Mariella Frostrup shares her weekly workout routine

Mariella Frostrup has always been a refreshingly honest voice when discussing women’s health and the challenges midlife can bring. While she has come out the other side of perimenopause, she still advocates for greater awareness of the struggles women go through in their 50s and 60s.

One of the ways the 62-year-old manages her busy career and family life is by staying fit and healthy, prioritising workouts with friends and walks in the Somerset countryside around her home.

“I’ve always been quite active, partly because I’ve got ADHD, so I can do my daily steps just walking around the house, busying myself,” Mariella tells woman&home on a video call from her kitchen. The broadcaster and author was diagnosed with ADHD in her 50s when her teenage son was also being assessed for the condition.

We know that variety is key when it comes to exercising in our 40s and beyond - with recent research confirming it's the key to longevity for women. Mariella explains that she makes sure to include a mix of walking, weight training and low-impact workouts in her weekly routine.

“I find yoga is really imperative, just to keep me supple,” she says. “If I don’t do something like yoga or Pilates for three days in a row, I really start to ache, and I can’t touch my toes. Doing a little bit, even if it's just 15 minutes a day of just stretching or a few yoga exercises [really helps].”

And like many of us, Mariella finds exercising with other people more motivating than slogging it out solo. “On a Monday, I do Zoom yoga with a bunch of friends at 7.30 am, and that is a maintenance session I try very hard not to miss,” she says.

“I’m not very good at forcing myself to do anything that takes longer than half an hour when I’m on my own. If I’m in a class, I’ll do it,” Mariella adds. “On a Friday, I do a half-hour Pilates class with a bunch of friends that I just love because it gets you ready for the weekend and stretches you out and you feel calmer.”

Her dedication to staying fit doesn’t stop at weekends, either. On a Saturday, the journalist and broadcaster goes to her local gym for a weight training session with her friend, health writer Alice Smellie, with whom she co-wrote Cracking the Menopause, which she says she loves.

Along with weights in the gym, Mariella also does a 15-minute YouTube kettlebell routine a couple of times a week. “It kills me for two days after, but it’s all you need,” she admits.

Getting outside into the fresh air with her dog, whatever the weather, is also a non-negotiable. Mariella says that when she didn’t have a dog for four or five months, she realised how much it was negatively impacting the amount of walking she was doing. “I would always feel guilty if I set out on a walk on my own, and with the dog, it feels like something I have to do, so therefore it’s justified, and he makes me go out in all weathers. It’s really, really helpful.”

But Mariella knows that good nutrition goes together with staying physically fit. “I think you can do as much exercise as you like, but you have to look at what you’re consuming as well,” she tells me. Eating well is “absolutely imperative” for her because “when I eat well, I feel stronger and my metabolism starts working”.

“At this point in life, women particularly, are busier than ever,” the mother of two says, which is why she believes we all need to find an “easy way to put the right stuff in our bodies to make us feel good”. She explains that she looks at food as “fuel” to help her body do what she needs it to do, but she adds that “it can be delicious fuel, or non-delicious fuel”.

It’s this belief that we all deserve to eat nourishing, tasty food which led her to write Menolicious: Eat Your Way to a Better Menopause, in collaboration with chef Belles Berry, Dame Mary Berry’s daughter. Almost all of their protein-rich recipes can be made in 30 minutes or less and were developed with a nutritionist to include a variety of plants and be menopause-friendly. Both Mariella and Belles know the importance of eating well to balance hormones, keep energy levels up, and improve their chances of living healthily for longer.

Staying physically fit and healthy has helped her find a new “strength and confidence” since going through menopause, and she hopes that by talking about it, other women will find something they enjoy as well.

Kat Storr has been a digital journalist for over 15 years after starting her career at Sky News, where she covered everything from world events to royal babies and celebrity deaths. After going freelance eight years ago, she now focuses on women's health and fitness content, writing across a range of UK publications.

From perimenopause to the latest fitness trends, Kat loves researching and writing about it all. She's happy to give any fitness challenge a go and speaks to experts about wellbeing issues affecting people every day.

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