The Uneducated PT Podcast - Adam Donald From House Sessions To Gym Sessions

Episode Date: September 29, 2023

In this episode we speak to online fat loss coach Adam Donald. Adam was an introvert who struggled socially. He used drink and alcohol to give him a sense of false confidence. This quickly escalated and found himself down a dark hole. Fitness was the thing that saved Adam and now he finds himself running an incredibly successful business and helping people around the world with yoyo dieting.

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 you described yourself as an introvert when you were younger, which I obviously don't see because I see the polished version.

Some of rock it up to do a podcast, not have bothered them. So can you elaborate a little bit on that? Yeah, I would say I'm introverted, just obviously better at modelling it now, but whenever I was younger, mate, I just fucking lock myself inside at all times. Like, communicating with people was not something that I came natural with.

It was very socially awkward, I would say, whenever I was younger, but in my younger years, I never played sports, never went outside, didn't have many friends or anything when I was younger as well, and I just locked himself inside all the time. So we're playing fucking PlayStation computer games, all that sort of stuff, like 12, 13 hours a day.

I'd be sitting up all night playing games and then sleeping all day and it was just this fish. What was your go-to games? World Warcraft made a planet for like fucking 10 years. Could almost get paid for it. God, it was mad. Carnarstrike, it was more like PC sort of games. Canaan strike, I used to play that as well.

Yeah, I loved it. County Strike 1.6 on source and stuff was hurt done it. Well, yeah, just living in a virtual world pretty much, my entire young adult life and live whenever it was kid and stuff as well. and said like didn't really have much communication skills or like social skills or anything like that. And like I couldn't even make eye contact with shopkeeper if went into the shop, like my fucking further running.

Yeah, it was just really self-conscious, I would say. And then went to college and it sort of like obviously pushed me, it would even like screwling stuff would have been a wee bit awkward as well, but more so when I went to college because it was in a completely different environment with different people and stuff as well. Yeah, did you have like a circle of friends that you felt like you could be more confident or?

Whenever I was in high school and stuff, it would have been, yeah, because obviously, like, everybody sort of has your own week group. Yeah. But would probably say the lads that I was hanging about, we're probably just as socially awkward as I was. Do you know what I mean? You're like the in between us. Yeah, literally not, literally not, literally.

So it's like going from out there to going into college and being in a completely different environment with completely different. That's obviously going to set you off then as well. So just really uncomfortable. Well, where did you go to college? Enormat, so just my home town, yeah. But yeah, I just sort of push my own home zone. and I don't know, I just didn't really gel in with too many people

when I started college, we call it Mitching, but like avoiding college were just like taking off so like mum would give me like lunch money or whatever to go to attack and I would have pretended it was going to get the bus and then just fucking walk back home and she went to work and go back into bed like just avoid it. Can't destroy guns. Literally, mate, yeah, but it was it was a fear in my head of like going in having to communicate with people and stuff. It was just the way my brain was working at that point like.

So I suppose we're gonna we're gonna kind of move on to how you went from that to this to where you are now. What did, but you said that you weren't really into sport or into fitness at that stage. So how did that come to tuition? Like where's the gap between like kind of that anxious person who couldn't look people in the eye to now, you know, running your own online fitness business, you know, doing podcasts, training people being very outgoing, moving to Australia. like how did how did you get from that to this so a bit of a mad story like whenever I went to

college is sort of where it all sort of took off to be honest or like it all sort of started I fell in with the wrong sort of crowd at one point whenever I went to college and all these lads were what they just studied in college computers so like ACT yeah literally but yeah after a while it fell in the wrong crowd these boys were like going out drinking and stuff at the weekends and I thought this was class like because the drink was giving me a sense of like fat confidence fucking, because you didn't have that at that point. So this was your

your coping method to be social. Exactly. But I thought that was brilliant. So like it was going out of the weekend, I was drinking and had this new sense of confidence who was meeting all these like friends. We're really friends. We're just fucking acquaintances.

People was partying with, literally, lad, yeah. But it went from like drinking Monday week, the three days a week of the weekend and then drinking during the weekend stuff as well. Yeah. And then I was studied in the college for three years. and whenever I finished in college went to university in Birmingham then to study

computer science because like that's what I thought I wanted to do because it was just it was gaming my whole life because it was only thing I thought I had an interest in but whenever I went to university like I rocked up to the first class whatever and sort of quickly realised how fucking hard it was going to be and how much work it was.

This isn't count as strike. Yeah, it's. Yeah, got a job in a nightclub basically the second week after I went to university and like we got free drink, free entry, free VIP and stuff. Did you feel that like when you were doing that work in the nightclub because you were socially awkward and you had a bit of anxiety and stuff like that? Would you continue to drink to suppress that?

100%. It actually got that bad that it was drinking while it was working as well. To get your true work. Exactly. Literally yeah. So we were doing like promotion work and stuff. We would be still outside and you would have to like communicate with people on the street to try and get them into the club and stuff.

And I'd be sitting with like a bottle of water, well not a bottle of water, like a bottle of BPM or something. I got like half vodka getting and half BPM just to give me that bit of confidence. Because yeah, because like that's a complete like 180 from you, like not being able to look someone in the eye to now having to be on the street. Yeah, yeah, shouting at them, call, that's good.

Like, yeah, the complete opposite. So you kind of really, you felt like you needed to be absolutely pissed at it. Literally, yeah, 100%. So, like, it went from drinking like a couple of days a week to pretty much drinking every single day, literally every day for about a year whenever it was in university. And obviously, like, I dropped out

because I never fucking went. You know what I mean? I was just drinking all the time and like my sleeping habits and stuff were all over the place. And like... What was the total point that you were like after a year like it was like fuck this, I can't continue doing this? It just started taking this total momentally. I think it was stressed out because it was skinned all of the time because all I was spending my money on was fucking drink and drugs and partying mate. And I get into like a couple of...

Quick way and lose all your money. Yeah, literally. But like it was more worried about money and obviously mental health was taking ahead because it was drinking and partying so much. Yeah. And I just sort of missed home. and stuff as well and it's like this isn't I'm not cut out for this like so just packed it in and I come home but like I whenever I come home I was off work for like four or five months I had no money no job fucking no friends at this point either and like at a drinking drug problem which I

didn't realize like and like your family obviously didn't know any of this yeah I didn't know any of because you're you're you're not even in the country at the time this is all going on exactly so whenever I come home obviously I had no work or nothing that nothing to do but like sit at home with me own thoughts and like I sort of realized whenever I come back it was fucking depressed. And my way of coping with the depression was drinking and taking drugs. So like it was smoking weed every day, taking pills and stuff during the week. Like, and just doing lots of stupid shit that I'll shudden them and doing.

It's a vicious cycle. You feel shit so you do this thing to make you feel better. Even though this thing makes you feel shit again. Exactly. So like, I would feel like shit mentally just in absolutely gutter, no energy. And like, I would just be like, fuck us, they'll have a drink. The drink would take that pain away from me temporarily. And then I would maybe drink for two or three days straight.

And then when I would wake up the next day, it would just hit me ten times harder. But my way of coping with that was just fucking doing it again, mate. Yeah, doing it again. And it was just a vicious cycle. It sort of went on for years, like. But whenever I got back from the uni, it actually got worse. It was drinking, taking more drugs, and they just sort of got out of hand to fill in with even worse crowds.

Were you with the misses at this time? No. No, thank God. Thank God. Yeah, mate's fun to look at me back in. But, yeah, I fell in with worse crowds. And these boys, they were up to no good, mate. And it was getting into a lot of trouble myself.

and I sort of realised at this point was going to end up better in jail really. Those were the only two options that I had. I actually got arrested twice for being drunk and disorderly and fighting and stuff I got. And I woke up in a cell one day and I was just like, what the fuck am I doing here? Absolutely no recollection of it and it sort of scared the life right way. And what was your family sign at this point? Did I know you were hanging around with the wrong crowds kind of thing? They knew I was hanging about with your wrong crowds and stuff.

Yeah, and obviously they had done absolutely everything to try and pull me away from that dark place. like but it was so you like you can only do so much yeah for someone you know the I mean they have to kind of go through with themselves at that point 100% but yeah after I think after the last time that it got fucking arrested then remember coming home from it and I sat down in the edge of my mom I was bed on just fucking burst out into tears for absolutely no reason like and they just sort of realized at that point that it hit rock bottom yeah it's like I need to do something about this like my uncle he used to be a fitness instructor like a spin instructor and stuff okay and he had always recommended to

about like getting into exercise because you like your lifestyle habits are atrocious he's like all you're doing is drinking you're literally sleeping 15 16 hours a day and like that's how bad it was at one point was sleeping like I remember sometimes sleeping like 22 or 22 or 23 hours day I made because I didn't want to be awake yeah just because of the shit that was going on inside my head it's like I would rather be asleep because I don't feel that pain anymore do you know what I mean but yeah I get into exercising and stuff then I was doing a bit of walking a bit of boxing but of swimming it was like really inconsistently consistent with loads of different forms of exercise.

At this point, right, because, like, obviously you went for someone who was quite socially awkward and anxious and stuff like that, and then you were using alcohol and drugs to suppress that. Like, when you did get into exercise and stuff like that, was there still a feeling of that, or had that kind of, had you grown out at that point? I'm still there for a while, yeah. I would probably say, probably for the first two years,

Anyway, whenever I had started training, like it was still dabbling and a wee bit of it, like partying and stuff we got, but it was nowhere near as much. He had a percentage of you going on a fucking bender. Yeah, and wanted to get healthy and show up my fucking head out and stuff. It was still there, but it wasn't there. It was because of the environment that it was surrounding myself with, though, like my friends at that point, like all they were doing was like partying and stuff. And they were the only friends that I had at that point. So like, during the week I'd be like, right, I'm going to train, going to exercise, going to eat healthy, going to sleep well, going to read these personal involvement. personal development books and stuff and then at the weekend it was back into that

window and be back into that fucking circle again so but like before it was that was all the environment you knew but now you've replaced at least a part of it way okay now I found the gym or I found this class or I found you know this so it's it's you kind of slowly yeah transition it until it like but it's not something that happens like a flick of a switch it took years took a really really long time said like very inconsistently consistent for a long time like it would go in for two or three months and then drop out for a couple of months, go back in for a few months, but I knew how good it made me feel

mentally and physically as well. It gave me this sense of confidence and self-esteem and stuff that I never had before. You know yourself, you go into the gym, you finish workout, you come out, you're fucking buzzing, you feel great. I feel like you're in the bag. Literally, though. I was getting that dopamine hit, do. Yeah, you deal with. Yeah, I just quickly sort of fell in love with that process

in of how good training and exercising sort of made me feel got me away from over a very long creative time obviously it pulled me away from like bad people bad environments bad hobbits and uh it literally just sort of pulled me away from the depression and fucking loneliness and anxiety and stuff that i was feeling well that's the thing even like we know with clients that we work with now like like let's say they have a really poor lifestyle lifestyle like yourself or maybe not that extreme but just like poor eating behaviors not exercise and sedentary and stuff like that like they'll they can go in and do a workout and they can feel great after But they're not going to solve all their problems and that one work out.

Like it takes time for you to recognize, oh, this makes me feel good, so I'm going to do it again. 100%. And that gets stronger and stronger. And then you get kind of an identity that, oh, I'm someone who goes to the gym. I'm someone who looks at myself. I'm someone who hikes. I'm someone who journals, whatever it is. Yeah.

100%. That's it though, isn't it? I think a lot of people just expect whenever they do it one time that all of their problems are just going to go away. Yeah. And like, you know yourself. Like you're not going to be motivated to do these things at the start. you don't see the instant results like physically or mentally straight away like it does take obviously a long creative time and consistency before obviously it would start to feel them

changes like and I always say to people as well like like you might not even you might not love going to gym or might not love exercising or whatever it is but like if you can think of it as like you know this is just the vehicle that's going to take you to the destination that you want and like for you it's like all right you used exercise to help pray a better life style for yourself also gave you the confidence and self-esteem that you needed and now because you have that confidence and self-esteem like you run your own business you know you're doing these kind of things here like you're traveling halfway across the world like you never would have been able to do that without getting the skills of no definitely not me i was still the locked in the bedroom yeah

that's where you still be playing counter straight so it's like it's like okay you might not you might not love exercising now but you know if you do it you might get the benefits that come from that which might bring you on to do something that you do love. Yeah, exactly. And then creating that identity. So would you say that then you're completely out of that lifestyle before? Yeah, 100% at this point. Like a lot of...

So what was the... What was the length of journey, would you say, from you being at your rock bottom to you being where you are now in terms of that journey of self-development and looking after yourself and your mental health? I would say I said like the first two years was sort of a slippery slope during the week and then the weekends it just fucking went out the window

but I was working a lot of different jobs and stuff years ago what kind of job for you doing? Fucking, I was thinking jobs, mate. I was working in an egg factory on like you were working up there like literally your hips and like these blue-moulded fermented rotten eggs like it was absolutely disgusting. Remember the first time ever going in for a shift like was projectile vomiting all of it. Yeah, it was slave labour, mate. It was fucking hard work. So what do you do with the eggs?

You just had to put them into like this big fucking machine basically. Yeah. Like pours it out into like this sort of filter and just washes all the stuff out. But it was disgusting. I remember whenever I was coming home and stuff, I was living my mum at the time. Like she had made me completely strip at the front doors. She wouldn't let me into the house without taking the house. Literally, me it's, yeah, it was disgusting. To get into my friend's car one day, he lifted me from work and he'd to pull over.

He was sick at the cell old. It was fucking disgusting. Not like the Iraq. the reaction you want from people when you eat them, getting sick. I worked in dog food factories, like just packing pallets, like bent over all day, stacking like these be tiny, small packets of dog food and a massive pallet. Working in call centres, just very monotonous jobs, like just repeating the same phrases over and over and over and over again. Yeah.

I worked in like a pharmaceutical company, like a drugs warehouse, funny enough. Not where you should probably be. Probably not. But yeah, I worked in there for about two or three years. And then I was fucking sick of it made. It was sick of working jobs that had hated. Do you know what I mean? I just, I never felt fulfilled.

I never actually felt content or happy or anything. And I dreaded waking up every day because it was going to do something that I absolutely despised. And like, obviously the only thing that I actually enjoyed doing or the only thing that was actually sort of passionate about at that point

was exercising and training. Was the only thing that made you feel good? Yeah, literally the only thing that made me feel good the only thing that I actually enjoyed doing so was like fuck it I'm gonna try and do something with us yeah what I mean because I've got when was the when was the kind of light bulb moment because like a lot of people will like try and exercise and they they really enjoy it but then they're like oh well that that's all this is I could I couldn't make a career or this or they're

to talk themselves out of that like so when was the light bulb moment moment where you were like you know I'm done with doing these jobs that aren't giving me any fulfillment I'm gonna try make my way into the fitness industry I think The last job I was in before getting into the fitness industry was when I was working for that pharmaceutical company. I think it was working like two and a half years. But like boss was just the fucking dickhead me. I just gave me a really hard time every day that it was there was there. And like I was locked in a warehouse that had no windows or nothing on it.

It was on me own pretty much every day. And I could just head in the back of the fucking warehouse. And my phone like it wasn't even doing any work. I hated it. And I think I can't even remember what it was. It was an ad come up because it must have been looking at like courses and stuff just before. whatever but like an ad would come up for a PT course in a in your area and it was just sort of thinking about it and pondering over a couple of weeks and I just like fuck it I need to do something here

it's like I am just not happy you know what I mean it was miserable like I said like there was times made it was just fucking bursting out in the tears and stuff for no reason just because I miserable I felt so it signed up for this course and it was absolutely buzzing like I had to wait six months until the course started and I remember rocking up the area on the first day and went then backpacking all the fucking doesn't come and wait to get started. And I said, like, where is this course started? Whatever? And your woman looked at me funny and she went away and she came back five minutes later and she's like,

oh no, that course was cancelled. I swear, I made, my heart sank. I was like, fuck, yeah. The one thing you're looking for. Yeah, the one thing, like, so it was fuming and went home and I said, what the fuck am I going to do now? It's like, I can't wait another year to do another one of these courses. And one of the guys I was working with at the point he had recommended a in Belfast. It was like a

sort of fast track, advanced fucking PT course. It was like level two and level three over a 16 week period. So I was working in the warehouse full time and then I was doing the PT course part-time as well. And yeah, it was just, it was the best thing ever done made. It just give me like this new sense of purpose really. And that's probably what you had been lacking for so long as well. Yeah, just never, as I said, like I never knew what I wanted to do with myself. And it was only like whenever I get into this sacking course and knew it was actually hopping on. I was like, great, my life's sort of moving in the right direction now. And I, but, but

Like, whenever I went to the course, I had just no fucking belief in myself, had no confidence or anything. And I remember wrapping up on the first day and just chatting, not even chatting, just listening to the other people chat because I couldn't fucking talk to them.

You know what I mean? Not looking at them in the eye. Literally, like, yeah, just listening to everybody else were to talk and the guy that was running the course and stuff. And I was like, I'm not going to be able to do this. Like, there's no way I'm going to be able to coach clients or I'm going to be good enough to... You're looking ten steps ahead, aren't you?

I. I'm thinking that wouldn't be made? Impossible. There's no way you can become that person. or I'll ever have that confidence or those skills or whatever. But I put fucking absolutely everything into the course because it was the only thing that was going to actually move my life in the right direction. And whenever I finish the course then, I said, great, what the fuck they do now?

Do you know what I mean? Now have to go, get a job. Yeah, I was expecting, I expected so much, like the course was unbelievable, but I think I expected so much more from it. I think I expected, like, when I finished the course that... Life's going to be figured out. I was going to understand everything and everything was just going to sort of fall into place. Yeah, you understand that.

A sand less when you're like, literally made less. It's a great fuck word of start now, like, sort of way. But I was trailing in a local gym in Armagh, I'd all ring from then, and I'd asked the guy about getting a job and stuff. He said they weren't hiring anyone, but like a month later, they'd put a harm post up and I applied for it, and went in for like a practical assessment and stuff. I was still working on the warehouse at the time,

but they rang me like two weeks later, just as I was leaving work, and your woman had offered me the job in house, and at my car mate, I fucking started bawling. Really? Balling, screaming in the car and all. Like, he's like, yeah, I'm out of it, bitches. Yeah, literally, like. And then that was it.

That was just, that was sort of the turning point. Is it great, this is a new start. This is a chance for me to become a fucking different person and leave all of this negativity and bullshit and all of the stuff that had happened before behind me. Was that a case where, like, your mental health was low, but you were in kind of toxic environments for you in the first place anyway? Yeah.

Like, that's a big thing for anyone that kind of wants to get out of that. to get out of that or anyone is in a negative mindset like the first thing you could probably look at is okay look at your environment like who you spend on time where or or the type of places that you're in like are you happy in your environment in your work environment with your friends or and I know that's obviously difficult to get out of it's obviously took you years to kind of get out of it 100% like even not even like friends like even just being at work and stuff as well like the people I was working with in my last job they were married like kids and stuff but they've been in that job like 15 years.

And like they just come in every day and like I fucking hate this place and I'm so miserable and all. They're like, I don't want to be one of these people. Like I need to do something. But like getting away from that environment and then obviously like the friends, friends that it was sort of hanging about with

at that point as well, I just had to sort of leave them all behind. So like I had to completely disconnect myself from everybody for months just to sort of get my own head straight. And like as you said, like your environment definitely dictates your behaviour and like your thought processes and stuff.

but I think a lot of people make a mistake of doing it as well like, right, I need to cut every single one of my friends and never speak to them again. Anyone who has ever spoke to whether it's good or bad they're gone.

Everybody's just gone. Yeah, which is ridiculous. Yeah, it's crazy. Like, if they are your actual friends or family and stuff, like, if there are, like, a lot of my friends were still partying and, like, taking drugs and stuff

the weekend. But I didn't remove them all completely, but I removed myself from that environment, but it'd be like, if I wanted to meet them, like, right, let's meet for a coffee. You kind of just have to, kind of have to just set boundaries, don't you?

Because I'm the same. I'd have friends who, like, I know if I spent the majority of my time where, like, I'd end up out on the bag, not enough of them, work, like, not doing anything that actually gives me, you know, peace of mind and fulfillment and stuff like that. So, and it's not like I'm like, ah, I'm never going to talk to this person again. It's like, I can, you know, set boundaries that I can only be around this person for a certain amount of time in a certain environment. Like you said, like, going for a coffee. if they want to go for a coffee, I'm happy to go for a coffee,

but I'm not going to meet you at the pub on a fucking Wednesday. I want a bag. You know what I mean? I have to be for disaster. But like I think that's a, like you said, that's probably a big mistake people make when they're trying to make a big change is that they, oh, let's just throw everyone, everyone in this bag of I'm not going to speak to anyone again. And then you realise that you're isolated and you actually need people.

And you end up lonely then as well because you don't have anyone. And like, if you leave it too long, like if you try to go back through that environment or then friends, you're going to be like, you know what fuck you like you haven't spoke to me in six months you think you're better than me yeah literally that's not the case it's like you're just trying to to be a different person yeah but it doesn't mean you need to burn all bridges exactly but then again if someone continues to repeat behaviours that isn't good for you then obviously need to set down boundaries that I can't be around you because that's what I had to do as well though like for like my best mates and stuff back then like

as you say like a couple of embys are still mad for party and going to the pub weekends and stuff and all as well but like I just told them as a great listen lodge this is what I'm doing I'm gonna become a PT like and I remember telling them the fucking laughed that me made whenever I told me like are you fuck gonna be a PT like because I just knew whatever I was like back in and I was like this is what's gonna happen like weekends and stuff laws I'm not gonna be seen you anymore because I can't be in that environment because I can't control myself yeah it's like I'm too easily influenced whenever I'm in your company at weekends I can't fucking say no it's your fault that's it though but they understood that you know what I mean so like if you are trying to

obviously develop yourself or move yourself forward like just let your environment know what you're trying to do and like if they actually care about you they're going to support you yeah and if you don't care about you your environment can be literally it doesn't have to be like you fucking moving country or like getting a whole new set of friends but like your environment can be okay I'm still your mate but I'm not gonna hang around with you at this certain place like pub like I'll hang around with you if you want to come to the gym with me in the morning yeah that's fine yeah and like that's still

still having kind of the same life but change in your environment. Exactly. That's exactly it. But it's also having the awareness for yourselves to do that because obviously it's easy to fall into them bad habits as well. 100% I'd made it, made that mistake loads of times like because it's not something that is going to happen overnight. It obviously takes a lot of time like a lot of mental sort of resilience as well, doesn't it? So tell us a little bit about also because I know your style of coaching in terms of you help people improve their relationship with food and improve their relationship with exercise. what are some of the kind of mistakes you've made on that journey

because I know you've kind of gone through the peaks and the troughs with that. Yeah, so coming back to just whenever I sort of finished, not even finished the course. Like before I'd finished the course, I was just doing what everybody else does, you know what I mean? It was looking online getting information from influencers, social media, on loads of different contradicting pieces of sort of information. So, like, I tried loads of different things.

It was taking like extreme fat burners, so don't check that, cut carbs out pretty much for a year and a half, no chocolate, no sweets, no enjoyment. The only thing that ever actually made sense to me when I very did eventually get to that point was tracking calories, but obviously I wasn't educated on energy balance or anything like that, and I just wanted, I thought it was fat when it wasn't. It was fucking skin and bone, but in my head I was still fat.

So it was under-eaten massively for about a year, I think it was in like 14, 1,500 calories for like six or seven months. And like testosterone level sort of hit the floor. fucking, those sort of feelings of like depression and anxiety and stuff started coming back because it was malnourished and obviously just hormonally it was in a really fucked up position really. But like I became obsessed obviously with tracking calories, tracking food, everything had to be clean, was like eating like a bodybuilder's diet like chicken and broccoli and rice pretty much every day, no sauces, just fucking made every mistake that you could possibly think

of like but I ended up having like severe body dysmorphine and stuff as well. Like it would literally stand and look at myself in front of the mirror and think that it was fat when it wasn't me. I would have fell down a great enough walk past it but that was just the way my sort of head was working at that point. If I ever had anything that was like off plan or like I wouldn't need anything that my mum cooked me for dinner. I wouldn't go out for dinner with family. I wouldn't go for coffee with friends. I wouldn't have any kind of enjoyment in my life because I thought that it had to be this restricted person or had to do everything 100% right or there was no point at all. And then I like, same as like obviously I work with my clients and stuff.

This is why I work with them because I've sort of been in their shoes before. Like if it did go off plan, it would feel extremely guilty about it. And then it would turn to Farudas a comfort. Because like what my comfort was before was drink. And then whenever I got away from that, it was food that was my comfort. But like whenever I had something, as I said, like it was off plan or whatever, it would feel really, really guilty about it. And then it would use food as a comfort, which would make me feel more guilty. And it would just sort of spiral out of control. Just a vicious cycle. Yeah. So it would be a vicious cycle. Yeah. So it would be like really strict pretty much just starving myself money through the Friday like

and then by the time I get the Thursday or Friday it was absolutely ravenous and would eat everything in the house and then it would just self-destruct Friday Saturday Sunday and then just restart that process all over again and it would just this went on for fucking years and what was the what was the the goal that you were looking to achieve from all this was it was it just like you were just trying to you know get ripped or looked ripped for for the fitness industry was it for yourself like what was the initial reason behind it or did you even realise I don't even know I don't even think I realized at that point like I knew I wanted to like look shredded but like as I said

whenever I looked in the mirror I was skin and bone like there wasn't a pick of body fat and body there was no muscle either because I wasn't eating it was over training like I was training literally over training as well as undreatening yeah it was like training six seven days a week I was going into the gym with no fuel and like just going through the motions I would have done like an hour a cardio pretty much every day as well and I was doing ridiculous amount of steps and stuff on daily basis because I thought that had to go to these extreme measures to stay that lane if that makes sense so like once it actually got through that point he's a great I need to maintain this forever well like it's like you going from like not

not even stepping foot in the gym or not being active or kind of having a background and this to then being like all right I found this and then you're going all in being as obsessive and extreme with as possible yeah exactly yeah I just did sort of talk over my life at that point and obviously this talk is to loamy sort of mentally as well as physically like like it wasn't sleeping in really bad insomnia and stuff as well yeah and so it just went on for a really long time like on obviously I developed a really bad relationship for you to develop a really bad relationship with like my body and myself and stuff as well well this is the problem with restrictive diets that that clients don't realize when they want to go on a on a dieting phase or

they want to lose weight and they take these extreme measures that obviously you you're going to feel like she physically as well, but it's mentally going to affect you, it's going to affect your body image, it's going to leave you worse off than when you started. 100%, especially for the type of clients and stuff that I work with or like parents and stuff as well, people who have husbands, wives and all of that sort of stuff.

Like it's not only going to affect you, but it's also going to affect the people that you're surrounded with, like your kids, your family, friends and all that sort of stuff as well because, like I said for me, like I had to completely, I didn't have to do it, obviously, but like I locked myself completely away from friends and family events, social events, social occasions and just doing all of that stuff. And so over time it definitely does take us to hold on you like.

Yeah. And it's not, and like you said, because you coach a lot of parents and stuff like that, obviously mentally you're fatigued, physically you feel like shit, your energy is low, but also like, you know, because you're mood as though, you've less patience for the people around you, who you want to spend time, whether it's your kids, whether it's your partner and stuff like that, you're more snappy, you're just not, you're not going to thrive as the person that you want to become. 100% just overstressed, overwhelmed, underslept, like, and just no energy. He said you just have that sort of short fuse and, like, you know yourself, like when it comes to that and stuff, like if you are feeling stressed, you're feeling overwhelmed,

you're feeling emotional for me anyway. Like all of those three things were triggers for me to completely self-destruct almost. And then for me, obviously, using food as a comfort us, what a lot of my clients would turn to as well whenever they're having these feelings. But they don't realize that initially whenever they come say to work with me or with any other coaches, or anything they thought, the reason that they're feeling like that is because of the, the, um, sort of the approach that they're taking. Yeah.

With their nutrition or with their training, they're going for these really restrictive stats or unrealistic expectations that they're sat in for themselves. Yeah, it's not just the goal. Like the goal is important, but how you approach the goal is also important. Exactly. Um, so, so when did you realize that this was a problem and how did you like come to the solutions where you are now, where, you feel physically, you know, in terms of your nutrition,

knowing what you're doing, all this stuff. So where was the gap between that to figuring it all out? I think the worst point that I got to, I was going on holiday with one of my ex-girlfriends, actually, but I literally fucking starved himself for six months straight to try and get as lean as possible for this holiday. And like, by the time we went on the holiday, it'd slap pretty much the entire time, like,

do you know what I mean? drained, exhausted. Yeah, it just drained, physically, mentally, had no energy and didn't want to do anything. And it just felt like absolute shit. But, like, I think it was two or three months after we got back from the holiday that had actually started the PT course then. So, started learning a little bit more about nutrition and how your body worked and all of that sort of stuff. But, like, through the entire course that it was doing over six months, like, it was still struggling with my own mindset and my own sort of relationship with food. There's something that I'll battle with, obviously, for a really, really long time.

like but sort of just obviously once I finish the course um like talking to like fucking therapists and stuff obviously working with my own coaches and just learning from my own mistakes really in my own universities just sort of trailing our over a long creative time um but it would say like no it wasn't really fixed really until uh probably whenever actually started working in the the first gym that it was working in but like when i say fixed it's like a it's like a it's not like one day it's not an off and on switch yeah one day oh yeah I have good mental health good body image a good relationship it's like a slow progression over time of experience and exposure that's it made

exactly but like it's something that it's still struggle with I think a little bit sometimes more so for me like at the minute I I done a cut recently right and I got down like 72 kilos I'm sitting at 76 at the minute so in four kilos heavier is like three months ago but like at the minute I'm obviously I'm a bit more fluffier and stuff but like I feel so much happier. Like I'm going out for two or three meals a week. I'm enjoying snacks and stuff at the weekend. I love having ice cream fucking two or three days of the week and stuff as well and like I'm happy. I'm happy and myself. I'm happy with my body and stuff as well but whenever I go through dad and phase or I go through a cut, all of those

feelings come back away. I've become obsessed with the number in the scale. I've become obsessed with tracking calories. If I go over my calories by like 100 I'm beating myself up and feeling guilty about it. Like my woman cracks up with me because of how extreme I do. Take it. You know what I mean? But at the same time, I enjoy doing it because it's a challenge for me mentally. It's a challenge for me physically. And I obviously, I catch myself whenever I do get those sort of feelings and stuff coming back in because I'm right. I know the science behind it.

Do you know what I mean? And like I don't have to. You have awareness now that you didn't have before. That's it. Exactly. But yeah, I think obviously now I'm still in a much, much better position of a healthy relationship of food. I'm happy with my body. I'm happy with my mindset.

that but I don't know why but just like going through dad and phase and stuff for me just towards the end a bit more so just after the last one anyway like I started to feel all of those sort of feelings and stuff coming back in and like as soon as we started feeling I said right doing a lot fuck this pull the plug and start building back up again because for me anyway like I don't ever want to don't ever want to go back to that person again if that makes sense it's finding it's finding that right balance isn't it between like you know you know You going from probably doing nothing to you going and being really extreme and that but it's that balance in between is like okay Does where I'm at now serve me in terms of the quality of my life in terms of being able to you know go out with my girlfriend and not be consumed by calories or

And being able to be present and enjoying the meals that I'm having out and actually enjoy a holiday or a weekend away and still still feel comfortable and confident in my skin because I am trying and hard and I and I and I do feel good and I do look after myself and like I'm going to look if I'm working hard, you know, that's probably going to improve my body image as well. Yeah. Without being obsessive about how I look. 100%. It's hard to get to that point though. Yeah. For a lot of people, obviously as well.

It took me as I said, like obviously a really, really long time to be able to go out for meals out and obviously not feel guilty about it. Or go out for a meal out and not have to fucking starve myself for two or three days after it to make up for the damage that was done. If that makes sense. I always say to clients like extremes are easy. It's like balance and moderation that's hard because that's where you can have to balance the two of, you know, living a healthy lifestyle, but a healthy lifestyle can also mean social health and being able to enjoy, you know, a drink or a meal out or so on and so forth. 100%.

That's it. Like it's, it is finding that balance. And I said it can be very hard to find for a lot of people. But it's important that you do have that balance where you're like, great, I'm going to eat healthy, good nutritious foods most of the time. But like, if I want to go out for a meal, you. out with my husband or my wife or if I want to have a movie night with my kids and have ice cream and fucking popcorn and chocolate, like, or if I do over a day where I over

consume on my calories or go slightly over my target, it's not the fucking end of the world. Do you know what I mean? I don't need to feel guilty about it. I don't need to beat myself up about it. Tomorrow's a new day. Just get up, get back in your routine again and just keep sort of moving forward with it. Well, that's what I was going to ask is. I was going to ask you, like, what does food freedom mean to you?

But I suppose that that's essentially it is, isn't it? Yeah, 100%. It is, it is just having that freedom around food. we are not over consumed by guilt or frustration or taking it to these sort of extremes obviously that I have done in the past and like sort of the clients obviously that I work with have done jumping to all these sort of different extreme diets and fucking fad diets and stuff but I said yeah that's it's pretty much I think it's just being able to consume a wide variety of foods being able to enjoy social events been able to go out for a few drinks at the weekend

if you want to be able to take a few days off being able to go on holidays and not stress about it yeah exactly and like that's something that I struggled with as well. Like I went on holidays or two weeks after I'd finished my last dad in phase. We went on an all-inclusive cruise with my family. It was her first holiday in 10 years and it was all you can eat buffet, like breakfast, lunch and dinner. And like, mate, I done off and put it the entire time. And I loved it. And like obviously looking back in it in hindsight, I'm like, that was fucking great. I had loads of memories. It had loads of nice food. It was really good fun. But like at that time, just because of where my mindset was

after that, like, I did feel those sort of feelings of guilt and frustration and stuff coming back in. It's like, oh, am I ruining all my progress that I made in my diamond face? Exactly, exactly. But it's, as I say, like it is, it's trying to find that balance and just always being conscious of how you're talking to yourself internally whenever you do feel these sort of emotions and stuff coming back in in that situation. It's a funny one though, because it's like we get Liam so we can enjoy the holiday, so we can enhance the experience of the holiday.

will feel comfortable and confident and stuff like that. But then we end up getting really lean and then we're just obsessing about, you know, damaging the work that we did by eating the field and actually then we're not actually present at the meal or at the drinks with family and friends and we actually end up ruining the holiday that we were supposed to enjoy

by doing the thing that was supposed to bring us to happiness. Exactly. Like it's a mind-fuck thing. Yeah, you can't win. Yeah. Like say the thing about it for me as well, I think this is something that I realized after my last starting phase as well.

like everybody wants not well maybe not everybody like but most people want to get especially lads want to get like lean or fucking shredding stuff but like realistically the only person who fucking cares is you yeah no one else cares no one else cares me you know what I mean like the only like actually cares what you look like is yourself yeah yeah you're the only yeah it's you it's you in your head all the time with them external thoughts yeah yeah um question that I wanted to ask you about coaching so what do you know now about coaching that you wish you knew when you started out when coaching clients everybody's different I think I think obviously like whenever I

first started coaching I didn't obviously have the like knowledge or experience and stuff that I have now I think I just sort of expected to jump into coaching and be like here's your calories here's your exercise plan here's your workouts or whatever there you go see you next week and everybody would just tick the boxes every single way robots yeah do you know what I mean and then quickly realized after a few weeks people started like not doing checkings and we're struggling with all at these different things I was like fuck what I do now.

But yeah, I think it's just like, obviously everybody's individual, everybody's got their own challenges, their own struggles and stuff that they're facing. You can't treat one person the same as the next because it has to be an individualized approach. No one person is the same. And like these coaches and stuff,

and there's lots of fucking coaches and not many names that I know of, that they just hand out blanket prescriptions to all of their clients. And then the clients wonder why they're not getting results and they're getting frustrated and stuff from it. So it's definitely, Yeah, just making sure that you're taking an individualized approach to each client.

Yeah, it's like you're not, at some point you're not coaching calories or steps. You're coaching fucking Trishu as three kids hanging out of her or fucking John Hugh, you know, loves the point at the weekend and trying to navigate their lifestyles and their problems around them getting the results that they want. 100%. And like a lot of it, most of it comes down to the mindset aspect of it obviously as well, isn't it? because like a lot of people can once they get into the routine of training on like eating sort of healthy and stuff like it's it's it just becomes part of their life really becomes part of the routine but it's it's what happens in here with people is the

the struggle for them again like coming back to themselves like those feelings guilt frustration self-destruction all of that sort of stuff so I think like I think a lot more coaches need to take a deeper dive really in the mindset and stuff and understand how they can actually talk to their clients asking the right questions to make sure that they're getting the information that they need from the client to actually help move them forward and you should say like navigate them in the right direction yeah and how do you think how do you think to do that for like if you have a client who you know constantly feels guilty around the the food that they're eating maybe true kind of years of being

manipulated with diet culture or you know someone who gets frustrated every time they're not losing weight and stuff like that how do you deal with them emotions of that client who essentially presses the for me what we've actually started doing in our program recently and it's been extremely powerful it's something obviously I've done a lot of done a lot myself over the years is like journaling a lot of self-reflection and keeping mood dairies and stuff whenever they're consuming certain foods they can actually realize the thoughts and emotions and stuff that's going on whenever they'll have this particular food but obviously just educating them more so whenever they do

come on board that obviously there is no good or bad foods helping educate them properly on how to understand and sort of measure the progress properly because A lot of the women, obviously, that I work with, obviously, we work with women who have struggled with yo-yo diet and stuff, their entire life done, slim and world weight watchers, slim fast, all of that sort of shit. And, like, they have an emotional attachment to the scales. Like, the scales is the only success magic that they're trying to look at. So, like, if somebody has a bad relationship with the scales,

it's really great fucking out. Don't even look at them. Like, you know what I mean? Because that's just going to add more stress. It's going to add more overwhelm. And then what are you going to do off the back that? You're going to turn the food as a comfort, which is going to make you feel more guilty and fucking more frustrated.

So it's just, it's tailored to the department. but it's just nurturing them holding their hand and like getting them to be open and honest about whenever they do have these things and using sort of sort of like mindset techniques if you could say that with them whenever these things do happen because like obviously if somebody goes out for a meal out they're gonna feel really guilty about it but like it's really trying to get the client to reframe that instead of being like oh I feel really guilty because I went out with my kids and my husband and had a nice meal you but like well you

you obviously got something from it. You went out with your family. Like you enjoyed it, you had a nice meal, you spent family quality time together with them. And you're just trying to reframe it from a negative thing to a positive thing. Associating that meal out with something positive. Like it's, yeah, you wanted to lose weight

because you wanted to enhance, you know, nights out with your family. You're actually on a night out, but now you're, like we talked about, the same as dieting for the holiday and then driving for the holiday, for the holiday, it's like, you want to, you want to, you want to,

heighten the experience of the meal out with your friends and family because, you know, you feel confident because you've lost weight. But now you're on the night out and now you're just stressing about over consuming calories. So you're sacrificing the thing you want for the thing that's supposed to get it. Yeah, exactly. In terms of, I know you're a big advocate of mental health, obviously, it's something that you speak about and something that you've gone on through, gone through a big journey on. So what are the kind of daily habits and behaviours that you implement to make sure that you're keeping on top of that? something that I'm always developing.

I'm always changing things. I'm always trying to change up my routine and stuff to try and get myself into the best mental sort of state possible. See one of the biggest, the best things I've ever done in my life made, honestly for my mouth is stay the fuck off social media. Like I know I'm an online coach,

like my business is in social media, but the only thing that I use it for is producing for people, trying to give people value. Like, I try not to spend any time actually consuming on social media because I think that was, especially when I very like lock, myself away years ago and it was gaming and stuff all of the time like we're spending maybe five

or six hours a day just scrolling and scrolling and like you always say like comparisons to Thief of Joy and stuff and like I would have been comparing myself to other people's lives and I think social media is a place to do yeah it's massive like if you don't understand how to use it properly well not use it properly obviously but um it can definitely take its total on you so like reducing screen time social media time like not looking at my phone for two hours after wake up in the morning daily journaling has been absolutely massive for me as well breathwork spending time in nature some form of daily exercise I've got into doing ice baths and stuff recently as well I don't know if you're doing them their class mate I will like

for for years even I'd be like getting in the fucking sea in December yeah there's no bad bad buzz but like the thing is right like let's say you're anxious do you know what I mean like there's no quicker because what anxiety is is you you thinking about feelings of the future yeah like like what better way to get rid of your anxiety that like if you're jumped in something that's so fucking cold that all you can take about is oh god I want to get out of here or something like that. Like you're instantly brought into the present. Yeah exactly. And that's the quickest way to get

rid of feelings of anxiety or worry or anything like that. So it is huge for that. Another question that I wanted to ask it is you also did is it recon? Recon, yeah. Tell me a little bit about that. Holy fuck me, that was nuts. Yeah. For anyone that doesn't know about it. So recon in the easiest way to explain it.

If you've ever watched ASAS, Who Doors wins, it was like a shortened down version of that basically. So those two guys, you own a gym and Macrofeld, they had organised this thing. It was the first time it was run. And we signed up to it with zero insight into what was actually going to be happening over the course of the weekend.

We just paid the money and were like, right turn up on the Friday basically. What was it advertised as? What were you like promised you were going to get out of this weekend? It's like mental toughness, like mental sort of resilience. Yeah. Which is something that obviously, like you're looking to prove on all the times that you stay on top of your mental health. Yeah, exactly.

But yeah, it was brilliant. We sort of landed up on the first night and it just made us line up and stuff, like the way soldiers and stuff do and just talk to us through basically everything that we're going to do. They put us into like a big circle and everybody had to like stand in the middle, introduce yourself and stuff. And like even that still puts me out in my comments, I hate it mate. But after that they'd be like, right, let's go and get something deep. So we want and got like pizza and chips and stuff. This is like 9 o'clock at night.

And they're like, great, get a good night's sleep because we're kicking off at like 5 a.m. So we've got to feed, get in the bed. It's like half 10 or something. Five minutes later your bike coming and banging these drums while horning them all, nobody could any sleep. They put us into the back of the bus and drove us to, I think it's still a strand beach

or something in Port Rush, 2 o'clock in the morning or something we got there. Put us three, like a three and a half hour long workout, land in the water, doing all of these different, like sort of high-intensity boot-com style workouts in the beach. In the pitch black, mate, yeah. They set these logs out in the beach. They were like, maybe this width, by this height.

And we had to do like overhead presses and squats and all with them. And nobody knew what they were doing. And then we get in the water, back out of the water, and everybody was gassed after. Like, but they put us back in the bus then. Everybody freezing, absolutely inaccurate because it hadn't got any sleep. And I would go back to the place where we were staying.

It was like five o'clock in the morning. And they give us breakfast and stuff. after you've got one hour, get a bit of sleep, and then we're going again. Same thing happen, making in the bed, five minutes later, banging the drums. Made us run six mile in the jungle, and I think it's, it is,

McAfell, you've ever heard of it before? Just like a big activity sort of players like, but had to run six miles till out through a 10-kilometer obstacle course and all of these team training things, run six mile back as well with no sleep. So like the Saturday night, everybody was just broken, mentally physically exhausted starving a couple of days one of the guys broke two of his toes

and all by dislocated his shoulder and two of the other fellas dropped out like but um you obviously had to sign away versus you cannot see you could not see us for anything we do it was nuts but uh yeah the next day then woke up i think with the run like four or five might of whatever it was up like this mountain basically like just before you got to the peak of it they'd planted like a 85 kilo metal stretcher probably just a little bit bigger than this table yeah was like one handle at each side. And I can't remember how many of us there was. It was maybe 14 of us or something,

but we had the tech turns holding the stretch on our shoulder and run up to the top of the mountain and then run back down with that. Nobody was allowed to drop it in the floor or anything. It was nuts with me it. But at the time it all finished it. Like everybody was sitting together at the end, had a barbecue and stuff.

Like the sense of achievement and stuff that you got from it was just, was unlike anything else, do you know what I mean? Because you pushed yourself past boundaries physically and mentally that like you never would have thought possible. If they told us what was going to happen at the weekend before it actually happened, probably wouldn't. Probably, well, yeah, probably wouldn't want it like, do you know what I mean?

Well, that's going back to even when you were starting off your PT career and you're doing your course and you're looking around and you're like, I'm never going to be able to do any of this because you're thinking 10 steps ahead of you. Like, Adam now is able to handle something like that. Adam, like 10 years ago. No chance. It was on the session wouldn't barely handle. Absolutely no chance.

I would laugh at you. I would have said you were on drugs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's the thing, it's like, it's, it, you just go through steps in life of grow and like, there's no point in looking 10 years ahead of where you're going to be or what you're going to be doing because you're not even going to be able to comprehend what you'll be able to do with if you take them little steps day by day. Exactly. That's it. One day after another, I made this way sort of look at it. Like, I have a plan for the future.

Yeah. But, like, always just focus on the next thing, like on the next day, if that makes sense. Yeah. Okay, I'll leave you with one more. question and then we'll finish up so what do you think is weight loss advice that most people and most of your clients need to hear or take on board in order to achieve the results that they want to achieve I think see to be honest made I think for everybody in general like calorie deficits education about nutrition

protein calories, all of that sort of stuff. I think it needs to be introduced in schools at a younger age, like whenever you're doing like home economics or like cookery or anything like that because it's not taught in schools. And such a big part of life as well. Yeah, it's massive.

And I think that's one of the biggest reasons why a lot of people do struggle with these types of things because they're just, they're not taught, they're not educated on these things. And eating disorders are getting, like, apparently are like increasing all the time with the younger ages as well, especially with the introduce of social media

and stuff like that. people comparing themselves, so I want to look like this, I wouldn't look like this. And then they're going on these restrictive diets and they're starving themselves. Yeah, it's toxic like, but I think if they did, if they introduced things like calorie absence, explain what actually calories is, energy balance, understand that there is no good or bad foods you can have that balance. You know, I mean mostly good foods most of the time enjoy foods as you actually like and taste the rest of the time.

Like if they brought things like this in the screws and stuff, I think would be a lot less problems with people having poor relationships with food and having these, struggles and anxieties around everything and the wouldn't turn to social media as a fucking educational tool to try and learn about it if that makes sense. But yeah I think if they brought this sort of information, the people at a younger age, I think the world would be in a far healthier position in terms of people's relationships with food. And what about last question and change my mind, what about, say, younger lads who were suffering with body image issues now at the moment who think they're huge when they're

not like what would be and obviously they probably have to go through what they go through before they take advice off someone anyway they probably wouldn't like if you were telling yourself for a couple of years ago this advice you probably wouldn't listen anyway well what would be the advice you'd have for any young males who are something like what image at the moment I don't even know mad I don't even know what I would set of myself to get myself snapped out of that sort of mindset that I had back then I think it's just obviously coming down to like loving yourself really like being

happy and content with where you are, but like it's easy saying that, but like, whenever you're sort of stuck in that mindset, like I was stuck in, like, you don't, you don't think about these things, do you know what I mean, you don't, I don't know, like, you just, you don't, I never want to listen to anybody else and, like, I remember my family and stuff talking about it, like friends and all you, like, you're getting too skinny, like, it was looking gaunt, like black lines under my eyes and stuff and all, because it wasn't sleeping, wasn't eating and everything, but, like, at that point, I just still thought it was, like, overweight and stuff as well.

well I suppose even for you now like like I know obviously when you're in diving phases you get some of them feelings back of how you look and stuff like that but like when you're training hard or when you're doing things like recon and stuff like that last thing you're probably thinking about is how you look it's just getting through it

surviving yeah just getting through it like even the things you do on a daily basis probably help with how you notice and like when you go for your hikes and you're doing it because of how you feel or how makes you feel or when you're journaling because of, you know, it's getting thoughts out of your head and on the paper, when you're training hard or when you're doing kind of, you know, events like that are really pushing the boundaries of what you can achieve.

I think it's coming back to social media as well. I think that was probably one of the big things that put me into that mindset was, again, compartment myself to other people, bodybuilders, Photoshop fucking images and Instagram and stuff. So, like, as you said, that's exactly it. It's doing it for health reasons because it makes you feel good mentally, because it makes you feel good physically, because it gives you more confidence, it boost your self-esteem,

sleep better, you've got more energy, instead of just training, exercise and eating because of the way that you want to look instead. Basically, you're trying to hate yourself to change. Yeah, literally. If anyone wanted to find out a little bit more about your coaching services or just asking questions or anything like that, where can they find you? Instagram, Facebook and YouTube at Adam Donald Fitness.

Adam Donald Fitness, I'll put it on in the show notes. Adam, thanks for coming today. Thanks for having me yet, pleasure. 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.