RJ Health & Fitness

Bangkok, beautiful organised chaos.

The Yorkshire Dales is up there with my favourite places for trail/mountain running. The landscape is pretty epic. We run all seasons, whatever the weather 😂💪🏼

How to Improve Your Gut Health 👇

Your gut isn’t just about digestion, it’s directly connected to your brain through the gut–brain axis. Around 90% of your serotonin (the neurotransmitter that affects mood, motivation and overall well-being) is produced in the gut.
So when your gut is out of balance, your energy, mood, focus and recovery suffer.

Here’s 3 ways to support it.

1. Eat more whole, high-fibre foods
Fibre feeds the good bacteria in your gut. A healthy gut = better digestion and better mood regulation.
Most people don’t get enough. The recommendation is roughly 30g of fibre per day.
Think: fruit, veg, beans, lentils, whole grains, nuts and seeds.

2. Add fermented foods.
Fermented foods help improve the microbiome because they deliver live beneficial bacteria and create conditions that support a healthier balance of gut microbes.

During fermentation foods like yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, miso or kombucha break down food components and produce:
Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs)
Organic acids
Enzymes
Vitamins (like B-vitamins and K2)

These compounds help reduce inflammation, strengthen the gut lining, and support immune function. Small, consistent amounts go a long way.

3. Manage stress & build routine.
Your gut and brain talk constantly. High stress disrupts digestion and neurotransmitter production.
Daily movement, breathwork, quality sleep and regular mealtimes all help calm the gut–brain axis.

You don’t need extreme cleanses or fancy supplements just simple habits done consistently.
A healthier gut = better mood, better performance and better results in the gym.

If you want help building habits that actually last, drop me a message 💬

I spent most of the run up here yesterday morning moaning to myself, “it’s freezing,” “my legs feel heavy,” “lunges are hurting” One of those days where every step feels like an argument with your own head.

Then I reached the top… and saw this WW2 memorial standing in the wind.

Everything went quiet.

It’s crazy how fast your perspective can shift. One minute I’m complaining about being cold and tired on a run, and the next I’m looking at a tribute to people who went through unimaginable conditions, real danger, real suffering, real sacrifice. Men who didn’t get to choose comfort, who didn’t get to turn around when it got hard.

It made me realise how often we complain about tiny inconveniences, without having any idea what true hardship actually is. We get uncomfortable and act like it’s the end of the world. But standing there, with the flag blowing against the sunrise, it put everything into place.

Grateful for the reminder. Grateful for the freedom to run up a hill and call it “hard.” And grateful for the people who came before us, who endured far worse so we could have days like this.

A tough run, but a needed one.

Life is too short not to be in shape.

At 18 I was unfit, fat, depressed, lazy and had zero self esteem.

I literally had to become someone else.

So I did and never looked back. That person is now unrecognisable.

Strip back the layers of insecurity through hard work and you’ll find out what you’re truly capable of.

Lines Through the Hills

The path rises,
a seam of stone cutting through heather.
I follow it upward,
legs burning, lungs raw,
the sky wide and endless above.

Up here, the world feels stripped back.
No noise, no screens,
just the rhythm of breath
and the quiet weight of history.

I think of those who moved here before me,
not for training runs or weekend escapes,
but for food, for fire,
for the fragile thread of survival.
Their feet pressed into this same ground,
their eyes scanned these same ridges,
reading the land
the way we read words on a page.

I do not run for the same reasons,
yet the connection holds.
Each stride is an echo,
each heartbeat a reminder
that we are never far from the people we were.

The fells endure.
They take us in,
test us,
strip us bare,
and in return they remind us,
we are not apart from this place.
We are a continuation.
The line has never broken.

So I keep running,
not away from the past,
but with it,
carrying their footsteps
into the wind,
into the present,
into the endless rise of the hills.