Over nine million BBC viewers were glued to their screens as 26-year-old Hollie Pearne-Webb coolly struck the winning penalty to defeat the Dutch in the 2016 Olympic women’s hockey final in Rio de Janeiro. What for many was ‘their moment’ of the Rio Olympics was the culmination of years of hard work and dedication from this GB hockey star.

Hollie joined Surbiton Hockey Club in 2013. Her arrival has coincided with the team’s most successful ever period, winning the Investec League title earlier this year for the fourth straight occasion. She lives with her husband Tom Pearne-Webb in Buckinghamshire and balances her hockey career with her work at DEFRA, where she is completing her Chartered Institute of Management Accountancy (CIMA) qualification.

Here Hollie shares her top exercise and diet tips for keeping in shape this festive season and beyond.

Tips on exercise
• Preparation is key, but don’t worry about the odd slip up. It’s really important to know when you’re going to exercise and how much. Writing down fitness goals, even small ones, really helps and if you don’t manage to do everything on the plan, don’t beat yourself up, just get back to it the next day.

• Don’t compare yourself to anyone else. Too often we compare ourselves to our peers and it’s not helpful. Do your best and don’t worry about what anybody else is doing.

• Do something you enjoy. Netball, dance classes, cricket, cycling…it doesn’t matter.

So often people think of staying in shape and being fit as slogging it out in the gym, but it doesn’t have to be. Indeed, if it’s an activity you actually enjoy, you’re more likely to stay with it.

• Rest. Rest and recovery is hugely important for elite athletes, but also for general life. I know if I don’t get a quality night’s sleep (eight to nine hours), I feel the affects for days afterwards, both physically and mentally. It doesn’t matter if I’m in the office or out on the pitch, sleep is still one of the great unknowns in science, but important to live a healthy balanced life.

• Work hard for less time. I know we all have time pressures and exercise doesn’t have to take hours. It’s not necessary to sit on a treadmill for thirty minutes getting bored: intensify the workout to extract much of the same benefit in a far shorter amount of time. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) sessions are very good.

Tips on diet
1. Never food shop when hungry.
2. Write a shopping list and stick to it based on meals you plan to cook that week.
Prepare. I always like to batch cook on a Sunday afternoon/ evening for the week ahead as I know the week will be busy and I won’t want to be spending ages cooking.
Breakfast is key. If you know, like me, that you will be short of time in the morning as you try and sneak the extra minute in bed, then prepare the night before.

essence info

Investec, the specialist bank and asset manager, supports women’s hockey from grass roots level through to the national team.
For more information, visit www.investec.co.uk/hockey.
Website: www.englandhockey.co.uk