Saturday with Laura Dowling: If I don’t work out for a couple of days I feel grumpy

I like to go to the gym about four times a week. It’s so important as we age that we look after our joints, bones and muscles

Laura Dowling: My Sundays aren’t really my own any more as I do my Confessions on social media — it could be anything from sad, to funny, to sexy — all very real.

10.00

Saturday is the one day that I try to stay offline to time with my family. It was my dad that said I needed at least one day off a week. My Sundays aren’t really my own any more as I do my Confessions on social media — it could be anything from sad, to funny, to sexy — all very real. My kids are all teenagers now so I may only have one early match to go to. The first thing I’ll do is drink a cappuccino that my husband makes. I’m on social media so much normally that I try to avoid it being the first thing I do on a Saturday. If there’s no match to go to I will get up and make pancakes or scones.

11.00

If it’s a nice bright day myself and my husband might get out for an early walk with our boxer Carlo to Sandmount beach or to the mountains. I might try to visit my sister and her baby because I may not have seen her for a few days. She’s gorgeous — at 15 months she’s really coming into herself and getting a real little personality.

13.00

Fabulous Pharmacist, Laura Dowling. Picture Conor McCabe Photography

I like to go to the gym about four times a week. I will go early midweek and go a bit later on a Saturday especially if the weather’s not great. It’s so important as we age that we look after our joints, bones and muscles and they’re not going to move themselves. That said, it shouldn’t be torture — it should be something you enjoy. As you get older you really need to be doing resistance training in order to keep your muscles strong. Our muscles help with insulin resistance and support our bones so all of that mobility, flexibility and strength is so important as we get older. I work out also for my mental health. If I don’t work out for a couple of days in row I feel a bit grumpy.

15.30

I like having a long lead in to Saturday night dinner so I might go to the shops and get some ingredients and then I’ll come home and spend a long time making it — perhaps with a glass of wine in the process. I will cook a lasagne or something that requires a bit more effort than rustling up the midweek dinners. I like cooking but I like to have the time to cook and I find trying to come up with new things all the time a bit of a drag. I recently made a lovely slow cooked beef brisket so I’m on the hunt for more slow cooker recipes.

19.00

If we’re going out to dinner we like to try new places and we love Cassanova’s near us. I don’t tend to have people over for dinner on a Saturday night — that’s more of a Sunday thing. I’m just so busy at the moment that sometimes having people over is just too much for me with all the preparation that’s involved so I’d rather just go out for dinner with people.

I’m running the fabÜ business, I do talks and public speaking and also have my Love Your Vulva show as well as my book which I’ve been promoting so I’ve quite a few spinning plates as well as trying to be present for my family and my mum and dad who are fantastic. Then there’s my podcast which takes up a considerable amount of time. It’s great to meet so many interesting people and to learn about their lives.

Laura Dowling: I’ve quite a few spinning plates

I didn’t anticipate the reaction I’d get when I began to speak about these topics. There seems to be a dearth of conversation around health in general, and female health in particular, but people just love the fun, funny and memorable approach. I try not to use too much medical jargon so people can understand the information.

I’m trying to condense what I’m reading in medical journals and to communicate key pieces of information in a concise way. It’s important to have a bit of craic and to show that healthcare professionals have a bit of personality — we’re not just robots putting medicines into bags.

20.00

It needs to be a very good film for me to go to the cinema to see it but I recently went to the cinema with my lads and I’m definitely going to see the Michael Jackson biopic.

I love to go to comedy gigs – I recently went to see Aoife Dunne. Sometimes we just stay in and show the boys the stuff we liked to watch, – recently we watched Le Haine together and The Godfather.

22.30

I love to have a nice long bath with piping hot water and epsom salts. I’ll cleanse my face and then moisturise with a bit of retinol. I’ll take two of my R&R Relax capsules — my blend of ayurvedic botanicals with vitamins and minerals — I’ll wake up refreshed and ready for my Sunday Confessions!

• For more from Laura Dowling, see her live at Love Your Vulva at Cork Opera House on September 12. Her wellbeing range fabÜ is available online at fabuwellness.com and you can follow her advice and antics on Instagram at @fabulouspharmacist