27 "Random Facts" You Probably Didn't Know About Me!

I came across this idea of 27 Random facts you might not know about me and it looked a fun way for you to "get to know me" abit more.

You may know some of these already as I'm not really one to hide anything and Im a big believer in being totally transparent so anyway here goes:

Time for you to get to know me just a little bit more :-)

1) I was born in Pembury hospital in Tonbridge at 4pm on the 11th August 1978 which would make me 34 now and I share the same birthday as Hulk Hogan!

2) Iam the youngest of 3. My brother is called Toby who is a podiatrist and a sister called Beccy who is a teaching supervisor. My mum and dad are both retired now but my mum used to be a dancer/actress in the 60's and has worked with Barbara Windsor and Bruce Forsyth.

My dad worked for a book publishing company for 20 years before he retired. They met at a wedding.

3) I was always a bit hyper active as a child and can remember from an early age that I liked to set myself silly little challenges.(like see how many times I could cycle up a hill...I could get abit obsessed actually? I wouldn't allow myself to go home until I'd done it 10 times consecutively and if I stopped at 8, then I'd have to start again! Strange child!) ;-)

4) At my secondary school, I was form captain for 5 years running and I played in the cricket and basketball teams.

I was very hard working and consientious at school and was the perfect student up until the sixth form where I fell off the rails and got involved in drugs during which time I took marijuana, ecstasy, acid and speed.

5) When I was 16, I once got arrested for having drugs on me and spent the night in a police cell. It broke my parents heart.

6) In 1999 I became a national novice kickboxing champion

7) During my 34 years on this planet, I have worked as a paperboy, a gardener (I was crap at it though, think I planted a weed once?), a barman, a checkout chick!and a shelf stacker!

8) I love pepsi and desserts and If I could have them every day then I would :-)

9) I have broken my nose three times.

Once at a kickboxing session and the other 2 times for being a cock.

10) I qualified as a personal trainer back in 2000 as I realised I didn't want to work in a supermarket for the rest of my life.

11) I like football and im a massive fan of the MK Dons.

12) I was heavily into bodybuilding back in 2006 and made a terrible decision to take steroids which led to the mother of all meltdowns and eventually depression.

It took me a year to get out of the black hole that I was in. I was so sad and lonely back then. I didn't know who I was. After I got out of my depression I decided that I would quit bodybuilding, get my life back and get healthy the right way.

I can now be prone to "burnout" as result of my actions back then (as Ive f*cked my adrenal glands up) but like to think that I can recognise the warning signs of burn out now and know when to ease off a abit.

13) I love to challenge myself physically and lately I have really got into adventure racing.

14) I love walking in the countryside. It chills me out!

If we open our eyes, the UK is a beautiful part of the world and boasts some of the best views in the world. Although I still want to travel more, I feel very lucky to live in the UK. So much countryside to explore and scenery to take in. I prefer the countryside life to the town life.

15) I have run a 50 mile ultra marathon along the North Downs in Kent.

I have some more "crazy" challenges planned for next year. I would do more but challenges like these but unfortunately they really trash your body for a good few weeks after so I've limited myself to one a year.

16) Despite me working in the fitness industry as a Bootcamp coach and private 1-2-1 trainer,
I have also taught aerobics, spinning (still do), body combat, boxercise and kick boxercise .

I have also worked at the central YMCA in London teaching students how to become aerobic instructors and personal trainers.

17) I love horror movies.

 Don't ask me why. My favourite horror movies are Saws 1-6, the fourth kind, and IT!

18) I hate book keeping and accounts!

19) I cried at the end of titanic. Yep, I'm man enough to admit it!

I also get abit emotional when I watch sport aswell. What can I say? Im a passionate kinda guy!

20) I have a huge passion in wanting to help people transform their lives for the better just like I did.

21) Iam VERY hard on myself and can take life a bit serious sometimes.

 I am a big thinker and can sometimes have a tendency to over think' things which can be a bit destructive at times.

Im working NOT to be like this so much now.

22) When I left school, I had no idea what I wanted to be. My mum tried to get me to go to drama school (like she did) but my brother persuaded me not to.

23) I was once told I looked like Brad Pitt!! although I think they may have been drunk at the time?

24) I have an overwhelming urge to explore new places through walking and running.

25) I genuinely can't work with excuse makers. I have a real problem working with excuse makers and have been known to routinely "sack PT clients" if they're not adhering to the agreed rules laid out from the start.

I now only work with positive action takers who want to totally transform their lives. I will coach my clients to success but I will never nag them.

26) I love bubble baths!!!

27)  My goal in life is to educate, enlighten and inform as many people as possible on health and fitness and to inspire people to be the best they can possibly be.

Ashdown Forest, The 5:2 Diet and a very BIG PUDDLE!

So last weekend I was at the Ashdown Forest Park Hotel taking some much needed down time with my girlfriend Floss. We have been here before and really enjoyed it so we thought we’d go again. If you like walking then there’s some amazing views in the forest and some cool walks if you like the English countryside.

Here are some of the awesome views from the Forest:

 

 

 

 

And before you ask, no I wasnt lost on our walk! I was just checking the map? ;-)

So anyway, during our time there, we were asked if we wanted The Times delivered to our room so me trying to sound cool I said yes even though I probably wasn’t  going to read it but I did flick through it and when I did,  I came across yet another article written about the benefits of intermittent fasting.

The article was talking about the popularity of a new diet that involves “intermittent fasting” called The 5:2 approach. Here’s the Times article if you haven’t read it yet.

The 5:2 diet is basically a model of eating where you’re asked to eat normally for 5 days of the week and the other 2 days you fast.

After closer inspection of this diet, there appears to be a lot of confusion surrounding the 2 fasting days as they are not really fasting days at all? They are just days where you’re asked to restrict your calorie intake. Men are allowed 600 calories divided up throughout the day and woman 500.

I have 4 very big concerns with this diet:

1)      They are calling them fasting days when it’s not true fasting?

The true meaning of the word fast means zero nutrients entering the body for a prolonged period of time to simply give the digestive system a break from digesting food all the time.

That’s it. Simple.

There’s nothing bad about fasting (provided your body is already nutrient dense and you do it correctly!)

If you’re always eating food every 2-3 hours then the digestive system never really gets a break from digesting food. Giving your body a break from ALWAYS digesting food will give everything a chance to move along nicely so that nothing gets backed up which in turn will help with fat loss.

I’m not talking about skipping a meal here and there and kidding yourself that you’re fasting, it needs to be between 17-24 hours long ideally to get any positive effects from it.

But the “fasting days” on the 5:2 diet aren’t actually fasting at all?  They are just 2 days of eating less calories, which is very confusing and leads me onto my next concern:

2) They use calorie counting

 

All calories aren’t created equally. So according to the fasting days (or let’s just call them calorie restricted days coz that’s what they are), you can eat as much junk food as you like. Burgers, chocolate, KFC, provided you stick to 600 calories then you’re ok.

Well let’s give you an example that I’ve used before and that’s 600 calories of sugar vs 600 calories of protein. Each amount will have a very different hormonal response. One positive and one negative.

600 calories of sugar will have a devastating effect on your fat storeage. It will drive insulin up which in turn will make you insulin resistant and this makes your stress hormone cortisol come up and the more cortisol you produce, the faster your cells age which will lead to increased fat storage and diabetes.
600 calories of protein & and veg however has a very little effect on fat storage and the body will actually burn more calories trying to digest this.

This is why I never use calorie counting as its very misleading and doesn’t take into account the different affects that certain calories have on your hormonal responses.

3)      They encourage you to eat “normally.”

Let’s face it, no one knows what normal is? Is it 1 packet of crisps or 2 packets? 1 glass of wine a night or maybe 2? The problem with “normal” is where do you draw the line?

Your “normal” might be completely different to my “normal” so that is why I really hate it when diets, nutritionists and personal trainers give this piece of advice out because if eating normally worked then why are we the fattest and unhealthiest country in Europe and why are we the fattest and sickest that we have been at any other point in our history?

If you know what normal is then let me know coz I sure as hell don’t…

No one can do “normal” unfortunately.

4) The emphasis is not on restoring liver health.

 

The problem with the 5:2 Diet is that it still allows you to eat toxic food which means your liver will always be stressed out which will make it MUCH harder to drop stubborn from around the hips, waist and thighs. I have written about liver health many times before but if you’d like to know more about this then  read this article .

The bottom line is that if you want to lose weight then you need to restore health because a healthy body cannot carry body fat and I’ve never seen a healthy fat person have you?

Now I’m certainly not questioning the fact that the 5:2 diet works, it clearly gets results as it has lots of testimonials backing it up which is great but as I’ve said before in other posts, I guess, we as individuals have to decide what is true health and what is not?

So the next time a new “diet” comes onto the scene or if you plan to ones that’s been around for a while even, ask yourself 4 questions:

1)      Does it focus on restoring liver health?

2)      Does it allow you to eat toxic food?

3)      Is it calorie counting in disguise?

4)      Does it allow you to eat “normally” or eat in “moderation”?

The key to weight loss is reducing your toxic load.

Ok, that’s my rant over and I’ll leave you with a picture of the biggest puddle that Floss and I had to drive through on our way back from Ashdown Forest!

The picture doesn’t really do it justice but I genuinely thought we were going to sink!

 

Peace out and any questions then do let me know but you have to ASK first!

Sam :-)

New Merchandise Is In!

Hi guys,

just a quickie to let you that I've had a new delivery of Evolution Bootcamp T-shirts and beanies just come in so if you want to grab either then just click on the links below and I'll stick one in the post for you! Unfortunately, the sexy hunk modelling them doesn't come with them? ;-)

Beanie will be awesome for the winter months coming up:

 

>> £9.99 Evolution Bootcamp Beanie <<

 

>>  £12.99 Evolution Bootcamp T-Shirt <<