Dundee fitness guru Shelley Booth has helped thousands of women across the world improve their health and wellbeing.
From her online community to her beach bootcamp workout sessions on Broughty Ferry beach and gym in Dundee, she’s made it her mission to change her clients’ lives.
Shelley’s holistic approach to health is clear from the name of her gym – Train Eat Sleep Repeat.
As part of our series on sleep, Shelley explains the part exercise plays in getting a good night’s rest – and how your diet could be affecting the quality of your sleep.
Sleep is an vital part of the mix to leading a healthy life Shelley explains.
“I advocate a holistic approach. My gym is called Train Eat Sleep Repeat. It integrates sleep because it’s so important.
“Sleep represents the psychological and the spiritual as well as stress relief.
“Sleep gives relaxation, recovery, rest, sometimes rehabilitation. It also gives the chance for mindfulness, manifestation and affirmation – all the things you can’t see!”
What if you’re too tired to exercise?
It’s a common issue – you can’t sleep, it impacts your daily life, you lack energy to exercise.
So what does Shelley recommend?
“I understand when people are stuck in a rut and don’t have the energy they don’t move,” Shelley says.
“But if you don’t move, how are you supposed to become tired and ready to sleep?”
She recommends something simple – a walk outdoors, perhaps on the beach, to increase your step count and get fresh air if you’re starting out.
Or perhaps finding a class where you can meet others and connect too, such as the mother and baby session led by personal trainer Joanne Phillip at Shelley’s gym.
“It’s great to have the gym open – it gives the chance for real connection again,” Shelley says.
While exercise is important for good sleep, Shelley says eating habits could also affect the quality of sleep.
How what you eat affects sleep
“Food nowadays is so packed full of things like sweeteners, hidden sugars and chemicals. It is so processed,” she explains.
“People are running into all sorts of health problems and issues.
“If you’re not eating well, perhaps eating a lot of food containing sugar, or ultra-processed food that can also add to the problem.”
High protein and high fat foods like red meat have been found to take longer to digest, and digestion slows during sleep.
So it’s perhaps not a surprise if you have a sleepless night after a rich meal.
And recent research found a lack of key nutrients, such as calcium and magnesium, could be associated with sleep problems.
“If you don’t move enough and eat all the wrong foods, how will you get a good night’s sleep? It’s impossible,” says Shelley
Education is key
Shelley says everything she teaches her clients is easy.
But, she adds, more education is needed so people understand how their lifestyle could impact their sleep and health.
“Some of the folk I work with are on a range of medications and don’t realise they can control and change their health,” Shelley adds.
“I gave away 100 free place to my online course Feel Look Be recently and it was great because it opened it up to people that perhaps wouldn’t normally access it.
“When I started teaching them about how movement and nutrition can help some said ‘why have we never been taught this before’?
“People don’t think they change anything – but they can.”
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