Seize the Yay

We are back with a guest episode and I’m thrilled to have one of Australia’s most known and loved voices on the show this week, Jessie Stephens. Many of you will probably recognise Jessie as one of the hosts of Mamamia Out Loud (among many other shows in the prolific Mamamia network of which she is also an executive editor and which we are so excited to have joined in a new chapter for the show). While now she is dominating the airwaves (and has authored two books), you may not know she actually began as junior burger editorial assistant a decade ago and worked her way up the ranks to become one of the few people who can say they’ve been in the one workplace for ten years - an example that you don’t have to leave your job to grow and find new yays. And one of the coolest parts? Jessie is an executive editor alongside her twin sister, Clare Stephens, who after studying different things but both doing their Masters of Research left academia to BOTH become newbie editorial assistants and they’ve worked their way up in different but parallel ways. And the two also have twin brothers, so it was fascinating to learn about such a uniquely special facet to her pathyay. She is also a little bit ahead of me as a working mum and a great source of inspiration having lent her wisdom to a chapter of The Juggle by my friend and manager Genevieve Day who you heard from a few episodes backs. Despite having many mutual friends, I’d never chatted to Jessie before but you’d never know she’s such a great conversationalist and I hope you enjoy as much as I did. LINKS You can follow Jessie here. You can buy her books and more here. + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here + Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are back with our third episode of Seize the Bébé on a topic that’s definitely been the most requested in my DMs and that I personally found sparked a level of desperation in me for information that I’ve never experienced before. We are talking, of course, about the elusive and emotionally charged topic of sleep and more particularly the dreaded "sleep regression" or (regressions as supposedly there are several). Even within parenthood where most topics are already a bit emotional or judgy, sleep seems especially sensitive, often because you’re usually only talking about it if you’re not getting enough, which is never anyone’s best version of themselves. So, as with all these episodes, a big disclaimer to start - this is all anecdotal and not an exhaustive fully researched guide. I have no professional experience or scientific backing, just answering your questions about what we did and there are many sleep specialists who you can turn to for actual advice. I actually found this one quite hard to write as not only there an infinite amount of variables when choosing sleep techniques, every baby and family is different (perhaps moreso in this area than any) plus even what worked for us this time might not work next time. Having said that, I didn’t care when I was in the depths of it - I still wanted to know what everyone else did just to get ideas or guidance even on where to start. So I’ll lay out what we ended up doing (which, to reassure anyone out there in the thick of it, did work wonderfully and quicker than I expected) and how we decided on that pathway, but just reminding you this area is VERY specific to you. For context, I’m talking about our experience getting through the so-called four month regression which is the first major one that gets talked about. Teddy was born two weeks early and this hit almost exactly at 4 months and two weeks - he’s punctual that boy. I'm sure we'll be back again with new and different views and answers for regressions in future! But for now, I hope even parts of this are useful! LINKS More info on Dr Golly's guides are here.You can follow Dr Golly on instagram here.More info on Baby Spa's sleep consultations here. You can follow Baby Spa on instgaram here. + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here + Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As promised, here is part two of what could easily snowball into an 825-part series with my dear friend Dr Matt Agnew. Even still, there is so much we didn’t get to about this fascinating human being and that’s all without really touching on the Bachelor at all. For his proper intro and bio, go back to the first episode - we pick up here right where we left off which, as it turns out, wasn’t very far into his pathYAY in the end. And there’s so much more ahead, so who knows - part 3 could still come at you in the future but in the meantime I hope you enjoy! If this conversation raises any emotional distress for you, please reach out to someone, or call Lifeline for 24 hour crisis support and suicide prevention services on 13 11 14. MATT'S BOOKS Dr Matt's Guide to Life in Space Is My Phone Reading my Mind? The real facts about Artificial Intelligence + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here + Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are back with a guest episode for you and one that has been a long time coming. I’m so excited to have finally sat down with a dear friend of mine Matt Agnew who much of Australia may know as “Matt from the bachelor” but who I met outside of that context completely. I think this was the first time I admitted I never actually watched his season (you guys know I’m a true crime girly not a reality girly) and I deliberately didn’t catch up on it because I wanted to focus on Matt NOT from the Bachie which hasn’t been as exhaustively covered everywhere else (the link to Abbie's latest ep we discus is here). With all our guests I love to show a side people know a bit less about and even more so with a friend but then the great challenge is squeezing that all in to an hour when you want to showcase every single thing you think is great about them... WHICH obviously I didn’t manage to do so heads up that this is part one of a two parter where we set the scene around the early days of Matt’s way to yay - you really should read his LinkedIn to understand why it’s reductive to only refer to his TV stint rather than the FIVE DEGREES in hectic maths and science that he’s amassed including an actual pHd on space… plus two wonderful books, an amazing new business Pash, a stint on Sharktank… hopefully you get a dose of a Matt you might not already know but I think astrophysics, AI, dating and both of our experiences with sobriety deserve more time so you’ll hear those in part two. Perhaps it’s fitting that a lot of part 1 was spent on what Matt calls his "salad of mental heatlh issues" about which he speaks so vulnerablty and powerfully as we move into Movember and a sharper focus on men’s health (for reference the Jess Rowe episode we mention is here). So a content warning that we do briefly touch on suicide and similar in this episode - please take care while listening and see Lifeline's number below. Otherwise this was above all a chat between firends and I hope you enjoy! If this conversation raises any emotional distress for you, please reach out to someone, or call Lifeline for 24 hour crisis support and suicide prevention services on 13 11 14. MATT'S BOOKS: Dr Matt's Guide to Life in Space Is My Phone Reading my Mind? The real facts about Artificial Intelligence + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here + Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to our second episode of Seize the Bébé, thank you all so much for the lovely feedback on our debut episode with Gen covering the juggle - I’m so glad it was as reassuring for you guys as it was for me. We’re going back to back just for this week - firstly, because I’ve owed you answers on travelling with a baby since Italy which is now MONTHS ago and, secondly, because we’re freshly back from more travel with Teddy to Sydney then are going overseas again tomorrow so it seemed timely.   For those of you who aren’t interested in the parenthood content, we’ll be back next week with a regular interview episode and those will then keep dropping fortnightly. For today though, I thought the easiest way to set this one out was to give you the top twenty tips I’ve found useful travelling with Teddy so far. I must add a disclaimer quickly for this segment that my inner A type is so tempted to try and make this a neutral and comprehensive layout of the entire landscape on each topic, but the juggle episode will tell you there's simply not enough time. These episodes are simply me answering your questions from my personal anecdotal experiences based on yes, a lot of research, but also our personal choices, the fact that I often was recommended something by a friend and didn’t bother trying anything else, Teddy’s age at the time, etc. So I’m sure I’ll miss many other great options or tips on these subjects, but just keep in mind every baby and family is different (and my own answers will probably differ in future chapters of our life). For context, our biggest trip was with Teddy at four months before solids or crawling so of course that’s relevant too. LINKS The IG post where I shared some of the items we took (pre Italy) is here.The shopping list of the items I've mentioned is here.If you'd like my packing list, send me a DM! + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah+ Join our Facebook community here+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As promised, welcome to the very first episode of our new motherhood segment - Seize the Bébé (I know, I couldn't help myself). This all came about when I realised I'd been screenshotting my own TED Talk length answers about adjusting to mum life on socials to hundreds of different people wanting to make sure I answer as thoroughly as possible and felt those fuller answers needed somewhere better to live… plus I wanted to signal more clearly to those who aren’t as interested in this content what’s heavily parent related and what isn’t. The most hotly asked questions so far have been around sleep, breastfeeding and the juggle as a working Mum, but I’m starting with the latter because it’s particularly timely for two reasons. Firstly, I personally feel my management of the juggle has taken a very steep dive over the past few weeks so it’s very close to home right now. And secondly - one of the mum role models I turn to often and incidentally, my manager, Genevieve Day, who is a huge part of how I maintain any kind of juggle, just released her new book CALLED The Juggle featuring interviews with some of our very own past guests on the topic so a conversation on this topic was meant to be. One thing I've really had to grapple with is letting go of perfectionism at work now there’s less time to play with, so sadly you don’t get the nice new intro I was hoping to organise to accompany the new segment because you’d be waiting all year for these episodes otherwise. I also feel like I got so distracted by Gen’s wisdom that we kind of venture into sleep and feeding anyway and I’m not sure I delinate clearly enough how Nic and I juggle working with parenting but hopefully you can gather most of it amidst what was otherwise such a cathartic and validating conversation. I hope you guys enjoy and please let me know your thoughts on the segment! Next up will likely be sleep and travelling with a baby…. Stay tuned! GET THE JUGGLE HERE. + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here + Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every now and then I get a particular guest in my head and can’t rest until I’ve tried everything in my power to reach them because their story is so extraordinary. In this case, there are literally only a handful of people in HISTORY on this particular pathYAY so to be able to sit down with not an astronaut... and not only one of less than 100 female astronauts in the world... but the first EVER AUSTRALIAN astronaut is literally a dream. I am so honoured to have Katherine Bennell-Pegg in your ears this week (who has just a few days ago earned an honorary doctorate, so should really be DOCTOR Katherine Bennell-Pegg) who qualified as the first Astronaut under the Australian flag in April this year and first Australian female astronaut under any flag. She is an incredibly impressive woman and an absolute ICON for women in STEMM with two masters degrees across four international countries, positions with Airbus and NASA before becoming director of Space Technology at the Australian Space Agency where she remains today. I don’t know how but she has also generously makes time to speak about her career around the country and so excitingly, with us, as well as being a Mum to two girls Clara and Hazel. The I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did! + Follow Katherine Bennell-Pegg here. + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here + Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yayberhood, you asked for more guests, and we've got two of the very, very best in today's episode.  Unless you've been living under a rock, you've likely already heard of sisters Bianca and Bridgett Roccisano, who recently celebrated the rebrand of their eponymous label with an insane collection shot in Paris. These girls know how to make waves and are behind two multi-million dollar businesses including the World’s First and Original Breast Lift tape, globally recognised as Booby Tape. There's been branded private jets, Forbes lists, thousands of stockists in over 40 countries around the world, and even a copycat situation with one Kim Kardashian but what you might not know is how the two got their start and how it shaped them as women and business moguls today. From the stricter upbringing they had from their immigrant family growing up in regional Victoria, to hustling customers into restaurants with garlic bread, and thinking that $13 an hour that they made in their first business was an absolute killing, Bianca and Bridgett are not to be underestimated.  There are so many surprises, even more pearls of wisdom - this episode is an absolute banger. + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here + Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I am SO excited to have another guest for you this week and a very special one that’s been in the making for a long time. If you were anywhere near the Paris Olympics this year, it was impossible to miss the incredible Fox sisters whose medal tally as a duo rivalled some of the top performing COUNTRIES in the games! And while you’ll all remember our episode with 2024 flag bearer and Aussie golden girl Jess Fox after Tokyo a few years ago, this year was all about her younger sister Noémie Fox’s Olympic debut which saw her not only beat Jess in her kayak cross event but become the first ever gold medallist in this new event after years of a technicality squashing her Olympic dream. Having met Noémie back then when the Olympics still wasn’t on the cards, it made my life to see her time to shine in Paris and I am SO grateful to have caught up with her while it’s still fresh in her mind - I mentioned we tried to record while she was actually in the village, but it worked out far better that we got to catch up a afterwards as things turned out.There are so many beautiful facets to this story - a whole family of Olympians and their French connection, the long wait in the wings and the complexity of patience, Noémie’s entire career outside of the sport as a corporate girlie, and what I feel shines through the most - the INCREDIBLE power of mindset and choosing a narrative for yourself. If you haven’t already been, I hope you are as impacted by her humility and good sense as I am! Follow Noemie here+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah+ Join our Facebook community here+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are back with another incredible guest whose brand you will likely know and love but whose backstory you may know less about. If you follow me on socials, especially as we just came back from a trip, you’ll know we are BIG fans of July Luggage with their unique polycarbonate hard shell, silent move 360 spinner wheels and quality so high they come with a lifetime warranty…. But do you know the fellow Melbournian co founder and the quite unexpected way he ended up, as he humbly puts it, selling suitcases on the Internet?Athan Didaskalou started off, of all places, in a charcoal chicken shop stopping off in co-working, coffee sales and even considering shellac nail kits before July was born in 2018. And despite the enormous success you’ll have seen July experience in the past few years growing into a multimillion dollar company, he has equally lived through losing 95% of sales when travel came to a halt but survived (and thrived) to tell the tale so this is a fascinating one. Other fun facts - Athan met his business partner in a cafe who previously founded Brosa Furniture and is married to the CEO of the incredible Rationale Skincare, so there is SO much to unpack in this one and my sleep deprived mum brain missed half of what I wanted to ask. But we cover so much interesting ground and I hope you enjoy as much as I did. Follow Athan hereCheck out July here+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah+ Join our Facebook community here+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are so lucky to have had so many wonderful Olympians on the podcast over the years, so to celebrate Olympic fever during Paris 2024 we are throwing it back to some of our favourites who are competing again this year. Olympians aren't allowed to do audio or video interviews from within the Olympic village, so we sadly had to postpone a few follow ups to these that we had locked in. But one thing we love about the podcast is being able to reflect on how far we've come and having a record of how we felt a moment in time. So I hope you enjoy looking back as much as we did! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ While I was up in Sydney, I was lucky enough to spend time with Madison de Rozario, three-time Paralympian who is heading off for her fourth in Tokyo this year. Madi made her Paralympic debut in wheelchair racing at just 14 years old at the Beijing 2008 games taking home three silver medals since then as well as a string of other accolades and achievements. She is an incredible role model and advocate for the visibility of the disabled community, reshaping our perception of disability and truly going after your dreams.As you’ll hear, she is delightfully bubbly, humble and articulate and it’s no surprise to me that she was named the 2020 Barbie Australian Shero (that’s she-hero) as part of Barbie’s Global Role Model campaign inspiring women the world over with a one of a kind doll. As one of my favourite childhood brands, I’ve loved learning how Barbie is inspiring the limitless potential of every girl introducing different body types, hair, skin and everything in between and as you’ll see in the episode image, Madi’s doll comes complete with her racing chair. Madi’s excitement and drive is infectious and I hope you enjoy hearing her story!+ Follow Madison here+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah+ Join our Facebook community here+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah+ Join our Facebook community here+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are so lucky to have had so many wonderful Olympians on the podcast over the years, so to celebrate Olympic fever during Paris 2024 we are throwing it back to some of our favourites who are competing again this year. Olympians aren't allowed to do audio or video interviews from within the Olympic village, so we sadly had to postpone a few follow ups to these that we had locked in. But one thing we love about the podcast is being able to reflect on how far we've come and having a record of how we felt a moment in time. So I hope you enjoy looking back as much as we did! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Welcome back to our Power Your Inner Runner podcast series in partnership with Nike Running and Rebel. This is our second of three episodes with elite Nike athletes who are sharing their best running tips and tricks - whether you’re a complete beginner all the way through to a pro looking for a fresh perspective.It’s been so wonderful to see how many of you enjoyed our kick-off episode on mindset with the wonderful Catriona Bisset and have already been implementing some of your learnings into your training. My top takeaway was the power of running with friends – I’ve been enjoying running alone for the mental benefits but hadn’t realised how much harder it can be to push into new distances when you’re on your own. So, I locked in my first long run with Ang and a few friends just a few days after this chat with Catriona and went from a solid 10km plateau to a lovely 18KM RUN and I could have kept going but didn’t want to overdo it by going too hard too fast. I’m so thrilled with the breakthrough and hope that some of you found Catriona’s chat useful too – do keep sharing your runs with us along the way, it’s so much fun to do this as a yayborhood!Given I also had a sneak peek of this episode, I had the chance to implement some other tweaks recommended by today’s Nike athlete which were equally as impactful so I’m VERY excited to share this one with you. In case you were worried, the episodes aren’t sequential, so if you’re only tuning in now don’t worry each segment stands alone and you can listen in whatever order you like. I met this wonderful woman during my first foray into running when we were training for the half marathon in 2019 and even though I’ve heard her story before, I was blown away all over again this time. While Catriona was a sprinter focusing on the 800m, we’ve got a long-distance perspective today from a superstar Olympic marathoner.Yep, I’m THRILLED to have the inimitable Sinead Diver with us today who, like Catriona, took a less conventional pathway into running. She is not only one of our best performing marathon runners ever at the Olympics coming in the top 10 in Tokyo – she was also our oldest athlete competing at 44 years old to cross just the line just four minutes behind the race winner. The twist? Sinead only started running AFTER her second child at aged 33 when she was roped into a fun run at the Tan in Melbourne. In her debut marathon, she finished in SECOND place overall then won Melbourne Marathon just four years later and she just keeps getting faster and faster.So, if you’ve ever been told you can’t do it or had sceptics doubting your potential, Sinead is your woman showing how she continues to surprise with her sights set on Paris 2024 as she continues to improve each year. She also answers so many of our burning questions specific to longer distances, especially around the elusive management of eating, drinking and nature calling along the way! Coming into running later in life, she’s a fabulous brain to pick about getting your body and mind into those 30 and 40km distances and living to tell the tale! She’s humble, funny and full of warmth – I hope you enjoy!+ Follow Sinead Diver here+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah+ Join our Facebook community here+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are so lucky to have had so many wonderful Olympians on the podcast over the years, so to celebrate Olympic fever during Paris 2024 we are throwing it back to some of our favourites who are competing again this year. Olympians aren't allowed to do audio or video interviews from within the Olympic village, so we sadly had to postpone a few follow ups to these that we had locked in. But one thing we love about the podcast is being able to reflect on how far we've come and having a record of how we felt a moment in time. So I hope you enjoy looking back as much as we did! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Welcome to the very first episode of our Power Your Inner Runner podcast series. I am so thrilled to be partnering with Nike Running and rebel, to bring you three elite Nike athletes who will help us build our running toolkit - whether this be your first venture into running or you’re seasoned and ready to go further, faster and fresher than ever.If you’ve been listening since the early days, you’ll have witnessed the transformative power of sport in my life, with the remarkable conversion from non-runner – or dare I say even anti-runner – to signing up, voluntarily, for my second half marathon this year and ACTUALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO IT. Six transformative months back in 2019 with the incredible team at Nike taught me all about gradually building your distance, warming up and warming down, fuelling yourself properly and, crucially, wearing the right gear.I’ve been revisiting all those lessons again, turning back to longer runs as a physical, mental and therapy-like outlet during lockdown spurring me to sign up for another 21.1km at Melbourne Marathon. When that was pushed back to December, we had some extra time up our sleeves to consult the experts and with just over six weeks to go, I’m SO excited to be able to share them with you thanks to the support and generosity of rebel and Nike.I was surprised but thrilled to see how many of you in the yayborhood are also on your own running journey! And thank you all so much to those who submitted questions for our guests. The next three episodes have been split into different themes, focusing on the topics YOU want to hear about most!Introducing, Catriona Bisset...As to our very first guest, I’m delighted to have with us the incredible Catriona Bisset – Olympian, Nike Athlete and Lifeline Ambassador, to help us lay some strong foundations with mindfulness and mindset. If I’ve learnt anything over the past few years, it’s that your mind will often give up way before your body will, so getting your head in the game first is crucial.Catriona found her first successes in running at just six years old but took a hiatus from the sport to work on her mental health, pursuing studies in architecture at university. When she did resume racing, however, in a very short amount of time she became the first Australian woman in a decade to break the two-minute barrier – and went from strength to strength to race earlier this year in the 800m at the Tokyo Olympics.You’ll hear all of the details in between from Catriona herself as we cover her pathYAY first then her tips and tricks for managing mental health, building speed, and navigating the relationship between success and the self. What a CRACKING first episode to kick off with, I hope you all enjoy.+ Follow Catriona Bisset here+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah+ Join our Facebook community here+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are so lucky to have had so many wonderful Olympians on the podcast over the years, so to celebrate Olympic fever during Paris 2024 we are throwing it back to some of our favourites who are competing again this year. Olympians aren't allowed to do audio or video interviews from within the Olympic village, so we sadly had to postpone a few follow ups to these that we had locked in. But one thing we love about the podcast is being able to reflect on how far we've come and having a record of how we felt a moment in time. So I hope you enjoy looking back as much as we did! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I’m joined this week by our first Wulli Wulli woman, Beach volleyball Olympian and Commonwealth silver medallist, Taliqua Clancy. You’ve probably seen I’ve been reflecting on Seize the Yay’s commitment to diversity (of all kinds), but also, in light of the past few weeks, the best way to contribute to the BIPOC dialogue specifically and Taliqua is the first of a few wonderful guests coming up who offer some generously personal and thought provoking insights to the conversation.Growing up in Kingaroy QLD (otherwise known as “peanut town”) over 200km from the nearest beach, you wouldn’t expect Olympic success at beach volleyball to be in Taliqua’s future. And yet, she reached the quarter finals in the Rio Olympics becoming the first Aboriginal Olympian to compete in the sport and is on her way to the slightly delayed Tokyo Olympics next year. Taliqua is also an Ambassador for our mutually beloved Cadbury who are launching an amazing Smart Watch campaign this week to support us all staying active in #iso which you’ll hear more about. I hope you enjoy as much as I did… NOTE: Terra Nullius is the concept we discussed, that you might want to research.+ Follow Taliqua here+ Find out more about the Cadbury Smart Watch campaign here+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah+ Join our Facebook community here+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are so lucky to have had so many wonderful Olympians on the podcast over the years, so to celebrate Olympic fever during Paris 2024 we are throwing it back to some of our favourites who are competing again this year. Olympians aren't allowed to do audio or video interviews from within the Olympic village, so we sadly had to postpone a few follow ups to these that we had locked in. But one thing we love about the podcast is being able to reflect on how far we've come and having a record of how we felt a moment in time. So I hope you enjoy looking back as much as we did! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I just cannot believe how quickly 2020 is approaching. Speaking of 2020, I am SUCH a big fan of the Olympics I get so excited when they come back around and in the lead up to Tokyo 2020, I’m so delighted to have 4 x Olympic Medallist, Emma McKeon, on the show for today’s episode.Being born into a swimming family with her dad as her coach and her brother also an Olympic swimmer, Emma competed at the Summer Youth Olympics before she had even finished school. She missed out on selection for London 2012, but came back in Rio to win a gold, two silvers and an individual bronze and is now preparing rigorously for Tokyo 2020. Knowing absolutely nothing about the swimming world, and LOVING finding out about worlds I’ve never ventured into, I had a blast chatting to Emma all about her training, what it’s like to swim in the Olympics, goal setting and then of course, how she plays. She is also a fellow converted runner adding running to her training having proudly joined the Nike family a few years ago. We did this over the phone so her audio isn’t as clear as usual, but hope you enjoy nonetheless.+ Follow Emma at @emmamckeon+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are so lucky to have had so many wonderful Olympians on the podcast over the years, so to celebrate Olympic fever during Paris 2024 we are throwing it back to some of our favourites who are competing again this year. Olympians aren't allowed to do audio or video interviews from within the Olympic village, so we sadly had to postpone a few follow ups to these that we had locked in. But one thing we love about the podcast is being able to reflect on how far we've come and having a record of how we felt a moment in time. So I hope you enjoy looking back as much as we did! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Welcome back, lovely yayborhood! Thank you so much for your patience over the past few weeks – I can’t believe I was so anal about having episodes in the bank for our trip but then ended up taking a break anyway with ANOTHER super cold. I hope you’re all looking after yourselves and are keeping healthy in cold and flu season!It worked out though, as I couldn’t think of a cooler guest to kick off the second half of the year than the legend I have in store for you today. You probably know by now that I get SOOO excited by people whose brains tick as crazily and deeply as mine likes to, so I was like a kid in a candy store with this guest and felt the least articulate I have in a long time next to his eloquence!I am endlessly fascinated by Harry Garside and it seems most of Australia and the world shares that view and not only because he is a championship boxer who won the nation’s first medal in boxing at the Olympics in over three decades in Tokyo. While his rise to international success from losing 10 out of his first 18 fights at the humble Lilydale Youth Club is also fascinating, I still don’t think that’s the reason we’re so enamoured with him.While Harry’s upbringing and beloved sport align very strongly with traditional ideas about masculinity and strength, it’s his unique passion for changing those stereotypes that I fell in love with complementing his training with ballet classes and wearing nail polish to some of his fights. Just when you think you’ve figured him out, he reveals a whole new facet of himself and his view on the world and I could ramble on about how much it stretched my own mind getting to have this conversation.I’ll let you hear it for yourself as this is one of my favourites all year so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.FOLLOW HARRY HERE+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah+ Join our Facebook community here+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are so lucky to have had so many wonderful Olympians on the podcast over the years, so to celebrate Olympic fever during Paris 2024 we are throwing it back to some of our favourites who are competing again this year. Olympians aren't allowed to do audio or video interviews from within the Olympic village, so we sadly had to postpone a few follow ups to these that we had locked in. But one thing we love about the podcast is being able to reflect on how far we've come and having a record of how we felt a moment in time. So I hope you enjoy looking back as much as we did! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I would almost go so far as to say it would be un-Australian not to know who today’s guest is or have shed a tear watching her incredible Olympic performance in Tokyo a few weeks ago. While all our athletes bore the weight of great expectations on their shoulders, having debut-ed at the London Olympics at 18 years old to win silver, then taking a Bronze in Rio, Jess Fox probably faced more pressure than most as she tackled the canoe slalom. Add two Olympic canoeists as parents (one as Jess’ coach) AND the fact that Tokyo was the first ever Olympics to include the C1 class (which you’ll learn about in our chat) for women, and I had a breakdown just thinking about competing. And yet, the legendary Jess charged her way through to a gold medal (just 48 hours after taking bronze in the K1 class) and lived to tell the tale.If you listen often, you might be able to recognise my fan-girl related babbling – I talk quickly and inarticulately when I get this excited and I was chuffed to have this amazing woman on the show just weeks after her win while she’s already preparing for the World Cup in Spain. Even more so because I know she’s been listening to Seize the Yay since 2019, which blows. my. mind. If you watched Jess at the games and thought her warmth and humility shone through on TV, she is equally as delightful one-on-one and I learnt so much about canoeing, maintaining razor sharp focus and allowing yourself to focus on doing your best rather than winning being your only objective. We also clarified the condom story, among many other chuckles and plays to yay outside of sport – I hope you guys enjoy getting to know our champion as much as I did!+ Follow Jess here+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah+ Join our Facebook community here+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to the show after approximately 92 Business Months since the last episode, I am so grateful for your patience during our extended hiatus. It’s actually only been 10 weeks but feels like I’ve lived 10 lifetimes since then and I’d planned for a much shorter gap, but we’re here now and it’s SO good to be back!I couldn’t have picked a better first guest back than Matilda Murray as you’ll hear she’s pretty much a walking embodiment of Seize the Yay and articulates everything that’s in my head but better AND in a way you haven’t already heard me parrot on about before. I was actually quite nervous feeling a bit dusty going into this one after so long, but I found it so invigorating to hear some of my favourite life philosophies in a new way and hope you do too.I have followed Matilda for many years and her pathYAY represents so many things we love on the show – she and her partner Don are now the brains behind multimillion dollar activewear brands Stax and Second Left living their dreams showing at Paris Fashion Week and opening new stores left right and centre… BUT she didn’t finish school, started in a job she didn’t love that lasted many years and Stax was a pivot from an originally failed business. It’s the perfect example of the staircase quote I always bang on about only she has a WAY better analogy that blew my mind! She’s also become an institution in and of herself and you’ll soon understand why the masses hang on to her every word – I loved this chat so much and it gave me so much love back for the show – I hope it does for you too!!!Follow Matilda hereCheck out STAX hereCheck out Second Left here+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah+ Join our Facebook community here+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A whole month (and sixteen failed attempts) later, I finally found some time to record the follow up to our birth story episode and answer all your questions. Thank you so much to everyone who sent lovely DMs and feedback after the first episode hosted by the wonderful Sophie of Australian Birth Stories and for submitting such interesting follow up questions that give me the loveliest excuse to reflect on things in a way I probably wouldn't otherwise make time for. It's never lost on me what a privilege it is for this yayborhood to be so engaged and excited about each season of our life (and to be so patient with a very inconsistent schedule for releasing episodes!) I can't promise my answers are any less incoherent than they were in the last episode - the postpartum haze is still going strong - but I did my very best and can't actually believe we got through it before the little bear demanded my full attention back.My only disclaimer is that parenthood is like no other area in life for the diversity of opinions, volume of conflicting information, intensity of judgment (both from ourselves and others) and depth of emotion. If I have one piece of advice, it's that NO advice will suit every parent or every baby so please take everything I say as the personal anecdote it is - I'm not a medical expert and am still very early in our journey, so my answers are purely from our experience so far. Having said that, I've tried to be as helpful as I can (amidst the rambling and tangents of this new Mum brain) and the questions are listed below so you can skip forward to what's relevant to you. There are some links where relevant too and, as always, if you have any other questions feel free to DM any time.DELIVERY Did you feel any warning going into labour? Why did you choose private health vs public health? (AUBS public vs private episode) Hospital bag recommendations (The Memo's hospital bag list and if you want my personal list just send me an email) What did you wear post op? (the disposable undies, the pads, the nightie) Did you go straight back to a normal diet after gestational diabetes? C SECTION What would you take in your hospital bag for a C section? Were you panicky or anxious going into C section? C section recovery – how long? Tips for recovery?  Incision care? Mental health? Immediately after, how were you – could you get up? What recovery shorts or items did you wear? (the briefs, the shorts, the compression socks) FEEDING How was the beginning of breastfeeding? (the silverettes, the lanolin, the compresses, the Qiara probiotics) Are you doing mixed feeding? Bottles? Expressing? (the ladybug milk collectors) GETTING HOME Did you feel overwhelmed when you got home? Biggest challenge in the first few days? First few weeks post-partum, how were they? Top 3 tips for new parents in first few weeks Most difficult part of recovery generally? Is it worth having both the Snoo and Cocoona baby? How is Teddy’s sleep? How much time are you taking off? Have you grieved your work identity vs being a Mum? How have you made time for you as a couple? + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah+ Join our Facebook community here+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.