30/08/2025
Martial arts changed everything for me 🥋— but not in the way you might think.
It began to transform my physique, something that I never thought possible before.
Training seven days a week, I soon hit a ceiling and learned that you can’t outrun a bad diet.
I decided to master nutrition and did a MSc in Sports Science and Nutrition. Worked with professional athletes to help them achieve certain goals; boxers making weight, Rugby players performance and recovery.
The problem was, outside of the season, between boxing matches, or after retiring, the wheels would come off. These magnificent athletes would regress back to often worse than the average guy working a 9-5 with a family to look after.
It’s when I realised that training hard, dieting, even seeing a trainer several times a week, wouldn’t equip someone with two things:
1️⃣ Change in psychology 🧠 (which serves as the foundation for…)
2️⃣ Permanent habit change 🌱
If there’s a tonne of unresolved stuff between the ears, slamming yourself with a brutal workout plan, fitness classes, crazy diets, isn’t going to serve you.
Yes, occasionally you may need to be challenged, held to account and pushed, but generally, start from a place of not self-hatred, but self-acceptance ❤️
We’re all doing the best we can at a given time. If we’re self-sabotaging, part of us thinks (or more likely feels) that in some strange way, it’s the best option at the time.
If any of the above sounds like you, I can promise that training harder, a stricter diet, and self-punishment when the inevitable slip-ups occur, won’t work.
Here’s a better path out of the woods 📍
• Gain awareness of why you’ve been doing what you’ve been doing. This is important if you procrastinate, use food to change your state, or cannot remain consistent.
• List the benefits of NOT changing (it may help you get a better answer to the first question).
• List the cost of NOT changing 🚫
• Get crystal clear on where you want to be.
• Map out a path to get there.
• Remember Pareto’s Law: 20% of our actions get us 80% of our results. Figure out what these are (not dieting and exercise to start).
• Get support/accountability ✍️
