Hello and welcome to episode
14 of The Outlifting Lounge.
This is the show all about
pride, fitness and everything in between.
I'm Alan.
And I'm Derec.
This week we're going to be talking
about a couple of gay news stories.
We are also going to be covering the
Traitors finale because we absolutely have to.
And we're also going to be giving some
tips to help you progress with your fitness.
So Alan, how has your week been?
Pretty crap, to be honest.
I have somehow injured my knee and
this is what happens when you're a
couple of months away from turning 45.
I was fine on Tuesday, I was fine
on Wednesday and then I woke up on
Thursday morning and I could hardly walk.
So yeah, it's been a fun week.
It's been a fun week for me because I've
had to wait on you hand and foot.
The only thing that you have been missing is
a little bell to ring to call me over.
I know, you have been really good.
You've been doing all the dog
walks and making us dinner.
So yeah, it's just one of those things and
I've been taking advice that I would give to
clients and just resting and having a think forward
to next week and thinking, okay, I'm probably going
to have to pivot some of my workouts.
Pivot! Pivot!
I don't think I'm going to be doing any
lower body for some time, so it's going
to be all upper, push, pull, push, pull.
I think it's going to have to be my
workouts for the next few weeks, which I don't
mind because I don't really enjoy doing legs anyway.
It's a good excuse.
I have been beset with tennis elbow,
so my elbow's gone, your knee's gone.
Between the two of us, we have got one
functional upper body and one functional lower body.
Yeah, so obviously we're getting on a bit.
I'm almost in my mid-40s and I saw
someone post on Instagram the other day saying,
is this what happens when you hit 30?
My back hurts, my knee hurts.
I'm thinking, sweetheart, just wait
till you hit your 40s.
It's going to be downhill from there.
I love that you think that
you're almost in your mid-40s.
You're 44 at the minute.
44, 45, 46, that's mid-40s.
I know but officially, mid-mid-40s is 45.
Mid-mid-40s? Okay, right slap bang in the middle.
Exactly.
Okay the only other thing I think from this
week out of the ordinary has been the mosquito
invasion that we have had here has been horrific.
Like I caught two last night and then there
was another one. For anybody listening in to this
or watching this we live in Gran Canaria.
I know we mention it every week,
we're just rubbing it in now.
We need to mention it every week.
Yeah, but they might be thinking, God, that
sounds, he sounds Scottish, he sounds Irish,
how the hell are they getting mosquitoes?
But yeah, we have had a bit
of a mosquito problem this week.
So last night I was lying in bed and all
I heard was zzz and this was after I'd already caught two.
And they're so small but they make so
much noise. And I swear it was like
a Tom and Jerry cartoon last night.
I had the lights on, I had a torch, I was
trying to find this guy and I couldn't find him.
Thankfully, I didn't get bit
during the night, did you?
No, well, I've been sleeping downstairs because, again, a
problem with being in your mid-40s, I need
a pee during the night at least twice.
So, getting down those stairs is a
nightmare, so I was sleeping down here.
I didn't even realise that you were
doing that, I'd already fallen asleep.
But I didn't get bitten, thankfully, so thanks for
your efforts and getting rid of the mozzies.
I got the one that I couldn't
get last night, I got this morning.
He's gone, he's out.
So, fingers crossed, it doesn't last much.
It must be breeding season or something for them because
we haven't had a mosquito in a long time.
We are in Gran Canaria.
But all of a sudden it just seems
to be like mosquito central in our house.
I know, I know.
So hopefully that's them oot the hoose.
Oot the hoose.
I'll translate.
Out of the house.
Right, we have talked about us enough.
Let's cover some of the gay news this week.
I need to grab my laptop because
I'm going to quote some figures.
Can I just say that's
really surprising you said that.
Cause you love talking about yourself.
I don't know who you're talking about.
Okay, so the first thing I wanted to
cover, now this is really super important.
So Stonewall, who are a phenomenal LGBTQ
plus charity in the UK, are running
their #MoveWithPride campaign.
Now this takes over from their really successful,
brilliant Rainbow Laces campaign, but it's mostly about
trying to get people involved in physical activity and
also making sure that we have very visible sports
people who are aligned with the LGBT community.
So they've commissioned a YouGov poll looking
at fitness within the LGBTQ plus community.
What they found is quite shocking.
They found that three times as
many people in the LGBTQ plus
community experience discrimination while exercising.
So three times as much. Wild.
They also found that 76% of
people identifying as LGBTQ plus
who were surveyed had experienced or
were currently experiencing mental ill health.
Now that 76% compares to 44%
of all respondents in total.
So it's significantly higher.
Also, 37% of LGBTQ plus respondents said
that they had experienced discrimination by
someone else's behaviour, attitudes or language
while exercising or trying to exercise.
More than a third of LGBTQ plus people felt
that their sexuality was a barrier to participation
in sport, exercise or other forms of movement.
And then finally, 45% of people from
LGBTQ plus communities are not meeting
government recommended levels of vigorous exercise.
Pretty shocking, eh?
Yeah, really shocking.
And I think it goes back to, and we've
touched on this on a previous episode, it's sometimes
maybe trauma as well from, you know, our school
days when we were forced to do certain things
in PE that we didn't want to do.
So we've already got that trauma about that
and then not feeling welcome or safe in
environments where we want to go and
exercise, which that poll has obviously demonstrated.
It's really scary, actually.
It's really sad.
Yeah, which I mean, we've spoken about this at length,
but this is the reason that we set up Outlifting,
which is for gay, bi and trans guys to
build confidence in the gym, to make them feel
like that is their space, that's theirs to own.
And it's not just us.
I mean, we're doing what we do,
but there are other people doing likewise.
I mean, at the minute we have got
Can Canaria who are running Adventure Week
in Gran Canaria and it's super successful.
So many guys are coming over for
Adventure Week every January now and they
organise hiking trips, they organise adventure sports,
things like that and it's brilliant.
It's something that the community really needs and it's
proven to be so, so, so popular with guys
who are looking for something different that isn't
a party holiday that isn't like Pride when it's going
to be super, super busy. And it's great that these
things exist however there is obviously still a gap if
these survey results are accurate, which they seem to be,
there's still a huge gap where there are a lot
of people who don't feel like they belong anywhere.
It's funny because when we first launched Outlifting we
obviously advertised it and we put it out on
Facebook and Instagram and I think maybe Instagram and
Facebook didn't quite find our audience somehow because we
were getting a lot of people commenting on
our ad saying why do you need this?
What do gay people work
out differently from straight people?
I was like well that's the whole point
of Outlifting you know. It's a safe
inclusive environment where you can be yourself.
And they were just proving that point by putting on
homophobic comments on that ad. And you know, I find
on check-ins when I'm speaking to our clients they're
so open about their lives and you know there's
just that communication between them and us that they
don't need to feel that they need to hide
themselves which is amazing whereas I think if it
was like a non-LGBTQ PT they'd maybe not feel
as comfortable opening up and talking about their lives.
That's it, nail on the head.
What we know about coaching is
that it has to be holistic.
It can't just be, what did you lift?
What did you eat?
It has to encompass everybody's lifestyle.
And it's really super important if you are working
with a coach that you can have that frankness,
that honesty, and you don't need to feel that
you have to hide parts of your lifestyle.
It is one thing being out in that somebody knows
what your sexuality is and you're out to them.
It's another thing being able to totally drop the
veil and not feel that you have to present
this masked or edited or limited version of yourself
to them, which is what sometimes we feel
that we have to do in heteronormative society.
It's funny as well because have you ever seen people
post on their stories, they're in the gym and
they're like, oh I'm lifting really heavy or I'm doing
this I'm being really butch but no one in the
gym knows that I'm listening to Kylie or Gaga or
whatever it might be and it's just that juxtaposition of
you know, being who you are and listening to
the music that you want to listen to
in the gym, but then putting on a
front, if you like, while you're in there.
And I get it, you know.
Gyms can be super, super intimidating.
Muscle Mary's working out, over at the
dumbbells you don't want to go over.
But those figures have actually surprised me at how
high and, you know, what those actual numbers are.
So yeah, like we'll move on from this just now,
because this is something that we have spoken about.
It's in a sense, these statistics are really
bad, but in a sense, they're good as
well because they do back up what we
have been saying about what we do.
And for us, they do validate the work that we
have been doing and the content that we have been
putting out on this show for many, many weeks now.
And it's given me a little bit of wind in my
sails to keep going with that and to make sure
that we keep pushing and we reach as many people
as possible to try to help them get into fitness.
Yeah, absolutely.
So shall we move on to the next
news story that I wanted to cover?
Yes.
This is brilliant.
So people might have seen this because it
went semi-viral on TikTok during the week,
but it's the lesbian dating app that
put up billboard advertisements in the UK.
Brilliant.
I'm going to play a clip of it just
now over the video version of this, but
I'll also put a link in the show
notes if anybody's listening on the audio version.
But basically it is a picture of a bowling
ball with the fingers going into the holes and
the caption is, everything reminds me of her.
Amazing.
Put it in the Louvre.
And as if it isn't funny enough, the
video that went viral of the woman
that recorded the video, she's just brilliant.
Oh, brilliant, so, so, so funny.
Let's watch it now.
Cause why is there..?
Is that f***ing legal? In broad daylight?
Think of the children! Gay?!
F***ing hell. F***ing hell! Let's have some decorum.
Absolutely brilliant.
In broad daylight.
Think of the children.
Oh my god.
And of course all the right wing homophobes, all the
rest of it are up in arms about it.
But do you know what it actually reminds me of?
Do you remember years ago there was the
"Hello Boys", the Wonderbra advert
that caused so much controversy?
While we're on the subject of causing controversy, the
other thing that we saw during the week was
He-Man, the new He-Man Masters of the Universe film.
So the trailer dropped for that.
And there is a tiny little segment in it
where it shows you the guy that plays He-Man
sitting at a desk at an office job.
It's got his name and
underneath it's got his pronouns.
It says he/him.
The ultra right conservatives are predictably
going absolutely off their nuts.
Why did they have to give He-Man pronouns?
He's called He-Man!
Otherwise he would just be man.
It struck me then, it's like, that's
why they put that in the trailer.
It was to cause all of these right wing grifters
to go nuts to get free publicity for the film.
Genius.
Brilliant.
Although, can I just say, he's
got too many clothes in it.
If we remember from our childhood, we
are children of the eighties, the cartoon,
he literally had a loin cloth on.
So I think the actor is legitimately
young enough to be your son.
So, OK, I feel weird now.
I think at some point he'd
probably have the loin cloth on.
I think later in the trailer he did, so.
I'm only joking.
I am in my daddy era, but I'm not in any other era.
Moving on.
Talking about eras, the end of
an era with the Traitors finale.
Yeah.
That was some episode on Friday.
Brilliant.
Like... Spoilers coming up, but it is Sunday.
So if you haven't watched it yet, then... Yeah.
So spoiler, spoiler, spoilers.
We're going to be discussing Traitors UK and
we're not holding back because Friday's finale was...
Amazing.
I actually checked my heart rate at one point
because I was on the edge of my seat.
It was brilliant.
The whole episode.
And obviously we had the conclusion to
the cliffhanger to Thursday's episode with Rachel
and James with the chest of chance.
That was a brilliant conclusion.
I genuinely didn't know how it was going to go.
And for Rachel to be saved by
the skin of her teeth was phenomenal.
So good.
I was convinced that was her time up.
She was gone at that point.
And I thought, do you know, I think Stephen
stands a chance of winning the whole thing
by himself, but it's going to be tight.
They played a blinder. They did.
There were so many moments when I thought that
Stephen was going to throw Rachel under the bus.
And I think that's why my heart rate was peaking.
Do you know, I think there were so
many moments when Stephen thought Stephen was going
to throw Rachel under the bus as well.
You could see it in his eyes.
He was so thinking about doing it.
And then obviously at the end, it just shows
how much of a lovely, lovely guy Stephen
is by not going back on his word.
They are a brilliant duo.
I want to see them do everything.
I want them to be the new Ant and Dec.
They need to be everywhere
doing everything, presenting everything.
They're brilliant.
I don't know why I thought you
were going to say Richard and Judy.
God, that's a bit of an insult. I know.
Also shows your age. I know.
No, Ant and Dec for sure.
Yeah, definitely.
I want to see them everywhere.
They were brilliant together.
There were so many little twists
and turns in that episode.
When Rachel was at the bar and
she said, if I was a faithful.
Oh my God.
I was like, you're done.
You're done. You are pan bread. You're gone.
You're out at the next banishment.
And still she's like Teflon. Nobody even picked up on
it. Because they were also still thinking about what happened
to James at the round table so nobody even picked
up on it she was so lucky. One thing I
will say, as a traitor one thing that she did
that was really smart was she eliminated the older players,
So she essentially, by about the
halfway point, she became the oldest.
I think, once Harriet was gone certainly.
So she became this senior figure and all the rest
of them were maybe 10, 15 years younger than her.
And you even heard Faraaz at the
final, at the finale, called her Grandma.
And I think she worked that quite well
because it gave her almost a sense
of authority among the remaining faithfuls and
that's what really sealed it for her.
Do you know what I love what she said
on Uncloaked is they were talking about her FBI training
and she's like, no it was literally like a
free ebook of like 40 pages that I downloaded.
A one day course and an ebook.
Brilliant.
Of course she just planted that seed
that she'd had FBI training as like...
Well, you did essentially, but everybody thought
it was bigger than what it was.
I thought that was brilliant.
So yeah, the Celtic cousins won.
They got rid of the Welsh and
it was the Irish and the Scottish.
Just like me and you.
That won't be on camera.
We're going to be off camera, but okay.
And there's what Stephen said.
Let's take this Celtic connection to the end.
Yeah, exactly what we're doing together.
Who knows when that end will be.
There's now a void for Traitors but
Traitors Ireland has just started and obviously
we're watching Traitors US at the minute
which hasn't quite hit the UK yet.
No, so anybody in the UK who hasn't
seen Traitors Ireland, I think they've dropped
the first two episodes on BBC iPlayer
and then they're going to release them.
Watch The Traitors Ireland, it is
a phenomenal series, it's so good.
Yeah, so you've got that and then you'll have
Traitors US coming, which is a bit
different because it's celebrities that do it and
it's not like UK celebrities where they give
the money to charity, they actually win the
money themselves, so it is cutthroat, it is
something else.
Most, if not all of the celebrities that are
on the US version are reality TV celebrities.
So they are like Survivor, Big
Brother, Real Housewives, things like that.
So it is quite cutthroat.
They all go at each other.
They all have arguments.
Very, very good.
What I will say, so we'll talk
about the American Traitors in more detail.
I think it was episode five
of Traitors US this season.
There is a bit of homophobia in
it that made us so uncomfortable.
Yeah. So we'll not, we'll not discuss it because it hasn't
aired in the UK yet, but buckle up for that.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's bad.
Yeah.
But in the meantime,
Traitors Ireland, absolutely fantastic.
And I have to say, as somebody who is
Irish and grew up watching Irish TV, RTÉ, I
mean, I feel so proud of the production
quality of RTÉ productions nowadays compared to what
they used to be when I was younger.
I mean, it puts Ireland on such a global standing.
It's brilliant.
Yeah, it feels like the BBC version
and the US version, doesn't it?
Yeah. Brilliant, really high quality production.
So, so good.
But can we just say Jade, from
the UK one, we loved her.
For such a young woman, she holds
herself so well, articulates herself so well.
So when the traitors were revealed to her in
Friday's episode, she was really shocked because obviously Stephen
had voted for her at the round table.
But the way she handled that was beautiful.
Everything in her stride, she's been through some
real trauma in her life and to go
through all that at a young age and
to come out the other side and to
be this really poised, well put together, really
thoughtful, polite, considerate person is just really phenomenal.
She deserves only good things in her life now.
I was a little bit heartbroken when she was voted
out because she's just fab but then once it was
like the four of them left Stephen, Rachel, Jack and
Faraaz I was kind of like well we definitely want
Rachel and Stephen to win. Jack and Faraz I felt
were just like kind of fillers towards the end, you
know. They didn't really do that much in the castle.
Lovely guys but didn't really deserve to win because I
feel like they just coasted along under the radar.
And it could be argued that that was a strategy
to play the game and to get to the final.
But, when you saw the amount of work that
Rachel and Stephen had to put in, they deserved it.
Yeah, I know.
I think we shed a tear last night, didn't we?
Yeah. I don't know if
it was the half bottle of wine or
just because we were emotional about it.
I think as well, if Faraaz and Jack
had have one, I wouldn't have been totally
disappointed because Faraaz spoke so much about wanting
to go to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage.
And I just thought if he had won,
how many of those like gammon faced Reform
supporting, homophobic, Islamophobic a*******s in the UK
would have been absolutely fizzing about it.
So I wouldn't have been disappointed if either
won, but I'm so, so, so, so
happy that Rachel and Stephen took it.
They are just such a phenomenal combo.
Brilliant ending to a brilliant series.
Yeah.
Can't wait for the next one to come on.
OK, we have covered gay news,
we have covered traitors news.
Shall we move on to the fitness section? Let's do it.
I've got my trusty laptop on my knee because we are going
into Reddit this week for the fitness section.
It is a Reddit thread on r/beginnerfitness
that I found, which I thought was really, really good.
So the title of this from the
poster is what's one thing you stopped
doing that actually helped your progress?
Love that title.
That's so good.
Yeah. And especially at this time of year
when so many people are getting into
fitness or getting back into fitness.
So they said, I realized doing less,
but sticking to it helped me more
than trying to do everything right.
Curious what others experienced.
Now we've spoken about perfectionism and why it
doesn't exist and why it's a trap
before, but yeah, they figured that out.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And that's the thing.
Like if you can do less, but get better
or more results, then that's a win-win combination.
You just need to figure out what it
is that you need to do less of
that's going to get you to where you want to be.
It's going to be different for everyone.
So like, and I think there's quite a
few different answers in this as well.
Yeah. Each of them are like valid in their own right.
Oh totally, this is a goldmine of good advice so we
thought we would just like touch on some of these in
the podcast so we're not taking credit but a lot
of these are things that we have previously said on
the podcast. So here's one that I really love. So
focusing too much on the end goal of what I
wanted to achieve and not enough on the small steps
I needed to take along the way to get there.
Brilliant, yeah.
And that's what we advocate for all the time.
All those habits that you're building, all those
wins that you have, celebrate all those small
wins, no matter how small they are.
Because the end goal is the end goal and you
will get there, but you need to build those
building blocks to get you to that end point.
And the thing is, if you're focused on this
end goal that's really far away, on the
days when you are having a bad day
or your motivation's low or whatever it is,
something that seemed 10 miles away, suddenly
seems 100 miles away and it's very demotivating
if you're just looking at this end goal
and feeling like you're really far from it.
So yeah, brilliant advice.
So another one I really liked was, honestly, I
stopped trying to be perfect all the time.
No more over planning workouts,
no all or nothing mindset.
No guilt if I missed a day once.
I focused on just showing up
consistently and doing the basics well.
Everything clicked.
Progress got way easier when I stopped treating
fitness like a punishment and more like a
long-term thing I actually want to stick with.
Yeah, absolute gold, that one.
And I think it's the all or
nothing approach is definitely something that I
think a lot of people fall into.
So it's like, oh, I'm doing really, really well, bump
the road, I f***ed it and then you just stop
and then it's hard to get back into it again.
I'll be the first to put
my hand up. Guilty! And especially,
I think that's especially prevalent in
me because of my ADHD.
And a lot of people with ADHD find
that they do suffer from this
all-or-nothing thinking that totally then paralyzes
them because they can't get going again.
Yeah. So yeah, definitely.
The key point in that one is the consistency,
you know, it doesn't matter what you're being consistent
with, as long as you've got that consistency there
and it's something that's having a positive impact.
And yeah, that ties quite well into the last bit,
which I thought was the key takeaway for me
was the thing about it's a long term thing.
So stopping thinking of it as I'm trying
to get fit, I'm trying to get fit.
No, you are changing your lifestyle long term.
And when you, when you view it that way
and you start thinking of yourself as instead of,
I'm somebody who wants to get fit.
You think of yourself as I am
someone who goes to the gym.
It's that flip in identity that is
really going to work because long term,
that's who you're going to be.
You need to let yourself believe it first.
Can I talk about Ian actually, our client.
So he's got an end goal of Mighty Hoopla in May.
He wants to be wearing nice little
titty tops, as he called it.
I'm sure he'll be fine with me saying that.
And he has, yeah, that's the end
goal, but he has been so consistent.
So since before, you know, Christmas, but then he
had a little bit of a break at Christmas.
But since Christmas, he's had more results,
than before Christmas
and it's because he's turning up,
being consistent with his nutrition,
he's being consistent with his workouts
and he's enjoying the process
and he's just... in it.
And because he's getting those results
and because he's being consistent
it's motivating him even more
and he's absolutely smashing it just now.
That's it. And it doesn't have to be a slog.
You can enjoy the process.
This next one might seem contradictory to
what we just said, but this person
has said they stopped thinking short term.
It's okay if your weight didn't move in
the right direction for the past seven days.
It's okay if your measurements didn't
move in the right direction today.
It's okay if I couldn't lift as much
today as I could on my last session.
I figured out that I need to compare month to month
Not week to week or day to day.
That is brilliant advice, especially when it
comes to looking at the scales.
Yeah, I think if you take a macro
approach to it, rather than a micro approach,
then that's going to serve you well.
And although they're saying they're, oh, I
wasn't focusing on the short term,
you know, more the long term, but that's
more in terms of let's look at all
the positive things that have happened rather
than focusing on that one negative thing.
And that's when, again, the all or
nothing approach can come in, you know?
Exactly.
That's the thing.
Progress is not a straight line.
It doesn't go all the way up.
It's like a piece of wet spaghetti.
It goes all over the place.
It goes down. It goes up.
You're going to have good days.
You're going to have bad days.
You're going to have bad weeks.
So it is important in those terms to look
at your progress over longer timeframes instead of trying
to focus in on just what you've achieved.
Very important to celebrate the small
wins at the same time.
So day to day celebrate your small wins,
but don't focus on the things that
you see as negative day to day.
Yeah, absolutely.
As humans, we tend to focus on the negative things.
So think about your last week
work, gym, whatever might have happened.
Getting bitten by mosquitoes.
If I asked you how your week went, probably
the first thing that people would say is, well
actually I did it earlier, talked about my knee,
you know, but actually me being laid up for
a little bit gave me an opportunity to do
some Spanish, which I've been wanting to do.
So actually that's a positive that's
come out of that, but...
I've just focused on that negative there and people do
it all the time on our check-ins as well.
I'll be like, how's your week been?
And they'll say, oh, I didn't get that workout in.
I'm like, but what did you achieve?
And then they can rhyme all five
or six things that they did achieve.
And that's a prime example of that.
Yeah, totally.
This next one, this just
like absolutely speaks to me.
I stopped shorting myself on sleep, which is
something I did for a few years
in order to get more training in.
Existing on 7 to 9 hours sleep is so much
more superior to existing on 5 to 6 hours sleep.
I train a bit less now,
but the results are worlds apart.
I'm also less hungry all the time,
less grumpy and more able to focus.
Now for me, I've spoken about
sleep being a struggle for me.
It's probably the biggest block and it's the
biggest part of my ADHD that I hate.
My mind overworks.
If I wake up during the night, I find
it really difficult to get back to sleep.
My sleep is broken, it's
disturbed and it's very irregular.
I have tried this year as one of
my New Year's resolutions to really focus on
my sleep and my quality of sleep.
And I have to say, we're definitely getting there.
I found things that work for me.
I still have some bad nights, but the
quality of my sleep has definitely been better.
And I've noticed that my mood has improved, I
definitely have more energy, my brain fog lifts.
Yeah, definitely sleep I think is huge
and so many people underestimate it.
Yeah, it's key to your goals really.
You can perform better in the gym because
you've got more energy and also when you're
tired it increases your hunger hormone, ghrelin,
which means you're going to eat more.
You're probably going to want to snack
more, get iritable more and when you're
iritable what do you want to do?
Grab foods that are going to
give you that instant gratification.
So yeah, sleep is super, super,
super important for fitness goals.
Yeah, and what I've also found is that
as we age, we definitely need more sleep.
I, mentally I still think I'm 25, as you know.
And you say that quite often and I need
to remind you that you're in your mid-40s.
Thanks. Not yet.
Not until August.
Almost, but...
Yeah, there's just this thing about sleep.
As you get older, you think, you
still think in terms of being young.
So when I was in my twenties, I
could have survived on five hours sleep, no
problem, and got on with things fine.
Nowadays, that is game over for me, especially
if I have a few nights like
that where I have not slept well.
It seriously impacts me, majorly impacts me.
So I need to acknowledge the needs of my
body as they are now at this age.
Yeah, I agree with you 100%.
Right, what's the next one?
This one's short and sweet.
So the next one is they
just, they stopped drinking alcohol.
So, we had a bottle of wine last night between
us and I want to say that's pretty much a
special occasion for us because it's the first time that
we've had alcohol in maybe a couple of weeks.
Since Christmas, really?
Well, yeah, since Christmas, yeah.
Yeah.
So, oh God, that's more than a couple of weeks.
So,
We have not stopped drinking totally,
but we don't drink very often.
And we do notice the impact
that drinking alcohol has on us.
It affects our mood badly.
It can affect our quality of sleep again.
And yeah, it just...
I think it stops you from really
achieving what you want to achieve.
And I don't particularly like the way that
alcohol makes me feel the day after or
the couple of days after I've been drinking.
So yeah, I think that's a, that's a good one.
Yeah. Everything in moderation, you
know, it's about balance.
If you're someone that likes to enjoy alcohol,
it's have a think about the things that
we just mentioned about your moods, couple
of days after, your quality of sleep.
But yeah, it's definitely something that we've reduced greatly
over the past few years I would say,
because we just don't enjoy the days after.
No, and we don't need it to have
fun, have a good time, so yeah.
Right, will we picked one more and we'll finish.
Let's do it.
Right, this is just one last one.
This is quite long, but I'm gonna
just focus on the first bit.
I stopped avoiding carbs and now I
feel a lot more energetic in general.
Absolute gold, we've spoken about this before.
There is this thing, I think, and I
do think it's definitely a generational thing, it's
our generation in the UK in particular.
There was this whole period in
time where carbs became the enemy.
And we see this, there are trains with nutrition
and suddenly it's like you have to have
lots of protein or you need to have lots of
fibre or you need to have, all really good but
I think there's just this tunnel vision focus on
different nutritional trends and for a while carbs became
this like public enemy number one. We've touched on
it before. It was The Only Way Is Essex.
No Carbs Before Marbs.
No Carbs Before Marbs. And that became like
a thing, people saw carbohydrates as the
enemy of progress when really they are
what fuel you and fuel your workouts.
The body's main energy source and that you
know hits the nail on the head.
As soon as I started eating carbs
again my energy increased. When we were
doing the research for the show and
I read that one and I was like,
oh, it's great that they've flipped to introducing
carbs rather than stopping carbs, you know, that
they've went the other way, which is perfect.
And also as well, from an aesthetics point of
view, if you're eating carbs, you know, if you're
wanting to look a bit bigger and a bit
bulkier, carbs are going to do that because the
glycogen from carbohydrates are then stored in your muscles.
So cutting out carbs is not the way to go.
And that's all I've got to say on the matter.
And that's the tea.
OK, laptop down, because I'm
done with that just now.
The last thing I will say about carbs
is that instead of focusing too much
on trying to cut down on carbs,
focus more on the quality of the
carbohydrate sources that you are eating.
So instead of stuff that is really high GI, so
stuff that's going to be a lot more sugary,
things that are going to be broken down in
your body a lot quicker, focus on low GI.
So that's glycemic index.
That doesn't mean that you have to completely
rule out anything that is high GI.
So what we're really talking about, or what I'm
really talking about here is complex carbs, carbohydrate sources
that also pack quite a lot of fibre in.
The carbohydrates in the food
will be digested more slowly.
So that also gives the added benefit of making
you feel fuller for longer as well, because they
don't break down in your body as quickly.
You're also not going to get
that blood sugar spike as rapidly.
It'll be more consistent over time.
So changing some of your carbohydrate sources to
low GI will help you avoid that
kind of spike and then the slump.
It'll be a bit more even.
So it's not even that complex, if you'll pardon the
pun, to figure out what the complex carbs are.
It's things like
brown rice, wholemeal foods, anything that
has been a little less processed,
not really bleached, things like that.
They are going to be better for
you in general as your carbohydrate source.
But again, I will say, you know, it depends on you.
It depends on your diet, what's convenient for you.
So none of this is to say you
can't eat this or you can't eat that.
That's not what we do.
80-20 rule. 80-20.
Everything in moderation, so long as 80% is?
Minimally processed whole foods.
And then the other 20%
things that are more indulgent.
So that could potentially be those high
GI foods that you're talking about.
Yeah, totally. Totally.
Okay. Have we finished that section then?
Yes.
Shall we wrap up the show?
Let's wrap it up.
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