In our latest edition of Top Tips, Keira Walsh talks us through her new hobbies, fitness regime and TV recommendations...

Presented by Gatorade, our women’s team share their advice and recommendations for coping through this uncertain period of the COVID-19 pandemic...

What advice would you give for keeping motivated?

My advice would be to keep in a routine and stick to it - keep moving and keep going.

You’ll always be motivated if you set things to achieve that day or week.

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How are you keeping fit?

Our Sports Scientist sent us the longest plan! Four session a day: gym in the morning after breakfast for about an hour and then we go on the pitch although it’s adapted - there are some sessions in the garden and some in the local park.

I’ve seen a few fans with City coats on while I’ve been out!

So we have a pitch session and then later on, a watt bike session, which is my least favourite piece of equipment in the world!

We train pretty much every day with some rest days.

 

Any healthy eating tips?

I’m not a great cook in terms of thinking up my own recipes but I can follow a recipe and it’s quite fun and rewarding.

I’ve been doing that so far. I’m quite good at making a chicken curry.

Sometimes, Janine Beckie bakes for the team and she brings in blondies and carrot cake cupcakes, which are supposed to be healthy but I’m not sure they are!

I tried to make the blondies and they were awful – they came out like muffins! Janine said I didn’t put enough butter in. I was gutted because I was proper craving them!

I’ll have to try again.

Any advice on how to stay calm and have fun?

Just make sure you do your bit to support the NHS and government in terms of staying inside.

To know you’re doing your part to stop the virus spreading should help you to keep calm.

It’s important to stay connected too. We have a WhatsApp group going – I speak to Georgia Stanway pretty much every day and I check on Aoife Mannion as well to see how she’s doing – and a few of us have been trying to do Jill Scott’s Instagram Challenges at home.

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We try to do something new every day. For example, Steph Houghton started a core workout challenge where she picked the core workout for that day and then nominated someone else to do it for the day after. Then they nominate the next person and so on.

Our Nutritionist also got a recipe challenge going as well. She nominated Aoife first and she made a chick pea curry.

We keep ourselves in contact with challenges and stuff, having some fun to counteract the seriousness of everything.

There’s a lot going on but it’s nice to be part of the team still and have a bit of fun.

A lot of the girls are naturally good at checking in with everyone anyway.

Do you have any new hobbies?

I haven’t got any spare time with four sessions a day!

In seriousness, I stick to my one hour of outdoor exercise and I’ve been walking the dog, trying to teach her new tricks.

I’ve also been walking and running 100k in May to try and raise money for the Darby Rimmer MND Foundation.

 

What are you watching on Netflix? Any recommendations?

I’ve started Gossip Girl on Netflix for the fifth time around!

It’s an easy watch because it’s so far-fetched. It’s not realistic and so different to world I live in – our lives revolve around football - and it’s fun to watch to see how other people go about their lives.

Green Leaf is also really good.

 

Do you have a message for the fans, during this difficult period?

We’re all really missing you and football but it’s important that we all stay safe during this time.

We all love football but right now, there are bigger things going on than the game.

Make sure you’re doing your bit to support the NHS and our key workers.

Stay safe.