I’m a day late with this weeks blog because yesterday just got a bit manic at work. We’ve a ton of events coming up (including our Sustainable Health And Fat Loss Workshop <<– click here for details) and we had a good few new clients come on board which demanded all hands on deck. No complaints here.
So as I sat down today I was thinking what would be a great topic to connect with people. Yesterday Imposted a video about my own personal health and fitness journey and struggles in our members group so today I thought I’d share that with you as well.
One of the biggest obstacles stopping most people from getting fit and healthy is that they seem to think that eating healthy, exercising consistently and just living a healthy, balanced lifestyle comes so easy to most fitness professionals and therefore making that connection with them becomes that much harder.
They think “It’s grand for you because you love eating broccoli, chicken and rice, living in the gym and don’t struggle with these things that make it so much harder for me. You’ve never been where I am so how can you relate?”
But the thing is that most trainers do or have in the past struggled with the same issues you do so often they can relate to your situation in some way. Here’s a great example of my own journey.
For a long time I struggled with my health and the effects haven’t completely gone away to this day. Over the years I built up a ton of bad habits that left me feeling mentally drained and a physical wreck. Dragging myself out of bed in the morning and struggling to find the energy to get through the day was a horrible feeling.
Bit by bit the habits built up until eventually I was:
- Drinking 12 cans of coke and lucozade a day
- Eating 3+ bars of chocolate a day
- Living off take-aways
- Staying up to 3am in the morning and later at weekends- Saturday night was a 6am tv fest!
- Drinking 2-3 times a week and smoking every time I drank
- Living out of deli’s for the convenience of quick food
- Not exercising
Work and stress took over at the expense of my health and happiness.
I was chronically fatigued both mentally and physically, super-stressed, developed gastritis in my stomach which is the worst pain I’ve ever felt and had a skin disorder covering my entire torso and arms. It used get so aggravated that I wasn’t far off from being able to glow in the dark 🙂
I used to train hard and consistently but that eventually came to a halt for a few years as my body burnt out and forced me to re-evaluate my entire lifestyle. Going from 50kg chin-ups, martial arts and gym work multiple times a week, daily mediation and breathing exercises and much more to this rut was a hard knock.
My confidence and enthusiasm for work, hobbies and my personal life just wasn’t there and it was all my own doing. That can be a hard thing to accept but it was the truth and I couldn’t hide from it.
I felt defeated in so many ways and a massive failure as I was supposed to be the expert that others looked to for help.
I could go on and on but I think you get the point. All this happened over the course of a few years with different things happening at different stages and due to many different factors. For instance I got into the habit of staying up late because I was working abroad in a pub until 3am in the morning. Then I ws trying to build my business (in health & fitness of all things!!!!) so putting in late nights was just the normal thing to do. This drained my energy which made fizzy drinks a god-send and deli food the easiest way for me to get my food into me without too much effort.
But the bottom line is that it was the choices I made on a daily basis that eventually caught up with me and resulted in the rut I found myself in ….. and it wasn’t a nice place.
So bit by bit I started to get back on track. I started implementing the tools, resources and information that I was providing to other people and would you believe it- they actually worked!!
I completely overhauled my nutrition habits and sleeping patterns. Completely removed fizzy drinks from my life. Quit drinking (don’t worry, you don’t have to go that far!) and this removed the smoking issue as well. Cleared up my skin and addressed my gastritis. Started managing my stress better- massage, meditation, fresh air walks, etc.
Bit by bit I started moving forward again and today I feel much more alive than I did during those times. I still struggle with some of these aspects but for different reasons and at different times but they nothing like the way it was before and they are easily addressed with a bit of re-focusing on whats important to me. Thats just a part of life.
So there you go. I quick summary of my health and fitness challenges so you can see that we’re all in thew same both. The important thing is that we keep getting educated, implementing what we learn and moving forward to the quality if life that we say we want.
I’d love to hear your story so if you have a minute leave a comment below.
Steve McGrath
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