Author: Dr Juliet McGrattan

Quick Question – How can I stop hay fever affecting my exercise?

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I’m beginning to sneeze already! As soon as March kicks in and the tree pollens start to appear, hay fever can begin to interrupt exercise. If you’re unlucky, the sneezing, itchy eyes and runny nose can go on until October. You can feel grumpy, lethargic and not in the least like exercising and being outdoors just makes things worse. What can you do to get rid of hay fever symptoms? How can you stop hay fever affecting your exercise plans and performance? In this week’s #quickquestion I’m sharing my four Cs for exercising with hay fever.

Quick Question – How can I stop needing to poo when I exercise?

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The last Quick Question blog answered the conundrum of why exercise makes you need to poo, so now let’s figure out how to stop it! Can you stop the runner’s trots or exercise induced pooping?  What can you do to prevent the diarrhoea that exercise can cause? Here are a few simple tips that will help you reduce the need to poo when you exercise:

Quick Question – Why does exercise make me need to poo?

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Are you one of the many people who find that once they start doing some exercise, particularly vigorous stuff like running, you get a sudden urge to open your bowels? More often than not it’s a runny motion too. Why does exercise give you diarrhoea? Is there such a thing as exercise-induced poop? It’s so annoying, can be really inconvenient (think crouching in the bushes) and actually put you off being active in the first place. It’s a very common problem so I thought I’d answer it for my #QuickQuestion this week.

www.drjulietmcgrattan.com

Active Women Interview – meet Katie Holmes

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More and more women over fifty are increasing their fitness levels and discovering just how much they can do. From a health perspective, it’s a wonderful time of life to be maxing out on physical activity, reaping the benefits and slowing the ageing process. I for one am really inspired by these women sharing their stories on social media and it makes me feel enthused and positive about the years ahead (I’m 46). Katie Holmes is one of these women, it hasn’t been an easy journey for her and she’s now taken it one step further by collecting stories of runners over fifty for her blog. I’ll let her tell you more in the interview!

www.drjulietmcgrattan.com

Running Finds You When You Need It Most

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I have this theory that running finds you when you need it most. Let’s face it, starting to run is really hard. Going from walking to constant running takes time and determination. Pushing your body feels unpleasant. The voices in your head tell you to stop. Feeling out of breath, sweating and a racing heart aren’t always nice sensations. People often start and fail and start again and then every now and then someone keeps going, works through it and running becomes a regular and essential part of their lives. What is it that makes the difference?

Quick Question – Should I pop my blisters?

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Love them or hate them, feet cause an awful lot of bother, especially if you lead an active life. Even with the best fitting shoes, you can still find you sometimes end up with a blister, particularly if your feet and socks have been wet or you’ve gone further than you usually would. What’s the best way to treat blisters? Should you pop blisters? Should you cover them up? Let’s consider what blisters actually are so we can decide what best to do with them.

www.drjulietmcgrattan.com

Active Women Interview – meet Nat Scroggie

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I’ve been tweeting for six years, enjoying the banter with others and then suddenly, bam, up pops Nat aka ThisVetRuns. From her first tweet in April 2018  she had me captivated with her honesty, quality blog writing and I admit, the occasional cute photo of her dog and random kittens from her work! It’s been wonderful to follow her return to running after a miscarriage and see her progress in her goals. I love her attitude and I was really happy that she agreed to take part in this Active Women Interview Series.

www.drjulietmcgrattan.com

My Top Five Blogs of 2018

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I’ve absolutely loved my blog this year. I set myself a goal of doubling the number of views my posts get and I’d achieved that by October. Goal officially smashed! This year I’ve tried to be more consistent and write a variety of different types of posts. I’ve continued the Active Woman Interview Series, added in a regular Quick Question feature and thrown in a few blogs about what I’m up to as well. I enjoy reflecting and reviewing the year has been such a pleasure, these are my five most read posts:

www.drjulietmcgrattan.com

Fun at the Malaga Marathon

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I was pretty excited about heading to the Malaga Marathon. In all honesty I was more excited about having four days away in Spain with my girlfriends than I was about putting myself through 26.2 miles! Although in the lead up to the marathon, the weather in Malaga had been cool and wet, we were rewarded with four days of sunshine. Feeling the warm sun on my face in the middle of winter was a wonderful treat. We had a day of acclimatisation when we intended to stay off our feet but ended up shopping and walking miles; we had some great tapas though! We found getting around Malaga on the train and tube system really easy, and cheap too. We’d read that getting to the out of town expo to collect race numbers was harder than the marathon itself but we had no problems whatsoever. We’d been very frustrated that we hadn’t had any pre-race info in English, the marathon guide was in Spanish and despite sending emails (in English and Spanish) we hadn’t …