Welcome to the latest installment of our brand new series Mum vs Life. Each week we'll feature a prominent Aussie mum and take you through her day.
This week we speak to radio and television personality Yumi Stynes. Yumi is the mother of two gorgeous girls, newly re-married and one of the busiest mums in town. After the end of her successful TV show The Circle she was snapped up for Sydney's first all-female breakfast team on Mix 106.5.
Yumi with her daughters Dee Dee, Anouk and new husband Martin Bendeler
YUMI STYNES
WAKE UP
I wake up at exactly 4:25am every morning. My husband still laughs at the sound of my alarm – which is sort of sounds like an alien hiccupping. I have to spring into action because I need to be in my car and on my way to work by 4:45. It's like a precision operation! Every second counts.
BREAKFAST
I eat breakfast with great gusto! Once I read somewhere that successful people eat the same breakfast every day – it's one less thing to have to think about. I don't know if this is true but it makes me feel less lame for repeating my breakfasts day in, day out. In the summer months I do a soaked, uncooked porridge from The Trump Family Cookbook (an excellent resource if you're into healthy eating) – which is basically oats and water, left to soak. I top that with natural, full-fat but unsweetened yoghurt and a fat wedge of papaya. In winter I toast a wholemeal sesame bagel and eat it with vegemite, cottage cheese and avocado.
BATH vs SHOWER
Sometime showering time is the only peaceful time I get (although recently my husband brought me my ringing phone while I was in there and asked if I wanted to take the call). I shower in the evening so I don't have to take any time with it in the morning. Also, I think it's a Japanese thing. They don't believe in taking the day's grime and smearing it all over the sheets. Better to go to bed clean, methinks.
GETTING DRESSED
My clothes are already laid out for me the night before – I have to do this because time is so short in the mornings! I thought I could get away with choosing what to wear in the mornings – but I got to work the first few times and looked down at myself in proper light and realised I looked like a crazy person! It's so boring and uncool to check the weather for the next day and then lay out clothes based on that – instead of being INSPIRED! And getting EXPRESSIVE! But I just have to be organised. That means also packing each day for work a complete change of running gear that includes fresh bra, undies and socks, so I can go for a run, work up a sweat, then change into clean clothes for the meeting.
WORK
Work is fun but very draining. I have to consciously make an effort to keep replenishing my soul because there's a lot of give involved in this job (talking on the radio) and then I get home and have to give to my husband and give to my children. But I love my work environment and every single day we all cack ourselves laughing at least five or six times. It's a blessing to have that in your work life.
YOUR WORK SPACE
My work space is a radio studio and a meeting room. The radio studio overlooks a few trees and rooftops and I watch the city wake up from there every morning. In the office, I'm the one who's anal about germs and clearing away coffee mugs and plates and frowning at used tissues.