Begin Again with Davina McCall - Joe Wicks: This Is Why You Quit Exercise Every January & How To Make A Real Change!

Episode Date: January 1, 2026

Rest Month Episode 1: MOVE! In this episode of Begin Again, fitness expert Joe Wicks joins us for an inspiring conversation about building the perfect exercise plan for 2026. As part of Reset Month, Joe breaks down how to create a sustainable fitness routine, the importance of movement for both physical and mental health, and how to stay motivated long-term. Joe opens up about his own fitness journey, the challenges of staying consistent, and how he’s helped millions of people around the world find joy in movement. Whether you’re new to fitness or looking to reset your routine, Joe’s advice is the perfect motivation to start fresh in the New Year. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to move their body, reset their fitness goals, or build a stronger, healthier future. Don’t miss out on Joe’s expert tips and the chance to transform your fitness journey! Don’t forget to like 👍, comment 💬, and subscribe 🔔 for more episodes. Click the bell icon to stay updated on new episodes! 🌱 ✨Don't miss out on our amazing RESET giveaway! Sign up for the Begin Again newsletter at beginagainshow.com?utm_source=megaphone&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=reset for your chance to win over £750 worth of incredible prizes. Stay updated on all things Begin Again and get exclusive insights, giveaways, and more!💚 Joe: Follow us here: www.instagram.com/beginagain https://www.tiktok.com/@beginagainpod (00:00) Intro   (00:02:39) Joe’s Chaotic Childhood & Addiction Guilt   (00:14:42) Loving Someone Battling Addiction   (00:18:19) Why PE Matters for Kids   (00:19:47) Finding Motivation & Pushing Through DOMS   (00:27:54) How Lockdown Changed Everything   (00:31:34) Starting the Bootcamp Journey   (00:31:45) Adobe Ad   (00:34:21) How Joe Landed a Book Deal   (00:37:07) Prioritizing Health & Wellbeing   (00:41:46) The Truth About Ultra-Processed Foods   (00:43:26) Why Sugar Is So Addictive   (00:45:05) Joe’s New Book: *Protein in 15*   (00:47:08) The Killer Bar & Rethinking Processed Food   (00:59:35) Joe’s Top Healthy Living Tips   (01:03:17) How Joe Met Rosie & Built a Family   Sponsored by:Adobe - https://Adobe.Ly/Davina Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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That's a really amazing medicine which you can use every day. Don't wait for the perfect conditions because they won't come. You have to create that time. The only answer really is... You have done so much for this country. You have helped us get fit.

I had no money. I didn't have a van. All I had was a clip on trail on the back of my bike. And how would you try and drum up business? I had little flyers that I'd give out outside Richmond Station. I was there, like, day in day out,

giving out flies, hoping that someone would sort of take one. Don't try and transform your life in one day and revolutionise everything because you'll end up falling off the wagon and you lose motivation. Whether you're two years old or 72 years old you always feel better after a workout

and it doesn't solve all the problems in your world but it's at least knowing that on those days rather than turning to ultra-process food and sugar to make you feel better or whatever. Having that exercise as the first sort of thing to try it can transform how you feel in the day. How can we enthuse people to start on that journey? Just know that everything in life will change

when you start to take care of yourself. Yes. And your body and your mood and your energy which really comes through. Wow! If you want to live positive life and live in a positive head, I think you've got to be moving the body a little bit.

Everyone else comes first in this life, but actually you've got to find time for yourself. But I'll tell you what I'm going to do, Joe. First of all, I'm going to blow smoke up your ass. Because... You don't need to do that. I am absolutely going to do it. You literally are changing the world.

I mean, you... I see your soul, Joe. I honestly do and you have done so much for this country you have helped us get fit and

you have helped the nation get fit you have helped us help our kids get fit now very seriously trying to help us become better around ultra-processed foods and and lobby the government about that and I'd like to also ask you how we can all help you do that in the

future. But above all of that, I think, you are just a really good man that wants to do good in the world and we love you. And I'm so pleased you're here. And I cannot wait to talk to you. That's a lovely thing to say, a lovely way to introduce the conversation. I feel the same. You know, I'm carrying your work. You know, you've been getting a nation fit for years, but way more years before me. So I just love, you know, I love that part of what I do. But it's so nice to finally get to sit down. We crossed paths and had a little chat on there, but to actually sit and have a proper conversation being really nice. I knew that we shared the same passion around health and fitness, but I had no idea until I did a bit more of a deep dive into you about

your childhood. And I don't want to dwell on it for too much. And I know you've talked a lot about it, you know, on Diary of the CEO, but I would like to touch on what it was like growing up in your house as a kid because it did have such a profound effect on who you are today. Yeah, of course. Yeah, I've shared this story a few times now because I did Desert Island Dis.

I think it was the first time I publicly spoke about my childhood because people often see who as this person and they think that this is a story and this is all they don't really know the backstory and then so when I did that podcast I sort of opened up the conversation around you know growing up as a child in a home of addiction

and, you know, I won't sit here and pretend I had a really miserable, unhappy, child because I have lots of fond memories, but there's lots of also blank spaces and sort of chaos and this dysfunction I lived in, which comes with living with two parents of mental health. So my mum essentially had extreme anxiety and OCD around housework and cleaning and, you know, eating disorders, all that sort of stuff, quite manic in the sense. What did what did that look like? What did the OCD look like? How does that manifest itself for anybody that doesn't really know what OCD is.

Yeah, so I didn't know at the time my mum had OCD. I just thought my mum was obsessed and, like, cleaning. I just thought she just would love to clean house. But it was like, you know, I couldn't make any noise. We couldn't, like, bring friends home and we couldn't make mess and everything had a place. It was like living in an IKEA showroom, you know, everything had its own little spot. And, you know, my mum would be deep cleaning, like, every day. It wasn't like once a week.

It was like the cupboard to be emptied out. She'd be scrubbing things. And there's a story behind that and understanding that. And it's one of those things you don't know at the time. This is just normal. This is like normality. It was only when I went to other people's houses and I could wear my shoes in a house

or, you know, walk in and make a bit of mess and their parents weren't, you know, really, really anxious and upset by that that I realized all, things weren't as normal at home. But, you know, even being a young kid, I remember having to make my bed and that to be really tightly, pulled really tight like it was in a hotel, you know,

so it had to be like really, really neat. And we had, I remember one room had black carpets, right? And she would make us to hoover the bedroom, but not with the wide part. Yeah, yeah, yeah. part like we always imagine. A little bit that you do for upholstery.

Yeah, because she didn't see the lines because she needed to know that it had been cleaned. So it was just like, yeah, it was just normal, but it was all so stressful because I would be like, you know, effing and blind and wanting to like revolt and say I don't want to clean my room and don't want to be a part of this. But it was just really, it was really sort of chaotic living in that environment with her. And then couple that with my dad, who was, you know, in and out of my life through addiction from from heroin addiction.

It was like, you know, he was there for six months. then he's in rehab, then he'd be in Bulma for a couple of years trying to detox and do rehab there and it was like, I had these moments of sort of spending time with him, but it was just, it was always like, I knew, I knew it wasn't going to last forever. And so quite, I suppose just unstable, that was the feeling I felt like he's there and then he's not. And it was like this sort of like secret that is he using, is he not? And so a lot of guilt and shame and a lot of dishonesty, like, you know, when you, and even to this day, like, if I ever catch my dad on a relapse or something that's going on, he'll never admit that he's using.

And he'll just deny it. He just, he has its inability to be honest in that moment. And even now I say, Dad, I'd rather just be honest. Like, I'm a fully grown man. I'm an adult now. Like, I want to talk to you. But he still really, really finds it almost impossible to admit that he's using until there's a proper, like, moment of breakdown where I say, look, like, what's going on?

And, you know, he might tell you half the truth, but you never get the full truth. Did you become very good at reading people? Could you just know? It was more of a sense of, like, the energy. would shift and like the smells you know around using like the smells and him sort of being asleep all the time because obviously I was very young and I have I have different memories my brother Nikki was 18 months older than me and so he remembers and sees and sort of has recollection of things probably more than I did but you know there was things like you know police would knock on the door and the house will be raided

and it was like I'd be taken next door and like put with the neighbours for the night and stuff and just just madness but again I had to just get up in the morning and go to school in my little school uniform and be a normal kid and not talk about it. like these things because I felt like although this stuff was happening, I knew in my heart I couldn't publicly speak about because I suppose the fear of like social services and they would have intervening like taking me away from my mum and dad was too was too much. So I suppressed a lot of that and just sort of bottled it up and somehow managed to sort of get through the day, you know. I was fascinated to hear you say that

because when I used to go and stay with my mum and things will happened in Paris and like she'd take me clubbing at 13 dressed as like total Lolita because I could wear anything I wanted and then not look out for me and I'd get into like dodgy suit. I mean really mad stuff but I knew that when I came back to the UK I couldn't tell anybody here because they'd stop me going. And even though I didn't feel safe. I didn't want to stop seeing her. It's so funny for a kid, isn't it? You wanted that relationship, yeah. That you wanted to stay there and you didn't want to leave your mum and dad

even though you were having to cope with. An extraordinary amount of stress, really, for someone your age. It's only now as a parent to young kids, you know, I've got four kids under seven that I realise how much love and care and affection and gentleness they need. that I think how did I get through that and come out how I am? And like you said about the care, sorry about the, did I get to learn to read people? I got learned, I learned how to care for people. So I think, you know, even now, like,

I'm quite a caring, empathetic person. I think about people's emotions a lot and I worry about people a lot. And that probably comes from this fear of like, my dad getting caught relapsing because, you know, then we kicked out and then my mum's issues. It was definitely something that I learned, I was aware of. And I think it makes,

made me sort of, I don't know, then you sort of question, is it me? Like, I know, I remember having conversations like, is my dad used and taking drug because, you know, we're not enough and he doesn't love us. But I've now learned to understand, actually he loved us in spite of his addiction. And I always felt safe, even though there was madness,

like that stuff about the police knocking the door down and stuff. Like, and I have visions of, you know, we had these, because we lived in a council flat. It was like cheap plywood doors with like honeycomb inside, like, carball, because there'd be holes in it. I only knew that because it was holes in it. because, you know, maybe my mum and dad an argument and there was a punch through the wall, you know. So these little things aren't normal.

I remember those moments. But again, I don't have like loads of really, really sad memories because I just chose to be positive and chose to block out that negative stuff. And I sort of think even now, I wouldn't change anything. Because everything I've been through in that child and that environment, you know, it's shaped who I am today. And it's made me, Joe, the body coach, you really wants to help people. If I didn't have that experience and that would I still, would I really be who I am to then? I don't think I would have been. So I only see positive in my journey really.

I don't want to sit here and be like, you know, resentful and angry about the past. I really, really just focus on the future really. Can I ask you, for anybody that might be carrying some weight or the burden of their childhood, were you always like that? And how were your brothers? did they grow up with the same sort of vibe as you? Or are you a kind of lone wolf in your family of positivity? Well, I'm one of three boys.

My older brother, Nikki, is 18 months older than me. And he's the best friend. And my little brother, George, is 10 years younger. So he came along, same mom and dad. They're separated now. And, you know, my little brother, you know, bless him. He's actually in recovery himself. So he kind of experienced two, like.

I was really aware. He had my dad on the weekends and my mum during the week and he ended up, you know, experiencing those addiction. I think it's because he had a lot more freedom and flexibility. It's just like be, do what he wanted on the weekends. Whereas my mum, although, although it was madness, she was so strict with us and we, we knew the boundaries. We had to, if she said you're home at 10 o'clock on the Friday night, would be home at 10 o'clock, you know, we really had, she, she knew that if she didn't rain us in, we would end up, you know, like other kids down the street, down the pub, well, not at the pub, but, you know, down the part, drinking, smoking, weed. So she really kept us on rains. But I think for me, I was always the

really hyperactive kid, you know, energetic. I didn't bottle things up. I think for me, I knew, like, if I, if I was introvert and withdrawn and held that, then the emotions are probably overwhelming a little bit. But my brother, Nikki, was definitely more reserved, much more introvert, a lot quieter, didn't talk about his feelings as much. He's much better now as an adult. But I was just like this kid that yeah I just sort of just took it in my stride crazy hyperactive obviously that links to like the sport and exercise on the movement side of things I do think movement was how I released it if you like rather than sitting there sort of thinking about and rooming it on these feelings I'd run around I'd climb trees I'd be you know running to school playing sports releasing all that sort of stress if you like

from the body so I do think I always exercise was like my sort of like therapy if you like even from a young age. But to anyone that's got like, you know, trauma or kind of addiction in the family, like, first thing to know, like, you're not alone and don't feel guilt and shame around it. The reason I think so many people struggle is because there's so much guilt and shame around addiction. And it's like, actually, you can, although it feels really difficult at the time, you can work through these things and you can have a much better relationship one day. But it does take a lot of work. I'm quite knowledgeable and wise now because my dad's been through the 12 steps and I understand addiction and connection. And I've listened to Gaborne, you know, Maté and I've listened to loads of

wonderful authors and podcasts on this thing of addiction. But some people don't have this information, so they're sort of trapped in the past a little bit. But there is a way you can work through things and you can let go of that resentment and have a really good relationship with like someone today. Quite interested in, you know, you were talking about Nikki being your best friend and that he was, it's often the way with first and second born siblings. And even though I didn't live with my sister, I had a very similar relationship with her. She was actually a bit older.

There was a bigger gap, six years, but more sensible had to kind of deal with a different dynamic in a weird way because of her age. Bit like probably Nikki did, he was the first to handle it all. Which in a way Caroline, freed me up to be a bit looser. You know, you said you dealt with it with exercise. How did Nicky deal with it? We've had conversation minutes because I think, yeah, like how I see things and how he saw things can be quite different sometimes. And he was aware more of, you know,

the conversations around addiction. It was always conversations up, oh, daddy's got to go away because he's got a bad back, you know, and he needs to go to get help. But he knew and he understood addiction, I think much quicker than me. Which I think I was just too, like, busy and distracting myself and just being a toddler and running around just sort of really process those emotions but yeah Nicky was definitely more introvert he's very sensitive he's very caring

very loving and I think we're both quite we're both carers in a sense and we're still worry and care about our kids and our parents a lot but you know we um we work together now at the body coach he's the CEO yeah so nice but he does I do describe as my garden angel because I think he protected me and there was times when he said to me like he knew my dad had been using a relapse in

But he didn't want to let my mum know because he told my mum he'd get kicked out. And so I think he was living with a lot more like anxiety than I probably was. And yes, it's sad that he experienced that. But as an adult now, he's an amazing dad. And one thing I'll say about my dad, right, is that I've learned to be a really, really good dad and be really present and really kind and caring. And, you know, I didn't experience that because not because my dad didn't love me. And it's because he wasn't able to.

You know, when you're using hair and, you know, like, you're just like a zombie. You're just like so sedentary. And it was not like his manic, like he's doing coke and running around and being all fun. Like, it was just like the opposite. It was just like he was there, but he wasn't. He'd be asleep. And I couldn't, you know, I couldn't sort of depend on him with any consistency. And that was the hardest thing.

And I feel sad for him that he missed out on so much. You know, as a parent now, and I'm there for my kids. Like, I feel sad on what, it's not even what I missed out. And it's really what he missed out on through all those years of addiction. But, you know, I just have much more understanding of it now. And where I went through those years of, like, resentful and angry and fucking pushing him away and I can't deal with this. So now actually when he's having a tough time and I can feel him pulling away,

I know he's slipping into those sort of behaviours and not going to meetings and stuff. Then I sort of ring him and say, come around, come and spend time with the kids. Just sort of like bring him back into it. But that's taken a long time to come to this point of understanding addiction and the connection is really important because otherwise they just feel more lonely, more isolated and they just want to go and smash it and go on a binge again, you know, and cane it. I mean, it's amazing that you are still caring more. really at the end of the day for your dad and trying to make sure that he's okay.

It's quite, it feels like a lot to keep trying to keep everyone all right. Yeah, you know, what I've, what I've come to realise, even now, like my dad's gone to the real, sorry, not real, he's gone to the convention in Spain. It's like, this constant fear of, not constant fear, it's this constant feeling, feeling of like, nothing I do can make my dad happy. Do you know what I mean? it has to come from with him. And so I can support him financially. I can help him in that way. But it's like with addiction, it's such an internal thing. And it's such a, it's just a thing that he's going to carry his whole life. And I, you know, my dad's in his 60s now, but it's like, he's not out of the woods. Although he's not using hard drugs, I still, I'm constantly just

thinking a relapse is coming. Oh, we haven't spoke to him for a few weeks. So he's pulled away and it's like this constant up and down. So yeah, like there's definitely this, I, I shouldn't have to parent my parents, but I do. So I'm looking after four kids and my mum and dad. And it's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is this constant thing that's, that's on mine and my brother's shoulders, I'd say, on both of them, because we're always like, I've heard from dad, no, all right, you know, what's going on. And I've sent my dad around the world to do yoga, go and stay at the house, going, like, but it's like, you know, addiction is this thing that it's always with you, and it's like, it's never an easy thing. So, yeah, it's just something I've come to live with

you now and accept that I have to love him unconditionally, right? I can't love him unconditionally. But it's definitely been the hardest part of my life because I'm consistent. I'm like quite like this and even Rosie is and, you know, my brother. But with my dad and my mum, it's just they do struggle with them at the health and they're up and down a lot, you know. I just, I never forget this term I heard. And I've said this once before. You know, it's understanding the antidote to addiction is connection.

Yes. So where you want to push someone away and just, I can't be around you right now. And I definitely felt that at times as a teenager. As an adult, it's like actually, if I do that, I know that he's going to be. going to feel more lonely, you know, he's got, he's going to be feel more depressed and more, you know, more isolated and actually like what you really needs to me say, I love you, dad, come and spend some time with me, I want to be around you, let's talk, let's, you know, how you're doing and just have a workout, I want to jump in the ice bath, just little, little things

like that that that, bringing back to the reality of actually life ain't that bad, dude, like you've got, you're comfortable, like, you've got grandkids and kids that love you, like, you're not alone and, yeah, you know, it's hard because I can't relate to that feeling, you know, I don't understand what that feeling is like and to, want to feel or void so much and use drugs to self-medicate. I use exercise to self-medicate. I physically smash myself in the gym and I love that how I feel afterwards. But, you know, my dad has used, you know, drugs and my mum has used, you know, eating disorders

and sort of control through housework and tidying to deal with her sort of child and stuff as well. But I'm just blessed that I had a really great PE teacher, you know, and someone that inspired me when I was young. Is that what it was? I think so, yeah, I think it was just my PE teachers, they love me, I never, they never kicked me out of class. I was there in the class. They wanted me to be there.

And I just remember thinking how I felt at the end of a workout or doing some sort of sport. And that is really today why I still love doing what I do because people need to feel that and they often don't. And I've got to just remind them and get kids moving and get parents thinking like, actually you might have on a tough day, but exercise and movement is the answer. That's a really amazing medicine which you can use every day.

I love that. I love that phrase, I've never regretted a workout. Yeah. Like you don't want to do it. But then you do it. You never get at the end of it go, God, I wish I didn't. done that workout. I think, you know, okay, this is the 1st of January today, 2026. And this is when people think, right, I'm resetting my life. I've absolutely splurged at the end of last year.

I want to be the person I believe I can be. And fitness is often a big part of that. Yeah. How can we enthuse people to start on that journey? How can you encourage somebody to find it in themselves to want to do it. Yeah, this is the biggest challenge, isn't it? If you, if you are an adult and you're sedentary and you really had a really negative relationship with sport and fitness as a kid and you find it really, really difficult, it's going to be really hard for you to get moving. And so I always say to people like, we've got to try and get our kids, you know,

our youngest possible kids that from the earliest age is possible, like moving and exercising and feeling good. So I've done a lot of work this year with, I've done an animation called Activate. It's like an animated series. Wait, activate is amazing. Do you like it? Oh my God. It's like an animation of myself for little workouts for kids.

It's so good. And what is clever is that you don't have to be doing it all the time so you've freed up time to do something else. But it's you. Yeah, because I do love, you know, I love my animation and I love visiting schools and I love doing workouts of kids and I went to a school that I've been to a school that I love it, I can't visit every school in the UK.

But the reason P was a big moment for me because it taught me that actually whatever's going on in my head and at home, I could deal with that. emotion, those feelings with movement and exercise. So, you know, when I visit schools, I don't talk about so much the body and physical, like, it's more about the mind than the, like, it's going to give you energy and want to make you feel happier, you know, we're going to get you feeling good. These messages are really important. So I do so much work with young people, because I think if you're not doing it and they're not learning at school, they're not being taught at home and inspired

to move, we're going to really struggle with their mental health in the future. And so to anyone listening that is feeling like, I don't believe that or it just doesn't work. You've got to be willing to take the first step, haven't you, and get beyond that initial couple of weeks where it sucks, where you feel sick, you've got a headache, you've got doms, everything hurts, you know, and you don't just explain to people who don't know what doms are. Dom's that means that delayed onset muscle soreness, basically that cramp or that pain or that deep muscle ache when you've done a workout, like the first time in a few months and you feel like you can't walk down the stairs or you shake as you sit on the toilet. And that happens when at sometimes if you do a new exercise or if you do

a new form of exercise or you lift heavier weights and things. Or it could just be because you haven't done anything for a while. But you know, you have to be willing to overcome those initial difficult months or weeks where it's like, I just really only enjoying this because eventually once you get past a certain level of fitness, you will, like the endorphins is all when those sort of post work at high. It will come, but, you know, you don't have to be doing it every day. It could just be three workouts a week for 20 minutes. Like start small. Don't try and transform your life in one day and revolutionise everything because you'll end up falling off the wagon and you lose motivation.

That's exactly it, I think, especially January the 1st, that people go all guns blazing and then you can't maintain it. You know, like people have got to really think, what can I keep doing every week? What can I really afford to give? And also, if you do work out so hard that you can't sit down on the Lou for five days, you're not going to want to do it again. So what are the things that you think? because I know that for me personally,

music motivates me. Oh yeah, for sure. In terms of exercise. Yeah. Yeah, I think, well, I'm a big fan of homework. I'm like, you've always said this.

Like, if you can remove the friction and the barriers between you and the workout, let's say your dream is a gym membership and a personal trainer, but that's hard. It's not accessible. Yeah, and expensive, right? Not accessible, and you might do it for a month,

but it's really hard to maintain. Whereas actually, getting two pairs of dumbbells or a set of resistance bands and turn your little bedroom or your kitchen into a little workout studio And look, you know, we've got millions of trainers around the world sharing amazing workout. So obviously I've got my fitness app and there's the BodyCouch YouTube channel.

But there's also amazing yoga, Pilates, Bar, there's loads of great content on social media and YouTube that you can tap into without any money. So you've got to remove the barrier of money at the equation for now. And then the second barrier, the biggest problem we face is time. And you don't have to have an hour a day. It would be a dream to have a perfect one hour a day workout. But, you know, if you started off with a 15 minute workout a day, three days a week, that is the, that is taking the right direction. It's the positive change.

And that might shift and eventually, you know what, I can do 20 minutes a day. And then before you know, you sign up to a 5K run or you're doing a marathon. You know, the transformation from being sedentary, you know, zero to one is so amazing. But you have to be willing to just like go for a bit discomfort to start with and accept that, you know, it's going to be things that get in your way. There's always barriers, isn't there? I mean, there's kids, there's work, there's stress, there's pressure, there's illness, colds, catching the flu, but actually you're always going to have these challenges, but you've still

got to find that a little bit of time to take care of yourself. You know, and I think exercise is an essential part of happiness now. Yeah. I used to think it was like this thing that you do to stay fit and not only a certain amount of people do it, but actually, if you want to live positive life and live in a positive head, I think you've got to be exercising, you've got to be doing something, you've got to be moving the body a little bit. It is an essential part of happiness. I love that. That is exactly how I feel. I, um, I started working out after I'd had my brain tumour removed, but it had really badly affected my short-term memory,

and the only reason I knew if I'd worked out was if I had Dom's. Oh, really? So you could tell. So I'd wake up the next morning, and I'd be like, oh, God, wow. And I think, oh, I must have worked out yesterday, but I had no recollection of it. Really? So mad. I bet you love the, I bet you like the feeling of Dom's. Oh, I love it.

I sort of like it, but not every day. But it's, no, and it's not, it wasn't. every day. I'll tell you what I did do twice last year. Yeah, go on. And that was start from scratch and how humbling that is. Because you just stay at a level of fitness where you can just go and do a workout and you won't have terrible doms or find it hard to sit down.

But I had to stop for three, four months with my brain tumour and I had to stop again with the breast cancer at the end of the year. and it's been a really good lesson in how hard it is for other people to start again. I can imagine how hard was that for you? Because you love exercise, such a big part of your fit, your identity, your energy, your mood. How did you deal with that? Like, how did you, were you completely sedentary? You couldn't do anything.

Well, after the brain tumour, I didn't remember, I just wasn't aware of how hard it was because I didn't remember I wasn't doing it. But I was walking. Right. Quite a lot. And nature helped me a lot. Being in the wonder of nature. I didn't need to remember nature.

It was just there and beautiful. So that helped my mental health, walking and seeing nature. And I mean, you recommend that, you know, be active. Yeah. Should I just say how amazing and strong you look and how healthy you look? You've been through, you've had such a tough time and you just look amazing. I mean, that's a testament to how hard you must have got back and worked at you, you know, and built that strength back up.

Do you feel good? Can I be honest? I feel bloody great. You know, 2025, end of the year, you know, it was a year of ups and downs, but the outfits were pretty consistently good. Connie, you did such a good job capturing these. They're really, really nice. I love Mel Schilling. I love these.

Like, I want to reshare them in some way. You know what I learned? from the One Better Guide in Adobe Express. Yeah. Sometimes some of your best assets aren't the new ones. They're often just sitting in your camera roll. You know what you should do? You should make it into a GIF.

Oh, great, yes. And then you could send it in the broadcast channel for Begin again. How do I do that? Should I show you? Yes! Great. It's really easy. Yeah. Search Image to GIF. And then if you just drop in all the images that you want,

and then here, you can just adjust the timing of each clip. Once you're happy, just click Export. And then you can share it anywhere. My God, that was much easier than I thought. Yeah. If you want to try building gifts for your business or for your channels, check out the one better guide of our sponsor Adobe Express. It's free.

And Connie's in it too. In communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees earn an average of over $24.50 an hour. Employees also have the opportunity to grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for, in-demand fields like software development and information technology. Learn more at aboutamazon.ca. I want to quickly go back to,

um, to lockdown for you as well and what that was like because when the whole nation was, I was, I don't know what it was like for you, but I know that, you know, obviously,

um, it was terrifying for everybody, but especially for people who did kind of workouts or training or gyms, gym shut down, you couldn't go to any social areas to do anything. How long did it take you to come up with this idea of working out online for people? It was days, wasn't it? Interestingly, that Monday, the day the lockdown started, me and Nikki were supposed to go on a UK tour. I do these visits to schools and it's completely like not sponsored, it's unfunded.

It's just me and Nikki, we get in a mini, we drive from Scotland down to London, we stop at different schools, at two or three a day. How long had you been doing that? I've been doing that for like four years before that. So a lot of time had been sort of, you know, put into this idea of Pee with Joe. But then that Thursday night, obviously Boris Johnson announced this, you know, we're going into lockdown. So I remember I was laying in bed and I text Nick and so I've got an idea. I'm going to go live on Monday. And I had done live workouts in the past, but you're talking like a thousand people took part.

But I knew this sort of idea of 15 minute workouts or short kids workouts where these silly little exercises worked. And so I said, Nick, I'm going to go live on Monday. I'm going to call it Pee with Joe, see what happens. let's just, you know, get the camera set up and I'll do it from the house in Richmond. And, you know, lo and behold, I've got Nikki in the air in my ear. He's on the phone and I couldn't see the screen. Sorry, and he's like, Joe, this is mad. I was like, what, he's like, there's 400,000 live streams, 600,000, 700, there's nearly a million live connections.

So I'm about to step in front of a camera in front of millions of people, right? and I was so nervous, but jumped in front, did my thing, half an hour late. I was like, wow, that was pretty crazy. And I did that every single day for 18 weeks. But I can't say to you that I knew it was going to be so successful. But what I did has a sense of that the schools already knew that I was doing and they sort of trusted that I would deliver like a really fun session. And they trusted me live, you know, on air with their kids.

So that took a lot of trust. And I built that over years before that. So it wasn't this, it didn't just blop overnight. But it was obviously, that was the moment it really kind of took off. And everyone really, because the schools were saying, look, schools are shut, Joe's a PE teacher. And so every kid pretty much for that first few weeks had a go and did a couple of workouts. But yeah, look, it was my, it's my proudness achievement.

It always will be. It's my legacy. I think it was the one thing I'll always be remembered for is P.E. with Joe in lockdown. I am quite interested in often people start at the beginning of the year thinking, I want to start a business, I want to do something. And I do want to go back. We were just talking about you trying to start off. was it Rumble in the Park?

Yeah, yeah, that's my first ever boot camp. Yeah, and it was your boot camp. Now, how did you start that? Because I love that. Did you, you got some money? Yeah, so I basically, I started as a personal trainer, but, you know, I've realised it was really hard in personal training clients.

So I thought, start a boot camp, it might be a bit easier. And then from there, maybe I can get some personal training business. So I borrowed about £1,500 off my mum to get all the equipment. that was like, you know, your kettlebells and boxing pads and things. It was because it was a boxing for fitness class. And I borrowed two grand off my dad, which you've got to understand. My dad was a roofer. Like that was like probably like three or four weeks work for him.

It's a lot of money. And I said, Dad, I need to borrow this money because I need to do a personal training qualification. And he was like, yeah, I can sort it out. And he, you know, he gave it to me. And I'll never forget, like, months had gone by. And I was sitting like, you know, in the flat one day because I lived with Mersber. And I said, Dad, I don't. And I got really upset.

I was like, I don't. I'm going to ever pay you back. I can't even get like one or two people to this boot camp. And he was like, don't worry, Joe. Like, as long as you're happy, it's not the end of the world. It's not, you know, but it was a lot of money to him at the time, you know. But he just wanted to give me a chance to do something I loved. And, you know, luckily, I managed to pay him back one day.

But, you know, like, it was hard at the beginning. When you start a business, you know, no one was turning up. I didn't, I didn't. So what was it like, taught me through, like, what did you do? In reality, like, I had no money. I didn't have a van. All I had was a trailer. So I had a clip on trail on the back of my bike.

You're on a bicycle? Click on trailer. Click on trailer, which you could load stuff up. And I'd cycle from Serverton to Richmond. I launched it in Old Deer Park. I thought that's a lovely place. I'd love to live there one day. Funny enough, I ended up living in Richmond, but it took me a long time to get that.

But I thought, right, I'm going to set up the boot camp, build the business, and maybe one day, I'll rent a little flat in Richmond. I can live there. It'd be amazing. And most of the time you'd get there, like one person be there or no people would be there. And how would you try and drum up business? Well, I had little flyers that I'd give out, outside Richmond Station.

So that's quite a busy station and people are just in a rush. They don't want a fly and they're just like, get out me way. They always found me quite annoying. But I was there like day and day out, you know, every day of the week, giving out flyers, hoping that someone would sort of take one

and give me an email and maybe come along. And it was like one of those things, it took months and months for it to build. But eventually, because I kept showing up to flyering and the boot camp, that eventually there was like 15, 20 people, direct debit, nice little business. And then from there I had another one in Surbiton

and off those two boot camps. I had a really lovely business. So I had a nice business for boot camps, maybe like 10 or 20 hours of PT a week. And I was really happy. You know, 45 pound a session. I was like made up. I was like, I'm getting 45 an hour to be in a park training people. This is amazing.

And I loved it. And I just, from that point, I just, I just carried on with it, obviously, until social media came along. I sort of switched to digital. But it wasn't my plan. I really just wanted to be a personal trainer in a local park and have a couple of locations. That was as big as I could visualize my life, to be honest. So when social media came along, was that when you and. Nikki forged a sort of like business.

No, Nikki was working as a journalist. He was an editor of like magazines and things. So he was just an editor doing these things and a journalist. And I just started sharing silly recipes on Instagram, you know, the Lean 15 recipes. And it cut through the noise of like social media. Just like it, for some reason people really tuned into these wacky videos where I was shouting out.

And that's Leanin 15. And obviously that led to my book deal. But it was one of these things. I always say like, I've had success, but very unintentional very much. just putting stuff out in the world, you know, sharing 1,000 recipes, I got a book deal, sharing 500 workups on YouTube, I had a DVD deal, you know, sharing hundreds of daily stories and videos and suddenly, you know, you've got a TV show or a documentary, like, but these weren't intentional steps that I thought of because I was a marketing expert. I just, I just genuinely,

I really got a buzz out of, like, sharing a recipe on, on Instagram, and then a few hours later, someone was making it and tagging me, and I was like, oh, that's pretty fun. But this is long before you were getting book deals and influencers and social media like, you know, entrepreneurs. I just loved sharing stuff. I really did. What's quite interesting for you in a way, you're, you were forging the format. Whereas now people follow the format. You know, they think, oh, well, if I want to get a book deal in this, I've got to go on social media and I need to do this and I need to do this many videos.

but you just didn't know what you were doing. You were just doing it for the love of it. Genuinely, genuinely, before I knew that you could get a book deal. Because, you know, celebrities and TV chefs got book deals, not influencers. But I came around at that time where, like, Delicious the Yellow was popping, and she got a book deal and she smashed it. And then, like, obviously, I got my book deal. And there was a girl in Australia called Kayla who was huge on fitness on Instagram. Yes, I remember Kayla.

Yeah, Kayla was huge. So there was a few people like doing things. And then, obviously, now it's obviously, there's loads of people doing online fitness. It was definitely the earlier stages and I didn't see this opportunity coming. I just, I built a community based. I built a community by sharing stuff and really being passionate about recipes and movement and cooking and exercising. But it wasn't like this really thought out process. And even now, I still think, how have I done what I've, how have I sold five million books when I've never been on TV?

I'm not a chef. Amazing. I don't know how it happened. But, you know, like you were the DVD. Like, you don't know how you sold millions of DVDs. it was just you and your energy and your personality that people warmed to and they committed to like support in you because they trusted you and they thought you were an inspiration and that that's the same with what I've done I suppose in food and fitness I think

you've just made me think about something there and it was interesting because um what jacky and mark who were my trainers and jackie and mark were married and jacky was a gymnast former gymnast right and mark was um a former royal marine and then they were married. And I met, Jackie and Mark were trainers in Oxstead, which was the local village nearest to where I lived. And I found them in a magazine and they came and helped train me. And if Jackie couldn't come, she'd send Mark, which I would dread because he'd have me yomping.

This is when you first got into fitness years ago. Yeah, yeah. Before I did any DVDs or anything, I was just trying to get fit after I'd had a baby. And they changed my body. I'd never looked as good ever. with three minimum of three workouts a week but I'd never felt so good up here I was buzzing

like it just changed everything and changing the way I felt about myself and feeling strong not necessarily about how I looked so much but the feeling of it yeah it feels great isn't it yeah changed everything and I was like

I want to tell everybody about this So I called my agent, I said, I wanted to make a work out DVD, and he went, it's a bit nuff. It's a bit like people just, you know, it's a bit fake. I was like, no, no, no, you don't understand. These guys actually did change my life. So I wasn't a PT. Are they in your original DVDs?

Yeah, they did the first 10, 15. I'm still, like, I'm such good friends with Jacket and Mark now. Did you 10 DVDs? Like more. I did 15. Wow. And my, and Jacket and Mark are friends of mine, their daughter, is like shows, she's a bodybuilder,

she's professional, like, she's amazing, Alex. They completely changed my life and that's why I got into it because I was like, I've got to show them. So I think it's that thing of you are genuine. You know, everybody's always talking about authenticity and how important it is. Yeah, what does it really mean as well, yeah. Well, that's why you're successful

because you live and breathe it. totally and and i love that you're i love that your experience like genuinely like i don't knock on effects and you would have met millions along along the journey who said you transform my life like your DVD or your workouts and your energy like and it is it sometimes just one meeting one person has a massive effect you know like a butterfly effect isn't it and obviously yeah i always put it down to my pete teachers at school you know sports coaches people that really nurtured me through fitness and sport and stuff and then even joining the gym when i was 16 i joined the gym and i was like i love this why don't people love this

Why is not everybody doing this? Why is everyone down the pub? But, you know, a lot of the world don't see, not people don't see the world we do because they really struggle with fitness. And they're the ones I want to get to the most. Why? The ones that are super fit. Why do they struggle?

Because it's like, if they don't have that connection between, like, their body and mind and they don't have that feeling of, like, confidence and progression of getting stronger and stuff. But I always say, like, you might not love the gym and that feeling of being in an environment where there's loads of people that are really fit. But you might really fall in love or connect with, like,

a really great YouTuber and have a great home workout. And have a good vibe. Yeah, and build fitness through that. So I just think people just need to give it a try. And like actually, whether you're two years old or 72 years old, you always feel better after a workout. And it doesn't solve all the problems in your world. Like, it is, you're still going to be stressed.

But it's at least knowing that on those days, rather than turning to food and ultra-processed food and sugar to make you feel better or whatever, or drink or drugs, whatever, having that exercise as the first sort of thing to try, it can transform how you feel in the day for sure. So just to finish on exercise for a moment, so say we've got somebody that really struggles, today's the first, we want them to get up and do something,

the points that we want to make are you will never regret a workout. Yeah. You will always feel better afterwards. Start small you were saying, like how long? Even I think, like just start with a walk, you know, go for a walk, get some fresh air, put your phone down for half an hour, you know,

get in nature, like you said, that can be a pivotal thing and that can be a big mindset shifter. But again, don't have to do everything all at once. Just focus on 15 minutes a day. Can you focus on that today or even just once? And then maybe say you feel tomorrow, have a break and have a rest, and maybe the following day. But just know that everything in life will change when you start to take care of yourself. Yes.

And your body and your mood and your energy, which really comes through sleep, you know, nutrition and exercise, the basic fundamental things we need as human beings. It's self-love. Yeah, it's self-love and it's finding time because everyone else comes first in this life, actually, you've got to find time for yourself. And I know, no, it's hard when you've got kids and you've got, you work in shifts and you've got lots of stresses on your body. But because of those things, this is why you need to exercise.

Not instead of, like, don't wait for, like, the perfect conditions because they won't come. You have to create that time, find that little window to, to meal prep on a weekend or to put, you know, put yourself to bed an hour earlier, like, you know, do a little bit of exercise. And when you do that, suddenly all these stresses and all these feelings you've got in your mind, and especially if you're going through, you know, things like perimenopause, all these moments in life that affect your mood, it can really help. It's not like going to save and solve everything, but it's really powerful. It's powerful.

Powerful, yeah, it shifts the mind. I think another way, and I know you are so hot on this now, and I can't wait to dig into this with you. and that is about ultra-processed food and what an enormous and profound effect that has on our mental health as well. Now, I, similarly to you in a way, I guess I was brought up on convenience food

because my granny grew up, my granny brought me up and she looked after her children in the war. There was no convenience food. And so when it came out, nobody knew what was in it. Everybody just thought, oh, packet chicken noodle soup, Brilliant. Ten minutes. Wow.

Used to take me, you know, a whole day to make the chicken stock and then put it in the suit and add the nittle. Ooh, tinned ravioli. Amazing. So that's basically what I was brought up on it. It was like kind of a luxury for me. It felt like a trick, yeah, to convenience, it was sold as a kind of healthier sort of quicker option, yeah, for sure.

So for me to make those healthier choices was quite difficult, but I was amazed to hear it was the same for you. Yeah, this is an interesting topic because I was, did you do a book? I quit sugar. Yeah, yeah. So I tried.

Five weeks to sugar-free. Yeah, we talk about that a little bit in terms of like, have you managed to sustain that because one thing I struggle with is sugar, sweet stuff, you know, I had a cupboard full of chocolate and sweets and candies that I could just have unlimited access to as a kid,

coupled with, you know, my mum didn't really know how to cook and it was very much ultra-processed, frozen and microwave dinners and stuff. So when I do consume these foods, I find it really hard to eat in moderation. But I also understand now from doing research that most people struggle because the foods are designed

to be addictive, you know, the way they're designed, like the engineered and scientifically like manufactured to be really delicious, consumed really fast so you buy more as quick as you can. Yes. And, you know, it's really hard to sort of put it back on you as a consumer. You need to just have a bit more balance, have a bit more moderation. It's just really, really hard when the mesh,

is so like it's it's everywhere all the time and it's really hard to avoid. So when I, yeah, I'm basically all on nothing with it, you know. Yeah. I can be really disciplined and be like, you know, having no ultra-processed food or I'm on the road and traveling and suddenly I have a couple of chocolate bars and the can of Coke and like then the whole week I'm just at it, you know what I am exactly the same? And I really, the more I have it, the more I crave it. Yes.

The less I consume, your brain and the sort of noise and those sort of cravings around sugar having something sweet, but it starts to pass a little bit. But it's not our fault. No, it's not. the food system has failed, I suppose, and it really is about the marketing and the convenience and that sort of promise that this is cheap and quick and healthy and simple. But, you know, the only answer really is cooking more. So the solution, which brings me back to, like, you know, my cookbooks and my recipes and things.

So I need people to get back in the kitchen and cooking because that's the only way we can take control of our diet, you know, is by doing it at home and enjoying the process as well. Look, before we dive into, because I really want to talk to you about that documentary and the bar and everything, but I'm going to quickly mention this. So this is out now. And protein in 15, obviously protein buzzword. Yeah. For everybody.

And we're going to be talking a lot more about that in a minute. But what I love about this book is it genuinely is. And we were talking about Lean in 15. Yeah. Because I was talking to a couple of girlfriends of mine here. No going, you know what's brilliant is the prepare time. And like everything is, it is really 15. it's not a lie.

Speed's important. Speed's important, Joe. Yeah, you can't mess around. You need to be quick and obviously people have less time there. So this book is about, you know, high protein meals that are relying on actual protein sources as opposed to like the ultra-process sort of, you know, because there's so many products in the market

that have that lovely branding of added protein, but, you know, it's masking a lot of other stuff. And to be honest, if you can just get back to whole cooking, you haven't got to really think about your protein intake because naturally it's just going to be taken care of, you know. So it's all about whole foods, family cooking, and, you know, batch cooking recipes that you can have... Back cooking's amazing, right?

Yeah, you want to have a bit for this evening, a little bit for lunch the next day. Yes. But yeah, it's been really well received, and I love the photos and all the recipes. There's a really good selection in there. And I like the funny names. Yeah, you said you might have an idea.

I did. So, you've got here, crispy tempe. How do you pronounce that? Tempe, yeah, crispy tempe. Tempe. Tempe. I've come up with, when you're doing a reprint, you don't even have to name check me or anything.

I'd just be pleased to help you. I thought, tiny tempe. As you were saying, I was thinking, I should have said that. You're going to say tiny tempe, aren't you? That's so much better. Tiny tempe, that's a brilliant name. So I'm just going to gift you that. Well, I've got silly-dilly salmon burger.

I mean, and I love the au-begin. And there's one that said, what did the chicken satay? Eat me. It's silly. It makes you love. Yeah, but it's like there's joy in this book. But it is. It is 15 minutes. It's easy. It's delicious.

Oh, thank you so much. So I'm, um, this is my copy. I'm going to, I'm going to take this. But, but really, really brilliant, Joe. I love that so much. And I want to, um, kind of stay on that subject of protein because you made this bar called, um, Killer Bar. The Killer Bar. And, Can you just talk Because I I thought that was quite edgy of you It's quite a thing To actually bring something out

That people can actually buy That is terrible It was very provocative It was provocative The documentuals on Channel 4 It's called Joe Wicks License to Kill It sounds like a James Bond movie

But it's about The regulations around marketing labelling health claims And potentially putting health warnings On certain foods You know we know are harmful. So it was always going to be quite provocative. I chose a protein bar because I'm in the fitness industry and it felt like the right thing. I think they are almost the worst liars, really.

It's one of many products that you could say, pretend they're a health product, but actually contain pretty nasty ingredients. And they're not that great. It's not like, it's not really going to kill you, but it's the, it's the kind of, it's the compounding effect of having a diet, a high in ultra-processed foods, which really is happening, you know, 80% of a child's diet in the UK and like a low-income family, it's coming from much processed food. So I wasn't attacking protein bars in itself, but it's about raising new awareness and helping people understand what's in our food, how is it affecting our health?

Because some of these ingredients are linked to an increase in the risk of stroke, you know, Alzheimer, dementia, depression, you know, cancers and things. So we have got to talk about it. It's hard to accept that the foods were eating could really be affecting us in that way. But I think like with the cigarettes in the 50s, we didn't know the harmful effects of smoking and it took a long time for that to change.

future years, everybody's going to get, God, can you remember when we used to eat that? Yeah, well, there has to be a shift because we can't, we can't continue as we are like, but aside from the increase in type of diabetes and obviously obesity and in children and around the world, it's the health implications as well, like the increase of risk of cancer and things that we have to like look at our diet. We can't just say it's because we're moving less and, you know, we're on our screens and it's like we have to, the environment and the food we're eating is a massive, it has a massive impact. And, you know, you might have said, I've got, massive pushback and backlash when I announced that bar because essentially I sold the bar,

only as a limited amount of bar, to prove that I can create something and pretend it's really healthy, but actually within this is really unhealthy ingredients that by law I can sell, but ultimately like this is this is about raising awareness and getting the government to enforce the food companies to like change the formulations or to put health warnings on the products and will it stop people eating it? No, but it might reduce it by 10% and that for me is worth it. even if I reduce that by 10% and you start to tip the balance a little bit back towards whole foods but at the moment

we're consuming way too much of it and it's really really affecting us not just our physical health but our mental health. You know, food affects our mood. You know that when you've had a binge and a blight, like how do you feel? And imagine doing it every day repeating that and seeing how quickly

you can get into a rut where you just feel low and depressed the whole time and so I'm really passionate about but I wasn't prepared for the backlash. What kind of backlash? Oh, like, loads of fitness coaches and nutritionists and people like, you know, saying you're demonising food, you're demonising sugar, you're stigmatising low income families, you're promoting eating disorders. It's like, I'm trying to help people cook healthier food at home. That's what I'm trying to do. So it's quite intense.

That first week before the documentary came out, I was really like getting attacked, left, right and centre. But when the documentary aired, you know, it's a really positive response. And I actually went to a talk the other day with Dr. Chris Van Tullochan. He's the doctor that helps me. He's amazing. culture process people. Yeah. And it was at this place called, it was the Royal College of Physicians and it was the

Lancet, which is a medical paper. Yeah. So there's been a three-year research paper that done by all these amazing academics and scientists on this, on this ultra-process food and our health. And the graphs are just like this going up. So like, you know, the increase in ultra-processed food, the increase of touched obesity, obesity, all these illnesses, like, it's so positively correlated that we can't deny the evidence anymore.

Like it is, it's there. and it's about, you know, how we can put pressure on the government and food companies to change it. But truth is, it might take 20, 30 years for food companies to change. But the one thing we can do today as people in control of our health is to just cook one meal today, one healthy meal at home and reduce the consumption of these products. And that way, you know, you're just going in the right direction. It might not be, you might not win every day. But if you can reduce it, we're going to be in a better position with our health.

And that's really the end goal, isn't it, of everyone? So I just wasn't prepared for it, you know, but it's part of it. You're going to upset some people, not everyone's going to agree what you're saying, but one day people look back and go, that documentary, like when he said all that stuff, like it was, it was right. And here we are, and now we can agree with it, you know. And the more research that's done on ultra-processed foods and all these different, I mean, the things that replace things that we think that are bad for us,

like sugar, things like aspartame, I was amazed to hear sucralose. xylitol. Yeah, so basically when you would, so in order to like reduce sugar, they have to put artificial sweetness in them. Yeah. Some of these have been shown, you know, and the question is, how can they prove it? Is it really substantial evidence? But whether you think it's the additives, emulsifies, gums, you know, e-numbers, like sweeteners, or you think it's like calories and, and, and, or it's the salt, fat and sugar. Either way, when you have a diet high in ultra-processed foods, it displaces the mod, it displaces a diet, it displaces a diet, it displaces a diet, of whole foods and it's that lack of fibre

all those things that you're not getting is also have the effect. So it doesn't matter what's causing it. The fact is we need to get back to cooking again, real whole food because we know when we do that we can reduce to consumption of these foods and hopefully increase our health but the numbers don't lie and

it's not a positive direction at the moment the balance is tipped in favour of ultra-processed foods somehow bring it back. And it's really hard. I think making it easy which is what you're so good at for everything. You know, exercise, food, kind of motivating yourself.

It's like, you are like, I'm going to make it so easy for you to do it. I think the frightening thing for me, knowing that sugar, I'd slightly kind of demonised sugar because when my sister had cancer, the doctor had said to her try and like lower your intake of sugar because sugar can feed it didn't give you cancer but it can encourage accelerate your tumor growth and when I talked about that I got shot down in quite a major way but when I got cancer I was also like I heard you know sugar is like cancer love sugar so so just be careful. careful with that. And but I saw protein bars as having protein in, not real sugar. I've eaten protein bars thinking, oh, it's fine, like it's good. Yeah, I have too, yeah. I have thought, had that mindset. Now for me, I wouldn't go anywhere near them because you've totally reframed the way that I look at them and I want to. to try and get protein from fish and like white meat in more, you know. And vegetables and grains, there's loads of... And other things like grains like chickpeas and...

Yeah, I think it's one of those things that with protein bars, it's like, it's just like, it's become like this like alternative to a chocolate bar, but with a chocolate bar, you know what you're getting right, but with the protein bars, you think it's like, yeah, it's like a healthy option. Exactly. It's just a plate and a bowl full of white powders. There's no real food in it. So, yeah, and again, it's not, I'm not trying to attack and just dig out of the process protein bar.

No, but what I'm, the reason why I'm saying that is because I am, I am a healthy fitness person and I too was doing that. And I'm not saying that the odd protein bar every now and again needs bust if you're somewhere and you fancy a chocolate bar. Yeah. But it's the fact that we're sold that as health. Yeah, that's the challenge. And that's the mistake, I think. I want people to just like, you know, just maybe question it and look at the back of products a little more. Because it's not just, look, it's cereals.

It's wraps, it's every condiment you can imagine. It's every single like, you know, sauce and ready-made pre-packaged goods in the supermarket, which is the predominantly, like, what we're consuming. And that, you know, it's just, it's having it in the... If we were just having 10 or 20% of it, fine. But an adult's eating up to 60% and a child up to 80%.

There's nothing wrong with a little bit of it. Like, that's the thing, the argument is not, we're trying to, like, you know, ban ultra-process foods and get it out of the diet and out your system because it's just not going to happen. But can you focus more on home cooking and can you, like, get back to, like, the basics of like whole ingredients. So, you know, rather than like an ultra-processed chicken nugget,

can you just use the chicken and make, you know, your own chicken burger at home or something? Like, it's just trying to go back to the sauce, if you like. And it's all the other things that are added to the products that make it. And obviously the high salt, fat and sugar content affect your weight and, you know, could lead to type of diabetes and things. But ultimately, like, it's a real challenge and you're not going to get everyday perfect. Don't try and remove it all from your life story, because that's quite difficult. And I don't know. How are you with it now? Are you always, or nothing with the sugar, do you still have a little bit and enjoy a treat? Do you know what happens to me is that I am, I can be quite good.

But I have these little things. So say I go to a dinner somewhere at someone's house, I will eat a pudding if someone's made it. But then if I've eaten that pudding that day, the next day, sugar is talking. to me everywhere. You're craving it, yeah. Yes. If I have it once, it is just, so now I'm thinking, I don't know if I can even do that. I think I just need to try and, I am all or nothing once I start.

So I used to do this thing on a Christmas where I'd go, I'm taking Christmas day off. And I'd literally put a quality street next to my, on my bedside table, wake up in the morning, put it in my mouth. Yeah, away, yeah. Right? Like, the first. fudge, like, do it. And then... Pick the fudge.

Oh, yeah. That's your favourite. Oh, yeah. Why, well, it's yours. That's the worst. What? What? Joe.

Are we talking Quality Street or celebration? What we talking about? Quality Street. What? I like the big purple ones. That's way better. Not the Brazil nut. Yeah, that's the best.

What? Or the triangle. God, show, you know what I was saying about seeing your soul? It's just like, all... I do eat the fudge if I'm desperate at the very end. Do you know, we'd be great together. Because, look, I could give you the purples and you give me the fudges. It's like amazing.

but then it would kick off just a day of obscenity. I would wake up like you said the next day feeling hungover. I don't drink alcohol. I would have a chocolate and sugar hangover that I would immediately want to feed with more sugar. Yeah, I'm the same. It's like, and I think there's a link to the gut as well in terms of the bacteria in the gut.

But, you know, it's like, don't forget, it is a reward system. Like they're designed to be really, really delicious. And so it is like lighting up the brain the same parts that drugs do. And so what they've done with research is like, they, you know, engineers and scientists like create the products at this bliss point

where it's not just the sugar, it's the fat, salt and sugar together. You go, oh my God, why can I eat? Why can't I eat one Oreo? Why have I got you the whole package? Why can I only eat like, you know, one chocolate is because it's designed to be like this? So, you know, as you're eating these things,

remind yourself like, is it a treat? Do you really feel good at the end of it? Does it make you feel bloated and tired and grumpy? Like, I feel like food affects my mood a lot. I get a bit irritable. Yeah. next day. Like you said, I'm thinking about going to the shop

and getting another chocolate bar. But, you know, I've tried the whole, the abstinence thing works, but the second I have a little blur again, I'm back to square months, I mean. Yeah, so I don't know whether it's better to, I'm still trying to find my way with it. Yeah.

I'm still trying to find. Don't have it in the house. If you have it in the house all the time, it's hard. But when you go out to the restaurant and you have a, you know, a milkshake and an ice cream on the way, I'm like, that's all right, but don't depend on it for every day

because it's really, really hard to stop when it's there, you know, it's in your face. Okay, so it's the first of January and people are trying to reset Can you give me your top tips for an like the really simple ones

because this is the first we don't want people to fall off the wagon Yeah, okay First tip prioritise sleep right Because about good sleep Oh God, I'm amazed that that's your first tip

No, talk to me about sleep then Without the sleep You know, it's the foundation isn't it? If you are not getting enough sleep and you know this going through premenopause or when you have kids, that it's really hard to wake up with energy to exercise if you've had a really rough night.

Yes. So do whatever you can, humanly possible, to get an extra half an hour or an hour of sleep a night because it really compounds and it adds up. Sure. That means the next day, you've got that little bit of energy to like do your workout, put a bit more energy into it, put a bit more effort into it and get better results.

And the third thing is, you know, it's like somehow falling in love with the process of cooking again. plan your meals for the week, you know, maybe get a cookbook or follow an Instagram account. You're like, take control of the food you're eating. Batch cooking as well really has a huge income. Because if you don't do that, you're only going to rely on food on the going convenience food, isn't it?

So it's like if you just get used to making a massive batch of something, put a bit in a fridge, you've got a couple of days worth of food. Yes. You know, it's easy for you and the kids when they're coming from school. It all kind of makes things a bit easier. Yeah. And with those three things, like, remember that you're not going to get them all right every day. But as long as you're doing one of those, I think you're on to a winner.

So if you're just doing your exercise and not eating that great, or you're not doing exercise there, but you eat really well, or you just think, I can't, I've got no energy to train, but I'm going to commit to going to bed an hour earlier tonight. They're the steps you need to take to actually create any change in your life. And it works. You know, it really, really starts to build up and it starts to compound and get a bit easier. But you can't wait until, you know, don't wait.

Don't wait. Don't wait until Monday. Just today, you know, start today. Yeah, why not start today? And also you can't start halfway through a day. I don't think. You like starting in the morning. I think you've got to wake up. You got a night is a great reset.

You reset overnight and you start in the morning. But I do think that sometimes people get to 11, they fall off the wagon. 11 p.m. or a.m? A.m. Oh, no. Like 11sies. You have a biscuit. Oh, sod it.

And then bang for the whole of the rest of the day. This comes down to the breakfast you choose. And if you're going to have a really high, high sugar, high sort of kind of. carbohydrate breakfast, you're probably going to have that little dip a bit later on. Whereas if you have a higher protein breakfast or higher fat and protein, you know, it keeps your blood sugar levels a bit more consistent and you have a bit more energy. So don't eat like a rabbit or don't eat like a low calorie yogurt with low calorie gonola and stuff like as you'll be hungry.

Yeah, have some proper food. Yeah. Have a proper bit of breakfast that gives you energy in and you're not going to be thinking about food two hours later. But the snacking is where most people go on, I think. It's not the meals. It's mainly the snacking in between. All those little bits that were graze.

all the time. That's what adds up and helps, you know, stops people from reaching their goals, I think. I love nuts. I love almond butter, but I eat it by the spoon and I can do a whole jar of it and you think, how many calories have I just eaten? I have no idea, but it's thousands, isn't it? Like thousands of calories in nuts. I like actual nuts nuts. Oh, like a full handful of nuts. Like a handful of nuts, but then I'm like, oh, just have one more handful. And then, you know, the same thing. It's just ridiculous. Can I just, I'm going to finish on. I just want to very quickly talk to you about Rosie. Yeah, okay.

You met Rosie at Glasson, me, didn't you? You're so cute. Have you met her before that? No. It's just a brief little moment. I've seen her. You know, obviously, like, and I look at your socials and stuff, so I see her. I'm like, you know, not that I'm stalking or anything, Joe, don't worry, you're safe.

No, I stalk you, don't we. She seems lovely, but I love this idea that you, like, knew of her, and then you went to a party knowing she'd be there. Yeah, so. that. So Rosie's quite private. The ironic thing is, Rosie used to be a page three model in a son. But she's very private. She doesn't want to be on my Instagram. She'd rather not be on my Instagram. She's quite private. But, you know, I knew of her because I was obsessed of her. Like, she was this girl, like, you know, Rosie Jones, like, page three girl. And she was in

nuts and zoo magazine. And I was like, you know, buying his magazines. I was a fan of her, a basic fan of her. And I thought she's beautiful. And then when I found out my mate was going out of her friend, they got married and he was a DJ. I found out she was at this club. And I don't, I wasn't going raving, I'm not a rave, but I was like, I've got to go meet. I really wanted to meet her to see what she's like, you know, see if she's nice. And, you know, I went up to London, it was pissing, pissing with rain. What did you wear? I mean, I was just wearing that jeans and a t-shirt and a big, warm jacket, but, you know,

once you're in a rave, you get with your jacket. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you've got the bod-out, T-shirt, like, a little bit clingy. No, no, baggy T-shirt. Joe! Probably just like a standard, like, I don't know, T-shirt from top, man, nothing too says. Okay, no, okay. I'm not the most stylish, man.

Great, always. Okay, carry on. And I went and met her and obviously I got introduced to her. And she, she hadn't know, she didn't know her was. This is obviously years ago before, just before I sort of blew up as the body coat. And, you know, we met, we became friends. And then obviously like, fast forward today, we got four kids and we're married. But she is, you know, she's my best mate. And I, she is like the other side of me.

Like we're so similar in a sense. Like, you know, we love traveling. We love food. We love being parents. We're like teaching our kids. We're like homeschooling. And, you know, like we are really, our kind of values are aligned, you know. and I like that.

So important. And I suppose being from a child of a family that never got, well, never stuck together and never got married and not committed in that sense. I really want to be like a committed husband. I really want to be a present father. So these are the things I'm almost like, I'm glad I learned that from my childhood. I'm glad that those things I learn, those values I've got in me now really come from the lack of that I had as a kid.

And I want to be, I want to be there for her. So, you know, she's for sure like the most important part of my life because she's given, me what's really important, not fame and success and book sales. She's giving me a family and a home and like kids that I love, you know what I mean? And that's, if everything went tomorrow, I've got that and that's what keeps me, I suppose, knowing everything's okay, you know, I'm really content in that. That if the body coach and Joe Wicks and the whole like Instagram, everything just fell apart and the business fell to fell to the ground, like I've still got the most important thing, which is a family, you know. You're safe. Yeah. That's how I feel. Yeah. So it's a

nice feeling, isn't it? Wow. So nice. You know what's funny as well, I think, that you now can understand how hard it is to train with kids. Oh yeah, and cooking right kids. And trying to find, and trying to find time and everything else. It's like given all of your work a new meaning, right? And you kind of want to like let them get involved with yours. I just want to have this hour to myself when you're like, I'll come in there and let's do a few press ups and stuff. But I also understand the importance of that role money. So when they do ask me, I really, I don't want to say no. I want to come and end, like, and get them involved a little bit. But, yeah, it's always a challenge when you've got four kids under seven.

They're running around like lunatics. And just for any parents out there, because there's a lovely thing in the anonymous fellowships about its attraction rather than promotion, you know, don't go and tell everybody they've got to go to an A or A, but like live a life of somebody that would appeal to someone and go, I want that life. Yeah, I love that concept. How do you raise your kids to want to be into good food or working out because forcing them to do it is going to make them want to run in the opposite direction?

Yeah, we have this conversation around food at the moment because I'm trying to educate them. I don't want to be a dad that's always saying, no, no, no, no. But you can't say yes all the time because there's chocolate everywhere. There's sweets in every vending machine, at every soft plate, at every leisure centre. It's everywhere.

And so I'm trying to teach them like, look, we can enjoy these things but there's a reason I'm not saying yesterday every single day because I'm trying to protect your help. I'm trying to help you feel good and so I'm asking them, you know, have you had enough? Like you can have a little bit of ice skin, but do you really need two scoops? And I'm like getting them to sort of read their body a little bit more. But it is a challenge because I know that when they're out there in the big world when they're teenagers, like they are going to be experiencing the same environment that we all are. And it is really hard, isn't it? When all your friends are eating these foods and like I said, I'm not like completely

militant. We still love a tree. We went away and we had an ice cream every day and we were having that treats and stuff, but it's not in the house, it's not in their lunchbox every single day. So that's, that's one thing I'm trying to navigate and it's not easy. The second thing is around movement. I want my kids to be active and to love exercise. So it's really a case of creating as many opportunities where they can be at. You have to facilitate the exercise. Have fun.

So, yeah, so sometimes we'll just go for a little bike ride. Sometimes we're going for a little run. Other times, you know, I just stick on one of them activates and we do it in the living room together. But, yeah, but they also would. Wait. Yeah, we do it together, yeah. I love that. You just stick it on five minutes.

We do it for a laugh. The kids and... They work out to their cartoon dad. Cartoon dads, yeah, and they think it's hilarious. But they also would love to just sit and watch Disney Plus all day, you know, like... Yeah. And have to really fight against that and work and give them an opportunity to stature. Because if they don't, it's going to be really, really hard to engage them as teenagers.

I just hope that it's in their DNA, you know, and it's just a case. It's multiple exposures to different sports, you know, let them try a little bit of gymnastics. Maybe they're trying a bit of football. But, you know, they're going to love... Maybe they'll love a sport. Maybe they'll just hopefully just enjoy the movement of just like being active and, you know, running around and playing hide and seeking things. But it's easy.

I can't talk about experience until I've got teenagers, how hard it's going to be. I can control their world a little bit more now. But I know when they're 13, 14, 15, it's like, I bet it's really hard getting teenagers moving in this world we live in now. I find house music. That helps. Is a brilliant way of getting kids moving now. Just having a dance at home? Yeah.

Dance. Are you a cool mum? Are you listening to house music then? Oh, well, I mean, I ran clubs in the late 80s, early 90s. I am like rave queen. Do you like modern house? I love, well, I love modern music, but they are the ones that keep me posted with everything. Like they send me tracks all the time, which I absolutely love.

But thanks to them, you know. So, protein in 15. Absolutely amazing. Thank you, Joe Wicks. It's been such a pleasure. Thank you. It's been like a therapy session for you today. I absolutely, I think the best thing I could say about you is that I really respect you.

Thank you. So kind of you. It's a testament to who you are. You know, you're always so positive and you give up such a great energy. Thanks for having me. Love you. Thank you. Thank you.

Love you. Thank you so much. Oh, what a great chat. Okay, guys. So me and Joe are going to do a 10 minute workout and it's going to be on the YouTube channel on Sunday. I'll see you there.