Over the last few years I have attended seminars with some of the best brains in the business, which has enabled me to accomplish some pretty big things. Rewind only a handful of years and I was the nervous personal trainer struggling to get his courage up to ask for a selfie with whoever had taken the seminar. Now, only a few years later, it’s me taking the seminars. Sometimes I see how nervous people get talking to me, and I try my best to break down their nerves with banter, a hug or even putting my arm around them, saying it’s okay and that I don’t bite. I was that exact person when I was the attendee, so I know it well.
When I attended those events there were literally hundreds of other PTs besides me. I attended some of the events alone and I made friends with them for the day. I remember their names, what they looked like, their branding, the lot. I don’t know where those trainers are today; I haven’t ever seen any of them on social media, and I sometimes wonder what differentiated me from the others. Why have I reached so many people and they haven’t? We learned the exact same things, we were only sitting a foot apart. It’s not like I was taught one thing and they were taught another.
It was very important for me to put into action what I learned in those seminars. If I didn’t, what was the point? When it comes to video content, I’d say I’m in the top quadrant of people who are recognized for their efforts on social media. Now, do you want to know what my first ever video was on? What topic I picked? Popcorn. Yes, that’s right – popcorn.
At the seminar, as part of one of the tasks, I promised myself that the very next day I’d record my first ever video for social media. After spending an hour walking round the flat, looking in cupboards for something – anything – to talk about, I found a bag of popcorn. I was awkward, I stuttered, I wasn’t sure what to say. I used my old MacBook’s front camera. The quality was awful; the content was worse. I thought I could talk about popcorn being a good low-calorie snack. I waffled on for a few minutes and then saved the video, which nearly killed my laptop and I uploaded it to Facebook to my couple of hundred followers. I think it maybe got about three likes, and they were probably just sympathy likes from family or friends.
I’d go as far to say that video was not only quite embarrassing in hindsight, but also easily the most important piece of social-media content I have ever created or ever will.
You see, what I said wasn’t important. How I recorded it wasn’t important. It was the sole fact that I had taken action on what I had learned the previous day. I had gone home and said that tomorrow, without fail, I am recording a video. Could it have been better recorded? Sure. A better topic? Of course. But I took action, and to this day, I am so grateful that I woke up on that Sunday with that attitude. I also had a gut feeling that most of the attendees in the seminars would have woken up the next day and done nothing. If you see my videos now, you could conclude that I am, perhaps, a natural on camera, but I wasn’t then. I merely improved by very small fractions behind the scenes for years. My editing, equipment and strategy improved, like an Olympic lifter only ever looking for tiny margins and small incremental improvements each day – not expecting to wake up with extra plates on the bar, just a little better here and there, looking for the long-term return and never getting deflated about the short term.
Ultimately, this book is going to be a waste of time and money for you unless you implement what I have taught you.
The beginning doesn’t have to be perfect. Mine certainly wasn’t. But over the next few weeks, months, years, you’ll need only to search for these small improvements.
Don’t be fooled by the next big method that comes your way. You know it’s going to be bullshit. Someone’s ‘secrets to fat loss’ or exercise that helps you ‘tone up’ are all leading to the principle, the calorie deficit. All fat loss that’s ever occurred is because of the calorie deficit created, whether the person has known it or not. So ensure that no one around you is being taken advantage of or misled by the zealots and big organizations looking to make a few quid from dressing up the principle as some magical solution.
What gets measured gets improved; logging your food is a powerful short-term tool to bolster your knowledge – if you have any chance of being more intuitive with how much you’re eating, this will help. I want you to think of it like tracing paper: we don’t need it there for ever, just to improve our habits day by day. One day, eventually, the paper will be removed and your writing will be neater and more balanced. Each person takes a different amount of time developing their writing skills, but there’s not a lot that can be done outside repetition and striving for small continual improvements.
Tracking your NEAT is again something to definitely consider should you want to strive to be the most active. Remember, workouts don’t burn as many calories as you think, and skipping the odd workout is okay. There are bigger fish to fry, and forcing a workout that you should have skipped helps no one. Try to keep your NEATUP247 whenever possible too.
There are no good or bad habits, only ones that play into your ultimate goal and those that don’t. Successful people and those who accomplish nothing have the same goals; it’s not the goals that are to blame, but the daily habits and processes that mean the most. Where you are going is always much more important than where you currently are.
You need to pay close attention to your life outside of dieting and training. Life is far too fucking short not to have a career you cherish and love. Go after your passion, even if it means moving back in with your parents – because, ultimately, there’s a disease out there that’s killing the souls of millions, and that’s boredom with a payslip attached to it.
The people in your life are very important. Remember the sunk-cost fallacy: the amount of time you’ve been with someone is not a reason to stay with them even longer. If your partner doesn’t support you and your ambitions fully, they’re going to cause drag and you don’t need that. If you’re even considering it, you need to do it. If it’s not a fuck yes, then it’s a no. Human beings instinctively don’t like change or being alone – but, ultimately, being selfish and self-centred is an important part of growing, and that’s sometimes the identity you need to acquire to do well. You need to be unapologetically yourself, it’s empowering. You can’t try to please everyone. So say what you’re thinking, and don’t be afraid or worried about what other people will think.
I hope to have connected many dots that were not connected before for you. I hope to have given you a different perspective, and, at the same time, helped you to look at and audit how you act, who is in your life and why, what you value and what you don’t. I hope to have armed you with the knowledge you need so that people can’t trick you, fool you or take advantage of you. I need you to pass this forward to people around you too: your friends, colleagues and your family. You should, by now, be better educated than most personal trainers and, unfortunately, a lot of dietitians I have come across. Don’t underestimate the power of passing on what you’ve learned about energy balance, fat loss, female physiology, differentiating diabetes, sleep and much more. You now have the potential power to change the lives around you for the better. If everyone does that after turning the last page in this book, I honestly feel we can change the world and better the lives of the people in it.
I can’t do all this for you. I’ve done my part. From here on in, it’s all down to you. You can reread this book and listen to my podcasts to help you stay on track, but it’s still down to you. You might go to bed tonight the same, but tomorrow you need to wake up a slightly different person. Someone who is in control of their training, in control of their diet, who gets adequate sleep and balances out their weekends into the week.
You’re going to have some awkward conversations, upset some people who get easily offended, and you may even lose a few friends when you rub them up the wrong way with your progress. You may have to tell your employer you’re going to leave soon (and you may need a haircut for the interviews you’ll be going on).
You have everything you need from this book to go it alone and succeed.
Tomorrow your new identity begins. Be the person who goes after their dreams, rather than just thinking about them, hoping they’ll happen. You’re armed with the knowledge so that you don’t get easily sidetracked or misled on your journey. You’ll have realized now that this book wasn’t about recipes, home workouts or the bloody benefits of an avocado – it’s about self-development and self-help and, if used correctly, it can be a life-altering book.
So just remember: this is not a diet book. It’s a call-to-action book. It’s about empowerment, and you must begin that the second you turn this final page. I’m already excited for you. I’d like to think I’m living proof of the extraordinary things you can achieve in a short period of time when you reset your attitude and ethos, and implement what you’ve read in these chapters in your daily life.
What you accomplish over the next days, months and even coming years will be a direct result of what you do after closing this book. So, from me, all the best and good luck. The train is about to leave, so make sure you get on it.
James