What's helping Denise Van Outen through lockdown
Denise Van Outen has shared the self-care tips and daily rituals that have been making her life easier during lockdown – and they include devouring her favourite podcasts, keeping up with her outdoor exercise regime and making sure the whole family stays healthy.
Denise spoke to Red, ahead of her Dancing on Ice debut on Sunday (17th Jan), having been rehearsing for the show since last October, with professional skate partner Matt Evers.
'We've had to be so strict,' she says, revealing that since moving Evers into the home she shares with partner Eddie Boxshall and 10 year-old daughter Betsy during lockdown, they haven't seen a soul outside of their 'mini-bubble'.
'None of us want to get taken off the show,' she explained. 'We've been training since October, so it'd be a shame to miss out on the fun.'
Admitting that although she's scared of doing the live show, she really wants to just enjoy herself. Having already done Strictly in 2012, the 46 year-old is surely a dab-hand at reality competition shows by now?
'It's very different!' she explains. 'With Strictly, I definitely felt more confident. I obviously danced when I was younger, so I knew I would grasp it and I knew all the basics. It does help.'
However she also reveals her previous dance experience means she battled with expectation on the dance floor, something she's keen not to repeat this time around: 'I want to look back on it and think what a great time I had and not put too much pressure on myself.'
Unlike previous years when fellow contestants would all be thrown together for rehearsals and mingle backstage, this year, things have looked a little different.
'It's been strange,' she admitted. 'We've all spoken more on group chats than we have in person.'
Although an unusual time to take part in the show, training has surely been a blessing during England's third lockdown? 'I'm lucky that I have a job to go to that keeps me fit,' she says, revealing that the main thing that's been 'a godsend' during lockdown has been her outdoor exercise routine.
Van Outen, who moved back to Essex with Boxshall in 2018, has been working with a local personal trainer ever since she returned to the area. It's the longest she's ever stuck to an exercise regime. The TV star says the key to its success has been building her training up gradually, continuously changing things up and – most important of all – making sure she has fun.
'I've worked with PT's before but I've always found that kind of high impact training too intense and given up,' revealing that her current trainer set up an assault course in her garden so she could continue exercising throughout lockdown.
'Nothing fancy,' she explains. 'I'll just go to a certain bench, then I'll do weights and then go round to the patio and he'll have set something else up there too.
'We keep changing it, so I feel like I'm on a school sports day, rather than a really intense PT session.'
And it's not just keeping fit that's been her focus lately. After two weeks of constant barbecues and drinking gin and tonics on the patio during the first lockdown, she soon realised that healthy eating had to become a priority, if they didn't want to come out of lockdown 'twice the size.'
Her biggest secret is replacing sugar and sweets around the house with nutrient-rich dried fruit. She's been educating 10 year-old Betsy on the benefits of health eating, so much so that she proudly claims Betsy will opt for a dried fruit snack over chocolate these days.
'Dried apricots and prunes are very popular in our house,' Van Outen says.
Explaining that she always had a fruit bowl on the counter at home, growing up, she says the family now try and incorporate dried fruit – which is full of fibre – sneakily into meals at home: 'When we're cooking a curry, we'll always try and add some dried mangoes in and I always make sure I have a packet of dried fruit in the car, to snack on when I'm stuck in traffic.'
As well as lots of home-cooking, she's also been devouring Fearne Cotton's Happy Place podcast, as well as Fearne's recent nostalgia-drenched Sounds of the 90s, and That Peter Crouch Podcast. 'Fearne's a friend of mine and we know Pete and Abbey quite well – I just find him hilariously funny!' Van Outen says.
She's also been developing a podcast of her own with partner Eddie called Before We Say I Do. Although not engaged, the subject of marriage has inevitably come up after seven years together, and is something they both want to do.
But before they walk down the aisle, they want to iron out any potential problems, so that when they do eventually marry, they've already ticked off the relationship 'counselling bit' – and don't have to then do it a few years down the line.
'I came up with the idea,' she explains, thinking it would be interesting for them to discover things they don't know about each other, and how they're both feeling within the relationship.
'Why is it that people get married so quickly and then spend all that time just holding it all in, when they could have just dealt with it all early on and then have a really happy marriage?' she wonders.
Away from work commitments, what's helping her through another lockdown?
'I think the best thing for all of us to do is just to be on the end of the phone, and check in with people,' revealing that she's taken to randomly check in on friends she knows are struggling or live on their own.
'I know sometimes it's hard, because you'll have friends that aren't feeling great, but if you've got a friend that always makes you laugh, ring them – it's amazing what a phone call and a chat can do. And get some fresh air, it makes such a difference! I'm such a big believer in being outdoors.'
Having spent the past ten years doing charity challenges like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and trekking Maccu Piccu, Van Outen's love of being outside is hardly surprising. But, having been denied her usual overseas adventures recently has allowed Denise to re-discover her love of the great British countryside.
'The fact we've been made to stay at home [this year], has allowed me to explore [the UK] and I've actually loved it,' she says.
Her advice for anyone else trying to make the most of this enforced downtime?
'You’re never too old to learn a new skill,' she says, acknowledging that there’ll be lots of people sat at home, out of work and being forced to change their career paths. Maybe people who've always dreamt of doing something else, but 'plodded along' due to fear of the unknown.
'We are now in the unknown, so if you’ve got something that is a passion of yours in life, you’ve just got to go for it. Life is full of uncertainty and that’s what makes it interesting. Who wants to have a boring life?'
The Dried Fruit Alliance’s #EatMoreDriedFruit campaign is raising awareness of the health benefits of dried fruit. Just 30g of dried fruit is one of your five a day and contributes to your fibre intake. Tasty and versatile, dried fruit is a perfect snack between meals, on top of a salads, cereals, yoghurts and in smoothies.
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