The Uneducated PT Podcast - #24 Sarah Vernon - The Accountant Turned Coach

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

In this episode we speak to Sarah Vernon who is a coach helps women get strong and confident in the gym. Sarah is a ex accountant who decided to dive head first into the fitness industry and hasn't looked back. In this episode we speak about the common mistakes newbies make in the gym plus much more. Sarah V

Hello and welcome to the uneducated PT podcast with me, your host, Carlo Rourke. The goal of this podcast is to bring on interest and knowledgeable people from all walks of life, learn a little something from each conversation. And for you, the listener, just learn something from each episode. So don't forget to subscribe to the channel, press the box below, show some support, and I'll see you on the next episode. So I did my PC qualifications during COVID. And then, so from 2021, I passed everything.

I did it part-time for a couple of years alongside my full time. job, but I only went full time this time last year. What do you think about being an accountant? There's parts of it that I like. I like problem solving. I like using my brain and all that kind of stuff. But generally, I just got to the point where it really, really annoying me. So I was like, this is all just bollocks. Like this is just made up stuff and it doesn't mean anything.

And I'm not actually doing anything to help anyone else lives. And that's kind of what made me look for something else, basically, to do. And fitness was always in the background. during my 20s and early 30s and that's what kind of led me to go into coaching. What has been difficult about the transition? Because I presume when you were an accountant, you were obviously working for a company. So you had, before you had structure and you had someone probably telling you what to do and you probably knew what to do with your day.

So how has the transition been from that to essentially working for yourself and making your own schedule and so on and so forth? It has been harder than anything I can actually imagine, a lot harder. and I thought it was going to be, to be fair. I think because I was full-time employed in finance or accounting for 15 years in like the same company, like 50 years. Oh, really? 15 years you were there. So that's a, that's a scary transition because most people, once they're,

once they're in a job for that amount of time, it's actually harder and harder for them to walk away from that because it's something you know, something that you're good at, something you're familiar with. Yeah, and I'm naturally like, I'm not, I'm a very, like, risk-averse person. and I was obviously very safe in so many ways you know exactly what you're doing you know exactly what your future looks like

but I could kind of see where my future was going and I was like do I want to be these people that are on the career ladder above me I was like I don't want to be those people so I need to get out or that's who I'm going to be that's the life I'm going to have

and I need out I need out so yeah a lot of people can just get like if you're just if you're comfortable where it's like it's it's you don't like it's it's not, it's not terrible. So you get, you get stuck in that trap. And I was in a position where I was like fairly well paid. And it was like hard, but it wasn't that hard.

Like I knew my job at that point kind of thing. So it was really, really safe. And yeah, I just went, fuck it. So, so here's a question. So why coach and why, why the fitness industry? So the fitness industry, like I said, I was not particularly sporty as a child at all, but I really found fitness later on.

in my life, so like in my 20s, I got into fitness during the absolute chaos that was early Instagram. And if you were a girl on early Instagram, like everyone that was doing bikini competitions was a PT online PT. And I went to, yeah, yeah, yeah, Fitzpo, Jim Spoe, eating broccoli and chicken out Tupper and all that. That was my introduction to fitness. And it's awful. And I think during my journey, I've understanding I didn't need to do these bat shit crazy things. And I didn't need to feel this way about myself and food and all this kind of stuff. I kind of wanted to show other women that that was possible. I became like the person that all my friends and people went to about like the gym or fitness and stuff like that.

And I found it super, super interesting. Because I always like science, it's always like the biology bit and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, it was more I just saw the crap that was out there. And it just started to irritate me more and more and more about what people were exposed to. You were essentially your own kind of coaching project throughout the years that you were working in the countancy anyway. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, yeah.

Like I have been that person that's done all the crazy shit. I have had to juggle a full-time job doing gym and fitness and stuff. So I just kind of wanted to show people that there was a way, especially working in an office, the amount of crap you hear in an office, the amount of fad diets everyone's on. And I would always be like, oh, you don't have to do this. but obviously you have any like it's just me chatting whereas now I'm I coach like people will listen to me you have a bit you have you have a bit more authorities than in the office so obviously you are

essentially then your own clients in terms of the struggles and the you know the mistakes that you've made or you see other people making and try to prevent them from making them same same mistakes that you made what would have been some of the early mistakes that that you made in the gym or even in terms of your nutrition that you try to coach your clients into avoiding. So nutrition is just you don't need to do anything crazy. You don't need to do anything overly restrictive. I literally did the meal plan where you're told like for breakfast you can have egg whites and 10 almonds and for lunch you can have grapefruit.

And I even emailed this one particular like plan that I was on. I email was like, I really don't like grapefruit. Do I have to eat great food? And she was like, yes, yes. Yes, you do. Yeah. You don't do anything crazy like that. You can just do everything moderately.

You can still have a life. You don't have to dedicate your whole life to fitness. With the gym, I think it was in terms of having training structure and understanding like the basic movements, not hopping around from all different kinds of programs, not doing whatever looks fancy on Instagram. And kind of believing in myself as well, like, because I was not a fitness girl.

I was not a sporty girl. and now like I am which is still I feel like that's a bit of a fever dream but I am and I think some people if you didn't go up in sports you didn't go up doing fitness stuff you kind of just think I'm never going to be I never be a gym girl I never that's just not that's just not me and I like no I literally that that was me and I can do all those things so I kind of like instill in that belief in people that actually like you are you're kind of in control of your destiny with your body a little bit which is kind of exciting do you think that's a big um barrier that people face is that like they have they basically put these labels on themselves or

they have this identity like like you said that oh there's because they weren't sporty in school that they're not a sporty person so therefore they're not a gym person therefore there's no point in them even trying because that's just not who they are and that prevents them from even taking that first step yeah 100% I think identity plays a lot oh I'm just not coordinated and like yeah me neither like oh no I'm just not strong yeah I wasn't like it's just I think people think that that's not a changeable thing. Or I'm not very, like the whole, I'm not very motivated.

And that, that annoys me. Not with them, but I hate the way motivation is kind of like, pedals or something like, you have to have as a permanent state. It's like, no, I'm not. Like, and that's not shade to anyone that says, I'm not motivated.

I just want other people to feel like, that's not a personality and you're not a bad person because you're not motivated. Like, we're all not motivated. Just join the club. Like, it's totally fine. You can still make progress. So, yeah, I think labels play a big part.

So, like, I noticed you from, from your social media and stuff like that that you're very consistent in the gym you train hard but what do you think were the first steps for you from going from that person who had that identity belief that they weren't you know a gym girl or sporty or active or couldn't do them things

to someone who's now you know consistently trains in the gym very confident in herself in terms of going to the gym now coaches other people to do the same so what are them first steps for someone who probably has that identity belief that's preventing them from kind of taking that first step. I think there is a little bit of bravery that you do you do have to kind of just suck it up and be like, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to go. Like there was a lot of obviously trial and failing. Like I've been in a gym and done so many things wrong and not forward the right programs,

but I think you can get away with a lot as a beginner because you'll still kind of make progress. So I think that it's just kind of like sucking up and like saying I'm going to go and do this. one of the things that actually really, really helped me is my, is my other, like my sport, which is pole dancing. So I do pole dancing for fitness. And for me, that actually really, really helped me because you have to go into a room full of people and try and fail in front of people. And that I really don't like failing.

I don't like being wrong. I don't like being shit or something. I don't like any of those things. And like, because I really enjoyed the pole fitness thing and I really want it to get better and better, I can't just force myself to go. and you kind of get a bit of like an armour to that whereas like you get less bothered by looking shit and you get less bothered about failing in front of people

and that really, really helped me to push in everything in my life, I think. So I think there is just that pushing out your comfort zone. With girls that are scared to go to the gym, like I will go through with that. I'll do different things in each week. So I'm okay, the first week, just go in the gym.

Just walk in the gym, go in the change room and come out. Like just go right, once you cross the threshold, you'll see that, okay, you've been in, you kind of what it looks like. It's kind of like that you've, you've breached enemy lines like it's fine and then the next week i'll be like i just go on a treadmill for 10 minutes and just try and look around and try and work out where everything is so it looks vaguely familiar and like i'll just build up like that so that it doesn't have to be in all-and-nothing

situation so yeah and i think that's what what a lot of people fall for isn't it it's like they decide one day okay i want to i'm not happy at the moment so i want to make this change in my life i'm gonna start by you know exercising regularly maybe i'll get a gym membership they get the gym membership and then they expect that they need to go in and do, you know, a full program and be in the weights room and, like, obviously that then scares them off from going again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As soon as they decide they want to go to the gym, because a lot of them just start off with walking with me, to be honest. If it's got us, the gym's just like, just absolutely no way. And when we go to the gym, like, yeah, I'll just break it down.

Yeah, you don't have, there is no rules. You don't have to be in there for an hour. You don't have to. I do know your exercise is. I said you will want to the more you practice, but you don't have to start there. That'll just go in. Yeah, yeah. I think a lot of, you see a lot of trainers online, they'll shit on people like going in and using treadmills and stuff like that and being like, like, there's no point going into the gym just to go on a treadmill. But like they, they obviously don't understand that what you're trying to do for a client is get them comfortable in their environment. So then they eventually can start to make progress with other things and get stronger. Yeah, I think it's a lot of the unknown as well. I like, I think a lot of people think that haven't been into a gym have it in their head that it's just, all these adonises and goddesses

and everyone is perfect and you go in and you're like there's just a load of regular people like and it kind of just takes all the illusion out of it and the more you can just be exposed to it you're like oh no okay yeah they don't really know exactly what they're doing

they look a little bit confused or they're having an induction or like it just yeah I just yeah it's it's it's really about you getting out of your head isn't it because that's essentially what it is so let's say right you have a client who has gone through them phases of you know getting into the gym

and feels a little bit more comfortable in their environment and they want to make progress in terms of getting stronger. All right. So what are some of the things that people can avoid in terms of slowing down progress in terms of, you know, getting stronger in the gym and making progress? So I think I mentioned before having a plan and sticking to that plan. And I think having that conversation a lot of times where people like, oh, is it the same plan for like, you know, X amount of months?

And I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of misunderstanding because Instagram is like, oh, try this workout or this workout did this and they think things need to be changing or that whole you need to shock your muscles thing like that is still in some people's brains from from way back when. So I think that consistency that it is going to be a little bit boring. Like, like, but that's just the way it is. Like the basic exercises, like they work for a reason. Like if I've been in the gym like 10 plus years, I'm still doing a leg press.

I'm still doing it. That's not going to change. Like I think it's kind of getting over that in our brains. And again, nutrition, I think. I think so many girls under eat on protein, like massively. Like the numbers I give a lot of my girls to start on protein are like, I just eat some protein. Just they'll come to me and I'll see what they eat this like 20 grams of protein.

I'm like, how are you alive? How are you functioning? So I think if I see girls like graft in the gym and not getting anywhere and that was probably me to some degree. Yeah. Yeah, eat protein. Well, that's another thing that clients make is when they stay, they go in because they want to build muscles

so they can get toned and you know they're like eating the trying to eat then the calories of like a small child because again they probably have a fixated in their head that they need to be thin and it's kind of these two conflicting things that are going on in their head when they're trying to you know make progress yeah 100% and I have a same

similar approach when I have that I have with people just starting the gym and at first I'll kind of set them on just you know meeting in these calories nothing scary and the more they get into the gym, the more I might push that up. I'm not going to put you on a crazy amount of calories and a crazy amount of protein.

But if you're consistently in the gym and you're starting to get familiar with your nutrition, then I'll kind of like raise the bar a little bit for you and then raise it. So it doesn't seem like a complete 180 because I think, I don't think people understand how weird it can be as a girl

or as a woman to kind of be wanting the scales to go up a little bit when you're putting on muscle. Like that is just so forward. to a lot of us that grew up in their, you know, naughties, 90s where like small, smaller thinner, better scale weight is everything. Like that concept is wild. And I'll have scales now that are, you know,

we've worked loads in their body image, really, really good relationship with scales, really good relationship, through the gym. And every now and then they will still text and be like, I'm just kind of having a freak out about, and you're just kind of have to, like, talk them back down. So I think it's, again, building up, like, not expecting to do everything all at once,

like just building in terms of gym and nutrition and everything else. So we know that program, I'm hopping and making sure that they're not like trying to change their exercises every week or every month because it's not going to get them the progress that they want is going to be one thing. And making sure that they're consuming enough food and eating enough protein is going to be another thing in terms of them seeing progress in the gym and getting stronger. Is there anything else that you can think of? So I think a lot of it is a mindset thing as well, like a lot of mindset. Like again, the motivation thing, you're not always going to be motivated. You can need to find a way to go as much as you can regardless of it. obviously give yourself grace for illness injury and you know whatever that's that's fine but but being consistent staying motivated and also kind of like recognizing that it's not although i love fitness and i think you can change a lot of your life um it's not going to mean that you wake up every day loving yourself like the whole body image thing like body image is is just an image in your brain it's how you feel a particular day and you can have shitty body image days even if you look however

you perceive is your best. And I think kind of a lot of people don't expect that either. So I think there's kind of a lot of like mindset things about body image and that as well. I think people aren't always aware of when they start like, oh, I'm going to drop to this dress size. I'm going to look this and that this way and everything's going to be fixed. It's like no, a lot of things will be fixing. It's like, no, a lot of things will be fixed. It's like, it's like a free pass to like never ever feel in shit about yourself ever, ever again. Do you think that, you know, the progress that you've made in the gym in terms of building strength and building confidence. That's what translated over to you,

having the ability to be able to walk away from a 15 year career to try something new. Yeah, potentially. Yeah, I think there's a lot of things. Like I said, I think that the gym and pole dancing and trying things and becoming like a completely different person in a lot of ways made me realise that there are new rules. Like I can be whoever I actually want to be.

Like I don't have to like follow this set path that I thought I was going to I can do whatever. I think that's, but that's one of my favorite things about, like, fitness and stuff. I see it in the girls that I coach. They start off, like,

going to the gym, didn't think they were gym girls. And then all of us are like, oh, I'm going to try this pottery class and I'm going to do this. And I'm going to learn to drive. And I never did.

I thought I was ever going to do that. And it kind of like, felt as into, like, all of your life. I love that bit. Yeah, I always, I always joke and say that the gym's not going to solve all your

problems. But at the same time, like, when I look back over, like, the last couple of years of me training, like it has given me the kind of platform or confidence to go and try and attempt to things

that I probably never would have before if I haven't of done that, which I do see it translate into a lot of other areas of your life, which is really important. I'm just going to go through a few of your favourite quotes that I really enjoyed that I robbed off. I want to you to make me seem really mean, I think. Yeah, yeah, you've kind of, you know.

little bit ruthless. I just want you to deep dive into a few of these kind of coaching ones as well, because I think they're really important for anyone listening. So the first one is for me to help you to be successful in achieving your goals, you need to care about them more than I do. So can you elaborate on that one? So I think some people, when they sign up to coaching, I think, okay, I'm going to get a training, a pan, nutrition plan, and it's going to solve everything. And they don't actually guess how much work there is involved, like about the mindset stuff, like learning how to be, how to motivate yourself, learning how to push salty things when you're not feeling motivated, understanding, you know, how you like to eat within, like, the confines of good nutrition.

Like, you need to understand, I'm not going to tell you, like, what to eat for breakfast. I can give you guidance, but I can't tell you what you want to eat and all that kind of stuff. Also, like, I can give you loads of different options for things. So say, you don't like a certain XI, you don't like a certain food or, you know, we're talking about comfort eating or whatever. I can give you tips on what to go away and work on because I can. I want you to be your best self so bad. And I will think of a million different ways to help you get there.

But you have to kind of care enough about doing that work. Like, and going away and doing the hard stuff, which can be difficult. I do recognize, like, if I'm saying, okay,

if you're comfy, and go away and think about, right, what is the trigger, like what is going on? What was going on with your day? Like, you know,

can we do something else. That can be quite what to kind of like dig down and be like, okay, well, this horrible thing happened. And it made me feel this kind of, like, that's not nice.

But you need to kind of, be able to push through that enough to achieve your goals. And I think people just sometimes think it is just like, oh, I'm a male plan and this. It's like, actually there's like, it's like a two-way relationship here where I can give you suggestions and you say, yeah, I like this one, don't like this one. And I can be like, okay,

we'll push that one, not that. And there is kind of a lot of a lot of work involved in it. Yeah, I completely agree. Like I've had clients who like I can think back of like me probably coaching a couple of years ago and like, if I look back on the way that I would deliver things and even how I would program and stuff like that, like terrible, awful.

But I still got, there were still clients who got really, really good results. And then I would consider myself a far more equipped. I would consider myself far more equipped in terms of like the skills of coaching to help people now. But like, even when I was a worse coach, some clients got even better results.

And even now that I'm a better coach, some clients would get worse results. and the only difference between that is that the clients back then or someone who got really, really good results, it fundamentally came down to them actually wanting it more because you can have a terrible plan, right? You can give someone a terrible plan and they could still get really, really good results

because they're just resilient and push themselves true and just have a desire to change their outcome. And you could give someone the best plan ever, like optimize everything in terms of nutrition, and train and like the perfect plan like but if they don't implement it because they don't really care as much as they say they care about it well like at the end of the day like that's going to be the fundamental thing that's going to drive change like how much are you willing to sacrifice or how much are you willing to do the thing to get the result

yeah and even sometimes it's down to like do you actually it I know you think this is your goal and if you but if you're really really not doing anything about the things you're saying it might achieve is this really good is that actually in line with your values or your life right now. And if not, that's fine. There's absolutely no judgment. But you need to kind of go away and think about that. It's not just like, here's a perfect thing. You don't really need to do much. It's not a judgmental thing at all because I've, I've, I've went on, I've paid for programs as to and absolutely fuck all on them. And I just can't say, you know what? I wasn't in the space for that. And that's fine. That's fine. It's just that wasn't for me. I think sometimes people need to be like,

yeah, okay, I'm not in the head space for it. And I can't do this work to help me get here. like I'll pick it up another time with with no judgment like that's fine yeah it is it's it's work when you especially you get one-to-one coaching like it is it's quite intense like I'm literally going to like do this we could do this and if you're like oh god go away sometimes sometimes you want the thing but you don't want to do the thing to get the dig yeah sometimes you need to reach a point me like I'm sick of my own shit and I've been this person dick of my own shit and I'm doing it now and you just have to reach that point really and that's the thing there are the clients who will get the best results because like

they are just going to adhere to everything because they have reached a point where it's like, okay, this is, this is too important for me not to do the, the mundane little tasks. What is it that little, that's saying? It's like, um, a 60% a plan that's like 60% optimal done at 100% adherence is far better than like, you know, a plan that's, you know, 100% but just not done at all or something like that. So it's like, like, as long as, as long as you're actually. acting on the things that you need to do. Like there's not where you're not going to get results.

And to me, it's not even about an adherence thing. It's more like if you fuck up, if you have the worst week ever and you've gone to McDonald's after work because it's just been one of them, that's fine, but just tell me,

we'll talk about it, we'll make a plan. Like that, that's okay. As long as you're still in the game, you don't need to be perfect. As long as you're in the game, trying and talking and talking to learn

and trying to get like a teeny tiny bit better every week, then that's enough. But you have to, to do that as a minimum. And then that probably leads on to your next famous quote. It's sometimes self-compassion is calling yourself out on your own bullshit. Going to the other one for me. I think sometimes people take self-compassioners,

oh, okay, I'm going to let myself get away with murder. I'm going to treat myself real good. I'm going to eat, you know, Easter eggs in the bath and not, yeah, that's fine. And I think that's, that is valid. Sometimes that is what you need and that's fine. but also sometimes what you need is to say to yourself, right, stop fucking around and get to the gym. Like having that, you have to kind of parent yourself. You have to kind of think about, what will future me be like tomorrow may be grateful I did today?

And sometimes that is rest and that's fine. And sometimes that's having a word and doing the things. Yeah. And I think that self-compassion thing sometimes goes a bit too. Yeah. Yeah, like I would say that self-compassion isn't having bubble bath. It's eating breakfast to a little bit or something like that. But that what you said there as well, it's like sometimes it's you just need the parent yourself.

I think that's really like that's a real mindset shift for a lot of people because when you do think about it like how would you how would you treat your your child or something like that's like you well, you'd make sure that they have their breakfast that you know, they get to bed early that you know, they're not up all night. You know, mindlessly snack and all this stuff. It's like all these little simple things that add up at the end of the day to get you that outcome. like yeah like kids don't want to ask the teeth but you like go breast teeth like it's like it's like you're doing it because it's actually it's good for you in the long run kind of thing and yeah yeah yeah tell us what's good for us in the long run but eating vaguely well and going to the gym or doing some ball of exercise is is on that list so make yourself do it yeah and just we're more inclined to look after other people before we are more inclined to look after ourselves um another one is

having aesthetic base goals uh doesn't make you a bad person. Yeah. So I just, I get girls coming to me that are kind of scared to say they want to lose body fat. And I'm like, it's okay if you want to look a certain way. As long as you're doing it in line with help, you're not doing anything crazy, ridiculous. You're doing it for you and not for anyone else or what you think you should do. And you're allowed to look however you want to look like that. So okay, like all of us are a little bit vain. Like I am a natural blonde. Like I dye my hair. Like I've coloured in my arm. Like that is all for vanity. You know what I mean? It's all about an out. outside of appearance and present to the world. Like, it's okay if you want to look a slightly different

way. I appreciate there is like a bit to be said about, well, what is societal norms and what is traditionally beautiful and is it right, wrong? But I'm like, and I do understand all that, but I'm like, but we're on this planet one time. And that amount of shift is probably not going to happen to make your life any easier if you feel really, really shit in the body that you're currently existing in. So you're allowed to change that. Like, I just think that's, that's okay. And And I just, I feel bad for the girls that like, I'm kind of just fed up of women being told how to feel about their bodies. Like you should want to look different in the 90s, no, ease. You should want to be exactly as you are now.

It's like, just leave us alone. Well, yeah. Just leave us alone. And let us make current decisions about how we want to look and, and let us get on with it. Yeah. I've, I was talking to my clients today and I even talk about, like, when people start telling you that you should do this or you must do that, like, that's a, like, a shame-based statement. It's like, well, why should I? I do this. Well, I could do this. I could lose weight if I want that. Do I want to? Well, actually,

I do want to lose weight. Well, then if you want to lose weight, then no one should be able to tell you any different. Like, it's your decision that you're making. And I completely, I completely agree with you. It's like, it's like everything, right? Everything like starts off as a good idea and then just gets taken to the absolute extreme end of things. So it's like, people were like, you know, obviously you had diet culture where like it was just bombarded in your face all the time that are going a diet lose weight going to diet lose weight and like you would then have a subset of the population who were going on diets just because they were almost manipulated into doing a true you know society norms but then it became like all right the you know anti-dial

culture it's like don't go on a diet don't try to lose weight don't try to change yourself and then you'd have a certain subset of the population well actually do want to go on a diet. I actually do want to lose weight. I'm actually not comfortable or happy in my skin at the moment. And then like that's also then turned into shame. It's like you're you're shamed into losing weight or you're shamed into not losing weight. And it's like you just let people decide what they want to do. There shouldn't be any shame based around either decision. Yeah, I kind of say that I'm anti-diet culture because that was that was horrific. But I'm pro diet. If you want to diet and change your lifestyle change how you eat like that. I'm pro-

diet, just very anti-diet culture. Yeah, the problem is with even with the word diet is that like, um, sometimes we don't, sometimes we use the term interchangeably. So we don't even know what we're talking about because I could, I could say the word diet, right? And I could be thinking in my head when I say diet, fat diets, crash diets, uh, restriction, starvation. But then I could also say diet and I could think of like my diet as a whole in terms of like

a lifestyle in terms of, you know, eating healthy, nutritious food, but also being able to have a pizza, also, you know, exercise and but also, you know, being able to go out for a future drinks like like my just my entire lifestyle the people that I hang around whatever the things that I consume on social media like that's my diet as a whole what I consume so like sometimes I use the term interchangeably and I can mean different things when I'm speaking about yeah yeah I know what you mean yeah it has been corrupted a little bit but I think with everything it's like it's like it's like that pendulum thing isn't it like yeah like diet culture went too far so maybe now it we're going too far this way and actually we kind of just want to end up in the middle yeah it's

I think over correction or something it's called. It's exactly that. You go from like anti-dial culture to like body positivity where you're not allowed to change yourself whatsoever in any way. It's like, all right, let's just meet in the middle somewhere where people can just do what they want to do. Another one of yours as well, which I really liked was fitness is my, fitness is my entire job and I don't let it take over my life. Yeah. Is that a mistake you see? clients make? I think it's more again a perception thing like when people like oh you know they'll be

oh I really want to do this but I really love food or you know I really want this but I'm not a gym person again it's like this perception that to be fit to be strong to you know achieve your fitness goals that has to become your entire life and your entire personality for some people and absolutely which for some fitness code just that happens yeah 100% and I'm just like that's not the case that you can just be a normal person who just go to the gym and trains like it doesn't have to to be your entire existence. Like I don't relate to the some of the fitness, you know, stuff that you see on, you know, on Instagram, that's like, you know, when I'm not at the gym or I can do us think about the gym. I'm like, that's not me. Like, when I'm not in the gym, I'm doing other

stuff. I love the gym when I'm there. I love getting strong. I love how it makes me feel. But I have other shit to do. It's not my entire personality. And I think a lot of people, again, that perception thing before you walk in the gym, you think that's what fitness is. You think it's like the extreme hardcore cases when actually like, you can just be a normal human being and just do that as a side thing. Like that's that's okay. It doesn't need to be your entire existence personality. You don't need to do anything crazy.

Like, yeah. I saw on TikTok earlier and I see a fitness account. I'd say he couldn't be more than 20 years of age. And it was like he did a whole like vlog of his day, got up at half three in the morning, and put salt in his water, drank that, spent 20 minutes in an ice bath. Then he went and journaled for 20 minutes. Then he went and he did meditation.

Then he cycled to the gym and he trained for an hour. I said he came home, but he comes over and it's like 6 o'clock and he has his porridge and he has those, this and this. And I'm like, them kind of videos do not help people who are just trying to get in shape, but like have trained. kids hanging out of their tea, like have a full-time job, have absolutely no time as it is. And then they make it look like fitness and health needs to be like, all right, you need to. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, it doesn't help at all. And like I think the, I think, I think for coaches,

their biggest job is to is to make clients understand that doing something is always better than doing nothing and not to have that kind of all or nothing mindset or approach that you might see on social media. Yeah, that all or nothing thing is a killer for a lot of people. And I think it stops a lot of people from even starting. But yeah, one of the things I'm really grateful for is that fact I did get into this game so late. Like as in that I have had like a full corporate job. And I've had to, you know, I know what it's like when you're working over time because, you know, it's month end in accountancy or whatever.

I'm dead late when you want to grab. I've had to work gym and food and stuff around that. So I completely, I've literally been there when people are telling me those things. so I like it's not it's not your entire life it doesn't have to be your entire life yeah and I think that's the important thing about coaching is like if you're a good coach you probably do have life a lot of life experience that has nothing actually to do with fitness because we know that like fitness in your life is is going to be they're going to intertwine at some some point anyway like because your life will dictate what you essentially can do so having people who can actually understand

that and aren't just kind of, you know, 17-year-old fitness influencers whose life revolve around the gym and they don't know anything else about life. Like, how is that going to relate to the mum who's trying to get back in shape after she's had her second kid or the, or the, you know, person who works 12 hours a day and then comes home, is absolutely wrecked and just gets a takeaway and falls asleep. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I just think it's, it, those kind of things aren't helpful. And I think when other people, like, say my friends have known me for a millionaires are, like, talking about coaching. I'm like,

or I speak to people who are interested in becoming coaches because they love the gym. I'm like, okay, well, good luck with that because I speak about the gym about like this much. Yeah. And I think about nutrition probably more, but I'm mainly speaking about everything else. Like, self-belief and your habits and timetabling

and how can you fit things in? And like I'm talking about all that kind of stuff so much more than the gym. So if you're going into becoming, you know, a coach because you want to talk about exercise biomechanics, yeah. Because most people don't want to talk to you about that stuff. I said that I was talking to a bunch of personal trainers from my old college there a couple of about a month ago.

And I said to them, I go, I know he's all love fitness and you love the gym, but that doesn't matter. That's not why you're going to get into being a personal trainer, get into coaching. Like you get into it because, not because you love the gym, because you love helping people. And there's a difference. Yeah, yeah. Oh, 100% for me. it was it's a like what what can I do to make the world a little bit of a better place and I had this knowledge and perspective and experience and I was like this feels like a good place for me to

try and help this little section yeah because like if you're just thinking oh well I love the gym well then you're just thinking about you so like it's it's essentially self-absorbed but the whole idea of being a coach isn't to be thinking about you is to be thinking about other people yeah and I think if you care as well like some of it is emotionally a little bit draining like because if you have a week all your clients have had a bad week. I'm gonna blow my brains out, honestly. And they're all, they're all texting you or leaving your voice notes

and you just like, oh, like, and you need to be the person to like bring everyone down. Like it's like there's quite a lot of on you life. Especially if you care, like if you genuinely do you care about your clients as people. Like you just, you don't want to hear,

you just want to do your best. You want to try and make them feel their best kind of thing. So yeah, it can be, it can be quite an emotional. If you are doing like one to one coach and it can be an emotionally draining job, if you're like someone who just has like

a coaching app where everyone downloads and you don't really hear from your coach? Like that's, I think that's completely different. And that's what probably the general population don't understand about someone who's probably like a one-to-one coach who actually, you know,

speaks to their clients on a regular basis versus like one of these kind of big social media platforms where you're not a cent, you're probably talking to a bot or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I, not regularly, that sounds a bit much, but I would nearly cry quite a lot. Like if I've had like a check-in and it can be someone's

said something like dead, dead small, like, oh, I never ever felt like this until didda, did it. And like, they've had like a really good change in the perspective of themselves. Or I really hated myself until I'm like, oh my God, like I need to have a minute for I can reply because I'm on the vegetators. But like, it sounds really bad week. Like I'm like, what can I do? Like, what can I do to make better? What can I say? Like, did to do. Like, yeah, like, it's, it's, it's quite a lot. But I love that. I do actually love working with people despite being quite like grumpy and antisocial. What have, what have you learned so far about being a coach in the fitness industry. What are some lessons or mistakes that you've made?

I think my main one is kind of accepting that you can't help everyone and knowing when to say no to people. I think I kind of had a good starting with that because I did a lot of the EIQ nutrition stuff when I started. So they're very much on that kind of thing. I don't think I don't think I've really stepped out of the line or did anything like out of my scope. But as a person who is a natural helper and a people pleaser, like that's really hard to have that conversation. Like if someone comes to me, like say, I'll see someone on social media who like is saying things I just think are a bit, I think they've got some kind of eating disorder and then they come to me about like coaching and I'm like, okay, well, what is going on for you? Like, do-da-da-da. Okay,

I don't think I'm the person that needs to help you. I think you need to go and see someone else. Like, I think that has been quite a tough thing because your natural inclination is, oh my God, I want to help you. Like I can, you know, I want to help you with your body image. I want to help you this. Actually, like some people just need other stuff. And, or again, like, knowing when your, like, your relationship with a client, like, you're just not getting the best of each other for whatever reason.

Like, maybe you can see they've kind of just lost interest a little bit. Or they're kind of, like, avoiding check-ins and stuff. And you can try and get them back on board. And quite often you can. But occasionally, I think you have to be the one to kind of say, okay, like, you're, maybe come back to this when you're in a different place because you're not, like, coming to the process. I think that is kind of what has been tough for me

because I just want to help everyone like as much as possible. Do you find that do you find the hard to kind of set boundaries? Not any, when I first actually, when I first did like I was doing everything on my phone and everything via WhatsApp and that was madness. So I've kind of like now I have everyone on an app and stuff like that and so I can still chat to them but I can kind of switch off a little bit so I have to log in. A lot of them still have my number and something they do it and I'm happy to chat.

But yeah, I'm a lot better at like I'm not going to read that right this minute because because I was like you're having a stress from the first line and I'm going to leave that until I can afford it properly, that kind of thing. Well, that's kind of, that also kind of relates back to, all right, you for 15 years, you had been working as an accountant and you had structure in your day.

And it was like, okay, once you finish your day, you've finished your day. So the thing we're kind of online coaching and stuff like that is, you know, your clients might message you at any time. And like if you don't set boundaries, or your structure, your schedule, then like you could end up just being 24. and kind of engaged.

A voice note come through at like, you know, late at night and it's like six minutes long and they're like, oh, I just like, I want to listen, I don't want to listen. I just, yeah, that can be quite. And it's so, it's so difficult as well because we're so addicted to our phones. I need to way that we constantly just like pick them up and just out of an inboxes and going through things. Anyway, like notifications. I like things to be seen.

Like, I don't know. So I like having like unread things. God, what is it? I don't know what's happening. So yeah, I think like that kind of stuff, like boundaries and time and knowing who to help and that stuff can be quite, that's probably the hardest thing.

What's one piece of advice you'd give your younger self if you were starting out your fitness journey again? Do you know what, right? I was thinking about this before. Like, I would just, I would really want to give advice. I would maybe just say, just like, be excited, like, oh, look forward to what's coming because I really do not regret anything.

So I really want to want to tell me anything that would make me do anything. different. So even though I'd be like, yeah, don't do that bikini models 12 week shred because it's going to make you like crispy creams for like three months after whatever. Like I don't want to, I want to take that away because that has helped me be who I am now. It's helped me who I am as a coach. So I really don't like the kind of regret or change anything from the past. So I, I'd maybe just tell me to be excited about like the potential, the possibility and like you won't really believe the person that you're going to become. And that's exciting. That's probably what I'd say. Well, that's

that's even a huge, that's even a huge, like, coach until that I would use with clients in terms of, like, like, take the lesson, not the loss. It's like, okay, all these things that you did, whether you deem as positive or negative, are actually positive if you actually take the lesson from them and learn from them and then be able to grow from them. So it's like, oh, like, oh, Carl, I over at today. I was like, great, what did we learn from it?

Why was that? All right, well, you didn't eat all day. And, like, you were under eating on protein. And then you got home and you were stressed and you need. had these unmet maids needs from work and you decided to you know hop off ben and jerry's and domino's pizza because it was the only time you felt good in the whole day like so now we know why you did that thing so we can learn from that i say that to clients if they had like a couple of bad weeks or ever i mean do you know what like i would rather you have the bad week with me

so we can come it and work through it like if you have like so you're with me for six months and nothing happens and you just don't count to anything that's going to throw you off course us like when that happens and you're on your own like you're fucked well not fuck that's but you could be you could be in trouble whereas if it happens when you're with me like there's always something to learn like you can always take that lesson somewhere like yeah everything's a lesson really yeah it's like you it's not really about what goes well on your good days it's about how you're reacting on your bad days that is going to determine whether you're going to see progress or not 100% that's what I say to people that like on their check-ins I'm like if you check in on a

good week like we can celebrate all the wins we feel like yes do that again that's great. What can we make this a bit more challenging? Fine for fine. But like the weeks that are the ones are the ones that are the ones that are the ones that are the ones that are the ones that's not the one. Yeah. And it's obviously like we, I know we say this all the time, but obviously it's easier said than done because when you're in it, you're like you just take everything's got the shit. I've been that person that's not for my chickens. So I know what that's like. I know what that's like, but I still going to say the things. Yeah. But it's good. That's the whole reason. It's like when you have a bad week or you have a bad day and you think everything's falling apart. It's like what you need

most is perspective and that's where having a coach comes in handy. It's because like they can almost get you out of that funk that you're in and being like, well, like, what do you mean? everything has gone wrong. Okay, so you over it on the meal or you had something that you didn't expect you were going to have or you missed a training session or you haven't trained at all this week. Like is at the end of the world? No. And I think being able to have that conversation with someone rather and you just be having like swarms of negativity in your head is going to be helpful for you to kind of continue on the process. Yeah, 100%.

I always say to you for like zoom out. Like what is one meal? What is one day? Even what, like you have a bad week? What's one week in like 52 of a year? Like, like zoom out and actually get some perspective of everything else to be going, you know, pretty well beforehand. It'll probably go pretty well after.

Like it's really okay. It's not good one. Okay. And last question I'm going to ask you. So what would you like more people to know about health and fitness? that it's much more accessible than you think it is. I think that even if you make the smallest change, like that can have such a monumental impact on like your,

your energy, sleep, like life quality, like the smallest change, like in terms of like specifically nutrition, I think a lot of people think they need to go from like naught to 100. Like you just start eating a little bit better and you will start to feel so much better and it will kind of like snowball from there. Because once you start to feel good,

it gives you more incentive to then make it even better and even better. But at first you're kind of coming from nothing and you're having to kind of just trust me, bro, that like you're going to feel better from this and you have to kind of do the things with no evidence. When you start to feel good, then it becomes so much easier. So I think, yeah, I think the accessibility thing, like you don't need to be perfect. You can make a tiny, tiny change, you know, each day and it will start to add up. Yeah, all them small wins add up and build momentum over time.

Sarah, where can people go to find if they want to learn a little bit more about what you do or they want to ask any questions in regards to the gym and in regards to nutrition where can they go and find you i am on instagram which is x-fis v fit x thanks for watching if you like that episode and you want to see more content like this make sure you're subscribed and i'll see you on the next one