Brought to you by SuperValu, the official food partner of WellFest
A scroll through Instagram reveals a whole load of seriously strong women who transfix their fans with beautiful and powerful bodies.
But (let’s face it) few of us are truly, 100 percent content with what we got – and seemingly that includes sportspeople and Dancing With The Stars contestants.
Anna Geary holds 20 All-Ireland medals, including seven senior All Ireland medals. She has furthermore won four All Stars – in 2005, 2006, 2010, and 2011.
And over the weekend, the 30-year-old Cork camogie player attended the hugely-popular WellFest.
“I’m 5ft 5in and very muscly but I have to remind myself that yes I might not be able to wear that particular outfit, but I can wear something that shows off my abs or something else that I love,” Anna exclusively tells Her.ie from SuperValu’s Wellfood area at Wellfest in Dublin.
“I’ve worked really hard to develop the body that I have.”
Anna continues: “I wasn’t as dainty as the other DWTS girls. Still, as a teenager I didn’t have many body issues because I viewed my body in the sense of getting stronger and getting more muscle for my sport.”
The athlete boasts some 42.2K followers on Instagram – a platform which has, at least in part, nurtured a revival of the wellness movement.
“I think the term wellness has gotten a bad rep, to be honest,” Ms Geary nevertheless explains.
“Wellness means different things to different people. For me I prefer to use the word ‘lifestyle’ rather than wellness.
“I suppose it’s about how you treat and look after your body and how you treat your mind, your sleep, your hydration, and – more importantly – how we treat ourselves; how we talk to ourselves; the food we put into our bodies. That’s the biggest thing and, surprisingly, the thing that people neglect.
“Particularly as Irish people, we really like to put ourselves down. If someone comes up to you and tells you that you look great, very rarely do we say ‘thank you’.
“If I was asked by someone what the starting point for WellFest is I would say – it’s yourself.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by Anna’s fellow GAA star Cian O’Sullivan – who plays football for Dublin and was also chatting to Her.ie at SuperValu’s Wellfood area at Wellfest.
“Mental wellbeing and mindfulness, it’s great to see in the last few years how the awareness of mental health has grown,” he states.
“You have your mental health side of things but you also have your mindfulness side of things.
“Everyone has moments in their lives when they get stressed or anxious about things, having those skills to be able to switch those feelings off in their mind is great.”
Cian continues: “Things like practising mindfulness and meditation, even ten minutes a day on any of those apps on mediation are really, really useful. Some people like them, some don’t see any value in them… I’d be one of those people who thinks they’re great.”
Anna and Cian are ambassadors for SuperValu; both took part in a nutritional panel discussion on Saturday at the SuperValu WellFood tent at WellFest.
Meanwhile, Cian cites his go-to SuperValu snack as the Everest Granola pots. “They’re great and really handy!” he laughs.
And Anna says she loves that SuperValu “encourages people to cook from scratch”.
She adds: “In processed food there are so many things hidden things that people wrongly think are healthy. At least you know what you’re eating when you make it from scratch… and also a great feeling of smugness that you’ve done it yourself!”
SuperValu is the official food partner for this year’s WellFest. For recipes and meal planners visit supervalu.ie.
