Preparing for Whatever Life Throws at You|15 days After Hip Replacement Surgery| Episode 21

Preparing for Whatever Life Throws at You | 15 Days After Hip Replacement | Episode 21

Fifteen days after my hip replacement, I’m very happy to be recording this episode from the other side.

And even if you’re not facing major surgery — or you’re completely fed up with hearing about my hip! — stay with me, because this episode is really about preparing yourself for whatever life throws at you.

I saw my surgeon yesterday, and I’m delighted with the progress I’ve made so far. But one thing I now understand much more clearly is the enormity of major surgery. I underestimated it.

What I didn’t underestimate was the importance of going into surgery with something in the tank.

My strength and fitness had dropped significantly over the past three years as my hips deteriorated, but I kept moving, kept strength training where I could and continued looking after my nutrition.

And I am incredibly grateful that I did.

In this episode, I talk about the role I believe my whole-food plant-based lifestyle, strength, nutrition and positive attitude have played in supporting my recovery — and why the things we do before we need our health can matter enormously afterwards.

In this episode:

What the first 15 days after hip replacement have really been like
What I underestimated about major surgery
My update after seeing my surgeon
Why maintaining strength matters, even when you can’t train as you once did
How my nutrition has supported me before and after surgery
Why recovery has reinforced my belief in eating well for healthy ageing
How my daily Instagram hip diary unexpectedly reached thousands of people
The messages I’ve received from others frightened about their own surgery
Why sharing an individual recovery journey can still give others hope
The difference between being unable to exercise much and being unable to influence your health
Why my world finally feels as though it is becoming bigger again

My biggest lesson

For the last few years, my world had slowly become smaller.

Walking hurt. Training changed. Activities became harder. I was constantly making decisions based on what my hips would allow me to do.

Now, just over two weeks after surgery, I can already feel that beginning to reverse.

My world is getting a little bigger every day.

That is an extraordinary feeling.

What can you do today for tomorrow’s you?

You don’t need to be preparing for surgery to start building resilience.

Eat food that nourishes you. Maintain as much muscle as you can. Move your body. Prioritise sleep. Look after your mindset. Stay connected to people who lift you up.

You cannot control everything life will throw at you.

But you can influence the body and mind that will meet it.

Join me this September

On 1 September, I’m running a workshop specifically for women over 50 who want practical strategies to improve their nutrition, feel better, manage their weight and age with greater strength and confidence.

That leads into my pre-challenge nutrition week before the next Lose 10 Kilos in 12 Weeks Challenge, starting 7 September.

Workshop details / register here

Join the Lose 10 Kilos in 12 Weeks Challenge

And perhaps Bali is your next big goal…

I also have two spaces remaining for our Outlook for Life Bali retreat next year.

One of my own goals is to arrive in Bali in July 2027 feeling physically and emotionally strong, able to enjoy the experience fully after everything my body has been through.

Perhaps that could be your goal too.

Find out about Bali 2027

Thank you again for the extraordinary number of messages, comments and good wishes I’ve received throughout my hip journey. If sharing my recovery helps even one person feel less frightened about what lies ahead, it has been worth doing.

Episode Transcript

about nutrition and exercise and self-care,

And just basically, I don't know, aging like a badass.

The theme today is really about preparing what life throws at you.

And my journey through my recent hip replacement.

Now, even if you're not facing major surgery.

Um, or you're completely fed up with hearing about my hip.

Stay with me, because in this episode is really.

You know, I think there's some key factors in here about preparing yourself for whatever life throws at you.

Which it seems it increasingly throws shit at us as we age.

It's about doing the best that you can.

Staying strong, focusing on what you can focus on.

And, I don't know, preparing yourself physically and emotionally for what might be around the corner.

For several years, my world… well, I guess several years is a bit of an exaggeration, but for at least 3 years, nearly 4 years,

I felt like my world has been getting smaller and smaller.

There's been less and less I can do.

I've had to think about, like, if I'm walking the dogs on the beach, I have to think about where is the next log where I can sit down and have a rest.

Will I get up those steps?

Um, how long am I going to be on my feet if I'm shopping?

You know, I've had to think about those things which I've never been fit and active, I've never really had to before.

So my world has been getting smaller and.

I really believe, despite the trauma of surgery, and it has been a roller coaster,

But I truly believe that now I'm 15 days after my hip replacement.

Um, everyday life is getting a little bit bigger, and bloody , that sure feels good. I even got to drive the car today for the first time.

Kenny has been taking the car to work so that I couldn't drive it, I might add.

But I managed… I saw the surgeon yesterday.

who definitely cleared me to drive and told him in no uncertain terms he was not to take

the car. Well, the little car. I don't think I'd clamber into the big car, which is a manual, but I knew I could drive the little car.

Anyway, I'm on the other side and

Over the last 15 days, I've learnt a lot about myself.

I saw the surgeon yesterday.

I got a little bit of a telling off about doing too much too soon, which I kind of knew I had, but that's just Ginny, isn't it? That's part of who I am.

And I'd push the envelope by walking down to the park and back.

Doing a coaching session standing, and then, um…

I went on the exercise cycle for the first time, all in one day.

And so consequently, when I saw her yesterday, I had a bit of swelling around the site.

Um, so I got a little telling off, but then she said, you're to expect that.

You're going to have days where you feel good, you do too much, and then your body is going to tell you, and you're just going to have to pull back,

Behave yourself for a few days,

And then build back up to that spot where you were before, so…

I completely take that on board.

I'm really excited to be this side of the operation. I was terrified, as you know, beforehand.

I underestimated what

a major operation it is.

Um, that's the trouble with being an optimist and the glass always being half full.

you tend to underestimate the enormity of things, and I did that.

But I'm also astonished.

uh, my body's ability

to mend and adjust in just 15 days. It's quite extraordinary.

I knew intellectually that this was a major surgery, but I don't think emotionally I had understood the enormity of it.

And, you know, the anesthetic, the surgical trauma, obviously the pain, the medication side effects were probably the worst bit.

You know, I had four or five days where…

the pain. I didn't think it would hurt as much as it did on the other side.

And the pain was greater than I thought, and I had several days where I couldn't just cope with Celebrex and paracetamol. I needed Tramadol, I needed oxycodine.

And the side effects of those were that I felt very nauseous and very sleepy and.

I really didn't like that feeling very much.

And the swelling, I don't think I was prepared for the fatigue.

So, I had to kind of admit that.

that the surgery wasn't about, kind of, getting a new hip and then rehabbing it, which is what I thought.

There's a little bit more to it than that.

Um, and there are moments where it has been tough. I have had tears.

But overall, I'm really grateful that I had this done, and I am so grateful. This is the nitty gritty. I am so grateful.

that I had prepared myself as well as I could.

I wasn't perfect by any means, and I second-guessed myself a lot.

But, thank goodness I had something in the tank.

You know, I wasn't going… I wasn't going into surgery.

at my best fitness, my fitness and my strength have been slowly getting less and less over the last 3 years.

But instead of thinking, oh, crap, I can't train anymore, I can't run anymore, I can't hike anymore,

I just focused on what I could do and accepted that it wasn't as much as I wanted it to be.

I also had a brilliant physio,

Who gave me, uh, thanks, Fay, at the beach, who gave me great exercises to do to strengthen around

You know, that my hip joint, the calf of my hip, like a rotator cuff, calf of my hip,

Um, to help it stay strong.

Um, I did everything that I could, I… I…

you know, I got to the stage I couldn't even ride my spin bike, so it was very hard to keep my cardiovascular fitness up.

But I didn't stop altogether. I kept strength training my upper body, I kept doing balance work, I kept doing my abs, I kept doing my dead hang, which I will continue with.

I've been cleared to train my upper body in the gym now, so I will be continuing with that.

And I just kept moving within my limitations. Some days I didn't feel like it.

Um, but I just kept trying to look after myself as best as I could.

And coming out the other side, I just realized how valuable that is.

And whatever, wherever you are at in your life,

whatever you're facing, whether it's, you know, physical or emotional.

Keeping yourself physically as strong as you can is so much.

And a lot of us I know are very limited, but to work within those limitations and look at what you can do,

Rather than go, what's the point, and just focus on what you can't do,

That is really important.

Maintain what you can, keep what you can. Don't give up and lose everything.

Um, I feel absolutely certain that my lifestyle has given my body.

you know, the best possible environment, if you like, in which to recover.

Because I had those physical and emotional reserves in there.

My whole food plant-based way of eating.

means that I've got a strong immune function.

It means that my inflammation levels are really low.

It means that I've got good reserves of everything that I need.

You know, and I have…

Once I got off the pain meds,

I've been eating a lot.

Because I know instinctively that integrating a new hip into an old body

is going to take a lot of energy. This is not a time to be dieting.

It's a time to be fueling.

and nourishing. So, I've really cared about the variety of what I've been eating. Obviously, protein, but also macronutrients, micronutrients.

you know, calcium.

and iron, in particular,

Vitamin D, I think, is really, really important.

protein I've already mentioned, but I've just really tried to…

eat as well as I possibly can, and I have not always had a great appetite, but I've done the best that I can.

I've kept my hydration up.

And just try to focus on eating to support.

healing. I've been tired, I've needed nano naps in the afternoon. I've been working from bed.

with my leg elevated.

That was one of the big things was, you know, I was told every time that you sit up at the table or whatever.

Maximum is 40 minutes, then you must elevate an ice, and I have been doing that.

Um, I have been really sleepy, I have been really tired, concentration has been hard at times.

But overall, I'm feeling really positive, I have great expectations and optimism.

For my upcoming…

health and upcoming

things I want to do. My big goal is to climb Mount Rinjani in Indonesia.

in a year's time.

I have another hip replacement to have between now and then.

So, that's the biggest thing, I think. Um, I've come through this, I'm so stoked with how my body has recovered.

Everybody's journey is different.

I've had downtimes, don't get me wrong.

I'm not, you know, I'm…

I'm not wonderful, I'm not…

Extraordinary in any way. I've had downtimes, I've had slow days, I've had all kinds of stuff, but

Overall, I'm really positive and optimistic.

And I just feel like all of the years that I've maintained my

strength training and my cardiovascular fitness, and I've eaten well.

might have been leading to this moment.

That's a bit dramatic, isn't it? But I know that they've helped me. I absolutely know.

So, you know, you can't… I can't control every aspect of my recovery. I did too much, I've got swelling, I've got a bit of pain.

But I can control what I put on my plate, I can control how I talk to myself,

I can control whether I do my rehabilitation.

And whether I give myself enough rest to heal.

So, the unexpected gift of this.

has been, I started documenting each day on Instagram.

I don't know why, I just thought it would be a nice thing to do to

Help other people who maybe had an upcoming surgery or trauma that they were worried about.

And I normally, as a nutritionist, preaching lifestyle.

And trying to help people.

My reach is normally about 9,000 a month.

And so far, there's…

In the last 15 days.

I've had 108,000 views.

So, people are obviously interested in this. I didn't expect that response. I've had a huge number of messages from people.

Wanting reassurance and asking me questions. I'm no expert, I can only tell them about

My experience and journey

But I know it's helped a lot of people, and I really wasn't expecting that.

Many people frightened exactly how I was.

I don't think I knew how many people there were out there worrying about this operation or knee replacements.

sharing the difficult bits as well as the good bits really seems to have helped people.

Some people will recover faster than me, some people slower.

Some will have complications. You know, my recovery is my recovery, it isn't.

a promise, or…

something I'm boasting about? Absolutely not. Not at all.

Um…

I…

I'm walking, I took the stairs up to the house for the first time today,

I drove for the first time today, went to the supermarket,

I'm coping with my daily activities, rehab.

I've been on the spin bike twice.

And I'm gonna go back to the gym tomorrow to train upper body and my.

I'll see how I feel and how tired I am, but my goal is to do.

A gym day, and alternate it with a day of just walking and the bike.

Um, I had been given a restriction of not to lift anything ever.

a heavier than 5 kilos.

But my surgeon said yesterday, your training upper body, you can train as heavy as you'd like. Why only 5 kilos?

And Kenny was like, she lifts really heavy , you know? And Georgina was like, it doesn't matter, it's her upper body, that's fine.

So that was nice, I'm really looking forward to going back to the gym, doing some resistance training.

walking on the beach, and my only restrictions at the moment are really, I mustn't train my lower body, definitely no lunges.

Um, we can't do that until 8 weeks.

Until she cleaned up my stitches yesterday, put a new temporary dressing on.

And I've got another couple of weeks of not being allowed to swim or sauna.

uh, or spa pool.

Obviously, I'm not going to be…

going mad. You know, I'm just gonna take a step back, and I've been doing about 4,000 steps a day.

And I think that, like, nudging up towards 4,500 steps was too much, and that was part of why I ended up.

overdoing it. So, I'm going to just take a rain check and back off that a little bit.

So I think…

I've spent…

two weeks doing, you know, a fraction of the exercise I'm accustomed to, I've spent 3 years.

slowly reducing the exercise that I'm accustomed to.

But it's reinforced something that I teach all the time.

that whilst exercise matters enormously for our physical and mental health, particularly as we age,

It's not everything, and

When our ability to exercise is limited,

there's still so much we can do to influence our health.

And our resilience.

And I think that those things are, you know, looking at what you eat. Don't eat processed full of sugar .

Or if you do, make it the exception, not the rule.

Back off alcohol.

You know, anything that is going to increase inflammation in your body.

Just move it back a bit. Doesn't mean you can never have a donut.

But have one once every two weeks instead of every day, you know, just.

Pack in, replace the donut with stuff that is actually going to help your body.

be resilient and strong and recover.

The donut sure as won't.

So, um, what you eat, maintain muscle where you can.

Like, you know, there are people that can't use double crutches, they have to be on a walker, they don't have the upper body strength for that.

And I'm determined to do my best to let that not be me.

I want really good, and it was commented on, you know, I can push myself easily, all those years of dips, girls!

I can push myself up off the bed,

easily. You know, I can… I can push myself to get up off the loo, all of that kind of thing.

So, um, I…

I think, yeah.

maintain muscle where you can, at all costs.

Focus on sleep.

make sure you give yourself enough recovery.

Limit stress. God, we live… we live such stressful lives.

And it's like, sometimes we look at ways to be stressed.

You know, when I've got time off, or downtime, instead of just being,

I have to be doing.

And I was told that once by…

a therapist that, you know, stop being a human.

doing, and be a human.

being, and I find that really difficult. I will make my life more stressful by adding to it.

and adding to it, and adding to it, because I feel like I have to have a big life.

So therefore there are stresses in there.

But mainly if you look at what stresses you have and you go back.

Very often,

they're self-imposed, because you've said yes. You've agreed to do something, you've taken something on.

And then, when you feel stressed, you go, oh, no, it's not my fault, I have to.

And that's how I feel sometimes. I have to, I've got to.

I owe it to these people, whatever it is.

But just…

Take a step back and learn how to deal with that stress.

For me at the moment,

It is getting outside for 15 minutes every day.

And not being outside to walk or tidy up the deck, or sit on the bike,

or to garden, just being outside.

Feeling the sun, or the wind, or the rain on my face.

connecting with the ground, connecting with the environment.

That is my stress relief.

It might not be yours. Yours might be soaking in a hot bath.

or reading a good book.

But that's mine, and it's really important that every day, you know, I talk to some of my clients who are so busy,

So busy! They just can't take out…

the time to look for themselves. That's like driving your car and never servicing it, and just waiting until you break down.

Don't do that. Carve out a little bit of time every day

just to be, to deal with that stress.

Um, connection with other people is really important. I have a great support group.

I've had lots of great messages. I've had friends visit, um…

can't thank you guys enough, you know who you are, thank you so, so much.

And just keep looking at that next small choice that you can make.

that keeps you moving forward.

Keeps your days getting bigger.

Keeps you feeling stronger.

All of that stuff. Um…

So.

Remember, when your exercise gets reduced or taken away from you.

Nutrition becomes one of the biggest levers you still have available to you.

Because if you eat well, you will feel better.

Even when you can't get out and do stuff.

I think for me, it feels like about 80% of the puzzle at the moment.

You know, if I… if I eat well, even though I can't get out and run and.

do all the stuff I want to do, but if I'm eating well, I feel vital and I feel alive.

So just focus on what you can control, which is what you put into your mouth, and what comes out of your mouth.

Uh, so… perhaps that's why.

thinking about these things, I'm even more excited than usual, uh, looking at what the business is doing next.

We have a workshop coming up on the 1st of September,

It is specifically for women over 50.

Uh, we're gonna do, like, practical nutrition for feeling better, managing your weight,

And aging well, and that workshop leads into our pre-challenge nutrition week.

And then on the 7th of September, we start our Lose 10 kilos in 12 Weeks Challenge.

And for that,

You can do that just using food. You know, exercise does not have to be perfect before somebody commits.

or starts to improve their health.

So my message to you is start with what you can.

Work on today, what you can control. Look at what you can do, not at what you can't do.

Uh, so if you're sitting there thinking, you know, you've let your health slide because you can't exercise the way you once did.

don't, you know, don't wait, jump on board, do the workshop, let me help you. This is exactly where we can start.

So, 15 days ago, I went into hospital frightened and overwhelmed.

Today, I'm still tired, I'm still healing.

I've still got a long way to go, but I am incredibly excited.

For the last few years,

My world has been getting smaller, and now it's getting bigger again, and I can't tell you how.

terrifically exciting that is. I can't wait to see where I am in another four weeks.

Have a fabulous, fabulous week, day, the sun is shining where I am, I hope it is where you are too.

Look after yourselves.

I love you all, thank you so much for taking time out to listen to me. Babble on.

If there's anything I can help you with at all, please do not hesitate.

to get in touch with me. I've still got two places left on the Bali Retreat for next year.

So if you want something that's a goal, come to the workshop, do the 12-week challenge.

and make your long-term goal,

to be in physically great health, emotionally great health,

for Bali in 2027,

Because that's mine, and after that retreat.

My goal, let's see if we get there or not, but my goal is to climb Mount Ranjani, which is on Lombok, which

Where the retreat is, we look across to it.

That is what is keeping me going every day, and has kept me going on the rollercoaster of the last.

Three weeks. Thanks, guys, take care.

Bye now.