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Exercise & fitness

My joyful events – Lindsey’s favourite events from November

29 Nov 2022 | Written by By Lindsey Betteridge

The Joy Club member Lindsey Betteridge provides the inside scoop on her favourite of our live online events from November.


First off, I’m happy to share that I had no adverse effects from either my Flu or Covid booster jab, which I had just a couple of days apart and mentioned in last month’s round-up.

All I suffered from was a slightly tender arm during the night for a couple of hours and I was happy with that because several people had told me to prepare myself as the after effects have reportedly been far worse this year than previous years. To date I’ve managed to avoid Covid, when almost all of the people I mix with have had it, and I feel very grateful. If you haven’t had your jabs yet because people have mentioned that the after effects are worse, then it’s clearly not always the case, we’re all different and we all react differently.

The Joy Club theme for November has been food and drink; from my printed version of the Monthly Events Calendar and the blog I could see the month was packed with classes and articles around this topic. These included various cookery and baking classes, an expert talk on ‘Inherited food recipes,’ Clive’s introduction to wine tasting, a class with Beth Thomas from TV’s Masterchef around reducing food waste at home and of course Valentina’s twice-monthly Nutrition class.

I’m not a chef, I’d rather eat food than cook it, but Beth’s session caught my eye because with times as they are none of us can afford to be wasting food. I couldn’t make the session on the day but really enjoyed watching the video. I’ve made a list of loads of useful ideas and was able to scroll forward and back through the recording to make sure I caught everything. I always join Valentina for her Nutrition classes and I’m never disappointed, with her knowledge and the quality of her presentations, her enthusiasm and passion always shine through. This month she talked about ‘Healthy eating on a budget’, again, something we should all be thinking about now the country is officially in recession. Valentina has also given me lots to think about and I came away with loads of excellent hints and tips from both Beth and Valentina.

The recordings of any of the food and drink classes are definitely worth watching if you couldn’t catch them live and the recent addition of the ‘Recordings’ tab at the top of the Joy Club website home screen makes it nice and easy to find the recordings you’re looking for. 

At the end of October I booked onto ‘Leadership Lessons from the Ocean’ with Hannah Thomson. It was good to finally (virtually) meet Hannah, The Joy Club’s founder, who I’d heard so much about and I really enjoyed her very interactive leadership talk, discussing how she set up The Joy Club in memory of her inspirational Granny Jean. Hannah compared the management of the crew in long range yacht races to her leadership success in starting up and running a successful new business. I thought it was an excellent talk and thought ‘what an awful lot she’s crammed into her young life!’

It was such an insight listening to her using analogies from her yachting experiences with how she manages her team at The Joy Club including areas like decision making, judgement, clear values, motivation, acting on feedback, preparation, empowering people and leading boldly as a woman! I had to tell her how I genuinely feel The Joy Club has changed my life and felt humbled that Hannah and Chloe became a little emotional at this. Hannah is clearly dynamic, hard working and dedicated in whatever she puts her mind to and I’m sure I’m not the only member who is very grateful to her, and Granny Jean, for having the inspiration and vision to start up The Joy Club.

In early November I had a lovely few days break away with friends in the heart of the Kentish countryside but – my goodness – after missing my weekly sessions of Yoga, Tai Chi and Gentle Cardio , I really felt it at Monday morning’s Yogalates (despite taking very long walks with a couple of dogs while away!). This is the most energetic of Margarita’s three yoga classes so I find it a lot more taxing anyway than her others – but I will persevere! I’ll use the easier options she offers us during the session where necessary and hopefully it won’t be long before I can manage it all.

I also felt very inspired when I heard that one of my yoga ‘buddies’ who does many of the same classes as myself had completed a yoga class every day for 30 days. Bravo to you! A great achievement and it’s given me even more reason to get to grips with Yogalates. I know I’ve said it before but this is really one of the best things about the different exercise classes at The Joy Club; all the members appear to be at different fitness levels and no one is ever put under pressure to push themselves too far.

However, Yogalates may have hit the spot after all as Monday afternoon brought Erin’s Low Impact Dance class, a fairly new class (rather like Zumba) which I found a little easier and which left me ready and raring for the rest of the week’s classes. I feel Erin’s class is the perfect substitute for the old Zumba class which some members will remember and I do enjoy it. I actually like doing a mix of weekly exercise classes (something I honestly never thought I’d hear myself say…) and love the fact that we’re offered both cardio classes to get the heart rate up and build muscle as well as Tai Chi and yoga for improved balance, flexibility, strength and clearing the mind.

When I joined the Joy Club in December last year there were plenty of classes to choose from but now, almost a year on, there are so many on offer! There are so many diverse subjects to choose from that there surely must be something for everyone and for a very low monthly membership fee I can attend as many as I wish. I also like that I can book one session of an ongoing class to try it and see if I like it. Most of the classes that take my interest I do stick with, but every now and again I’ll find I’m struggling with the topic and I simply don’t book any more, no questions asked. How The Joy Club is able to offer so many diverse and interesting classes is beyond me but I know they take on board member’s feedback, comments from the Forum and from reviews that we’ve written to ensure they are actually offering their membership classes that are wanted. So, if you’ve done a class that you really like feel free to post some comments in the forum, under the Community tab and also, if you had any issues with the class you can post about that too and perhaps discuss with other like minded members. 

Ah Spanish… where else but The Joy Club would I have the opportunity to join an interactive, fun and very supportive Beginner’s Spanish class, for free, from the comfort of my sofa! I had four lessons, took it very slowly, I didn’t do especially well despite Igor being a brilliantly patient teacher but it was still a lot of fun joining the class and having a go. Considering I started off with absolutely no knowledge of Spanish I do now at least know my numbers and colours and could ask for a meal and a drink in a Spanish restaurant! Of course Igor has now left to go travelling but his class has left me feeling confident enough to attempt some phrases every time I speak to my Spanish friend – she hasn’t fallen over laughing yet so maybe I’m getting there.

I can’t finish without mentioning The Joy Club’s new courses which give members the opportunity to learn and develop new skills in a much more in depth way than the free (to Premium members) classes. Currently courses being offered alongside the free classes are ‘Qigong for beginners’, ‘General health and wellbeing for all’ and ‘Crafting short stories’, all undertaken by instructors and teachers who have already more than proved themselves to be favourites with The Joy Club’s members. I think this is an excellent addition for those who may wish to focus more directly on one specific aspect. Another great offering from The Joy Club!


Want to see what’s coming up next month, see our full Events calendar here.

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