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As Psycle’s managing director, resident nutrition expert and master instructor, the gorgeous Rhian Stephenson has been a major fitspiration to all of us here at H&H for a while now. We love her passion and commitment to a fit and active lifestyle and her balanced ethos towards health and wellbeing. This week, we caught up with Rhian to chat about all things career, post-workout pick-me-ups and the best piece of advice she has for spinning and fitness newbies.

What initially sparked your interest for health and wellbeing?

My mother was incredibly active and put us into practically every sport from a really young age until I found my passion in swimming. I was a competitive swimmer for 13 years so I was lucky enough to become hooked to an active lifestyle at a really young age.

With so many successful and inspiring achievements under your belt (it’s not every day you meet a Canadian National Athlete) what’s your secret – how do you stay so focused and motivated?

I always like to take the approach that anything is possible and because I’m so passionate about what I do, there always seems to be more to take on. When you work in a field that you’re passionate about then it’s easy to stay inspired and motivated.

What’s your favourite thing about your job at Psycle?

It’s hard to pick just one thing. I love the connection to community and seeing people transform. We see people everyday who have never worked out before transform into incredible riders who have this renewed energy and confidence. It’s pretty amazing to witness. I also love how varied it is – I get to do everything from training new recruits and designing our smoothie menus to new site acquisition and roll out strategy. I’m definitely never bored!

When you’re not being super energetic and taking spin classes at Psycle, how else do you choose to keep fit?

I love yoga, running, hiking and training outside.

Working all day, especially in such a high-energy job must get tiring. What’s your go to pick-me-up for when your energy levels ebb?

I always have a solid breakfast, otherwise I’m off for the whole day. Mid afternoon I have a plant based protein shake to keep my energy up before class.

We hear lots of people saying they’re too scared to try spinning. What advice do you have for first time spinners and what can they expect from their first class at Psycle?

There’s nothing to be afraid of! Psycle classes are incredibly fun, incredibly energetic and challenging. But just because it’s challenging, doesn’t mean there’s anything to be afraid of. When you get here and the lights are low, you immediately get immersed in the environment so it doesn’t matter if you’ve ridden 1 or 100 times, nobody cares what you look like. The beauty is that because of the way the class is structured you have a whole room of people who are riding with you, not against you. If you can let go of worrying if you’re good or bad and just enjoy the moment then I guarantee you’ll love it and improve incredibly quickly.

We love Psycle’s music choices, what’s your own favourite feel good track to workout to?

It changes every week! Right now my favourite songs on my playlist are Freaks Have More Fun (loudpvck remix), Addicted to a Memory (Zedd), and We Make it Bounce by Dillon Francis.

Here at Hip & Healthy, we are all about balance. Do you have any guilty pleasures?

Of course! I love food and I love to cook, so you’ll see healthy desserts as a part of my regular weekend menu. I love raw chocolate and my biggest regular indulgence is coffee.

It’s well known that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, as a nutritionist and alongside being an uber busy individual, what’s your breakfast of choice?

I have a few that I pretty much rotate through. My go to is a smoothie bowl – I’ll make a green smoothie with things like avocado, spinach, berries, almond milk and my protein powder and pour it over nuts, seeds and sprouted buckwheat. This is my absolute favourite and you can easily keep it interesting by switching up smoothie ingredients. I also love eggs. Eggs, mushrooms & tomato are a regular for me.

We are super excited about Hip & Healthy being Psycle’s official retail partner. What’s your favourite piece from Psycle’s curated edit?

I love the We Are Handsome leggings!

Growing up in Canada and now living in London, you must have seen a fair bit of the world. Where’s your favourite place to escape to?

Bali for heat (and surfing and diving), Switzerland for snow!

And finally, what’s the best piece of health/fitness related advice you’ve ever been given? 

It’s always difficult to pick one piece of advice but something that really resonates with me is seeing your health as a practice. It’s so easy to set a fitness or nutrition goal and then beat yourself up for not hitting it the first time around; but our health, our nutrition, our fitness – it’s all a part of a lifelong practice. You don’t need to be perfect, you just need to keep at it. I think it’s a kinder outlook that helps me stay motivated.

Another big one for me is never be afraid of failing – you need to take big risks to get what you want so never be afraid of putting yourself out there. Even if you don’t achieve it, you can always be proud of trying.


FITSPO: Deliciously Ella | FITSPO: Madeleine Shaw 


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