With her new found love of health and fitness, we sat down with Made in Chelsea star, Louise Thompson to discuss her fitness habits and goals!

You have an insane body. What’s your favourite way to work out?
My favourite way to workout is with a partner, so a friend or predominantly my boyfriend. The way I workout has changed drastically over the past year. It used to consist of struggling to get to the gym, then forcing myself to run 5k and then braving the machines in the mens section of the gym. This would happen twice or three times a week at best. Now I tend to do some form of exercise every day. Me and my boyfriend are very active, so we get Boris bikes to have a laugh whenever we can, I like the challenge of the road and also testing my knowledge of London. My feet can barely reach the peddles which is pretty humorous. We just returned from a stint travelling together for a month so we were teaching ourselves how to do backflips on the beach which ended up being a pretty good workout. Then I would run at him and see how many times he could spin me around gripping my wrists. This developed muscles that neither of us knew we even had. I’m all about moving and stretching as much as I can throughout the day. As you may have seen I use him as a human climbing frame. Whilst away we wanted to be outdoors so it would consist of beach sprints, wrestling with waves and a few short but simple routines to prevent muscle loss. In the Maldives we would cycle the length of the island! Now that i’m back home I will split my time between the gym and home workouts. Because I am incredibly busy at the moment with filming and other work I like to take advantage of a good home workout routine. I use my bedroom floor and do ab exercises using my my protein ab roller and also knee tucks with the exercise ball. There are tonnes of simple yet effective exercises that you can do with the exercise ball including crunches. They are good because they work the full body whilst trying to keep balance and not flop on the floor like a mess. A lot of people ask me how I get my abs. I literally just make sure they are engaged all the time, I suppose this is easier once you already have them. But I like flutter kicks, leg raises and arms raised partial sit ups! Me and the bf do them together super fast until we writhe around in pain laughing.

Do you have any rules that you live by when it comes to your health and fitness?
Whilst it is important to push yourself so that you gain results, you must do the things that you enjoy otherwise the whole thing becomes such a chore. I’m not going to lie I focus on the things that i’m good at. You can’t be good at everything, so I do the things that give me quickest results and that aren’t too stressful. Which is why it’s important to experiment. I don’t really run anymore because I’m impatient and it would cause me a tremendous amount of pain and shin splints because I have such flat feet. So I quit. Recently I learnt how to deadlift and whilst my poor mother has clearly spied a photo of me doing it on instagram and insists that it will give me a bad back, I love it! Also don’t take yourself too seriously, I like to walk around the gym laughing a lot at myself, because I often make mistakes! And ask questions! Basically if you interact with people it makes it more fun and you can meet some cool people.

What was your hardest bad habit to kick?
Erm. I haven’t really kicked anything per se. I suppose i’m really fortunate because i’ve reached a point where I can eat whatever I want and it won’t make a drastic difference because my body has become so much more efficient. Maybe what I actually want has changed though. It has been a gradual transition. I no longer eat bread at a restaurant, I don’t order pizzas hungover! The biggest difference has been cutting down MASSIVELY on alcohol. I don’t really go on ragers anymore. I have changed my attitude and don’t punish my poor body like I used to. I think that’s growing up, but the hangover curry’s, dominos, and excess has ended!!! Actually learning about food and being curious helps because they you teach yourself to only eat things that have some nutritional benefit. The thing I still crave a lot is chocolate!

Take us through your day on a plate…
I don’t have any form of routine, every day is different. So for the sake of this question I will tell you what I ate one day last week on holiday and then what I plan to eat today back in England. Not yesterday because I was jet lagged and completely out of kilter and had about 5 chocolate bars which is NOT allowed!

Holiday

Breakfast:

3 egg Vegetable omelette with jalapeños, 4 small rashers of back bacon, baked beans (I love baked beans), 3 glasses of watermelon juice, 2 large sri lankan passion fruits, a heap of pineapple, 1 black coffee, small amount of porridge (When I have access to a  buffet I will basically try a bit of everything)

Lunch:

Tuna Steak, Sparkling Water, Mediterranean vegetables

Snack:

2 coconuts

Dinner:

Me and my boyfriend normally get 2 starters and then 3 main meals to share between use. So I would have prawns or raw fish to start with and then we would share roast chicken, Bolognese and a steak – all with lots of vegetables. He would eat the lions share.

Home

Breakfast:

3 boiled eggs, large portion smoked salmon

Lunch:

Edamame Pasta with homemade tomato and onion ragu or homemade pesto – I haven’t made my mind up yet

Dinner:

I’m going out for dinner to an asian infusion restaurant so I will eat a tonne of different things ranging from sushi, sashimi, rice noodle soup, maybe some pork belly! I love anything very rich tasting so I douce food in soy sauce.

It must be super difficult to keep your body fueled when you’re busy filming and training! What are your favourite pre and post work-out supplements to ensure you are powered up and ready to go?
I’m very lucky that I’m sponsored by Myprotein because I have access to A TONNE of different snack products and i’m slowly making my way through the menu to see what I like the best. I’m excited to try their new organic raw bars. But some of my existing favourites are the protein brownie and the skinny cookie! Also when i’m at home and need a snack I mix the chocolate brownie flavoured whey protein with plain yoghurt and it is heavenly.

How do you balance your social life with your health goals? Do you ever find that they conflict?
I have changed my priorities. Since being with Ryan I don’t really go out and party anymore. We will go to the occasional event, or a charity party and I still go to my good friends birthdays, but I don’t do nightclubs. I will only go out out if i’m seeing an artist that I love. Luckily me and Ryan are on the same page, we both like rap and grime. I still see my best friends but they all work mega hard too, I think we’re at the stage in our lives where we want to start saving for our futures, buying houses, marriage, kids that sort of thing. We cook each other dinner at our respective houses and leave by 11pm. Am I a massive loser?

What or who inspired you to live the healthy life?
I was honestly waiting for it to happen. I always knew I wanted it and that I needed to make some big changes, but sadly I just couldn’t do it on my own. When I was at school I was incredibly sporty and healthy! I suppose I became unhealthy when I went to University and there was just temptation everywhere. Other people I’ve dated have enjoyed the finer things in life, haha, excess in food, drink, partying. But Ryan is the polar opposite. He throws up after 3 drinks and I have to look after him!!!! LOL.

What three things would we find in your gym bag?
Myprotein lifting gloves…A shaker with BCAAs in…Occasionally my camera to do videos

Home Cook or Take Out?
I used to get WAY too much take out, but now I always cook. I did Leith’s cookery course, so I’m pretty much a trained chef haha! In my house there are always tonnes of people drifting in and out so it’s very social. Me, Sam, Tiff and Ryan will cook breakfast together on weekends and put on a massive spread!!

Tell us one thing that would surprise us about you and your training…
I can do 10 chin ups straight up. I have incredible upper body strength.

What goal would you have liked to achieve in five years time?
To be honest my life always throws crazy things at me each year, so I have NO idea what to predict. Last year I thought i’d be living in New York right now. Over the next year or so myself and Ryan aim to start a successful fitness youtube channel and continue to do funny videos. Also we want to open a cross fit style gym with a buzzing cafe next to it! We spent the Christmas brainstorming.

Follow Louise on Instagram here!