wellness – Fitness Freak Lifestyle Blog

If the last two years is anything to go by there is definitely one message which resonates across the board with everyone. That message is health. No matter what anyone says human health has certainly come to the forefont of global focus. What is sad is that it took the fear of a pandemic to wake people up and make them realise that.

Humanity across the globe is in a very unhealthy state but moreover a large percentage of the unhealthy population is based on very poor lifestyle decisions which have a detrimental impact on ones health and of course the consequences that come with it. Usually an individual will only value their health when they no longer have it. It’s debilitating physical and emotional impact period can leave a person begging for their health back. If and when it does return they generally go back to their previous bad habits. No lessons learned just Russian roulette with their health future.

The pandemic though brought another angle to the forefont and that was the question of am I healthy? If I do catch this virus how will my body respond? It is a very vital question to ask. I come across so many people in life who tell me they are healthy but once we start to dig deep we find that in actuality they are not. I mainly work with athletes. Take a look at them in general and your perception is lean, fast, strong and resilient. I take a look at them and see vulnerabilities caused by additional stresses on a body which can suppress proper immune sytem function as well as trigger a whole other host of potential issues which are never seen on the surface. Yes, they can also be high risk candidates.

When the pandemic started and treatment protocols were not crystal clear my immediate advice was tone down the training volume and intensity, focus on good nutrition, plenty of good sleep and fortify your health because that was our only initial natural fighting mechanism. Many did the opposite with their backyard ultra’s and clocking up the biggest home training sessions I have ever seen in my life. There were many who then when contracted covid got hurt and knocked down way worse than they should have. When I saw what was happening I took a bit of an angry and somewhat arrogant stance commenting that many had just taken their health for granted and now they were paying the price for their poor decisions.

I owe you an apology. Its not your fault. You were never guided, never taught, and grew up in an environment in which you didn’t know any better. It should not take a pandemic and fear mongering to make us change our attitudes towards our own health. It should be ingrained from a young age. Nutrition, exercise and general health should be taught at schools, should be brought into our homes and should be all encompassing in a family environment. However its very rare to find.

I dont like who I became. The pandemic triggered a huge sense of anger and resentment inside of me with the world looking for quick fixes and solutions to solve a pandemic which had absolutely no mercy on the vulnerable.
Admittedly I was one of the fearful when covid hit. The media loves sensationalism its how they make their money and fear was at the top of the list.

Eventually when I caught my first covid infection I had to go through the motions of a symptomatic illness that millions of others went through before me not knowing which way it would go. In hindsight the infection that hit my wife and I was fairly mild compared to many and we were over it in around ten days and slowly back to routine.
I was told by someone that I was lucky. That flared up some more anger because for the past 30 years of my life I have placed a huge amount of effort and focus on preventative health, through studying and constantly practicing. every single day of my life. Luck has nothing to do with it I lashed back. However again I need to apologize. My own turning point was three decades ago when I too succumbed to illness and it was my wake up call and my calling in life. If this is what it took me to wake up then it isn’t any different for others.

There was a major war going on across the globe of health versus covid. Having experienced covid and having some like minded experts at my side I became a frontline soldier. I went straight into the health battle and never looked back. Even to the extent that when my wifes son caught delta a year after our first infection I intentionally exposed ourselves to him to prove that health is the trump card here. We went through the second covid infection but this time way milder than the previous one. To be honest only two days of sinus irritation and then bloods were run and were all good and so again back to routine.

I was told by someone that my “brilliant chess move” was like cleaning my teeth with a shotgun. My convictions are solid, I just told him that for him it was fear talking, but I had already experienced covid and so I had none.
More arrogance set in because we bounced covid twice with ease and heath became even more of a trump card.
BUT, in hindsight I openly admit this was not a very clever move. As an educator and mentor it was pretty damn stupid. I demonstrated something which could have led others to do the same thing with dire consequences. Very few people on this planet actually have a true snapshot of their health. Their definition of health is an snapshot of how they feel from day to day based on physical and emotional feeling and function. They might not actually know what it truly feels like to be energetic and truly healthy. Its a biased opinion based on their life experiences.

I have let you all down. I played the health card over and over again during a pandemic when you did not have the slightest understanding of how you could be directly impacted by it. But because you do not have that indepth knowledge and know how into measuring your own health you could easily be at risk. Not just pandemic risk but any potential health threats that come your way.

The last few weeks I decided to take a step back and went into deep thought as to how I can try to make this world a better place. I am tired of the ongoing battles and arguments ensuing the globe. I have my opinions but my job is to encourage motivate, and help others achieve a much higher level of health and longevity.
So for now the only way forward is to educate and motivate . To use all my experience and evidence based knowledge and the knowledge of others to give you the best possible opportunity at strengthening, improving and fortifying your health.

Its a new year, certainly a new era and all I can do is promise you to keep striving to help change lives for the better going forwards.

Yours in health always

I am a very military oriented personality, just the kind of life I have lead since birth. A naval officer father, nutrition strict mother and then my own life experiences which followed very much similar routes. My clients know when I take them on there is black and white, tolerance levels are low and I demand results.

I travel quite a bit and come into contact with all types of cultures and personalities on many different levels. South Africans generally I see as quite a soft sort of courteous kind of nation, mainly rule followers and breaking them will definitely command some sort of reaction but generally in a very subtle kind of a way to start. In Israel where I currently am it’s a completely different ball game, you can be sure people will be telling you what to do on a daily basis, because they always know better, yet the rules are consistently broken by the big mouths.

It often gets my back up and I am often in a defensive mode which in military terms means strike them down before they even get close to doing or saying something, that way you won’t have to defend. It’s an aggressive approach but generally one that has won many warsJ.

So my resistant personality wherever I am is constantly ready to go to war, don’t tell me what to do or else, because I know my boundaries, I know what I am doing and if I need your advice I will ask for it. Most people tend to similar so I am not unique ;-).

Yesterday I was out on a training ride, I was around 80minutes into the ride, in the country side and just started a climb out of the valley, music in my ears and really just soaking up the view when all of a sudden a car slows down next to me the window open and I can see muttering and hands waving. The sound completely drowned out by some Armin van Burin ASOT in my ears.

My instinctive thoughts was to tell her to shut the hell up and leave me to my training session, I know the rules of the road and I am within my right to ride here. Instead I just ignored her completely she tried several times to shout at me, but Armin kept me calm. Eventually she just drove off and I carried on with my ride.

This is not an unusual situation for me, when running, swimming or cycling, I get told why you riding here, why you running without a water bottle, where is your hat. I know sometimes they mean good but geeeez most of these people have never trained in their lives and they talking to someone that lives it. The frustration of being told what to do just wants to put me into war, sometimes I long for it hoping it will result in vented anger and then some more peace of mind.

Just the other day I was doing a swim session, I did my warm ups and some drills. By the way in South Africa 2 swimmers to a lane is like max, unless you are group training, however in Israel you have to swim counterclockwise, and if you need to overtake then do it with caution because 3, 4 or 5 people can get in your lane without warning, because it’s their right and they know better. I have had many head bashings here and the fast lane means nothing. Even though it’s labelled for fast swimmers you get back floaters, because they consider themselves fast. Anyway back to my story on my swim session. So I get into nice rhythm and start with some clockwork intervals. I was focused on my set, however at around the 4^th interval I noticed something strange. Each time I swam passed a woman in the other lane “slow lane” she splashed water on my face as I turned to breathe. I thought ok she is doing some sort of exercise creating splashing, giving her the benefit of the doubt. However as my session continued I realized this was intentional splashing she kept shoving water in my face every time I did a pass. I just ignored her put my head down and finished my set. While taking a breather at the end of the pool I waited for her to reach my side. When she arrived, I asked her why she was splashing me. Of course sniper rifle in my hands ready to take aim and blow her away. She said to me I was splashing her eyes when I swam????? WTF, you in a pool lady wear some goggles and learn to swim. You afraid of water I asked. She said no but my splashes were irritating her and I must get out the pool, and she threw more water at me??

I went a little mad, I unleashed my M23A4 on her, it was locked loaded and I sent a couple of waves in her direction ensuring the water bullets hit her right between the eyes. Of course she carried on throwing water at me. I took a step back and thought no ways, is this what I am resorting to a water fight between 40 and 50yr olds in a pool no ways I was like in shock, like kids having a tantrum in a pool.

I just motioned the rest of my unit “The Lifeguard” and said tell her to stop or get out I need to train. He did just that, war over. I felt an empty victory, thinking could I have handled this slightly differently, but then I thought no screw her, I was within my right.

Anyway back to my training ride. I kept wondering about the car stopping next to me screaming and shouting at me and here I had made judgment and executed her. Something just did not seem right, but I kept on going. Eventually it hit me, I reach around to my rear bottle cage and there it was, the reason for my insubordination. My 600ml water bottle had been flung out of the cage. Leaving me with only 600ml’s of water in 33degrees of heat on a long ride. I should have maybe listened to this driver, however I was stubborn, in attack mode waiting just waiting to unleash my ammunition once again. How mistaken could I have been this time as it was a call to help.

I kept riding conserving my water, and thinking over and over about what had just happened. How stubborn I was and how I had made judgment without listening and giving someone the benefit of the doubt. Eventually at the turn around point I made my way back to that climb out the valley and tried to climb it again from the halfway point and reenact what happened to see if I could track my bottle. There it was lying in the ditch just where that lady was attempting to inform me of the incident. In the end I listened to my message, however the lesson learned was I needed to listen a lot earlier.

I guess you are wondering why I am writing about this?

The truth is most of us are very much the same. Every single day, messages come our way and each and every single one has a meaning. The thing is how many of us actually listen to these messages. We don’t we ignore them because we know better.

I especially see this when it comes to health and wellness. When injured we don’t listen we always know better we focus on the race, on the end goal and absolutely nothing will stop us from getting to the start line. When sick, we brush it off as a head cold, we can’t stop training we cannot lose fitness we just push through it. The overweight will keep eating their pizzas because a large stomach or a double chin is not a strong enough message to make them change their ways.

So which messages do make us change? It’s the messages that come with severity or shock when it’s a little too late to listen and we need to face the consequences of our actions.

When an injury becomes unbearable and crippling, when an illness becomes severe and bed ridding, and when weight issues lead to organ, heart problems or blood pressure and cholesterol worries. Why is human nature generally so stubborn as to know better when it comes to interpreting messages?

A wise man once said ” The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them”, and another

“Big egos have little ears”

The basis of this blog was to instill some thoughts into your minds and get you to understand the importance of listening. Listen to your messages whether from the mouth of another or from your body signaling your brain. You cannot go wrong you can only become wiser stronger, fitter and healthier.

Keep Going……………………..

all the best