I get up at 6.45am every day apart from Sunday, when I don’t set an alarm. I use my Apple watch to wake me up. It has a nice, gentle vibration and as it’s on my wrist, my kids can’t nick it. Getting up at the same time every day helps me to get the best sleep.
I often try to copy our Border Collie, who always does a downward dog first thing in the morning. If I’m not rushing, I’ll do that then wake the kids up for school.
I love breakfast. I’m a creature of habit in general and I like to reduce the number of decisions that need to be made, especially since starting my own business, which has made daily life all about decisions, decisions, decisions. So with breakfast, I start by having a glass of water and a black coffee, then I’ll have Greek yoghurt mixed with our New Road 30 high-fibre, prebiotic blend and some kind of fresh fruit and nuts.
I wash my face, put some cream on and then do the school drop-off, listening to the Today programme.
Then I’ll either go for a run with the dog or do a Pilates or yoga class, or do some weights. Then I’ll come back home and have a bit of second breakfast. I love marmalade on toast with a cup of tea.
I’ll have a quick scan of several papers before getting down to work, which starts with lots of list-writing to offload any concerns or problems on to paper. I like the physical process of writing, especially in pencil.
I work from home or in a shared workspace, which is part of Oxford innovation space, so I get to work alongside lots of really interesting people and bump into others who are in start-ups or are founders.
Lunch can sometimes be pushed quite late. It’s usually either beans and rice or a soup in the winter and salads in the summer. At 4pm, I have my favourite smoothie, which has become a total staple: mixed berries, banana, vanilla kefir and another sachet of New Road 30.
My evening wind down starts with cooking dinner, which I find quite meditative, perhaps with a bit of homework time in between. I usually make something protein-based: fish or meat with vegetables. We eat together as a family almost always and I love that time. No matter how crazy things get in the first year of launching a brand, I like to ringfence cooking and dinner time.
I’ve started reading fiction again in the evening, which, again, is kind of a meditation. I missed it during the years when the kids were younger and work was crazy — I found there was no time.
I don’t watch telly, apart from at the weekends. I love to have a bath in the evenings. I keep my skincare simple; my favourite brands are La Roche Posay and Embryolisse.
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I try to make sure sleep, exercise and stress are in check. But when work gets overwhelming I check out for a few minutes and read the news. It works like magic to distract myself and step out of the moment.
“Have a few simple guidelines and don’t obsess over them. Anything too extreme is hard to maintain”
Simplicity is a good starting point for any lifestyle. Have a few simple guidelines and don’t obsess over them. Anything too extreme is hard to maintain long-term. It’s better to do less more consistently.
The best thing to do is walk as much as possible every day. It doesn’t have to be far. I always struggled with exercise, but what really unlocked it for me was listening to something that advised starting with one minute. You can do anything for a minute and then build up to two minutes and so on.
Everyone should try to increase their fibre, eat some fermented food and read a little each day.
Catherine Hurley Arbibe is the founder of gut health supplement NEWROAD; newroad.life