Natalie Barr has revealed her secrets to staying fit and healthy.
The TV presenter, 58, has a busy schedule, waking up at 3am five days a week to host Sunrise.
However, she doesn’t let her gruelling early starts get in the way of her health, and still swears by getting around eight hours of sleep a night.
“I try to get as much sleep as I can,” she tells us in an exclusive chat to promote Witchery’s White Shirt campaign, which raises awareness for ovarian cancer.
“I diarise my sleep… I make sure I go to bed at somewhere in between 7pm and 8pm.”
As for factoring in exercise, Natalie goes to the gym two days a week and focuses on weight training to stay strong.
“In the last 18 months I’ve been doing a weight program because I’ve been, you know, like everyone my age, I’ve been advised to get stronger and I’m loving that and trying to have more protein in my diet,” she explains.
“I go to the gym two days after work, so mid-morning, and on a Saturday morning. I’ve got three sessions going, and I sleep at lunchtime for about an hour, and then during the afternoon, I do lots of reading of what has happened in the news since I left work.”
There might be a lot of debate about whether breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but for Natalie, it certainly is.
“I don’t really eat dinner. I only have two meals a day, really,” she shares.
“I have a really big breakfast that’s healthy on the set. And I started taking my own breakfast a few days a week, which is a really healthy yoghurt, kefir, nuts, and a really healthy muesli and some fruit, something that I never used to do for years, I’d just get eggs and all sorts of stuff every day.”
Because of her busy schedule, Natalie also swears by the power of saying “no”, something she has learned as she has gotten older.
“I have a busy job, like lots of us,” she says.
“So I find when I’m at home, I try to say no more in my old age, to be honest.
“I don’t say yes to everything, and I don’t feel obliged to say yes to anything.”
Fitting in downtime is something Natalie swears by to stay positive, whether that be going for a massive or a walk in the sunshine.
“Sometimes that’s enough to just make you think about, you know, relaxing, calm your mind,” she tells us.
Finding time for herself has not always been easy for Natalie, but it’s something she has been able to make more time for since her sons, Lachlan and Hunter, flew the nest.
“You definitely have more time [when your children move out],” she says.
“Your whole life changes when they move out.”
Natalie’s eldest son, Lachlan, moved out five years ago, while Hunter has been living away from home for three years, with Natalie confessing that it was “hard” to get used to their childhood being “gone”.
“You never get that time back,” she says.
“Everyone tells you that when you’re in it, but you feel so stressed and busy often, when you’re in the middle of that time of your life, and then you really miss them.
“Then you get to a point – I’ve got to a point where we’re used to it. They come and go a bit, and it’s a really lovely time of your life, really.
“So, I definitely have time to cook healthier food and spend a bit more time on myself.”
As for whether she has any advice for busy mothers trying to balance self-care with a busy family life? She has only one thing to say.
“I don’t know whether there’s a balance in family life,” she confesses.
“I think it’s a story of survival. When you’re in it and when you’ve got kids, it’s, you know, some weeks you think, ‘I’ve nailed this, I’ve done the groceries, I’ve prepared a couple of meals and all the uniforms are ready, I know what day basketball training is’.
“And some weeks, you’re in tears, and you think, ‘I cannot, I cannot do another day of it, I don’t understand how I could possibly get a meal on the table’.
“They’ve raced in at 7.30 at night, and they’re yelling, what’s for dinner? And you’re thinking, ‘I don’t know, toast?’
“So, I would not like to give anyone advice because I just survived some weeks.
“You just get through it and smile at the other end.
“What I do know is that when it ends, you miss it.”
Now, we hope Natalie enjoys the time to focus on herself, because she certainly deserves it!
Natalie spoke to us to raise awareness for Witchery’s White Shirt Campaign, which is back for its 18th year.
The campaign, inspired by the white coats worn by scientists, has already raised almost $18 million for ovarian cancer research.
For every White Shirt sold, Witchery donates 100% of gross proceeds to the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation (OCRF).
The campaign will run until World Ovarian Cancer Day on Friday, May 8.
