CELEBRITY INTERVIEW
Cook and TV presenter Lisa Faulkner, 51, on grief, her infertility struggle and the secret to the strength of her marriage to MasterChef judge John Torode.
I’m very grateful for my health. Every day I go for a walk and do between 10 and 20 minutes of yoga, just to get moving. Age is a privilege, so I feel I need to look after my body and my mind. I’ve been doing hatha yoga for more than 25 years. My dad David is 78 and does yoga, too. He started at the same time as me and my sister, and he’s so agile. When I see Fearne Cotton doing yoga, she amazes and inspires me. I’m flexible, and there are sometimes bits that ache, but the more you move, the better you feel.
The gym is just not for me. I like exercise when I can roll out of bed in my pyjamas, roll out my mat and do some yoga. I also like walking. I do an hour’s walk with the dog every day where I live in a very hilly area in North London. Walking is more important for my head than it probably is for my body.
At school, I was the most nonsporty pupil. My games teacher didn’t even know my name. She called me Fred! I played a bit of netball, but I hated hockey, and when I was growing up, nobody went to the gym. I went out and danced all night. From the age of 16, I was a model in London, and would walk from 10am to 5pm on “go-sees” [modelling interviews]. I was a victim of being told at 16 to “lose that puppy fat” but I wasn’t worried about what I looked like. I was like, “what are you talking about?”. I was lucky because I had a fast metabolism, so I’ve always been quite skinny. When I started the perimenopause, I put on a bit of weight around my middle but since going on HRT a year ago, my metabolism has gone back to what it was, and my weight has stabilised again. I don’t eat loads, but I eat what I want. If somebody hands me a huge plate of food I find it quite scary. I’d rather help myself to what I want.
I didn’t suffer with any major perimenopausal symptoms. I got anxious, I was having a few hot flushes and I just wasn’t myself. There are now great advocates for the perimenopause, Lisa Snowdon being one. I’m so pleased that everyone is talking about it, because so many people don’t know how to deal with it, or that they can get help. I hope one day, going through the perimenopause will just feel completely relaxed and normal.
The biggest health obstacle I’ve overcome is infertility. After three rounds of failed IVF and an ectopic pregnancy, unexplained infertility was a difficult, horrible place where I thought, “Is this going to happen? Is
