Articles

Over 40? These 6 Lessons Will Change the Way You Train Forever

May 21, 2025

In my early 40s, I was getting injured a lot — probably a third of the time.

When you’re constantly dealing with injuries, it’s almost impossible to stay consistent — which means you don’t make progress. And when you’re not making progress, training stops being fun. That was certainly the case for me.

Everything felt uphill — and I was getting super frustrated.

Fast forward to today: I train six times a week and genuinely love it. I’m in the best shape of my life. I’m proud of my physique and I’m objectively fitter and healthier than I’ve ever been.

So what changed?

That’s what I want to share with you — six key lessons that helped me completely transform how I train in my 40s.

If you’re in your forties — or older — and you apply even just one of these, you’ll notice a big difference in how you feel and how you perform.

But stack a few of them together, like I’ve done, and you can take your training — and your results — to a whole new level.

So, let’s jump into the six lessons.

1. Warm-ups matters more than ever

Warming up thoroughly before a training session has probably been the most powerful shift for me when it comes to reducing injuries.

Back in the day, I’d skip or rush through warm-ups. Now, it’s completely non-negotiable.

Here’s a quick example, just to illustrate the power of a warm up.

About a year or so ago, I randomly decided one day to skip my normal warmup. Instead, I substituted it with some back rehab exercises that I wanted to get in the habit of doing.

I did the back rehab exercises and went straight into my workout _ with the first exercise being front squat. I kid you not, on he fourth rep of the first set —bang — my back completely went. It was really painful and it ended up setting me back probably a couple of months.

Only in hindsight could I realise how important my warm-up was for the training session that came after it. Skipping it for some random lower back exercises that in no way prepared me for that session was a pretty stupid thing to do. It wasn’t a coincidence that I got injured only a couple of minutes into the session.

So, what does a good warm up look like? It should cover three things.

Something broad and general to get the whole body moving
Something specific to the day’s workout. I.e if you’re doing a lower body workout, you want to prepare the lower body — hips, hamstrings etc.
You want to get the body warm, so you should be breathing fairly heavily

I follow a rough rule of thumb: your warm-up should take about a third of the total workout time. So, if I’m training for an hour, my warm up will tend to take about 20 minutes.

If your warm up is thorough enough, you’ll notice your range of motion dramatically increase towards the end of the warm up. Your body should feel nice, warm and loose. If you’re not seeing increased range of motion — or looseness — it probably wasn’t enough.

2. Be Smart About Volume

As you get older, your body simply doesn’t recover as quickly — and it doesn’t tolerate as much volume.

This is something I’ve had to deal with first hand. When I was doing three heavy strength sessions a week, I was constantly feeling beat up. Now I only do two, and it’s made a big difference to how my body feels.

Everyone has a different tolerance, so it’s important to stay self-aware. If you’re feeling overly tired, stiff, or mentally flat — it might be a sign you’re doing too much. And you might want to experiment with dialling the volume back a bit, and seeing how your body responds.

3. Train at 80%, Not 100%

This ties closely to volume — but it’s more about intensity.

In my 20s and 30s, I trained like I was trying to win something every session. I pushed to failure in strength work. I went all-out in conditioning.

But now? That approach just wrecks me.

What works better is training just below the edge — sitting at around 80% to 90% most of the time. I’m always trying to leave a few reps in the tank. The goal is to leave the gym feeling good, not destroyed.

One way I put this into action is I train in blocks — four weeks of building intensity, then a test fifth week where I safely push the limits. This is then followed by a deload week, where I focus on active recovery.

Another way I put the 80% rule into practice is most of my conditioning now is zone 2 cardio — low-intensity stuff. I will go to the limit in benchmark workouts, and these tend to happen only so often.

Training this way keeps my body feeling good and ready for the next session. And that consistency adds up over time.

4. Be Smart with Exercise Selection

A good way to frame this lesson is with some advice a previous trainer once gave me.

He said this: “Each day, ask yourself — what version of this workout moves me away from pain, not towards it?”

That really stuck with me.

Since then, my current trainer Jamie (who is super awesome) has helped me let go of certain exercises that didn’t serve me anymore — back squats, olympic lifts, handstand push-ups, double-unders etc.. These exercises simply aren’t worth the cost.

Nowadays, he programmes me exercises that give me the right training stimulus with the least risk.

Now, it’s easy to say this, but it’s actually quite hard to do.

And, honestly, it did take me a bit of time to accept this type of approach. Some of those exercises that were risky for me — they are actually kinda fun to do. But I had to realise that it’s about staying in the game, and it’s about being consistent.

Once you let go of the stuff that’s hurting you, you realise there are loads of options that still challenge you, keep things fun, and don’t leave you limping the next day.

5. Follow a Well-Rounded Program

Every time I’ve over-focused on one thing too much, like clock work, I’ve picked up injuries.

Too much running? Calf issues.
Too much pressing? Shoulder pain.
Too much air bike? Knee problems.

A well-rounded program spreads the load and avoids overuse injuries.

These days, my training program is super well rounded (and again I give a lot of credit to my trainer Jamie for making sure this is the case).

My training program is built around five pillars:

Strength work
Zone 2 cardio
VO2 max efforts
Mobility
Walking

Nothing’s overdone. It keeps me feeling good, and it’s much better for long-term health — which of course matters more and more to me as I get older.

So, it’s worth looking at your training program. How well rounded is it?

6. Get Individualised Programming

This ties everything we’ve talked about together.I’m fairly knowledgeable about training. But working with a great coach has shown me there are levels to programming — especially as you age.

Jamie, my coach, constantly spots things I would miss. He helps me avoid mistakes, adjust for how I’m feeling, and refine the details of what I’m doing.

And it’s not just what he knows — when you’re deep in your own training, you sometimes can’t see the forest for the trees. No matter how smart you are
So.nowadays, when I do pick up an injury, it’s usually because I strayed from the plan that Jamie had set for me.

So I’d say: if you can find a great coach and get a personalised program, it’s worth every penny.

Here are the six lessons again:

Warm-ups matters more than ever
Be Smart About Volume
Train at 80%, not 100%
Be Smart with Exercise Selection
Follow a Well-Rounded Program
Get Individualised Programming

These are the things that keep me on the right side of injury — and let me train hard, week in, week out.

And that’s really the secret: consistency. It beats intensity every time.

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Will I ever stop tracking my foundational health habits?

May 6, 2025

Recently, I’ve been pondering a question – will I ever stop tracking my foundational health habits?

What got me thinking about this was seeing how a couple of people I follow online live out their healthy lifestyles – Josh Bridges and Paul Saladino. The thing about both of them is that their approach seems effortless.

They’re not meticulously tracking habits or counting calories. They just make good choices consistently, as if it’s second nature.

There’s no doubt about it, my system looks a little obsessive. It definitely takes time and effort. Their more natural, instinctive way of doing things really appeals to me.

I track each of my seven foundational health habits every single day with a simple tick or cross:

Then, each month, I create a new physical tracking sheet and update a monthly spreadsheet.

So yeah, there’s a bit of upkeep, both daily and monthly.

All of that said, once you get used to it, it becomes second nature. Daily tracking only takes a few minutes. The monthly admin? Maybe 30 minutes or so. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big time sink.

That said, it’s still a thing. And it’s certainly not as natural as what I see from Bridges and Saladino.

That contrast has made me wonder: Would life be better if I didn’t track at all? What would that feel like? How would it go?

Let me be clear: I’d never let go of the habits themselves. They’re too important to how I look, feel and live. The question is just about whether I could ever stop tracking them.

And the answer I keep coming back to?

Maybe… but certainly not any time soon.

So, why not?

I haven’t built anywhere near a solid enough base yet

For my seven foundational health habits, four are on pretty solid ground: protein, caffeine, water, and alcohol. I consistently hit 80%+ each month. Of course, alcohol is always at 100% – because I’ve given it up for good.

But even these “safe” habits can slip. Case in point, just last month, protein dipped below 80%.

What works today can stop working tomorrow. So I need to stay alert – even with the ones that seem locked in.

Then there are the more fragile three: sleep, steps, and whole foods. These are still a work in progress. I’m pushing hard to build the same kind of consistency with them, but I’m not there yet.

So while I’ve been tracking for 38 months straight, I still feel like I’m in the early stages of the journey. I definitely haven’t built a foundation where all seven habits stick naturally at 80%+ consistently.

I’m Not Naturally Disciplined

The second reason I don’t think I can stop tracking? I might not be naturally disciplined enough to survive without the crutch of it.

I’m not someone who finds discipline effortless. I don’t have insane willpower. I’m not the type of person who decides something and just does it forever without a system.

People like Bridges and Saladino – and even a few people in my own life – they seem to have that gear to just stick to something once they’ve made up their mind.

I don’t. I find I have to rely on routines, environment design, and tracking to stay consistent. It takes more effort. More brute force. Maybe it looks a bit over the top to everyone else, but I know deep down that it’s necessary for me.

Why tracking matters (for me)

Tracking these habits is crucial – not just to building them, but to keeping them strong.

It forces daily awareness. It forces regular reflection – every day, every month, and over the longer arc of quarters and years. That reflection helps me keep strong habits from slipping, and it helps me break through with habits that are still forming.

I’m pretty convinced that if I stopped tracking, I’d stay consistent for a while… but eventually, I’d slide. And that’s not a risk I’m willing to take.

These habits are the foundation of my physical and mental health. They give me the capacity to handle everything else in life. Letting them erode isn’t an option.

So, will I ever stop?

Maybe one day I’ll feel confident enough to let tracking go. Maybe I’ll hit a point where 80%+ consistency across all seven habits feels so natural that the tracking becomes redundant.

But honestly? I’m not convinced that day will ever come.

I think this is a forever journey. And even if I get to a point where they all feel a lot easier than they do now, daily tracking might just be what will continue to keep me accountable.

So, my answer is to will I ever stop tracking my foundational health habits –Maybe… but certainly not any time soon.

Because for me, it’s not just about ticking boxes. It’s about staying intentional. It’s about building a life where health is non-negotiable. And tracking is part of the system that keeps that life on track.

So for now, and probably for a long while, the tick sheet stays!

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Small tweaks can create BIG results!

April 14, 2025

Small tweaks – often the tiniest of tweaks – can lead to significant improvements in your health.

We all know that habits and routines can be super powerful. Once established, they help us stay consistent with actions that have a big impact on our lives.

But here’s the thing about habits and routines – they can become stale. What once worked brilliantly may start to lose its effectiveness over time.

That’s why it’s important to remain open to exploring small changes and tweaks to your environment, habits, and routines. Sometimes, just the tiniest adjustment is all you need to completely revitalise a habit or routine.

And here’s the kicker: minor changes can often lead to unexpected outcomes.

You start with a small change and end up surprised by how much it helps. It can snowball into other tweaks and even bigger outcomes. Before you know it, what started as a small change has led to something transformative.

The easiest way to highlight this is to give you a few recent examples from my own life. This will help you see just how much only small tweaks can help you improve your habits and health.

To illustrate this, here are a couple of recent examples from my own life. These show how small and somewhat trivial tweaks have had a significant impact on my habits and health.

Water consumption

As you probably know, one of my foundational health habits is to drink three litres of water a day.

However, I recently found myself struggling to hit that target. I couldn’t pinpoint why, but I started delaying drinking water until later in the day. Gradually, it became a struggle to reach my three-litre goal. The habit had become stale.

Then, I made an unintended tweak. I bought some nice new tumbler glasses. Instead of drinking straight from my water bottle, I poured the water into one of these glasses.

I found I really enjoyed drinking from the glass. I drank the whole glass in one go and immediately refilled it. As I went about my day, I noticed I didn’t want to leave the refilled glass sitting there too long – it was more obvious how the water would get stale in a glass (you’ve probably noticed the bubbles that appear when you leave a glass of water for too long!).

The first day I did this, I drank four litres of water. It was actually too much – I was up peeing three times in the night! The next day, I had to be careful to only drink three litres. I’d gone from struggling to drink three litres a day to needing to monitor not over drinking – all from a small change in how I was drinking water.

Mindful eating

I went out for breakfast the other day at a lovely farm shop. I ordered the Greek yogurt bowl. It came in a really nice bowl and was well presented. I also noticed that the portion size was quite a bit smaller than I would typically serve myself at home.

Because of the bowl and portion size, I just felt like I should take my time with it.

Not only did I enjoy it, but I felt light afterwards. This was very different from how I usually feel after eating yogurt – I often feel quite bloated. Having a smaller portion and eating more slowly made the difference.

So, before I left, I purchased some of the same bowls from the farm shop.

And guess what? At home, when preparing my yogurt in the new bowls, I started to take more care with the presentation and mimicked the smaller portion. As a result, I ate more slowly and felt light after eating again.

This then rubbed off on some of my other meals. I became more mindful of portion sizes (I have a habit of eating overly large portions!) and found myself starting to eat more slowly.

This has had a significant impact on hitting my daily calorie targets. I’ve gone from struggling to stay within 2,600 calories to comfortably eating within my 2,500-calorie target.

Honestly, I didn’t see that coming. It was a combination of being inspired by a nice breakfast at a farm shop and purchasing some attractive bowls that led me to smaller portions, more mindful eating, and finding it easier to stay within my daily calorie target.

These two small tweaks have made a significant impact on my life. I’m now finding it much easier to drink my three litres of water daily and have improved my mindful eating, digestion, and overall food intake.

And remember, I intentionally chose the smallest tweaks I could think of – drinking from a nice glass instead of a bottle and changing the bowl I use for yogurt. There are other, more substantial tweaks I’ve made that have had even greater impacts.

There are far bigger tweaks I’ve made in my life that have had an even greater impact.

I hope this demonstrates just how powerful small tweaks to habits, routines, and your environment can be.

So, what’s the takeaway?

Stay Curious: Be self-aware of how well your habits and routines are working. Don’t get too comfortable, and don’t let things become stale. If they do, at least notice it.

Experiment: Don’t hesitate to try small or seemingly trivial changes. Even if they feel insignificant, these small changes can sometimes trigger a cascade of improvements that add up to a significant impact.

I’ll leave you with a question – or perhaps a challenge:

Identify one small tweak you can implement this week. Don’t overthink it; just do it.

Then, observe its impact!

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My health and fitness goals for 2025

February 15, 2025

Towards the end of last year, I took a step back to reflect on where I was with my foundational health habits, as well as my overall health and fitness. I also started to think about where I want to put my energy and focus in 2025, so I can take things to the next level.

As usual, there’s never a shortage of things to focus on and improve – but I’ve narrowed it down to three main areas of focus for 2025.

1. Foundational Health Habits

Drum roll….. no big surprise here – my number one focus will be my foundational health habits.

I often refer to these as the base of the pyramid. That’s because they are the cornerstone of my health and fitness efforts.

Not only have I found they make the biggest difference to how I look and feel – but importantly they are critical to me being a strong and disciplined person. They make me someone who is capable of being consistent with my health and fitness efforts.

When my foundational health habits slide, I immediately start to feel crappy. From there, everything else gets ten times harder.

That’s why, if someone is looking to take a first step in improving their health and fitness – or in fact their life – it’s always where I would suggest starting. Forget training programs. Forget the latest diet. Don’t worry about which supplements to take. Ignore the hacks. Start with foundational health habits and build from there.

I know for me personally, it’s a journey I’m always going to be on and will be trying to improve. That’s why it’s one of my areas of focus for 2025.

Let’s start with a quick re-cap on where I’m at with my foundational health habits.

I have seven foundational health habits.

Four of my foundational health habits are in a very strong place – alcohol, caffeine, protein and water. These are almost always over 80% consistency (my target) each month.

Two of my foundational health habits are in a fairly OK place, but are vulnerable – steps and sleep. Whilst I would hope for these to be at 80% consistency each month, they often dip below 80%. When I do hit 80% consistency, I get there by the skin of my teeth.

Lastly, I have one foundational health habit that I am still trying to get off the ground – whole foods. This is where I want 80% of my foods each day to come from whole foods. I’m still on pretty shaky ground here, usually coming in around 50% consistency for the month.

Alright, so, where am I going to focus my efforts to make an improvement?

For a start, I want to keep the four foundational health habits I have in a good place, staying in a good place. I don’t want to become complacent and let them slide.
I want to get the two foundational health habits that are vulnerable (steps and sleep) into a more robust place – where they’re mostly over 80% consistent each month and are feeling more like the above four habits.
Lastly, I want to get my whole foods habit up and closer to 80% consistency each month. It’s fine for there to still be some vulnerability, but I want to break out of the ‘early stages of building’ mode and have whole foods feel more like sleep and steps do now.

That would be an AMAZING place for my foundational health habits to be, It would represent a big step forward from where I am now.

So, that’s the first area of focus – foundational health habits. Of course, I’ll be covering my progress with these throughout the year.

2. Digestive Health

Digestive health is going to be my second area of focus for 2025.

I’ve struggled with digestive issues for as long as I can remember – right back to when I was a child. My stomach has always been unpredictable. Some days, I’ll be bloated and in quite a bit of pain. I also suffer from constipation, and a lot of irregularity.

I had a health hiccup over Christmas that was a big wake up call for me. It made me realise I had normalised what is actually a pretty bad situation. I’d just got used to feeling like this – thinking that’s who I am.

However, I really want to make some big improvements to my digestive health this year. I want to try and get much closer to being normal.

I’ve already made two big changes this year that have made a huge difference.

Firstly, I’ve almost tripled my fibre intake, from around 10 grams per day, to 30 grams per day. Secondly, I’m now eating so much more slowly. Both of these changes have already helped reduce my symptoms and have me feeling so much better.

I’ve also started working with a nutritionist / gut health coach recently. I’ve already started to work on some of their initial advice – bringing in a few supplements and getting into much better gut health habits. I’ve also just done a stool test which I’m waiting on the results for, which I hope can lead to a few other changes too.

So, in summary, that’s two areas of focus so far – a big step forward with my foundational health habits and a big improvement in my digestive health.

The third area of focus is also something that’s plagued me for a lot of my life, and I’m determined to tackle it head on this year.

3. Mobility

My training is going the best it’s ever been. I’m training five times a week – a mix of weights, high intensity training and zone 2 cardio. I’m now extremely consistent in training like this, week in, week out.

I’m also seeing really good results. I look better and I’m stronger, leaner and fitter than I’ve ever been. I’ve had more results in the last two years, than the previous ten years.

But, I do have a weak spot – and that’s mobility.

I’ve always been a very stiff and inflexible person. This means that I tend to get injured more easily. Also, I often feel creaky – especially when waking up, or when I move in a certain way (i.e picking things up, getting up from the floor etc.).

So, I know I can make some really nice improvements to how I feel, if I can find a way to consistently do some work on my mobility.

So what does that look like?

Right now, I have a pretty loose plan. I want to bring in a weekly yoga practice. I want to incorporate some daily stretching. And there are also a few mobility programmes I’d quite like to work through.

I want to start folding these types of things into my week – essentially getting into the habit of doing a few things per week.

I know this is a bit of a vague action plan. However, I also want to be fairly agile about this. I want to explore and try lots of different things until I find something that works for me and I’m able to stick to. .

And there you have it. My three big areas of focus for 2025 are:

Take a big step forward with my foundational health habits
Improve my digestive health
Improve my mobility

If I can make good progress across these three areas, I’m confident it will help take all of my health and fitness to a whole new level.

I’m sure there are going to be quite a lot of ‘two steps forward, one step backward’ moments when it comes to these three things. That said, I’m going to work really hard, and I’ll keep you in the loop with how I’m doing.

I’ll wrap with one final thought. If you’re thinking about improving your health and want to look and feel better in 2025, I would massively encourage you to get on a journey with building foundational health habits.

Life is too short to feel tired, crappy and to be out of shape. Foundational health habits are your best bet to get yourself out of feeling like this, and onto a better track.

If you want any help at all with this, DM me on X or LinkedIn, or shoot me an email. I’d love to chat and help however I can.

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Think for yourself

January 3, 2025

For the last few years, I’ve become default sceptical of the ‘herd’ view.

There’s far too many human errors, agendas – and quite frankly corruption in government, mainstream media and within industries to blindly accept their information.

This naturally led me to find the contrarian view for most things. But I’m realising that this is no better than simply blindly conforming.

The point is to think for yourself. Have an open mind. Challenge what appears the norm.

You might think it’s easier than ever to do that – but it might actually be more difficult than ever. There’s simply so much information available for free (good and bad), and so many conflicting opinions that it quickly gets overwhelming. Often there’s also quite a lot of peer pressure to conform to the majority view.

But, it’s worth the effort. No one has your best interests at heart more than yourself. The information you accept and decisions you make, affect your health, career, family, finances and friends. You owe it to yourself and those around you to take the time and effort to think and make decisions for yourself.

A few examples that quickly come to mind are 1. the food pyramid and 2. early covid vaccine claims. Information on both of these topics has changed and evolved significantly over time. Many of the early mainstream views on these topics have not aged well at all. In fact many were downright lies.

More often than not, putting in the effort to think for myself leads me to a view that is at first contrarian – but then softens to something in the middle. It seems going against the grain has something going for it. In fact, nowadays I worry when my belief is a majority belief. I think that just reflects how broken various mainstream information sources are.

But the point isn’t to conform, be contrarian, or even arrive in the middle. It’s to think for yourself. And then, land where you land – importantly, with your own conviction.

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How to maintain a healthy body weight (or gain or lose weight)

November 18, 2024

I want to give you a really simple strategy for how to reach, and maintain a healthy body weight. I’ve used this strategy myself to lose weight, and I use it today to keep my own body weight at a healthy level, and to stay lean.

It’s not complicated – in fact, once you understand the key principles, it’s really straight forward.

Before we jump into the how, I want to explain why it’s so, so important to maintain a healthy body weight. There are three main reasons.

The first is longevity. It is well established, beyond any doubt, that being at a healthy body weight helps to lower the risk of chronic diseases – including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, and hypertension.

You don’t have to take my word for it. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found a strong association between higher BMI (body mass index) and increased mortality. In the most extreme case, being very obese can cost you up to 13.5 years of your life. Even being just somewhat overweight, you can expect to lose 2-4 years of your life.

In short, you will live longer, and have less disease if you keep a healthy body weight.

The second reason is quality of life. It’s not just about living longer, it’s about having a good life. This is what someone like Peter Attia would call Health span. When you maintain a healthy body weight, you have less inflammation, better mobility and general physical function. This means it’s easier to do day to day things – move around, play with your kids, pick heavy things up, put heavy things above your head etc. At a healthy body weight, life just feels easier, better and is more enjoyable..

The third reason is mental health. I’ll use myself as an example here. I used to weigh 220 lbs. Whilst I wasn’t obese, I was kind of just overweight. At that time of my life, my energy used to be all over the place, and I was regularly tired. I also struggled with a lot of self esteem issues and anxiety.

Today I am 175 lbs and fairly lean with it. One of the biggest surprises to me has been how much better I feel in myself. I have more energy, more confidence and more optimism. I rarely have any anxiety anymore. For me, this has actually been the biggest and most obvious impact of being at a healthy body weight. I just feel a lot better mentally. I’m way more comfortable in my own skin,

I hope that makes it nice and clear why being at a healthy body weight is super, super important.

Before we jump into the how (we’re getting close!), I want to just quickly cover one more thing.

I suspect some people are reading this and thinking – this doesn’t apply to me. I don’t feel obese. I’m not obviously overweight.

I want to share with you two statistics that will blow your mind – and maybe even give you something to think about for your own situation:

1/ Two thirds of the adult population in the United States and at least half the populations of many other developed countries are currently overweight or obese. Yes, TWO THIRDS..

2/ A 2018 study found that only 12% of American adults fully met the criteria for being in optimal metabolic health. They measured metabolic health as having the following 5 things in a good place – blood glucose levels, triglycerides, cholesterol, blood pressure and weight circumference. This means that nearly a whopping 88% of people are metabolically unhealthy and failed on at least one of these metrics.

The reason I refer to these stats, is to highlight that the majority of people are indeed not at a healthy body weight. The majority of people are indeed likely to be metabolically unhealthy.

You don’t have to be obviously very overweight or obese, to find yourself at an unhealthy body weight. Like me when I was 220 lbs, you may just be carrying that extra bit of weight that you assume naturally happens as you get older.

If that’s the case with you, the good news is that you can absolutely change that and get some really big health, longevity and mental health benefits from doing it. In some cases, there may well be many years of extra life to be gained.

Now that we understand why maintaining a healthy weight is so important, let’s talk about how to do it.

Calories in vs. Calories Out

If you’re going to reach and maintain a healthy body weight, the first thing you need to do is to understand the principles of energy balance.

Energy balance is essentially calories in vs. calories out. This is what determines whether we gain weight, maintain our weight, or lose weight.

Let me explain a bit further.

Calories in (i.e energy intake) is the calories you take in every day by eating and drinking..

Calories out (i.e energy expenditure) is the number of calories you burn as a result of being alive, moving around your day to day business and any type of physical activity you do.

To understand how calories in and calories out affect body weight, you need to understand the relationship between the two.

If your calories in and out are the same – you will maintain your body weight. For example, if you consume 2,000 calories through food and drink, and also burn 2,000 calories through activity, your bodyweight will remain roughly the same.

If your calories in are greater than your calories out, you will gain weight. For example, if you consume 2,500 calories through food and drink, and burn only 2,000 calories through activity, your bodyweight will increase. This is called a calorie surplus, and In this case it’s a 500 calorie surplus.

Lastly, if your calories in are less than your calories out, you will lose weight. For example, if you consume 2,000 calories through food and drink, and burn 2,500 calories through activity, your body weight will decrease. This is called being in a calorie deficit, and in this case it’s a 500 calorie deficit.

It really is as simple as that.

Not all calories are equal

I want to address an argument that you might have heard before – not all calories are equal.

What I said about calories in and out and how that affects your weight is absolutely true. However there is something important to understand about the argument that not all calories are equal.

You can’t just ignore what types of calories you consume. For example, if you consume all of your calories through processed foods and junk foods, you’re going to struggle to achieve whatever goal you have for your weight. That’s what people, who use the not all calories are equal argument are getting at.

The problem isn’t that the calories in vs. calories out model is broken. That’s still the most important thing.

However, of the calories you consume, there needs to be a reasonable amount of protein and whole foods.

Why? Surely if it’s all about energy balance, as long as you run the numbers correctly, why does it matter what types of calories they are?

Well, when you are trying to gain, maintain or lose weight, protein is necessary to help you either preserve, maintain or gain muscle for those goals. If you skimp on it, your lean muscle mass is going to be low, which will affect not only your metabolism, but also how good you look 😉

Secondly, the body just operates more efficiently on whole foods. Your overall health and metabolism will be in a much better place, which will help you achieve your bodyweight goal more easily.

Lastly, protein, and the fiber that comes from whole foods is satiating. So, you’re going to find it a hell of a lot easier to regulate your appetite and consistently hit your target calories in, if you’re prioritising protein and whole foods.

Here’s Greg Glassman explaining this perfectly in under a minute.

You know this is true. Try and eat a four egg, whole food omelet. I can guarantee it will leave you feeling full for many hours. Compare that to eating some biscuits, and some chocolate of the same amount of calories. Sure, you feel full at first, but soon after you’re ransacking the pantry for more of those types of foods.

So, whilst calories in vs. calories out IS the most important thing, you have to pay attention to the quality of those calories. If you don’t, not only will you fail to be consistent with eating your target calories, but you’re also not giving your body the best chance to achieve whatever your body weight goal is.

So, in a way, both are true.

Calories in vs. calories out is absolutely the most important thing you need to consider if you want to control your body weight. But, you will fail if you don’t keep an eye on the quality of those calories. You should be eating a reasonable amount of protein, and sticking as many whole foods as you can.

OK, so we’ve covered quite a bit so far – a quick recap.

You should want to achieve a healthy body weight. It will help you live a better, and longer life. And the harsh reality is that more people are either overweight or obese, than at a healthy body weight.

To achieve a healthy body weight, you need to get your calories in and calories out in a place where it supports your goal – being in a calorie surplus to gain weight, being in a calorie deficit to lose weight, or eating the same amount of calories as you burn, to maintain your weight. Keep protein high and eat mostly whole foods.

So, the only thing left to explain is exactly how do you put all of this into practice?

The first thing you need to do is get to the point where you know what your maintenance rate is – essentially how many calories you need to take in to maintain your body weight. That will put you in a position to then adjust things to support your body weight goal.

When I started thinking about this article, I had a grand plan to explain in great detail how you could find your maintenance rate exactly. The problem with this, is it requires tracking your foods and activity in a very consistent and detailed way. As I thought about it more, I realised that if you haven’t done this before, it’s going to be very overwhelming. And actually, most people will either not do it, or find it really hard to do.

Instead of that, I’m going to give you a more high level, rough way of going about it which will definitely work. Then, once you’re into it, you can decide if you want to take it to the next level and get more specific about it.

Here’s what you want to do. You need to run a test for about 4-6 weeks.

To start with, don’t change anything about what you eat or drink (i.e calories in). Also, don’t change anything about the way you’re being active (i.e calories out).

Here’s what I want you to do. Once per week, weigh yourself and record the number. When you do weigh yourself, try and do it at the same time per week, so that the number you get can be a good comparison.

Do that for 4-6 weeks.

If your weight hasn’t changed much at all, then you’re pretty nicely maintaining your weight at the moment, through how much you’re eating and drinking (calories in) and how much activity you’re doing (calories out).

Regardless of what the specific number of calories in vs out is, you know if you keep things roughly the same on both sides of the equation, you’ll stay at the weight you’re at.

Let’s say you want to lose weight. You will need to make a small adjustment to either reduce the calories in (i.e less of what you’re eating and drinking), and / or increase the calories out (i.e more activity). This will put you in a calorie deficit.

If you do that and continue to monitor your weight once per week, you should see your weight start to decrease. Keep doing that, until it stops working (it tends to stop working after a while because you have achieved a new maintenance rate). When it does, you have to do the same again – until you reach your target body weight.

Like wise, if you want to gain weight, you just do the opposite. You will need to either increase the calories in (i.e more of what you’re eating and drinking), and / or, decrease the calories out (i.e less activity).

Again, if you do that and continue to monitor your weight once per week, you should see your weight slowly and consistently increase. Keep doing that, until it stops working. When that happens, simply adjust again until you’re at your target body weight.

There’s one last thing I’ll say about this. When you’re running your maintenance test, or indeed trying to maintain, lose or gain weight – you want to try and keep calories in and out consistent. Remember, we’re not meticulously tracking the exact number of calories in and out (i.e the overwhelming bit), so you are doing this more by feel.

My best advice for this is to try and stick to the same type of eating and drinking patterns (calories in), and try and stick to the same level of physical activity (calories out).

For example, if you’re running a marathon one week, and being mostly sedentary the next week – it just won’t work because there’s too much change at the same time. The same would be true if you were to be fasting aggressively one week, and then completely off the wagon the next week.

My maintenance rate

I want to wrap with an example of my own maintenance rate, and how I use this to either gain or lose weight. I think this will be some useful context that can help make everything even clearer.

I know my maintenance rate, based on how physically active I am, is 2,300 calories.

You might notice that in my case, I know my exact number. That’s because I went through a more detailed process of tracking my food intake (i.e using an app to track my calories), whilst at the same time keeping my level of physical activity extremely consistent (sticking to the same type and amount of workouts, and steps). It’s basically the same type of test as I explained above, but using real numbers for the calories in (i.e food and drink).

Broken down in a bit more detail…

When I weight train three times a week, do 2 hours of zone 2 cardio, and walk 10K steps a day – AND when I eat 2,300 calories – my body weight stays the same. I literally did this for 6 weeks and during that time my body weight stayed very much the same. I was kinda lucky it stayed the same, because it meant I didn’t need to go through any trial and error (i.e adjustment up or down) to hone in on my maintenance rate.

This information is very valuable to me. By knowing this, I can now precisely manipulate my body weight.

Earlier in the year, I wanted to lose some weight for my summer holiday. So, here’s what I did. I simply ate 2,100 calories – 200 calories less than my maintenance rate. I also swapped out one of my three weight training sessions for a conditioning workout (increasing my physical activity slightly). This put me in a calorie deficit of at least 200 calories, but probably more like 250 taking into account the increase in physical activity also.

What do you know, I consistently dropped weight over an eight week period – a total of about 10 lbs (just over a lb per week). It dropped off quicker at the beginning, probably because I got close to the maintenance level of my new weight towards the end. However, the overall result was exactly what I had hoped for.

Now that I’m back, I have the opposite goal – I’m trying to very slowly gain weight. So, I have increased my calories to 2,500, which should put me in roughly a 200 calorie surplus based on a 2,300 calorie maintenance rate. As a result, I’m now slowly putting on about 1lb per week.

Like I said, I’m tracking things in a much more precise way than the beginner way I described earlier. But, the concept is the same. You have to be able to know what it takes to maintain your weight when it comes to how many calories you’re taking in (i.e food and drink) and how many calories you’re burning (i.e how physically active you are). When you know that, you can simply adjust either of those to achieve any type of body weight goal you want.

Wrap up

I hope that’s useful and can help put you in a position to more easily reach and maintain a healthy body weight. I hope you also know now just how important it is to do exactly that – it will give you a longer, better quality life.

It’s worth reflecting on where you are on the spectrum of needing to lose or gain weight. And from there, consider running the maintenance rate test to figure out your maintenance rate – and then adjust accordingly for whatever your body weight goal is.

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HUGE foundational health habit update (and a big change!)

November 5, 2024

I haven’t done a habit update since July, so we have three months to cover – August September and October! I’m also making a change to one of my health habits from November, which I’ll cover in a bit.

Before we get stuck in, here’s a quick reminder on my current goals for my seven foundational health habits.

Six of my health habits are in a really solid place, and feel second nature.

They are:

No Alcohol
Sleep – 6.5 hours
Protein – 175 grams
Caffeine – max two cups, and before midday
Water – 3 litres
10K Steps

I expect 80% + consistency each month for the above six habits. For the most part, I achieve this fairly comfortably.

Whole foods, the seventh health habit – well, that’s a different story. My ultimate target is to have 80% of my foods be from whole foods every day. So far, I’m settled at about 50% consistency for the month (so I achieve it about half the time).

If I’m totally honest, I’m feeling a little bit stuck with whole foods. It’s taken me quite a few months to reliably get to over 50% for the month. However, I’m struggling to get anywhere near 60%. I’m in the early to mid-stages of building this habit, so for the time being, this is fine. But I can only say that for so long. I need to figure out the strategy to break into 60% consistency and beyond. More on that later too.

Let’s dive into the last few months. I’ll take August first, because it was an irregular month. After that, I’ll cover each habit for the months of September and October.

August

August is an irregular month because of the school holidays. That usually means a big summer holiday and a lot of day trips and traveling.In August, my environment and routines get turned on their head, making it much harder to stick to my health habits.

What I usually do in August is pick a couple of habits to focus on and track. I then let go of the rest. Most of the habits I let go of are still somewhat in my focus. That’s because many of them are second nature to me now, so I would guess they will still hang around the 70-80% consistency mark anyway.

However, because August is a very different month for me, it wouldn’t be sensible or realistic to hold myself accountable to the same standards as all of my other months. However, it’s also not sensible to drop everything. By prioritising a few that really count, it helps to keep me connected to my foundational health habits and it helps me to keep my head above water in a slightly chaotic month.

For August this year, I picked only three habits to track and with the same 80% consistency expectation I have for myself the rest of the year. Those three habits were alcohol, sleep and steps.

Alcohol is an easy one, because I’m sober 😉 Then, I felt that if I stayed well slept and hydrated, that would be a very good baseline for me.

So, how did that go?

Really very well. Drinking three litres of water came in at 87% consistency, and sleeping for six and a half hours per night came in at 81% consistency. Not bad at all for a month that has a ten night summer holiday, a couple of overnight trips and most days that were out of my normal routine.

September & October

(last six months of habit tracking) – entire history of tracking here.

Things went back to normal for my tracking and expectations in September and October.

My goal was 80% consistency for six of my foundational health habits (alcohol, sleep, protein, caffeine, water and steps) and I wanted to break into 60% consistency for whole foods.

No Alcohol

As usual, 100% consistency. I’m nearly three and a half years sober now!

Sleep – 6.5 hours

I’ve made a lot of progress on sleep recently. Sleep was one of two habits, that whilst in a pretty solid place, there’s still some vulnerability there (the other is steps).

I often scrape in close to the wire at about 80% consistency. And there’s several moments in the month where I think I might not make the 80% mark.

However, with sleep, I seem to have broken out of that. September was 87% consistency, and October was 84% consistency. My average sleep was also 7 hours, 20 mins for both months.

How have I managed to get rid of the last bit of vulnerability for sleep? Mainly though just tightening up my habits for going to bed a little earlier, and being more conscious of giving myself a bit of extra time in the morning if I know I need it. It sounds simple, but it’s basic math. If you want to have six and a half hours sleep, you need to be asleep for seven and a half hours (leaving an hour to spare for being awake through waking up, disturbances etc.)

I tend to go to bed at 10PM and I usually wake somewhere between 6 and 7 AM. So that usually gets me comfortably into the seven hours category. And I would now class my sleep habit in the same category as habits like alcohol, protein, caffeine and water – safe and second nature.

Protein – 175 grams

Protein was in the green for both September and October with 80% and 87% respectively.

I have protein nailed entirely now. I usually hit about 190 grams as an average for the week. It’s rare I find myself in danger of falling below 175 grams. This only happens when I’m traveling or completely out of my normal routine of eating. – which doesn’t happen that often and I’m getting better at mitigating for.

Caffeine – max two cups, and before midday

Another slam dunk. September was 80% consistency and October was 81% consistency.

Whilst that might look a bit close to the wire, I tend to strategically come right in on the mark. That’s because I know I can afford six misses per month with each habit, and still achieve 80% consistency. And for caffeine, I strategically pick those misses to help fuel an afternoon workout, deal with a bad night’s sleep or to indulge when I’m traveling.

What can I say, I’m a sucker for a double espresso.

Water – 3 litres

Eaaaaasy, peeeeasy.

September and October came in at 90% consistency.

Drinking 3 litres of water a day is second nature for me now. The only last bit of vulnerability I had with water was leaving it too late in the day (which is never smart if you want a good night’s sleep). But, I seemed to have nailed that now, usually getting three litres done before dinner.

Not much else to say on water!

10K steps

As mentioned above, steps is really now the only habit out of my strong six that has some vulnerability to it.

Steps came in at 73% consistency in September and 81% consistency in October. And this highlights the vulnerability. I fell below the mark in September, and only just scraped through in October.

The root cause of the vulnerability is clear to me – always has been. When I miss, I usually fail to have a plan for the day, and I get a very low amount of steps in during the morning and early afternoon – leaving me with an uphill struggle to get it done.

And therefore the fix is an easy one. Have a plan on how to get them done, depending on what I have on for that day, and don’t leave them too late. It’s as simple as that, and that’s what I’ll focus on for November and December, to try and drop this vulnerability.

So far in November, I’m one miss out of four. And I’m standing here typing this as midday and have got only about 1,000 steps in. I’m not out of the woods with this one yet, far from it.

Whole foods – 80%

Alright, this is where it gets tough. September was 53% consistency and October was 48% consistency. Ouch.

Whole Foods is proving to be quite a struggle to make progress on. It took me four months to get over the 50% consistency mark, and I’ve been stuck there (ish) now for five months.

If I’m honest about it I haven’t been able to find a strategy to break out of the 50% mark. All I want for my next step is to reliably get into the 60% consistency area.

As I type this, it’s helping me to see where I need to put my focus. I track my calories and foods every week. And I am pretty consistent in eating over 70% whole foods over the period of a week. The problem is that it’s lumpy. And by that I mean that Mon to Weds is usually extremely clean (nearly 100%). Yet, things take a massive dip starting from Thursday evening. That means that my number of days that I hit 80% whole foods is only about half the time (hence the 50% consistency for 80% per day over month).

So, it’s Friday and the weekend that I need to focus my efforts. If I can tighten up things there, I know I can safely get into the 60% consistency. Possibly even 70% consistency area.

Watch this space for if I’m able to do this in November!

Wrap up

All in all, September and October were two really solid months.

If we put whole foods aside, with the exception of one habit, in one month (steps for September), every single habit was above 805 consistency and in the green. And let’s face it, the one that fell short was still at 73% consistency, so not a million miles away.

Whole Foods is the big one that stands out that needs more focus from me. And again, not disastrous, I just have to figure out the jump from 50% consistency and into the 60’s.

So, my goals for November are:

My six ‘safe’ habits (alcohol, sleep, protein, caffeine, water and steps) to be 80%+ consistency
My seventh ‘work in progress’ habit (whole foods) so be 60%+ consistency

And my two big focuses are:

Steps – have a plan for how they will get done each day, and don’t leave them to late
Whole foods – clean up my eating for Friday and the weekends

Wait, I’m going to make a change to a habit

I teased at the beginning that I was going to make a change to one of my foundational health habits.

Now that sleep seems fairly safe at six and a half hours and 80% consistency, I want to level things up a bit.

Why? Sleep is arguably my most important foundational health habit. Six and a half hours was always my starting point. It’s taken me the best part of three years to truly and comfortably get it to this level.

I can tell easily the difference between getting six and a half hours of sleep and above seven hours. I wake more refreshed, feel sharper, have better energy and a better mood.

I eventually want to work my way to eight hours, but am sort of on the fence as to whether it’s realistic or practical for me to get there. However, seven hours is definitely at least where I want to be, and it is also realistic.

To get there, I’m just going to need to pay extra attention to my bed and wake times, to ensure I’m in bed for at least eight hours, to allow for an hour of disturbances.

Worst scenario, I come in at 70% ish for a few months, until I can figure a thing or two out to be at 80%+ consistency.

So, in addition to the above two goals and focuses, that’s the third.

See you next month!

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TWO things you have to change, if you want to build better habits and behaviours

October 26, 2024

There are two things you need to change if you want to be successful in building better health habits, behaviours, or any type of transformative change in your life.

Those two things are:

1. People

2. Environment

I challenge you to think about any big change you’ve made in your life. You will probably notice that the people in your life and your environment changed along with it.

On the flipside, I challenge you to think about any big change you’ve struggled to make in your life. It might even be a change that you’re struggling to make at the moment. You will notice that the people and environment were / are fairly static and not changing much.

You can’t expect a new result if the people you surround yourself with, or your environment doesn’t change much. Your determination and will power won’t be enough to overcome people and the environment not changing.

Now, I know that making changes to the people in your life or your environment sounds big and scary. But, it doesn’t mean you have to do everything at once. You don’t need to up sticks and move to a new town. You don’t have to start ghosting friends and family. It usually happens much more subtly and piecemeal than that.

The best way to illustrate this is to share some examples in my own life, and some from my friends. I think this will help you connect the dots between how transformative changes are made, alongside changes to people and environment.

Let’s start with people.

1. People.

I used to really struggle with my fitness and my health. I found it very hard to adopt the behaviors and health habits that I wanted to have in my life.

I wasn’t able to stick to foundational health habits like moderating my alcohol and drinking enough water. I couldn’t get my act together and train consistently. I also had an incredibly bad relationship with food, which led to a lot of binge eating foods that were bad for me.

Today, I stick to seven foundational health habits extremely consistently. I’m training five to six times a week, and am active almost every single day. I now have a much better relationship with food, and my whole foods percentage is usually above 70%.

Those are gigantic changes to have made over only a couple of years. And what I notice is that the people in my life also changed throughout the journey.

When I was struggling to train consistently, I trained at a CrossFit gym. There was a great coach there called Jamie, who led the morning sessions. Where possible, he would give me some 121 pieces of advice – but ultimately, most of our time together was in the group sessions.

Today, Jamie is my personal trainer. He does all of my programming, and also helps me more broadly with lifestyle, mindset and health. I talk to him weekly and now consider him a close friend. Bringing Jamie closer has been instrumental in how I’m now able to consistently stick to a training program, and also lead the lifestyle I have today.

Here’s another good example. I have two good friends in my life called Rich and Barry. We share many of the same health goals and we’re going through a similar journey with our health and fitness. There isn’t a day that goes by where I’m not sending voice notes, exchanging whatsapp messages and talking to each of them. We’re much closer and they play a much bigger part of my life now, vs. two or three years ago. This has made it alot easier for me to make changes in my life when it comes to my health, fitness and my habits.

There are also a bunch of other like minded people, who whilst not as close as Jamie, Rich and Barry, are on the periphery. These people have become a bit closer to me because we naturally share the same goals and are going through a similar journey.

Even as I write this, it’s become so much clearer to me how the people in my life have changed as I’ve made my own big changes in my life. Jamie, Rich, Barry and some other friends are now much closer. We share ideas, inspire each other and there’s a sense of accountability that exists between us. I also naturally happen to see slightly less of some other friends too.

Here’s one more example of how people in your life will change when you successfully make big changes in your life – this one is with my friend Barry again.

Like me, Barry struggled with his relationship with alcohol for quite a long time. And, like me, he failed to moderate alcohol, or give it up for quite a long time – before becoming sober.

Barry is now a year and a half sober. And it’s interesting to notice that the people in his life have changed significantly over this time.

Firstly I hope that he would agree with me that he and I have become closer during this time. I was slightly ahead of him in giving up alcohol, and we became closer as he made this big change in his life.

Barry also became friends with a guy called Manolis he met at the boxing gym (a new environment he manifested for himself – are you starting to better see the connection between environment and people?).

Manolis ended up moving into Barry’s family house for the best part of a year. Manolis is a pretty fit guy. He boxes, trains a lot and doesn’t drink alcohol. Even though perhaps Barry didn’t realise this at the time, he was bringing a really good influence close into his life, and this almost certainly made giving up alcohol easier.

In the last year, Barry has invested in, and has helped build the yoga retreat Mana and Wak. He’s gone on to build a strong relationship with the person who founded and runs that retreat.

It’s been impressive to see him help build a whole new community of people around him. People that like to do yoga, cold swims, sauna, train jiu-jitsu, drink coffee and eat good food. And wouldn’t you know it? The people that are part of this type of community either tend to not drink, or they’re certainly not drinking when they’re doing those types of things.

Notice how the people in Barry’s life over the last couple of years have changed significantly. Not only did he manifest a lot of new people. I’m closer to him. He’s good friends with Manolis. He has a whole community of like minded people around him at the Yoga retreat. And I know for a fact that he spends less time with some of the people he gravitated towards when he drank alcohol.

And I know for a fact that this made a massive difference to him being able to give up alcohol, vs. really struggling to give it up many times before that.

Notice that both of the changes Barry and myself have made to our friends group, didn’t happen all at once. They happened over a number of years, and they happened a step at a time. We didn’t even necessarily know the people to bring into our life, or who to be more distant with at any one point in time. It happened much more piecemeal and organically.

So, you don’t need to decide all of these things at once. You just need to start being more conscious of the people that you might want to be spending less time around, and who you might want to be spending more time around. If you do that, you will find yourself being able to make big changes to habits and behaviors much more easily.

2. Environment

Environment is the second thing you need to change if you want to be successful in building better health habits and behaviors.

The examples I want to share for environment are smaller, but I think they will help illustrate how a change in environment can help you make a transformative change in your life a lot easier.

I’ve always struggled with my relationship with food. I have a huge sweet tooth and am prone to binge eating on bad foods. This tends to happen mostly in my the house, which is where I spend most of
my time.

I ended up making one tweak to my environment, which made a huge difference to my challenges with eating bad foods. I took every type of bad food that I was tempted by (chocolate, sweets, biscuits etc.) and I put them in a big black box that has two combination lock padlocks on it. The only people that know the combination is my wife and daughter.

This means that the types of foods that tempt me and are bad for me, are no longer around me or accessible. When I open my cupboard, all I see is either foods that aren’t great for me, which I am not tempted by (bars, cereals, crisps etc.) or healthy foods I am better off eating.

I literally don’t have access to the bad foods that I am tempted to graze on when I’m at home. This has made a gigantic difference to the quality of my diet – it’s been night and day.

Want to hear something hilarious? Recently I’ve realised that the combination padlocks don’t properly secure the black box. I thought that would ruin the whole thing for me. Yet, I still don’t find myself hardly ever tempted to go into that box. It’s just enough friction to keep me on the right side of things. Plus, breaking into a black box to eat chocolates just isn’t a good look at all!

Another good example when it comes to a change of environment is with my training. When I was training at the CrossFit gym, I found it very hard to be consistent with my training.

I would fairly regularly miss sessions that I signed up to do. The gym is only a five minute drive from my house. However, in the winter it’s a hassle to get up, get dressed, scrape ice from the car and then make the drive. It’s basically twenty minutes of faffing either side of being in the gym.

Over the last couple of years I’ve been training in my converted garage home gym. I love training much more now. I only have to walk fifteen or so steps and I’m in my own space that I have curated exactly
how I want it. I also realised I prefer to train by myself. Making that change to my training environment means I’m now able to train five to six times a week consistently. I usually look forward to it and the
friction is so much less having it on my doorstep.

Another example – My Yeti water bottle. I struggled to be consistent with drinking enough water and staying hydrated for a long time. However, now it’s probably one of my easiest health habits to stick to.

Before I used to drink my water in random bottles or glasses. I know it sounds silly, but my Yeti water bottle is an expensive, beautiful bottle. It’s nice to fill up, hold and drink. And because it’s one liter, I know I just need to drink three of them a day.

This change has just made it easier and nicer to drink more water. It has helped me go from struggling to drink even a liter per day, to now being able to drink 3 liters as almost second nature.

I’ll give you one last example of changes to an environment. For that, we’ll go back to my friend Barry.

When Barry was giving up alcohol, one of the first changes he made was to no longer step foot into the pub. Now, I know you’re probably thinking, that’s a pretty obvious one right?

Sure, but you have to remember that at the time, Barry had quite a few friends that he still wanted to spend time with. He even tried for a while to go to the pub and stick to soft drinks and zero beers – which wasn’t a very successful strategy.

Only when he pulled himself out of the pub environment did he start to have a better chance of finally giving up alcohol. And that environment change, led to another. He replaced time in the pub with going to a boxing gym. And then being at a boxing gym, eventually led to the retreat and a new community altogether. Today he spends a lot of his time when not at work and with the family, doing cold plunges, sauna, yoga etc.

Now, he didn’t necessarily know he was going to make those drastic changes to his environment at the beginning. It started with just a first decision to no longer go into the pub – and then one environmental change naturally led to another. And with each change, the more he felt he was able to change about himself. He’s literally a different person today vs. a few years ago.

Wrap up

I hope this has given you a good example of how you have to make changes to the people in your
life and your environment if you want to bring new behaviors and habits – or if you want to make any type of transformative change in your life.

When you’re trying to build new habits and behaviors, I would encourage you to think about a tweak that you can make to the people around you and your environment.

Remember, you don’t have to make a lot of changes all at once. Start with making a small change. Bring someone in closer. Distance yourself from that one person who is making it harder for you to make a change. Make a tweak here or there to your environment.

These small changes will naturally lead to other changes with people and environment – perhaps ones you’re not even able to see presently. And before you know it, your life will start to look quite different – both in terms of the positive changes you’re able to make, but also for how the people in your life and environment shifts around you.

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Mastering Consistency: The Key to Transforming Your Health and Fitness (And How to Build It)

October 13, 2024

What if I told you that there is one thing that is the key to transforming your health and your fitness? And nothing else will come even close. Well. That one thing is CONSISTENCY.

Consistency is without doubt the single biggest reason that I’ve been able to transform how I look and feel over the last few years – vs. struggling for about twenty years prior to that.

And I can tell you, it’s unbelievable to witness the results that are possible – if you just week in, week out – stick to foundational health habits, train hard, and eat right. It’s literally impossible to not look good, and feel great.

But here’s the thing – I wasn’t always consistent. I spent nearly twenty years struggling to get it right. In those twenty years, I really did want it. I really did try very hard. I was just never able to get my act together.

I would get stuck in a vicious cycle of shooting for perfection. And then, as soon as I wasn’t able to achieve that perfection, I would fall off the wagon HARD. A good example. If I slipped on my diet, I would then fall into a long cycle of bingeing on all types of foods that were bad for me. It was some type of weird ‘get it out of my system’ before I started again behaviour. But, really, I was just self sabotaging.

Or, it was as simple as I just couldn’t seem to rustle up the raw discipline that was necessary for me to be consistent with my habits, training and nutrition.

All in all, there was just a lot of starting – then stopping – and then starting back up again.

And by the way – each time I started back up, I would throw everything at it. But, no amount of intense effort – even if I was giving 120% for a short time – could make up for the lack of steady, consistent action.

So, in case I haven’t made it clear enough – consistency is everything. You absolutely have to be consistent over a medium to long term time frame if you want to get impressive results. Nothing else will work.

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So, the million dollar question (actually two):

What’s the key, then, to being ABLE to be consistent over a medium to long term time frame?
What’s the difference between those that struggle and those that find it easy?

You’ve probably heard of people like David Goggins or Jocko Willink. Both are ex Navy SEALS.

Goggins, who famously runs 10 miles every day, and Willink, who posts a 4:30 a.m. watch photo on X to prove his routine – they make it look easy.

For most of us, it feels impossible to be this disciplined, this consistent. It’s almost as if Goggins and Willink were born with some type of superhuman willpower or motivation.

Well, the good news is that you don’t need to be born with anything special. I can assure you, I certainly wasn’t. And I have gone from someone who lacked discipline and wasn’t able to be consistent for most of my adult life – to someone today who is extremely disciplined and consistent with my foundational health habits, training and nutrition – week in, week out.

I can boil this transformation down to two key shifts that I had to make. And, I know, if you can make them too, consistency is going to feel almost effortless.

And the best part? You don’t need to live like a Navy SEAL or wake up at 4:30 a.m. every day to do it.

OK. Let’s dig into the two key shifts.

1. The Great, Good, OK and Bad Week Framework

The Great, Good, OK and Bad Week framework has been instrumental in helping move me away from the ‘shooting for perfection and falling off the wagon’ vicious circle that I would so often get stuck in.

In short, all of your efforts over a week can generally be categorised into one of these four buckets:

Great week
Good Week
OK Week
Bad Week

Those are your four buckets.

The biggest shift you need to make is actually one of mindset. And that’s because you need to really understand that you do not need to be consistently perfect to get the results you want

Let me say that one more time, because it’s crucial.

You do not need to be consistently perfect to get the results you want.

In fact, ironically, aiming for perfection is a sure fire way to NOT get the results that you want.

You can absolutely afford some bad and OK weeks in the mix of things and still achieve incredibly impressive results.

Here is a quick highlight of what great, good, ok and bad weeks look like for me, as well as how many of each you probably want to aim for:

Great Weeks

I’ll let you into a little secret – great weeks are actually kinda rare. I’m talking about those weeks where you just seem to have the midas touch. You hit almost every single note. It’s hard to even find a crack in anything that you did.

Great weeks tend to come round about only 10% of the time actually. So, that’s literally one every five weeks or so.

For me, a great week would look something like this:

3 weights sessions, with some good progression
3 hours of zone 2 cardio
Average of 10K steps
Hit my calories target
Average of 175 grams of protein
Over 70% whole foods
And have a very strong week for foundational health habits (90%+)

This is just a picture perfect week. I couldn’t wish for anything more.

But, as I said, great weeks really only show up now and again. The stars often have to align for me to be able to come in this strong. In fact, I can’t even remember a time where I managed two consecutive great weeks.

Good Weeks

Good weeks are the norm for me. And they happen about 50% of the time.

A good week for me is usually where a lot of what I just described happens – but I also fall short on a few of those things. Perhaps I was only able to get half of my zone 2 cardio done, and my whole foods fell to 60%. On top of that, I might have struggled with one of my foundational health habits.

In the grand scheme of things, I still did a lot of very good things right. But, I dropped the ball on a few things that make it fairly obvious to point out where I fell short.

Falling short on a few things, when you did most other things right, isn’t a bad place to be at all. In fact, that’s why I label it a good week! It’s a good place to be.

You can’t be great at everything, week in, week out. Life is going to get in the way. Sometimes you’ll just make mistakes or have a lapse in willpower or discipline. It happens. And when it happens for a few things, it usually means I’ll have to settle for the week to be good – but not great.

OK Weeks

For me, these tend to show up about 20% of the time. And as another reminder, that means about every five weeks or so.

On the surface, it sounds bad to say you’ll have an OK week every one in five weeks. It instinctively feels too frequent. But, realistically, that’s how often they show up for me.

An OK week for me, is where I fall short on more than just a few things. I’m probably dropping the ball on maybe half of the things I’m trying to do.

Maybe I only got two weights sessions in. I only got an hour of zone 2 cardio in. My steps might have taken a big hit – maybe 5K average or so. And then nutrition and habits were a bit hit and miss across the board.

So, yeah. Just OK. Definitely not a disaster. I mean, I still got three good sessions in – a mix of weights and cardio. I still walked a bit. And despite missing quite a bit with my nutrition and habits, there were still a fair few things to point towards that were good. So, a mixed bag. Not good, but not bad. Just OK.

I look at OK weeks as a kind of ‘tread water’ week. Having too many of them certainly will stop you moving forward. But, at the same time, there’s enough being done in them to keep your head above water and stay somewhat neutral.

I usually hit an OK week when I have a lot of stress in my personal life, or perhaps I’m starting to feel some burnout and need to rest. Or, when I have too many travel and social commitments, as this will disrupt my routine.

That’s just how it goes sometimes. You have to take the rough with the smooth. Some weeks will feel OK and flat. You just need to accept them and move onto the next week. Push to get another good or great week under the belt.

Bad Weeks

A bad week tends to come around about 5-10% of the time. So, roughly one in every five to ten weeks.

It’s fair to say, bad weeks are pretty much disasters. They usually involve quite low activity across the board, and a fair amount of falling off the wagon when it comes to nutrition and habits.

These are the sort of weeks that you just want to forget about. For whatever reason (burnout, really bad sleep, stress, or even just simply losing your grip on things for a bit), the week is a bit of a car crash.

When these weeks happen, you just need to forget about them. Understand, they do not define you. Great, good and OK weeks came before it, and they will come after it. And if you have enough progress and momentum behind you, it will certainly take more than a bad week to make a dent in things.

On the whole, see bad weeks for what they are – a blip.

So, a bit of recap so far on the first key shift.

The biggest thing to remember is this – ‘you do not need to be consistently perfect to get the results you want’.

It’s impossible to have perfect or great weeks every week – you know this. Having this expectation of yourself is only going to get you stuck. Because the moment you fall short, you’re going to feel terrible about yourself. This then leads to self sabotage type behaviors – which will kill consistency in its track.

And it kills consistency in its track because the average when you’re stuck in a start and stop cycle is very low – regardless of how hard you push in the periods where you’re doing well.

So, all you need to do is stack a mix of great, good, OK and bad weeks, at the type of realistic ratios as I just described. Do that over a mid to long term time frame – and that is what will lead you to really impressive results.

So, that’s the first shift you need to make. Let go of perfection. Use the Great, Good, OK, and bad week framework.

If you adopt this framework, you’ll find that your discipline, consistency and results will shift to a whole new level.

And I can guarantee that it will work because I’ve seen it happen for myself. I’m in the best shape and health of my life by FAR, and I did it by using this framework to be consistent.

So, now let’s get into the second shift. And this is where we’re going to get back to foundational health habits.

2. Foundational Health habits

If you’ve listened to any of my previous podcast episodes, or anything I have written, this one is not going to be a surprise to you.

Yes, foundational health habits will help get you into the best shape and health of your life. Moderating alcohol and caffeine, sleeping well, drinking enough water to be hydrated, eating mostly whole foods, walking a lot, eating enough protein – there’s not a lot of debate that these things are objectively going to improve your health and fitness.

But, as I’ve said many times, the direct health benefits you get are only part of the prize. And arguably, they are actually the least important part of the prize.

Building foundational health habits into my life has helped me become someone who can now operate at a whole new level. It’s like I’m a completely different human being – someone who is so much more confident, disciplined and ultimately, someone who is now much, much more capable.

If I now look at what I’m able to be consistent with on a weekly basis, it would have been unfathomable for me to imagine that for myself only two years ago.

But today? I just feel super well put together. I’m optimistic, confident, and hardly have any anxiety. I have so much more energy. I have a level of discipline that’s not only been built from the journey I went through in building foundational health habits in my life, but it’s also a direct result of having them in my life.

And, what this all comes down to – I’ve become someone who is now capable of being consistent with what I decide I want to do. And before, I just wasn’t the type of person who was capable of it.

Each and every foundational health habit you bring into your life, will help shift what you’re capable of doing in life.

When you’re well slept, you will find it exponentially easier to be consistent. Same goes for being well hydrated, being active, reducing your alcohol intake etc. I won’t go through every habit. But you get the point. Each of the foundational habits, and particularly the compound nature of several of them, will transform your discipline and your ability to be consistent.

So actually, this second shift is far more important than the first. Yes, the great, good, OK and bad week framework is a really powerful tool to help you achieve consistency. But, if you lack the pure capability – if you’re not someone who is capable of sticking to something – no amount of framework is going to help you.

So, I encourage you to build foundational health habits into your life – starting today. Go through my previous articles and episodes, where I detail what the seven foundational health habits are, and feel free to copy my approach to tracking them. I can guarantee, you will not regret it. Because it will unlock a capability that has the potential to transform your whole life, not just your health and fitness.

As usual, I’m just an email away if you want any help with it.

Wrap up

Let’s wrap this up with a bit of a summary.

Consistency is the biggest thing you are going to have to nail, if you want to transform your health and fitness – and actually anything in your life.

You have to be able to week in, week out – consistently stick to the plan. And no amount of hacks or intensity will make up for a lack of consistency.

By adopting the great, good, ok and bad week framework, and building foundational health habits into your life, you will transform yourself into someone who is capable of being disciplined for the work that lies ahead. And that is what will get you the results you want.

I hope you’ve found this useful, and good luck on your journey.

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Habit Review: July 2024 (it got a bit bumpy!)

August 19, 2024

Hmmmm. So, July was a little bumpy. Let’s talk it through!

My goals for July were straight forward:

6 habits I’ve fairly firmly established – alcohol, sleep, protein, caffeine, water and steps – at 80% consistency and in the green
Whole foods, which is my seventh habit that I’m in the early stages of building – my goal is to be above 50% consistency again (that would make it the third consecutive month of being above 50%) – and preferably I’d like to see it closer to 60% consistency.

Alright, let’s jump into how well I did in July:

I think it’s fair to say that I had a bit of a wobble in July.

Of the six foundational health habits I wanted to keep 80% consistency or over and in the green, I only managed to keep four of them in the green – alcohol, protein, caffeine and water. I’m of course, super happy with those.

The two habits that slipped below 80% consistency and therefore into the orange were sleep and steps. Although, not by much – 74% consistency for sleep and 77% consistency for 10K steps. So, not overly happy with these. We’ll get into that in a few moments.

And then for my seventh foundation health habit, whole foods – that came in at 52% consistency. I’m fairly happy with that as it means I’ve managed to be over 50% for three consecutive months now. That’s a pretty good place to be given I’m in the early stages of building my whole foods habit.

So, overall I’d say July was pretty mixed. A mix of some great, some good, and some OK.

As usual, let’s dive into the details:

No Alcohol

Goes without saying, 100% consistency.

It’s also worth mentioning that I hit my three year sober milestone in July. I only realised two weeks after the fact, because I’m no longer concerned with counting. That’s just who I am now.

Sleep – 6.5 hours

Sleep came in at 74% consistency. This kinda pisses me off, because sleep is so damn important. I therefore hate to see it in the orange.

That said, there’s nothing substantial or new that would lead me to believe I’m in trouble with sleep. I know my sleep habit is a little vulnerable at times. I got a friendly reminder of this.

There’s two things I’d put down to my sleep consistency being low in July.

Firstly, I got off to a bad start (three misses in the first nine days). From there, I didn’t recover properly and clocked up a few unnecessary misses due to a lack of focus. I simply went to bed too late when I knew I should have gotten an early night to give myself the best chance of getting over 6.5 hours.

Secondly, I always find summer a bit of a challenge when it comes to sleep. It’s been a very hot July and the sun has been rising early. This always tends to present a bit of extra risk to hitting my 6.5 hours.

These will be the two things I think about over the next few months.

Protein – 175 grams

Protein came in at 81% consistency. I would usually expect this to be comfortably in the nineties. However, a few trips and unusual breaks from my routine caused this to dip.

As with all of my habits, anything 80% of above is entirely fine. Yeah, it’s nice to see things high eighties and into the nineties, but that’s icing on the cake. So long as I’m 80% or above and in the green with each of my habits, I’ve achieved my goal. So, no worries with protein. I’m pretty confident we’ll be back to 90%+ consistency over the next few months.

Caffeine – max two cups, and before midday

Same score and same analysis as protein – 81% consistency.

81% is perfectly fine with me. As usual, each of my six misses were very intentional – either around a trip or fuelling an afternoon workout.

Water – 3 litres

Water was my highest scoring habit, at 94% consistency. Water is a standout habit for me. It’s almost second nature to drink 3 litres of water a day, and it’s not something I struggle with at all. This didn;t used to be the case, but over time I’ve just drummed it in.

10K Steps

Steps were a bit of a bummer – 77% consistency. Like sleep, this one annoyed me because it’s also one I have some vulnerability with and July kindly reminded me that.

Always the same deal – I lose my focus, and leave it too late. I know what I have to do to get it reliably over 80% consistency. And that’s what I’ll focus on for the next few months.

Whole Foods – 80%

Whole foods came in at 52% consistency. On one hand, that’s great and now three consecutive months over 50%. That’s a solid trend there.

On the other hand, I’m not seeing signs of it getting closer to 60% and over. And that’s what I now need to work on.

Improving this is going to be very hard, and will take some time. Once you start to track everything you eat, you realise how hard it is to even eat 30 or 40% whole foods. With my target being 80% whole foods per day, it only takes one or two things to not be whole foods to kill the percentage.

To improve this, I just need to be much more focused and start to dial things in tighter. I’ve made a good leap from under 50% to always over 50%. So, some extra dialing in will help me get closer to, and over 60%. I’m motivated to do that, watch this space.

July Wrap Up

Yes, I had fairly mixed results in July. It definitely could’ve been better.

But, I have to remind myself that this will sometimes happen. Now and again, I’m going to have to take it on the chin that established foundational health habits WILL fall under 80% consistency, and into the orange now and again.

I think the important thing to remember is that a blip on a habit for one month is definitely not a trend. Realistically, that’s just going to happen sometimes – through losing my focus or through the curveballs life will deal me from time to time.

What’s important is to make sure it isn’t a trend. If I slip into two consecutive missed months, that becomes the start of a trend. And three consecutive missed months? That’s definitely a trend.

So, I’ll pick myself up, and focus extra hard on things for the next few months. I want to prove to myself this is just a one off blip!

Aug Goals

My goals for August look a bit different from a usual month. That’s because I’m on holiday in Tenerife for ten days.

I’m going to do something a little custom for August, and only focus on and track steps and water. If you want to dig deeper into how I think about my foundational health habits whilst on holiday, and my rationale for only tracking steps and water, check out How I track my habits on holiday.

September will of course be back to normal.

I will see you next month!

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