Monki's guide to party wellbeing

As a former Radio 1 presenter and prolific touring DJ, @dulwichhamletfc player and @defectedrecords mainstay @monkidj experienced the dizzy heights of the party life. In recent years, she has switched up her lifestyle to counteract the pitfalls of full-time DJing. If you’re thinking about how to enjoy a more sustainable party lifestyle, read on…

NOTICE & MAKE A FIRST STEP
I saw a photo of myself in Croatia and realised I didn’t look well - not so much mentally, but physically I'd changed quite a lot. I reached out to a personal trainer friend and asked for advice regarding nutrition, exercise and so on…

RECONNECT WITH OTHER PASSIONS
From the age of five to 16 I played football all the time. I stopped when I left school and got into music in a big way. When I was 24 I started to feel like something was missing. I began to reconnect with football, playing at weekends, and going to the gym in the week, too.

TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR NUTRITION
On tour you can’t help but eat bad food; service stations, train stations… It's difficult to find healthy options. Sometimes before shows, I'll just make sure I've got dinner with me. That might sound like a chore, but the more you do it, the less of a big deal it is. It just ends up similar to how you would do pre-drinks before.

FIND ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF JOY
The industry is so all encompassing, you’re always with your mates. But my life is made up of a lot of things, it's not just music. I think for some people that’s difficult to say, you don't want to feel out of the loop. I have a strong community in football, which helped support the transition away from music being my one and only pastime.

FACE YOUR FEARS & TAKE RISKS
I updated my rider so it only includes sparkling water, lemon, lime, ice, Berocca, healthy snacks and, if I'm out of the UK, a football shirt from the local club. I also stopped touring all through the year, so I only play gigs in the summer. It’s been a hard and scary thing to do, but it’s worked out really well.