Immy Sykes Transcript
Welcome to episode five of the Rest Days Community podcast. That's right. There are now five episodes. I enjoy editing and listening to these episodes so much because each guest is such a fantastic, genuine story every week. I'm so excited to share another one with you. This week, I have to say is especially honest and will resonate with many people.
I will warn there is some discussion of disordered eating and exercise addiction if we have to put a label on it. So if these are issues that you're not ready to hear about today, maybe this one isn't for you. I should also mention this episode was recorded in my van in a car park, and so the audio isn't perfect, but I think you will agree our guest makes up for that.
Okay, let me introduce the one and only Immy Sykes. Immy works for a community benefits society where she uses her masters in environmental sustainability. She's a writer of diverse content. She volunteers for her local run club. She climbs, she reads lots of books and tells other people about them, and very importantly, she really loves crisps.
I would say ignore all that except the crisps because through this episode, we'll find she has many things I didn't expect and many things that caused her to question how she describes herself. Most importantly, she's honest, genuine, and has a beautiful story. I hope you enjoy.
Rhona
Okay. Immy , welcome to the Rest Day's podcast. Hello. Thank you. I'm very excited to have you here. You were one of the people I thought of in my sort of first list of people probably, just because I thought you seem like you can chat.
Immy
Well, I, I mean it is one of my skills. I can talk and occasionally you will find out at the exact same time as I do about what's gonna come outta my mouth, but it's an experience.
Rhona
Oh, I understand that very well.
Immy
This could be very, whether it's coherent, I don't know, but let's find out.
Rhona
Okay. Um, so one of the things, I think I sent you a message, a specific point. Maybe you had posted something on Instagram about maybe you'd overdone it or were you having recurrent problems with illness?
Is that what happened?
Immy
Yeah, really recurrent. Yeah. Really recurrent issues with illness. Yeah. Okay. Tell me a bit about that. So. This has been ongoing, I think for about four years. Okay. So this is my little potted medical history. Um, I had been suffering about four years ago from just intense tiredness.
And when I say tiredness, I don't mean like, you know, you'd just a bit shattered off at the end of the day. I wasn't able to get through a working day, I was having to have a gnat. Luckily we'd kind of gone into COVID and the working from home situation. So my bed was readily available, but it was like 15 minutes in the afternoon or I just physically wasn't able to continue with my day.
And I had gone to see doctors repeatedly. And um, I think this is really interesting actually, as a woman. Yes. Because I've always been reasonably small, or at least four years ago, I was really, really quite small. Um, in terms of weight. The doctors would just look at me and be like. You know, you are really healthy.
Maybe you just need to, actually, I had one doctor who asked that I increase my exercise. Oh. They were like, maybe if you could get out more and do more exercise. And I was like, I'm already running, you know, every day, sometimes twice a day. I'm going to the gym every day. Oh, wow. Lunchtime, I was doing walks, I was then doing walks after work.
I was riding my bike pretty regularly. I was, um, yeah, doing a lot of weight training. I was really obsessively indulging in it.
Rhona
Did they know about that volume? No. Or they just made an assumption?
Immy
They just made an assumption. They hadn't even asked that question. They were just like, maybe you could just get out and do a bit more exercise.
It help boost your energy levels. And the problem was, was at the time with my mental state that I was in, that seemed reasonable. I was like, okay, well fine. Maybe I'm just not doing enough and I need to do more. And so, yeah, it just got worse. And I think for, I ended up going for kind of a private medical health thing and it came back that my, uh.
Iron and B12 levels were particularly low. Um, and I couldn't afford to go for private treatment, so I went back to my GP and they were like, it's not low at all. You are absolutely fine. And I was just really confused. And so this kind of tiredness got progressively worse and worse and worse until I eventually moved gps.
And you know, very long story short, I had a physio that was kind of helping me out with other injuries because alongside this I was having this exhaustive tiredness I was having. I was ill all the time. At the end of last year, I was having, um, colds. I think I had three colds. Over, like back to back. So I'd like recover from one and about three days later I'd catch another one.
And it was getting, it was just getting worse and worse and worse. And yeah, in the end my physio was supporting me through some other injuries that, again, were also getting worse and we. He kind of advised, um, about the best way to approach a new GP about what needed to happen. And luckily those tests went through and it did turn out that my B12 and my iron levels were single digits.
And they were like, oh, this is quite serious.
Rhona
What on earth happened to the first one? That's so weird. What were they?
Immy
They just, they just weren't really that interested. Yeah. I think it they just looked to you and saw Looks healthy. Yeah. Yeah. But then that go, it goes back to that thing about equating slimness with health.
It was healthy at all. I was so, like, I barely ate, I was over exercising. And the thing is, is that I was constantly surrounded by people that would tell me I looked really good, and yes, you look great. You look so healthy. You know, look at how much exercise you're doing. You're so fit. Yeah. And it just really like wasn't the truth at all.
Rhona
Oh, it's so bad that, that the whole, um, looks healthy thing. I really disagree with that. It frustrates me so much, um, as a person who I think has struggled with that on both sides. You know? Um, and I know I make judgements even as a, even though I really, really don't want to, and I'm trying hard, I know I make judgements about people.
I'm like, yeah, or, and you do it the same of they look fast or they look strong or whatever, but it doesn't mean anything. You don't know the story.
Immy
It doesn't, our bodies are insanely complex. You know, how could you possibly look at another human being and be able to make a complete assumption, you know, a whole picture of their fitness, their health, like, you know, just from a glance, it's just an insane, do you know what?
Do you know what I found really useful for that was when I started doing Park Runs. Oh, really? And that was like, I'd kind of moved out of. The Instagram world of the fitness influencers really looking a certain way. And then I was going to parkrun regularly and our parkrun around here is pretty big. And it was just like these men and women of every single age and body type and running style and ability were just absolutely smashing it and overtaking, like, I was just getting constantly overtaken and I was like, this is, this is incredible to see.
You don't see that variety online at all. No.
Rhona
You're so right. And massive shout out to Park Run as a thing I think is one of the best public health interventions we have. I agree. Um, and obviously it had to come from somebody that wasn't the government, which is very sad. Yeah. Um, the. Anybody who does know what Parkrun is, it's a five kilometre to run that happens on the weekends.
Um, and basically everywhere in the uk and now a lot of places in the world have them. So I guess most people probably do know what it is, but, um, it's great. It's very lovely, very nice atmosphere. And I, I think you're right though. There are a huge variety of people there. Yeah. And there are different, and the speeds of people do not correlate to what you, how they look.
Immy
No. Which you just don't see online. Um, yeah. You got, you got people with double buggies and all sorts, just Absolutely. Going up a hill without stopping, you just are. Oh my God. It's incredible. And yeah, I think to kind of see that variety and realise that, like, you cannot make an assumption based on someone's health, their fitness, their background.
Yeah. That was sort of really eye-opening. Yeah. As well as with your health being assumed 'cause you looked quite healthy. Did you ever get it assumed that you were a really good athlete? Yeah, all the time. I still get that now. I did a triathlon at the weekend and people are always like, Ooh, I don't think I'd keep up with you.
And I'm like, I was last dead last in my wave in the swim. Um, even in the cycling, I'm not a particularly fast cyclist like I did all right in the cycling, but you know, I came out of my age group, I think like maybe 12 out of 14 people assume that I'm like this. Yeah. They just look at me and they're like, oh yeah, she's gonna be really fast. Absolutely not.
Rhona
It's so funny because people do the other way. Obviously. I think I probably experienced it more the other way 'cause I was always in running environments and I'm, um, not a super slight person. I mean, I am slim. Mm-hmm. But you know, I'm not elite runner slim, let me know. Um, and uh, so I always had the opposite and I used to be jealous of the people who got assumed that they were fast because I wanted to look like out fast.
But it's bad both ways because you don't want the pressure either way.
Immy
No, I think just generally we need to be clever about how we. Coming to people and, um, I don't know, maybe just ask questions more, be more curious. Yes. It's more of a thing rather than just sort of creating, I mean, it's hard, isn't it?
It's a human thing to do. It is just create these images in our heads of people. But it's interesting that you say, oh, you just really, really wanted to look fast and yet you aligned that with slim. I'd also like to, I know that no one can see me right now. I'm not actually like super, super tiny. I'm a very normal, average, I think, sized person.
Um, and whatever that means to you, I'm actually really realising that using those words is incredibly loaded. Again, it's, but it's just how people react to you and that often shapes how you perceive yourself and what kind of athlete you are and um, yeah, how you deal little adventures. It really does.
Rhona
So we slow came on a bit of a tangent there. We were talking about you being at the doctors and you got your gp and tell us where things went from there. Then I think I have a feeling of where this is going.
Immy
Yeah. Yeah, the results came back and I had a really severe, um, vitamin deficiency, which I know this sounds really naive, but you often, I think it social media, you know, you get people selling you these vitamins.
So in my head I'd kind of assumed that, um, having a vitamin deficiency wasn't a big deal. But, um, they gave me this like little piece of paper that told me like, what, why these vitamin deficiencies were so serious. Yeah. Because they had these symptoms. And I was looking down the list being like, I thought these were personality traits of mine.
Like, I thought this was just what it meant to be Immy, and it's not, this is like an actual
Rhona
No way.
Immy
Yeah. That like setting things to do with kind of confusion and, um, just how like thinking patterns and kind of how you, you know, respond to sleep and um, even down to um, and you were just like, oh, that's just me.
That's just me.
Rhona
Oh, it's so easily done. That and you know, that thought. Is, is I think, a thought that sadly is more in this female brain type or the reason this podcast is exists is all linked in because I speak to so many women with chronic diseases and they, I think, are slower to get diagnosed because they're come in and they're just like, well, I just thought that life was just hard for me.
I was just unfit. I just wasn't, you know, all these things. And I'm like, oh my goodness, why are we so hard on ourselves?
Immy
Wait. Well, like there is a quote, isn't there? That's like a, a woman's life is pain or something, something stupid like that. And, um, sorry, I, I'm really sorry. I'm gonna repeatedly go on tangents, but please go for it.
I also got a new physio last year when I was really going through these recurrent injuries and my new physio, um, was doing a lot of massage on certain areas and he turned around to me and he said. You know, you have a really, really high pain threshold. He was like, you are able to do that. And then he sort of sat and thought, and then said, actually most women that I treat have really high pain thresholds.
It means that I can, um, actually push it in the treatment a bit more. And in my head I was a bit, I can, I just, just to clarify, I really liked this physio and I liked it. His, I like his approach. Um, but it, there was something about that message in my head that's really messed with me for a while because it's like, is it that women do have a higher pain threshold generally, or is it that we're taught to accept pain and just deal with it and get on with it?
And actually societally then that, it's like a sort of vicious circle that keeps lying around. Like we're actually experiencing the pain, we just don't say anything about it until later on.
Rhona
Yeah, exactly. I think there is definitely some of that because you are, uh, you are told to keep your problems a bit to self 'cause you don't wanna make a drama or be hysterical about it or whatever.
Yeah. Because maybe the way that we would express it is a way that society doesn't want. Doesn't wanna hear about it in that way. Um, and, and you know, men definitely have their own things that they present late with medically and they have their own hangups. Yeah. But these things are definitely, I, I've noticed in women.
Yeah. I, I wonder if, yeah. The pain is the same. We just, grit our teeth longer through with it. We do, we're not used to voicing it. It's like with, you know, like IUD insertions and stuff, some people that, you know, really express really intense pain and Yeah. It's sort of societally like just, it's fine. Like, get on with it, you know, this won't hurt, it's a little scratch, it's a pinch or whatever.
Rhona
Yeah. I have to say as somebody who does procedures Yes. Um, I think there's a as the person doing it, want to play it down, I think for yourself. Yeah. Because I don't want to be inflicting pain on somebody. Interesting. And I think that sometimes I say, I think I play it down because I. Don't want to be inflicting pain on the person.
Immy
No, that makes sense.
Rhona
So I'm like putting it down for myself and I've only, that's taken me time to think about that. I think being a patient quite a lot has made me think about that and I've realised that, that people do that. Just, I think we do it always. We want to, even when I'm saying to somebody, the chances of something I, if, if it's more likely they'll recover or more likely something will go well, I am very quick to say, oh, well, is, you know, it's gonna, you know, it's really likely or play it up almost.
Yeah. Uh, because I don't wanna feel bad.
Immy
That's super interesting I do, you know what? That's so ignorant of me. I'd never considered it from that perspective at all.
Rhona
Yeah. But I don't, I mean, maybe not everybody is like that. I'm, I'm one of those people who, you know, apologises just for existing. So that's probably, I agree.
Yeah. Same. So maybe it's also that's tied into my personality, but I, I think there is a little bit of that, that like when you're inflicting a painful procedure. It's not very nice to think about the fact that you are gonna be doing that. So you almost play it down for yourself, I think. Yeah. I mean, well, okay.
Immy
Sorry, I'm gonna go off on a tangent, otherwise I'll stop. Like, I guess as a medical professional, like you are probably in a position where you are constantly, you know, you could be the source of pain for a huge number of people. Oh yeah. As humans, as you say, that's not something that we naturally want to do.
Like we, we are tribal and we live in a society and we want to kind of have that harmony, so that disconnect. I mean, I had a friend, uh, who worked in a and e and she, she said that she really had to learn to disassociate the human from patients. And that she then found that that trickled into her relationships, that she really then struggled to kind of build up empathy in certain.
You know, nonclinical environments. Yeah. Like, she talked about that quite extensively and, you know, I'd never considered like what toll that could take on on people. Yeah. It's very interesting, isn't it? I think everybody will have different quirks and the ways of coping with things like that. I think I very, I am the opposite.
Rhona
I probably over empathise. Mm-hmm. But I think it makes specifically the types of work I do better, but it means that in things like what if I'm gonna inflict pain or something could go wrong, I'm probably, I know it's gonna be rubbish for them and then therefore I like protect myself.
In that way. It's weird. Yeah, yeah.
Immy
Super interesting. Meanwhile, my physio is just there, like, oh, I'm just gonna, oh, you're sweating and like wanting to throw up, but that's fine. Just keep, stay still. Oh God. Okay. So after physio tour and to anyone listening to this, they're like, good god, can she finish her story?
Um, yeah. So I mean, a lot of it came out basically. Yeah. Had the, the past, I'd say from 2025, this has been a 'cause all of that kind of came out at the end, maybe October time, 2024. So we've kind of had this period of, really trying to change a lot of things in my life. And I mean, like, you know, uh, my weight has changed massively.
Um, I broke my ankle in February and, I mean, we can get onto that if you want, but I would say that's one of the better things that has happened to me in a lot of ways, particularly for my relationship with my body and, and kind of rest and all of those sort of things. I've really changed my diet quite dramatically.
That was one, I've always really struggled with food and eating my whole life. If you, it is not because I'm a picky eater. If you go back and look at the baby books, you know, um, I think I remember reading it and my mum had kind of put that like, Imogen will only eat bourbon biscuits and peanut butter.
And I generally think that that has carried on through the rest of my life, given a chance. Bourbon, biscuits and peanut butter probably would be my main diet. That's interesting. Um, and so even from a young age, I've had a lot of food hangups. So, you know, I wouldn't, I follow Renee McGregor on Instagram, but I would struggle for many years even to watch her.
Uh, her videos or her talking about food I struggled with, there's a book that's come out fairly recently about processed foods and a lot of Oh, yeah. Recommended to me and I just can't read it.
Rhona
Yeah ultra processed people.
Immy
Yeah. That's the one.
Rhona
It is an incredible book. You definitely need to be prepared to read it and if you have food hangups, don't read it.
Really interesting, because I see Renee McGregor actually has talked about this, that, you know, if you demonise anything, anybody with a food hangup could have a lot of issues. Yeah. You know, so I, I don't know that it's the book for everybody. It's a very interesting book if you are interested in health and food.
Immy
Yeah. Okay. That, that actually makes me feel better about not reading it. Yeah. I just don't think, you know, I have tried, I've got out of the library about twice and each time just not even opened it. Yeah. And you just really struggled. I think. So to be able to change my diet this year has been quite transformational.
I'm learning to cook. I've never been able to cook. I just really tried. I mean, my kitchen was a storage unit for many years because I just, you know, there's a sex in the city scene where like Carrie Bradshaw, I think uses her oven to store her shoes. And I think mine would've been used for books.
Had had I been given half a chance.
Rhona
So how were you eating? Um, so I have, I've been vegan for 10 years. Okay. And I'm going to, I've never actually admitted this. So like for this to be said publicly, I think I actually start, I went vegan because it was a very convenient way of cutting food out.
Rhona
If I'm gonna be honest, I've met many vegans like that.
Yeah. And I think a lot of people listening will, who might resonate with that? You know, we, it's a very easy way to Yeah. I don't think you're the only person. Yeah, there definitely.
Immy
It was a very, and it meant that I could have ethics and values and it. You know, somehow commended, but it also meant I had to fight for it.
And so for years I was, but when I say vegan, like I was a junk food vegan. If I ate a vegetable a week, that was pretty impressive. So I was eating crisps and popcorn and bread and you know, and that's how I lived my life. And then I was over exercising quite intensely. There is another part of this, which I, I won't really go into, 'cause it's my partner's story, not mine.
But my partner has dietary issues himself, which meant at home, you know, certain foods were genuinely off limits from a allergy into intolerance perspective.
Rhona
But again, it's another legitimate restriction. Oh yeah. So you couldn't use it like that. And instead of fighting that or going around like eating your own things, you would just be like, oh, well we can't eat that.
Immy
Exactly. We can't eat that. I'd go out for dinner and it'd be like, well no, we, you know, I can't even have that, you know, even out for dinner. So yeah, that, so actually being able to learn to cook, and when I say I'm learning to cook, I've got one of those mindful chef. Boxes, you know, like HelloFresh. Oh, great.
Yeah. Yeah. But that's so helpful. 'cause it takes, I think it takes the anxiety out of thinking about it. It, it provides me with like a really balanced, fresh fruit. Free me, I'm actually getting it experimental now. Like I know that if I put carrot in sauces, it makes it sweeter. I found that you can add nuts to pretty much anything and it tastes really nice.
Yeah, and they're great. Nuts are the best. They nut nuts. So good for you. So good. Who knew? And like, I, I mean I had before this, I don't think, other than peanut butter, which I would literally eat by the spoonful. I was, I don't think I'd eaten a nut in like 10 years. Wow. Which really should be like a staple of your diet if you're a vegan.
Rhona
So you were not doing veganism, right? I was not doing it right at all. No. Um, are you still a vegan?
Immy
Um, yes and no. I try to not use those labels anymore. Yeah. So I don't really eat meat, but occasionally, you know, maybe I'll have tuna if that is something that comes up and I just try not to put pressure on myself.
Yeah. So, you know, if there is milk in something, fine. Yeah. I'll still eat it. And you know, I try to eat eggs. I do have a real aversion to eggs. Like, I dunno what it is.
Rhona
I mean you don't have to eat them.
Immy
No, exactly. But they are really good for you. Well, I mean, I dunno, maybe they're not No, they are. I think they are good.
Rhona
They are good. They're, but they're, but, but there are lots of good things in the world and you don't have to eat everything.
Immy
Yeah, exactly. And I think also stepping out of that. That vegan world like a number of years ago, was really helpful because you get hemmed in by the identity of it all. I think the other thing that, you know, when you contacted me about this rest days thing was, and this podcast, I really wanted to talk about the identity of certain labels that I would become quite fixated on.
And I think that is a big enemy for me sometimes, that I can get very attached to a, a specific label, and I think veganism was one of them.
Rhona
Does, does it make you feel safe as well? Is there some safety and, yeah. Another thing that makes sense, I think a lot of people, again, will agree, understand that. Yeah.
Immy
I think, well humans again, are really community focused, right? And in the olden days we probably would've been part of like one specific community that we would ne, you know, very rarely have. Come out of contact, you know, come contact people from outside of that. And I think nowadays we can have so many different identities and we can shape and model our ourselves, um, any way we want.
And the comfort of being attached to very, very static and strict labels is, I dunno, it becomes quite, can become quite an obsession. I think that's why you see that tribal thing on the internet of certain people being very committed to one group and refusing to kind of criticize it and things like that.
Rhona
Yeah, I agree. I think that is a huge thing. I mean, I think the community as a whole massive topic that love, love to talk about, but we'll get back to your main story. We're going back, you've seen the physio, you were, you had nutritional deficiencies. Do you remember which ones?
Immy
Yeah, so low B12, iron, vitamin D mean, everyone's deficient in vitamin D.
Yeah. Okay. Um, so lots I was ill. Yeah.
Rhona
Did they test your hormones?
Immy
Um, no they didn't. But that has been discussed, uh, to maybe do in the future. Um, so what the doctor really wanted to do is try and see if we could correct some of the things. And actually I would say that I've been feeling a million times better.
Okay. So much better. Like, I don't need to sleep in the afternoon anymore. I have a ton more energy. I'm a lot happier. Like, I think I was looking back, you know, when you sort of put it side by side, I was really miserable.
Rhona
It's so interesting that you sometimes you can only see that afterwards. I find that, I think I'm a quite a self-aware person as people go.
I've had long periods of being actually quite unhappy and I don't know until afterwards. How, why is that? It's weird, isn't it? Yeah.
Immy
But then it goes back to like looking at that list and being like, oh my God is this, this is a per this, I thought this was personality. Like this is my personality. And I often joke and I say, 'cause I drink a lot of coffee, and I often joke and say that I wonder if I, I know who I am because I drink so much coffee.
Is the coffee that what makes me me? Or is it like, is there an underlying version of myself? And it sort of has been the same with like the vitamins, like at what point is the real Immy? But incidentally I think it's made me more like, my anxiety has considerably, I've always, as for as long as I remember, I've suffered from really bad anxiety.
You know, I was seven years old and suffering with intense panic attacks. And, um, and even now, like sometimes, I'll do kind of exercise to, and my heart rate goes above a certain threshold and then I'll Slip into a panic attack. 'cause my body just goes, oh, this is what we're doing. You what to do here.
And I, you know, I've always had a lot of anxiety and just being able to correct some of these deficiencies, I've got a different outlook. My relationship with my work has changed. I really don't hate it anymore. I used to hate work. I'd be like, oh god.
Rhona
Wow. That's really interesting.
Immy
Yeah, I'm more tolerant. I'm not as, you know, quick to anger or, you know, I can be more patient with people.
Rhona
That's nice, nice for everybody around you. Oh, that's super interesting. Um, what do you, what did you mean with the coffee? Do you mean like you feel like you have high energy because you drink loads of coffee and that high energy is a feature of your personality or….
Immy
yeah, and also just like. Like, I really like an enjoyment of life and Okay.
You know, just like, you know, that just, ah, the first sip of coffee in the morning truly is one of life's greatest delights. I don't think there is anything that I do in my life that comes close to that feeling of just pouring the, you know, hot water in and just sipping. Ah, God. I love it.
Rhona
So funny because multiple episodes we have now basically discussed a morning coffee.
So maybe everybody out there, guys out there take some time for your morning coffee. Maybe. Maybe it's a thing.
Immy
And also just, yeah, coffee addiction. I don't, I personally do not see a problem with it. Like there How many cup of coffee do you have a day? I am down to three. I think I'm doing quite well.
Rhona
I think that's fine. Yeah. Um, do you sleep?
Immy
Okay. My sleep again, from the vitamin deficiencies like my sleep has, has improved dramatically. You know, once I'm asleep, I'm asleep.
Rhona
Do you know how much sleep your body likes?
Immy
Yeah, I can get away with not much sleep, to be honest. One thing I can't get away with is disturbed sleep.
So enough. I used to, 'cause last year I was so unwell, but um, I was volunteering on the Spine Race by Montane. So for people who don’t know it is 260 mile foot race on the pennines, one of the most brutal races and I was working at Checkpoint and sometimes they don't advertise this, but sometimes as a check working at Checkpoint, you can get about seven hours of sleep across a whole weekend because they are a bit better with it now in making sure that people are getting sleep.
But for me that's sort of fine. I can operate at that level and that was sort of a superpower that I didn't realise about myself until doing it. But I can't do is like. You say I can have like, I dunno, 10 hours of sleep and then you are waking me up every couple of hours, then I can't operate at all.
Rhona
Super interesting though. Okay, so two questions. Have you read why We Sleep Y? Yes. Maybe it's Matt Walker is his name.
Immy
Maybe Does he talk about dreams as well? Oh no, I'm thinking of why we dream. Oh, okay. Maybe No. Okay. No.
Rhona
Well I don't want to, I dunno. It might be, it might be like the Ultra Process food book. It might not be good for you, but you probably do need more sleep than you think is all I said. So what do you reckon you get sleep-wise?
Immy
I get a good eight hours a night.
Rhona
Oh, okay. Yeah.
Immy
No, I'm good. I'm, I don't, you know, I don't really suffer with insomnia or anything like that and I have quite really a good relationship with sleep and, um, yeah, I'm, I'm.
That is one thing that I'm pretty good at. I always have been, even again since a baby in my baby book it, it says, it says, yeah, it's like sleeps. Well, you know, a lot of my achievements really came when I was as a small child.
Rhona
Okay. Okay. So, but when you were deficient in vitamins and when your health wasn't good, you didn't sleep?
Immy
No. It made it really disturbed and difficult. And you'd kind of just wake up really not feeling refreshed at all. Yes. And then you'd, I'd like go to the gym or I'd go out for a run or I'd go on the bike and I just, you would just feel this like. Just this, the tiredness that is so tired that you then can't sleep.
Rhona
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I know that.
Immy
You start doing more to try and wear yourself out. Yeah. And then you'd be like, oh my God. It's a perpetual cycle. Is indeed. Yeah. Yeah.
Rhona
Do you think that there's a little bit of a confounder here as well though, that, um, you had also, as well as having the deficiencies, you'd run yourself into the ground a little bit.
So when you found out about the deficiencies, you looked after yourself a bit better, which also helped with that. Is there, is that there too, do you think?
Immy
Yeah, the, I, I knew I had to change 'cause I just couldn't live the way I was living anymore. It was getting to the point where it was affecting my job and my relationships and, you know, I'd been to see therapists because I was, 'cause I was so miserable all the time.
And then I realised that I wasn't miserable, I was just unwell. Um, and then, yeah, I mean, I'm gonna be honest, I broke, as I said earlier, I broke my ankle in January. And. Uh, looking back on it, do I think that I would've fallen into bad patterns again? If as my energy improved, would I have just gone back to the way I was so easily done?
Yeah. Whereas with an ankle break, I just couldn't do anything. By fact, I had, I had to completely change my life. And, um, that sounds so dramatic. It was just an ankle break.
Rhona
No, no, no. It's this huge thing. It's a huge thing. I think especially I, I think you can't, well, for one, the same thing of we can't assume how, what it would affect anybody's life. 'cause everybody's life is different. But for anybody who does a lot of activity and that is central to their physical and mental health and coping mechanisms and how they keep themselves together, then there's a huge, huge thing.
Immy
Yeah. It completely transform that. I mean, going back to the coffee thing, I couldn't even. I could make the cup of coffee, but then I couldn't take it through to the living room, which is where I like to have my first sip. It's so sad. Yeah. See. So it was big. Okay, so tell me about the journey since you broke your ankle. Yeah. Um, this is my favourite topic, so I apologise to anyone who's, it's like 7 million times.
It's like, oh, she's going on about the ankle again. So, um, I was out running with my run club and um, I basically hit a pothole in January, February. We'd had a period of a ton of ice, so these were roads that I knew super well and ran on all the time. And a just literally overnight a pothole had opened up.
So that hadn't been there the previous day. And then it was, and basically my ankle went one way and my body went the other. And I did feel that popping sensation. Um, it ended. I actually walked around for a few days refusing to go to hospital about, I was just saying it's not a big deal. Yeah. And eventually my friend Becca, um, Becca, if you're listening, hello.
Um, she, she sent me a. A, a marginally aggressive voice. They basically told me that if she, if I did not go to the hospital, she was gonna drive down from Newcastle and take me herself, which Wow. I knew wouldn't have wanted to in, I would not wanted to convenience her because I believe she would have done this.
So, yeah, I, I went to, I went to hospital and, um, again, they would, it was funny because they were just like, oh, it's fine. It's a little break. It was a bone chip, so the bone chip was, you know, fine. That heals really quickly. Yeah. It isn't really treated as anything more than a sprain. So I wasn't given a boot.
I wasn't even given crutches. I had to go and buy my own crutches. Um, it wasn't strapped up. NHS is like on its knees. Yep. Um, they just sort of, I couldn't really walk. They just put me in a taxi and was like, goodbye. I was like, um. But the big, the big thing really was the ligament damage.
Yeah. Which, you know, it, it was a full rupture. Um, and that was what that popping sensation was. And anyone that has had ligament damage will know how long it takes to build your ligaments and your muscles back up.
Rhona
Especially in an ankle in, yeah.
Immy
And it was, I mean, so it was initially six weeks of absolutely no weight bearing at all, which can I tell you, the first time I put a tiny bit of weight on my foot, it was almost as good as that first sip of coffee, that rushing feeling.
Drawing my body of just like, 'cause I suppose you've got like lots of valves in your feet that help the blood circulation or something. Because I instantly felt like all of my leg came alive and Oh, to be fair, yeah.
Rhona
I mean, I guess yeah, that would have, yeah. You like, would get better blood flow from using it and so yeah.
That's very nice. I think a little bit of that is in your head though,
Immy
That's such a doctor response is in your head.
Rhona
Most things are in your head. It doesn't mean that they're not real.
Immy
Um, yeah, so putting it down was, um, absolutely phenomenal. I just decided then and there that I was going, I was already on this journey with my health and I was like, right, let's just tie it in.
And I mean, historically, so another tangent, um, I've, because of. Seen the vitamin deficiencies. I've suffered with chronic shin splints for over 10 years, and these are, I mean, anybody that says a shin splint is a minor thing, is an absolute, it's so painful to the point where walking down the stairs can be Yeah, really, really painful.
So historically when I'd get these injuries, I would just have an absolute meltdown. I, I have memories of kind of like lay on my living room floor just sobbing because I couldn't go for a run and my partner being like, oh, she's doing this again. Just sort of walking back out of the room as we'd be like, oh, this is, this is the end.
But luckily I hired a coach back at the beginning of 2024, um, to kind of help me because I realised I just, I, this was sort of before my diagnosis, but I started to realise that my. Interpretation of my body perhaps wasn't that useful.
Rhona
That's a good way to phrase it. Yeah. I like that.
Immy
It, and she was really helpful being able to, you know, is this reality, is this not?
And being the one to tell me to back off or then match you, I think you, you might be able to increase it. And so we just worked together really heavily at this point. And I just kind of thought to myself, I'm just, this experience of rehabbing my ankle back is going to be the most positive experience.
And it has, and I've learned a ton about what my body can do and actually the process of building your muscles up and really trying to, you know, I wanted to come back a different person from this and have a different relationship. And I think I have, because I used to go and work out every single day, sometimes twice a day.
Sometimes even three times a day because I was anxious, because I was miserable, because I felt this compulsion to do it.
Rhona
I don't think that's an unusual thing. I think a lot of people will have experienced that, particularly if they are in that world.
Immy
And I just didn't wanna do that anymore. I don't want to do a workout because I feel I need to.
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And so this process was really like, about, that was like, how can I make sure that every single time I'm, you know, going to the gym, it's for the right reasons. Like it's either because I actually really do want to move my body and I'm not punishing it, or it's about how do we strengthen up that ankle, how do we make ourselves stronger?
And interestingly, it's really changed my body and actually as that process has gone on, my body shape has changed. So. I'm not as slight anymore. A lot of my clothes don't fit. Maybe I'm putting weight on, which previously would've been really problematic. I controlled everything in my life. Yeah. I used to pride myself on the fact that I could still fit into clothes that I wore when I was 12.
Yeah. I mean, in my thirties. Um, so all of that has over the past few months really changed.
Rhona
And do you wear yourself
Immy
No.
Rhona
Good?
Immy
No. We haven't had scales in our house for a very long time. Yeah. It's good just to not know. Don't need to know. I don't have to take measure either. Yeah. Things like that. It just, it's not for somebody that is just Yeah.
So controlling of everything in her life and just can't have. It just, yeah. Not a great thing. Yeah. And so seeing my body like expand and change shape, and actually I look in the mirror now and I don't really recognise a lot of what I'm a lot because I take the vitamins now I can put muscle on.
Rhona
Which I bet you're way stronger.
Immy
Oh yeah. Like this is the other thing. So for years my physio. Um, shin Spins has been saying you need to be lifting heavy. And I was like, I am lifting heavy. I'm doing like 20 kilograms. And then my coach, when I got my coach, she was like, no, no, no, no. When we're talking lifting heavy, we mean really heavy.
We mean like more than your body weight. Yeah. We mean like, you know. And so yeah, my dead lifts are way above what I used to be able to do even before I broke my ankle. Me and my partner now go to the gym together, which actually has been really nice. He's never been into Fitnessy stuff, but this has been quite nice.
And now we have bench press competitions.
Rhona
Who’s winning?
Immy
Oh, okay. I was, for so long. I was for so long. And then this where you got into it? Yeah, he just, he's got, he's just surpassed like, I think he's up to 36 kilograms, which is amazing actually. 'cause again, he's not been into these, but then again it's just, but then on, on dead lifts, I'm, I'm beating the hell up.
Rhona
That was awesome. I love to hear that. It's gonna be a journey. It won't be straightforward. It won't just be, oh, I'll never have any more hangups. And I think the thing, the part where things often get most interesting is you're saying, I'm gonna go do exercise 'cause I really want to do it.
But sometimes you don't want to do it, but it is still the right thing to do. Yeah. Do you know like, it's really hard. I find those days the hardest. You know, it's pissing it down with rain, but actually this is your only evening to get a run in. And if you don't go today, then you'll know. You'll feel a bit rubbish.
And actually you will be really glad you went. Yeah. But. I find those ones the hardest because I'm in my head, I'm like, well no, you said you would only do it when you want to do it, but you don't wanna do it right now. But if you do, you know, that's, there's weird metal. Um, or if you want to train for something because having goals and training for things or doing events, it can be really healthy and enjoyable and lovely thing to do if you don't let it get obsessive.
But then you do have to put in some amount of effort. Right. Yeah, agreed. So, um, but it, those can be the really hard times I think. Um, I mean, when you were training for this triathlon, did you have any times where it started to creep up on you and you thought, I need to do this for the triathlon, or were you able to keep it ok?
Immy
I'm gonna be honest, I didn't train for the triathlon. It also might me why I came dead last in my swimming. Uh, the thing with the triathlon was I signed up for the triathlon and then two days later broke my ankle. So, um, and then I just was very financially committed to the 80 pounds that I'd spent on the air treat.
Um, two things to answer your question. Firstly, I think that was one of the reasons why I got a coach. Um, I've always been a bit skeptical of people with coaches before, well, not skeptical of people, but for me, I was kinda was if you're not looking to win a race, why would you have one? Yeah.
And actually she's so useful being able to look at. You know, the sessions that I've done before talk, you know, I can just text her whenever I want, we have that kind of relationship on those days where if I've got something in mind that I wanna do, she can help me like, you know, how are you feeling?
And really help me process those thoughts. So that's just super helpful. That's so good to have somebody to objectively bounce off. Yeah. And then you feel like you've made that decision collectively rather than it just being all on you. And I think that's super helpful. In terms of the triathlon, like the big thing to kind of more answer your question was around my swimming.
So I really only learned to swim in June last year. I could not drown, but actually being able to swim properly, doing front crawl actually get from one side of the pool to the other and back again wasn't a thing. So really. You know, my mom was always really scared of swimming and my dad can't swim, so it just wasn't a thing in our household.
I've always been quite ashamed of that, although I would like to say that something like a third of British adults can't swim.
Rhona
Oh yeah. Loads of people get it. It is very hard and impressive to learn as an adult. Yeah. So you should be super proud of yourself. If there's anybody out there, if Immy can do it, maybe you can do it too.
Immy
Also have swim patches that I give out
Rhona
I'm kind of disappointed that I know how to swim and can’t have one.
Immy
A few people say like Damnit. But yeah, it was really like learning how to swim and I knew that the bike side would be fine. And prior to breaking my ankle, I knew I could run. I the thing is I'm not massively competitive, which is weird because you'd think from maybe some of the stuff that I'd say that I am a competitive person, but I'm not.
Rhona
Yeah. That was one of the questions I wrote down before coming to see you is I was like, I don't understand you, but I think maybe it's, are you really competitive with yourself or like you have something to prove in life. You seem like you just work so hard.
Immy
I think is I like routine and I like commitment and, um, I think it's more that like, I'm not even competitive really with myself.
Um, I don't know. It's just, it's a weird thing like, you know, you saying about having goals, I don't really have many goals even in my broader life. There's things I'd like to do, but I don't see them necessarily as goals. And yeah, I honestly, do you know what? I have done so many events over the years.
And I'll often come last or second to last and I don't care. I just really love the the environment. I like people even at park when I like it, when people overtake me towards the end of the line. 'cause I'm like, oh yeah, look at them go like, they just pit me to the post. Isn't that great for them?
Rhona
You're so wholesome.
Immy
That's, I feel like that's not wholesome though.
Rhona
That's, there's probably something in that that, I think maybe though that this, you know what, now you have been on this journey com. If you combine that with your non-competitiveness, I think you'll be able to have a beautifully healthy relationship with sport.
Immy
Maybe. I hope so.
Rhona
Yeah. I think sometimes a hangup, if you're really competitive, that can be a problem where it start that that causes things to get. Dodgy again.
Immy
Yeah, that's true.
Rhona
So maybe you'll have that. I mean, every single person at an event is needed because somebody has to come last.
And if you don't have a pack, it's not fun. There's no people there. It's not fun. Yeah. So I always tell people who are nervous about doing stuff that, but um, I love that you have that attitude. I think that's amazing.
Immy
I, yeah. I, I wish I was more competitive. I wish I did. There was, there is an element of me that wishes that I had that motivation, but I just don't care.
Rhona
You are, I think it's kind of funny. I think that's it. I've heard you say so something like that, maybe on Instagram before, and I was like, what are you talking about? You're obviously insanely motivated. You are just not motivated by that. Yeah. That doesn't matter. Like, you work really hard, you do extra work on the side of your actual full-time job.
Probably more than a full-time. Yeah. And, and then you were telling me you exercised two to three times a day and you're like, I'm not that motivated.
Immy
Yeah. That's such a woman. Answer it.
Rhona
How can you be not motivated and exercise three times a day?
Immy
I just, I think, yeah, as you say, it's motivated by different things, isn't it?
But I still, I'm still not sure what that is. There is a, there is a memory that I had when I was in university where, I went to a really small university. I went to University of Exter, but on the Falmouth campus. So there was thirty others in our year. Then like, I mean, there were other courses, but we were just such a small course and I became super obsessed with wanting to be in all of the yearbook photos.
I joined so many clubs that I. Just had no actual real interest in, um, I went, I remember I'm not religious and I remember going to a Christian club. Um, I mean they had really good snacks and they were really nice people and I just wanted to be part of that
Rhona
Please don’t be offended anyone reading
Immy
Because they were all really wonderful people and I absolutely loved it. I just am not religious, but I just liked the atmosphere. I was like, I just really wanted to be there. And I think that that's a lot of my motivation. Even at work, I really just like being part of things. My run club is Helsby Running Club and you know, I honestly don't really have time to do the volunteering and the membership stuff that I do as part of that club, but I just really like being part of it.
I like being involved and I think that's why I enjoy doing events. It's why I like being part of communities and I think it's that that motivates me. I just really want to be involved in stuff.
Rhona
But also, before we recorded this, you also said that you're a bit nervous about going to new group things. You're a very contrary person.
Immy
That is true. Um, yeah. I don't actually know how that fits into my psyche, to be honest. 'cause I agree
Rhona
because you love community and you love being a part of it. But maybe do you have to already feel comfortable in that community? No. 'cause then all these new ones at university, you just, I just found and ate their snacks.
So what's going on there? Um, is it certain communities? Is it sport? Well, no, the run club is a sporting one. But were they just really nice to you?
Immy
I mean, it took me six years to join them, to be fair. Okay. So there was hesitation.
Yeah. I've, I've lived here for, you know, a number of years and it took me, yeah, probably about six years to, to even join them. I'd drive home from work and I'd see them and I'd be like, oh, they're all in matching tops. I really want a matching top. But, but I, I'm too scared to join. So maybe, yeah, to scratch what we said earlier, like.
I do feel very nervous about joining new clubs and I do have to psych myself up, but once I'm in it, I really commit to it. Yeah. Okay. And I think that's the same with my work. Yeah. It's, you know, everything I do, I really want to be committed to it. Yeah. And I think it, it's that.
Rhona
Okay. What about, 'cause you do, obviously you have your main job.
Yeah. You, and, and that sounds pretty full on. Yeah. Um, tell what, just tell us what you do.
Immy
So I work for a community benefit society based in Manchester, and we essentially help people decarbonise their homes, um, as a form of climate activism. So I am the operations lead. I joined a number of years ago before the company had actually incorporated, so I turned up and I'd just left a very, very well paid job.
Um, I took about a 20 grand pay cut to come and work at this place that I wasn't even a business, and I didn't get a contract for like, a couple of months and I was like, what the hell have I done?
Rhona
Because you were more passionate about this one though.
Immy
Yeah, I think there was a mix, like my previous job, um, I'd basically fallen out with the CEO, um, and there was a big thing around that and I just couldn't work there anymore, I think.
And, uh, my master's was in environmental sustainability and I really wanted to go into that, that line of work. They'd advertised for a training manager and I kind of. The company I'm at now, they, they were a project and they wanted to become an, a bigger organisation or an independent organisation, um, rather than being a grant funded project.
And so they did advertised for this training manager. I'd gone to it and then they were like, you are not the right fit for that, but actually we think you would, we will create a role. And so I kind of went into it. Um, so my job for the past few years has been like kind of helping set up that organisation.
Wow. Um, running it, whether I do a good job, I dunno, often feel like I'm not,
Rhona
I'm sure you do a very good job.
Immy
Well, um, yeah, so when I joined there was sort of maybe, I don't know, four or five of us, can't remember off the top of my head. Now are, now we're about 13 and we're hiring more. And, um, I don't know, it fluctuates.
So yeah, we, that's the work that I've been doing. So it, it's an interesting role because it's community benefit organisation. So there, there are no shareholders. Like nobody's making huge amounts of money out of this. You know, we're not getting paid a lot to work there. Um, but then I feel like a real sense of duty to it as a consequence.
Rhona
Which is good. It's a really lovely, I think, to come home from work and feel like your job, you're needed to do your job and that there's a purpose in it and everything, but it also means you can give a lot to it. Yeah. When sometimes it's detrimental to yourself.
Immy
Yeah, I think I've got, again, got better at that now and definitely have more boundaries in place.
For instance, I'm sat here with you at lunchtime. Yes. Like I could have very easily have not wanted to do this.
Rhona
Oh yeah. You could have. I'm very grateful. Thank you.
Immy
You need to remember this. Maybe I wouldn't have done that because I would've been really chained to my desk and been like, if I'm not here then you know something's gonna set, you know, blow up in my face.
Yeah. Um, actually that's not the case. No.
Rhona
The world doesn't make explode if you relax for a second. Yeah, exactly. It's quite wild. Yeah. Who knew? But the thing that I'm most interested in, and I know I'm a massive hypocrite when I say this, but why do you do other work?
Immy
My god's a good question. Why do I do other work?
So for context, the other work that I do, um, I have a freelance writing company, so. When I say company, it's just me. I do stuff with that.
Um, so writing reviews and, uh, recently did an article on saddle sores, which was a great commission.
Rhona
Everybody loved it. I've shared it to everybody.
Immy
It was a really good thing to do. And then, um. What else do I do? Yeah. Obviously volunteering stuff I do on the side and, and bits and pieces.
I also have an idea of something that I would like to go into that's around that, the saddle conversation. Oh yeah. So I, I mean, there's been a, a saddle library in London for a really long time. Yeah. I have one in the north. Um, but again, I just don't have, I know, I feel like I would know how to set it up, but I just don't have time at the moment.
Yeah. So, yeah. Um, I mean the reason why I do those other things, I guess is creativity, community, like being involved. Um, it stops the demons in my head.
Rhona
If you sit still for one second
Immy
I don't do that because of the demons in there. Yeah. They're like, they're, they're, they're nicer demons these days, but I do just.
I dunno. Even when there isn't voices in my head telling me that I'm a useless worthless human review for sitting down, I also just really enjoy being busy. Like it's an actual enjoyment thing.
Rhona
Okay. Now I think we are really hitting the, the nitty gritty of this podcast. Okay. So if you never sit still, how are you ever resting?
Immy
Um, because, well, no
Rhona
I'm really excited to see what you come up with.
Immy
I mean, like I do, I do sit still, like I'll sit on the sofa occasionally.
Rhona
And Are you working when you do that?
Immy
Yeah, usually.
Rhona
'cause that doesn't count.
Immy
I think the rest, the rest days for me tend to be the, the time I spend with my partner.
Rhona
Okay, good. So there's somebody protective in your life. You have to spend time with them.
Immy
I do. I do have to spend time with him. Yeah. And he, and he also has very different um. Pace of life to me completely. You know, he did one job for starters, a quite a stressful job, but he is very committed to resting and he's quite good at it.
Um, so he often, I mean, a couple years ago, I definitely wasn't, and I'd say my relationship in some ways probably would've ended up suffering if I, as you say, like if I'd have just carried on doing all, all the time, always being busy. And then to be fair, he was kind of like. Why do we just have particularly, why don't we have a protected day?
And so we started off like, really Saturday is my protected day. That took some getting used to, because do you know how many sporting events happen on a Saturday? So I have to like, I can't do any of those anymore.
Rhona
Oh, so now that's how protected it is?
Immy
And if, if there is something that needs to happen on Saturday, me and my partner make a decision together about whether or not I should do it.
Rhona
Or could you like make it a thing that you both do or something? Or is he not interested in ever having to watch you do things?
imMY
we are very different in that respect, which is really good actually.
Rhona
That's a helpful balance to. Do you know, one thing that's really come out I think from doing this, and the more I talk about it with people is that most people have a, have protective people. We can't help ourselves. Yeah. You know, we have to be stopped by people. You had your friend from Newcastle threatening to come down if you didn't go to a and e.
I don't know if we're why we're like that, but that's interesting. And I think you are really lucky it's your partner, because that's also somebody who you do have to spend time with if you want, you know, a good relationship, um, and somebody you presumably enjoy spending time with, you really enjoy spending time with them.
Yeah. So that's good. Okay. So what kind of things do you do when you're hanging out? Do you do it just completely different from any of your other stuff?
Immy
Yeah. Totally different. We tend weirdly tend to do the same thing every Saturday. And I like, it's quite nice. I like the routine because I have to make decisions so much in my, my life all the time. If there is something that I can just not make a decision about, that is great. So yeah, we will do pretty much the same thing every Saturday. We go to the same cafes, we walk the same route together. It's truly, again, it's like that first sip of coffee. It's one of my most loved things.
I enjoy it more so than doing events or like going out and doing exercise. But at first, did it take a bit of getting used to? Yeah. I felt like I was really missing out on this stuff. My friends would be inviting me out for rides on a Saturday and, and you know, oh, come over here.
Let's do this. Or let's go and do this event. I really felt like I was saying no too many times. And then eventually you settle into a routine and. Oh yeah. I really, really enjoy that time.
Rhona
That is so good. Okay. I do, you know what? I didn't know that I was the answer. I was going, yeah, but how great was that answer?
Because you know, I thought you were just gonna be like, yeah, no, I never rest. And I was just be like, might as well, and the end of the fuck stat then. But instead you, you told me this beautiful story about your Saturdays. That they're so valuable. Yeah, they are. That is so nice. And I bet it, it sounds like it's pretty good physical rest.
Yeah, and mental rest. Yeah. And you don't have to think about anything 'cause you're gonna do mostly the same things. It's just so lovely. I mean, mentally you're also getting a rest when you're exercising and that's why you relied on exercise so much before. 'cause mentally it was really good for you, but you just got, it just got a little bit excessive. It became too much of a crutch I guess.
Immy
yeah, it became too much of a crutch and, but weirdly, although you say it gave me a mental rest, I think different sports did different things. So running definitely like my brain would switch off and I have very distinct memories of running on a treadmill weirdly.
And then. The treadmill's stopping 'cause I'd been on it for an hour and not re 'cause our gym, they just stop after an hour. Oh, okay. Not realising I'd done an hour and then being really disorientated about where I was. You should for a second, you should enter that thing where you run on a treadmill for as long as possible.
I think probably could do it.
Rhona
I think you should do that. 'cause you, you'd have a Nobody else in the world has ever said that?
What that they didn’t notice doing an hour on the treadmill?
Rhona
I did two minutes and I'm like, it must have been three hours already.
Immy
I haven't been on, like, I don't, I dunno whether I could do that now.
But yeah, the, it, it used to be like that, like running was just silence. It was the only time my brain went silent when I would cycle. It was very different. I would be problem solving all the time. And I often say that I feel like it's the ceiling of the pedals that help. And also you do, I think on a bite you do have to be more alert than if you're on a treadmill where you, you no stimulus.
Rhona
It's true though. You're alert. But you're distracted from your problems. Yes. Because you're focusing on like, oh no, there's a pothole or there's a car trying to kill me.
Immy
Yeah. That's these classic things. All the ways that you can die will cycling.
Yeah. Basic. So it's a different, it's it's still a mental break. Yeah. Is different. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then swimming. I was just trying not to drown, climbing. I was also trying not to die. So you don't have any room for any fear of anything else. Okay. This is really good. We've, we've got something really nice here, I think.
Do I come across well adjusted.
Rhona
Yeah. I'm quite impressed to be honest. You've, I think you, you're at a really nice point in your journey, don't you think? Yeah. Um, you, it'd be interesting to see how sustainable, like whether things slip. I really, really hope they don't. But you know, it's not a linear journey.
No. It goes up and down.
Immy
It goes up and down and maybe it'll slip and it'll slip in a different direction and it'll look different. And you know, I, yeah, I'm open to that. I think, yeah. In, in a way that I wasn't maybe last year where I was very, like, everything had to be ordered. I couldn't, I miss workouts all the time.
Now I'm just like, I don't wanna go to the gym. And it's fine.
Rhona
And it is fine. It, it literally is fine. You are not dead. I am not dead. Nothing blew up. No, nobody else died. Isn't that correct? Yeah.
Immy
And I still have friends, people still like me, you know? Wild. It's, that's insane.
Rhona
And did you know it's not your identity.
Yeah. But that did take a long time actually really trying to figure out what that was. I remember when I first broke my ankle, my coach was like, do you have any other hobbies that aren't? Sport related. And I was like, no.
Rhona
You like birds? You like reading?
Immy
I do. I really, yeah, I really do love reading.
But there is only so much book that you can book when you No choice. But yeah, we know. That's fair enough. So what, one of the things before we start, I really wanted to talk about was books, but I don't think we're gonna get onto that because we've done, and I think there's so much more even here to talk about.
Rhona
So I'm thinking maybe, maybe there's gonna be an, uh, an Immy episode in season two. Um, we'll have to see whether that comes to anything. But I, I, I think it would be really interesting to have a proper talk through some books out there. The positive and negative things they've done for, uh, people with our brain type, but also people, uh, you know, just women who need to rest.
Immy
Yeah. Just all of us.Could I do a shout out for two?
Rhona
You can please do.
Immy
Okay. Two. Oh, limiting them down to two. First one, um, that I would like to say is Naomi Klein's Doppelganger. And I know that that sounds like a, from what you've just said about the topic about rest, it doesn't seem to make complete sense, um, about why those two things would be linked, but Naomi Klein's doppelganger.
For anyone who hasn't read it is a nonfiction, um, discussion of Naomi Klein, who is a journalist. She gets confused with Naomi Wolf, who is an alt-right extremist Jewish writer. And for years she kept being confused and her reputation was completely tarnished. And so she wrote a book called Doppelganger about the doppel ganging that happens in society.
And the reason I think it's relevant to this conversation is that one of the big things that she talks about is that how in society we've become brands. As individuals. Oh yeah. Do you miss out on experiences and, um, ways of living and communication and, uh, you know, experiences of other people and other things because we're too committed to the brand.
And I think this goes back to a little bit what I, about what I was saying about identity and labels. And I do see that as a real big thing. It's sort of tangentially linked, I suppose, to the idea of rest. But all of this folds into like our understanding of experience and how we, we live in society. And I really liked her way of writing and talking about that.
It was a really big transformational shift for me.
Rhona
I'm really excited that you've brought that up because I think that this topic relates to everything basically. Yeah, it does. And so I'm, I'm glad that you didn't just pick a book that was just like, here's how you exercise, here's how you best, here's how you sleep, you know, or what, something like that.
Immy
So yeah, it, because it weaves into, you know, absolute everything and it is a really important topic and not, I don’t feel like not enough of my friends have read it. So if you haven't, and I've told you about it this is a threat.
Rhona
I haven't, so I've written it down. I'll get it.
I have an eight hour drive after this, so I'll just get it on Audible.
Immy
Yeah, please do. Yeah, it was, it was really good. And then the second book, um, is by Ruth Allen called Weathering. Um, and I, I've met Ruth, I've done a writing course with her. I've interviewed her for k Kendall Mountain Festival. And so, um, I really like her.
She's a psych therapist, um, who works specifically with the outdoors.
Rhona
Does she live in the Peak district?
Immy
She does.
Rhona
I know who she's, yeah.
Immy
So her therapy is, is really about like, how do you utilise the outdoors in therapy, but not in a exercise way, how do you process your feelings? And she wrote weathering, which actually is more about grief to be honest, and processing grief.
Um, but it's just. A piece, but I think grief actually comes into, um, rest and particularly in injury. Rehabilitation. Like grief is a big part of that. A huge part. And the identity thing. Yeah. 'cause you grieve, you grieve the loss of identity. Yeah, it's huge. Huge. It's full. I a hundred percent agree. Yeah. And um, so that book is, is really incredible.
It's one of those ones where you don't need to read it all in one go. I have read each of the chapters and then gone back and highlighted bits and I've got sticky notes everywhere and it's just, it's just such a well written. So those are my two books.
Rhona
I'm a huge advocate for the outdoors as a, as a treatment for, uh, physical and mental health.
And I don't think that we've focused a lot about here maybe over exercising, overdoing things, but I really think that you don't even need to really exercise in the outdoors for it to be Yeah. To be therapeutic. It's amazing. It's just the best. It's so good for everybody. Yeah. Um, and, um, yeah, so I, I buy into that massively.
And I think that you are very, you give an impression from afar that you use the outdoors, not just for that. Uh, to be honest, it's kind of interesting. I didn't know this conversation would go exactly how it went, and I love that. I'm so happy that that's how it is. I feel like I've learned so much about you.
Thought when you said you were exercising like two, three times a day. I was quite interested by that because I don't think I'd have guessed that from the outside. 'cause obviously you're presenting what you want to present to the world. Um, 'cause you present yourself as somebody, you suggest that you're maybe not that fit if you exercise three times a day. You’re really fit.
Immy
No, I'm telling you no, you, you can exercise that many times and not be happy.
Rhona
But you could be not fast. But I bet you're fit. I bet you're like you can just keep going all day. I think you've just got incredible endurance.
Immy
I think I do have a bit of endurance. Yeah. I mean maybe endurance.
Rhona
That's the, that's a type of fitness. Yeah. But, but I thought that you just loved the outdoors and just spent time enjoying out the outdoors was the impression. And I didn't, I didn't assume that's what you'd actually be like. 'cause I know the internet is not real, but you do also have a passion for the outdoors.
Immy
Oh yeah. In, in a, in a slower way. Yeah, absolutely. And but the thing is like those two parts facets of my personality, like. Although they sound quite contradictory, actually worked in harmony and have done for many years. Although in saying that, that perception that my of, of kind of enjoying the outdoors for the outdoors sake really has only been maybe in the last 18 months to 12.
Okay. So if you go back on, please, nobody do this 'cause it's terribly boring. But you probably would see a lot of the, the, you probably would pick up on those themes that actually she's. Not quite, I dunno, maybe you wouldn't make, 'cause as you say, like hid a lot of this because Yeah, it is. I found, I find it quite shameful to feel like that.
But another contradiction of my personality is I actually find the outdoors really, really scary. Yeah. I've had to work up to learn how, I don't come from an outdoorsy family and, you know, I didn't, my, my dad went on his first camping trip and I was one that took him. I have never had this knowledge passed down to me.
Nobody in my family knew about any of it. Yeah. And so I found it quite a threatening, I can find it a quite threatening place and I, I don't, I'm not one of these people that likes to get lost. Um, I really like my local trails, you know, COVID really taught me that I really learned where we are now. I just explored all of it.
Yeah. And I absolutely loved it. But you know, going out to the mountains of Scotland and getting lost and having no phone signal absolutely scares the crap out of me. It's forever. Yeah. Like, it's just not, it's just not me and that isn't something. But yeah, I do enjoy. Just being outside. And I actually think that that's the facet of my personality.
That's the nicer side. Mm. And the better side. And that's the bit that I can do when I am well,
Rhona
is that also the bit that you, why you present that you're proud of that part of you? Yeah. So that's why you present that side of you to the worldYeah. That's what you want everybody to see. Yeah. Because I It should be proud of that, of you.
Immy
I would like to add that I don't go to the gym three times a day anymore. It's now like three times a week now, which I think is much so healthy. Yeah. It's much better love. Um, but yeah, it's not, it's not like that anymore. Um, yeah. So please don't go to the gym three times a day.
Rhona
Tell us a quick thing about birds as well.Why are you interested in birds?
Immy
I got into birds through COVID, through my friend Abby, who owns bikes and bird hides, um, which is on Instagram, and she also does great trips. And I just, I fell in love with her as a person. Like she is just such a wonderful human being. And she was really interested in birds and I didn't know anything.
I knew black birds and robins and maybe a seagull. Uh, seagulls don't exist, by the way. Whats, yeah, they're just gulls. What? Yeah, seagulls aren't a thing. So learned all of these things and I think what I liked so much about it, so I would go out and rides with her and she was able to see the landscape in a very different way.
So she was able to, she knew where to, she'd hear a sound and she'd know where to look. Oh, she would look in different places that I wasn't looking in. And the birds were kind of like guiding the birds were guiding her into that. But she was able to read the landscape in different ways. She'd understand different habitats.
And again, not coming from an outdoorsy family, I had nobody to pass that knowledge on. So really, honestly, it came from her and I have just sort of honestly just skimmed the wave that she created. Like, you know, I really love birds now as a consequence, but because of those experiences and being able to read the landscape in that way through, through their existence,
Rhona
I think that's such a beautiful thing to be able to appreciate because once you were able to get outside with your ankle, that's something you can still appreciate and that's something that's slower and it doesn't have a goal. Ah, I Well not that you're, you know, I know you're not goal or a super goal into it, but you know, it doesn't have to get anywhere. It seems very nice though.
I'm just not sure the birds are my thing.
Immy
It's, I mean, you just need to be Yeah, it absolutely fine.
Rhona
Yeah, I agree. But I do. But I still wanted to ask about it. 'cause I think that that is also a very wholesome activity. Yeah. And very good for, you know, brain and body.
Immy
But birds can be wild, like some of their things Mad.
Rhona
What? Tell me something really wild.
Immy
Just, is it a shrike that basically how it kills its preys. It like comes super fast, plucks the bird out the air and then, then impales it on a spike. No. And then just comes back and eats it while it's dying. A very slow and painful death. Geez, sorry.
Rhona
Shall we leave the podcast there?
Immy
Yeah. And on that note, bye.
Rhona
And that really actually is the end. Thank you Immy. Thank you That was so amazing. I didn't know where we were gonna go with it. I think that there may be another episode with you because I think there's a lot of really interesting stuff to talk about here, especially the book stuff. Yeah. Um, but I really appreciate your time and I hope everybody else enjoyed that. Thank you.
What wonderful words from Immy. She was so honest and open sharing her personal experiences, which I'm sure will be appreciated by so many of you. If you're enjoying the podcast, please subscribe, leave a review, or send us a message with some feedback. If you want to join in with the community, follow us on Instagram @restdayscommunity or go to our website rest days community.com.
See you next week.