speaker 2: dollars apart, So I don't know, I'm probably getting around
Speaker 2: that one hundred and seven.
Speaker 1: Time with you, I thought like one hundred and sixteen
Speaker 1: is nothing like like.
Speaker 2: If you've got a good gym membership then often that
Speaker 2: can be eighty dollars a week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's min one hundred and twenty dollars a fortnight?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I did a few sums and what my question was,
Speaker 1: what does fitness spending include? Like for me, it is
Speaker 1: the gym, it's yoga runners, gear like, it's it's kind
Speaker 1: of gear everything, isn't.
Speaker 2: It like you want to have shoving into it? Then
Speaker 2: well i'd probably.
Speaker 1: Spent what a three to four hundred dollars a month?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So but I mean for me, I say it's investment
Speaker 1: rather than spending, and it's about flipping that and there's
Speaker 1: really no cost of fitness, or there's as much as
Speaker 1: you want to spend.
Speaker 2: Right, healthy is wealth, as we have to remember.
Speaker 1: End the cost of not being physically active to your
Speaker 1: budget and your well being is significantly higher. So you
Speaker 1: spend our save later and you can go for a
Speaker 1: run for.
Speaker 2: Free, or that's what I was thinking, as well, as
Speaker 2: I do a lot of like walking and things like that,
Speaker 2: or going to the beach and go for a swim
Speaker 2: kind of which I guess is kind of fitness and
Speaker 2: like that's.
Speaker 1: Free really so, but perhaps we see it through the
Speaker 1: lens of you know, we are probably more fit and
Speaker 1: healthy than the general demographic. Yeah, so we would choose
Speaker 1: to spend more on that's true. I still don't know
Speaker 1: if I think one hundred and seventeen is a lot. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I actually think no. That actually made
Speaker 1: me feel.
Speaker 2: Me feel fantastic actually too.
Speaker 1: Anyway, before we go, what's another thing that was perhaps
Speaker 1: trending on Body and Soul online something that Yeah, it
Speaker 1: came about from Health of the Nation.
Speaker 2: So this story is why sexual wellness is the hottest
Speaker 2: travel trend for twenty twenty five. So you mentioned in
Speaker 2: the last story that there's you know, gen Z going
Speaker 2: into wellness retreats and things like that. Sexual wellness is
Speaker 2: another trend that is really coming up in the world
Speaker 2: of travel, and I think this is great because it
Speaker 2: shows that our understanding and our idea of wellness and
Speaker 2: what it means to be well has expanded. It's not
Speaker 2: just about fitness, it's not just about eating well. It's
Speaker 2: also about sexual wellness, which is fantastic. And I think
Speaker 2: also it's that we're becoming a lot more comfortable with
Speaker 2: talking about or trying to improve our sexual wellness too.
Speaker 2: I know that there were a lot of improvements there
Speaker 2: during the pandemic and that seems to have carried on,
Speaker 2: so that's great.
Speaker 1: So what sort of sexual wellness holidays are people going on.
Speaker 2: Well. I think there are some sort of people book
Speaker 2: into like one day retreats where it might not be
Speaker 2: like you know, you might not be going to a resort,
Speaker 2: but it might be like a night away. I know
Speaker 2: they're running once like that in the Southern Highlands, or
Speaker 2: it might be checking in to somewhere that's a little
Speaker 2: more sex focused and learning to kind of increase your
Speaker 2: sex life, whether it's improve your sex life, whether that's
Speaker 2: with a partner. Increase as well, Please increase and improve,
Speaker 2: whether it's with a partner or I think, you know,
Speaker 2: part of it could just be like almost a self
Speaker 2: led sexual wellness holiday. It might be going away alone
Speaker 2: for a week or for a weekend and getting in
Speaker 2: touch with your own sexual wellness. So I think it's good.
Speaker 1: Just a little side note. I'm not a fiction reader,
Speaker 1: but my sister told me to read a book and
Speaker 1: it's called Awful Spy Miranda July. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you've heard of it.
Speaker 2: All fours Yes, I have seen this everywhere.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, so I'm obviously nonfiction all the way. But
Speaker 1: this is very interesting because she checks into a hotel
Speaker 1: for two and a half weeks, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: give it away, meets this bloke and just goes on
Speaker 1: this like she just finds like her sexual self again
Speaker 1: and it's really enjoy Yeah, and it just taps into
Speaker 1: all into female psyche and you know, different things that
Speaker 1: happen when you reach a certain age, you know, after
Speaker 1: you have kids. But yeah, I was just thinking that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you go check into hotel for two weeks.
Speaker 2: I think it's also yourself. Yeah, it's part of that
Speaker 2: rise of like reading, like romantic literature and things as well,
Speaker 2: I think is that people are tapping into it more
Speaker 2: and that's moving into their travel behaviors and spending too,
Speaker 2: which is great space.
Speaker 1: Yeah Holley, thank you, see you next week.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Bye, friends, fans, listeners. If you do want to read
Speaker 1: any of those stories about the trends, the surveys, the stats,
Speaker 1: I will leave a link to them in the show notes.
Speaker 1: Anything else, head to body andsoul dot com.
Speaker 2: That are you.
Speaker 1: You can join the conversation across social media. Can DM
Speaker 1: me at Felicity Harley, particularly on Instagram that's kind of
Speaker 1: my go to, and of course Grobaur print edition which
Speaker 1: is out in your local Sunday paper. Thanks again for
Speaker 1: joining us as always, and until tomorrow, stay healthy ish