Alison Mountford: Food waste, the joke's on us.

Hello and welcome back to STATE OF MIND, I’m Grace Kingswell - Nutritional Therapist and Lifestyle medicine advocate and boy do I have some incredible guests for you today!

A couple of months ago my Mum and I went on a girls holiday to Greystones in Ireland. The goal to was to do lots of walking, see some beautiful scenery and just generally get into nature... but also (on my part) to swim at Sunrise with The Happy Pear.

I’ve been following David and Stephen Flynn (aka The Happy Pear), for quite some time on Instagram and have always just been completely obsessed with their ethos, outlook on life, quirkiness and positivity. Having been a passionate swimmer for quite some time I was so excited to swim with a community that loved the cold water and the sea as much as I do.

I became pretty chummy with Dave and Steve and we kept in touch over the last few months via Instagram, and, when my husband and I went back to Greystones last month for his birthday, I was lucky enough to record a podcast with the boys.

Now if you follow Dave and Steve on insta you’ll know that these two have hectic lives, and given that Nick and I were only in Ireland for a few days it seemed unlikely that we were going to be able to squeeze the recording in. However, typical to their welcoming and unbelievably friendly nature, Steve and Dave invited Nick and I along with them on their road trip around Dublin where they were speaking in schools about climate change and eating more vegetables.

That day we woke up at 4.30am, squeezed in the car all together and hit to road. Our first stop was a sunrise swim at a beach in Dublin, followed by breakfast on the side of the road and a coffee in a local cafe. Then we drove to the first of two schools that the lads were speaking at and watched as they delivered an incredibly engaging talk on why we all need to be eating more fruit and veg.

Then it was off to the second school on the other side of town, then to a radio interview, and then, after lunch in the park, we found 30 minutes in which to sit down, get behind the mics and put the world to rights.

I was really keen not to just get Dave and Steve to retell their story of how they started The Happy Pear, since I know that you’ve all probably heard it before and they’d probably had enough of telling it for that day! So, I aimed, as ever to ask pertinent questions on topics such as the climate crisis, the future of humanity, creating positive change, metal attitudes and happiness.

I think the most profound thing I say all episode is: “you’re the happy pear. You’re really happy.” Yeh, well done Grace!

One of my favourite parts of the episode is the comparison they make between illness and wellness: There is only an “I” in illness, but a ‘we’ in wellness.

I absolutely adore Dave and Steve and am so grateful to them for coming on the podcast! I do just want to say before we kick off that this is definitely not the usually quality of audio that you can expect from STATE OF MIND. We recorded it out in the open in a park, plus they boys kept snatching the microphone from one another, which was pretty funny to watch!

I’m sure you can tell from the banter that we had a great time recording this. If you enjoy it PLEASE please do share the podcast with your friends and family and on social media! And of course, there’s that all important rating and review on the apple podcasts app.

Thank you so much again for your continued support of STATE OF MIND!

@gracekingswell

@thehappypear