LIFE & CULTURE

24 Hours With Keep It Cleaner Co-Founder Laura Henshaw

From burpees to business

If you’re a millennial woman from Australia, it’s likely you need no introduction to Laura Henshaw, the co-founder of fitness and lifestyle program Keep it Cleaner, which Henshaw started with her best friend, model and influencer, Steph Claire Smith. Aside from starting a successful business (the Keep it Cleaner app was rated number one in the health and fitness charts within four hours of launch), releasing her first book (A Girl’s Guide to Kicking Goals was released this month), buying her first home (complete with ridiculously cute puppy), starring on the cover of Women’s Health, and collaborating with brands such as Jagged and Bumble, Henshaw is studying a law degree – oh, and influencing thousands – 196, to be exact – to be the best versions of themselves via her Instagram account and Keep it Cleaner’s private Facebook community. 

How, may you ask, does one person manage to get the above done by age 25? In an attempt to find out, we asked Henshaw to document a day in the life.

6:45am

Alarm goes off and I try and convince Dalton my partner to come to the gym with me. I usually win three out of five mornings!

6:55am

Espresso time! I can’t stomach food before a workout early in the morning and so an espresso is my pre-workout go-to.

7:15am

Get to the gym and do my KIC workout. I will usually follow what’s on the program but if I am not feeling a particular workout, I will swap it out for another one. Through the program, we offer eight different workouts a week, so I love having lots of options. I will typically either run or do a HIIT, boxing, strength or pilates session.

8am

Race home for a quick shower and throw together a quick smoothie for breakfast. I can usually get out of the house in 20 minutes after I get home from the gym. 

8:20am

Each morning I have roughly an hour’s drive to the office, so I always have a podcast ready for the drive. I love how many incredible entrepreneurs and inspirational people are available through podcasts at our disposal. I learn a lot from listening to podcasts, and they make the drive much more enjoyable.

9:30am

Once I’ve arrived at the office, I’m straight on the laptop where I love catching up with our online community. 

10am

We have a weekly team meeting. Catching up as a group is by far the best way to understand what everyone is up to across both the fitness and grocery side of Keep it Cleaner.

11am

I have an almond milk cap and catch up on some emails.

12:30pm

I have a chicken salad for lunch which I often order through Deliveroo. It is so great to have so many great healthy options as takeaway near our office when I haven’t had time to make my lunch the night before.

1pm

Steph and I head to a shoot location for a recipe shoot, today we’re shooting Christmas recipes today for the program. 

2pm

Shoot starts. The best part about our shoots is being able to eat the recipes while we shoot them, so we have lots of healthy treats to keep us going throughout the afternoon. 

4pm

Photographer leaves, then it’s all hands on deck! You’ll find Steph and I doing dishes and cleaning the crazy mess we seem to create every shoot… Even though we always try not to!

6pm

I arrive home. Dalton and I take our dog Billy to the beach for a walk and spend some time together trying to keep our phones in our pocket and have some down time.

7pm

Start to think about dinner and cannot be bothered driving to the supermarket (we aren’t as organised this week), so instead we make omelettes with all the leftover veggies we have in the fridge. 

8pm

Time for an episode of The Bold Type. I am OBSESSED. It took Dalton a few episodes to agree to watch it with me voluntarily, but I have converted him. I highly recommend. We both have a peppermint tea and fruit and dark chocolate or some Greek yoghurt with berries. 

9:30pm

Bedtime. If I don’t have work to do at night or have any recipes to test, we try to be in bed by this time, but sometimes it pushes out much later than I would prefer. 

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