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There's No Excuse to Slow Down! - Presenter, podcaster and author Gabby Logan talks to Psychologies about health, happiness, and overcoming hurdles in midlife...

Psychologies UK

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September 2024

Presenter, podcaster and author Gabby Logan talks to Psychologies about health, happiness, and overcoming hurdles in midlife...When TV presenter Gabby Logan started to experience brain fog in her late 40s, struggling to recall the correct word or name on live TV, she initially put it down to tiredness. 'I couldn't quite get that name or articulate in the way I had previously been able to, so I was concerned, but it coincided with lockdown and not doing any telly for a while. I remember feeling quite nervous going back to live TV.' But the former international gymnast soon realised that it was a symptom of perimenopause and promptly went onto HRT, which she says has balanced her hormones.

- By Hannah Stephenson

There's No Excuse to Slow Down! - Presenter, podcaster and author Gabby Logan talks to Psychologies about health, happiness, and overcoming hurdles in midlife...

When TV presenter Gabby Logan started to experience brain fog in her late 40s, struggling to recall the correct word or name on live TV, she initially put it down to tiredness. 'I couldn't quite get that name or articulate in the way I had previously been able to, so I was concerned, but it coincided with lockdown and not doing any telly for a while. I remember feeling quite nervous going back to live TV.' But the former international gymnast soon realised that it was a symptom of perimenopause and promptly went onto HRT, which she says has balanced her hormones.

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Logan, 51, has now written The Midpoint Plan (Little, Brown, £22), inspired by her eponymous podcast, in which she shares a wealth of advice from guest experts on the show about aspects of reaching middle age - from mental health and hormones, to midlife crises, love, sex and loss, and the importance of exercise and sleep.

In the book, she details the difficulties experienced entering middle age, stopping short of saying she had her own midlife meltdown. But she admits: 'There were definitely points of feeling, "Oh my gosh, this is a huge maelstrom of things going on, I'm not sure how I'm equipped to navigate all this." That melting pot of feelings reached a peak in lockdown, in 2021, when she recalls she experienced both physical changes and anxiety about the Covid-induced state of the wider world, which is when she started her podcast.

Talking to well-known faces on the podcast about their own midlife challenges, including actor Jill Halfpenny, DJ Adele Roberts and former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond, alongside guest experts, definitely helped her own mental health, she thinks.

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