Love Island star Shaughna Phillips is slowly but surely getting back into her fitness routine after welcoming baby Lucia in April 2023—and being honest about postpartum recovery. Phillips, 29, shared a video of herself wearing leggings and a white shirt, mixing up a protein shake in her kitchen after a workout of skipping and star jumps. “Changing my bio to ‘fitfluencer’, having 7 protein shakes a day and getting GYM BRO tatted on my bicep,” she jokingly captioned the post. Here’s how the reality star stays fit and full of energy.
Phillips went on a very strict health and fitness regimen before going on Love Island, working out for 90 minutes a day. “I would do 20 to 25 minutes on the treadmill very fast at a high incline,” she told Women’s Health. “I would do a few sets on the lat pulldown machine… and then I used to do a quick circuit on the mats. I used to use like free weights and stuff and that would literally be it every single day.”
Phillips works out to protect her mental health as well as her physical health and appearance. “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that separating being healthy from your body image, and how you ‘think you should look’, is the true gamechanger,” she told Bustle. “I feel like a lot of us just subconsciously go to the gym because we think we need to look a certain way. But there are so many other benefits; looks should be the lowest thing on your list of reasons to go to the gym… Don’t get me wrong, the health benefits and all of that are absolutely amazing. But for me personally, it is all about the effect physical activity has on mental health.”
Phillips works out first thing in the morning before the work day starts. “I can tell you what I hate doing and that’s squats,” she told Bustle. “But I really like the feeling of lifting weights and boxing. It almost doesn’t feel like you’re working out because you’re learning something new. I read somewhere that music also gives you the same sort of endorphins as exercise does. I can’t think of anything worse than working out and having rubbish music. Or worse: no music at all. I need to listen to angry music, like DMX. Or if I’m going on holiday, then I’ll listen to happy vibe music.”
Phillips wants to move in a different direction in the future. “I definitely want to maybe get into some kind of politics after the show,” she told Glamour. “I just like helping people and I want to do as much as I can to help people. For me, it’s not really about how much a job pays you, because it’s about helping people. I know that’s cliché and embarrassing, but the job I was in before in the fire safety team, the job previous to that was more money, so… I got a better feeling out of the fire safety team. For me, it’s all about helping people.”
Phillips wishes she hadn’t been so hard on herself in the past. “I was aware that I was definitely the biggest girl in there [the villa] but watching old episodes back now, I’m like ‘you looked fab!'” she told Women’s Health. “But that is just proof that you’re never happy with what you’ve got, so you might as well just be happy with what you’ve got. I was self-conscious but I had no reason to be.”