Blair Johnston Personal Trainer

“Every baby is different.”

Ain’t that true.

Not sure if we lucked out first time round, but H was a sleeper.
G however?

Not so much 😂

You best believe we tried every trick we knew that worked the first time…

only to realise pretty quickly,
not this time.

Thankfully we’re past that stage now.

But I think our default with a lot of things in life is,

“I’ve done this before, so this will work again.”

And with kids, we learn pretty quickly that no two babies are the same.

The same goes for getting back in shape as a parent.

Life now is a different baby.

What worked before might still have some value.

But the routine, structure and expectations around it often need to change because your life has changed too.

The frustration usually comes when you keep trying to force the old approach into a completely different reality.

Same routines.
Same expectations.

Same idea of what “being consistent” should look like.

But it doesn’t fit anymore.

You don’t necessarily need to get back to what worked before.

You need to start building something that works for the life you have now.

Sunday coffee thoughts, whilst both boys are now sound asleep…

I wouldn’t call myself a perfectionist, but I definitely used to use perfection as an excuse.
I wouldn’t want to do something unless I knew I was doing it right.

Whether it was making changes in business, building out an event or a service.

If it was a new way of training, I’d research the absolute life out of it before actually trying it.

I’d waste hours thinking, planning and trying to make something perfect rather than just getting out and seeing what happened.

I think that’s probably one of the best lessons having the boys has taught me.
Because my weeks are far from perfect now 😂

If 25-year-old me saw how 32-year-old me trains and approaches a week, he’d probably say I was inconsistent or had a s**te routine.

Especially since having G, though, the way I approach things is so much more flexible.

I know what I’m trying to get done in a week, but no two weeks ever look the same.
Old me would freak the f**k out at that.

Now?

It is what it is.
I’ve learned to live with the chaos of it all. Probably even enjoy it.

Aye, it’s harder to train. It’s harder to find time for me.
But we find the gaps.

I know where I want to go, sometimes I’ve just got to pivot and change the route.

I guess that’s something I wish I knew sooner.
But hindsight is a wonderful thing, right?

You don’t need a perfect week.

In fact, perfect probably shouldn’t even be what we’re aiming for.

You just need to know what matters most, what your minimum standards are, and what you’ll adjust instead of abandoning everything.

If 13 years of coaching has taught me anything, it’s this,

The problem you often have isn’t knowing what to do.

It’s actually doing it that’s the issue.

Most of the parents I’ve coached over the years will tell me the same thing:
“I need accountability.”

Not the best training programme, the perfect meal plan or another list of foods they should and shouldn’t eat.

It’s usually:
“I know what I’m doing, I just can’t seem to do it.”

And that’s the thing.

You probably don’t have an information problem.
The information is f**king everywhere 😂

You have an implementation problem.

How do you actually apply what you know to your life in a way that still works when life keeps changing?

It often presents itself as,
“I don’t know what to do in the gym.”
“I don’t know what to eat.”

But when you start peeling the layers back, time and time again the bigger issue is what happens when things don’t go perfectly.

You miss a couple of sessions and feel like you’ve fallen off.

You get a child-free weekend, enjoy some food and drink, then convince yourself you’ve f**ked it.

Work gets busy, the kids are up through the night, plans change
and suddenly the week looks nothing like the one you had planned.

So you stop.
Then restart.
Then stop again.

And after enough repeats of that cycle, you start convincing yourself that you’re just someone who can’t stay consistent.

Yes, you probably need to make some changes to your lifestyle.

But you don’t need to change your entire life.

Often you just need help learning how to apply what you already know to the life you actually have.

So the two can work together instead of constantly fighting against each other.

That’s where results that last are built.

Is it me? Surely other parents feel the same?

Find yourself saying to the other half how you cannot wait for things to quieten down?

Spend all winter wanting summer to hurry up.
Then have that much planned that you spend the end of summer looking forward to life slowing down 😂

Jokes on us though, the kids make sure that’s not going to happen.

But secretly, we love it.

The reality hits when you feel like there’s no time between work, school, routines, sleep, holidays and everything else to actually look after you.

We’ve all said it about something,

“I’ll just wait until things settle down before I start.”
“I just don’t have the time to commit right now.”

The problem is, when that space does eventually free up, something else usually fills it.

Just like the extra money you thought you’d have once nursery fees stopped somehow disappears into something else 😂

If you wait for the perfect time, you’ll be retired before you start.

You don’t need life to be quieter.
You need a way of doing this that works while life is still busy.

Expectations that actually match reality.
A plan that supports the life you have now, rather than one that only works in some imaginary calm version of it.

Otherwise you’re just trying to ram a square peg into a round hole.

Better to learn how to thrive in the beautiful chaos than constantly fight against it.

Don’t hold yourself back from making good progress in chaos because it isn’t quiet enough to make perfect progress in peace.

There’s no perfect time to have kids either, right?

So what are you waiting to settle before you start?

“Should be about 15k”

Route Zero ✅

What a day spent with some of the team!

Surprisingly it wasn’t hard to get them to sign up to an event, where you get blindfolded, put on a bus and driven to an unknown location

(Not sure what that tells you about us! 😂)

Anyyyyyway….

The most direct route if you knew where you were going was about 15km.

No phones, No GPS. Just using your noggin and pulling up any form of directional experience you’ve had in the past.

We done 24km 😂

None the less for the most part we stayed as a team (Andy broke off from the pack and got split up) 😂

We got to run around Glasgow and managed to eventually find the finish line!!

Absolutely tremendous event and top tier company!

A Belter of a Sunday Run!

32.

When my folks told me, the older you get the quicker it goes. I called BS…

Turns out they knew a thing or two 😂

Could not tell you where the last year has went.

Somewhere in the midst of it we’ve watched our baby grow, our boy go to school and just tried to navigate life as it comes.

Not every year goes to plan.

There’s definitely things looking back I’d wish I’d done better, handled better and taken more control of.

But we move into the next year with a bit more perspective, some hindsight and a clearer understanding of what we want to achieve.

Sometimes we have to take a step back to see where we need to move forward.

Still, another year to be grateful for.

Healthy family. Memories banked. Watching both boys hit milestones. So much time spent with the people that matter most ❤️

Blessed 🙏🏻

Let’s get after 32 🫡

How playground chats end up like this I don’t know.

But I’m 2 weeks into the return to school and have found myself in these kind of conversations more than I’d like to admit 😂😂

Was chatting to one of the other Dads last week and it’s came up a few times since.

I don’t think you genuinely know how you’re going to react when you have kids.

We all have an idea of how we think it’ll go. How we’ll react, manage everything, make time for things and balance it all.

Then they come along and that all goes out the window 😂

You find your feet, then number 2 comes.
You think you’re better prepared. You’ve raised one so far, it can’t be too much.

But it’s not life with 1 x 2, so I found out at least ha!

It’s a totally different experience.

Training changes, sleep changes, relationships change, work changes, priorities change.

You change.

I think where I’ve got it wrong at times, and where I see a lot of parents get stuck too, is thinking we need to wait for things to calm down.

Once sleep is better.
Once work isn’t as busy.
Once the summer is over.
Once we’ve got a routine again.

Then I’ll sort myself out.

Reality is, something else will probably just occupy that space.

Maybe we need to get better at living in the chaos, rather than fighting it or waiting it out.

We adjust. We find the gaps and fill them with what serves us.

Can’t train 4 times? Train twice.
Don’t have an hour? Find 20mins.
Structure food where you can.

When life gives you more space, do more.
When it gives you less, adjust again.

I think I’m realising more and more that this is what consistency actually looks like as a parent.

Not perfect. Just getting better at working with whatever version of life has turned up that week 😂

Don’t stop. Adjust. Fill the gaps. Keep going.

The chaos isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, that’s for sure!

We can’t be too narrow minded when it comes to consistency.

Speaking to a few clients over the last week or two, we’ve chatted a lot about consistency and what it actually looks like for parents.

Because I think the reason so many don’t get started, give up or feel like they’re failing is because they think they can’t be consistent.

But I’ve been challenging their idea of what consistency actually is.

Most people will say it’s sticking to the plan every week.

Not skipping days.

Not missing workouts.

Let’s be honest though,

That’s a very zoomed in view of consistency, and it’s pretty hard to live by when you aren’t even sure which version of your toddler is going to wake up today 😂

Consistency when it comes to change is less about the day to day actions and more about the direction you’re going.

No two weeks are going to look exactly the same when you’re a parent.

That’s a fact 😂 whether we like it or not.

So you need to be pliable.

Consistency is still working towards what you want 6 weeks from now.

It’s still moving forward with intention 6 months from now.

It’s not giving up on what you want because the last 4 weeks of sleep have been a s**t show.

Or because you’ve only managed to train 4 times in the last 2 weeks.

You adjust.

You do what you can.

And you keep moving in the same direction.

That’s consistency.

Not perfection week after week.

It’s the intention to keep showing up, even when the odds are against you.

So next time you feel like giving up because you’ve “not been consistent

Zoom out.

One bad week doesn’t make you inconsistent.

Giving up because of it will.

Solid outing from the team yesterday at SHM 🤜🤛

Was great to stand by and watch them all absolutely smash it out there!

PBs all round 👏🏻

— 1:53

She absolutely smashed this.

After not feeling like it was going to happen, routine changes, returning to work throwing training out of sync, sleepless nights with the baby…

Then she pulls this out the bag! 👏🏻

— 1:51

A PB well deserved!

Probably the most locked in she’s ever felt. Confident in herself, confident in her actions and it showed on the day!

Ryan Mac — 1:49

Solid effort from this guy!

Again, a new job and new responsibilities threw training out of whack, then a last minute return to football started challenging an old knee injury.

Then he pulls this out?! 🤝

All taking minutes off their previous bests!

PBs are a great reward, but effort is the only currency.

And not one of them crossed that finish line feeling like they could’ve given more.

They emptied the tank.

Gave it 100%.

And at the end of the day, that’s what matters 🤝

Effort over finish lines 🫡

Just makes the results that much sweeter when the PB comes with it!

10 years ago we were just figuring us out LJ

Taking you out for your birthday for the first time, us wondering what the future would hold 🫣 to now watching you run a Half on your birthday!

We spent the early days Imagining and talking about how life could be

Here we are , 10 years on, with a life we only could imagine then

Without you, there would be none of this.

We may be 10 years older, but 10 years fuller in life.

We love you more than you know, without you there would be none of this ❤️

Happy Birthday from your Boys 💙