SF Fine Fettle

01/02/2026

My last Facebook cover photo said:

👉 “People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.”

And honestly…
that pretty much sums up how I see the world.

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As grown-ups, we tend to file play away as something for children.

Cute.
Frivolous.
Optional.

But that’s wrong.

Play isn’t silly.

Play isn’t a luxury.

Play is a human need — and one of the most powerful tools we have for mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.

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🤔 Let’s think about exercise for a second…

For many people, that word conjures up images of:

😰 Gruelling workouts
😓 Shiny, judgemental gyms
😑 Endless, boring reps

No wonder we sometimes struggle to stick with it.

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But what if we reframed exercise completely?

What if we viewed it through the lens of play?

✨ Joy
✨ Curiosity
✨ Movement that feels good
✨ Fun without pressure

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🧠 Play is…

• Doing something purely for enjoyment — it’s the journey, not the destination
• Exploring movement without wanting a “result”
• Listening to our bodies and following instinct rather than rules

💪 Exercise is…

• Movement — that’s it!
• Infinitely flexible and creative
• Capable of being playful, expressive and enjoyable

When we treat exercise as play, it stops being a chore and becomes a source of enjoyment, creativity and self-expression.

Just like kids use play to learn and grow — grown-ups can use movement the same way.

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🌱 Why play matters for grown-ups

✔️ Reduces stress and helps us reset
✔️ Improves mood and mental wellbeing
✔️ Strengthens social connection and relationships
✔️ Encourages creativity, risk-taking and growth
✔️ Boosts physical health and releases feel-good endorphins

Play helps us recharge, connect, laugh, and feel human again.
🧓➡️🧒

We don’t stop playing because we grow old.

We grow old because we stop playing.

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🎈 We’re never too old to go out and play.

Sometimes we just need someone to take us by the hand and remind us of the way.

That’s my job 😊

18/01/2026

LONGEVITY ISN’T ABOUT GETTING OLD…
IT’S ABOUT MAKING THE MOST OF THE TIME WE HAVE. 🧠💪

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🌍 THE WORLD FEELS LOUD
The world can often feel like it’s spinning faster and faster.
🌍 noise
📣 pressure
🏃‍♂️ “keep up or get left behind.”
Anxiety, stress and low mood aren’t personal failures.
They’re nervous systems that haven’t had enough
movement, connection and release 🤍
And that’s where exercise becomes one of the most powerful medicines we have.

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🧠 EXERCISE ISN’T ABOUT BODIES
Exercise isn’t about bodies.
It’s about brains, confidence and identity.
When we move our bodies, we generate by-products:
✨ Fun
💖 Self-worth
🔥 Confidence
🪞 Self-awareness
🦁 Courage
🌊 Adaptability
🛡️ Resilience
🤲 Body appreciation
📏 Discipline
😌 Calm
🧍‍♂️ Independence
🆔 Identity
🌱 Evolution
These aren’t “fitness goals”.
They’re life skills.

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⏳ HEALTHSPAN, NOT JUST YEARS
Over years, these stack up into what we now call healthspan.
How long we stay:
energised
independent
able to do what we love ❤️
Not just how long we survive.

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🧬 SELF-HEALTH AS WE AGE
Think of this as self-health — the stuff that really matters as we get older.
It’s not miracle pills or bio-hacking.
It’s spotting small problems early and fixing them before they become big ones 🛠️
Ageing naturally reduces:
💪 muscle
🧘 balance
🤸 flexibility
⚡ reaction sp*ed
That’s why:
• ~30% of over-65s fall every year
• ~50% of over-80s do
Strength, balance and movement can dramatically reduce:
falls
dementia risk
heart disease
loss of independence
Yet only:
• 17% of over-65s do enough strength work
• 15% do enough balance work
This isn’t a motivation problem.
It’s an education and support problem 📚🤝

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🏃‍♀️ MOVEMENT DOES MORE THAN KEEP US ALIVE
Movement improves:
😊 mood
😴 sleep
🍽️ digestion
🧠 memory
💪 confidence
🫂 social connection
🦴 bone density
❤️ heart health
It teaches our nervous system how to stay steady, strong and capable as the years pass.

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☕ AND ME…
I’m Steve of SF Fine Fettle — one of a few hundred Mental Health & Exercise Coaches in the UK.
I work with empathy, honesty and real humans, not numbers 🤍
I’m not taking on clients right now, but I’ll happily buy you a tea, coffee or soft drink for a no-obligation chat ☕
Just two humans talking about how we want to feel in the years ahead.

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Exercise isn’t healthcare.
It’s self-health.
Longevity isn’t about avoiding death —
it’s about being alive while we’re here ❤️

11/01/2026

Ever thought about what advice you’d give yourself on your deathbed? 🛏️
Not the polite stuff.
Not the socially acceptable stuff.
The honest stuff 💬 — the kind that cuts through fear, regret and “one day” thinking.
Imagine being tired… but at peace 😌
Knowing you really lived.
What would you tell the current you?
👇👇👇
⚰️ Life isn’t about arriving safely at the grave in a well-preserved body
🚀 It’s about skidding in sideways, worn out, used up, and saying:
“Wow… what a ride.”
—
✔️ Don’t be afraid of mistakes — that’s how you learn
😉 You have a right to be an idiot… just don’t abuse the privilege
❤️ Love the people who deserve it
🚫 Stop worrying about the ones who don’t
🫀🦵 Look after your heart and your knees
🧘‍♂️ It’s OK to put yourself first sometimes
😂 Laugh often
🎉 Have fun
You are — and always were — good enough.
—
🎯 These beliefs underpin why I do what I do.
🇬🇧 I’m one of 450+ qualified mental health and exercise coaches in the UK — but titles don’t matter.
🧠💪 I’m not a people whisperer — just someone who works with empathy and honesty to improve physical and mental fitness together.
🎶 1:1 private Chippenham gym
• No crowds
• No judgement
💪🧠 Because exercise isn’t healthcare.
It’s self-health.
☕️🥤 If this resonates, I’ll happily buy you a coffee or soft drink for a no-obligation chat — even though I’m not taking on clients right now.
🤝 Connection first.
Everything else after.

05/01/2026

Nice to see the professional coaching world catching up.......

What it means and why the physical activity profession has a big part to play, by Annette Wade-Clarke, Chief Communications and Engagement Officer, CIMSPA

04/01/2026

🔥 WE DON’T NEED A RESOLUTION — WE NEED EVOLUTION! 🔥

Fed up with fitness marketing telling us January is the month to turn over a new leaf and fix our world? 🍃

The current us is already good enough! 💚

Most of that messaging ignores reality.

Many of us haven’t been exercising — not because we’re lazy, but because barriers have been put in our way 🚧

Trying to guilt us into fitness — under the disguise of New Year’s resolutions and body ideals — only reinforces that prejudice 🚫

Those barriers are not going to miraculously disappear just because we enter the month of January 📅

But a simple game of TRUE or FALSE can help us realise that we can tear them down together 👇

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🔹 We need a personal trainer to get us moving and fit — FALSE ❌
We need a coach to remind us what we are already capable of, not train us in a new skill.
Someone to guide, support, build belief, and remind us what we’re already capable of 💪
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🔹 Going to the gym can feel scary — TRUE 😬
Many gyms are built on narrow and unnecessary societal ideals.
Our bodies deserve appreciation for what they can do, not how they look 🧍‍♀️🧍‍♂️
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🔹 Stress is something we can live with — FALSE ❌
Stress leaves bruises we can’t see 🧠
It’s something to release like p*e and poo — not carry around like a badge of honour 🚽
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🔹 Exercise is about being faster, leaner, stronger — FALSE ❌
Exercise is fun, confidence, and enjoying the journey — not the mirror 😊
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🔹 We’re too old to start — FALSE ❌
We don’t stop moving because we get old —
we get old because we stop moving ❤️
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🔹 My wellbeing is only about me — FALSE ❌
Our health impacts our families, friends, and communities 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦
Being well helps us show up for the people we love 🤍
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🔹 Health is just physical fitness — FALSE ❌
Wellbeing is not, not being ill — it is mental, physical, and social in balance
That’s the WHO definition! 🌍
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🔹 I’m not qualified to talk about mental health — FALSE ❌
We all have mental health.
That means we’re all qualified to talk about it 🗣️
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🔹 There are no coaches who do both mental & physical health — FALSE ❌
There are over 450 of us in the UK 🇬🇧
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🔹 Starting something new is scary — TRUE 😨
That fear is often a longing for the freedom we had as kids 🤝
A great coach helps you rediscover that ✨
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🔹 We don’t have time — FALSE ❌
Even small movement matters. Our health is non-negotiable ⏱️
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🔹 We’re not fit enough to start — FALSE ❌
Everything starts by starting 🌱
Progress is still progress — however small it may feel 🐢
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🔹 Change is scary — TRUE 😬
But meaningful change comes from doing hard things — with support 🧗
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These barriers have stood for too long. Together, we can tear them down ✨

💥 We don’t need a resolution — we need evolution. 💥

28/12/2025

A teacher introduced a class of children to two apples. One had been repeatedly dropped on the floor. The children described how both apples looked the same
🍎
The teacher picked up the apple that had been repeatedly dropped on the floor. She told the children how much she disliked it. She told them that because she didn't like it, she didn't want them to like it either, so they should call it names.
🗣️
The class passed the apple around saying, 'you're a smelly apple', 'I don't even know why you exist', 'you've probably got worms inside you'.
💬
They passed the other apple around and said, 'You're a lovely apple', 'Your skin is beautiful', 'What a beautiful colour you are'.
👀
The teacher then held up both apples, there was no change, both apples still looked the same.
🔪
The teacher then cut the apples open. The apple the class had been kind to was clear, fresh, and juicy inside.
The apple the class had been unkind to was bruised and all mushy inside.
💔
What the children saw in the bruises, the mush and the broken bits is what happens inside us when someone mistreats us, or when we are anxious or stressed.
😔
People with anxiety and stress feel horrible inside and sometimes don't show or tell others how they are feeling. If that apple had not been cut open, the class would never have known how much pain it was in.
🌧️
We all have our own experiences of soldiering on. On the outside we look OK and can still smile. But, on the inside we can be scared and in pain.
🤝
We have the ability to stop this from happening. It is not weakness to ask for help; it is a towering strength. More and more hurt and damage happens inside if nobody knows how we feel.
👶🛡️
We can teach children that it's not ok to say unkind things and discuss how it makes others feel. We can teach children to stand up for each other and to ask for, and provide help.
🌍
We rise by lifting others. Compassion, kindness, and patience makes our world a better place – they are languages the deaf can hear and the blind can see:
💖
• In a world where we can be anything, let's open our hearts to understanding, empathy, and support. Small acts can create ripples of positivity that touch lives in ways we may never fully comprehend.
🌟
• A simple smile, a thoughtful gesture, or lending a helping hand can make someone's day. We can create a chain reaction that transforms our communities.
⏳
• The most beautiful aspects of life are not built in a day. Patience allows room for growth, understanding, and the unfolding of beautiful stories. It is not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting that matters.
🕊️
Above all, in 2026, perhaps we just need to recall what it was like to be a child, and remember to be more kind.
💛🍎

23/12/2025

Tim is a very wise man, just need to find two more.....

Some great advice in the run up to Christmas!

Read full story: https://www.swindon24.co.uk/columnist/christmas-and-the-other-11-months/

Tim Howe / The Longevity Games

21/12/2025

🔥 THE COST OF NOT LIVING CRISIS 🔥
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Not a day seems to go by we hear about a cost of living crisis 💷📉
But we rarely talk about the cost of not living ⏳🖤
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Right now in the UK: 🇬🇧
• Around 25% of us are experiencing poor mental health 🧠⚠️
• 37% say they don’t exercise at all 🚫🏃‍♂️
• Just 13% of us exercise regularly ✅💪
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These numbers are not intended to scare, but to remind that:
👉 There is still plenty of time ⏰✨
👉 It is never too late to make our own interventions 🌱🔄
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Exercise isn’t about ❌
shrinking into ourselves, scales ⚖️, mirrors 🪞, clothes sizes 👕 nor “beach bodies” 🏖️
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Exercise is about:
✨ Space for us to work towards meaningful goals
🧠 Our mental health over aesthetics
🔥 Confidence over our clothes size
🤍 Self-respect over scales
🚫 A refusal to judge self-worth by appearance
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On my left side I have a tattoo of a skeleton at prayer ☠️🙏
taken from William Cheselden’s 1733 anatomical masterpiece Memento Mori 📜
Memento Mori is Latin for:
“Remember you have to die.” ⏳
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I don’t see it as morbid 🖤
I see it as grounding 🌍
It reminds me that when I die:

• I will have looked after the people I care about to the best of my ability and for as long as possible ❤️
• I will have, all things being equal, achieved all I wanted to 🎯
• I will offer myself up with no regrets ✨
• I will have done all these things whilst having as much fun as possible, at every opportunity 😄
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Exercise will have been the foundation of all of that 🏗️
Because it is, by far, the most potent longevity drug we have 💊⏳
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Ten years from now…
We won’t care what we weighed at the end of 2025 ⚖️❌
But we will care about:
• Our independence 🚶‍♂️💥
• Our energy⚡
• Keeping up with kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews
• Whether our lives feel expansive or restricted 🌈🔒
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✨ We can intervene now
✨ We can make our change now
✨ We can lay the foundations of living the rest of our lives how we want to, now 🧱🌱

14/12/2025

⭐ EXERCISE IS UNNATURAL👀🧠

Stay with me — because this isn’t the message you think it is. 😉
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Crowded House sang in 1991 🎶
“It's bigger than us
You don't have to worry about it
I know you're afraid
It's only natural
It's something I was born to
It's only natural”
They weren’t talking about movement… but they could have been.
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Because the truth is this:
👉 Movement is natural.
👉 Exercise… isn’t.
When we were evolving, there was no “working out” 🏋️‍♂️.
We moved because survival depended on it.
When we weren’t moving, we conserved energy — like a cheetah resting before a hunt 🐆.
From that perspective, believe it or not, being inactive is actually our more natural instinct.
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Fast-forward to modern life:
We’ve swapped hunting and gathering 🌿
for emails 📧, commutes 🚗, childcare 👶, bills 💸, screens 📱 and stress 😩.
Our bodies haven’t changed — but our environment has.
We’re now living in a way evolution never prepared us for.
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We’ve already had three huge revolutions:
🌾 Agricultural
🏭 Industrial
💻 Technological
…all in the blink of evolutionary time ⏳.
But we don’t allow our bodies to move how they were designed to move before all that.
And the impact hits both our mental and physical health ❤️‍🩹.
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Counter-intuitively, one of the biggest barriers to exercise is that the very idea of it is unnatural.
We’re asking a sedentary modern human to behave like an ancient mover 🏹.
No wonder it feels hard.
Add to that a fitness industry shouting at us to train like soldiers 🪖, chase aesthetics 💃, shrink sizes 👖, and conform to absurd ideals 🤦‍♂️… and it’s no surprise people feel judged, overwhelmed, or disconnected.
Treadmills were originally prison punishment ⚙️.
PE was created to prepare kids for national service 🎒.
We’ve inherited the baggage — and we feel it.
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So what’s the alternative? 🤔
Not arm days.
Not chest days.
Not forcing routines we hate. ❌
The solution is returning to what our body is designed to do:
✔ Fundamental movement patterns 🏃‍♀️
✔ Building physical balance ⚖️
✔ Moving in ways that feel natural, empowering, sustainable 🌱
✔ Reconnecting body & mind 🧘‍♂️
✔ Rediscovering the joy of movement 😄
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This is what I build my coaching on.
Helping people step outside their modern comfort zones 🚪➡️
Reconnect with something their body remembers 🧬
Feel proud when it clicks 🌟
And eventually… fall in love with movement again ❤️.
At 60, after everything I’ve lived and learned, I help people find that balance —
not by preaching intensity,
but by guiding them back to something deeply human 🌍.

13/12/2025

And so speaks a very wise man.....

https://www.swindon24.co.uk/columnist/columnist-tim-howe-staying-independent-when-youre-over-50/

11/12/2025

"Ageing well is about staying strong enough to manage everyday movements....."

Amen: glad and proud to be playing a little part in this.

Swindon is starting to realise what an asset it has.

The Longevity Games

Tim Howe launched The Longevity Games in Swindon in 2024 as a community-driven fitness initiative aimed at helping adults of all ages and abilities improve their health, mobility and long-term wellbeing. The Games are built around functional exercise. Movements mimic everyday activity such as squ