Jeanpims

On this day, 7 years ago I brought this good boy home. They estimated he was 3 years old and that’s all the back story we got.
I’ll tell you now he loves:
* bread and pizza above everything else
* sunbathing
* people
* waiting by the loo if we’re using it
* napping
* sitting on people like we are chairs
* walks of moderate length
* the occasinal game of fetch
* and although it took him a bit of time to get accustomed to him, his younger brother Ringo.

After having made him move with me from London to Sicily and now Barcelona where our family is celebrating his tenth birthday today, I really can’t put into words how much better he’s made my life.

I always thought the term “rescue dog” implied a hooman rescuing a dog, but if anyone’s been rescued here it’s me.

If I’m not candid now, when?

This morning, I was asked if I was under 30. (gasp)
So, I took it to Facebook to see how different I looked then.
On the left, 2014, in London with Julie who I hope will forgive me for cropping her out, on the right is this morning, 9 days away from 40.

You can clearly see I’ve aged by my choice of t-shirt.

Although this may not be the ideal platform to bring it up, what these photos really made me want to share is how things have been unfolding behind the surface.

I’m not wiser than anybody, I just want to express that I now know that life gets much better when you do the work and let the good people in.

This time last year, I wasn’t in a good place, I really didn’t like where I lived, and I my back was causing me more physical pain than I’d ever experienced before. But somehow, I remembered that I was in control, for some of it at least, and that despite my best efforts at keeping people at bay I’d managed to cultivate friendships with some extraordinary people over the years.

2024 is exceeding all expectations.


PS: When it comes to facial ageing, I’m truly grateful for my industry colleagues for their vision, understanding of anatomy, expert hands and infallible techniques.

If you ask me what a successful diet is, I’ll tell you it’s the one that you follow with your eyes closed, on auto-pilot. It gives you the outcomes you want in the short and the long term. It doesn’t make you feel tired or hungry or constantly full and doesn’t stop you from having a social life either.
You maybe already be following it.

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JP

I’d planned everything but got sidetracked and I didn’t eat very well yesterday, so I guess it won’t be happening this week, but I’ll try again next week.

This how we wake 1 year, 5 years, 10 years later further from our goal than we ever thought possible.

Don’t throw the day out the window cause your lunch was off plan, don’t cancel the week because Monday was off, don’t push it to next Jan because the start of the year was eventful.

PS: yesterday was actually ok for me. Happy Sant Jordi! 🌹 📚

Something weird happened last week.

My cousin, who’s technically my oldest friend, and a very recently made friend shared the same (very wrong) observation about me.

They both said: « you’re always happy ».

Breaking news: I’m not.

What I am however is (annoyingly) optimistic.
I think some of that comes down to practice, but some is definitely just hard-wired in me. Last week, after a horrible night’s sleep due to an overanxious dog I said something I never say especially with the whole day ahead of me: « this day’s going to be horrible ». I generally avoid saying such things but I was in such a bad mood that I did. Little did I know it would turn out to be a much better than average type of day in part thanks to the same cousin and her whole family who visited me in Barcelona.

Seeing the positive side of any situation is something I love to do with my nutrition clients, cause the truth is that things are never as bad as you think.

Message me if you want to chat.

Nutrition and travel

Don’t expect your nutrition plan to last if it doesn’t fit around your life.

Call me an environmentalist’s worst nightmare but I’ve spent the last 7 days in Madrid, Barcelona, Monaco and London.
Amusement park with the family, a friend’s birthday party, a business conference with my beloved performance beauty client and now home for a day before heading down the Coast to Valencia.

* Am I tracking calories and macro when I travel? No.
* Am I weighing my food? No.
* Am I saying “f*ck it, it’s not feasible? No.

What works when home may not work when we travel but that doesn’t mean we should park our goals entirely when we’re on the go.
I’ve found two actions that I focus on when traveling which are:
1. Eat as much fresh fruit and vegetable as possible
2. Supplement with protein shake/powders to avoid my daily protein intake to drop too low.

These two things are not “the ideal nutrition plan” they are the realistic actions I can commit to when traveling that keep me heading towards my goals not away from them.

How do you manage your nutrition on the go?

I hate it when people think that January health and fitness motivation will last them long enough to reach and sustain their goals

It won’t. And well all know it. (Exhibit A: previous years)

If you want to lose weight in a way that it will stay off, it will take time.
If you want to gain muscle, it will take even longer.

Science shows that if you perceive progress, it will fuel your motivation. But if you track progress in kg or body fat percentage you’re not going to see progress quickly.

What if you tracked how you feel instead?

Because what I know both from my nutrition clients and personal experience is that small nutrition changes have an imlediate effect, if you stop and pay attention.

💧 More water and less booze: immediate improvement in sleep quality.
🥦 More fruit and veg and less refined sugar: immediate boost in energy.
🥚 More protein: satiety sorted.

Focus on the small immediate wins and your weight loss/muscle gain will happen (at a normal, slow pace) in the background.

And stop thinking you can do it all by yourself. When you clearly can’t, ask for help. You don’t want to be in the same spot next year.

Only one of them can actually force their playlist on you.
Choose wisely.

A beach holiday over ten years ago and my friend Alex, pictured above, turns to me and says: for someone who goes to the gym 4-5 times a week you haven’t got much to show for it.

GASP

Hear me out before you go onto Alex’s profile to hack and/or troll him (I would expect this is how you feel about it him right now)
And let me say, although he’s still my friend despite this episode, I still believe that unrequested comments about someone’s body appearance should be kept to oneself (also if your comment comes from a “good place” or is meant as a compliment)

Despite his complete lack of basic human skills in that particular moment Alex had a point (he’s much better these days 😜)
I was going to the gym to for vanity and the outcome wasn’t there.

There’s a million different reasons one might want to exercise and as much as we like to shame vanity, training for looks is an acceptable reason if that is YOUR reason. Had I been going to the gym for mental health, joint health or socialising I wouldn’t have cared that I didn’t “look the part”, but that’s not why I was going. And telling myself “I go to the gym" made me feel better about “doing something something for my goal", yet didn’t bring me closer to it.
The framework has to be:
What is my goal?
What can I do to achieve it?
Is what I am doing working? (this is where my plan wasn’t working)
Continue or pivot.

And if you want to know the end to my story, I changed the way I trained after that holiday. I did fixed my training and later on improved my nutrition too. I no longer train for vanity though so my goal has changed but the framework remains the same: if what I’m currently doing isn’t getting me closer to where I want to go it might be time to change. Alex is still my friend and I will tell him to S**U if he says anything inappropriate.

If you’re looking for help, get in touch, helping people through nutrition coaching is one of my passions.

Are your actions aligning with your intentions? 🤔

In work, in love, in play It's easy to say we want to prioritise certain things but do our actions reflect those priorities?

If you're finding it challenging to turn your health goals into concrete steps, I'm here to help. 🙋‍♀️

Nutrition coaching withe can help you bridge the gap between what you say and what you do, leading to less tension in your life.

Remember, small changes can lead to big results.