Life on the Road: How the Fuel Girls Stay Fit mentally and physicallY
Hey Guys, Von here!
I wanted to kick-start 2020 with a bit of an update to all our awesome friends and followers.
For the next few months, we’re going to make an extra special effort to share with you way more of the behind-the-scenes action of the Fuel Girls, and what it’s actually like to tour the world, perform and breathe fire. We’ll go into detail on how we keep fit, how we rehearse, and the insane amount of work that goes into our performances before we set anything alight!
This is an incredible opportunity for us to speak more with our amazing followers, and we want you to get as involved as possible – so let us know what you want to hear about – comment below or send us a DM!
Now for our first post, I wanted to talk a little bit about one question we’re asked almost continuously: how do we stay fit on the road?
Keeping Healthy! It’s Not Easy
Before I say anything, let me make one thing clear: we LOVE our jobs.
Touring the world and performing in front of incredible audiences is one of the most rewarding careers ever. So I’m not complaining… but I’ll also admit that maintaining any sort of work-life balance, keeping healthy (not just physically but mentally) and making sure we’re at the top of our game is pretty difficult when we spend our lives living out of suitcases.
In the age of Instagram and when our audiences are so used to seeing us on stage, it’s more important than ever to admit that – occasionally – we get tired too. We have days where we don’t want to get out of bed, skip the gym, and *refuse* to wear makeup.
We’re human!
My Path to a More stable me
When I started working for Fuel almost 14 years ago (JEEZE!) it’s safe to say things were a bit different back then. We were, of course, a lot younger and admittedly more known for our wild antics than fire safety and looking after our physical and mental health.
The change came for me over time, it took me years to understand how important the impact of exercise, eating well and resting was to not only for my physical appearance and my performance but most importantly my day to day life stability.
Routine, routine, routine
One of the easiest ways of maintaining any semblance of health on the road is to do your very best to maintain a routine. That means, whichever country you’re in, whichever show you’re performing at, whoever you’re performing with… somethings stay the same.
Personally, I make sure wherever I go, I go to the gym every day. For me, this isn’t just about keeping fit – it’s about finding a release and releasing the pent-up energy that comes from spending hours on planes, trains, and automobiles. Knowing that I can cram in an hour on the cross-trainer keeps me sane and grounded.
Making mental health the priority
It’s no surprise that so many performers suffer from mental health problems. Constant travel, the incredible ‘high’ of performing, lonely hotel rooms, and the pressure of constantly appearing show-ready all contribute to anxiety, depression and myriad mental health issues.
Luckily for the Fuel Girls, we’re an incredibly tight-knit group. We make it our mission not just to look after ourselves, but each other and to breed a culture where it’s okay to talk about issues.
We also prioritise mental health above everything else. As much as I love the gym and eating healthily, if I need to prioritise my mental health and if I need to stay in bed one day, I will!
We are by no means perfect, NO one is and there will, and have been countless occasions where we have to REALLY amp ourselves up to get on stage, but by ensuring we take the time out when we need it, talk when we need to talk and rest when we need to rest ensures we always do our job to the best of our ability.
surround yourself with amazing people!
It’s no secret that we have one of the most incredible backstage team in the business.
But as much as we sing their praises, it’s impossible to overstate how important they are to our performance on-and-off-stage.
Being part of the Fuel Girls means being part of a family, and we rely on the structure of our team to put on amazing shows, to keep us grounded and safe. It’s so important to trust and rely on people around you in this industry, and if something doesn’t sit right with you speak up!
Staying healthy mentally also means making sure you’re enjoying your work and when working in the performance world as a circus performer of any nature, we have to remind ourselves how dangerous our job actually is, so don’t do it if it feels wrong.
Eat right, think right!
No lie, it can be hard work for some of us when travelling to put the same routine based ideology around our nutrition. I don’t struggle as much as some of the girls, I have no intolerances, I’m not vegan and pretty much eat everything.
I do however try to eat as best I can when travelling, but again it can be tricky when you’re faced with only certain things on the catering menus….recently Kayla and Teta had the pleasure of a mealworm salad three times a day in Poland!
What is important is reminding yourself that things won’t always be perfect when your travelling, especially when you’re overseas a LOT. Many of us have had issues with eating and body image too and it’s especially prevalent in the performance world; It’s super hard to not compare yourself to all the beautiful creatures around you!
Like my physical and mental health, this battle has taken me a long time to get my head around and honestly, I don’t believe it ever really leaves you. I’ve learned to not fear food, to embrace my figure and to be kind to myself. Working on balance and fitness has been key for me, but it might be different for you, there is no one size fits all approach to self-confidence.
I try not to punish myself too much if my food is a bit of a mess when I’m away and keep myself in check by reminding myself I’ll pick it back up when I’m home. As long as you’re as consistent as possible with your nutrition a few bad days don’t make an impact and its REALLY important to treat yourself kindly and to treat yourself in general ;).
And above all else – NEVER compare yourself to other people. You are uniquely you, your body is uniquely yours and that is what makes YOU beautiful!
WORK IT OUt!
Navigating to the closest gym is pretty simple when you’re on the road and we usually have time to find one if there isn’t one in the hotel. Another thing we’ve all gotten really good at are hotel workouts thanks to the likes of people like Kat, who’ve taught me so much about keeping fit on the road.
I travel with a resistant band, a ladder and running shoes wherever I go, so if I can’t get to a gym I’ll bust out a little hotel workout. There’s always a set of stairs you can utilise in most hotels and always somewhere you can run – the key for me is to not give myself limitations but to find a way to fit something in EVERY day.
We have some great little workouts on our IG stories you can check out which we’ll be adding to this year if you ever need some inspo or Kat’s IG has some epic home workout highlights that I copy :).
I’d love to hear your feedback and thoughts on things we can cover this year, so please keep in touch with us on our DM’s across IG and Facebook!
Thanks for listening <3 VON! X
