Kurt Walker

My go to oil (even for cooking).

Extra virgin olive oil has got a great health profile with a number of different benefits, with most of the fat content coming from monounsaturated fats.

If you get extra virgin vs refined olive oils, they’ll contain a larger amount of polyphenols and antioxidants that also have some anti-inflammatory properties.

You’ll maximise the amount of these beneficial compounds by not exposing to super high heat or repeated oil uses, consuming as close to harvest as possible (some brands like Cobram Estate show the harvest date), in storage methods that are more UV protected (darker glass better than plastic etc).

Contrary to popular belief, you can still cook at moderately high heat with EVOO as the it’s monounsaturated fat heavy and the antioxidants from a good EVOO slow the oil’s oxidisation.

Budget will be the determining factor but there may be a small benefit to buying smaller bottles and finishing sooner after opening than buying bulk olive oil and using it over long periods. (If your wanting the most from the polyphenol/antioxidant side).

There’s also cases of olive oil fraud by mixing with other oils and claiming it’s EVOO for some international brands so I personally opt for Cobram Estate or Red Island which are Australian. They also list amounts for Vitamin E, Biophenols and Squalene).

This one’s near and dear to me. Mum reached out to me a little over a year ago asking for some help with losing some weight before our Europe trip.

She’s lost weight before, just will powering her way through and then going through the same cycle and putting it back on again.

From about 45 (she’s 56 now) so for about 11 whole years she really struggled even harder. Going to the doctors trying to figure out what was wrong and struggling with lethargy, low mood, fatigue, joint pain etc. Was told her bloods were fine from different doctors and dismissed.

After having a chat with her soon after we started auditing and working with more structure on her lifestyle, nutrition and training, I asked her if her doctor has discussed HRT (hormone replacement therapy) with her due to menopause because it’s not diagnosed on blood test levels for FSH, AMH, oestradial, progesterone etc, but rather symptoms.

Lo and behold within a few months of starting HRT, she said it felt “life-saving”. At the same time she worked really hard on improving her average movement and nutrition for the week, not just full sending it Monday-Thursday with loads of exercise and “eating clean”, but something more sustainable AND also progressive, with tweaks when progress stalled or addressing certain difficulties or needing supplementation for lower vitamin D levels etc.

When we started together a little over 12 months ago, we knew it’d be a process and she just wanted to lose 10kg to be able to walk up steps properly and enjoy Europe. Well she did that, and then fast forward to now she’s down over 20kg (108.4kg > 88.1kg). 🤯

If you’ve been told hormones don’t matter for weight loss, they do. They can make a huge difference in how easy the process is. But on the same hand, if you’ve been told hormones are all that matter for weight loss and energy balance/calories don’t matter etc, it does. Many conditions like PMOS or diabetes etc can make things harder, but not impossible. Unfortunately unless you’ve got a great doctor, you have to be more vigilant with your health and advocate for yourself or seek extra help.

Oh and no more blood pressure meds 🥳

There’s more to health than just trying to keep everything low-calorie or deficit-friendly year-round.

New experiences, supporting your community, fuelling your training, social connections, making memories.

Having fun doing non-structured cardio or experimenting in the kitchen.

If you want to maximise progress on a single goal for a moment in time, sure, tunnel vision will be the most reliable way to get you there.

Understanding calories, energy balance, protein etc is very useful, but over fixating on being in a chronic deficit and only ever eating low calorie foods is a) unnecessary for most and b) counterproductive

If you’re not on a weight loss journey where you’ve got 10kg+ to lose, you can most likely prioritise shorter deficits where you’re more “locked in” and then spend the rest of the year prioritising the other aspects of health and improving your body composition by building muscle, getting stronger and fuelling and recovering from training, getting more variety in your diet etc.

For most weight loss journeys, I think a different approach is needed. You might lose the weight but if you’ve taken extreme measures to do it and not developed new lifestyle habits, the likelihood of you getting back to the same place within a year is high.

Not the biggest change but the main priority has been rehabbing my shoulder/neck and rebuilding some of the muscle I’ve lost not being able to train very many upper body movements hard up until recently.

Spending the extra two minutes before training doing some prone Y, W and T raises and more particularly starting each session with heavy lying cable Y raises has been a game changer for how good my shoulder feels.

Upper body is still weaker than it was a few years ago which is frustrating but we ball. Been recompimg until the next cut