change – Page 6 – Never Give Up PT

I’m The Daddy

It feels like I’m sat in a school hall at lunch time. No, that’s being kind. I’m in the middle of a borstal canteen. I’m waiting for a young Ray Winston to come at me with a sock full of pool balls.But it’s me who is the daddy now and I’m sat with my two boys in McDonald’s.

Two big promises that my wife and I made when we had kids is that we won’t buy our kids toy guns and we won’t take them to McDonald’s. So after a trip to The Golden Arches full of Ket they’ll be sure to go home and shoot each other with NERF guns or ‘head shot’ some kid on Fortnite. There goes that promise.

Each year, our kids are given guns for their birthday presents from other kind parents. And after much consideration my wife and I realized, perhaps with resignation, that children have always played with toy guns and probably always will. I played with cap guns, spud guns and water pistols but I didn’t grow up to be El Mariachi. Nor do I try to blow Roadrunners up with TNT because I watched Wile E Coyote and I’m not a Satanist because I went to a Marylin Manson concert as a teenager. So maybe we need to lighten up.

Since kids were having birthday parties at McDonald’s and mine were invited, which enabled their palette to taste such..erm,,delicacies then we have decided that they can go now and again as a ‘treat’. It might only be a quarterly event, but it fills me with dread with every visit. I had a mare today.

The first thing I noticed is that it felt like I was walking into a nightclub. Two security guys looked me and my lads up and down as we walked up to The Arches. Now, my youngest had just downed a bottle of fruit shoot which can make him seem a little tipsy but I was sure we would get in. I held his hand to stop any swaying and gave a confident nod to the doorman. He opened the doors for us. We were in!

The nightclub feel continued once we got inside as a bleeping noise akin to an electronic dance anthem was heard above the euphoric noise of revellers. But it was just the ubiquitous noise from the serving area.

And since when did Maccy D’s have touch screen to make an order?! My kids have very specific requests when it comes to how they have their burgers. It’s not something that I can get across on a touch screen. Chicken nuggets it is then.

As we sat down, brushing away a few courses of food on the chairs from the previous customer, I glanced around the room and my initial description of a school lunch hall was pretty accurate. Except instead of teachers telling the kids to get down from the tables it was the security guys. At one point they told a teenage boy to stop vaping or he’ll be thrown out.

McDonald’s food has always reminded me of toy food. It looks and tastes fake. I’m not a food snob. I’ve had many cold kebabs the morning after and I buy fake Pringles. I’ll eat most things as long as it’s not looking at me and I’ll even eat seafood sticks (formerly known as crab sticks) and I don’t know anybody else who will touch those! I’m not too fussy. But a McDonald’s burger has left my taste buds feeling empty except for a saltiness that I’m hoping my seventh pint of water will get rid of.

As we walked back to the car I was pleased to hear that my boys didn’t really like their burgers either. We all left feeling a little awkward that this ‘special tea’ experience was a bit crap.

But I can’t deny the influence of this global patty giant. Like the chain or not, it’s 850 restaurants closing in Russia is as significant today as it was it’s first opening 32 years ago. Yet every time I eat there I refuse to believe that it is their great tasting menu that makes it what it is. As McDonald’s grew in popularity in the USA the rest of the western world all wanted to eat like Americans, smoke, drink, wear jeans and drive cars like Americans. And this obsession stretched to the rest of the world too.

My kids pick up lots of accents and ‘isms’ from YouTube influencers. There’s an Irish guy who is popular at the moment but the majority seem to be American. Our leftovers go in the trash according to our kids. They put their pants over their underwear and they fall on their butts. It just seemed like yesterday that they were watching Paw Patrol on Channel 5. Today it’s YouTube channels. Their intrigue into new accents, cultures and languages don’t bother us, they can watch it but the content on YouTube is obviously closely monitored by us. Every decision like this is always discussed by my wife and I. Is it the right decision? We dunno.

Should YouTube be banned in our house? Do toy guns, statistically, cause future violent men? Do McDonald’s burgers affect healthy eating choices?

I was allowed to watch horror movies at a fairly young age. Maybe I was Jonas’ age when I watched Friday The 13th. And as I pointed out earlier I’m not an axe wielding murderer. Yet as much as I tell myself I need to lighten up our children have much more access to sex, violence and ‘swears’ as my kids call them with just the wrong click of a button. Maybe it’s different from a scary film from Blockbusters.

I’m a great believer that people need the opportunity to realise their errors for themselves. Having studied theories like Rogarian Therapy I understand how important it is for an individual to come to their own conclusions about their own life, even if these individuals are my young children. Maybe the next time we have a spare hour in town they might suggest somewhere that they actually enjoy eating at.

Last season I cringed as Jonas took his coat off during a football training session. It was a cold and wet November evening. The other kids were dressed as the Michelin Man but, despite the coach’s attempts for him to put his coat back on, Jonas refused saying that he was warm. I understand his coach having Jonas’ welfare in mind, but I also understand that until Jonas experiences a freezing cold November and can’t go back on his decision to put his coat back on in front of his mates, he won’t learn how to make the correct decision the week after. He knew it was a bad call to take his training jacket off, but bravado had gotten the better of him and it was too late for him to eat humble pie. But he has always worn his jacket on cold nights ever since. He won’t be making that mistake again.

If I don’t allow my kids to make measured mistakes now, in ten years time when they are met with much greater decisions to make they will struggle. Those who work with me will know that I embrace failure. Failure, or bad decision making, should lead to reflection on how to make better decisions next time around. If I tell my kids not to put YouTube on, or that McDonald’s is not an option, then the desire to eat the forbidden fruit will grow. I’d rather that they taste it now and hope that they realize that the forbidden fruit isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. YouTube channels of people playing on computer games are tedious after a while and a McDonald’s burger is nowhere near the standard of one that they can make at home.

But this is all a ‘hope for the best’ situation. I’ve trained people for longer that I have been a father. I’ve taken a journey with hundreds of trainees, whereas I’ve only been to McDonald’s with my kids half a dozen times. I’m qualified at training people with their physical and mental wellbeing. I’m not qualified at being a dad. Maybe a few lessons and an exam would have been helpful. As it is though I’ve got to wing it, like all parents do. In my job I know every given situation and how to deal with it. Eating disorders, self harm, depression, athletes with Olympic dreams, bodybuilders, fat loss or weight gain goals, I have a plan for every person who approaches me.

But in McDonald’s with their touchscreen ordering, two hungry kids, doormen chasing unruly customers and an incessant bleaping noise coming from the tills and I’m a nervous wreck by the end of it.

Tomorrow it’s beans in toast.

Consistency, Variety And How To Put It Right

We are constantly being told that our training must be consistent for us to get the results that we seek. How true is this? And is there any room for variety in our training. Variety, after all, is the spice of life.

Consistency in your training is very important, but the levels and types of consistency will vary depending on your goals. For example, for fat loss goals you need to develop a consistent routine of when you exercise. This plays a big part in your overall lifestyle goals such as mood and eating habits. Yet for muscle hypertrophy it is essential that not only a consistent routine is developed, but a consistent type of movement is too. But let’s focus on fat loss for today as the two goals are like different sports.

Let’s take a look a person A, who has fat loss goals. Here is a list of mistakes that I see on a daily basis and how he can put this right…

× he says that he wants to lose weight.

✓ when an individual understands what it is that they want to lose from their body the process becomes easier straight away. It’s fat that he wants to lose. Not muscle, an arm or an organ.

× he doesn’t plan his week around exercise.

✓ like any goal, it needs a certain amount of planning. At the beginning of the week, he should choose the days and times that he will exercise.

× his plan of a home workout in Monday could not happen because of work commitments so he ditched the whole week in plans.

✓ sticking to a plan, even if it doesn’t happen on a certain day, will still help him achieve his goals. His Monday workout could either be done on a different day or he can go for a walk when the time is right to make up for it.

× he follows a ‘diet’ that his mate told him about.

✓ every diet must have the same conclusion…it has to be in a calorie deficit. This means that he must eat fewer calories than he burns. This can be done by eating food that he enjoys with good nutrition and protein options.

× his exercise program becomes demotivating. Johnny Gainz from Gainz Bruh YouTube channel gave his followers two kick ass ab exercises to do.

✓ he needs a consistent exercise routine, but those exercises should be fun and varied. Although certain compounds will remain a constant throughout his training, these can be done with different equipment, rep ranges, as a circuit or as supersets. And full body workouts with a calorie deficit will get rid of belly fat. Not a hundred hanging leg raises. Johnny Gainz forgot to tell his followers that.

Person A became annoyed at not planning and when he did he found that other commitments got in the way. He listened to his pal regarding diet tips who’s own weight goes up and down more than an elevator at Trump Towers and he watches YouTube clips of jacked topless dudes talking him through a human flag routine. In the end the only consistency he maintained is the part where he says that he’ll start again in January. His variety comes from a box of Celebrations.

Attempting positive, consistent routines in his life doesn’t make him a control freak. Building structure and setting weekly targets is not anal retentive.

From being a baby a human will develop routines that work for them. They will crawl to a certain bit of furniture each day to climb to their feet and attempt to walk until eventually they will walk by doing it consistently. Many times they will fall and cry. But they will walk one day through development and persistence.

As we get older and life becomes much more chaotic, it is easy to forget how we were all that baby once. We attempt to be swan like above the surface but the feet are frantically trying to navigate us through another day below it.

Person A has already got the experience of achieving his goals, he just can’t remember them.

A Safe Ship Hides Away From It’s Full Potential

It helps having a past full of ‘what ifs’ as a PT. I can draw from my own experiences and, 9 times out of 10, instantly connect with a new trainee because they have the same ‘what ifs’ as me.

Most of the subject matters might be different of course. For me it’s my lack of traveling when I was younger or not saving money when I had the chance. I chose to spend my money on nights out in Leeds and clothes that I didn’t need. One night out in Leeds, even 15 years ago, would easily cost £100. Most weeks I’d go out clubbing twice a week. That’s a lot of the world I could have seen. Instead, I got no further than Majestic’s in Quebec Street, Leeds 1.

I had fun. Regrets don’t weigh too heavily on me. But there is often a ‘what if’ moment as I look back.

Another of those moments and this I can guarantee is something that is identifiable with my trainees is the feeling of unlocking my fitness potential. What if I’d have done this sooner, or done it properly first time round?

Fitter than I’ve ever been now at 43, had I had this knowledge and application 25 years ago could I have saved years of physical pain and mental anguish? I think I know the answer, but it will forever remain a ‘what if’.

I am convinced that, as human beings, we were meant to climb, lift, run, squat, throw and jump. And yet we became so clever that we practically abolished these great human traits and replaced them with lifts, cars, trams, supermarkets, takeaways, online ordering and anything else that required us to do as little as possible in order to get what we wanted. We wanted convenience.

Physically we can still do all of these things that we were designed (or evolved) to do but mentally we are becoming so tied up in the notion that we don’t have to do it.

Our society is becoming fatter and more depressed. We know what we should do. We have a history of millions of years telling us what we should do, but the comfort of convenience takes over.

And it’s not about how many miles you can run or how much weight you can lift. Unlocking your full potential begins by moving. That’s it. That’s the first part and it’s a huge step for lots of people.

But fear engulfs us. We feel safer in doing what we know, even if it niggles away at us as we complain on Facebook about our weight or our latest ailment. We want the replies of ‘You ok Hun?’. We get the rant off of our chest to anyone who will listen for another week or two.

A ship is always safe a shore but it is not what it is built for. No matter how slow it needs to go, a ship is built to move. In doing so it heads into dangerous waters with unprecedented conditions, but it is built to deal with it and reach it’s destination. With a captain and a map the journey is less treacherous too.

We must realise our full potential and set sail ourselves. Another day a shore is another wondering.

My trainees become their own captain. That is the deal, that one day they can train without me. They create an active lifestyle that involves consistent training and a diet that they can enjoy guilt free. Because I know how they felt in the very first day they approached me. And I know how to manage the ‘what if’.

A Husband…

Workout Supplements?

I used to go to the likes of Holland & Barrets and gym bro supplement shops regularly. The mindset of many gyms that I frequented was ‘what is the point of putting in the hard work without supplementing your gainz?!’

It became just as important to me to take the pre workout, creatine, taurine, ZMA, BCAA and protein powder as it was to do my workout. With a short spell of injecting dianobol too, I could be found crawling the gym ceiling more often than achieving anything on the gym floor. We live and learn.

And I guess a moment of change for me was meeting my wife. Not only did she clean up my lifestyle but she could cook. And I’m talking using ingredients that I didn’t even know existed! Ingredients that had all of the natural benefits of what I was trying to find from a capsule or a powder. Fifteen years on and with me exploring my own culinary skills it has been life changing to find that I don’t need all of the supplements in my diet. Eating food will always be the best way to fuel my body.

Back in the gym floor rather than the ceiling.

However, I wouldn’t discredit the supplements I listed above as they can be useful tools depending on your goals and your training period. You need to know how and when to take them and importantly you must realise that there is still the hard work to do in the gym.

Today I was asked twice about protein powder and if it is worth them taking it. Its a common question in my job and yet my answer cannot always be the same. It depends on the person asking. But I have a general rule in protein shakes. Only drink it if you have been unable to eat a decent meal with good a portion of protein. Perhaps you got stuck at work or you’d prefer not to pay a tenner for a dry sandwich at a motorway garage. Then it’s a good time to open up your car boot with your emergency protein powder and shaker bottle inside.

A protein drink shouldn’t be shoe horned into a diet unless you want to gain size. Then you might want to add the calories. Sure, there are low calorie versions, but if you’re being careful with your calories then adding any extra calories from a protein shake seems pointless. Surely when you limit your daily calories your meals become even more important. You need the nutrients, the vitamins and the almost full feeling from real food, not a drink.

For anybody going into training in the gym properly then I would advise a good training program and a sensible nutritional approach. Both of which escaped me for years and is why I became desperate with my supplements hoping for something magical to happen.

At 43 my drive comes from getting stronger and remaining ‘in good shape’. This would see me well as I get older. And the only things that can keep me on the right path is consistent training and nutrition. Not pills and potions.

So be cautious about your supplementation. Speak to a fit pro who you know and trust, I find this much more helpful than asking Gloria from Holland & Barrets. And the gym bro supplement shops are likely to sell you any crap anyway, especially if you come across as a novice.

Lightness Of Being

In football, as a penalty taker places the ball on the penalty spot, I can almost sense the outcome. Its in their breathing and in their eyes. They both give so much away in all aspects of life. Football is no different. A professional footballer, no matter how good they are, can display these telling signs of anxiety.

Those who remain calm or zen-like often manage to outwit the goalkeeper. Unless the goalie guesses the right way and gets a strong hand to it I am pretty sure that Mo Salah will score his penalty. One big intake of breath and steely eyed, he never looks like missing. He believes that he can, so he probably will.

And although you won’t earn £300k a week from doing it, your approach to the barbel for your next lift is very similar. If you don’t believe that you can, you probably won’t. This is just an extension of life.

Not asking the boy or girl out that you’ve had a crush on for ages passes you by because of past rejection.

Not applying for an exciting job role because you didn’t think that you were worthy.

Not doing anything about the things that make you unhappy because you have tried and failed before.

Everything we try to do now and in the future is a product of how we view our past. We hold onto our failures. It weighs us down.

Fear, past experience, lack of preparation, doubt and a self fulfilled prophecy create uncertainties within our minds and it often leads to missed opportunities because of it. We become burdened by our inability to accept our lightness of being. We are of a heavy mind.

We all have history that we wished we could change. I wish that I had seen more of my mum before she died. I wish I’d have followed my Personal Training ambitions ten years earlier. On both occasions, I was afraid of loss and disappointment that I didn’t know how to carry forward. And yet it is still carried forward, but it is in my hands on how I choose to carry it. I realize that now.

My lightness of being tells me that I am where I am now because of decisions I have made, good and bad. Had I chosen a different career I wouldn’t have met my future wife and I wouldn’t have my two beautiful children. I juggled a career and a family whilst knowing that my mum was dying of cancer. I did what I could. My dad was amazing. She was very proud of us.

Our past can determine how we behave and what outcomes are concluded. Our past can numb us from future success. But our past doesn’t exist anymore. It has gone. We’ve been there, done it and it means nothing to our future unless we carry it upon our shoulders onto our next chapter.

Our past is just a story that we tell ourselves. It conveys through our mind like a carousel. Now it’s time to find yourself a better narrative.

The shackles that hold me back, I know, are my demons that I have invented in my head. They exist only in my deepest and darkest moments. I don’t want to rewrite history, but I want to give the future me a fighting chance. If I allow my demons to take over, that can’t happen. They are there and I am aware of them, but like fuck will they control me.

I’m placing the ball on the penalty spot…deep breath. I know where it’s going.

My past is just a story. I am in control of how this story ends.

Foraging In The Happy Place

I’ll admit it right from the off. I’m no Ray Mears.

However, I do like a spot of foraging with my family. Showing my kids how to develop a healthy relationship with food has to be one of the most rewarding of parenting jobs. And turning to nature is the best place to begin.

Mindful eating doesn’t have to start at the dinner table, or indeed in the kitchen. Hunting for food should be one of the most natural things we can do. Mindful eating can start by searching, feeling and smelling for our food.

We are Homo Sapiens. We are meant to hunt. I am convinced that a reason our society is at a critical stage with depression and obesity is that everything we are as humans is slowly getting stripped away. And men, the once titled hunter gatherer, has a much higher suicide rate than females in the western world.

What sense of achievement or satisfaction does a man get from bringing home a KFC bucket to his children? His skills, bravery, creativity and masculinity stripped away from him because humans were too clever for their own good. They invented the convenience of fast food shops and supermarkets. They no longer needed to hunt.

Now I’m not saying that progression and development of societies aren’t useful. But for all of our knowledge, technology and convenience we should still remain grounded in remembering what we are and what makes us tick.

My family and I are lucky enough to live by the sea. Its a 5 minute walk to the cliff edge and the wildlife is fantastic. During lockdown it became our happy place and it soon became a venue for foraging. Today, we were hunting for nettles.

Marigold at the ready to pick the nettles

Once washed and blanched, nettles make great tasting soups, pesto and hummus. Not exactly high on our boy’s list of favourite foods, but we’ve been foraging for a while now and still haven’t come across pizza or fish fingers, so we’ll keep working on their range of favourite meals.

What our kids did discover today though, even if their reactions will look more like a bush tucker trial when it comes to feeding them it, is where the food comes from. They found it and picked it from the land. Their attitude to food, I hope, will be a positive one. One that can find food from the cliff edge as easily as finding the freezer section at Sainsbury’s.

The UK media talk about the possibility of taxing junk food to put consumers off of buying it. But this will only hit the poorest in our society. What we need to do is educate our children if we are to break the cycle regarding our attitude to food.

Our two hours foraging today was, the kids agreed, their highlight of the weekend. That makes me very happy. In a society where competing against the Xbox for the kid’s attention, I’ll settle for that right now.

Everybody Needs Good Neighbours

There are a few stand out memories of when I was a child with my mum. And now that she has gone, those memories become even more special.

Watching Liverpool against Arsenal in the old first division on TV with my dad and my mum entered the room and shouted “Come on Arsenal!” remains high up there. Arsenal’s Michael Thomas scored straight after my mum called for Arsenal. It was a last minute winner for them in the last game of the season to clinch the title away from Liverpool.

League titles for Liverpool have been hard to come by since then, so I’ll never forget that!

We went abroad on holiday as a family a few times which seemed very luxurious for us at the time, but it was a week in Skipsea, Primrose Valley or Morecambe that I remember the most about my mum on holiday. 10 people cramming into a caravan for a game of cards late at night while the kids watched on fuelled by sweet seaside rock no doubt. Good times.

And then there were the times that I was ill and didn’t go to school. I remember my mum bringing me a chunky veg soup and watching Neighbors on TV with me. Neighbours was on twice a day and it’s first daily showing was at lunchtime. I don’t think I’ll be the only kid who remembers watching Neighbours with their parents. Whether it was on a lunchtime or it’s teatime showing, families would all want to know the gossip on Ramsey Street.

Imagine my disappointment then, of hearing that Neighbours was getting cancelled. After 37 years on our screens it had finally met its end. And listening to a phone in on the radio I realized that there were lots of other people who had watched it with their parents too. It was a part of growing up! In fact I was surprised to discover that many of these people talking about their memories of watching Neighbours with their parents were actually now watching it with their own kids! I had stopped watching it in the early 90’s. I probably ditched it for the edgier Heartbreak High.

So I find it odd that I find myself writing about a TV programme that I haven’t even watched in 30 years and I’m obviously emotional by this news!

But it isn’t because I will never know what happens to Karl Kennedy or find out if Scott and Charlene lived happily ever after.

It is the thought of something comforting and familiar that sparked a happy memory… disappearing. I live just half an hour drive from Primrose Valley and Morecambe is still there. Liverpool and Arsenal will continue to battle it out in top flight football. It continues to exist and bring memories.

But slurping on a bowl of chunky veg soup with Neighbours on TV with my mum next to me won’t happen again and the comfort of the settings, the characters and the theme tune will become even more distant than ever before.

Isn’t it funny what memories we keep?

Nach Dem Spiel Ist Vor Dem Spiel (After The Game Is Before The Game)

The 52k dumbbells sit in the same place in the gym on the rack each day. Apart from the Outhouse, the brave, the stupid or the mixture of the three the 52k dumbbells rarely get picked up to be pressed, pulled or curled.

I’m not in the back street bodybuilder gym. Had these 52’s been in there I’m sure they’d be getting more attention than the occasional tickle with a feather duster from the gym staff. I’m in a mainstream chain gym. The type that pretends to serve it’s members by pulling down a screen and playing a recording of professional dancers from Australia and calling it a Tone Class. But credit where credit is due, the gym area is very good and I’ve been to plenty of gyms where the dumbbell weight doesn’t reach 52k.

At the beginning of this year I began my Hypertrophy Programme. The past two years have been difficult to consistently follow a proper periodized programme. It’s been a bit stop starty with lockdowns, gym closures and my own encounter with Covid. Finally, I’m finding some consistency to my training.

Now, in early March, my training and nutrition has exceeded such expectations that a one rep max with those abandoned 52k dumbbells are a possibility. Two weeks into my strength phase and I’m pushing and lifting heavier and better than ever. Once my Power phase begins the 1-3 rep max will be my focus. Physically I am training to give my body the best chance. Mentally I hope I am ready for it. A Power phase can cause incredible fatigue both physically and mentally and I need to get it right to make the months leading up to it feel worth the time and effort. I know that any time in the gym is worth it, but when fatigue kicks in and the psychological doubts begin, the positives seem harder to come by.

But I’m strong. Physically and mentally I have trained for these moments. Sometimes you win, sometimes you fail. But it’s how you go again that matters. I know this. And my success in my latest programme isn’t one that I will celebrate just yet.

Sepp Herberger was a very successful soccer coach in the early 20th Century. He said”, Nach dem spiel ist vor dem spiel.” Translated as, “After the game is before the game”.

One rep, set, session or phase is always followed by another one. There’s no time to admire your success for too long as you simply have to go again anyway. Begin the focus all over again. Battered and bruised maybe, but there’s another game to prepare for. A quick obligatory progression photo in the gym loo is all I have time for. The 52s are waiting.

But you might be wondering what my great obsession is with my current program or indeed these 52k dumbbells. Why is it so important?

At 43 years of age, if I am able to record a 52k dumbbell press, I will have achieved a physical feat that my 20 or 30 year old self could not do. At 43 my bones are meant to be getting thinner and weaker. My body is supposed to be producing less testosterone. My body, says science, is in regression.

Well, I trust science. My career is based on science and it’s research. But I trust myself even more. I am my own research and, despite what researchers have tested on a hundred men in California, I intend keeping on defying science by testing myself in a gym in Scarborough.

There is no exact science.

And my goal of becoming fitter and stronger than ever before is not an attempt to prolong my life. Christ! Between pandemics, wars and global warming I’ll be fine with not overstaying my welcome. But for as long as I’m at this party I want to have fun and be as happy as I can be and the only true way I can ensure that is by getting stronger, even during the stage of my life that I am statistically expected to get weaker.

But I don’t accept being weak or weakened by age. The Grimm Reaper will catch me one day, but age can fuck right off.

The game isn’t up for me. As long as I continue through my phases of training and I keep getting stronger, this game is just the beginning.

My 10 Top Tips For Fat Loss

Here are my top tips for weight loss…

1. Start calling it Fat loss. Unless you want to lose an arm, muscle,an organ or have 10 shits a day then what you want to lose is fat. What you weigh is just a numerical reflection of your relationship to gravity.

2. Love who you are right now. You wouldn’t say to your best friend “I’m not leaving the house with you because you are fat.” So don’t say it to yourself.

3. Be in a calorie deficit. Calculate your calorie consumption for one average week and then you are able to make smarter choices about your nutrition and training.

4. Eat what you want. I’m a PT but also a realist. We will still have down days. Unless you are an athlete with a strict daily diet then no foods should be banned. If you follow step 3, then you will know how much of anything that you can have.

5. Don’t buy a meal plan. Create your own by listing the foods that you enjoy with your ‘must have’ proteins and veggies. Some guy sitting in his bedroom in Sydney knows jack about your lifestyle, dietary needs and health. He might like chicken and broccoli 10 times a day but you don’t have to.

6. Do have a training schedule and stick to it. Either create one yourself or ask for help from a professional who you trust. It needs to be fun, engaging, consistent and work different muscle groups regularly.

7. Practice ‘mindful eating’. Discover new foods, cook new ingredients, sit at a table to eat rather than a plate on your lap. Make meal times an event when you can.

8. Go for a walk. Not only is this useful to incorporate into a training schedule but it allows you to escape the times and places that you are struggling with. If the cakes regularly come out at work in break times, take a 15 minute walk around the block. If they can get cig breaks, you can go for a walk!

9. Don’t fall into the fad diet trap. Any new book promoting weight loss has one thing in common…it has a calorie deficit. But just saying that would make a very short book and they can’t make money from you.

“Remove these 5 foods from your diet and watch the weight roll off!”

So you are taking away the food that you enjoy out of your diet and you lose weight?! No shit Sherlock.

10. Enjoy the process. It doesn’t need to be army camp training every day. It doesn’t mean giving up the foods that you enjoy. Just celebrate the 1% victories because they soon add up.