Platinum Spas: So, what is an absolute must for you to do on a day-to-day when it comes to mental or physical well-being?
Amy: I like to write lists, just so I know where I am, I know where I stand, because, where my anxiety comes from is, it’s weird. I’m an organised person, but I’m also a very unorganised person. We always say if I spent more time completing the previous list than writing a new list, I wouldn’t have to write so many lists.
So for me, my anxiety comes from being unprepared, and if I think, “Oh no, I’ve got so much to do”, and I’m not in a position to be doing it. So for me, writing to-do lists which are broken down as “This is stuff that needs to get done today, and this is stuff that if I get it done, it’s a bonus, but if not, it can go on tomorrow’s list”.
You do have to remember to put it on tomorrow’s list because if not, then three days later, you think, “I didn’t do that, help, I ruined it!” So yeah, for me, the big thing is writing lists.
And because I’m nosey about other people’s lives, one of my favourite things to do is watch YouTube vlogs of people’s lives, and Sam says, “What you watching”, and I say “I’m watching someone pack for their holiday”. And he asks, “Oh, is it a holiday that we’re going on?”, and I say “No”. Honestly, I just like to see what they’ve packed.
Also, scrolling through my phone. And I know people call it doom scrolling. No, no, it’s joy scrolling. Absolute joy scrolling.
I remember, when I did panto a couple of years ago, when I finished the panto, me and my mum went to Spain for six days for me to not do any work, and to get away, and just to chill. And, obviously, the weather in Spain wasn’t great in January, so one day I just sat on the sofa and watched TikTok for 5 hours. And I was like, “Do you know what? That was amazing”. I really enjoyed that because I don’t get much time to do it now.
Platinum Spas: Do you know what your average screen time is?
Amy: Oh, it’s about 11 hours I think. But it’s the work. It’s for work.
Yeah, and also, for me, with screen time, I’m like a child. But it’s so funny though. I don’t let Stanley have an iPad at the dinner table or anything. The only time I’ll let him have an iPad is if, for example, we’ve just been on holiday, and in our bedroom, there wasn’t a TV.
Platinum Spas: What are your standard breakfast, lunch and dinner meals?
Amy: Ok, so breakfast. I’m not a massive breakfast person if I’m honest. If I’m on holiday and there’s a breakfast buffet, then of course I will, but I’m not a massive breakfast person. I’ve basically unwittingly been doing intermittent fasting for my whole life because I’m just not a breakfast person. But what am I going to have breakfast? I like boiled eggs. If I’m in Vegas, I have steak and eggs because, you know, it’s very socially acceptable there. It’s not as such at home, you know, you can’t randomly get out a 6-pound steak and cook that for breakfast.
For lunch at the moment I’m trying to go for a bigger lunch. At the moment we’re having things like paella, today I had salmon pesto and asparagus pasta. What did I have the other day? Vegetable and prosciutto pasta.
And then, for my dinner, I’m trying to have a lighter dinner. So some of the stuff that I’ve had this week include prawn stir fry, I’ve had salmon with homemade piccalilli. What have I got tonight for dinner? I think I’m gonna have salmon with piccalilli again because that was so good.
Platinum Spas: And then finally, on this section, are there any snacks or naughty treats that you can’t live without?
Amy: I love fast food and this is the thing people say to me “You should just eat what you want”, and I say “If I eat what I want, I’m not going to make old bones”, I would have three meals a day, lunch, dinner, 2nd dinner, on delivery, every day.
It’d be McDonald’s, KFC, Wingstop, every day. I love chicken wings, but then do I actually like chicken wings, or do I just love blue cheese dip? I have a lot of things like that.
When I used to drink tomato juice at work when I was cabin crew, I started to wonder “Do I actually like tomato juice? Or do I just really like Worcester sauce?”. Because I used to put that much Worcester in the glass and then fill it up. But I love McDonald’s, McDonald’s is my downfall.
I hate it when people say, “How can you eat that? It tastes disgusting”. No, it doesn’t. It’s not good for you, I’ll admit that. It’s not good for you. But you cannot say it tastes disgusting. It doesn’t. It’s amazing.
My favourite thing ever is a ten-thirty-one burger, and that is, you get there at 10:30 on the dot when it switches from breakfast to the main menu, and the burgers are all cooked completely fresh, and you can still taste the salt and pepper on them. The best. The best.
Platinum Spas: So, obviously, the new series has just started. Have you got an early favourite contestant?
Amy: Oh, I really like Jess. I just think she’s really funny. I think she’s really down to Earth. She’s very normal and I love it.
I was looking at her last night, and with Love Island, me included, you think, “I’m on telly. I’m on Love Island. I’ve got to wear eyelashes up to my eyebrows. I’ve got to, cake the makeup on”. And she has a really fresh, really nice Dewey makeup look.
And she’s got these beautiful eyes. She has a little bit of mascara, and she just looks like a model, even though she’s just a girl from Stockport. I love her.
And boys-wise, I really liked Munveer, but he’s gone already, which is a shame as I’d loved him to have found love.
Platinum Spas: Have you got any early predictions for winners?
Amy: Oh, I think, Ayo or Mimii will definitely be in the final, they seem really sweet. I don’t know about anyone else because it’s still so early days and I make mistakes every year where I think“They’re definitely gonna win. And the next week I think“Oh, ok, maybe not”.
Especially with All-Stars, every time Chris Taylor, my fellow podcast host, coupled up with someone, I was convinced, “That’s it. They’re going to win. They’re going to win”. And every time I was wrong.
Platinum Spas: So, how did Love Island help support people’s well-being during the show, this is your experience, when you were on?
Amy: So, they’re really on you with things like drinking water, and obviously you’re in the sun all day, so they remind you to fill your bottles up and stuff”. And I’m really bad at drinking water. I am a full-fat coke kind of gal. But I’m trying to drink more water. I’ve moved on to Prime now because it’s supposed to be hydrating.
They have a welfare team that are on hand the whole time you’re in the villa, and they have a list and they go through with every single person, like, “How are you feeling? Is anything upsetting you? Can I support you in any way?”. And when I was going through my really bad time, they’d come and get into bed with me at lunchtime and give me a cuddle.
Then you also have the psych team, who are available at any time. They have sort of an appointment book, so you can book in with the psych.
At Love Island there is a big focus on mental health, and I was a bit like, “I can’t book a session with the psych because this is week one. I can’t book a session with the psych because they’ll think I’m not OK to be here”. And then someone else said to me, “Oh, I had one with her and it was really, really good”. So I thought “Ok, I’ll have one. As soon as I had one, I was like, book me in, book me in for every Wednesday, please. It’s amazing, I love this”. I now understand why every American has a therapist.
So they’re there at set times, but then also, they are just round the corner from the villa. So if you need them, they’ll be there within 5 minutes. And even if you don’t ask for them. I remember the second day I woke up, and it was just a bit of a release I think because I knew that I was going on eight weeks in advance, it was all very heightened, and the first day is so busy because you get ready, come in and it’s full on, then then next day I thought “Oh my God, I’m here”. And I just cried, and straight away they said “Someone from the welfare team’s coming to get you now. Do you want to see the psych?”, they’re just amazing.
And the support carries on afterwards, for a year after we came out I think, the welfare team would call us up periodically to check. You have their numbers too if you need them at any time, and they support you with therapy afterwards. I had lots of therapy with Lou, who’s the amazing psych. I nearly said she’s the amazing pychic – but she’s a psych not a psychic.
She’s the amazing psych who was in the villa with us. So I chose to go to her because she knew me and she knew my story. And we worked together. Eventually she said to me, “You know, next week will be your last session”. And I said, “I’ll pay for it. I’ll pay for it”. She said, “No, you don’t need any more. You’ve worked so hard. You need to go and live your life and enjoy it”. And I always said to Sam, my fiancé “We wouldn’t be together if I hadn’t had that therapy”.
The support when you come out, it’s just amazing.
Platinum Spas: What self-care did you prioritise during the shows?
Amy: Well, because I’d been on a vegan diet plan before I went in for eight weeks, I was living out of Tupperware’s, eating the same meals. I had a two-week rotation. I just ate the same meal for lunch, the same meal for dinner, and the same meal for breakfast.
Then we got there and I treated it like it was an all-inclusive buffet. They’d bring in pasta and curry for lunch, I’d have pasta, go and rinse my plate off, and then have curry. It was like I’d never been in a restaurant before.
But I made sure I drank lots of water because I had kidney stones, and they said that I could only go in if I agreed to drink something like10 bottles of water a day. So I was like, “I will do this”.
And sleep, we used to nap and it was so funny. We used to nap every day on the day beds, and one night, I think Yewande got dumped from the island. She went home and we’d all slept all day, and we said “We’ve slept all day and this could have been our last night in the villa”.
From tomorrow that’s it. We are not sleeping in the daytime. Absolutely not. Then the next morning we got up and we were like, “Maybe we could sleep in the mornings and then we could do activities in the afternoon”. So we did a lot of napping.
Platinum Spas: What 3 tips would you give anyone entering the villa?
Amy: Just enjoy it. Don’t take it too seriously. I took it very, very seriously, and it was sort of like I couldn’t really see the wood for the trees, if that makes sense. I’m glad I did that because I feel like it all contributed towards my story, and it’s contributed to the fact that I’m still working five years later.
I didn’t go in there for work. I went in there to find love. But then all the time I was thinking, “I just want a boyfriend. I just want a boyfriend”. And I was so scared about it not happening.
And my other piece of advise is just believe in yourself. I was quite insecure and I was worried people were going to laugh at me when, like you have to choose two people to snog. Luckily, I never got given anything like that because I would have been like, “Oh, God, what if I pick someone who doesn’t want me to snog them”.
So yeah, I’d just say just enjoy it.
Platinum Spas: And have you got any tips? you mentioned therapy, but are there any tips for people when they exit the villa to look after their well-being post-show?
Amy: Still live at home, still live where you lived before. You can commute, unless you live in the back of beyond, like very rural Scotland or somewhere like that. I mean you can commute to London.
I think my absolute saving grace was still living at home, still being surrounded by all my friends. Don’t ditch your friends. I’m so lucky that I’ve still got all the same best friends from before.
And just think about, when the jobs come in, don’t look at like the money. Think about it, think does it align with me as a person? does it align with my views? Don’t just do things for the money.
Obviously, when you first come out, you don’t know your followers very well. But five years later, I know my followers and I know what they like. I know they like discount codes, I know the sort of content they like, and I know the brands they want me to work with.
I know things that they would find helpful. I know that, like, if a brand comes to me and I think, “Actually, I think my followers would like to know about that if they don’t already know about it”, then I will work with those brands.
Ellie is a passionate marketing executive for Superior Wellness, working with many of our successful brands, including Platinum Spas and Chill Tubs.
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